The Woodlanders Part 2 - Thomas Hardy (debian ebook reader txt) 📗
- Author: Thomas Hardy
Book online «The Woodlanders Part 2 - Thomas Hardy (debian ebook reader txt) 📗». Author Thomas Hardy
Meeting you Like This And Finding how Guileless You Are." She
Thereupon Whispered a Few Words In the Girl'S Ear, And Burst Into
A Violent Fit Of Sobbing.
Grace Started roughly Away From The Shelter Of The Fur, And Sprang
To Her Feet.
"Oh, My God!" She Exclaimed, Thunderstruck At A Revelation
Transcending her Utmost Suspicion. "Can It Be--Can It Be!"
She Turned as If To Hasten Away. But Felice Charmond'S Sobs Came
To Her Ear: Deep Darkness Circled her About, The Funereal Trees
Rocked and Chanted their Diriges And Placebos Around Her, And She
Did Not Know Which Way To Go. After A Moment Of Energy She Felt
Mild Again, And Turned to The Motionless Woman At Her Feet.
"Are You Rested?" She Asked, In what Seemed something like Her Own
Voice Grown Ten Years Older.
Without An Answer Mrs. Charmond Slowly Rose.
"You Mean To Betray Me!" She Said From The Bitterest Depths Of Her
Soul. "Oh Fool, Fool I!"
Part 2 Chapter 8 Pg 46
"No," Said Grace, Shortly. "I Mean No Such Thing. But Let Us Be
Quick Now. We Have A Serious Undertaking before Us. Think Of
Nothing but Going straight On."
They Walked on In profound Silence, Pulling back Boughs Now
Growing wet, And Treading down Woodbine, But Still Keeping a
Pretty Straight Course. Grace Began To Be Thoroughly Worn Out,
And Her Companion Too, When, On A Sudden, They Broke Into The
Deserted highway At The Hill-Top On Which The Sherton Man Had
Waited for Mrs. Dollery'S Van. Grace Recognized the Spot As Soon
As She Looked around Her.
"How We Have Got Here I Cannot Tell," She Said, With Cold
Civility. "We Have Made A Complete Circuit Of Little Hintock.
The Hazel Copse Is Quite On The Other Side. Now We Have Only To
Follow The Road."
They Dragged themselves Onward, Turned into The Lane, Passed the
Track To Little Hintock, And So Reached the Park.
"Here I Turn Back," Said Grace, In the Same Passionless Voice.
"You Are Quite Near Home."
Mrs. Charmond Stood Inert, Seeming appalled by Her Late Admission.
"I Have Told You Something in a Moment Of Irresistible Desire To
Unburden My Soul Which All But A Fool Would Have Kept Silent As
The Grave," She Said. "I Cannot Help It Now. Is It To Be A
Secret--Or Do You Mean War?"
"A Secret, Certainly," Said Grace, Mournfully. "How Can You
Expect War From Such A Helpless, Wretched being as I!"
"And I'Ll Do My Best Not To See Him. I Am His Slave; But I'Ll
Try."
Grace Was Naturally Kind; But She Could Not Help Using a Small
Dagger Now.
"Pray Don'T Distress Yourself," She Said, With Exquisitely Fine
Scorn. "You May Keep Him--For Me." Had She Been Wounded instead
Of Mortified she Could Not Have Used the Words; But Fitzpiers'S
Hold Upon Her Heart Was Slight.
They Parted thus And There, And Grace Went Moodily Homeward.
Passing marty'S Cottage She Observed through The Window That The
Girl Was Writing instead Of Chopping as Usual, And Wondered what
Her Correspondence Could Be. Directly Afterwards She Met People
In Search Of Her, And Reached the House To Find All In serious
Alarm. She Soon Explained that She Had Lost Her Way, And Her
General Depression Was Attributed to Exhaustion On That Account.
Could She Have Known What Marty Was Writing she Would Have Been
Surprised.
The Rumor Which Agitated the Other Folk Of Hintock Had Reached the
Young Girl, And She Was Penning a Letter To Fitzpiers, To Tell Him
That Mrs. Charmond Wore Her Hair. It Was Poor Marty'S Only Card,
Part 2 Chapter 8 Pg 47And She Played it, Knowing nothing of Fashion, And Thinking her
Revelation A Fatal One For A Lover.
Part 2 Chapter 9 Pg 48
It Was At The Beginning of April, A Few Days After The Meeting
Between Grace And Mrs. Charmond In the Wood, That Fitzpiers, Just
Returned from London, Was Travelling from Sherton-Abbas To Hintock
In A Hired carriage. In his Eye There Was A Doubtful Light, And
The Lines Of His Refined face Showed a Vague Disquietude. He
Appeared now Like One Of Those Who Impress The Beholder As Having
Suffered wrong In being born.
His Position Was In truth Gloomy, And To His Appreciative Mind It
Seemed even Gloomier Than It Was. His Practice Had Been Slowly
Dwindling of Late, And Now Threatened to Die Out Altogether, The
Irrepressible Old Dr. Jones Capturing patients Up To Fitzpiers'S
Very Door. Fitzpiers Knew Only Too Well The Latest And Greatest
Cause Of His Unpopularity; And Yet, So Illogical Is Man, The
Second Branch Of His Sadness Grew Out Of A Remedial Measure
Proposed for The First--A Letter From Felice Charmond Imploring
Him Not To See Her Again. To Bring about Their Severance Still
More Effectually, She Added, She Had Decided during his Absence
Upon Almost Immediate Departure For The Continent.
The Time Was That Dull Interval In a Woodlander'S Life Which
Coincides With Great Activity In the Life Of The Woodland Itself--
A Period Following the Close Of The Winter Tree-Cutting, And
Preceding the Barking season, When The Saps Are Just Beginning to
Heave With The Force Of Hydraulic Lifts Inside All The Trunks Of
The Forest.
Winterborne'S Contract Was Completed, And The Plantations Were
Deserted. It Was Dusk; There Were No Leaves As Yet; The
Nightingales Would Not Begin To Sing for A Fortnight; And "The
Mother Of The Months" Was In her Most Attenuated phase--Starved
And Bent To A Mere Bowed skeleton, Which Glided along Behind The
Bare Twigs In fitzpiers'S Company
When He Reached home He Went Straight Up To His Wife'S Sitting-
Room. He Found It Deserted, And Without A Fire. He Had Mentioned
No Day For His Return; Nevertheless, He Wondered why She Was Not
There Waiting to Receive Him. On Descending to The Other Wing of
The House And Inquiring of Mrs. Melbury, He Learned with Much
Surprise That Grace Had Gone On A Visit To An Acquaintance At
Shottsford-Forum Three Days Earlier; That Tidings Had On This
Morning reached her Father Of Her Being very Unwell There, In
Consequence Of Which He Had Ridden Over To See Her.
Part 2 Chapter 9 Pg 49
Fitzpiers Went Up-Stairs Again, And The Little Drawing-Room, Now
Lighted by A Solitary Candle, Was Not Rendered more Cheerful By
The Entrance Of Grammer Oliver With An Apronful Of Wood, Which She
Threw On The Hearth While She Raked out The Grate And Rattled
About The Fire-Irons, With A View To Making things Comfortable.
Fitzpiers Considered that Grace Ought To Have Let Him Know Her
Plans More Accurately Before Leaving home In a Freak Like This.
He Went Desultorily To The Window, The Blind Of Which Had Not Been
Pulled down, And Looked out At The Thin, Fast-Sinking moon, And At
The Tall Stalk Of Smoke Rising from The Top Of Suke Damson'S
Chimney, Signifying that The Young Woman Had Just Lit Her Fire To
Prepare Supper.
He Became Conscious Of A Discussion In progress On The Opposite
Side Of The Court. Somebody Had Looked over The Wall To Talk To
The Sawyers, And Was Telling them In a Loud Voice News In which
The Name Of Mrs. Charmond Soon Arrested his Ears.
"Grammer, Don'T Make So Much Noise With That Grate," Said The
Surgeon; At Which Grammer Reared herself Upon Her Knees And Held
The Fuel Suspended in her Hand, While Fitzpiers Half Opened the
Casement.
"She Is Off To Foreign Lands Again At Last--Hev Made Up Her Mind
Quite Sudden-Like--And It Is Thoughted she'Ll Leave In a Day Or
Two. She'S Been All As If Her Mind Were Low For Some Days Past--
With A Sort Of Sorrow In her Face, As If She Reproached her Own
Soul. She'S The Wrong Sort Of Woman For Hintock--Hardly Knowing a
Beech From A Woak--That I Own. But I Don'T Care Who The Man Is,
She'S Been A Very Kind Friend To Me.
"Well, The Day After To-Morrow Is The Sabbath Day, And Without
Charity We Are But Tinkling simples; But This I Do Say, That Her
Going will Be A Blessed thing for A Certain Married couple Who
Remain."
The Fire Was Lighted, And Fitzpiers Sat Down In front Of It,
Restless As The Last Leaf Upon A Tree. "A Sort Of Sorrow In her
Face, As If She Reproached her Own Soul." Poor Felice. How
Felice'S Frame Must Be Pulsing under The Conditions Of Which He
Had Just Heard The Caricature; How Her Fair Temples Must Ache;
What A Mood Of Wretchedness She Must Be In! But For The Mixing up
Of His Name With Hers, And Her Determination To Sunder Their Too
Close Acquaintance On That Account, She Would Probably Have Sent
For Him Professionally. She Was Now Sitting alone, Suffering,
Perhaps Wishing that She Had Not Forbidden Him To Come Again.
Unable To Remain In this Lonely Room Any Longer, Or To Wait For
The Meal Which Was In course Of Preparation, He Made Himself Ready
For Riding, Descended to The Yard, Stood By The Stable-Door While
Darling was Being saddled, And Rode Off Down The Lane. He Would
Have Preferred walking, But Was Weary With His Day'S Travel.
As He Approached the Door Of Marty South'S Cottage, Which It Was
Necessary To Pass On His Way, She Came From The Porch As If She
Had Been Awaiting him, And Met Him In the Middle Of The Road,
Holding up A Letter. Fitzpiers Took It Without Stopping, And
Asked over His Shoulder From Whom It Came.
Comments (0)