第140页
《简·爱(英文版)》章节:第140页,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
which I rather feared he would have done; he allowed me to return
quietly to my usual seat.
He and his aids now withdrew behind the curtain: the other party,
which was headed by Colonel Dent, sat down on the crescent of
chairs. One of the gentlemen, Mr. Eshton, observing me, seemed to
propose that I should be asked to join them; but Lady Ingram instantly
negatived the notion.
'No,' I heard her say: 'she looks too stupid for any game of the
sort.'
Ere long a bell tinkled, and the curtain drew up. Within the
arch, the bulky figure of Sir George Lynn, whom Mr. Rochester had
likewise chosen, was seen enveloped in a white sheet: before him, on a
table, lay open a large book; and at his side stood Amy Eshton, draped
in Mr. Rochester's cloak, and holding a book in her hand. Somebody,
unseen, rang the bell merrily; then Adele (who had insisted on being
one of her guardian's party), bounded forward, scattering round her
the contents of a basket of flowers she carried on her arm. Then
appeared the magnificent figure of Miss Ingram, clad in white, a
long veil on her head, and a wreath of roses round her brow; by her
side walked Mr. Rochester, and together they drew near the table. They
knelt; while Mrs. Dent and Louisa Eshton, dressed also in white,
took up their stations behind them. A ceremony followed, in dumb show,
in which it was easy to recognise the pantomime of a marriage. At
its termination, Colonel Dent, and his party consulted in whispers for
two minutes, then the Colonel called out-
'Bride!' Mr. Rochester bowed, and the curtain fell.
A considerable interval elapsed before it again rose. Its second
rising displayed a more elaborately prepared scene than the last.
The drawing-room, as I have before observed, was raised two steps
above the dining-room, and on the top of the upper step, placed a yard
or two back within the room, appeared a large marble basin, which I
recognised as an ornament of the conservatory- where it usually stood,
surrounded by exotics, and tenanted by gold fish- and whence it must
have been transported with some trouble, on account of its size and
weight.
Seated on the carpet, by the side of this basin, was seen Mr.
Rochester, costumed in shawls, with a turban on his head. His dark
eyes and swarthy skin and Paynim features suited the costume
exactly: he looked the very model of an Eastern emir, an agent or a
victim of the bowstring. Presently advanced into view Miss Ingram.
She, too, was attired in oriental fashion: a crimson scarf tied
sash-like round the waist; an embroidered handkerchief knotted about
her temples; her beautifully moulded arms bare, one of them upraised
in the act of supporting a pitcher, poised gracefully on her head.
Both her cast of form and feature, her complexion and her general air,
suggested the idea of some Israelitish princess of the patriarchal
days; and such was doubtless the character she intended to represent.