And Nelly talked to him with a grave friendliness2, like one restored from madness or risen from another world. "Staneholme, you've never kissed the wean, and it's an ill omen," she said, suddenly, watching him intently as he dandled the child; and as if jealous of any omission3 regarding it, she appeared satisfied when he complied with her fancy.
"The curtain is drawn4, and the shadow is on you; but is that a scar on your brow, Staneholme, and where did you get it?"
"A clour from a French pistol;" it was but skin deep—he was off his camp-bed in a few days.
He stooped forward, as he spoke5 slightingly, and pushed back the hair that half obscured the faint blue seam.
"Whisht!" said Nelly, reprovingly, "dinna scorn sickness; that bit stroke might have cost Lady Staneholme her son and my bairn his father;" and she bent6 towards [Page 198]him in her turn, and passed her fingers curiously7 and pityingly over the healed wound, ignorant how it burned and throbbed8 under her touch. "When the bairn is grown, and can rin his lane, Staneholme," Nelly informed him in her new-found freedom of speech, "I will send him for a summer to Staneholme; I'll be lonesome without him, but Michael Armstrong will teach him to ride, and he'll stand by Lady Staneholme's knee." Staneholme expressed no gratitude9 for the offer, he was fastening the buckle10 of his beaver11. The next time he came he twisted a rose in his hand, and Nelly felt that it must indeed be Beltane: she looked at the flower wistfully, and wondered "would the breezes be shaking the bear and the briar roses on the sea-braes at Staneholme, or were the grapes of southern vines bonnier than they?" He flung down the flower, and strode to her side.
"Come hame, Nelly," he prayed passionately12; "byganes may be byganes now. I've deserted13 the campaign, I've left its honours and its dangers—and I could have liked them well—to free men, and am here to take you hame."
Nelly was thunderstruck. "Hame!" she said, at last, slowly, "where you compelled me to travel, where I gloomed on you day and night, as I vowed14; I, who would not be a charge and an oppression to the farthest-off cousin that bears your name. Are you demented?"
"And this is the end," groaned15 Staneholme, in bitterness; "I dreamt that I would win at last. I did not love you for your health and strength, or your youth and beauty. I declare to you, Nelly Carnegie, your face is fairer to me, [Page 199]lying lily white on your pillow there, than when it was fresh like that rose; and when others deserted you and left you forlorn, I thought I might try again, and wha kent but the ill would be blotted16 out for the very sake of the strong love that wrought17 it?"
A dimness came across Nelly's eyes, and a faintness over her choking heart; but she pressed her hands upon her breast, and strove against it for the sake of her womanhood.
"And I dreamed," she answered slowly and tremulously, "that it bude to be true, true love, however it had sinned, that neither slight nor hate, nor absence nor fell decay could uproot19; and that could tempt20 me to break my plighted21 word, and lay my infirmity on the man that bargained for me like gear, and that I swore—Heaven absolve22 me!—I would gar rue18 his success till his deein' day. Adam Home, what are you seekin' at my hands?"
"Nae mair than you'll grant, Nelly Carnegie—pardon and peace, and my young gudewife, the desire o' my eyes. I'll be feet to you, Nelly, as long's I'm to the fore23."
"Big tramping feet, Staneholme," said Nelly, trying to jest, and pushing him back; "dinna promise ower fair. Na, Adam Home, you'll wauken the bairn!"
So Staneholme bought the grand new family coach of which the Homes had talked for the last generation; and Lady Carnegie curtsied her supercilious24 adieus, and hoped her son and daughter would be better keepers at home for the future. And Nanny Swinton wore her new gown and cockernonie, and blessed her bairn and her bairn's bairn, through tears that were now no more than a sunny shower, the silver mist of the past storm.
[Page 200]There was brooding heat on the moors26 and a glory on the sea when Staneholme rode by his lady's coach, within sight of home.
"There will be no great gathering27 to-night, Staneholme; no shots or cheers; no lunt in the blue sky; only doubt and amaze about an old man and wife: but there will be two happy hearts that were heavy as stane before. Well-a-day! to think I should be fain to return this way!"
Staneholme laughed, and retorted something perhaps neither quite modest nor wise; but the ready tongue that had learnt so speedily to pour itself out to his greedy ears did not now scold and contradict him, but sighed—
"Ah, Adam Home, you do not have the best of it; it is sweet to be beat; I didna ken—I never guessed that."
Gladly astounded28 were the retainers of Staneholme at their young laird's unannounced return, safe and sound, from the wars; but greater and more agreeable was their friendly surprise to find that his sick wife, who came back with him unstrengthened in body, was healed and hearty29 in spirit. Well might good old Lady Staneholme rejoice, and hush30 her bold grandson, for the change was not evanescent or its effects uncertain. As Staneholme drove out his ailing31 wife, or constructed a seat for her on the fresh moor25, or looked at her stitching his frilled shirts as intently as the child's falling collars, and talked to her of his duties and his sports, his wildness was controlled and dignified32. And when he sat, the head and protector of his deaf old mother, and his little frolicsome33, fearless child, and his [Page 201]Nelly Carnegie, whose spirit had come again, but whose body remained but a sear relic34 of her blooming youth, his fitful melancholy35 melted into the sober tenderness of a penitent36, believing man, who dares not complain, but who must praise God and be thankful, so long as life's greatest boons37 are spared to him.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
interdict
|
|
| v.限制；禁止；n.正式禁止；禁令 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
friendliness
|
|
| n.友谊，亲切，亲密 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
omission
|
|
| n.省略，删节；遗漏或省略的事物，冗长 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
curiously
|
|
| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
throbbed
|
|
| 抽痛( throb的过去式和过去分词 )； （心脏、脉搏等）跳动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
gratitude
|
|
| adj.感激，感谢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
buckle
|
|
| n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
beaver
|
|
| n.海狸，河狸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
passionately
|
|
| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
deserted
|
|
| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
vowed
|
|
| 起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
groaned
|
|
| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
blotted
|
|
| 涂污( blot的过去式和过去分词 )； （用吸墨纸）吸干 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
wrought
|
|
| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
rue
|
|
| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
uproot
|
|
| v.连根拔起，拔除；根除，灭绝；赶出家园，被迫移开 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
tempt
|
|
| vt.引诱，勾引，吸引，引起…的兴趣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
plighted
|
|
| vt.保证，约定（plight的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
absolve
|
|
| v.赦免，解除（责任等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
fore
|
|
| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
supercilious
|
|
| adj.目中无人的，高傲的；adv.高傲地；n.高傲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
moor
|
|
| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
moors
|
|
| v.停泊，系泊（船只）( moor的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
gathering
|
|
| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
astounded
|
|
| v.使震惊(astound的过去式和过去分词)；愕然；愕；惊讶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
hearty
|
|
| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
hush
|
|
| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
ailing
|
|
| v.生病 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
dignified
|
|
| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
frolicsome
|
|
| adj.嬉戏的，闹着玩的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
relic
|
|
| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
melancholy
|
|
| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
penitent
|
|
| adj.后悔的；n.后悔者；忏悔者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
boons
|
|
| n.恩惠( boon的名词复数 )；福利；非常有用的东西；益处 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |