Denounced — dragged, it may be, in chains.’
WERNER.
All the next day they sate1 together — they three. Mr. Hale hardly ever spoke2 but when his children asked him questions, and forced him, as it were, into the present. Frederick’s grief was no more to be seen or heard; the first paroxysm had passed over, and now he was ashamed of having been so battered3 down by emotion; and though his sorrow for the loss of his mother was a deep real feeling, and would last out his life, it was never to be spoken of again. Margaret, not so passionate4 at first, was more suffering now. At times she cried a good deal; and her manner, even when speaking on indifferent things, had a mournful tenderness about it, which was deepened whenever her looks fell on Frederick, and she thought of his rapidly approaching departure. She was glad he was going, on her father’s account, however much she might grieve over it on her own. The anxious terror in which Mr. Hale lived lest his son should be detected and captured, far out-weighed the pleasure he derived5 from his presence. The nervousness had increased since Mrs. Hale’s death, probably because he dwelt upon it more exclusively. He started at every unusual sound; and was never comfortable unless Frederick sate out of the immediate6 view of any one entering the room. Towards evening he said:
‘You will go with Frederick to the station, Margaret? I shall want to know he is safely off. You will bring me word that he is clear of Milton, at any rate?’
‘Certainly,’ said Margaret. ‘I shall like it, if you won’t be lonely without me, papa.’
‘No, no! I should always be fancying some one had known him, and that he had been stopped, unless you could tell me you had seen him off. And go to the Outwood station. It is quite as near, and not so many people about. Take a cab there. There is less risk of his being seen. What time is your train, Fred?’
‘Ten minutes past six; very nearly dark. So what will you do, Margaret?’
‘Oh, I can manage. I am getting very brave and very hard. It is a well-lighted road all the way home, if it should be dark. But I was out last week much later.’
Margaret was thankful when the parting was over — the parting from the dead mother and the living father. She hurried Frederick into the cab, in order to shorten a scene which she saw was so bitterly painful to her father, who would accompany his son as he took his last look at his mother. Partly in consequence of this, and partly owing to one of the very common mistakes in the ‘Railway Guide’ as to the times when trains arrive at the smaller stations, they found, on reaching Outwood, that they had nearly twenty minutes to spare. The booking-office was not open, so they could not even take the ticket. They accordingly went down the flight of steps that led to the level of the ground below the railway. There was a broad cinder-path diagonally crossing a field which lay along-side of the carriage-road, and they went there to walk backwards7 and forwards for the few minutes they had to spare.
Margaret’s hand lay in Frederick’s arm. He took hold of it affectionately.
‘Margaret! I am going to consult Mr. Lennox as to the chance of exculpating8 myself, so that I may return to England whenever I choose, more for your sake than for the sake of any one else. I can’t bear to think of your lonely position if anything should happen to my father. He looks sadly changed — terribly shaken. I wish you could get him to think of the Cadiz plan, for many reasons. What could you do if he were taken away? You have no friend near. We are curiously9 bare of relations.’
Margaret could hardly keep from crying at the tender anxiety with which Frederick was bringing before her an event which she herself felt was not very improbable, so severely10 had the cares of the last few months told upon Mr. Hale. But she tried to rally as she said:
‘There have been such strange unexpected changes in my life during these last two years, that I feel more than ever that it is not worth while to calculate too closely what I should do if any future event took place. I try to think only upon the present.’ She paused; they were standing11 still for a moment, close on the field side of the stile leading into the road; the setting sun fell on their faces. Frederick held her hand in his, and looked with wistful anxiety into her face, reading there more care and trouble than she would betray by words. She went on:
‘We shall write often to one another, and I will promise — for I see it will set your mind at ease — to tell you every worry I have. Papa is’— she started a little, a hardly visible start — but Frederick felt the sudden motion of the hand he held, and turned his full face to the road, along which a horseman was slowly riding, just passing the very stile where they stood. Margaret bowed; her bow was stiffly returned.
‘Who is that?’ said Frederick, almost before he was out of hearing. Margaret was a little drooping12, a little flushed, as she replied:
‘Mr. Thornton; you saw him before, you know.’
‘Only his back. He is an unprepossessing-looking fellow. What a scowl13 he has!’
‘Something has happened to vex14 him,’ said Margaret, apologetically. ‘You would not have thought him unprepossessing if you had seen him with mamma.’
‘I fancy it must be time to go and take my ticket. If I had known how dark it would be, we wouldn’t have sent back the cab, Margaret.’
‘Oh, don’t fidget about that. I can take a cab here, if I like; or go back by the rail-road, when I should have shops and people and lamps all the way from the Milton station-house. Don’t think of me; take care of yourself. I am sick with the thought that Leonards may be in the same train with you. Look well into the carriage before you get in.’
They went back to the station. Margaret insisted upon going into the full light of the flaring15 gas inside to take the ticket. Some idle-looking young men were lounging about with the stationmaster. Margaret thought she had seen the face of one of them before, and returned him a proud look of offended dignity for his somewhat impertinent stare of undisguised admiration16. She went hastily to her brother, who was standing outside, and took hold of his arm. ‘Have you got your bag? Let us walk about here on the platform,’ said she, a little flurried at the idea of so soon being left alone, and her bravery oozing17 out rather faster than she liked to acknowledge even to herself. She heard a step following them along the flags; it stopped when they stopped, looking out along the line and hearing the whizz of the coming train. They did not speak; their hearts were too full. Another moment, and the train would be here; a minute more, and he would be gone. Margaret almost repented18 the urgency with which she had entreated19 him to go to London; it was throwing more chances of detection in his way. If he had sailed for Spain by Liverpool, he might have been off in two or three hours.
Frederick turned round, right facing the lamp, where the gas darted20 up in vivid anticipation21 of the train. A man in the dress of a railway porter started forward; a bad-looking man, who seemed to have drunk himself into a state of brutality22, although his senses were in perfect order.
‘By your leave, miss!’ said he, pushing Margaret rudely on one side, and seizing Frederick by the collar.
‘Your name is Hale, I believe?’
In an instant — how, Margaret did not see, for everything danced before her eyes — but by some sleight23 of wrestling, Frederick had tripped him up, and he fell from the height of three or four feet, which the platform was elevated above the space of soft ground, by the side of the railroad. There he lay.
‘Run, run!’ gasped24 Margaret. ‘The train is here. It was Leonards, was it? oh, run! I will carry your bag.’ And she took him by the arm to push him along with all her feeble force. A door was opened in a carriage — he jumped in; and as he leant out t say, ‘God bless you, Margaret!’ the train rushed past her; an she was left standing alone. She was so terribly sick and faint that she was thankful to be able to turn into the ladies’ waiting-room, and sit down for an instant. At first she could do nothing but gasp25 for breath. It was such a hurry; such a sickening alarm; such a near chance. If the train had not been there at the moment, the man would have jumped up again and called for assistance to arrest him. She wondered if the man had got up: she tried to remember if she had seen him move; she wondered if he could have been seriously hurt. She ventured out; the platform was all alight, but still quite deserted26; she went to the end, and looked over, somewhat fearfully. No one was there; and then she was glad she had made herself go, and inspect, for otherwise terrible thoughts would have haunted her dreams. And even as it was, she was so trembling and affrighted that she felt she could not walk home along the road, which did indeed seem lonely and dark, as she gazed down upon it from the blaze of the station. She would wait till the down train passed and take her seat in it. But what if Leonards recognised her as Frederick’s companion! She peered about, before venturing into the booking-office to take her ticket. There were only some railway officials standing about; and talking loud to one another.
‘So Leonards has been drinking again!’ said one, seemingly in authority. ‘He’ll need all his boasted influence to keep his place this time.’
‘Where is he?’ asked another, while Margaret, her back towards them, was counting her change with trembling fingers, not daring to turn round until she heard the answer to this question.
‘I don’t know. He came in not five minutes ago, with some long story or other about a fall he’d had, swearing awfully27; and wanted to borrow some money from me to go to London by the next up-train. He made all sorts of tipsy promises, but I’d something else to do than listen to him; I told him to go about his business; and he went off at the front door.’
‘He’s at the nearest vaults28, I’ll be bound,’ said the first speaker. ‘Your money would have gone there too, if you’d been such a fool as to lend it.’
‘Catch me! I knew better what his London meant. Why, he has never paid me off that five shillings’— and so they went on.
And now all Margaret’s anxiety was for the train to come. She hid herself once more in the ladies’ waiting-room, and fancied every noise was Leonards’ step — every loud and boisterous29 voice was his. But no one came near her until the train drew up; when she was civilly helped into a carriage by a porter, into whose face she durst not look till they were in motion, and then she saw that it was not Leonards’.
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1
sate
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| v.使充分满足 | |
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2
spoke
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| 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 | |
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3
battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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4
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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5
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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6
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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7
backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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8
exculpating
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| v.开脱，使无罪( exculpate的现在分词 ) | |
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9
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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10
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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11
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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12
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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13
scowl
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| vi.(at)生气地皱眉，沉下脸，怒视；n.怒容 | |
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14
vex
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| vt.使烦恼，使苦恼 | |
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15
flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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17
oozing
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| v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的现在分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出 | |
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18
repented
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| 对（自己的所为）感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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entreated
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| 恳求，乞求( entreat的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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20
darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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22
brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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23
sleight
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| n.技巧，花招 | |
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24
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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26
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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28
vaults
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| n.拱顶( vault的名词复数 )；地下室；撑物跳高；墓穴 | |
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boisterous
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| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
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