第349页
《简·爱(英文版)》章节:第349页,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
prone to gloom, needed not the deeper shade of the supernatural. I
kept these things then, and pondered them in my heart.
'You cannot now wonder,' continued my master, 'that when you rose
upon me so unexpectedly last night, I had difficulty in believing
you any other than a mere voice and vision, something that would
melt to silence and annihilation, as the midnight whisper and mountain
echo had melted before. Now, I thank God! I know it to be otherwise.
Yes, I thank God!'
He put me off his knee, rose, and reverently lifting his hat from
his brow, and bending his sightless eyes to the earth, he stood in
mute devotion. Only the last words of the worship were audible.
'I thank my Maker, that, in the midst of judgment, he has
remembered mercy. I humbly entreat my Redeemer to give me strength
to lead henceforth a purer life than I have done hitherto!'
Then he stretched his hand out to be led. I took that dear hand,
held it a moment to my lips, then let it pass round my shoulder: being
so much lower of stature than he, I served both for his prop and
guide. We entered the wood, and wended homeward.
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CHAPTER XXXVIII CONCLUSION
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READER, I married him. A quiet wedding we had: he and I, the parson
and clerk, were alone present. When we got back from church, I went
into the kitchen of the manor-house, where Mary was cooking the dinner
and John cleaning the knives, and I said-
'Mary, I have been married to Mr. Rochester this morning.' The
housekeeper and her husband were both of that decent phlegmatic
order of people, to whom one may at any time safely communicate a
remarkable piece of news without incurring the danger of having
one's ears pierced by some shrill ejaculation, and subsequently
stunned by a torrent of wordy wonderment. Mary did look up, and she
did stare at me: the ladle with which she was basting a pair of
chickens roasting at the fire, did for some three minutes hang
suspended in air; and for the same space of time John's knives also
had rest from the polishing process: but Mary, bending again over
the roast, said only-
'Have you, Miss? Well, for sure!'
A short time after she pursued- 'I seed you go out with the master,
but I didn't know you were gone to church to be wed;' and she basted
away. John, when I turned to him, was grinning from ear to ear.
'I telled Mary how it would be,' he said: 'I knew what Mr.
Edward' (John was an old servant, and had known his master when he was
the cadet of the house, therefore, he often gave him his Christian
name)- 'I knew what Mr. Edward would do; and I was certain he would
not wait long neither: and he's done right, for aught I know. I wish
you joy, Miss!' and he politely pulled his forelock.
'Thank you, John. Mr. Rochester told me to give you and Mary this.'