LOUISA awoke from a torpor1, and her eyes languidly opened on her old bed at home, and her old room. It seemed, at first, as if all that had happened since the days when these objects were familiar to her were the shadows of a dream, but gradually, as the objects became more real to her sight, the events became more real to her mind.
She could scarcely move her head for pain and heaviness, her eyes were strained and sore, and she was very weak. A curious passive inattention had such possession of her, that the presence of her little sister in the room did not attract her notice for some time. Even when their eyes had met, and her sister had approached the bed, Louisa lay for minutes looking at her in silence, and suffering her timidly to hold her passive hand, before she asked:
'When was I brought to this room?'
'Last night, Louisa.'
'Who brought me here?'
'Sissy, I believe.'
'Why do you believe so?'
'Because I found her here this morning. She didn't come to my bedside to wake me, as she always does; and I went to look for her. She was not in her own room either; and I went looking for her all over the house, until I found her here taking care of you and cooling your head. Will you see father? Sissy said I was to tell him when you woke.'
'What a beaming face you have, Jane!' said Louisa, as her young sister - timidly still - bent2 down to kiss her.
'Have I? I am very glad you think so. I am sure it must be Sissy's doing.'
The arm Louisa had begun to twine3 around her neck, unbent itself. 'You can tell father if you will.' Then, staying her for a moment, she said, 'It was you who made my room so cheerful, and gave it this look of welcome?'
'Oh no, Louisa, it was done before I came. It was - '
Louisa turned upon her pillow, and heard no more. When her sister had withdrawn4, she turned her head back again, and lay with her face towards the door, until it opened and her father entered.
He had a jaded5 anxious look upon him, and his hand, usually steady, trembled in hers. He sat down at the side of the bed, tenderly asking how she was, and dwelling6 on the necessity of her keeping very quiet after her agitation7 and exposure to the weather last night. He spoke8 in a subdued9 and troubled voice, very different from his usual dictatorial10 manner; and was often at a loss for words.
'My dear Louisa. My poor daughter.' He was so much at a loss at that place, that he stopped altogether. He tried again.
'My unfortunate child.' The place was so difficult to get over, that he tried again.
'It would be hopeless for me, Louisa, to endeavour to tell you how overwhelmed I have been, and still am, by what broke upon me last night. The ground on which I stand has ceased to be solid under my feet. The only support on which I leaned, and the strength of which it seemed, and still does seem, impossible to question, has given way in an instant. I am stunned11 by these discoveries. I have no selfish meaning in what I say; but I find the shock of what broke upon me last night, to be very heavy indeed.'
She could give him no comfort herein. She had suffered the wreck12 of her whole life upon the rock.
'I will not say, Louisa, that if you had by any happy chance undeceived me some time ago, it would have been better for us both; better for your peace, and better for mine. For I am sensible that it may not have been a part of my system to invite any confidence of that kind. I had proved my - my system to myself, and I have rigidly13 administered it; and I must bear the responsibility of its failures. I only entreat14 you to believe, my favourite child, that I have meant to do right.'
He said it earnestly, and to do him justice he had. In gauging15 fathomless16 deeps with his little mean excise-rod, and in staggering over the universe with his rusty17 stiff-legged compasses, he had meant to do great things. Within the limits of his short tether he had tumbled about, annihilating18 the flowers of existence with greater singleness of purpose than many of the blatant19 personages whose company he kept.
'I am well assured of what you say, father. I know I have been your favourite child. I know you have intended to make me happy. I have never blamed you, and I never shall.'
He took her outstretched hand, and retained it in his.
'My dear, I have remained all night at my table, pondering again and again on what has so painfully passed between us. When I consider your character; when I consider that what has been known to me for hours, has been concealed20 by you for years; when I consider under what immediate21 pressure it has been forced from you at last; I come to the conclusion that I cannot but mistrust myself.'
He might have added more than all, when he saw the face now looking at him. He did add it in effect, perhaps, as he softly moved her scattered22 hair from her forehead with his hand. Such little actions, slight in another man, were very noticeable in him; and his daughter received them as if they had been words of contrition23.
'But,' said Mr. Gradgrind, slowly, and with hesitation24, as well as with a wretched sense of happiness, 'if I see reason to mistrust myself for the past, Louisa, I should also mistrust myself for the present and the future. To speak unreservedly to you, I do. I am far from feeling convinced now, however differently I might have felt only this time yesterday, that I am fit for the trust you repose25 in me; that I know how to respond to the appeal you have come home to make to me; that I have the right instinct - supposing it for the moment to be some quality of that nature - how to help you, and to set you right, my child.'
She had turned upon her pillow, and lay with her face upon her arm, so that he could not see it. All her wildness and passion had subsided26; but, though softened27, she was not in tears. Her father was changed in nothing so much as in the respect that he would have been glad to see her in tears.
'Some persons hold,' he pursued, still hesitating, 'that there is a wisdom of the Head, and that there is a wisdom of the Heart. I have not supposed so; but, as I have said, I mistrust myself now. I have supposed the head to be all-sufficient. It may not be all- sufficient; how can I venture this morning to say it is! If that other kind of wisdom should be what I have neglected, and should be the instinct that is wanted, Louisa - '
He suggested it very doubtfully, as if he were half unwilling28 to admit it even now. She made him no answer, lying before him on her bed, still half-dressed, much as he had seen her lying on the floor of his room last night.
'Louisa,' and his hand rested on her hair again, 'I have been absent from here, my dear, a good deal of late; and though your sister's training has been pursued according to - the system,' he appeared to come to that word with great reluctance29 always, 'it has necessarily been modified by daily associations begun, in her case, at an early age. I ask you - ignorantly and humbly30, my daughter - for the better, do you think?'
'Father,' she replied, without stirring, 'if any harmony has been awakened31 in her young breast that was mute in mine until it turned to discord32, let her thank Heaven for it, and go upon her happier way, taking it as her greatest blessing33 that she has avoided my way.'
'O my child, my child!' he said, in a forlorn manner, 'I am an unhappy man to see you thus! What avails it to me that you do not reproach me, if I so bitterly reproach myself!' He bent his head, and spoke low to her. 'Louisa, I have a misgiving34 that some change may have been slowly working about me in this house, by mere35 love and gratitude36: that what the Head had left undone37 and could not do, the Heart may have been doing silently. Can it be so?'
She made him no reply.
'I am not too proud to believe it, Louisa. How could I be arrogant38, and you before me! Can it be so? Is it so, my dear?' He looked upon her once more, lying cast away there; and without another word went out of the room. He had not been long gone, when she heard a light tread near the door, and knew that some one stood beside her.
She did not raise her head. A dull anger that she should be seen in her distress39, and that the involuntary look she had so resented should come to this fulfilment, smouldered within her like an unwholesome fire. All closely imprisoned40 forces rend41 and destroy. The air that would be healthful to the earth, the water that would enrich it, the heat that would ripen42 it, tear it when caged up. So in her bosom43 even now; the strongest qualities she possessed44, long turned upon themselves, became a heap of obduracy45, that rose against a friend.
It was well that soft touch came upon her neck, and that she understood herself to be supposed to have fallen asleep. The sympathetic hand did not claim her resentment46. Let it lie there, let it lie.
It lay there, warming into life a crowd of gentler thoughts; and she rested. As she softened with the quiet, and the consciousness of being so watched, some tears made their way into her eyes. The face touched hers, and she knew that there were tears upon it too, and she the cause of them.
As Louisa feigned47 to rouse herself, and sat up, Sissy retired48, so that she stood placidly49 near the bedside.
'I hope I have not disturbed you. I have come to ask if you would let me stay with you?'
'Why should you stay with me? My sister will miss you. You are everything to her.'
'Am I?' returned Sissy, shaking her head. 'I would be something to you, if I might.'
'What?' said Louisa, almost sternly.
'Whatever you want most, if I could be that. At all events, I would like to try to be as near it as I can. And however far off that may be, I will never tire of trying. Will you let me?'
'My father sent you to ask me.'
'No indeed,' replied Sissy. 'He told me that I might come in now, but he sent me away from the room this morning - or at least - '
She hesitated and stopped.
'At least, what?' said Louisa, with her searching eyes upon her.
'I thought it best myself that I should be sent away, for I felt very uncertain whether you would like to find me here.'
'Have I always hated you so much?'
'I hope not, for I have always loved you, and have always wished that you should know it. But you changed to me a little, shortly before you left home. Not that I wondered at it. You knew so much, and I knew so little, and it was so natural in many ways, going as you were among other friends, that I had nothing to complain of, and was not at all hurt.'
Her colour rose as she said it modestly and hurriedly. Louisa understood the loving pretence50, and her heart smote51 her.
'May I try?' said Sissy, emboldened52 to raise her hand to the neck that was insensibly drooping53 towards her.
Louisa, taking down the hand that would have embraced her in another moment, held it in one of hers, and answered:
'First, Sissy, do you know what I am? I am so proud and so hardened, so confused and troubled, so resentful and unjust to every one and to myself, that everything is stormy, dark, and wicked to me. Does not that repel54 you?'
'No!'
'I am so unhappy, and all that should have made me otherwise is so laid waste, that if I had been bereft55 of sense to this hour, and instead of being as learned as you think me, had to begin to acquire the simplest truths, I could not want a guide to peace, contentment, honour, all the good of which I am quite devoid56, more abjectly57 than I do. Does not that repel you?'
'No!'
In the innocence58 of her brave affection, and the brimming up of her old devoted59 spirit, the once deserted60 girl shone like a beautiful light upon the darkness of the other.
Louisa raised the hand that it might clasp her neck and join its fellow there. She fell upon her knees, and clinging to this stroller's child looked up at her almost with veneration61.
'Forgive me, pity me, help me! Have compassion62 on my great need, and let me lay this head of mine upon a loving heart!'
'O lay it here!' cried Sissy. 'Lay it here, my dear.'
收听单词发音 |
1
torpor
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| n.迟钝；麻木；（动物的）冬眠 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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twine
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| v.搓，织，编饰；（使）缠绕 | |
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withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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jaded
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| adj.精疲力竭的；厌倦的；（因过饱或过多而）腻烦的；迟钝的 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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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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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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dictatorial
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| adj. 独裁的，专断的 | |
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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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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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rigidly
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| adv.刻板地，僵化地 | |
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entreat
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| v.恳求，恳请 | |
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gauging
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| n.测量[试]，测定，计量v.（用仪器）测量( gauge的现在分词 )；估计；计量；划分 | |
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fathomless
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| a.深不可测的 | |
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rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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annihilating
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| v.（彻底）消灭( annihilate的现在分词 )；使无效；废止；彻底击溃 | |
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blatant
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| adj.厚颜无耻的；显眼的；炫耀的 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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contrition
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| n.悔罪，痛悔 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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32
discord
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| n.不和，意见不合，争论，（音乐）不和谐 | |
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blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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misgiving
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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arrogant
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的 | |
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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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imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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rend
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| vt.把…撕开，割裂；把…揪下来，强行夺取 | |
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ripen
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| vt.使成熟；vi.成熟 | |
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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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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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obduracy
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| n.冷酷无情，顽固，执拗 | |
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resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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feigned
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| a.假装的，不真诚的 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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placidly
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| adv.平稳地，平静地 | |
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pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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52
emboldened
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| v.鼓励，使有胆量( embolden的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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54
repel
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| v.击退，抵制，拒绝，排斥 | |
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bereft
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| adj.被剥夺的 | |
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devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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57
abjectly
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| 凄惨地； 绝望地； 糟透地； 悲惨地 | |
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58
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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61
veneration
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| n.尊敬，崇拜 | |
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compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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