第9页
《简·爱(英文版)》章节:第9页,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
this chamber. I wiped my tears and hushed my sobs, fearful lest any
sign of violent grief might waken a preternatural voice to comfort me,
or elicit from the gloom some haloed face, bending over me with
strange pity. This idea, consolatory in theory, I felt would be
terrible if realised: with all my might I endeavoured to stifle it-
I endeavoured to be firm. Shaking my hair from my eyes, I lifted my
head and tried to look boldly round the dark room; at this moment a
light gleamed on the wall. Was it, I asked myself, a ray from the moon
penetrating some aperture in the blind? No; moonlight was still, and
this stirred; while I gazed, it glided up to the ceiling and
quivered over my head. I can now conjecture readily that this streak
of light was, in all likelihood, a gleam from a lantern carried by
some one across the lawn: but then, prepared as my mind was for
horror, shaken as my nerves were by agitation, I thought the swift
darting beam was a herald of some coming vision from another world. My
heart beat thick, my head grew hot; a sound filled my ears, which I
deemed the rushing of wings; something seemed near me; I was
oppressed, suffocated: endurance broke down; I rushed to the door
and shook the lock in desperate effort. Steps came running along the
outer passage; the key turned, Bessie and Abbot entered.
'Miss Eyre, are you ill?' said Bessie.
'What a dreadful noise! it went quite through me!' exclaimed Abbot.
'Take me out! Let me go into the nursery!' was my cry.
'What for? Are you hurt? Have you seen something?' again demanded
Bessie.
'Oh! I saw a light, and I thought a ghost would come.' I had now
got hold of Bessie's hand, and she did not snatch it from me.
'She has screamed out on purpose,' declared Abbot, in some disgust.
'And what a scream! If she had been in great pain one would have
excused it, but she only wanted to bring us all here: I know her
naughty tricks.'
'What is all this?' demanded another voice peremptorily; and Mrs.
Reed came along the corridor, her cap flying wide, her gown rustling
stormily. 'Abbot and Bessie, I believe I gave orders that Jane Eyre
should be left in the red-room till I came to her myself.'
'Miss Jane screamed so loud, ma'am,' pleaded Bessie.
'Let her go,' was the only answer. 'Loose Bessie's hand, child: you
cannot succeed in getting out by these means, be assured. I abhor
artifice, particularly in children; it is my duty to show you that
tricks will not answer: you will now stay here an hour longer, and
it is only on condition of perfect submission and stillness that I
shall liberate you then.'
'O aunt! have pity! forgive me! I cannot endure it- let me be
punished some other way! I shall be killed if-'
'Silence! This violence is all most repulsive:' and so, no doubt,
she felt it. I was a precocious actress in her eyes; she sincerely.
looked on me as a compound of virulent passions, mean spirit, and