[Pg 20]
They came hurrying out—the servants first, the wife next, the step-daughter last—all roused by that piercing shriek2 of agony—and found him sitting there dead, with Bonnibel lying lifeless at his feet, her white robes dabbled3 and stained in the blood upon the floor.
They brought lights and looked at him. Yes, he was cold and dead. There was a great scarlet4 stain on his white vest where the deadly weapon had entered his heart. The blood had dripped down in a great pool upon the floor and was fast stiffening5 on his garments.
Mrs. Arnold shrieked6 aloud and went into horrible hysterics, laughing wildly and maniacally7, and tearing her hair from its fastenings; but Felise Herbert stood still as a statue of horror, looking at the dismal8 scene. Her pale face was paler than ever, and her large, black eyes looked wildly about her. She made no effort to arrest her mother's frenzied9 cries, but stood still as if frozen into ice, while the maids lifted up the still form of poor Bonnibel and carried her through the drawing-room window, laying her down gently, and applying restoratives.
Life came swiftly back to her under their influence. She lifted her head, and opened her eyes upon the faces around her just as a shrill10 and piercing whistle announced the departure of the train which was bearing her young husband away from her for years—perhaps forever.
Bonnibel sprang up and went out on the piazza11 again. As she stepped to the side of that lifeless form, Felise Herbert, just waking from her apparent trance of horror, waved her hands in the air, and cried out solemnly and sepulchrally12:
"Oh, Heaven! It is Leslie Dane who has done this dreadful deed. That was what he meant by his dark threats this evening!"
"Leslie Dane has killed him!" echoed her mother, wildly.
"It is false, woman! How dare you accuse him of such a deed?" Bonnibel cried out fiercely, wild with grief and horror; then suddenly she looked at the half-dazed men-servants standing13 around their master helplessly.
"Idiots!" she cried, "why do you stand here idle? Why does not some one bring a doctor? Perhaps he is not dead yet—he may be revived."
They brought a physician at her bidding, but when he came his services were needed for her, not for the pale corpse14 down stairs that would nevermore want the physician's potent15 art. They had taken her by force to her room, where she was wildly walking the floor, wringing16 her hands and raving17 over her loss.
"You are dead, Uncle Francis," she cried, passionately19; "you will never speak to me again. And I had left you in anger. We never quarreled before—never! And without a good-bye kiss, without a forgiving word, you are gone from me into the darkness of death! They have killed you, my dear one!—who could have been so cruel?—and you will never know how I loved you, and that I forgave you for your cruelty so soon, or that I wished to be reconciled. Oh, God! Oh, God!"
She told her story frankly20 to the good old doctor when he[Pg 21] came and questioned her. She and her uncle had quarreled because he had denied her a darling wish. She had rushed out of the house in a fit of anger, and moped about the seashore until late into the night. Then she had returned, and seeing him sitting there on the piazza she had felt her anger melting into tenderness, and stolen up to give him the kiss of reconciliation21, but found him cold and dead.
She told the same story when the inquest was held next day, blushing crimson22 when they asked her what she and her uncle had quarreled over.
"It was a purely23 personal matter," she answered, hesitatingly. "Is it necessary to reveal it?"
They told her it was necessary.
"He refused to sanction my engagement to my lover, and drove him away from the house with cruel, insulting words," she answered briefly24 through her tears and blushes.
"And you were very angry with your uncle?"
"Yes; for a little while," she answered frankly; "but when I came back to the house I was ready to forgive him and be friends with him again. He had never been unkind to me before, but indulged me in every wish, and petted me as my own father might have done had he lived. I was almost wild at first with surprise and anger at the first denial I had ever received from him; but I soon overcame my indignant feelings, and when I came back to the house I loved him as fondly as ever."
She left the room immediately after giving in her evidence, overcome with grief and emotion, and going to her room, threw herself down upon the bed, from which she did not rise again for many weeks. Grief and excitement precipitated25 her into a brain fever, and for many days life and death fought persistently26 over their unhappy victim.
Had she known what would take place after she left the room she would have remained until the inquest was over. Felise Herbert and her mother boldly declared their belief that Leslie Dane was the murderer of Mr. Arnold. From the drawing-room windows which opened out on the piazza they had overheard the conversation between the two men relative to Bonnibel, and they detailed27 every word, maliciously28 misrepresenting Leslie Dane's indignant words so as to place the worst construction upon them. One or two of the servants had heard also, and from all the testimony29 elicited30 the jury readily found a verdict of willful homicide against Leslie Dane, and a warrant was issued for the young man's arrest.
But poor little Bonnibel, tossing up-stairs in her fevered delirium31, knew nothing of all this. If she had known she might easily have cleared her lover from that foul32 charge by proving that he had been with her during those fatal hours in which Mr. Arnold had met his death.
It remained for her to prove his innocence33 at a darker hour than this, and at the sacrifice of much that she held dear.
Mr. Arnold's body was carried to his winter residence in New York, and buried from thence with all the pomp and splendor[Pg 22] due to his wealth and station. Felise and her mother, of course, accompanied the remains34.
The housekeeper35 at the seaside home was left in charge of the hapless Bonnibel, who lay sick unto death in her luxurious36 chamber37, tended carefully by hirelings and strangers, but with never one kiss of love to fall on her fevered brow in sympathy and tenderness.
Love had gone out of her life. With the young husband adrift now on the wide sea, and the kindly38 uncle lying in his gory39 grave, love had gone away from her.
She had no kindred now from whom to claim tenderness or care, so only hirelings were left to watch the spark of life flickering40 so feebly day by day, that it seemed as if it must surely go out in darkness. They were all who heard the wild, passionate18 appeals for Leslie and Uncle Francis that were always on the sufferer's lips as she babbled41 incoherently in her wild delirium.
Mrs. Arnold and Felise remained in New York for several weeks, attending to business affairs and superintending the making up of very fashionable and cumbrous mourning.
Mrs. Arnold did not provide any of this raiment for Bonnibel. She sincerely hoped that the girl would die of her fever and preclude42 the necessity of so doing.
But youth is very tenacious43 of life. Bonnibel, in her illness and desolation, would willingly have died to please her aunt, but destiny had decreed otherwise.
There came a cool, still night in September when the nurses hung carefully around the bed waiting for the crisis that the doctor had said would come at midnight. It came, and the reaper44, Death, with his sickle45 keen, passed by on the other side.
In the meanwhile outraged46 justice was on the qui vive for the escaped homicide, Leslie Dane. It was rumored47 that he had sought refuge in a foreign land, but nothing definite could be learned regarding his mysterious whereabouts.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
prematurely
|
|
| adv.过早地，贸然地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
shriek
|
|
| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
dabbled
|
|
| v.涉猎( dabble的过去式和过去分词 )；涉足；浅尝；少量投资 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
scarlet
|
|
| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
stiffening
|
|
| n. (使衣服等)变硬的材料, 硬化 动词stiffen的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
shrieked
|
|
| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
maniacally
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
dismal
|
|
| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
frenzied
|
|
| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
shrill
|
|
| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
piazza
|
|
| n.广场；走廊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
sepulchrally
|
|
| 坟墓的； 丧葬的； 阴森森的； 阴沉的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
corpse
|
|
| n.尸体，死尸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
potent
|
|
| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
wringing
|
|
| 淋湿的，湿透的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
raving
|
|
| adj.说胡话的；疯狂的，怒吼的；非常漂亮的；令人醉心[痴心]的v.胡言乱语(rave的现在分词)n.胡话；疯话adv.胡言乱语地；疯狂地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
passionate
|
|
| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
passionately
|
|
| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
frankly
|
|
| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
reconciliation
|
|
| n.和解，和谐，一致 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
crimson
|
|
| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
purely
|
|
| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
briefly
|
|
| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
precipitated
|
|
| v.（突如其来地）使发生( precipitate的过去式和过去分词 )；促成；猛然摔下；使沉淀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
persistently
|
|
| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
detailed
|
|
| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
maliciously
|
|
| adv.有敌意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
testimony
|
|
| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
elicited
|
|
| 引出，探出( elicit的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
delirium
|
|
| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
foul
|
|
| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
innocence
|
|
| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
remains
|
|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
housekeeper
|
|
| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
luxurious
|
|
| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
chamber
|
|
| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
kindly
|
|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
gory
|
|
| adj.流血的；残酷的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
flickering
|
|
| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
babbled
|
|
| v.喋喋不休( babble的过去式和过去分词 )；作潺潺声（如流水）；含糊不清地说话；泄漏秘密 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
preclude
|
|
| vt.阻止，排除，防止；妨碍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
tenacious
|
|
| adj.顽强的，固执的，记忆力强的，粘的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
reaper
|
|
| n.收割者，收割机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
sickle
|
|
| n.镰刀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
outraged
|
|
| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
rumored
|
|
| adj.传说的，谣传的v.传闻( rumor的过去式和过去分词 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |