第177页
《简·爱(英文版)》章节:第177页,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
vengeance and hushes the promptings of rage and aversion. I had left
this woman in bitterness and hate, and I came back to her now with
no other emotion than a sort of ruth for her great sufferings, and a
strong yearning to forget and forgive all injuries- to be reconciled
and clasp hands in amity.
The well-known face was there: stern, relentless as ever- there was
that peculiar eye which nothing could melt, and the somewhat raised,
imperious, despotic eyebrow. How often had it lowered on me menace and
hate! and how the recollection of childhood's terrors and sorrows
revived as I traced its harsh line now! And yet I stooped down and
kissed her: she looked at me.
'Is this Jane Eyre?' she said.
'Yes, Aunt Reed. How are you, dear aunt?'
I had once vowed that I would never call her aunt again: I
thought it no sin to forget and break that vow now. My fingers had
fastened on her hand which lay outside the sheet: had she pressed mine
kindly, I should at that moment have experienced true pleasure. But
unimpressionable natures are not so soon softened, nor are natural
antipathies so readily eradicated. Mrs. Reed took her hand away,
and, turning her face rather from me, she remarked that the night
was warm. Again she regarded me so icily, I felt at once that her
opinion of me- her feeling towards me- was unchanged and unchangeable.
I knew by her stony eye- opaque to tenderness, indissoluble to
tears- that she was resolved to consider me bad to the last; because
to believe me good would give her no generous pleasure: only a sense
of mortification.
I felt pain, and then I felt ire; and then I felt a determination
to subdue her- to be her mistress in spite both of her nature and
her will. My tears had risen, just as in childhood: I ordered them
back to their source. I brought a chair to the bed-head: I sat down
and leaned over the pillow.
'You sent for me,' I said, 'and I am here; and it is my intention
to stay till I see how you get on.'
'Oh, of course! You have seen my daughters?'
'Yes.'
'Well, you may tell them I wish you to stay till I can talk some
things over with you I have on my mind: to-night it is too late, and I
have a difficulty in recalling them. But there was something I
wished to say- let me see-'
The wandering look and changed utterance told what wreck had
taken place in her once vigorous frame. Turning restlessly, she drew
the bedclothes round her; my elbow, resting on a corner of the
quilt, fixed it down: she was at once irritated.
'Sit up!' said she; 'don't annoy me with holding the clothes
fast. Are you Jane Eyre?'
'I am Jane Eyre.'
'I have had more trouble with that child than any one would
believe. Such a burden to be left on my hands- and so much annoyance
as she caused me, daily and hourly, with her incomprehensible
disposition, and her sudden starts of temper, and her continual,
unnatural watchings of one's movements! I declare she talked to me