登陆注册
15476100000059

第59章 CHAPTER XV(4)

"At all seasons. You shall go with Miss Dale. But, my dear! my love! Seriously, where are we? One hears of lover's quarrels. Now I never quarrel. It is a characteristic of mine. And you speak of me to my cousin Vernon! Seriously, plighted faith signifies plighted faith, as much as an iron-cable is iron to hold by. Some little twist of the mind? To Vernon, of all men! Tush! she has been dreaming of a hero of perfection, and the comparison is unfavourable to her Willoughby. But, my Clara, when I say to you, that bride is bride, and you are mine, mine!"

"Willoughby, you mentioned them,--those separations of two married. You said, if they do not love . . . Oh! say, is it not better--instead of later?"

He took advantage of her modesty in speaking to exclaim. "Where are we now? Bride is bride, and wife is wife, and affianced is, in honour, wedded. You cannot be released. We are united. Recognize it; united. There is no possibility of releasing a wife!"

"Not if she ran ... ?"

This was too direct to be histrionically misunderstood. He had driven her to the extremity of more distinctly imagining the circumstance she had cited, and with that cleared view the desperate creature gloried in launching such a bolt at the man's real or assumed insensibility as must, by shivering it, waken him.

But in a moment she stood in burning rose, with dimmed eyesight.

She saw his horror, and, seeing, shared it; shared just then only by seeing it; which led her to rejoice with the deepest of sighs that some shame was left in her.

"Ran? ran? ran?" he said as rapidly as he blinked. "How? where? what idea ... ?"

Close was he upon an explosion that would have sullied his conception of the purity of the younger members of the sex hauntingly.

That she, a young lady, maiden, of strictest education, should, and without his teaching, know that wives ran!--know that by running they compelled their husbands to abandon pursuit, surrender possession!--and that she should suggest it of herself as a wife!--that she should speak of running!

His ideal, the common male Egoist ideal of a waxwork sex, would have been shocked to fragments had she spoken further to fill in the outlines of these awful interjections.

She was tempted: for during the last few minutes the fire of her situation had enlightened her understanding upon a subject far from her as the ice-fields of the North a short while before; and the prospect offered to her courage if she would only outstare shame and seem at home in the doings of wickedness, was his loathing and dreading so vile a young woman. She restrained herself; chiefly, after the first bridling of maidenly timidity, because she could not bear to lower the idea of her sex even in his esteem.

The door was open. She had thoughts of flying out to breathe in an interval of truce.

She reflected on her situation hurriedly askance:

"If one must go through this, to be disentangled from an engagement, what must it be to poor women seeking to be free of a marriage?"

Had she spoken it, Sir Willoughby might have learned that she was not so iniquitously wise of the things of this world as her mere sex's instinct, roused to the intemperateness of a creature struggling with fetters, had made her appear in her dash to seize a weapon, indicated moreover by him.

Clara took up the old broken vow of women to vow it afresh: "Never to any man will I give my hand."

She replied to Sir Willoughby, "I have said all. I cannot explain what I have said."

She had heard a step in the passage. Vernon entered.

Perceiving them, he stated his mission in apology: "Doctor Middleton left a book in this room. I see it; it's a Heinsius."

"Ha! by the way, a book; books would not be left here if they were not brought here, with my compliments to Doctor Middleton, who may do as he pleases, though, seriously, order is order," said Sir Willoughby. "Come away to the laboratory, Clara. It's a comment on human beings that wherever they have been there's a mess, and you admirers of them," he divided a sickly nod between Vernon and the stale breakfast-table, "must make what you can of it. Come, Clara."

Clara protested that she was engaged to walk with Miss Dale.

"Miss Dale is waiting in the hall," said Vernon.

"Miss Dale is waiting?" said Clara.

"Walk with Miss Dale; walk with Miss Dale," Sir Willoughby remarked, pressingly. "I will beg her to wait another two minutes.

You shall find her in the hall when you come down."

He rang the bell and went out.

"Take Miss Dale into your confidence; she is quite trustworthy,"

Vernon said to Clara.

"I have not advanced one step," she replied.

"Recollect that you are in a position of your own choosing; and if, after thinking over it, you mean to escape, you must make up your mind to pitched battles, and not be dejected if you are beaten in all of them; there is your only chance."

"Not my choosing; do not say choosing, Mr. Whitford. I did not choose. I was incapable of really choosing. I consented."

"It's the same in fact. But be sure of what you wish."

"Yes," she assented, taking it for her just punishment that she should be supposed not quite to know her wishes. "Your advice has helped me to-day."

"Did I advise?"

"Do you regret advising?"

"I should certainly regret a word that intruded between you and him."

"But you will not leave the Hall yet? You will not leave me without a friend? If papa and I were to leave to-morrow, I foresee endless correspondence. I have to stay at least some days, and wear through it, and then, if I have to speak to my poor father, you can imagine the effect on him."

Sir Willoughby came striding in, to correct the error of his going out.

"Miss Dale awaits you, my dear. You have bonnet, hat?--No? Have you forgotten your appointment to walk with her?"

"I am ready," said Clara, departing.

The two gentlemen behind her separated in the passage. They had not spoken.

She had read of the reproach upon women, that they divide the friendships of men. She reproached herself but she was in action, driven by necessity, between sea and rock. Dreadful to think of! she was one of the creatures who are written about.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 异灵争

    异灵争

    异灵世界,一个存在于二次元与三次元之间的奇特世界,被分为三块大陆:东方是由七个种族和三大势力组成的“罗联合王国”;与东方一条海峡之隔的是西方“铳君主国”,拥有强大的实力;南方,与两大大陆千里之隔,仅有两大大陆十分之一面积的是“南源古国”,科技水平远在东西大陆之上。
  • 心盈月影

    心盈月影

    那一段心与心的故事,每当心灵碰撞,他的世界,总想只有那样一个人。只是她,不是别人。
  • 迷之岛屿

    迷之岛屿

    紫薇隐退,贪狼已碎,天道破灭,人定胜天!自太祖破魔除道之后,天下以为人定。但天道无,大道存。而在这以人为尊的时代,残存的天道正统如何生存?黑暗势力又如何抓住这难得的无序时代开辟出自己的道统?神秘的东海岛屿蕴含了怎样的大道法则顾清峰出山入世后面对着这样的大道环境该怎样应对各种突如其来的危机!。。。
  • 碧眼金雕

    碧眼金雕

    美少年石砥中偶得武林中人梦寐以求的秘笈《将军记事》,为解开鹏城之秘密,他展开了一段扑朔迷离的奇幻冒险,并与天龙大帝之女东方萍经历了悲欢离合的生命之旅。
  • 傲剑龙途

    傲剑龙途

    一代神剑步入仙途,龙种为基,剑种为心,为志勇闯剑道巅峰,为爱斩遍天下
  • 彼岸花血泊:复仇千金归来

    彼岸花血泊:复仇千金归来

    【若想知道,请看正文】她们原本幸福美满的家园被他人毁灭,他们的出现扰乱了她们的复仇计划,她们会怎样选择呢?
  • 落花赋,空余恨

    落花赋,空余恨

    天地者,万物之逆旅;光阴者,百代之过客;寻道者,朝闻而夕死;问鼎者,上下而求索;修行者,九死而未悔。从不究前因,从不问缘起,从不悔初见。凡女沐清晚误入异世,归彼大荒。誓不悔,终成道。只是,高处不胜寒,问仙一句:为何断尘缘?
  • 弘一法师全集之佛学·杂记(01)

    弘一法师全集之佛学·杂记(01)

    弘一法师出家前名李叔同。皈依佛门之前,他已在文学、律学等等各方面都颇有造诣。人生的一个转折让悟性极高的李叔同出家归隐。从此佛门多了一位修为甚高的法师。弘一法师的智慧与超然让世人敬仰,他的定力与慈悲让世人敬重。
  • 合真

    合真

    诸天万界,七道长生之门,七条真我之路!一个贫穷小子,走上修行之路,跳出三界五行,挨过三灾杀劫,得享长生,与道合真!走清静无为之道,先天不灭之门;成执着放下之佛,生死超脱之门;举无量德行为圣,顺天圣心之门;聚众生香火封神,万民信仰之门;为一念灭世成魔,罪恶欲望之门;生无穷力量称武,一力十会之门;于万物取华是巫,时空不朽之门。
  • 金刚秘密善门陀罗尼经

    金刚秘密善门陀罗尼经

    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。