The Woodlanders Part 2, Thomas Hardy [e textbook reader txt] 📗
- Author: Thomas Hardy
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Achillean Moodiness After An Imagined slight. His Wife Herself
Saw The Awkwardness Of Their Position Here, And Cheerfully
Welcomed the Purposed change, Towards Which Every Step Had Been
Taken But The Last. But Could He Find It In his Heart--As He
Found It Clearly Enough In his Conscience--To Go Away?
He Drew A Troubled breath, And Went In-Doors. Here He Rapidly
Penned a Letter, Wherein He Withdrew Once For All From The Treaty
For The Budmouth Practice. As The Postman Had Already Left Little
Hintock For That Night, He Sent One Of Melbury'S Men To Intercept
A Mail-Cart On Another Turnpike-Road, And So Got The Letter Off.
The Man Returned, Met Fitzpiers In the Lane, And Told Him The
Thing was Done. Fitzpiers Went Back To His House Musing. Why Had
He Carried out This Impulse--Taken Such Wild Trouble To Effect A
Probable Injury To His Own And His Young Wife'S Prospects? His
Motive Was Fantastic, Glowing, Shapeless As The Fiery Scenery
About The Western Sky. Mrs. Charmond Could Overtly Be Nothing
More To Him Than A Patient Now, And To His Wife, At The Outside, A
Patron. In the Unattached bachelor Days Of His First Sojourning
Here How Highly Proper An Emotional Reason For Lingering on Would
Have Appeared to Troublesome Dubiousness. Matrimonial Ambition Is
Such An Honorable Thing.
"My Father Has Told Me That You Have Sent Off One Of The Men With
A Late Letter To Budmouth," Cried grace, Coming out Vivaciously To
Meet Him Under The Declining light Of The Sky, Wherein Hung,
Solitary, The Folding star. "I Said At Once That You Had Finally
Agreed to Pay The Premium They Ask, And That The Tedious Question
Had Been Settled. When Do We Go, Edgar?"
"I Have Altered my Mind," Said He. "They Want Too Much--Seven
Part 2 Chapter 2 Pg 9Hundred and Fifty Is Too Large A Sum--And In short, I Have
Declined to Go Further. We Must Wait For Another Opportunity. I
Fear I Am Not A Good Business-Man." He Spoke The Last Words With A
Momentary Faltering at The Great Foolishness Of His Act; For, As
He Looked in her Fair And Honorable Face, His Heart Reproached him
For What He Had Done.
Her Manner That Evening showed her Disappointment. Personally She
Liked the Home Of Her Childhood Much, And She Was Not Ambitious.
But Her Husband Had Seemed so Dissatisfied with The Circumstances
Hereabout Since Their Marriage That She Had Sincerely Hoped to Go
For His Sake.
It Was Two Or Three Days Before He Visited mrs. Charmond Again.
The Morning had Been Windy, And Little Showers Had Sowed
Themselves Like Grain Against The Walls And Window-Panes Of The
Hintock Cottages. He Went On Foot Across The Wilder Recesses Of
The Park, Where Slimy Streams Of Green Moisture, Exuding from
Decayed holes Caused by Old Amputations, Ran Down The Bark Of The
Oaks And Elms, The Rind Below Being coated with A Lichenous Wash
As Green As Emerald. They Were Stout-Trunked trees, That Never
Rocked their Stems In the Fiercest Gale, Responding to It Entirely
By Crooking their Limbs. Wrinkled like An Old Crone'S Face, And
Antlered with Dead Branches That Rose Above The Foliage Of Their
Summits, They Were Nevertheless Still Green--Though Yellow Had
Invaded the Leaves Of Other Trees.
She Was In a Little Boudoir Or Writing-Room On The First Floor,
And Fitzpiers Was Much Surprised to Find That The Window-Curtains
Were Closed and A Red-Shaded lamp And Candles Burning, Though Out-
Of-Doors It Was Broad Daylight. Moreover, A Large Fire Was
Burning in the Grate, Though It Was Not Cold.
"What Does It All Mean?" He Asked.
She Sat In an Easy-Chair, Her Face Being turned away. "Oh," She
Murmured, "It Is Because The World Is So Dreary Outside. Sorrow
And Bitterness In the Sky, And Floods Of Agonized tears Beating
Against The Panes. I Lay Awake Last Night, And I Could Hear The
Scrape Of Snails Creeping up The Window-Glass; It Was So Sad! My
Eyes Were So Heavy This Morning that I Could Have Wept My Life
Away. I Cannot Bear You To See My Face; I Keep It Away From You
Purposely. Oh! Why Were We Given Hungry Hearts And Wild Desires
If We Have To Live In a World Like This? Why Should Death Only
Lend What Life Is Compelled to Borrow--Rest? Answer That, Dr.
Fitzpiers."
"You Must Eat Of A Second Tree Of Knowledge Before You Can Do It,
Felice Charmond."
"Then, When My Emotions Have Exhausted themselves, I Become Full
Of Fears, Till I Think I Shall Die For Very Fear. The Terrible
Insistencies Of Society--How Severe They Are, And Cold And
Inexorable--Ghastly Towards Those Who Are Made Of Wax And Not Of
Stone. Oh, I Am Afraid Of Them; A Stab For This Error, And A Stab
For That--Correctives And Regulations Framed that Society May Tend
To Perfection--An End Which I Don'T Care For In the Least. Yet
For This, All I Do Care For Has To Be Stunted and Starved."
Part 2 Chapter 2 Pg 10He Drew Back The Window-Curtains, Whereupon The Red glow Of The
Lamp And The Two Candle-Flames Became Almost Invisible With The
Flood Of Late Autumn Sunlight That Poured in. "Shall I Come Round
To You?" He Asked, Her Back Being towards Him.
"No," She Replied.
"Why Not?"
"Because I Am Crying, And I Don'T Want To See You."
He Stood A Moment Irresolute, And Regretted that He Had Killed the
Rosy, Passionate Lamplight By Opening the Curtains And Letting in
Garish Day.
"Then I Am Going," He Said.
"Very Well," She Answered, Stretching one Hand Round To Him, And
Patting her Eyes With A Handkerchief Held In the Other.
"Shall I Write A Line To You At--"
"No, No." A Gentle Reasonableness Came Into Her Tone As She Added,
"It Must Not Be, You Know. It Won'T Do."
"Very Well. Good-By." The Next Moment He Was Gone.
In The Evening, With Listless Adroitness, She Encouraged the Maid
Who Dressed her For Dinner To Speak Of Dr. Fitzpiers'S Marriage.
"Mrs. Fitzpiers Was Once Supposed to Favor Mr. Winterborne," Said
The Young Woman.
"And Why Didn'T She Marry Him?" Said Mrs. Charmond.
"Because, You See, Ma'Am, He Lost His Houses."
"Lost His Houses? How Came He To Do That?"
"The Houses Were Held On Lives, And The Lives Dropped, And Your
Agent Wouldn'T Renew Them, Though It Is Said That Mr. Winterborne
Had A Very Good Claim. That'S As I'Ve Heard It, Ma'Am, And It Was
Through It That The Match Was Broke Off."
Being just Then Distracted by A Dozen Emotions, Mrs. Charmond Sunk
Into A Mood Of Dismal Self-Reproach. "In Refusing that Poor Man
His Reasonable Request," She Said To Herself, "I Foredoomed my
Rejuvenated girlhood'S Romance. Who Would Have Thought Such A
Business Matter Could Have Nettled my Own Heart Like This? Now For
A Winter Of Regrets And Agonies And Useless Wishes, Till I Forget
Him In the Spring. Oh! I Am Glad I Am Going away."
She Left Her Chamber And Went Down To Dine With A Sigh. On The
Stairs She Stood Opposite The Large Window For A Moment, And
Looked out Upon The Lawn. It Was Not Yet Quite Dark. Half-Way Up
The Steep Green Slope Confronting her Stood Old Timothy Tangs, Who
Was Shortening his Way Homeward By Clambering here Where There Was
No Road, And In opposition To Express Orders That No Path Was To
Part 2 Chapter 2 Pg 11Be Made There. Tangs Had Momentarily Stopped to Take A Pinch Of
Snuff; But Observing mrs. Charmond Gazing at Him, He Hastened to
Get Over The Top Out Of Hail. His Precipitancy Made Him Miss His
Footing, And He Rolled like A Barrel To The Bottom, His Snuffbox
Rolling in front Of Him.
Her Indefinite, Idle, Impossible Passion For Fitzpiers; Her
Constitutional Cloud Of Misery; The Sorrowful Drops That Still
Hung Upon Her Eyelashes, All Made Way For The Incursive Mood
Started by The Spectacle. She Burst Into An Immoderate Fit Of
Laughter, Her Very Gloom Of The Previous Hour Seeming to Render It
The More Uncontrollable. It Had Not Died out Of Her When She
Reached the Dining-Room; And Even Here, Before The Servants, Her
Shoulders Suddenly Shook As The Scene Returned upon Her; And The
Tears Of Her Hilarity Mingled with The Remnants Of Those
Engendered by Her Grief.
She Resolved to Be Sad No More. She Drank Two Glasses Of
Champagne, And A Little More Still After Those, And Amused herself
In The Evening with Singing little Amatory Songs.
"I Must Do Something for That Poor Man Winterborne, However," She
Said.
Part 2 Chapter 3 Pg 12
A Week Had Passed, And Mrs. Charmond Had Left Hintock House.
Middleton Abbey, The Place Of Her Sojourn, Was About Twenty Miles
Distant By Road, Eighteen By Bridle-Paths And Footways.
Grace Observed, For The First Time, That Her Husband Was Restless,
That At Moments He Even Was Disposed to Avoid Her. The Scrupulous
Civility Of Mere Acquaintanceship Crept Into His Manner; Yet, When
Sitting at Meals, He Seemed hardly To Hear Her Remarks. Her
Little Doings Interested him No Longer, While Towards Her Father
His Bearing was Not Far From Supercilious. It Was Plain That His
Mind Was Entirely Outside Her Life, Whereabouts Outside It She
Could Not Tell; In some Region Of Science, Possibly, Or Of
Psychological Literature. But Her Hope That He Was Again
Immersing himself In those Lucubrations Which Before Her Marriage
Had Made His Light A Landmark In hintock, Was Founded simply On
The Slender Fact That He Often Sat Up Late.
One Evening she Discovered him Leaning over A Gate On Rub-Down
Hill, The Gate At Which Winterborne Had Once Been Standing, And
Which Opened on The Brink Of A Steep, Slanting down Directly Into
Blackmoor Vale, Or The Vale Of The White Hart, Extending beneath
The Eye At This Point To A
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