Having caught ear of Melbury’s intelligence while she stood on the landing at his house, and been eased of much of her mental distress3, her sense of personal decorum returned upon her with a rush. She descended4 the stairs and left the door like a ghost, keeping close to the walls of the building till she got round to the gate of the quadrangle, through which she noiselessly passed almost before Grace and her father had finished their discourse5. Suke Damson had thought it well to imitate her superior in this respect, and, descending6 the back stairs as Felice descended the front, went out at the side door and home to her cottage.
Once outside Melbury’s gates Mrs. Charmond ran with all her speed to the Manor House, without stopping or turning her head, and splitting her thin boots in her haste. She entered her own dwelling7, as she had emerged from it, by the drawing-room window. In other circumstances she would have felt some timidity at undertaking8 such an unpremeditated excursion alone; but her anxiety for another had cast out her fear for herself.
Everything in her drawing-room was just as she had left it — the candles still burning, the casement9 closed, and the shutters11 gently pulled to, so as to hide the state of the window from the cursory12 glance of a servant entering the apartment. She had been gone about three-quarters of an hour by the clock, and nobody seemed to have discovered her absence. Tired in body but tense in mind, she sat down, palpitating, round-eyed, bewildered at what she had done.
She had been betrayed by affrighted love into a visit which, now that the emotion instigating13 it had calmed down under her belief that Fitzpiers was in no danger, was the saddest surprise to her. This was how she had set about doing her best to escape her passionate14 bondage15 to him! Somehow, in declaring to Grace and to herself the unseemliness of her infatuation, she had grown a convert to its irresistibility16. If Heaven would only give her strength; but Heaven never did! One thing was indispensable; she must go away from Hintock if she meant to withstand further temptation. The struggle was too wearying, too hopeless, while she remained. It was but a continual capitulation of conscience to what she dared not name.
By degrees, as she sat, Felice’s mind — helped perhaps by the anticlimax17 of learning that her lover was unharmed after all her fright about him — grew wondrously18 strong in wise resolve. For the moment she was in a mood, in the words of Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu, “to run mad with discretion19;” and was so persuaded that discretion lay in departure that she wished to set about going that very minute. Jumping up from her seat, she began to gather together some small personal knick-knacks scattered20 about the room, to feel that preparations were really in train.
While moving here and there she fancied that she heard a slight noise out-of-doors, and stood still. Surely it was a tapping at the window. A thought entered her mind, and burned her cheek. He had come to that window before; yet was it possible that he should dare to do so now! All the servants were in bed, and in the ordinary course of affairs she would have retired21 also. Then she remembered that on stepping in by the casement and closing it, she had not fastened the window-shutter10, so that a streak22 of light from the interior of the room might have revealed her vigil to an observer on the lawn. How all things conspired23 against her keeping faith with Grace!
The tapping recommenced, light as from the bill of a little bird; her illegitimate hope overcame her vow24; she went and pulled back the shutter, determining, however, to shake her head at him and keep the casement securely closed.
What she saw outside might have struck terror into a heart stouter25 than a helpless woman’s at midnight. In the centre of the lowest pane26 of the window, close to the glass, was a human face, which she barely recognized as the face of Fitzpiers. It was surrounded with the darkness of the night without, corpse-like in its pallor, and covered with blood. As disclosed in the square area of the pane it met her frightened eyes like a replica27 of the Sudarium of St. Veronica.
He moved his lips, and looked at her imploringly28. Her rapid mind pieced together in an instant a possible concatenation of events which might have led to this tragical29 issue. She unlatched the casement with a terrified hand, and bending down to where he was crouching30, pressed her face to his with passionate solicitude31. She assisted him into the room without a word, to do which it was almost necessary to lift him bodily. Quickly closing the window and fastening the shutters, she bent32 over him breathlessly.
“Are you hurt much — much?” she cried, faintly. “Oh, oh, how is this!”
“Rather much — but don’t be frightened,” he answered in a difficult whisper, and turning himself to obtain an easier position if possible. “A little water, please.”
She ran across into the dining-room, and brought a bottle and glass, from which he eagerly drank. He could then speak much better, and with her help got upon the nearest couch.
“Are you dying, Edgar?” she said. “Do speak to me!”
“I am half dead,” said Fitzpiers. “But perhaps I shall get over it. . . . It is chiefly loss of blood.”
“But I thought your fall did not hurt you,” said she. “Who did this?”
“Felice — my father-inlaw! . . . I have crawled to you more than a mile on my hands and knees — God, I thought I should never have got here! . . . I have come to you — be-cause you are the only friend — I have in the world now. . . . I can never go back to Hintock — never — to the roof of the Melburys! Not poppy nor mandragora will ever medicine this bitter feud33! . . . If I were only well again —”
“Let me bind34 your head, now that you have rested.”
“Yes — but wait a moment — it has stopped bleeding, fortunately, or I should be a dead man before now. While in the wood I managed to make a tourniquet35 of some half-pence and my handkerchief, as well as I could in the dark. . . . But listen, dear Felice! Can you hide me till I am well? Whatever comes, I can be seen in Hintock no more. My practice is nearly gone, you know — and after this I would not care to recover it if I could.”
By this time Felice’s tears began to blind her. Where were now her discreet36 plans for sundering37 their lives forever? To administer to him in his pain, and trouble, and poverty, was her single thought. The first step was to hide him, and she asked herself where. A place occurred to her mind.
She got him some wine from the dining-room, which strengthened him much. Then she managed to remove his boots, and, as he could now keep himself upright by leaning upon her on one side and a walking-stick on the other, they went thus in slow march out of the room and up the stairs. At the top she took him along a gallery, pausing whenever he required rest, and thence up a smaller staircase to the least used part of the house, where she unlocked a door. Within was a lumber-room, containing abandoned furniture of all descriptions, built up in piles which obscured the light of the windows, and formed between them nooks and lairs38 in which a person would not be discerned even should an eye gaze in at the door. The articles were mainly those that had belonged to the previous owner of the house, and had been bought in by the late Mr. Charmond at the auction39; but changing fashion, and the tastes of a young wife, had caused them to be relegated40 to this dungeon41.
Here Fitzpiers sat on the floor against the wall till she had hauled out materials for a bed, which she spread on the floor in one of the aforesaid nooks. She obtained water and a basin, and washed the dried blood from his face and hands; and when he was comfortably reclining, fetched food from the larder42. While he ate her eyes lingered anxiously on his face, following its every movement with such loving-kindness as only a fond woman can show.
He was now in better condition, and discussed his position with her.
“What I fancy I said to Melbury must have been enough to enrage43 any man, if uttered in cold blood, and with knowledge of his presence. But I did not know him, and I was stupefied by what he had given me, so that I hardly was aware of what I said. Well — the veil of that temple is rent in twain! . . . As I am not going to be seen again in Hintock, my first efforts must be directed to allay44 any alarm that may be felt at my absence, before I am able to get clear away. Nobody must suspect that I have been hurt, or there will be a country talk about me. Felice, I must at once concoct45 a letter to check all search for me. I think if you can bring me a pen and paper I may be able to do it now. I could rest better if it were done. Poor thing! how I tire her with running up and down!”
She fetched writing materials, and held up the blotting-book as a support to his hand, while he penned a brief note to his nominal46 wife.
“The animosity shown towards me by your father,” he wrote, in this coldest of marital47 epistles, “is such that I cannot return again to a roof which is his, even though it shelters you. A parting is unavoidable, as you are sure to be on his side in this division. I am starting on a journey which will take me a long way from Hintock, and you must not expect to see me there again for some time.”
He then gave her a few directions bearing upon his professional engagements and other practical matters, concluding without a hint of his destination, or a notion of when she would see him again. He offered to read the note to Felice before he closed it up, but she would not hear or see it; that side of his obligations distressed48 her beyond endurance. She turned away from Fitzpiers, and sobbed49 bitterly.
“If you can get this posted at a place some miles away,” he whispered, exhausted50 by the effort of writing —“at Shottsford or Port-Bredy, or still better, Budmouth — it will divert all suspicion from this house as the place of my refuge.”
“I will drive to one or other of the places myself — anything to keep it unknown,” she murmured, her voice weighted with vague foreboding, now that the excitement of helping51 him had passed away.
Fitzpiers told her that there was yet one thing more to he done. “In creeping over the fence on to the lawn,” he said, “I made the rail bloody52, and it shows rather much on the white paint — I could see it in the dark. At all hazards it should be washed off. Could you do that also, Felice?”
What will not women do on such devoted53 occasions? weary as she was she went all the way down the rambling54 staircases to the ground-floor, then to search for a lantern, which she lighted and hid under her cloak; then for a wet sponge, and next went forth55 into the night. The white railing stared out in the darkness at her approach, and a ray from the enshrouded lantern fell upon the blood — just where he had told her it would be found. she shuddered56. It was almost too much to bear in one day — but with a shaking hand she sponged the rail clean, and returned to the house.
The time occupied by these several proceedings57 was not much less than two hours. When all was done, and she had smoothed his extemporized58 bed, and placed everything within his reach that she could think of, she took her leave of him, and locked him in.
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1
meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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manor
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| n.庄园，领地 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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7
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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casement
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| n.竖铰链窗；窗扉 | |
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shutter
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| n.百叶窗；(照相机)快门；关闭装置 | |
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shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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12
cursory
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| adj.粗略的；草率的；匆促的 | |
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13
instigating
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| v.使（某事物）开始或发生，鼓动( instigate的现在分词 ) | |
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14
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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15
bondage
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| n.奴役，束缚 | |
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irresistibility
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| n.不能抵抗，难敌 | |
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anticlimax
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| n.令人扫兴的结局；突降法 | |
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18
wondrously
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| adv.惊奇地，非常，极其 | |
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19
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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20
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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21
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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22
streak
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| n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动 | |
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23
conspired
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| 密谋( conspire的过去式和过去分词 )； 搞阴谋； （事件等）巧合； 共同导致 | |
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24
vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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stouter
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| 粗壮的( stout的比较级 )； 结实的； 坚固的； 坚定的 | |
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26
pane
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| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
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replica
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| n.复制品 | |
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imploringly
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| adv. 恳求地, 哀求地 | |
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tragical
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| adj. 悲剧的, 悲剧性的 | |
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30
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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31
solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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32
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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33
feud
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| n.长期不和；世仇；v.长期争斗；世代结仇 | |
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34
bind
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| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
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35
tourniquet
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| n.止血器，绞压器，驱血带 | |
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36
discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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sundering
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| v.隔开，分开( sunder的现在分词 ) | |
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38
lairs
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| n.（野兽的）巢穴，窝( lair的名词复数 )；（人的）藏身处 | |
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39
auction
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| n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖 | |
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40
relegated
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| v.使降级( relegate的过去式和过去分词 )；使降职；转移；把…归类 | |
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41
dungeon
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| n.地牢，土牢 | |
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42
larder
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| n.食物贮藏室，食品橱 | |
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43
enrage
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| v.触怒，激怒 | |
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44
allay
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| v.消除，减轻(恐惧、怀疑等) | |
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45
concoct
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| v.调合，制造 | |
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46
nominal
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| adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的 | |
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47
marital
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| adj.婚姻的，夫妻的 | |
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48
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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49
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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50
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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51
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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52
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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53
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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54
rambling
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| adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的 | |
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55
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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56
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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57
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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58
extemporized
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| v.即兴创作，即席演奏( extemporize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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