第213页
《简·爱(英文版)》章节:第213页,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
visible that July day.
It was not without a certain wild pleasure I ran before the wind,
delivering my trouble of mind to the measureless air-torrent
thundering through space. Descending the laurel walk, I faced the
wreck of the chestnut-tree; it stood up black and riven: the trunk,
split down the centre, gaped ghastly. The cloven halves were not
broken from each other, for the firm base and strong roots kept them
unsundered below; though community of vitality was destroyed- the
sap could flow no more: their great boughs on each side were dead, and
next winter's tempests would be sure to fell one or both to earth:
as yet, however, they might be said to form one tree- a ruin, but an
entire ruin.
'You did right to hold fast to each other,' I said: as if the
monster-splinters were living things, and could hear me. 'I think,
scathed as you look, and charred and scorched, there must be a
little sense of life in you yet, rising out of that adhesion at the
faithful, honest roots: you will never have green leaves more- never
more see birds making nests and singing idyls in your boughs; the time
of pleasure and love is over with you: but you are not desolate:
each of you has a comrade to sympathise with him in his decay.' As I
looked up at them, the moon appeared momentarily in that part of the
sky which filled their fissure; her disk was blood-red and half
overcast; she seemed to throw on me one bewildered, dreary glance, and
buried herself again instantly in the deep drift of cloud. The wind
fell, for a second, round Thornfield; but far away over wood and
water, poured a wild, melancholy wail: it was sad to listen to, and
I ran off again.
Here and there I strayed through the orchard, gathered up the
apples with which the grass round the tree roots was thickly strewn;
then I employed myself in dividing the ripe from the unripe; I carried
them into the house and put them away in the storeroom. Then I
repaired to the library to ascertain whether the fire was lit, for,
though summer, I knew on such a gloomy evening Mr. Rochester would
like to see a cheerful hearth when he came in: yes, the fire had
been kindled some time, and burnt well. I placed his arm-chair by
the chimney-corner: I wheeled the table near it: I let down the
curtain, and had the candles brought in ready for lighting. More
restless than ever, when I had completed these arrangements I could
not sit still, nor even remain in the house: a little timepiece in the
room and the old clock in the hall simultaneously struck ten.
'How late it grows!' I said. 'I will run down to the gates: it is
moonlight at intervals; I can see a good way on the road. He may be
coming now, and to meet him will save some minutes of suspense.'
The wind roared high in the great trees which embowered the
gates; but the road as far as I could see, to the right hand and the
left, was all still and solitary: save for the shadows of clouds