第212页
《简·爱(英文版)》章节:第212页,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
corded, ranged in a row along the wall of my little chamber;
to-morrow, at this time, they would be far on their road to London:
and so should I (D.V.),- or rather, not I, but one Jane Rochester, a
person whom as yet I knew not. The cards of address alone remained
to nail on: they lay, four little squares, in the drawer. Mr.
Rochester had himself written the direction, 'Mrs. Rochester,-
Hotel, London,' on each: I could not persuade myself to affix them, or
to have them affixed. Mrs. Rochester! She did not exist: she would not
be born till to-morrow, some time after eight o'clock A.M.; and I
would wait to be assured she had come into the world alive before I
assigned to her all that property. It was enough that in yonder
closet, opposite my dressing-table, garments said to be hers had
already displaced my black stuff Lowood frock and straw bonnet: for
not to me appertained that suit of wedding raiment; the pearl-coloured
robe, the vapoury veil pendent from the usurped portmanteau. I shut
the closet to conceal the strange, wraith-like apparel it contained;
which, at this evening hour- nine o'clock- gave out certainly a most
ghostly shimmer through the shadow of my apartment. 'I will leave
you by yourself, white dream,' I said. 'I am feverish: I hear the wind
blowing: I will go out of doors and feel it.'
It was not only the hurry of preparation that made me feverish; not
only the anticipation of the great change- the new life which was to
commence to-morrow: both these circumstances had their share,
doubtless, in producing that restless, excited mood which hurried me
forth at this late hour into the darkening grounds: but a third
cause influenced my mind more than they.
I had at heart a strange and anxious thought. Something had
happened which I could not comprehend; no one knew of or had seen
the event but myself: it had taken place the preceding night. Mr.
Rochester that night was absent from home; nor was he yet returned:
business had called him to a small estate of two or three farms he
possessed thirty miles off- business it was requisite he should settle
in person, previous to his meditated departure from England. I
waited now his return; eager to disburthen my mind, and to seek of him
the solution of the enigma that perplexed me. Stay till he comes,
reader: and, when I disclose my secret to him, you shall share the
confidence.
I sought the orchard, driven to its shelter by the wind, which
all day had blown strong and full from the south, without, however,
bringing a speck of rain. Instead of subsiding as night drew on, it
seemed to augment its rush and deepen its roar: the trees blew
steadfastly one way, never writhing round, and scarcely tossing back
their boughs once in an hour; so continuous was the strain bending
their branchy heads northward- the clouds drifted from pole to pole,
fast following, mass on mass: no glimpse of blue sky had been