第222页
《简·爱(英文版)》章节:第222页,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
wonder what other bridegroom ever looked as he did- so bent up to a
purpose, so grimly resolute: or who, under such steadfast brows,
ever revealed such flaming and flashing eyes.
I know not whether the day was fair or foul; in descending the
drive, I gazed neither on sky nor earth: my heart was with my eyes;
and both seemed migrated into Mr. Rochester's frame. I wanted to see
the invisible thing on which, as we went along, he appeared to
fasten a glance fierce and fell. I wanted to feel the thoughts whose
force he seemed breasting and resisting.
At the churchyard wicket he stopped: he discovered I was quite
out of breath. 'Am I cruel in my love?' he said. 'Delay an instant:
lean on me, Jane.'
And now I can recall the picture of the grey old house of God
rising calm before me, of a rook wheeling round the steeple, of a
ruddy morning sky beyond. I remember something, too, of the green
grave-mounds; and I have not forgotten, either, two figures of
strangers straying amongst the low hillocks and reading the
mementoes graven on the few mossy head-stones. I noticed them,
because, as they saw us, they passed round to the back of the
church; and I doubted not they were going to enter by the side-aisle
door and witness the ceremony. By Mr. Rochester they were not
observed; he was earnestly looking at my face, from which the blood
had, I daresay, momentarily fled: for I felt my forehead dewy, and
my cheeks and lips cold. When I rallied, which I soon did, he walked
gently with me up the path to the porch.
We entered the quiet and humble temple; the priest waited in his
white surplice at the lowly altar, the clerk beside him. All was
still: two shadows only moved in a remote corner. My conjecture had
been correct: the strangers had slipped in before us, and they now
stood by the vault of the Rochesters, their backs towards us,
viewing through the rails the old times-stained marble tomb, where a
kneeling angel guarded the remains of Damer de Rochester, slain at
Marston Moor in the time of the civil wars, and of Elizabeth, his
wife.
Our place was taken at the communion rails. Hearing a cautious step
behind me, I glanced over my shoulder: one of the strangers- a
gentleman, evidently- was advancing up the chancel. The service began.
The explanation of the intent of matrimony was gone through; and
then the clergyman came a step farther forward, and, bending
slightly towards Mr. Rochester, went on.
'I require and charge you both (as ye will answer at the dreadful
day of judgment, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed),
that if either of you know any impediment why ye may not lawfully be
joined together in matrimony, ye do now confess it; for be ye well
assured that so many as are coupled together otherwise than God's Word
doth allow, are not joined together by God, neither is their matrimony
lawful.'
He paused, as the custom is. When is the pause after that