The Woodlanders Part 2, Thomas Hardy [e textbook reader txt] 📗
- Author: Thomas Hardy
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It....It Is Chiefly Loss Of Blood."
"But I Thought Your Fall Did Not Hurt You," Said She. "Who Did
This?"
"Felice--My Father-In-Law!...I Have Crawled to You More Than A
Mile On My Hands And Knees--God, I Thought I Should Never Have Got
Here!...I Have Come To You--Be-Cause You Are The Only Friend--I
Have In the World Now....I Can Never Go Back To Hintock--Never--To
The Roof Of The Melburys! Not Poppy Nor Mandragora Will Ever
Medicine This Bitter Feud!...If I Were Only Well Again--"
"Let Me Bind Your Head, Now That You Have Rested."
"Yes--But Wait A Moment--It Has Stopped bleeding, Fortunately, Or
I Should Be A Dead Man Before Now. While In the Wood I Managed to
Make A Tourniquet Of Some Half-Pence And My Handkerchief, As Well
As I Could In the Dark....But Listen, Dear Felice! Can You Hide Me
Till I Am Well? Whatever Comes, I Can Be Seen In hintock No More.
My Practice Is Nearly Gone, You Know--And After This I Would Not
Care To Recover It If I Could."
By This Time Felice'S Tears Began To Blind Her. Where Were Now
Her Discreet Plans For Sundering their Lives Forever? To
Administer To Him In his Pain, And Trouble, And Poverty, Was Her
Single Thought. The First Step Was To Hide Him, And She Asked
Herself Where. A Place Occurred to Her Mind.
She Got Him Some Wine From The Dining-Room, Which Strengthened him
Much. Then She Managed to Remove His Boots, And, As He Could Now
Keep Himself Upright By Leaning upon Her On One Side And A
Walking-Stick On The Other, They Went Thus In slow March Out Of
The Room And Up The Stairs. At The Top She Took Him Along A
Gallery, Pausing whenever He Required rest, And Thence Up A
Smaller Staircase To The Least Used part Of The House, Where She
Unlocked a Door. Within Was A Lumber-Room, Containing abandoned
Furniture Of All Descriptions, Built Up In piles Which Obscured
The Light Of The Windows, And Formed between Them Nooks And Lairs
In Which A Person Would Not Be Discerned even Should An Eye Gaze
In At The Door. The Articles Were Mainly Those That Had Belonged
To The Previous Owner Of The House, And Had Been Bought In by The
Late Mr. Charmond At The Auction; But Changing fashion, And The
Tastes Of A Young Wife, Had Caused them To Be Relegated to This
Dungeon.
Here Fitzpiers Sat On The Floor Against The Wall Till She Had
Hauled out Materials For A Bed, Which She Spread On The Floor In
One Of The Aforesaid Nooks. She Obtained water And A Basin, And
Washed the Dried blood From His Face And Hands; And When He Was
Comfortably Reclining, Fetched food From The Larder. While He Ate
Her Eyes Lingered anxiously On His Face, Following its Every
Movement With Such Loving-Kindness As Only A Fond Woman Can Show.
Part 2 Chapter 11 Pg 66
He Was Now In better Condition, And Discussed his Position With
Her.
"What I Fancy I Said To Melbury Must Have Been Enough To Enrage
Any Man, If Uttered in cold Blood, And With Knowledge Of His
Presence. But I Did Not Know Him, And I Was Stupefied by What He
Had Given Me, So That I Hardly Was Aware Of What I Said. Well--
The Veil Of That Temple Is Rent In twain!...As I Am Not Going to
Be Seen Again In hintock, My First Efforts Must Be Directed to
Allay Any Alarm That May Be Felt At My Absence, Before I Am Able
To Get Clear Away. Nobody Must Suspect That I Have Been Hurt, Or
There Will Be A Country Talk About Me. Felice, I Must At Once
Concoct A Letter To Check All Search For Me. I Think If You Can
Bring me A Pen And Paper I May Be Able To Do It Now. I Could Rest
Better If It Were Done. Poor Thing! How I Tire Her With Running
Up And Down!"
She Fetched writing materials, And Held Up The Blotting-Book As A
Support To His Hand, While He Penned a Brief Note To His Nominal
Wife.
"The Animosity Shown Towards Me By Your Father," He Wrote, In this
Coldest Of Marital Epistles, "Is Such That I Cannot Return Again
To A Roof Which Is His, Even Though It Shelters You. A Parting is
Unavoidable, As You Are Sure To Be On His Side In this Division.
I Am Starting on A Journey Which Will Take Me A Long Way From
Hintock, And You Must Not Expect To See Me There Again For Some
Time."
He Then Gave Her A Few Directions Bearing upon His Professional
Engagements And Other Practical Matters, Concluding without A Hint
Of His Destination, Or A Notion Of When She Would See Him Again.
He Offered to Read The Note To Felice Before He Closed it Up, But
She Would Not Hear Or See It; That Side Of His Obligations
Distressed her Beyond Endurance. She Turned away From Fitzpiers,
And Sobbed bitterly.
"If You Can Get This Posted at A Place Some Miles Away," He
Whispered, Exhausted by The Effort Of Writing--"At Shottsford Or
Port-Bredy, Or Still Better, Budmouth--It Will Divert All
Suspicion From This House As The Place Of My Refuge."
"I Will Drive To One Or Other Of The Places Myself--Anything to
Keep It Unknown," She Murmured, Her Voice Weighted with Vague
Foreboding, Now That The Excitement Of Helping him Had Passed
Away.
Fitzpiers Told Her That There Was Yet One Thing more To He Done.
"In Creeping over The Fence On To The Lawn," He Said, "I Made The
Rail Bloody, And It Shows Rather Much On The White Paint--I Could
See It In the Dark. At All Hazards It Should Be Washed off.
Could You Do That Also, Felice?"
What Will Not Women Do On Such Devoted occasions? Weary As She Was
She Went All The Way Down The Rambling staircases To The Ground-
Floor, Then To Search For A Lantern, Which She Lighted and Hid
Under Her Cloak; Then For A Wet Sponge, And Next Went Forth Into
Part 2 Chapter 11 Pg 67The Night. The White Railing stared out In the Darkness At Her
Approach, And A Ray From The Enshrouded lantern Fell Upon The
Blood--Just Where He Had Told Her It Would Be Found. She
Shuddered. It Was Almost Too Much To Bear In one Day--But With A
Shaking hand She Sponged the Rail Clean, And Returned to The
House.
The Time Occupied by These Several Proceedings Was Not Much Less
Than Two Hours. When All Was Done, And She Had Smoothed his
Extemporized bed, And Placed everything within His Reach That She
Could Think Of, She Took Her Leave Of Him, And Locked him In.
Part 2 Chapter 12 Pg 68
When Her Husband'S Letter Reached grace'S Hands, Bearing upon It
The Postmark Of A Distant Town, It Never Once Crossed her Mind
That Fitzpiers Was Within A Mile Of Her Still. She Felt Relieved
That He Did Not Write More Bitterly Of The Quarrel With Her
Father, Whatever Its Nature Might Have Been; But The General
Frigidity Of His Communication Quenched in her The Incipient Spark
That Events Had Kindled so Shortly Before.
From This Centre Of Information It Was Made Known In hintock That
The Doctor Had Gone Away, And As None But The Melbury Household
Was Aware That He Did Not Return On The Night Of His Accident, No
Excitement Manifested itself In the Village.
Thus The Early Days Of May Passed by. None But The Nocturnal
Birds And Animals Observed that Late One Evening, Towards The
Middle Of The Month, A Closely Wrapped figure, With A Crutch Under
One Arm And A Stick In his Hand, Crept Out From Hintock House
Across The Lawn To The Shelter Of The Trees, Taking thence A Slow
And Laborious Walk To The Nearest Point Of The Turnpike-Road. The
Mysterious Personage Was So Disguised that His Own Wife Would
Hardly Have Known Him. Felice Charmond Was A Practised hand At
Make-Ups, As Well She Might Be; And She Had Done Her Utmost In
Padding and Painting fitzpiers With The Old Materials Of Her Art
In The Recesses Of The Lumber-Room.
In The Highway He Was Met By A Covered carriage, Which Conveyed
Him To Sherton-Abbas, Whence He Proceeded to The Nearest Port On
The South Coast, And Immediately Crossed the Channel.
But It Was Known To Everybody That Three Days After This Time Mrs.
Charmond Executed her Long-Deferred plan Of Setting out For A Long
Term Of Travel And Residence On The Continent. She Went Off One
Morning as Unostentatiously As Could Be, And Took No Maid With
Her, Having, She Said, Engaged one To Meet Her At A Point Farther
On In her Route. After That, Hintock House, So Frequently
Part 2 Chapter 12 Pg 69Deserted, Was Again To Be Let. Spring had Not Merged in summer
When A Clinching rumor, Founded on The Best Of Evidence, Reached
The Parish And Neighborhood. Mrs. Charmond And Fitzpiers Had Been
Seen Together In baden, In relations Which Set At Rest The
Question That Had Agitated the Little Community Ever Since The
Winter.
Melbury Had Entered the Valley Of Humiliation Even Farther Than
Grace. His Spirit Seemed broken.
But Once A Week He Mechanically Went To Market As Usual, And Here,
As He Was Passing by The Conduit One Day, His Mental Condition
Expressed largely By His Gait, He Heard His Name Spoken By A Voice
Formerly Familiar. He Turned and Saw A Certain Fred beaucock--
Once A Promising lawyer'S Clerk And Local Dandy, Who Had Been
Called the Cleverest Fellow In sherton, Without Whose Brains The
Firm Of Solicitors Employing him Would Be Nowhere. But Later On
Beaucock Had Fallen Into The Mire. He
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