The tone constrained2, the altered eye;
They know that each to each can seem
No longer as of yore;
Each loves the other more.
Hers is, perhaps, the saddest heart;
His the more forced and painful part;
And troubled now becomes, perforce,
So easy heretofore.
Southey.
A slight start from Tudor Hereward, and a sudden paleness of Lilith’s face, were the only signs of the shock that both had sustained in this unexpected encounter; 241and even these had been seen by no one except the watchful6 princess, who had planned the meeting and studied its effect.
Hereward bowed as to any other lady.
Lilith courtesied.
Both grew paler. Neither spoke7. The strain was becoming unbearable8. Besides, Hereward was stopping the way.
The princess pitied them; and then she became frightened for the result of her own coup-de-théâtre. Should Hereward “lose his head,” or Lilith faint, or should they in any other manner bring “admired disorder” into the serene9 repose10 of this patrician11 drawing-room? For nature, when hard pressed, does sometimes break through all the elegant little barriers of convenances and assert itself.
All this flashed through the mind of the princess in a very few seconds, and then—always equal to the occasion—she turned with perfect ease to her latest guest, and said:
“Mr. Hereward, the rooms are close, and Mrs. Wyvil is faint; will you give her the support of your arm to my boudoir? She will show you the way.”
Hereward bowed, drew his wife’s arm within his own, and led her from the salon12 by the shortest way indicated only by a gesture from Lilith.
They entered the elegant boudoir, with its walls of fluted13 white satin, and its furniture and draperies of white satin flowered with gold, and its innumerable treasures of beauty and of art; but they saw none of these things. They might have been in a West Virginia hut, for all consciousness they had of these splendors14.
As soon as they entered the room—which had no other occupant—Lilith, sliding from her hold on Hereward’s arm, dropped into the nearest chair, as if no longer able to stand.
No word had passed between them as yet.
“Lilith!” he said, at length.
“Tudor!” she murmured in reply.
“Lilith, is this real? Can this wonder be real, or is it only a phantasm of fever, such as I have often had since I lost you! Oh, Lilith! if this be real, come to me—come to me! Come to me, my own, and let me clasp you to my heart!” he pleaded, holding out his arms.
“Tudor—do you care for me—now?” she inquired, in low and broken tones.
“Do I care for you? Oh, Lilith! so much, so much that your loss has almost destroyed my life! Oh, my love! Oh, my darling. Why, why did you ever leave me? Why, Lilith, why?” he pleaded, earnestly.
“Because,” she murmured very low—“because you told me that you had never loved me; you said that you had married me only to please your dying father; you bade me leave your presence, and you added that in a few days you should leave the house, never to return to it while I should desecrate16 it with my presence.”
“I! Did I ever utter such words as those to you—to my wife?” exclaimed Hereward, as soon as he had recovered from the shock of hearing them repeated to him.
“Indeed you did, Tudor. They were stamped—burned—too deeply into my memory ever to be forgotten. I do not give them back to you now in reproach, but only in reply to your question as to why I left you. You see now that I had no alternative. I answered you at the time that I must not be the means of banishing17 you from your patrimonial18 home; that since one or the other must go, I myself should leave, and leave you in peaceable possession of your home. Something like this I said to you then, Tudor; 243but you bade me begone, and—I obeyed you. That was all,” she concluded, in a low, gentle tone.
“I was mad—mad! Not one word that I uttered then was true or rational! Oh, Lilith, I am no more responsible for the words and actions of that hour than is the veriest maniac19 for his ravings!” he pleaded, sinking over and leaning heavily on the back of the chair that supported her slight frame.
“I know, Tudor,” she said, in a humble20, deprecating tone—“I know, and I do not criticise21 you. How could I? The circumstances that surrounded me seemed criminating enough to destroy the faith of the most confiding22 husband in the world, though he were married to the most faithful wife!”
“And yet they should not have touched my faith in you; the child brought up in my father’s house, the child not only loved, but esteemed23 and honored by my father, and not by him only, but by all his friends and neighbors! No, Lilith, even those surrounding circumstances, though you could not explain them, should never have touched my faith in you! would never have done so, but that I was mad—mad with jealousy25! Yes, I confess it. Lilith, can you forgive me for that causeless, injurious jealousy?” he pleaded, bending over her.
“Oh, Tudor! If there were anything to forgive, it was forgiven on that very night in which we parted.”
“Ah! why did you go, my Lilith? Why did you let words of frenzy26 drive you away? Could not you, my gentle child, have been patient with a madman for a little while? Why act upon reproaches that you knew to be undeserved and altogether unreasonable27?”
“I knew they were undeserved, but I thought they were very reasonable, under all the circumstances. Oh, Tudor, it was not your reproaches, not your anger, that drove me away from you! I could have borne 244them and waited for time to vindicate28 me, to justify29 me in your sight. No, Tudor, it was not anger nor reproach that drove me away.”
“What was it, then?”
“I told you; but you have forgotten it, or misunderstood. Tudor, I had to go. I had no choice. You told me that you did not love me; that you had never loved me, and said that you would go away and never come back while I stayed in the house. But you ‘never loved’ me. These were the words that drove me from you.”
“The words of a maniac!”
“Did you find my farewell letter, left on your bureau, Tudor?”
“Yes—I did.”
“Do you remember its contents?”
“Yes. When I think of it I can recall every word. That letter is stamped upon my memory, Lilith, as you say my sentence of banishment30 is upon yours.”
“Then, Tudor, will you now recall what I said on bidding you good-bye? It was something like this—though I cannot recall the precise words—I told you that though I should not trouble you by my presence, or my letters, yet neither should I take any pains to hide myself from you. I told you that if the time should ever come when, after revising your judgment31 of me, you should see reason to retract32 your charges against me, and should ask me to return to you, I would return and would be all to you in the future that I had been in the past. Do you remember reading that in my farewell letter, Tudor?”
“Yes, yes! I do, I do! And oh, my child, I do retract all the cruel charges that Satan and false shows ever goaded33 me to make. I believe you to be as pure in mind and heart and life as any angel that stands before the Throne,” he said, bending over her chair.
245“And you forgive me, Lilith?”
“No, no!” he exclaimed, deprecatingly.
“Tudor,” she said, “you say that you esteem24 me—that you trust me; and I thank Heaven for that! But—Tudor—do you love me?” she inquired, in a low, thrilling, pathetic tone.
“I love you more than my own life, so help me Heaven!” replied Hereward, in such tones of impassioned earnestness that no one who heard them could have doubted their truth.
Lilith arose and turned, fronting him, and said:
“Then, Tudor, take me, for I am yours, yours entirely—spirit, soul and frame! I say now, as I said once before, there is not, there never was—a pulse in my heart that is not true to you.”
Presently they sat down, he holding her hand within his own, and gazing with infinite content into her beautiful face.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
descry
|
|
| v.远远看到；发现；责备 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
constrained
|
|
| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
estranged
|
|
| adj.疏远的，分离的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
inevitable
|
|
| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
intercourse
|
|
| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
watchful
|
|
| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
spoke
|
|
| 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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
unbearable
|
|
| adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
serene
|
|
| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
repose
|
|
| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
patrician
|
|
| adj.贵族的，显贵的；n.贵族；有教养的人；罗马帝国的地方官 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
salon
|
|
| n.[法]沙龙；客厅；营业性的高级服务室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
fluted
|
|
| a.有凹槽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
splendors
|
|
| n.华丽( splendor的名词复数 )；壮丽；光辉；显赫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
desecrate
|
|
| v.供俗用，亵渎，污辱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
banishing
|
|
| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
patrimonial
|
|
| adj.祖传的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
19
maniac
|
|
| n.精神癫狂的人；疯子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
humble
|
|
| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
criticise
|
|
| v.批评，评论；非难 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
confiding
|
|
| adj.相信人的，易于相信的v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的现在分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
esteemed
|
|
| adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 )；敬重；认为；以为 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
esteem
|
|
| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
jealousy
|
|
| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
frenzy
|
|
| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
unreasonable
|
|
| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
vindicate
|
|
| v.为…辩护或辩解，辩明；证明…正确 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
justify
|
|
| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
banishment
|
|
| n.放逐，驱逐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
judgment
|
|
| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
retract
|
|
| vt.缩回，撤回收回，取消 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
goaded
|
|
| v.刺激( goad的过去式和过去分词 )；激励；（用尖棒）驱赶；驱使（或怂恿、刺激）某人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
fervently
|
|
| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
humbly
|
|
| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
bosom
|
|
| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |