The experience was like a new baptism to Romola. In Florence the simpler relations of the human being to his fellow-men had been complicated for her with all the special ties of marriage, the State, and religious discipleship5, and when these had disappointed her trust, the shock seemed to have shaken her aloof6 from life and stunned7 her sympathy. But now she said, ‘It was mere baseness in me to desire death. If everything else is doubtful, this suffering that I can help is certain; if the glory of the cross is an illusion, the sorrow is only the truer. While the strength is in my arm I will stretch it out to the fainting; while the light visits my eyes they shall seek the forsaken8.’
And then the past arose with a fresh appeal to her. Her work in this green valley was done, and the emotions that were disengaged from the people immediately around her rushed back into the old deep channels of use and affection. That rare possibility of self-contemplation which comes in any complete severance9 from our wonted life made her judge herself as she had never done before: the compunction which is inseparable from a sympathetic nature keenly alive to the possible experience of others, began to stir in her with growing force. She questioned the justness of her own conclusions, of her own deeds: she had been rash, arrogant10, always dissatisfied that others were not good enough, while she herself had not been true to what her soul had once recognised as the best. She began to condemn11 her flight: after all, it had been cowardly self-care; the grounds on which Savonarola had once taken her back were truer, deeper than the grounds she had had for her second flight. How could she feel the needs of others and not feel, above all, the needs of the nearest?
But then came reaction against such self-reproach. The memory of her life with Tito, of the conditions which made their real union impossible, while their external union imposed a set of false duties on her which were essentially12 the concealment13 and sanctioning of what her mind revolted from, told her that flight had been her only resource. All minds, except such as are delivered from doubt by dulness of sensibility, must be subject to this recurring14 conflict where the many-twisted conditions of life have forbidden the fulfilment of a bond. For in strictness there is no replacing of relations: the presence of the new does not nullify the failure and breach15 of the old. Life has lost its perfection: it has been maimed; and until the wounds are quite scarred, conscience continually casts backward, doubting glances.
Romola shrank with dread16 from the renewal17 of her proximity18 to Tito, and yet she was uneasy that she had put herself out of reach of knowing what was his fate — uneasy that the moment might yet come when he would be in misery19 and need her. There was still a thread of pain within her, testifying to those words of Fra Girolamo, that she could not cease to be a wife. Could anything utterly20 cease for her that had once mingled21 itself with the current of her heart’s blood?
Florence, and all her life there, had come back to her like hunger; her feelings could not go wandering after the possible and the vague: their living fibre was fed with the memory of familiar things. And the thought that she had divided herself from them for ever became more and more importunate22 in these hours that were unfilled with action. What if Fra Girolamo had been wrong? What if the life of Florence was a web of inconsisteneies? Was she, then, something higher, that she should shake the dust from off her feet, and say, ‘This world is not good enough for me’? If she had been really higher, she would not so easily have lost all her trust.
Her indignant grief for her godfather had no longer complete possession of her, and her sense of debt to Savonarola was recovering predominance. Nothing that had come, or was to come, could do away with the fact that there had been a great inspiration in him which had waked a new life in her. Who, in all her experience, could demand the same gratitude23 from her as he? His errors — might they not bring calamities24?
She could not rest. She hardly knew whether it was her strength returning with the budding leaves that made her active again, or whether it was her eager longing25 to get nearer Florence. She did not imagine herself daring to enter Florence, but the desire to be near enough to learn what was happening there urged itself with a strength that excluded all other purposes.
And one March morning the people in the valley were gathered together to see the blessed Lady depart. Jacopo had fetched a mule26 for her, and was going with her over the mountains. The Padre, too, was going with her to the nearest town, that he might help her in learning the safest way by which she might get to Pistoja. Her store of trinkets and money, untouched in this valley, was abundant for her needs.
If Romola had been less drawn by the longing that was taking her away, it would have been a hard moment for her when she walked along the village street for the last time, while the Padre and Jacopo, with the mule, were awaiting her near the well. Her steps were hindered by the wailing27 people, who knelt and kissed her hands, then clung to her skirts and kissed the grey folds, crying, ‘Ah, why will you go, when the good season is beginning and the crops will be plentiful28? Why will you go?’
‘Do not be sorry,’ said Romola, ‘you are well now, and I shall remember you. I must go and see if my own people want me.’
‘Ah, yes, if they have the pestilence29!’
‘Look at us again, Madonna!’
‘Yes, yes, we will be good to the little Benedetto! ’
At last Romola mounted her mule, but a vigorous screaming from Benedetto as he saw her turn from him in this new position, was an excuse for all the people to follow her and insist that he must ride on the mule’s neck to the foot of the slope.
The parting must come at last, but as Romola turned continually before she passed out of sight, she saw the little flock lingering to catch the last waving of her hand.
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1
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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2
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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3
sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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4
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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5
discipleship
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| n.做弟子的身份（期间） | |
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6
aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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7
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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8
Forsaken
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| adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词 | |
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9
severance
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| n.离职金；切断 | |
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10
arrogant
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的 | |
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11
condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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12
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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concealment
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| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
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14
recurring
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| adj.往复的，再次发生的 | |
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15
breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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16
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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17
renewal
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| adj.(契约)延期，续订，更新，复活，重来 | |
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18
proximity
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| n.接近，邻近 | |
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19
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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21
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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22
importunate
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| adj.强求的；纠缠不休的 | |
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23
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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24
calamities
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| n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事 | |
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25
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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mule
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| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
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27
wailing
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱 | |
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28
plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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29
pestilence
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| n.瘟疫 | |
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