To return for a moment to Rose. She parted from Edouard, and wentin at the front door: but the next moment she opened it softly andwatched her lover unseen. "Dear Edouard!" she murmured: and thenshe thought, "how sad it is that I must deceive him, even to-night:
must make up an excuse to get him from me, when we were so happytogether. Ah! he little knows how I shall welcome our wedding-day.
When once I can see my poor martyr1 on the road to peace and contentunder the good doctor's care. And oh! the happiness of having nomore secrets from him I love! Dear Edouard! when once we aremarried, I never, never, will have a secret from you again--I swearit."As a comment on these words she now stepped cautiously out, andpeered in every direction.
"St--st!" she whispered. No answer came to this signal.
Rose returned into the house and bolted the door inside. She wentup to the tapestried2 room, and found the doctor in the act ofwishing Josephine good-night. The baroness3, fatigued4 a little byher walk, had mounted no higher than her own bedroom, which was onthe first floor just under the tapestried room. Rose followed thedoctor out. "Dear friend, one word. Josephine talked of tellingRaynal. You have not encouraged her to do that?""Certainly not, while he is in Egypt.""Still less on his return. Doctor, you don't know that man.
Josephine does not know him. But I do. He would kill her if heknew. He would kill her that minute. He would not wait: he wouldnot listen to excuses: he is a man of iron. Or if he spared her hewould kill Camille: and that would destroy her by the cruellest ofall deaths! My friend, I am a wicked, miserable5 girl. I am thecause of all this misery6!"She then told Aubertin all about the anonymous7 letter, and whatRaynal had said to her in consequence.
"He never would have married her had he known she loved another. Heasked me was it so. I told him a falsehood. At least Iequivocated, and to equivocate8 with one so loyal and simple was todeceive him. I am the only sinner: that sweet angel is the onlysufferer. Is this the justice of Heaven? Doctor, my remorse9 isgreat. No one knows what I feel when I look at my work. Edouardthinks I love her so much better than I do him. He is wrong: it isnot love only, it is pity: it is remorse for the sorrow I havebrought on her, and the wrong I have done poor Raynal."The high-spirited girl was greatly agitated10: and Aubertin, though hedid not acquit11 her of all blame, soothed12 her, and made excuses forher.
"We must not always judge by results," said he. "Things turnedunfortunately. You did for the best. I forgive you for one. Thatis, I will forgive you if you promise not to act again without myadvice.""Oh, never! never!""And, above all, no imprudence about that child. In three littleweeks they will be together without risk of discovery. Well, youdon't answer me."Rose's blood turned cold. "Dear friend," she stammered13, "I quiteagree with you.""Promise, then.""Not to let Josephine go to Frejus?" said Rose hastily. "Oh, yes! Ipromise.""You are a good girl," said Aubertin. "You have a will of your own.
But you can submit to age and experience." The doctor then kissedher, and bade her farewell.
"I leave for Paris at six in the morning," he said. "I will not tryyour patience or hers unnecessarily. Perhaps it will not be threeweeks ere she sees her child under her friend's roof."The moment Rose was alone, she sat down and sighed bitterly. "Thereis no end to it," she sobbed14 despairingly. "It is like a spider'sweb: every struggle to be free but multiplies the fine yetirresistible thread that seems to bind15 me. And to-night I thoughtto be so happy; instead of that, he has left me scarce the heart todo what I have to do."She went back to the room, opened a window, and put out a whitehandkerchief, then closed the window down on it.
Then she went to Josephine's bedroom-door: it opened on thetapestried room.
"Josephine," she cried, "don't go to bed just yet.""No, love. What are you doing? I want to talk to you. Why did yousay promise? and what did you mean by looking at me so? Shall Icome out to you?""Not just yet," said Rose; she then glided16 into the corridor, andpassed her mother's room and the doctor's, and listened to see ifall was quiet. While she was gone Josephine opened her door; butnot seeing Rose in the sitting-room17, retired18 again.
Rose returned softly, and sat down with her head in her hand, in acalm attitude belied19 by her glancing eye, and the quick tapping ofher other hand upon the table.
Presently she raised her head quickly; a sound had reached her ear,--a sound so slight that none but a high-strung ear could have caughtit. It was like a mouse giving a single scratch against a stonewall.
Rose coughed slightly.
On this a clearer sound was heard, as of a person scratching woodwith the finger-nail. Rose darted20 to the side of the room, pressedagainst the wall, and at the same time put her other hand againstthe rim21 of one of the panels and pushed it laterally22; it yielded,and at the opening stood Jacintha in her cloak and bonnet23.
"Yes," said Jacintha, "under my cloak--look!""Ah! you found the things on the steps?""Yes! I nearly tumbled over them. Have you locked that door?""No, but I will." And Rose glided to the door and locked it. Thenshe put the screen up between Josephine's room and the open panel:
then she and Jacintha were wonderfully busy on the other side thescreen, but presently Rose said, "This is imprudent; you must godown to the foot of the stairs and wait till I call you."Jacintha pleaded hard against this arrangement, and represented thatthere was no earthly chance of any one coming to that part of thechateau.
"No matter; I will be guarded on every side.""Mustn't I stop and just see her happy for once?""No, my poor Jacintha, you must hear it from my lips."Jacintha retired to keep watch as she was bid. Rose went toJosephine's room, and threw her arms round her neck and kissed hervehemently. Josephine returned her embrace, then held her out atarm's length and looked at her.
"Your eyes are red, yet your little face is full of joy. There, yousmile.""I can't help that; I am so happy.""I am glad of it. Are you coming to bed?""Not yet. I invite you to take a little walk with me first. Come!"and she led the way slowly, looking back with infinite archness andtenderness.
"You almost frighten me," said Josephine; "it is not like you to beall joy when I am sad. Three whole weeks more!""That is it. Why are you sad? because the doctor would not let yougo to Frejus. And why am I not sad? because I had already thoughtof a way to let you see Edouard without going so far.""Rose! O Rose! O Rose!""This way--come!" and she smiled and beckoned24 with her finger, whileJosephine followed like one under a spell, her bosom25 heaving, hereye glancing on every side, hoping some strange joy, yet scarcedaring to hope.
Rose drew back the screen, and there was a sweet little berceau thathad once been Josephine's own, and in it, sunk deep in snow-whitelawn, was a sleeping child, that lay there looking as a rose mightlook could it fall upon new-fallen snow.
At sight of it Josephine uttered a little cry, not loud but deep--ay, a cry to bring tears into the eye of the hearer, and she stoodtrembling from head to foot, her hands clasped, and her eyefascinated and fixed26 on the cradle.
"My child under this roof! What have you done?" but her eye,fascinated and fixed, never left the cradle.
"I saw you languishing27, dying, for want of him.""Oh, if anybody should come?" But her eye never stirred an inchfrom the cradle.
"No, no, no! the door is locked. Jacintha watches below; there isno dan-- Ah, oh, poor sister!"For, as Rose was speaking, the young mother sprang silently upon herchild. You would have thought she was going to kill him; her headreared itself again and again like a crested29 snake's, and again andagain and again and again plunged30 down upon the child, and shekissed his little body from head to foot with soft violence, andmurmured, through her streaming tears, "My child! my darling! myangel! oh, my poor boy! my child! my child!"I will ask my female readers of every degree to tell their brothersand husbands all the young noble did: how she sat on the floor, andhad her child on her bosom; how she smiled over it through hertears; how she purred over it; how she, the stately one, lisped andprattled over it; and how life came pouring into her heart from it.
Before she had had it in her arms five minutes, her pale cheek wasas red as a rose, and her eyes brighter than diamonds.
"Bless you, Rose! bless you! bless you! in one moment you have mademe forget all I ever suffered in my life.""There is a cold draught31," cried she presently, with maternalanxiety; "close the panel, Rose.""No, dear; or I could not call to Jacintha, or she to me; but I willshift the screen round between him and the draught. There, now,come to his aunt--a darling!"Then Rose sat on the floor too, and Josephine put her boy on aunt'slap, and took a distant view of him. But she could not bear so vasta separation long. She must have him to her bosom again.
Presently my lord, finding himself hugged, opened his eyes, and, asa natural consequence, his mouth.
"Oh, that will never do," cried Rose, and they put him back in thecradle with all expedition, and began to rock it. Young master wasnot to be altogether appeased32 even by that. So Rose began singingan old-fashioned Breton chant or lullaby.
Josephine sang with her, and, singing, watched with a smile her boydrop off by degrees to sleep under the gentle motion and the lullingsong. They sang and rocked till the lids came creeping down, andhid the great blue eyes; but still they sang and rocked, lulling33 theboy, and gladdening their own hearts; for the quaint34 old Bretonditty was tunable35 as the lark36 that carols over the green wheat inApril; and the words so simple and motherly, that a nation had takenthem to heart. Such songs bind ages together and make the lofty andthe low akin28 by the great ties of music and the heart. Many aBreton peasant's bosom in the olden time had gushed37 over hersleeping boy as the young dame's of Beaurepaire gushed now--in thisquaint, tuneful lullaby.
Now, as they kneeled over the cradle, one on each side, and rockedit, and sang that ancient chant, Josephine, who was opposite thescreen, happening to raise her eyes, saw a strange thing.
There was the face of a man set close against the side of thescreen, and peeping and peering out of the gloom. The light of hercandle fell full on this face; it glared at her, set pale, wonder-struck, and vivid in the surrounding gloom.
Horror! It was her husband's face.
At first she was quite stupefied, and looked at it with soul andsenses benumbed. Then she trembled, and put her hand to her eyes;for she thought it a phantom38 or a delusion39 of the mind. No: thereit glared still. Then she trembled violently, and held out her lefthand, the fingers working convulsively, to Rose, who was stillsinging.
But, at the same moment, the mouth of this face suddenly opened in along-drawn breath. At this, Josephine uttered a violent shriek40, andsprang to her feet, with her right hand quivering and pointing atthat pale face set in the dark.
Rose started up, and, wheeling her head round, saw Raynal's gloomyface looking over her shoulder. She fell screaming upon her knees,and, almost out of her senses, began to pray wildly and piteouslyfor mercy.
Josephine uttered one more cry, but this was the faint cry ofnature, sinking under the shock of terror. She swooned dead away,and fell senseless on the floor ere Raynal could debarrass himselfof the screen, and get to her.
This, then, was the scene that met Edouard's eyes. His affiancedbride on her knees, white as a ghost, trembling, and screaming,rather than crying, for mercy. And Raynal standing41 over his wife,showing by the working of his iron features that he doubted whethershe was worthy42 he should raise her.
One would have thought nothing could add to the terror of thisscene. Yet it was added to. The baroness rang her bell violentlyin the room below. She had heard Josephine's scream and fall.
At the ringing of this shrill43 bell Rose shuddered44 like a maniac45, andgrovelled on her knees to Raynal, and seized his very knees andimplored him to show some pity.
"O sir! kill us! we are culpable"--Dring! dring! dring! dring! dring! pealed46 the baroness's bell again.
"But do not tell our mother. Oh, if you are a man! do not! do not!
Show us some pity. We are but women. Mercy! mercy! mercy!""Speak out then," groaned47 Raynal. "What does this mean? Why has mywife swooned at sight of me?--whose is this child?""Whose?" stammered Rose. Till he said that, she never thought thereCOULD be a doubt whose child.
Dring! dring! dring! dring! dring!
"Oh, my God!" cried the poor girl, and her scared eyes glanced everyway like some wild creature looking for a hole, however small, toescape by.
Edouard, seeing her hesitation48, came down on her other side. "Whoseis the child, Rose?" said he sternly.
"You, too? Why were we born? mercy! oh! pray let me go to mysister."Dring! dring! dring! dring! dring! went the terrible bell.
The men were excited to fury by Rose's hesitation; they each seizedan arm, and tore her screaming with fear at their violence, from herknees up to her feet between them with a single gesture.
"Whose is the child?""You hurt me!" said she bitterly to Edouard, and she left crying andwas terribly calm and sullen49 all in a moment.
"Whose is the child?" roared Edouard and Raynal, in one ragingbreath. "Whose is the child?""It is mine."
收听单词发音 |
1
martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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tapestried
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| adj.饰挂绣帷的，织在绣帷上的v.用挂毯（或绣帷）装饰( tapestry的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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baroness
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| n.男爵夫人，女男爵 | |
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fatigued
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| adj. 疲乏的 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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anonymous
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| adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的 | |
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equivocate
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| v.模棱两可地，支吾其词 | |
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remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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acquit
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| vt.宣判无罪；(oneself)使(自己)表现出 | |
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soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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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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bind
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| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
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glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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belied
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| v.掩饰( belie的过去式和过去分词 )；证明（或显示）…为虚假；辜负；就…扯谎 | |
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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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rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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laterally
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| ad.横向地；侧面地；旁边地 | |
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bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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beckoned
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| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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languishing
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| a. 衰弱下去的 | |
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akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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crested
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| adj.有顶饰的，有纹章的，有冠毛的v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的过去式和过去分词 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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appeased
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| 安抚，抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 )； 绥靖（满足另一国的要求以避免战争） | |
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lulling
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| vt.使镇静，使安静（lull的现在分词形式） | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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tunable
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| adj.可调的；可调谐 | |
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lark
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| n.云雀，百灵鸟；n.嬉戏，玩笑；vi.嬉戏 | |
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gushed
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| v.喷，涌( gush的过去式和过去分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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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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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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44
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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maniac
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| n.精神癫狂的人；疯子 | |
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46
pealed
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| v.（使）（钟等）鸣响，（雷等）发出隆隆声( peal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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48
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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49
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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