第338页
《简·爱(英文版)》章节:第338页,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
'Give me the water, Mary,' he said.
I approached him with the now only half-filled glass; Pilot
followed me, still excited.
'What is the matter?' he inquired.
'Down, Pilot!' I again said. He checked the water on its way to his
lips, and seemed to listen: he drank, and put the glass down. 'This is
you, Mary, is it not?'
'Mary is in the kitchen,' I answered.
He put out his hand with a quick gesture, but not seeing where I
stood, he did not touch me. 'Who is this? Who is this?' he demanded,
trying, as it seemed, to see with those sightless eyes- unavailing and
distressing attempt! 'Answer me- speak again!' he ordered, imperiously
and aloud.
'Will you have a little more water, sir? I spilt half of what was
in the glass,' I said.
'Who is it? What is it? Who speaks?'
'Pilot knows me, and John and Mary know I am here. I came only this
evening,' I answered.
'Great God!- what delusion has come over me? What sweet madness has
seized me?'
'No delusion- no madness: your mind, sir, is too strong for
delusion, your health too sound for frenzy.'
'And where is the speaker? Is it only a voice? Oh! I cannot see,
but I must feel, or my heart will stop and my brain burst. Whatever-
whoever you are- be perceptible to the touch or I cannot live!'
He groped; I arrested his wandering hand, and prisoned it in both
mine.
'Her very fingers!' he cried; 'her small, slight fingers! If so
there must be more of her.'
The muscular hand broke from my custody; my arm was seized, my
shoulder- neck- waist- I was entwined and gathered to him.
'Is it Jane? What is it? This is her shape- this is her size-'
'And this her voice,' I added. 'She is all here: her heart, too.
God bless you, sir! I am glad to be so near you again.'
'Jane Eyre!- Jane Eyre,' was all he said.
'My dear master,' I answered, 'I am Jane Eyre: I have found you
out- I am come back to you.'
'In truth?- in the flesh? My living Jane?'
'You touch me, sir,- you hold me, and fast enough: I am not cold
like a corpse, nor vacant like air, am I?'
'My living darling! These are certainly her limbs, and these her
features; but I cannot be so blest, after all my misery. It is a
dream; such dreams as I have had at night when I have clasped her once
more to my heart, as I do now; and kissed her, as thus- and felt
that she loved me, and trusted that she would not leave me.'
'Which I never will, sir, from this day.'
'Never will, says the vision? But I always woke and found it an
empty mockery; and I was desolate and abandoned- my life dark, lonely,
hopeless- my soul athirst and forbidden to drink- my heart famished
and never to be fed. Gentle, soft dream, nestling in my arms now,
you will fly, too, as your sisters have all fled before you: but
kiss me before you go- embrace me, Jane.'
'There, sir- and there!'
I pressed my lips to his once brilliant and now rayless eyes- I