INDIANA, intent but upon running on, had nearly reached the church-yard, without hearkening to one word of the expostulating Mandlebert; when, leaning over a tombstone, on which she had herself leant while waiting for the carriage, she perceived the young Oxonian. An instinctive1 spirit of coquetry made her now increase her pace; he heard the rustling2 of female approach, and looked up: her beauty, heightened by her flight, which animated3 her complexion4, while it displayed her fine form, seemed more than ever celestial5 to the enamoured student; who darted6 forward from an impulse of irresistible7 surprise. ‘O Heaven!’ she cried, panting and stopping as he met her; ‘I shall die! I shall die!–I am pursued by a mad bull!’
Edgar would have explained, that all was safe; but Melmond neither heard nor saw him.–‘O, give me, then,’ he cried, emphatically; ‘give me the ecstasy8 to protect-to save you!’
His out-spread arms shewed his intention to bear her away; but Edgar, placing himself between them, said: ‘Pardon me, sir! this lady is under my care!’
‘O don’t fight about me! don’t quarrel!’ cried Indiana, with an apprehension9 half simple, half affected10.
‘No, Madam!’ answered Melmond, respectfully retreating; ‘I know too-too well! my little claim in such a dispute!–Permit me, however, to assist you, Mr. Mandlebert, in your search of refuge; and deign11, madam, to endure me in your sight, till this alarm passes away.’
Indiana, by no means insensible to this language, looked with some elation12 at Edgar, to see how he bore it.
Edgar was not surprised; he had already observed the potent13 impression made by the beauty of Indiana upon the Oxonian; and was struck, in defiance14 of its romance and suddenness, with its air of sincerity15; he only, therefore, gently answered, that there was not the least cause of fear.
‘O, how can you say so?’ said Indiana; ‘how can you take so little interest in me?’
‘At least, at least,’ cried Melmond, trembling with eagerness, ‘condescend to accept a double guard!–Refuse not, Mr. Mandlebert, to suffer any attendance!’
Mandlebert, a little embarrassed, answered: ‘I have no authority to decide for Miss Lynmere: but, certainly, I see no occasion for my assistance.’
Melmond fervently18 clasped his hands, and exclaimed: ‘Do not, do not, madam, command me to leave you till all danger is over!’
The little heart of Indiana beat high with triumph; she thought Mandlebert jealous: Miss Margland had often told her there was no surer way to quicken him: and, even independently of this idea, the spirit, the ardour, the admiration19 of the Oxonian, had a power upon her mind that needed no auxiliary20 for delighting it.
She curtsied her consent; but declared she would never go back the same way. They proceeded, therefore, by a little round to the high road, which led to the field in which the party had been dispersed21.
Indiana was full of starts, little shrieks22, and palpitations; every one of which rendered her, in the eyes of the Oxonian, more and more captivating; and, while Edgar walked gravely on, reflecting, with some uneasiness, upon being thus drawn23 in to suffer the attendance of a youth so nearly a stranger, upon a young lady actually under his protection; Melmond was continually ejaculating in return to her perpetual apprehensions24, ‘What lovely timidity!-what bewitching softness!–What feminine, what beautiful delicacy25!–How sweet in terror!–How soul-piercing in alarm!’
These exclamations26 were nearly enchanting27 to Indiana, whose only fear was, lest they should not be heard by Edgar; and, whenever they ceased, whenever a pause and respectful silence took their place, new starts, fresh palpitations, and designed false steps, again called them forth28; while the smile with which she repaid their enthusiastic speaker, was fuel to his flame, but poison to his peace.
They had not proceeded far, when they were met by Miss Margland, who, in equal trepidation29 from anger and from fear, was still making the best of her way from the bellowing30 of the bull. Edgar inquired for Sir Hugh, and the rest of the party; but she could speak only of Lionel; his insolence31 and his ill usage; protesting nothing but her regard for Indiana, could induce her to live a moment longer under his uncle’s roof.
‘But where,’ again cried Edgar, ‘where is Sir Hugh? and where are the ladies?’
‘Tossed by the bull,’ answered she, pettishly32, ‘for aught I know; I did not choose to stay and be tossed myself; and a person like Mr. Lionel can soon make such a beast point at one, if he takes it into his humour.’
Edgar then begged they might hasten to their company; but Miss Margland positively33 refused to go back: and Indiana, always ready to second any alarm, declared, she should quite sink with fright, if they went within a hundred yards of that horrid34 field. Edgar still pleaded that the baronet would, expect them; but Melmond, in softer tones, spoke35 of fears, sensibility, and dangers; and Edgar soon found he was talking to the winds.
All now that remained to prevent further separations was, that Edgar should run on to the party, and acquaint them that Miss Margland and Indiana would wait for them upon the high road.
Melmond, meanwhile, felt in paradise; even the presence of Miss Margland could not restrain his rapture36, upon a casualty that gave him such a charge, though it forced him to forbear making the direct and open declaration of his passion, with which his heart was burning, and his tongue quivering. He attended them both with the most fervent17 respect, evidently very gratifying to the object of his adoration37, though not noticed by Miss Margland, who was wholly absorbed by her own provocations38.
Edgar soon reached the bank by the road’s side, upon which the baronet, Dr. Marchmont, Lionel, and Camilla were seated. ‘Lord help us!’ exclaimed Sir Hugh, aghast at his approach, ‘if here is not young Mr. Edgar without Indiana! This is a thing I could never have expected from you, young Mr. Edgar! that you should leave her, I don’t know where, and come without her!’
Edgar assured him she was safe, and under the care of Miss Margland, but that neither of them could be prevailed with to come farther: he had, therefore, advanced to inquire after the rest of the party, and to arrange where they should all assemble.
‘You have done very right, then, my dear Mr. Edgar, as you always do, as far as I can make out, when I come to the bottom. And now I am quite easy about Indiana. But as to Eugenia, what Dr. Orkborne has done with her is more than I can devise; unless, indeed, they are got to studying some of their Greek verbs, and so forgot us all, which is likely enough; only I had rather they had taken another time, not much caring to stay here longer than I can help.’
Edgar said, he would make a circuit in search of them; but, first, addressing Camilla, ‘You alone,’ he cried, with an approving smile, ‘have remained thus quiet, while all else have been scampering39 apart, making confusion worse confounded.‘
‘I have lived too completely in the country to be afraid of cattle,’ she answered; ‘and Dr. Marchmont assured me there was no danger.’
‘You can listen, then, even when you are alarmed,’ said he, expressively40, ‘to the voice of reason!’
Camilla raised her eyes, and looked at him, but dropt them again without making any answer: Can you, she thought, have been pleading it in vain? How I wonder at Indiana?
He then set out to seek Eugenia, recommending the same office to Lionel by another route; but Lionel no sooner gathered where Miss Margland might be met with, than his repentance41 was forgotten, and he quitted everything to encounter her.
Edgar spent near half an hour in his search, without the smallest success; he was then seriously uneasy, and returning to the party, when a countryman, to whom he was known, told him he had seen Miss Eugenia Tyrold, with a very handsome fine town gentleman, going into a farm house.
Edgar flew to the spot, and through a window, as he advanced, perceived Eugenia seated, and Bellamy kneeling before her.
Amazed and concerned, he abruptly42 made his way into the apartment. Bellamy rose in the utmost confusion, and Eugenia, starting and colouring, caught Edgar by the arm, but could not speak.
He told her that her uncle and the whole company were waiting for her in great anxiety.
‘And where, where,’ cried she, ‘are they? I have been in agonies about them all! and I could not prevail–I could not-this gentleman said the risk was so great-he would not suffer me-but he has sent for a chaise, though I told him I had a thousand times rather hazard my life amongst them, and with them, than save it alone!’
‘They are all perfectly43 safe, nor has there ever been any danger.’
‘I was told–I was assured–’ said Bellamy, ‘that a mad bull was running wild about the country; and I thought it, therefore, advisable to send for a chaise from the nearest inn, that I might return this young lady to her friends.’
Edgar made no answer, but offered his arm to conduct Eugenia to her uncle. She accepted it, and Bellamy attended on her other side.
Edgar was silent the whole way. The attitude in which he had surprised Bellamy, by assuring him of the nature of his pretensions44, had awakened45 doubts the most alarming of the destination in view for the chaise which he had ordered; and he believed that Eugenia was either to have been beguiled46, or betrayed, into a journey the most remote from the home to which she belonged.
Eugenia increased his suspicions by the mere16 confusion which deterred47 her from removing them. Bellamy had assured her she was in the most eminent48 personal danger, and had hurried her from field to field, with an idea that the dreaded49 animal was in full pursuit. When carried, however, into the farm house, she lost all apprehension for herself in fears for her friends, and insisted upon sharing their fate. Bellamy, who immediately ordered a chaise, then cast himself at her feet, to entreat50 she would not throw away her life by so rash a measure.
Exhausted51, from her lameness52, she was forced to sit still, and such was their situation at the entrance of Edgar. She wished extremely to explain what had been the object of the solicitation53 of Bellamy, and to clear him, as well as herself, from any further surmises54; but she was ashamed to begin the subject. Edgar had seen a man at her feet, and she thought, herself, it was a cruel injury to Clermont, though she knew not how to refuse it forgiveness, since it was merely to supplicate55 she would save her own life.
Bellamy, therefore, was the only one who spoke; and his unanswered observations contributed but little to enliven the walk.
When they came within sight of the party, the baronet was again seized with the extremest dismay. ‘Why now, what’s this?’ cried he; ‘here’s nothing but blunders. Pray, Sir, who gave you authority to take my niece from her own tutor? for so I may call him, though more properly speaking, he came amongst us to be mine; which, however, is no affair but of our own.’
‘Sir,’ answered Bellamy, advancing and bowing; ‘I hope I have had the happiness of rather doing service than mischief56; I saw the young lady upon the point of destruction, and I hastened her to a place of security, from whence I had ordered a post-chaise, to convey her safe to your house.’
‘Yes, my dear uncle,’ said Eugenia, recovering from her embarrassment57; ‘I have occasioned this gentleman infinite trouble; and though Mr. Mandlebert assures us there was no real danger, he thought there was, and therefore I must always hold myself to be greatly obliged to him.’
‘Well, if that’s the case, I must be obliged to him too; which, to tell you the truth, is not a thing I am remarkably58 fond of having happened. But where’s Dr. Orkborne? I hope he’s come to no harm, by his not shewing himself?’
‘At the moment of terror,’ said Eugenia, ‘I accepted the first offer of assistance, concluding we were all hurrying away at the same time; but I saw Dr. Orkborne no more afterwards.’
‘I can’t say that was over and above kind of him, nor careful neither,’ cried Sir Hugh, ‘considering some particular reasons; however, where is he now?’
Nobody could say; no one had seen or observed him.
‘Why then, ten to one, poor gentleman!’ exclaimed the baronet, ‘but he’s the very person himself who’s tossed, while we are all of us running away for nothing!’
A suspicion now occurred to Dr. Marchmont, which led him to return over the stile into the field where the confusion had begun; and there, on the exact spot where he had first taken out his tablets, calmly stood Dr. Orkborne; looking now upon his writing, now up to the sky, but seeing nothing any where, from intense absorption of thought upon the illustration he was framing.
Awakened from his reverie by the Doctor, his first recollection was of Eugenia; he had not doubted her remaining quietly by his side, and the moment he looked round and missed her, he felt considerable compunction. The good Doctor, however, assured him all were safe, and conducted him to the group.
‘So here you are,’ said the baronet, ‘and no more tossed than myself, for which I am sincerely thankful, though I can’t say I think you have taken much care of my niece, nobody knowing what might have become of her, if it had not been for that strange gentleman, that I never saw before.’
He then formally placed Eugenia under the care of Dr. Marchmont.
Dr. Orkborne, piqued59 by this transfer, sullenly60 followed, and now gave to her, pertinaciously61, his undivided attention. Drawn by a total revulsion of ideas from the chain of thinking that had led him to composition, he relinquished62 his annotations63 in resentment64 of this dismission, when he might have pursued them uninterruptedly without neglect of other avocations65.
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1
instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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rustling
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| n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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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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irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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deign
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| v. 屈尊, 惠允 ( 做某事) | |
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elation
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| n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意 | |
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potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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fervent
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| adj.热的，热烈的，热情的 | |
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fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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auxiliary
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| adj.辅助的，备用的 | |
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dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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shrieks
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| n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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apprehensions
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| 疑惧 | |
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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enchanting
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| a.讨人喜欢的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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trepidation
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| n.惊恐，惶恐 | |
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bellowing
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的现在分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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pettishly
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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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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rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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adoration
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| n.爱慕，崇拜 | |
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provocations
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| n.挑衅( provocation的名词复数 )；激怒；刺激；愤怒的原因 | |
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scampering
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| v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的现在分词 ) | |
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expressively
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| ad.表示(某事物)地；表达地 | |
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repentance
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| n.懊悔 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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pretensions
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| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
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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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beguiled
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| v.欺骗( beguile的过去式和过去分词 )；使陶醉；使高兴；消磨（时间等） | |
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deterred
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| v.阻止，制止( deter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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entreat
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| v.恳求，恳请 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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lameness
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| n. 跛, 瘸, 残废 | |
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solicitation
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| n.诱惑；揽货；恳切地要求；游说 | |
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surmises
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| v.臆测，推断( surmise的第三人称单数 )；揣测；猜想 | |
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supplicate
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| v.恳求；adv.祈求地，哀求地，恳求地 | |
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mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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piqued
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| v.伤害…的自尊心( pique的过去式和过去分词 )；激起（好奇心） | |
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sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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pertinaciously
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| adv.坚持地；固执地；坚决地；执拗地 | |
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relinquished
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| 交出，让给( relinquish的过去式和过去分词 )； 放弃 | |
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annotations
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| n.注释( annotation的名词复数 )；附注 | |
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resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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avocations
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| n.业余爱好，嗜好( avocation的名词复数 )；职业 | |
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