第287页
《简·爱(英文版)》章节:第287页,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
thoughtless yet not offensive inquisitiveness, she was rummaging the
cupboard and the table-drawer of my little kitchen, she discovered
first two French books, a volume of Schiller, a German grammar and
dictionary, and then my drawing-materials and some sketches, including
a pencil-head of a pretty little cherub-like girl, one of my scholars,
and sundry views from nature, taken in the Vale of Morton and on the
surrounding moors. She was first transfixed with surprise, and then
electrified with delight.
'Had I done these pictures? Did I know French and German? What a
love- what a miracle I was! I drew better than her master in the first
'With pleasure,' I replied; and I felt a thrill of artist-delight
at the idea of copying from so perfect and radiant a model. She had
then on a dark-blue silk dress; her arms and her neck were bare; her
only ornament was her chestnut tresses, which waved over her shoulders
with all the wild grace of natural curls. I took a sheet of fine
card-board, and drew a careful outline. I promised myself the pleasure
of colouring it; and, as it was getting late then, I told her she must
come and sit another day.
She made such a report of me to her father, that Mr. Oliver himself
accompanied her next evening- a tall, massive-featured, middle-aged,
and grey-headed man, at whose side his lovely daughter looked like a
bright flower near a hoary turret. He appeared a taciturn, and perhaps
a proud personage; but he was very kind to me. The sketch of
Rosamond's portrait pleased him highly: he said I must make a finished
picture of it. He insisted, too, on my coming the next day to spend
the evening at Vale Hall.
I went. I found it a large, handsome residence, showing abundant
evidences of wealth in the proprietor. Rosamond was full of glee and
pleasure all the time I stayed. Her father was affable; and when he
entered into conversation with me after tea, he expressed in strong
terms his approbation of what I had done in Morton school, and said he
only feared, from what he saw and heard, I was too good for the place,
and would soon quit it for one more suitable.
'Indeed,' cried Rosamond, 'she is clever enough to be a governess
in a high family, papa.'
I thought I would far rather be where I am than in any high
family in the land. Mr. Oliver spoke of Mr. Rivers- of the Rivers
family- with great respect. He said it was a very old name in that
neighbourhood; that the ancestors of the house were wealthy; that
all Morton had once belonged to them; that even now he considered
the representative of that house might, if he liked, make an
alliance with the best. He accounted it a pity that so fine and
talented a young man should have formed the design of going out as a
missionary; it was quite throwing a valuable life away. It appeared,
then, that her father would throw no obstacle in the way of Rosamond's
union with St. John. Mr. Oliver evidently regarded the young