The Woodlanders Part 2, Thomas Hardy [e textbook reader txt] 📗
- Author: Thomas Hardy
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The Cruel Contumely Which She Had Borne At His Hands So Docilely.
"Yes," She Answered; And There Was That In her Subtly Compounded
Part 2 Chapter 18 Pg 112Nature Which Made Her Feel A Thrill Of Pride As She Did So.
Yet The Moment After She Had So Mightily Belied her Character She
Half Repented. Her Husband Had Turned as White As The Wall Behind
Him. It Seemed as If All That Remained to Him Of Life And Spirit
Had Been Abstracted at A Stroke. Yet He Did Not Move, And In his
Efforts At Self-Control Closed his Mouth Together As A Vice. His
Determination Was Fairly Successful, Though She Saw How Very Much
Greater Than She Had Expected her Triumph Had Been. Presently He
Looked across At Winterborne.
"Would It Startle You To Hear," He Said, As If He Hardly Had
Breath To Utter The Words, "That She Who Was To Me What He Was To
You Is Dead Also?"
"Dead--She Dead?" Exclaimed grace.
"Yes. Felice Charmond Is Where This Young Man Is."
"Never!" Said Grace, Vehemently.
He Went On Without Heeding the Insinuation: "And I Came Back To
Try To Make It Up With You--But--"
Fitzpiers Rose, And Moved across The Room To Go Away, Looking
Downward With The Droop Of A Man Whose Hope Was Turned to Apathy,
If Not Despair. In going round The Door His Eye Fell Upon Her
Once More. She Was Still Bending over The Body Of Winterborne,
Her Face Close To The Young Man'S.
"Have You Been Kissing him During his Illness?" Asked her Husband.
"Yes."
"Since His Fevered state Set In?"
"Yes."
"On His Lips?"
"Yes."
"Then You Will Do Well To Take A Few Drops Of This In water As
Soon As Possible." He Drew A Small Phial From His Pocket And
Returned to Offer It To Her.
Grace Shook Her Head.
"If You Don'T Do As I Tell You You May Soon Be Like Him."
"I Don'T Care. I Wish To Die."
"I'Ll Put It Here," Said Fitzpiers, Placing the Bottle On A Ledge
Beside Him. "The Sin Of Not Having warned you Will Not Be Upon My
Head At Any Rate, Among My Other Sins. I Am Now Going, And I Will
Send Somebody To You. Your Father Does Not Know That You Are
Here, So I Suppose I Shall Be Bound To Tell Him?"
Part 2 Chapter 18 Pg 113
"Certainly."
Fitzpiers Left The Cot, And The Stroke Of His Feet Was Soon
Immersed in the Silence That Prevaded the Spot. Grace Remained
Kneeling and Weeping, She Hardly Knew How Long, And Then She Sat
Up, Covered poor Giles'S Features, And Went Towards The Door Where
Her Husband Had Stood. No Sign Of Any Other Comer Greeted her
Ear, The Only Perceptible Sounds Being the Tiny Cracklings Of The
Dead Leaves, Which, Like A Feather-Bed, Had Not Yet Done Rising to
Their Normal Level Where Indented by The Pressure Of Her Husband'S
Receding footsteps. It Reminded her That She Had Been Struck With
The Change In his Aspect; The Extremely Intellectual Look That Had
Always Been In his Face Was Wrought To A Finer Phase By Thinness,
And A Care-Worn Dignity Had Been Superadded. She Returned to
Winterborne'S Side, And During her Meditations Another Tread Drew
Near The Door, Entered the Outer Room, And Halted at The Entrance
Of The Chamber Where Grace Was.
"What--Marty!" Said Grace.
"Yes. I Have Heard," Said Marty, Whose Demeanor Had Lost All Its
Girlishness Under The Stroke That Seemed almost Literally To Have
Bruised her.
"He Died for Me!" Murmured grace, Heavily.
Marty Did Not Fully Comprehend; And She Answered, "He Belongs To
Neither Of Us Now, And Your Beauty Is No More Powerful With Him
Than My Plainness. I Have Come To Help You, Ma'Am. He Never
Cared for Me, And He Cared much For You; But He Cares For Us Both
Alike Now."
"Oh Don'T, Don'T, Marty!"
Marty Said No More, But Knelt Over Winterborne From The Other
Side.
"Did You Meet My Hus--Mr. Fitzpiers?"
"Then What Brought You Here?"
"I Come This Way Sometimes. I Have Got To Go To The Farther Side
Of The Wood This Time Of The Year, And Am Obliged to Get There
Before Four O'Clock In the Morning, To Begin Heating the Oven For
The Early Baking. I Have Passed by Here Often At This Time."
Grace Looked at Her Quickly. "Then Did You Know I Was Here?"
"Yes, Ma'Am."
"Did You Tell Anybody?"
"No. I Knew You Lived in the Hut, That He Had Gied it Up To Ye,
And Lodged out Himself."
"Did You Know Where He Lodged?"
"No. That I Couldn'T Find Out. Was It At Delborough?"
Part 2 Chapter 18 Pg 114"No. It Was Not There, Marty. Would It Had Been! It Would Have
Saved--Saved--" To Check Her Tears She Turned, And Seeing a Book
On The Window-Bench, Took It Up. "Look, Marty, This Is A Psalter.
He Was Not An Outwardly Religious Man, But He Was Pure And Perfect
In His Heart. Shall We Read A Psalm Over Him?"
"Oh Yes--We Will--With All My Heart!"
Grace Opened the Thin Brown Book, Which Poor Giles Had Kept At
Hand Mainly For The Convenience Of Whetting his Pen-Knife Upon Its
Leather Covers. She Began To Read In that Rich, Devotional Voice
Peculiar To Women Only On Such Occasions. When It Was Over, Marty
Said, "I Should Like To Pray For His Soul."
"So Should I," Said Her Companion. "But We Must Not."
"Why? Nobody Would Know."
Grace Could Not Resist The Argument, Influenced as She Was By The
Sense Of Making amends For Having neglected him In the Body; And
Their Tender Voices United and Filled the Narrow Room With
Supplicatory Murmurs That A Calvinist Might Have Envied. They Had
Hardly Ended when Now And More Numerous Foot-Falls Were Audible,
Also Persons In conversation, One Of Whom Grace Recognized as Her
Father.
She Rose, And Went To The Outer Apartment, In which There Was Only
Such Light As Beamed from The Inner One. Melbury And Mrs. Melbury
Were Standing there.
"I Don'T Reproach You, Grace," Said Her Father, With An Estranged
Manner, And In a Voice Not At All Like His Old Voice. "What Has
Come Upon You And Us Is Beyond Reproach, Beyond Weeping, And
Beyond Wailing. Perhaps I Drove You To It. But I Am Hurt; I Am
Scourged; I Am Astonished. In the Face Of This There Is Nothing
To Be Said."
Without Replying, Grace Turned and Glided back To The Inner
Chamber. "Marty," She Said, Quickly, "I Cannot Look My Father In
The Face Until He Knows The True Circumstances Of My Life Here.
Go And Tell Him--What You Have Told Me--What You Saw--That He Gave
Up His House To Me."
She Sat Down, Her Face Buried in her Hands, And Marty Went, And
After A Short Absence Returned. Then Grace Rose, And Going out
Asked her Father If He Had Met Her Husband.
"Yes," Said Melbury.
"And You Know All That Has Happened?"
"I Do. Forgive Me, Grace, For Suspecting ye Of Worse Than
Rashness--I Ought To Know Ye Better. Are You Coming with Me To
What Was Once Your Home?"
"No. I Stay Here With Him. Take No Account Of Me Any More."
Part 2 Chapter 18 Pg 115
The Unwonted, Perplexing, Agitating relations In which She Had
Stood To Winterborne Quite Lately--Brought About By Melbury'S Own
Contrivance--Could Not Fail To Soften The Natural Anger Of A
Parent At Her More Recent Doings. "My Daughter, Things Are Bad,"
He Rejoined. "But Why Do You Persevere To Make 'Em Worse? What
Good Can You Do To Giles By Staying here With Him? Mind, I Ask No
Questions. I Don'T Inquire Why You Decided to Come Here, Or
Anything as To What Your Course Would Have Been If He Had Not
Died, Though I Know There'S No Deliberate Harm In ye. As For Me,
I Have Lost All Claim Upon You, And I Make No Complaint. But I Do
Say That By Coming back With Me Now You Will Show No Less Kindness
To Him, And Escape Any Sound Of Shame.
"But I Don'T Wish To Escape It."
"If You Don'T On Your Own Account, Cannot You Wish To On Mine And
Hers? Nobody Except Our Household Knows That You Have Left Home.
Then Why Should You, By A Piece Of Perverseness, Bring down My
Gray Hairs With Sorrow To The Grave?"
"If It Were Not For My Husband--" She Began, Moved by His Words.
"But How Can I Meet Him There? How Can Any Woman Who Is Not A Mere
Man'S Creature Join Him After What Has Taken Place?"
"He Would Go Away Again Rather Than Keep You Out Of My House."
"How Do You Know That, Father?"
"We Met Him On Our Way Here, And He Told Us So," Said Mrs.
Melbury. "He Had Said Something like It Before. He Seems Very
Much Upset Altogether."
"He Declared to Her When He Came To Our House That He Would Wait
For Time And Devotion To Bring about His Forgiveness," Said Her
Husband. "That Was It, Wasn'T It, Lucy?"
"Yes. That He Would Not Intrude Upon You, Grace, Till You Gave
Him Absolute Permission," Mrs. Melbury Added.
This Antecedent Considerateness In fitzpiers Was As Welcome To
Grace As It Was Unexpected; And Though She Did Not Desire His
Presence, She Was Sorry That By Her Retaliatory Fiction She Had
Given Him A Different Reason For Avoiding her. She Made No
Further Objections To Accompanying her Parents, Taking them Into
The Inner Room To Give Winterborne A Last Look, And Gathering up
The Two Or Three Things That Belonged to Her. While She Was Doing
This The Two Women Came Who Had Been Called by Melbury, And At
Their Heels Poor Creedle.
"Forgive Me, But I Can'T Rule My Mourning nohow As A Man Should,
Mr. Melbury," He Said. "I
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