登陆注册
15453300000094

第94章 XXXVIII.(4)

Upon the whole she listened with few interruptions to the story which she exacted. It was mainly what we know. After her husband's death Clementina had gone back to his family for a time, and each year since she had spent part of the winter with them; but it was very lonesome for her, and she began to be home-sick for Middlemount. They saw it and considered it. "They ah' the best people, Miss Milray!" she said, and her voice, which was firm when she spoke of her husband, broke in the words of minor feeling. Besides being a little homesick, she ended, she was not willing to live on there, doing nothing for herself, and so she had come back.

"And you are here, doing just what you planned when you talked your life over with me in Venice!"

"Yes, but life isn't eva just what we plan it to be, Miss Milray."

"Ah, don't I know it!"

Clementina surprised Miss Milray by adding, "In a great many things--I don't know but in most--it's better. I don't complain of mine"--"You poor child! You never complained of anything--not even of Mrs.

Lander!"

"But it's different from what I expected; and it's--strange."

"Yes; life is very strange."

"I don't mean-losing him. That had to be. I can see, now, that it had to be almost from the beginning. It seems to me that I knew it had to be from the fust minute I saw him in New Yo'k; but he didn't, and I am glad of that. Except when he was getting wohse, he always believed he should get well; and he was getting well, when he"--Miss Milray did not violate the pause she made with any question, though it was apparent that Clementina had something on her mind that she wished to say, and could hardly say of herself.

She began again, "I was glad through everything that I could live with him so long. If there is nothing moa, here or anywhe'a, that was something. But it is strange. Sometimes it doesn't seem as if it had happened."

"I think I can understand, Clementina."

"I feel sometimes as if I hadn't happened myself." She stopped, with a patient little sigh, and passed her hand across the child's forehead, in a mother's fashion, and smoothed her hair from it, bending over to look down into her face. "We think she has her fatha's eyes," she said.

"Yes, she has," Miss Milray assented, noting the upward slant of the child's eyes, which gave his quaintness to her beauty. "He had fascinating eyes."

After a moment Clementina asked, "Do you believe that the looks are all that ah' left?"

Miss Milray reflected. "I know what you mean. I should say character was left, and personality--somewhere."

"I used to feel as if it we'e left here, at fust--as if he must come back. But that had to go."

"Yes."

"Everything seems to go. After a while even the loss of him seemed to go."

"Yes, losses go with the rest."

"That's what I mean by its seeming as if it never any of it happened.

Some things before it are a great deal more real."

"Little things?"

"Not exactly. But things when I was very young." Miss Milray did not know quite what she intended, but she knew that Clementina was feeling her way to something she wanted to say, and she let her alone. "When it was all over, and I knew that as long as I lived he would be somewhere else, I tried to be paht of the wo'ld I was left in. Do you think that was right?"

"It was wise; and, yes, it was best," said Miss Milray, and for relief from the tension which was beginning to tell upon her own nerves, she asked, "I suppose you know about my poor brother? I'd better tell you to keep you from asking for Mrs. Milray, though I don't know that it's so very painful with him. There isn't any Mrs. Milray now," she added, and she explained why.

Neither of them cared for Mrs. Milray, and they did not pretend to be concerned about her, but Clementina said, vaguely, as if in recognition of Mrs. Milray's latest experiment, "Do you believe in second marriages?"

Miss Milray laughed, "Well, not that kind exactly."

"No," Clementina assented, and she colored a little.

Miss Milray was moved to add, "But if you mean another kind, I don't see why not. My own mother was married twice."

"Was she?" Clementina looked relieved and encouraged, but she did not say any more at once. Then she asked, "Do you know what ever became of Mr. Belsky?"

"Yes. He's taken his title again, and gone back to live in Russia; he's made peace with the Czar; I believe."

"That's nice," said Clementina; and Miss Milray made bold to ask:

"And what has become of Mr. Gregory?"

Clementina answered, as Miss Milray thought, tentatively and obliquely:

"You know his wife died."

"No, I never knew that she lived."

"Yes. They went out to China, and she died the'a."

"And is he there yet? But of course! He could never have given up being a missionary."

"Well," said Clementina, " he isn't in China. His health gave out, and he had to come home. He's in-Middlemount Centa."

Miss Milray suppressed the "Oh!" that all but broke from her lips.

同类推荐
  • 太上老君养生诀

    太上老君养生诀

    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。
  • 二老堂杂志

    二老堂杂志

    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。
  • 吹万禅师语录

    吹万禅师语录

    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。
  • 阮籍集

    阮籍集

    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。
  • 刍荛集

    刍荛集

    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。
热门推荐
  • 总有天使会爱你

    总有天使会爱你

    有些时候,我们一直抱着希望在生活,当希望破灭的时候才发现,这个世界上除了虐,还是虐。
  • 校草专属:夜少,求放过!

    校草专属:夜少,求放过!

    什么!妈咪让我这个宝贝女儿去圣樱学院是为见那啥破夜未婚夫!想我堂堂四大家族之一晴氏企业的千金小姐怎么会乖乖去那学院!乖乖去见那啥姓夜的!呵∽呵∽”某女坐在被强行压迫在送往学院的路上为自己的豪言壮语而苦不堪言。“女人,偷走了我的心,还想逃婚。”某个妖孽邪魅说的。“再也不敢了,我发4。”看一代千金小姐如何玩转校园,征服妖孽校草!
  • 守护甜心之被遗忘的自己

    守护甜心之被遗忘的自己

    两种外貌,两种性格,一个是天堂,一个是地狱。平庸的天使,拥有友谊,纯洁美好,是蓝色;出众的恶魔,一无所有,高傲淡漠,是红色;蓝色代表天使,却高傲淡漠;红色代表地狱,却妖艳异常;而另一个,紫色,红蓝双瞳,这又代表着什么?性格的错乱,紫色的出现,妖族的介入,一个又一个谜团,悄然绽放,等待着她的答案………
  • 无限之欢乐

    无限之欢乐

    看了好多的无限都很短
  • 只为宠你

    只为宠你

    突然患上病的她,想在回家前出去好好玩玩。这一玩,最让她以后在也不想出来的冲动。是她倒霉,还是怎么了,这种事情也会放发在她身上。
  • 命罪

    命罪

    沧澜大陆,王朝无数,萧晨出身于小小晋国,带着复仇的意志走向大千世界!
  • 七界魔帝

    七界魔帝

    曾经的修炼天才叶风天生魔体获魔主传承,一路直上,但也因其传承而举世皆敌,惨遭追杀,肉身破碎,元神得脱,最终在魔风域夺舍了一具废体保下命来,修为已大不如前。曾经的修炼天才是泯然众人,还是逆袭而上,重临巅峰……
  • 落梦向北

    落梦向北

    凡事一火毕生妖孽,生而为人你我无差……可能是因为先天骨骼精奇,自身小宇宙的洪荒之力无法得到迸发,所以从小就跟别人不太一样,脑子里也总是些奇形怪状的想法。而且这些想法还时不时的进入我的梦中提示我,我不是一个正常人……说实话,这些梦确实很有情节。有的还是那种曲折的电视剧情节。于是,我就想把这些稀奇古怪的片段拼凑拼凑整合整合,再加些孜然辣椒调剂一下,说不能成为一本凑合的睡前惊悚故事集,我给这个故事集起了一个气质完全不相符且非常梦幻的名字《落梦向北》。
  • 废材六小姐降临月辰大陆

    废材六小姐降临月辰大陆

    本是杀手,一朝穿越,成为凤凰世家的废材小姐,欺我之人,等着被我欺回来吧。杀我之人,等着先下地狱去吧。从此丑小鸭变天鹅,等着无数人膜拜吧。炼丹?炼器?魔法?斗气?驯兽?都会。魔武双修?魔法全修?都有。扮猪吃老虎,肯定会。天赋奇佳,身世也是厉害,有着全天下最厉害的的靠山,有着全天下人都嫉妒的技能,但是本人却不以为然,众人泪奔。但是某女从小都没有见过自己的父母,后来有人告诉她自己的父亲被人捉走了,而自己的母亲却消失了。于是某女踏上了寻父道路,就在找到父亲时,父亲突然告诉某女,自己并不是他的亲生女儿,而叫了多年的哥哥竟是她同父异母的弟弟,某女欲哭无泪,又踏上寻母的道路。
  • 霸道少爷的双面公主

    霸道少爷的双面公主

    她傲娇的蓝沁家大小姐,无论走到哪里都是无法掩盖的光芒,可是背地里确是一个......因为误入了人家的房间,陷入了与玖兰衍的纠缠,她原本以为自己不会爱上任何人还有那个突然回归的弟弟,蓝沁家族陷入重重的阴谋之中当她被伤的满目苍夷伤痕累累的时候,那个人又再次出现他霸道地说“做我的女佣吧!”他抱起她冲破众人的口舌,现在她只是一个卑微的破产公主,甚至连乞丐都不如