The Woodlanders Part 2, Thomas Hardy [e textbook reader txt] 📗
- Author: Thomas Hardy
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Employment Now!"
"Do You Know Anything of Mrs. Charmond'S Past History? Perhaps
That Would Throw Some Light Upon Things. Pefore She Came Here As
The Wife Of Old Charmond Four Or Five Years Ago, Not A Soul Seems
To Have Heard Aught Of Her. Why Not Make Inquiries? And Then Do
Ye Wait And See More; There'Ll Be Plenty Of Opportnnity. Time
Enough To Cry When You Know 'Tis A Crying matter; And 'Tis Bad To
Meet Troubles Half-Way."
There Was Some Good-Sense In the Notion Of Seeing further.
Melbury Resolved to Inquire And Wait, Hoping still, Hut Oppressed
Between-Whiles With Much Fear.
Part 2 Chapter 5 Pg 24
Examine Grace As Her Father Might, She Would Admit Nothing. For
The Present, Therefore, He Simply Watched.
The Suspicion That His Darling child Was Being slighted wrought
Part 2 Chapter 5 Pg 25Almost A Miraculous Change In melbury'S Nature. No Man So Furtive
For The Time As The Ingenuous Countryman Who Finds That His
Ingenuousness Has Been Abused. Melbury'S Heretofore Confidential
Candor Towards His Gentlemanly Son-In-Law Was Displaced by A
Feline Stealth That Did Injnry To His Every Action, Thought, And
Mood. He Knew That A Woman Once Given To A Man For Life Took, As
A Rule, Her Lot As It Came And Made The Best Of It, Without
External Interference; But For The First Time He Asked himself Why
This So Generally Should Be So. Moreover, This Case Was Not, He
Argued, Like Ordinary Cases. Leaving out The Question Of Grace
Being anything but An Ordinary Woman, Her Peculiar Situation, As
It Were In mid-Air Between Two Planes Of Society, Together With
The Loneliness Of Hintock, Made A Husband'S Neglect A Far More
Tragical Matter To Her Than It Would Be To One Who Had A Large
Circle Of Friends To Fall Back Upon. Wisely Or Unwisely, And
Whatever Other Fathers Did, He Resolved to Fight His Daughter'S
Battle Still.
Mrs. Charmond Had Returned. But Hintock House Scarcely Gave Forth
Signs Of Life, So Quietly Had She Reentered it. He Went To Church
At Great Hintock One Afternoon As Usual, There Being no Service At
The Smaller Village. A Few Minutes Before His Departure, He Had
Casually Heard Fitzpiers, Who Was No Church-Goer, Tell His Wife
That He Was Going to Walk In the Wood. Melbury Entered the
Building and Sat Down In his Pew; The Parson Came In, Then Mrs.
Charmond, Then Mr. Fitzpiers.
The Service Proceeded, And The Jealons Father Was Quite Sure That
A Mutual Consciousness Was Uninterruptedly Maintained between
Those Two; He Fancied that More Than Once Their Eyes Met. At The
End, Fitzpiers So Timed his Movement Into The Aisle That It
Exactly Coincided with Felice Charmond'S From The Opposite Side,
And They Walked out With Their Garments In contact, The Surgeon
Being just That Two Or Three Inches In her Rear Which Made It
Convenient For His Eyes To Rest Upon Her Cheek. The Cheek Warmed
Up To A Richer Tone.
This Was A Worse Feature In the Flirtation Than He Had Expected.
If She Had Been Playing with Him In an Idle Freak The Game Might
Soon Have Wearied her; But The Smallest Germ Of Passion--And Women
Of The World Do Not Change Color For Nothing--Was A Threatening
Development. The Mere Presence Of Fitzpiers In the Building,
After His Statement, Was Wellnigh Conclusive As Far As He Was
Concerned; But Melbury Resolved yet To Watch.
He Had To Wait Long. Autumn Drew Shiveringly To Its End. One Day
Something seemed to Be Gone From The Gardens; The Tenderer Leaves
Of Vegetables Had Shrunk Under The First Smart Frost, And Hung
Like Faded linen Rags; Then The Forest Leaves, Which Had Been
Descending at Leisure, Descended in haste And In multitudes, And
All The Golden Colors That Had Hung Overhead Were Now Crowded
Together In a Degraded mass Underfoot, Where The Fallen Myriads
Got Redder And Hornier, And Curled themselves Up To Rot. The Only
Suspicious Features In mrs. Charmond'S Existence At This Season
Were Two: The First, That She Lived with No Companion Or Relative
About Her, Which, Considering her Age And Attractions, Was
Somewhat Unusual Conduct For A Young Widow In a Lonely Country-
House; The Other, That She Did Not, As In previous Years, Start
Part 2 Chapter 5 Pg 26From Hintock To Winter Abroad. In fitzpiers, The Only Change From
His Last Autnmn'S Habits Lay In his Abandonment Of Night Study--
His Lamp Never Shone From His New Dwelling as From His Old.
If The Suspected ones Met, It Was By Such Adroit Contrivances That
Even Melbury'S Vigilance Could Not Encounter Them Together. A
Simple Call At Her House By The Doctor Had Nothing irregular About
It, And That He Had Paid Two Or Three Such Calls Was Certain.
What Had Passed at Those Interviews Was Known Only To The Parties
Themselves; But That Felice Charmond Was Under Some One'S
Influence Melbury Soon Had Opportunity Of Perceiving.
Winter Had Come On. Owls Began To Be Noisy In the Mornings And
Evenings, And Flocks Of Wood-Pigeons Made Themselves Prominent
Again. One Day In february, About Six Months After The Marriage
Of Fitzpiers, Melbury Was Returning from Great Hintock On Foot
Through The Lane, When He Saw Before Him The Surgeon Also Walking.
Melbury Would Have Overtaken Him, But At That Moment Fitzpiers
Turned in through A Gate To One Of The Rambling drives Among The
Trees At This Side Of The Wood, Which Led to Nowhere In
Particular, And The Beauty Of Whose Serpentine Curves Was The Only
Justification Of Their Existence. Felice Almost Simultaneously
Trotted down The Lane Towards The Timber-Dealer, In a Little
Basket-Carriage Which She Sometimes Drove About The Estate,
Unaccompanied by A Servant. She Turned in at The Same Place
Without Having seen Either Melbury Or Apparently Fitzpiers.
Melbury Was Soon At The Spot, Despite His Aches And His Sixty
Years. Mrs. Charmond Had Come Up With The Doctor, Who Was
Standing immediately Behind The Carriage. She Had Turned to Him,
Her Arm Being thrown Carelessly Over The Back Of The Seat. They
Looked in each Other'S Faces Without Uttering a Word, An Arch Yet
Gloomy Smile Wreathing her Lips. Fitzpiers Clasped her Hanging
Hand, And, While She Still Remained in the Same Listless Attitude,
Looking volumes Into His Eyes, He Stealthily Unbuttoned her Glove,
And Stripped her Hand Of It By Rolling back The Gauntlet Over The
Fingers, So That It Came Off Inside Out. He Then Raised her Hand
To His Month, She Still Reclining passively, Watching him As She
Might Have Watched a Fly Upon Her Dress. At Last She Said, "Well,
Sir, What Excuse For This Disobedience?"
"I Make None."
"Then Go Your Way, And Let Me Go Mine." She Snatched away Her
Hand, Touched the Pony With The Whip, And Left Him Standing there,
Holding the Reversed glove.
Melbury'S First Impulse Was To Reveal His Presence To Fitzpiers,
And Upbraid Him Bitterly. But A Moment'S Thought Was Sufficient
To Show Him The Futility Of Any Such Simple Proceeding. There Was
Not, After All, So Much In what He Had Witnessed as In what That
Scene Might Be The Surface And Froth Of--Probably A State Of Mind
On Which Censure Operates As An Aggravation Rather Than As A Cure.
Moreover, He Said To Himself That The Point Of Attack Should Be
The Woman, If Either. He Therefore Kept Out Of Sight, And Musing
Sadly, Even Tearfully--For He Was Meek As A Child In matters
Concerning his Daughter--Continued his Way Towards Hintock.
The Insight Which Is Bred of Deep Sympathy Was Never More Finely
Part 2 Chapter 5 Pg 27Exemplified than In this Instance. Through Her Guarded manner,
Her Dignified speech, Her Placid Countenance, He Discerned the
Interior Of Grace'S Life Only Too Truly, Hidden As Were Its
Incidents From Every Outer Eye.
These Incidents Had Become Painful Enough. Fitzpiers Had Latterly
Developed an Irritable Discontent Which Vented itself In
Monologues When Grace Was Present To Hear Them. The Early Morning
Of This Day Had Been Dull, After A Night Of Wind, And On Looking
Out Of The Window Fitzpiers Had Observed some Of Melbury'S Men
Dragging away A Large Limb Which Had Been Snapped off A Beech-
Tree. Everything was Cold And Colorless.
"My Good Heaven!" He Said, As He Stood In his Dressing-Gown.
"This Is Life!" He Did Not Know Whether Grace Was Awake Or Not,
And He Would Not Turn His Head To Ascertain. "Ah, Fool," He Went
On To Himself, "To Clip Your Own Wings When You Were Free To
Soar!...But I Could Not Rest Till I Had Done It. Why Do I Never
Recognize An Opportunity Till I Have Missed it, Nor The Good Or
Ill Of A Step Till It Is Irrevocable!...I Fell In love....Love,
Indeed!--
"'Love'S But The Frailty Of The Mind
When 'Tis Not With Ambition Joined;
A Sickly Flame Which If Not Fed, Expires,
And Feeding, Wastes In self-Consuming fires!'
Ah, Old Author Of 'The Way Of The World,' You Knew--You Knew!"
Grace Moved. He Thought She Had Heard Some Part Of His Soliloquy.
He Was Sorry--Though He Had Not Taken Any Precaution To Prevent
Her.
He Expected a Scene At Breakfast, But She Only Exhibited an
Extreme Reserve. It Was Enough, However, To Make Him Repent That
He Should Have Done Anything to Produce Discomfort; For He
Attributed her Manner Entirely To What He Had Said. But Grace'S
Manner Had Not Its Cause Either In his Sayings Or In his Doings.
She Had Not Heard A Single Word Of His Regrets. Something even
Nearer Home Than Her Husband'S Blighted prospects--If Blighted
They Were--Was The Origin Of Her Mood, A Mood That Was The Mere
Continuation Of What Her Father Had Noticed when He Would Have
Preferred a Passionate Jealousy In her, As The More Natural.
She Had Made A Discovery--One
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