第117页
《简·爱(英文版)》章节:第117页,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
marking the countenance of a woman who had attempted murder, and whose
intended victim had followed her last night to her lair, and (as I
believed), charged her with the crime she wished to perpetrate. I
was amazed-confounded. She looked up, while I still gazed at her: no
start, no increase or failure of colour betrayed emotion,
consciousness of guilt, or fear of detection. She said 'Good
morning, Miss,' in her usual phlegmatic and brief manner; and taking
up another ring and more tape, went on with her sewing.
'I will put her to some test,' thought I: 'such absolute
impenetrability is past comprehension.'
'Good morning, Grace,' I said. 'Has anything happened here? I
thought I heard the servants all talking together a while ago.'
'Only master had been reading in his bed last night; he fell asleep
with his candle lit, and the curtains got on fire; but, fortunately,
he awoke before the bedclothes or the woodwork caught, and contrived
to quench the flames with the water in the ewer.'
'A strange affair!' I said, in a low voice: then, looking at her
fixedly- 'Did Mr. Rochester wake nobody? Did no one hear him move?'
She again raised her eyes to me, and this time there was
something of consciousness in their expression. She seemed to
examine me warily; then she answered-
'The servants sleep so far off, you know, Miss, they would not be
likely to hear. Mrs. Fairfax's room and yours are the nearest to
master's; but Mrs. Fairfax said she heard nothing: when people get
elderly, they often sleep heavy.' She paused, and then added, with a
sort of assumed indifference, but still in a marked and significant
tone- 'But you are young, Miss; and I should say a light sleeper:
perhaps you may have heard a noise?'
'I did,' said I, dropping my voice, so that Leah, who was still
polishing the panes, could not hear me, 'and at first I thought it was
Pilot: but Pilot cannot laugh; and I am certain I heard a laugh, and a
strange one.'
She took a new needleful of thread, waxed it carefully, threaded
her needle with a steady hand, and then observed, with perfect
composure-
'It is hardly likely master would laugh, I should think, Miss, when
he was in such danger: you must have been dreaming.'
'I was not dreaming,' I said, with some warmth, for her brazen
coolness provoked me. Again she looked at me; and with the same
scrutinising and conscious eye.
'Have you told master that you heard a laugh?' she inquired.
'I have not had the opportunity of speaking to him this morning.'
'You did not think of opening your door and looking out into the
gallery?' she further asked.
She appeared to be cross-questioning me, attempting to draw from me
information unawares. The idea struck me that if she discovered I knew
or suspected her guilt, she would be playing off some of her malignant
pranks on me; I thought it advisable to be on my guard.
'On the contrary,' said I, 'I bolted my door.'