The Woodlanders Part 2 - Thomas Hardy (debian ebook reader txt) 📗
- Author: Thomas Hardy
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The Second Of Her Bien-Aime Had Silently Disappeared. They Had,
In All Probability, Heard The Words Of Her Father, And Departed
With Their Anxieties Relieved.
Presently Her Parents Came Up To Grace, And Busied themselves To
See That She Was Comfortable. Perceiving soon That She Would
Prefer To Be Left Alone They Went Away.
Part 2 Chapter 10 Pg 61
Grace Waited on. The Clock Raised its Voice Now And Then, But Her
Husband Did Not Return. At Her Father'S Usual Hour For Retiring
He Again Came In to See Her. "Do Not Stay Up," She Said, As Soon
As He Entered. "I Am Not At All Tired. I Will Sit Up For Him."
"I Think It Will Be Useless, Grace," Said Melbury, Slowly.
"Why?"
"I Have Had A Bitter Quarrel With Him; And On That Account I
Hardly Think He Will Return To-Night."
"A Quarrel? Was That After The Fall Seen By The Boy?"
Melbury Nodded an Affirmative, Without Taking his Eyes Off The
Candle.
"Yes; It Was As We Were Coming home Together," He Said.
Something had Been Swelling up In grace While Her Father Was
Speaking. "How Could You Want To Quarrel With Him?" She Cried,
Suddenly. "Why Could You Not Let Him Come Home Quietly If He Were
Inclined to? He Is My Husband; And Now You Have Married me To Him
Surely You Need not Provoke Him Unnecessarily. First You Induce
Me To Accept Him, And Then You Do Things That Divide Us More Than
We Should Naturally Be Divided!"
"How Can You Speak So Unjustly To Me, Grace?" Said Melbury, With
Indignant Sorrow. "I Divide You From Your Husband, Indeed! You
Little Think--"
He Was Inclined to Say More--To Tell Her The Whole Story Of The
Encounter, And That The Provocation He Had Received had Lain
Entirely In hearing her Despised. But It Would Have Greatly
Distressed her, And He Forbore. "You Had Better Lie Down. You
Are Tired," He Said, Soothingly. "Good-Night."
The Household Went To Bed, And A Silence Fell Upon The Dwelling,
Broken Only By The Occasional Skirr Of A Halter In melbury'S
Stables. Despite Her Father'S Advice Grace Still Waited up. But
Nobody Came.
It Was A Critical Time In grace'S Emotional Life That Night. She
Thought Of Her Husband A Good Deal, And For The Nonce Forgot
Winterborne.
"How These Unhappy Women Must Have Admired edgar!" She Said To
Herself. "How Attractive He Must Be To Everybody; And, Indeed, He
Is Attractive." The Possibility Is That, Piqued by Rivalry, These
Ideas Might Have Been Transformed into Their Corresponding
Emotions By A Show Of The Least Reciprocity In fitzpiers. There
Was, In truth, A Love-Bird Yearning to Fly From Her Heart; And It
Wanted a Lodging badly.
But No Husband Came. The Fact Was That Melbury Had Been Much
Mistaken About The Condition Of Fitzpiers. People Do Not Fall
Headlong On Stumps Of Underwood With Impunity. Had The Old Man
Been Able To Watch Fitzpiers Narrowly Enough, He Would Have
Part 2 Chapter 10 Pg 62Observed that On Rising and Walking into The Thicket He Dropped
Blood As He Went; That He Had Not Proceeded fifty Yards Before He
Showed signs Of Being dizzy, And, Raising his Hands To His Head,
Reeled and Fell Down.
Part 2 Chapter 11 Pg 63
Grace Was Not The Only One Who Watched and Meditated in hintock
That Night. Felice Charmond Was In no Mood To Retire To Rest At A
Customary Hour; And Over Her Drawing-Room Fire At The Manor House
She Sat As Motionless And In as Deep A Reverie As Grace In her
Little Apartment At The Homestead.
Having caught Ear Of Melbury'S Intelligence While She Stood On The
Landing at His House, And Been Eased of Much Of Her Mental
Distress, Her Sense Of Personal Decorum Returned upon Her With A
Rush. She Descended the Stairs And Left The Door Like A Ghost,
Keeping close To The Walls Of The Building till She Got Round To
The Gate Of The Quadrangle, Through Which She Noiselessly Passed
Almost Before Grace And Her Father Had Finished their Discourse.
Suke Damson Had Thought It Well To Imitate Her Superior In this
Respect, And, Descending the Back Stairs As Felice Descended the
Front, Went Out At The Side Door And Home To Her Cottage.
Once Outside Melbury'S Gates Mrs. Charmond Ran With All Her Speed
To The Manor House, Without Stopping or Turning her Head, And
Splitting her Thin Boots In her Haste. She Entered her Own
Dwelling, As She Had Emerged from It, By The Drawing-Room Window.
In Other Circumstances She Would Have Felt Some Timidity At
Undertaking such An Unpremeditated excursion Alone; But Her
Anxiety For Another Had Cast Out Her Fear For Herself.
Everything in her Drawing-Room Was Just As She Had Left It--The
Candles Still Burning, The Casement Closed, And The Shutters
Gently Pulled to, So As To Hide The State Of The Window From The
Cursory Glance Of A Servant Entering the Apartment. She Had Been
Gone About Three-Quarters Of An Hour By The Clock, And Nobody
Seemed to Have Discovered her Absence. Tired in body But Tense In
Mind, She Sat Down, Palpitating, Round-Eyed, Bewildered at What
She Had Done.
She Had Been Betrayed by Affrighted love Into A Visit Which, Now
That The Emotion Instigating it Had Calmed down Under Her Belief
That Fitzpiers Was In no Danger, Was The Saddest Surprise To Her.
This Was How She Had Set About Doing her Best To Escape Her
Passionate Bondage To Him! Somehow, In declaring to Grace And To
Herself The Unseemliness Of Her Infatuation, She Had Grown A
Convert To Its Irresistibility. If Heaven Would Only Give Her
Strength; But Heaven Never Did! One Thing was Indispensable; She
Part 2 Chapter 11 Pg 64Must Go Away From Hintock If She Meant To Withstand Further
Temptation. The Struggle Was Too Wearying, Too Hopeless, While
She Remained. It Was But A Continual Capitulation Of Conscience
To What She Dared not Name.
By Degrees, As She Sat, Felice'S Mind--Helped perhaps By The
Anticlimax Of Learning that Her Lover Was Unharmed after All Her
Fright About Him--Grew Wondrously Strong In wise Resolve. For The
Moment She Was In a Mood, In the Words Of Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu,
"To Run Mad With Discretion;" And Was So Persuaded that Discretion
Lay In departure That She Wished to Set About Going that Very
Minute. Jumping up From Her Seat, She Began To Gather Together
Some Small Personal Knick-Knacks Scattered about The Room, To Feel
That Preparations Were Really In train.
While Moving here And There She Fancied that She Heard A Slight
Noise Out-Of-Doors, And Stood Still. Surely It Was A Tapping at
The Window. A Thought Entered her Mind, And Burned her Cheek. He
Had Come To That Window Before; Yet Was It Possible That He Should
Dare To Do So Now! All The Servants Were In bed, And In the
Ordinary Course Of Affairs She Would Have Retired also. Then She
Remembered that On Stepping in by The Casement And Closing it, She
Had Not Fastened the Window-Shutter, So That A Streak Of Light
From The Interior Of The Room Might Have Revealed her Vigil To An
Observer On The Lawn. How All Things Conspired against Her
Keeping faith With Grace!
The Tapping recommenced, Light As From The Bill Of A Little Bird;
Her Illegitimate Hope Overcame Her Vow; She Went And Pulled back
The Shutter, Determining, However, To Shake Her Head At Him And
Keep The Casement Securely Closed.
What She Saw Outside Might Have Struck Terror Into A Heart Stouter
Than A Helpless Woman'S At Midnight. In the Centre Of The Lowest
Pane Of The Window, Close To The Glass, Was A Human Face, Which
She Barely Recognized as The Face Of Fitzpiers. It Was Surrounded
With The Darkness Of The Night Without, Corpse-Like In its Pallor,
And Covered with Blood. As Disclosed in the Square Area Of The
Pane It Met Her Frightened eyes Like A Replica Of The Sudarium Of
St. Veronica.
He Moved his Lips, And Looked at Her Imploringly. Her Rapid Mind
Pieced together In an Instant A Possible Concatenation Of Events
Which Might Have Led to This Tragical Issue. She Unlatched the
Casement With A Terrified hand, And Bending down To Where He Was
Crouching, Pressed her Face To His With Passionate Solicitude.
She Assisted him Into The Room Without A Word, To Do Which It Was
Almost Necessary To Lift Him Bodily. Quickly Closing the Window
And Fastening the Shutters, She Bent Over Him Breathlessly.
"Are You Hurt Much--Much?" She Cried, Faintly. "Oh, Oh, How Is
This!"
"Rather Much--But Don'T Be Frightened," He Answered in a Difficult
Whisper, And Turning himself To Obtain An Easier Position If
Possible. "A Little Water, Please."
She Ran Across Into The Dining-Room, And Brought A Bottle And
Part 2 Chapter 11 Pg 65Glass, From Which He Eagerly Drank. He Could Then Speak Much
Better, And With Her Help Got Upon The Nearest Couch.
"Are You Dying, Edgar?" She Said. "Do Speak To Me!"
"I Am Half
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