The Woodlanders Part 2, Thomas Hardy [e textbook reader txt] 📗
- Author: Thomas Hardy
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She Had Sent For Him In the Natural Alarm Which Might Have
Followed her Mishap, Or With The Single View Of Making herself
Known To Him As She Had Done, For Which The Capsize Had Afforded
Excellent Opportunity. Outside The House He Mused over The Spot
Under The Light Of The Stars. It Seemed very Strange That He
Should Have Come There More Than Once When Its Inhabitant Was
Absent, And Observed the House With A Nameless Interest; That He
Should Have Assumed off-Hand Before He Knew Grace That It Was Here
She Lived; That, In short, At Sundry Times And Seasons The
Individuality Of Hintock House Should Have Forced itself Upon Him
As Appertaining to Some Existence With Which He Was Concerned.
Part 2 Chapter 1 Pg 5
The Intersection Of His Temporal Orbit With Mrs. Charmond'S For A
Day Or Two In the Past Had Created a Sentimental Interest In her
At The Time, But It Had Been So Evanescent That In the Ordinary
Onward Roll Of Affairs He Would Scarce Ever Have Recalled it
Again. To Find Her Here, However, In these Somewhat Romantic
Circumstances, Magnified that By-Gone And Transitory Tenderness To
Indescribable Proportions.
On Entering little Hintock He Found Himself Regarding it In a New
Way--From The Hintock House Point Of View Rather Than From His Own
And The Melburys'. The Household Had All Gone To Bed, And As He
Went Up-Stairs He Heard The Snore Of The Timber-Merchant From His
Quarter Of The Building, And Turned into The Passage Communicating
With His Own Rooms In a Strange Access Of Sadness. A Light Was
Burning for Him In the Chamber; But Grace, Though In bed, Was Not
Asleep. In a Moment Her Sympathetic Voice Came From Behind The
Curtains.
"Edgar, Is She Very Seriously Hurt?"
Fitzpiers Had So Entirely Lost Sight Of Mrs. Charmond As A Patient
That He Was Not On The Instant Ready With A Reply.
"Oh No," He Said. "There Are No Bones Broken, But She Is Shaken.
I Am Going again To-Morrow."
Another Inquiry Or Two, And Grace Said,
"Did She Ask For Me?"
"Well--I Think She Did--I Don'T Quite Remember; But I Am Under The
Impression That She Spoke Of You."
"Cannot You Recollect At All What She Said?"
"I Cannot, Just This Minute."
"At Any Rate She Did Not Talk Much About Me?" Said Grace With
Disappointment.
"Oh No."
"But You Did, Perhaps," She Added, Innocently Fishing for A
Compliment.
"Oh Yes--You May Depend Upon That!" Replied he, Warmly, Though
Scarcely Thinking of What He Was Saving, So Vividly Was There
Present To His Mind The Personality Of Mrs. Charmond.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Pg 6
The Doctor'S Professional Visit To Hintock House Was Promptly
Repeated the Next Day And The Next. He Always Found Mrs. Charmond
Reclining on A Sofa, And Behaving generally As Became A Patient
Who Was In no Great Hurry To Lose That Title. On Each Occasion He
Looked gravely At The Little Scratch On Her Arm, As If It Had Been
A Serious Wound.
He Had Also, To His Further Satisfaction, Found A Slight Scar On
Her Temple, And It Was Very Convenient To Put A Piece Of Black
Plaster On This Conspicuous Part Of Her Person In preference To
Gold-Beater'S Skin, So That It Might Catch The Eyes Of The
Servants, And Make His Presence Appear Decidedly Necessary, In
Case There Should Be Any Doubt Of The Fact.
"Oh--You Hurt Me!" She Exclaimed one Day.
He Was Peeling off The Bit Of Plaster On Her Arm, Under Which The
Scrape Had Turned the Color Of An Unripe Blackberry Previous To
Vanishing altogether. "Wait A Moment, Then--I'Ll Damp It," Said
Fitzpiers. He Put His Lips To The Place And Kept Them There Till
The Plaster Came Off Easily. "It Was At Your Request I Put It
On," Said He.
"I Know It," She Replied. "Is That Blue Vein Still In my Temple
That Used to Show There? The Scar Must Be Just Upon It. If The
Cut Had Been A Little Deeper It Would Have Spilt My Hot Blood
Indeed!" Fitzpiers Examined so Closely That His Breath Touched her
Tenderly, At Which Their Eyes Rose To An Encounter--Hers Showing
Themselves As Deep And Mysterious As Interstellar Space. She
Turned her Face Away Suddenly. "Ah! None Of That! None Of That--I
Cannot Coquet With You!" She Cried. "Don'T Suppose I Consent To
For One Moment. Our Poor, Brief, Youthful Hour Of Love-Making was
Too Long Ago To Bear Continuing now. It Is As Well That We Should
Understand Each Other On That Point Before We Go Further."
"Coquet! Nor I With You. As It Was When I Found The Historic
Gloves, So It Is Now. I Might Have Been And May Be Foolish; But I
Am No Trifler. I Naturally Cannot Forget That Little Space In
Which I Flitted across The Field Of Your Vision In those Days Of
The Past, And The Recollection Opens Up All Sorts Of Imaginings."
"Suppose My Mother Had Not Taken Me Away?" She Murmured, Her
Dreamy Eyes Resting on The Swaying tip Of A Distant Tree.
"I Should Have Seen You Again."
"And Then?"
"Then The Fire Would Have Burned higher And Higher. What Would
Have Immediately Followed i Know Not; But Sorrow And Sickness Of
Heart At Last."
"Why?"
"Well--That'S The End Of All Love, According to Nature'S Law. I
Part 2 Chapter 2 Pg 7Can Give No Other Reason."
"Oh, Don'T Speak Like That," She Exclaimed. "Since We Are Only
Picturing the Possibilities Of That Time, Don'T, For Pity'S Sake,
Spoil The Picture." Her Voice Sank Almost To A Whisper As She
Added, With An Incipient Pout Upon Her Full Lips, "Let Me Think At
Least That If You Had Really Loved me At All Seriously, You Would
Have Loved me For Ever And Ever!"
"You Are Right--Think It With All Your Heart," Said He. "It Is A
Pleasant Thought, And Costs Nothing."
She Weighed that Remark In silence A While. "Did You Ever Hear
Anything of Me From Then Till Now?" She Inquired.
"Not A Word."
"So Much The Better. I Had To Fight The Battle Of Life As Well As
You. I May Tell You About It Some Day. But Don'T Ever Ask Me To
Do It, And Particularly Do Not Press Me To Tell You Now."
Thus The Two Or Three Days That They Had Spent In tender
Acquaintance On The Romantic Slopes Above The Neckar Were
Stretched out In retrospect To The Length And Importance Of Years;
Made To Form A Canvas For Infinite Fancies, Idle Dreams, Luxurious
Melancholies, And Sweet, Alluring assertions Which Could Neither
Be Proved nor Disproved. Grace Was Never Mentioned between Them,
But A Rumor Of His Proposed domestic Changes Somehow Reached her
Ears.
"Doctor, You Are Going away," She Exclaimed, Confronting him With
Accusatory Reproach In her Large Dark Eyes No Less Than In her
Rich Cooing voice. "Oh Yes, You Are," She Went On, Springing to
Her Feet With An Air Which Might Almost Have Been Called
Passionate. "It Is No Use Denying it. You Have Bought A Practice
At Budmouth. I Don'T Blame You. Nobody Can Live At Hintock--
Least Of All A Professional Man Who Wants To Keep Abreast Of
Recent Discovery. And There Is Nobody Here To Induce Such A One
To Stay For Other Reasons. That'S Right, That'S Right--Go Away!"
"But No, I Have Not Actually Bought The Practice As Yet, Though I
Am Indeed in treaty For It. And, My Dear Friend, If I Continue To
Feel About The Business As I Feel At This Moment--Perhaps I May
Conclude Never To Go At All."
"But You Hate Hintock, And Everybody And Everything in it That You
Don'T Mean To Take Away With You?"
Fitzpiers Contradicted this Idea In his Most Vibratory Tones, And
She Lapsed into The Frivolous Archness Under Which She Hid
Passions Of No Mean Strength--Strange, Smouldering, Erratic
Passions, Kept Down Like A Stifled conflagration, But Bursting out
Now Here, Now There--The Only Certain Element In their Direction
Being its Unexpectedness. If One Word Could Have Expressed her It
Would Have Been Inconsequence. She Was A Woman Of Perversities,
Delighting in frequent Contrasts. She Liked mystery, In her Life,
In Her Love, In her History. To Be Fair To Her, There Was Nothing
In The Latter Which She Had Any Great Reason To Be Ashamed of, And
Part 2 Chapter 2 Pg 8Many Things Of Which She Might Have Been Proud; But It Had Never
Been Fathomed by The Honest Minds Of Hintock, And She Rarely
Volunteered her Experiences. As For Her Capricious Nature, The
People On Her Estates Grew Accustomed to It, And With That
Marvellous Subtlety Of Contrivance In steering round Odd Tempers,
That Is Found In sons Of The Soil And Dependants Generally, They
Managed to Get Along Under Her Government Rather Better Than They
Would Have Done Beneath A More Equable Rule.
Now, With Regard To The Doctor'S Notion Of Leaving hintock, He Had
Advanced furthur Towards Completing the Purchase Of The Budmouth
Surgeon'S Good-Will Than He Had Admitted to Mrs. Charmond. The
Whole Matter Hung Upon What He Might Do In the Ensuing twenty-Four
Hours. The Evening after Leaving her He Went Out Into The Lane,
And Walked and Pondered between The High Hedges, Now Greenish-
White With Wild Clematis--Here Called "Old-Man'S Beard," From Its
Aspect Later In the Year.
The Letter Of Acceptance Was To Be Written That Night, After Which
His Departure From Hintock Would Be Irrevocable. But Could He Go
Away, Remembering what Had Just Passed? The Trees, The Hills, The
Leaves, The Grass--Each Had Been Endowed and Quickened with A
Subtle Charm Since He Had Discovered the Person And History, And,
Above All, Mood Of Their Owner. There Was Every Temporal Reason
For Leaving; It Would Be Entering again Into A World Which He Had
Only Quitted in a Passion For Isolation, Induced by A
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