登陆注册
14820400000074

第74章

When he awoke, he found it so late, that it was all he could do to get down in time for breakfast. But so anxious was he not to be later than usual, that he was in the room before Mr. Arnold made his appearance. Euphra, however, was there before him. She greeted him in the usual way, quite circumspectly. But she looked troubled.

Her face was very pale, and her eyes were red, as if from sleeplessness or weeping. When her uncle entered, she addressed him with more gaiety than usual, and he did not perceive that anything was amiss with her. But the whole of that day she walked as in a reverie, avoiding Hugh two or three times that they chanced to meet without a third person in the neighbourhood. Once in the forenoon--when she was generally to be found in her room--he could not refrain from trying to see her. The change and the mystery were insupportable to him. But when he tapped at her door, no answer came; and he walked back to Harry, feeling, as if, by an unknown door in his own soul, he had been shut out of the half of his being.

Or rather--a wall seemed to have been built right before his eyes, which still was there wherever he went.

As to the gliding phantom of the previous night, the day denied it all, telling him it was but the coinage of his own over-wrought brain, weakened by prolonged tension of the intellect, and excited by the presence of Euphra at an hour claimed by phantoms when not yielded to sleep. This was the easiest and most natural way of disposing of the difficulty. The cloud around Euphra hid the ghost in its skirts.

Although fear in some measure returned with the returning shadows, he yet resolved to try to get Euphra to meet him again in the library that night. But she never gave him a chance of even dropping a hint to that purpose. She had not gone out with them in the morning; and when he followed her into the drawing-room, she was already at the piano. He thought he might convey his wish without interrupting the music; but as often as he approached her, she broke, or rather glided, out into song, as if she had been singing in an undertone all the while. He could not help seeing she did not intend to let him speak to her. But, all the time, whatever she sang was something she knew he liked; and as often as she spoke to him in the hearing of her uncle or cousin, it was in a manner peculiarly graceful and simple.

He could not understand her; and was more bewitched, more fascinated than ever, by seeing her through the folds of the incomprehensible, in which element she had wrapped herself from his nearer vision.

She had always seemed above him--now she seemed miles away as well;a region of Paradise, into which he was forbidden to enter.

Everything about her, to her handkerchief and her gloves, was haunted by a vague mystery of worshipfulness, and drew him towards it with wonder and trembling. When they parted for the night, she shook hands with him with a cool frankness, that put him nearly beside himself with despair; and when he found himself in his own room, it was some time before he could collect his thoughts. Having succeeded, however, he resolved, in spite of growing fears, to go to the library, and see whether it were not possible she might be there. He took up a candle, and went down the back stair. But when he opened the library door, a gust of wind blew his candle out; all was darkness within; a sudden horror seized him; and, afraid of yielding to the inclination to bound up the stair, lest he should go wild with the terror of pursuit, he crept slowly back, feeling his way to his own room with a determined deliberateness.--Could the library window have been left open? Else whence the gust of wind?

Next day, and the next, and the next, he fared no better: her behaviour continued the same; and she allowed him no opportunity of requesting an explanation.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 双面主公:妃倾妖颜

    双面主公:妃倾妖颜

    繁华落罢宫铃响,白缎纤缕惹人凉。他,是一介权倾天下,满腹奸谋的主公御颜。她,是一名默默无闻,出身低贱的无颜庶女。卑微逝去,强势涅槃,华丽转身,万缕白纱舞起,一夜之间,曾经弱小的草包庶女再次睁开魅人桃眸,冷静沉着的眸光闪过,取而代之一派秋水平波,漠然无色,抚着苍白憔悴的丑颜,轻轻地撕下颈间的人皮面具……玉指浅押朱砂红,颜色羞却两岸花。环抱美人于红鸾楚歌,江山千里满地奢,烽火连起战乱沉浮,素手天下,谁是王者。(ps:男强女强一生一世一双人)
  • 白棉花(新版)

    白棉花(新版)

    1944年,逃难躲在乡下的克俭突然看见天边有一架飞机歪歪扭扭栽到田里,天边还开了一朵好大的白棉花。保安旅长沈沉说那是盟军的飞行员,是来帮中国人打日本人的,让乡亲们帮着找飞行员。乡亲们好不容易捞起来降落伞,才发现绳子被割断了,飞行员不见了……
  • 七年之约:老婆变女强人

    七年之约:老婆变女强人

    他,是天上有地上无的神圣,而她,却是一个未婚准备毕业的学生她,因为在她的生日那天和她提了分手,立马去豪迪喝酒,而他巧遇她,结果和她度过了一夜缠绵,因这事他们最后结婚了。他们结婚半个月,是她的前男友的订婚宴,在那天晚上,她的丈夫楚幽卿疑似出轨,她刘羽希伤心过度,跟楚幽卿定了七年之约。刘羽希出国了,楚幽卿发疯一样寻找她,可是,刘羽希却在出国后拼命赚钱,当刘羽希出国不到一个月,,因疲惫过度忽然晕倒了,也正因为这样,医生检查,刘羽希怀孕了。刘羽希得到这个消息,并不阻碍她的脚步,继续拼搏,不过也没有了太拼搏。七年过后,刘羽希已成了大名鼎鼎的女强人,和楚幽卿非常般配。
  • 传说中武器的传说

    传说中武器的传说

    流落异界的他本来只是想当个小小的药剂师。但命运再次给他开了个玩笑,就像之前将他扔到这个世界一样…………他召唤出了传说中武器……“让火焰净化一切!”“英雄,愿你有一份不悔的爱情!”“祝你狩猎愉快”
  • 木枯成道

    木枯成道

    这是一个简单明了的书名,因为主角就叫木枯。这是一本典型的修仙小说,可以找到最经典的元素,此处有词为证:小厮仙门打杂,资质待遇最差,丹药夺宝截杀,兼收并下,书之一个不落。这又是一个值得一读的故事,流水账不是我的风格,此处有诗为证:宗呼万法武遗峰,木落枯之自树荣。梦魇千千何所道,奋余三世此劫终。这是一个简介结束的段落,编不下去了……不如点进正篇,让我一一道来。
  • 天妃娘妈传

    天妃娘妈传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 今生不相欠

    今生不相欠

    以为有明天,其实只是蹉跎了眼前。当我疲惫了,不想再幻想。当我失望了,不会再期待。当我不在意了,请别怪我的冷漠。当我远去了,请别怪我的无情。当我不在了,请别怪岁月。
  • 武装剑灵

    武装剑灵

    万物皆有灵,神兵亦有灵!在历史长河中,某些兵器长时间得灵气灌溉,衍生灵智,进一步成为器灵。剑灵为其中一种,若其主与剑灵契合度达到高值,便能武装剑灵,一跃成为战神……少年至雪域走出,集神兵,聚剑灵,征战天下!
  • tfboys之王源萌萌哒

    tfboys之王源萌萌哒

    当红组合tfboys遇到呆萌萝莉会发生什么化学反应呢?
  • 福晋嫁到

    福晋嫁到

    康熙皇子千千万,但这无数皇子当众当属十四阿哥胤祯最受皇城少女瞩目。康熙四十四年,天真浪漫的完颜笑然随父亲回京没想到完颜笑然竟和十四阿哥成了邻居。经过一番闹剧,笑然对十四阿哥一见钟情,无奈落花有意流水无情。完颜笑然充分发挥完颜家族百折不挠的精神,誓要成十四阿哥的福晋。