第207页
《简·爱(英文版)》章节:第207页,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
With anxiety I watched his eye rove over the gay stores: he fixed on a
rich silk of the most brilliant amethyst dye, and a superb pink satin.
I told him in a new series of whispers, that he might as well buy me a
gold gown and a silver bonnet at once: I should certainly never
venture to wear his choice. With infinite difficulty, for he was
stubborn as a stone, I persuaded him to make an exchange in favour
of a sober black satin and pearl-grey silk. 'It might pass for the
present,' he said; 'but he would yet see me glittering like a
parterre.'
Glad was I to get him out of the silk warehouse, and then out of
a jeweller's shop: the more he bought me, the more my cheek burned
with a sense of annoyance and degradation. As we re-entered the
carriage, and I sat back feverish and fagged, I remembered what, in
the hurry of events, dark and bright, I had wholly forgotten- the
letter of my uncle, John Eyre, to Mrs. Reed: his intention to adopt me
and make me his legatee. 'It would, indeed, be a relief,' I thought,
'if I had ever so small an independency; I never can bear being
dressed like a doll by Mr. Rochester, or sitting like a second Danae
with the golden shower falling daily round me. I will write to Madeira
the moment I get home, and tell my uncle John I am going to be
married, and to whom: if I had but a prospect of one day bringing
Mr. Rochester an accession of fortune, I could better endure to be
kept by him now.' And somewhat relieved by this idea (which I failed
not to execute that day), I ventured once more to meet my master's and
lover's eye, which most pertinaciously sought mine, though I averted
both face and gaze. He smiled; and I thought his smile was such as a
sultan might, in a blissful and fond moment, bestow on a slave his
gold and gems had enriched: I crushed his hand, which was ever hunting
mine, vigorously, and thrust it back to him red with the passionate
pressure.
'You need not look in that way,' I said; 'if you do, I'll wear
nothing but my old Lowood frocks to the end of the chapter. I'll be
married in this lilac gingham: you may make a dressing-gown for
yourself out of the pearl-grey silk, and an infinite series of
waistcoats out of the black satin.'
He chuckled; he rubbed his hands. 'Oh, it is rich to see and hear
her!' he exclaimed. 'Is she original? Is she piquant? I would not
exchange this one little English girl for the Grand Turk's whole
seraglio, gazelle-eyes, houri forms, and all!'
The Eastern allusion bit me again. 'I'll not stand you an inch in
the stead of a seraglio,' I said; 'so don't consider me an
equivalent for one. If you have a fancy for anything in that line,
away with you, sir, to the bazaars of Stamboul without delay, and
lay out in extensive slave-purchases some of that spare cash you
seem at a loss to spend satisfactorily here.'
'And what will you do, Janet, while I am bargaining for so many
tons of flesh and such an assortment of black eyes?'