第149页
《简·爱(英文版)》章节:第149页,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
which might have befitted the leader of a forlorn hope, mounting a
breach in the van of his men.
'Oh, my best! oh, my dearest! pause- reflect!' was her mama's
cry; but she swept past her in stately silence, passed through the
door which Colonel Dent held open, and we heard her enter the library.
A comparative silence ensued. Lady Ingram thought it 'le cas' to
wring her hands: which she did accordingly. Miss Mary declared she
felt, for her part, she never dared venture. Amy and Louisa Eshton
tittered under their breath, and looked a little frightened.
The minutes passed very slowly: fifteen were counted before the
library-door again opened. Miss Ingram returned to us through the
arch.
Would she laugh? Would she take it as a joke? All eyes met her with
a glance of eager curiosity, and she met all eyes with one of rebuff
and coldness; she looked neither flurried nor merry: she walked
stiffly to her seat, and took it in silence.
'Well, Blanche?' said Lord Ingram.
'What did she say, sister?' asked Mary.
'What did you think? How do you feel? Is she a real
fortune-teller?' demanded the Misses Eshton.
'Now, now, good people,' returned Miss Ingram, 'don't press upon
me. Really your organs of wonder and credulity are easily excited: you
seem, by the importance you all- my good mama included- ascribe to
this matter, absolutely to believe we have a genuine witch in the
house, who is in close alliance with the old gentleman. I have seen
a gipsy vagabond; she has practised in hackneyed fashion the science
of palmistry and told me what such people usually tell. My whim is
gratified; and now I think Mr. Eshton will do well to put the hag in
the stocks to-morrow morning, as he threatened.'
Miss Ingram took a book, leant back in her chair, and so declined
further conversation. I watched her for nearly half an hour: during
all that time she never turned a page, and her face grew momently
darker, more dissatisfied, and more sourly expressive of
disappointment. She had obviously not heard anything to her advantage:
and it seemed to me, from her prolonged fit of gloom and
taciturnity, that she herself, notwithstanding her professed
indifference, attached undue importance to whatever revelations had
been made her.
Meantime, Mary Ingram, Amy and Louisa Eshton, declared they dared
not go alone; and yet they all wished to go. A negotiation was
opened through the medium of the ambassador, Sam; and after much
pacing to and fro, till, I think, the said Sam's calves must have
ached with the exercise, permission was at last, with great
difficulty, extorted from the rigorous Sibyl, for the three to wait
upon her in a body.
Their visit was not so still as Miss Ingram's had been: we heard
hysterical giggling and little shrieks proceeding from the library;
and at the end of about twenty minutes they burst the door open, and
came running across the hall, as if they were half-scared out of their