第133页
《简·爱(英文版)》章节:第133页,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
and Louisa Eshton had cried out simultaneously-
'What a love of a child!'
And then they had called her to a sofa, where she now sat,
ensconced between them, chattering alternately in French and broken
English; absorbing not only the young ladies' attention, but that of
Mrs. Eshton and Lady Lynn, and getting spoilt to her heart's content.
At last coffee is brought in, and the gentlemen are summoned. I sit
in the shade- if any shade there be in this brilliantly-lit apartment;
the window-curtain half hides me. Again the arch yawns; they come. The
collective appearance of the gentlemen, like that of the ladies, is
very imposing: they are all costumed in black; most of them are
tall, some young. Henry and Frederick Lynn are very dashing sparks
indeed; and Colonel Dent is a fine soldierly man. Mr. Eshton, the
magistrate of the district, is gentleman-like: his hair is quite
white, his eyebrows and whiskers still dark, which gives him something
of the appearance of a 'pere noble de theatre.' Lord Ingram, like
his sisters, is very tall; like them, also, he is handsome; but he
shares Mary's apathetic and listless look: he seems to have more
length of limb than vivacity of blood or vigour of brain.
And where is Mr. Rochester?
He comes in last: I am not looking at the arch, yet I see him
enter. I try to concentrate my attention on those netting-needles,
on the meshes of the purse I am forming- I wish to think only of the
work I have in my hands, to see only the silver beads and silk threads
that lie in my lap; whereas, I distinctly behold his figure, and I
inevitably recall the moment when I last saw it; just after I had
rendered him, what he deemed, an essential service, and he, holding my
hand, and looking down on my face, surveyed me with eyes that revealed
a heart full and eager to overflow; in whose emotions I had a part.
How near had I approached him at that moment! What had occurred since,
calculated to change his and my relative positions? Yet now, how
distant, how far estranged we were! So far estranged, that I did not
expect him to come and speak to me. I did not wonder, when, without
looking at me, he took a seat at the other side of the room, and began
conversing with some of the ladies.
No sooner did I see that his attention was riveted on them, and
that I might gaze without being observed, than my eyes were drawn
involuntarily to his face; I could not keep their lids under
control: they would rise, and the irids would fix on him. I looked,
and had an acute pleasure in looking,- a precious yet poignant
pleasure; pure gold, with a steely point of agony: a pleasure like
what the thirst-perishing man might feel who knows the well to which
he has crept is poisoned, yet stoops and drinks divine draughts
nevertheless.
Most true is it that 'beauty is in the eye of the gazer.' My
master's colourless, olive face, square, massive brow, broad and jetty