第263页
《简·爱(英文版)》章节:第263页,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
was equally impossible. Hannah, the servant, was my most frequent
visitor. Her coming disturbed me. I had a feeling that she wished me
away: that she did not understand me or my circumstances; that she was
prejudiced against me. Diana and Mary appeared in the chamber once
or twice a day. They would whisper sentences of this sort at my
bedside-
'It is very well we took her in.'
'Yes; she would certainly have been found dead at the door in the
morning had she been left out all night. I wonder what she has gone
through?'
'Strange hardships, I imagine- poor, emaciated, pallid wanderer?'
'She is not an uneducated person, I should think, by her manner
of speaking; her accent was quite pure; and the clothes she took
off, though splashed and wet, were little worn and fine.'
'She has a peculiar face; fleshless and haggard as it is, I
rather like it; and when in good health and animated, I can fancy
her physiognomy would be agreeable.'
Never once in their dialogues did I hear a syllable of regret at
the hospitality they had extended to me, or of suspicion of, or
aversion to, myself. I was comforted.
Mr. St. John came but once: he looked at me, and said my state of
lethargy was the result of reaction from excessive and protracted
fatigue. He pronounced it needless to send for a doctor: nature, he
was sure, would manage best, left to herself. He said every nerve
had been overstrained in some way, and the whole system must sleep
torpid a while. There was no disease. He imagined my recovery would be
rapid enough when once commenced. These opinions he delivered in a few
words, in a quiet, low voice; and added, after a pause, in the tone of
a man little accustomed to expansive comment, 'Rather an unusual
physiognomy; certainly, not indicative of vulgarity or degradation.'
'Far otherwise,' responded Diana. 'To speak truth, St. John, my
heart rather warms to the poor little soul. I wish we may be able to
benefit her permanently.'
'That is hardly likely,' was the reply. 'You will find she is
some young lady who has had a misunderstanding with her friends, and
has probably injudiciously left them. We may, perhaps, succeed in
restoring her to them, if she is not obstinate: but I trace lines of
force in her face which make me sceptical of her tractability.' He
stood considering me some minutes; then added, 'She looks sensible,
but not at all handsome.'
'She is so ill, St. John.'
'Ill or well, she would always be plain. The grace and harmony of
beauty are quite wanting in those features.'
On the third day I was better; on the fourth, I could speak,
move, rise in bed, and turn. Hannah had brought me some gruel and
dry toast, about, as I supposed, the dinner-hour. I had eaten with
relish: the food was good- void of the feverish flavour which had
hitherto poisoned what I had swallowed. When she left me, I felt
comparatively strong and revived: ere long satiety of repose and