登陆注册
15462100000063

第63章 II(4)

As it was she was tuned down to appearing efficient--and yet sympathetic. That is the rarest of all blends. And yet I swear that Leonora, in her restrained way, gave the impression of being intensely sympathetic. When she listened to you she appeared also to be listening to some sound that was going on in the distance.

But still, she listened to you and took in what you said, which, since the record of humanity is a record of sorrows, was, as a rule, something sad.

I think that she must have taken Nancy through many terrors of the night and many bad places of the day. And that would account for the girl's passionate love for the elder woman. For Nancy's love for Leonora was an admiration that is awakened in Catholics by their feeling for the Virgin Mary and for various of the saints. It is too little to say that the girl would have laid her life at Leonora's feet. Well, she laid there the offer of her virtue--and her reason.

Those were sufficient instalments of her life. It would today be much better for Nancy Rufford if she were dead.

Perhaps all these reflections are a nuisance; but they crowd on me.

I will try to tell the story.

You see--when she came back from Nauheim Leonora began to have her headaches--headaches lasting through whole days, during which she could speak no word and could bear to hear no sound.

And, day after day, Nancy would sit with her, silent and motionless for hours, steeping handkerchiefs in vinegar and water, and thinking her own thoughts. It must have been very bad for her--and her meals alone with Edward must have been bad for her too--and beastly bad for Edward. Edward, of course, wavered in his demeanour, What else could he do? At times he would sit silent and dejected over his untouched food. He would utter nothing but monosyllables when Nancy spoke to him. Then he was simply afraid of the girl falling in love with him. At other times he would take a little wine; pull himself together; attempt to chaff Nancy about a stake and binder hedge that her mare had checked at, or talk about the habits of the Chitralis. That was when he was thinking that it was rough on the poor girl that he should have become a dull companion. He realized that his talking to her in the park at Nauheim had done her no harm.

But all that was doing a great deal of harm to Nancy. It gradually opened her eyes to the fact that Edward was a man with his ups and downs and not an invariably gay uncle like a nice dog, a trustworthy horse or a girl friend. She would find him in attitudes of frightful dejection, sunk into his armchair in the study that was half a gun-room. She would notice through the open door that his face was the face of an old, dead man, when he had no one to talk to. Gradually it forced itself upon her attention that there were profound differences between the pair that she regarded a her uncle and her aunt. It was a conviction that came very slowly.

It began with Edward's giving an oldish horse to a young fellow called Selmes. Selmes' father had been ruined by fraudulent solicitor and the Selmes family had had to sell their hunters. It was a case that had excited a good deal of sympathy in that part of the county. And Edward, meeting the young man one day, unmounted, and seeing him to be very unhappy, had offered to give him an old Irish cob upon which he was riding. It was a silly sort of thing to do really. The horse was worth from thirty to forty pounds and Edward might have known that the gift would upset his wife. But Edward just had to comfort that unhappy young man whose father he had known all his life. And what made it all the worse was that young Selmes could not afford to keep the horse even. Edward recollected this, immediately after he had made the offer, and said quickly:

"Of course I mean that you should stable the horse at Branshaw until you have time to turn round or want to sell him and get a better."Nancy went straight home and told all this to Leonora who was lying down. She regarded it as a splendid instance of Edward's quick consideration for the feelings and the circumstances of the distressed. She thought it would cheer Leonora up--because it ought to cheer any woman up to know that she had such a splendid husband. That was the last girlish thought she ever had.

For Leonora, whose headache had left her collected but miserably weak, turned upon her bed and uttered words that were amazing to the girl:

"I wish to God," she said, "that he was your husband, and not mine.

We shall be ruined. We shall be ruined. Am I never to have a chance?" And suddenly Leonora burst into a passion of tears. She pushed herself up from the pillows with one elbow and sat there--crying, crying, crying, with her face hidden in her hands and the tears falling through her fingers.

The girl flushed, stammered and whimpered as if she had been personally insulted.

"But if Uncle Edward . . ." she began.

"That man," said Leonora, with an extraordinary bitterness, "would give the shirt off his back and off mine--and off yours to any . . ."She could not finish the sentence.

At that moment she had been feeling an extraordinary hatred and contempt for her husband. All the morning and all the afternoon she had been lying there thinking that Edward and the girl were together--in the field and hacking it home at dusk. She had been digging her sharp nails into her palms.

The house had been very silent in the drooping winter weather.

And then, after an eternity of torture, there had invaded it the sound of opening doors, of the girl's gay voice saying:

"Well, it was only under the mistletoe." . . . And there was Edward's gruff undertone. Then Nancy had come in, with feet that had hastened up the stairs and that tiptoed as they approached the open door of Leonora's room. Branshaw had a great big hall with oak floors and tiger skins. Round this hall there ran a gallery upon which Leonora's doorway gave. And even when she had the worst of her headaches she liked to have her door open--I suppose so that she might hear the approaching footsteps of ruin and disaster.

At any rate she hated to be in a room with a shut door.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 营销中的博弈论

    营销中的博弈论

    尊敬的书友,本书选载最精华部分供您阅读。留足悬念,同样精彩!博弈在营销中不仅是一种方法和技巧,而且更是一种思想,一种观念。在企业市场营销活动中引入博弈观念,这对企业市场营销活动具有重要的指导意义,它要求企业在经营中应努力寻找决策两极的中点,即平衡点,以更好地指导企业的营销活动。
  • 相思谋:妃常难娶

    相思谋:妃常难娶

    某日某王府张灯结彩,婚礼进行时,突然不知从哪冒出来一个小孩,对着新郎道:“爹爹,今天您的大婚之喜,娘亲让我来还一样东西。”说完提着手中的玉佩在新郎面前晃悠。此话一出,一府宾客哗然,然当大家看清这小孩与新郎如一个模子刻出来的面容时,顿时石化。此时某屋顶,一个绝色女子不耐烦的声音响起:“儿子,事情办完了我们走,别在那磨矶,耽误时间。”新郎一看屋顶上的女子,当下怒火攻心,扔下新娘就往女子所在的方向扑去,吼道:“女人,你给本王站住。”一场爱与被爱的追逐正式开始、、、、、、、
  • 致我们正值的青春年华(珍藏一生的经典散文)

    致我们正值的青春年华(珍藏一生的经典散文)

    本书包括缤纷的花墙,泥土的芬芳,真情流露,温馨家园,感悟真情,读懂父亲的真诚,真情如歌,父爱如山,活着就是幸福等。
  • 宠爱调戏:帝少的小萌妻

    宠爱调戏:帝少的小萌妻

    [新文已发布,恶魔校草缠上身:攻略坏丫头,求收藏,求票票,各种求]夜爵冥:“对于世界而言,你只是一个人,但是对于我而言,你却是整个世界。”夏沫沫:“如果我没你想象中那么爱你,但不代表我没全心全意地爱你。”一次意外,让他们相遇,一次意外,让他们离别,相伴十年,一朝离别。生日会上。某男众目睽睽之下,当面立下要求:“第一,你爱的人只能是我。”“第二,你的全部只能是我,包括这只小猴子。”“第三,必要时你要陪我君临天下的虐渣渣。”小猴子:“老爸,你搞错了!我才不是小猴子!!”
  • 黑竹惊魂夜

    黑竹惊魂夜

    这是世界上著名的死亡之谷,同时也是少有的处女之地,在这么一片神奇的地方,背后却又埋葬着多少不为人知的爱恨情仇,请跟随竹竿的脚步,一起来揭开它的神秘面纱,一切敬请期待。
  • 梦见渡鸦

    梦见渡鸦

    文案:春江水暖,樱花飘落,刚好,你就在我身旁。
  • 狂风暴雨问拂柳

    狂风暴雨问拂柳

    内敛不意味着陈旧,狂风暴雨下依旧昂首。爱情的错对没有解释,有的仅仅是你情我愿,而放手也未必是爱情,思维逻辑超群的他在理性与感性的范围界限下是否随心,只待自己的解答。江湖险恶,正义凌然,为情疯狂。
  • 花式快穿师:打脸攻略

    花式快穿师:打脸攻略

    你爱过一个人吗?那你又恨过一个人吗?凉玖:导演拿错剧本了吧导演:不知道啊你问下疯仙女仙女:啊呀哪错了哪错了你的那个是凉黎的换回来换回来又名:论打脸如何啪啪啪推荐《特殊者:脑洞师》凉黎篇
  • 宠物小精灵之追梦路程

    宠物小精灵之追梦路程

    新简介:这本算是作者对于神奇宝贝的个人理解吧,随想随写,随写随传,不存稿的类型。相对的可能会有BUG,剧情也许有快进,哪里不合适的话可以在评论里面指出来,合适的话我会抽空改。本书没有后宫,会有原创,因为是主要写原创主角的内容,原主角小赤、小智、Red的戏份大幅度删减,因为主角年龄过小,我也就不写有关女主这东西的内容了。关于更新现在两日一更勉强能够做到,不过作者玻璃心,不喜欢就别看,写同人的都是个人爱好,我没拿钱也没干缺德事,被骂被说导致心情不好,卡文写不出来就别来找我了。这次算是抱着再怎么样这第一本同人烂尾也要完结的心情写的,现在说的话也都争取做到了,只要不是被喷到崩溃应该还会跌跌撞撞写下去的,一般发生什么情况当天原本要更新的没了,明天就会传的,这种小假我就不再发请假条了,最近学校补考之类的很多,我也躺枪不少,这种情况会多点,之后会稳定的。
  • 宅男捅破天

    宅男捅破天

    这是一本参照多维空间理论和多重位面假设为根基而写的热血小说,没有什么复杂的科学理论,有的只是本人天马行空的玄幻联想。林少杰是宅男中的战斗机,宅男口中的大神,他来自天地灵气匮乏的初级位面空间,他手持小木棍,以力破法,捅破一层层位面阻碍,颠覆了一切,重建平行世界。终极规则?一棍破!时空主宰?一棍除!无敌法器?一棍碎!至高仙王?一棍灭!有谁不服,先挨过我一棍再说!