第299页
《简·爱(英文版)》章节:第299页,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
straight,- every ring was perfect, the connection complete. I knew, by
instinct, how the matter stood, before St. John had said another word;
but I cannot expect the reader to have the same intuitive
perception, so I must repeat his explanation.
'My mother's name was Eyre; she had two brothers; one a
clergyman, who married Miss Jane Reed, of Gateshead; the other, John
Eyre, Esq., merchant, late of Funchal, Madeira. Mr. Briggs, being
Mr. Eyre's solicitor, wrote to us last August to inform us of our
uncle's death, and to say that he had left his property to his brother
the clergyman's orphan daughter, overlooking us, in consequence of a
quarrel, never forgiven, between him and my father. He wrote again a
few weeks since, to intimate that the heiress was lost, and asking
if we knew anything of her. A name casually written on a slip of paper
has enabled me to find her out. You know the rest.' Again he was
going, but I set my back against the door.
'Do let me speak,' I said; 'let me have one moment to draw breath
and reflect.' I paused- he stood before me, hat in hand, looking
composed enough. I resumed-
'Your mother was my father's sister?'
'Yes.'
'My aunt, consequently?'
He bowed.
'My uncle John was your uncle John? You, Diana, and Mary are his
sister's children, as I am his brother's child?'
'Undeniably.'
'You three, then, are my cousins; half our blood on each side flows
from the same source?'
'We are cousins; yes.'
I surveyed him. It seemed I had found a brother: one I could be
proud of,- one I could love; and two sisters, whose qualities were
such, that, when I knew them but as mere strangers, they had
inspired me with genuine affection and admiration. The two girls, on
whom, kneeling down on the wet ground, and looking through the low,
latticed window of Moor House kitchen, I had gazed with so bitter a
mixture of interest and despair, were my near kinswomen; and the young
and stately gentleman who had found me almost dying at his threshold
was my blood relation. Glorious discovery to a lonely wretch! This was
wealth indeed!- wealth to the heart!- a mine of pure, genial
affections. This was a blessing, bright, vivid, and exhilarating;- not
like the ponderous gift of gold: rich and welcome enough in its way,
but sobering from its weight. I now clapped my hands in sudden joy- my
pulse bounded, my veins thrilled.
'Oh, I am glad!- I am glad!' I exclaimed.
St. John smiled. 'Did I not say you neglected essential points to
pursue trifles?' he asked. 'You were serious when I told you you had
got a fortune; and now, for a matter of no moment, you are excited.'
'What can you mean? It may be of no moment to you; you have sisters
and don't care for a cousin; but I had nobody; and now three
relations,- or two, if you don't choose to be counted,- are born
into my world full-grown. I say again, I am glad!'
I walked fast through the room: I stopped, half suffocated with the