第339页
《简·爱(英文版)》章节:第339页,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
swept his hair from his brow, and kissed that too. He suddenly
seemed to arouse himself: the conviction of the reality of all this
seized him.
'It is you- is it, Jane? You are come back to me then?'
'I am.'
'And you do not lie dead in some ditch under some stream? And you
are not a pining outcast amongst strangers?'
'No, sir! I am an independent woman now.'
'Independent! What do you mean, Jane?'
'My uncle in Madeira is dead, and he left me five thousand pounds.'
'Ah! this is practical- this is real!' he cried: 'I should never
dream that. Besides, there is that peculiar voice of hers, so
animating and piquant, as well as soft: it cheers my withered heart;
it puts life into it.- What, Janet! Are you an independent woman? A
rich woman?'
'Quite rich, sir. If you won't let me live with you, I can build
a house of my own close up to your door, and you may come and sit in
my parlour when you want company of an evening.'
'But as you are rich, Jane, you have now, no doubt, friends who
will look after you, and not suffer you to devote yourself to a
blind lameter like me?'
'I told you I am independent, sir, as well as rich: I am my own
mistress.'
'And you will stay with me?'
'Certainly- unless you object. I will be your neighbour, your
nurse, your housekeeper. I find you lonely: I will be your
companion- to read to you, to walk with you, to sit with you, to
wait on you, to be eyes and hands to you. Cease to look so melancholy,
my dear master; you shall not be left desolate, so long as I live.'
He replied not: he seemed serious- abstracted; he sighed; he
half-opened his lips as if to speak: he closed them again. I felt a
little embarrassed. Perhaps I had too rashly overleaped
conventionalities; and he, like St. John, saw impropriety in my
inconsiderateness. I had indeed made my proposal from the idea that he
wished and would ask me to be his wife: an expectation, not the less
certain because unexpressed, had buoyed me up, that he would claim
me at once as his own. But no hint to that effect escaping him and his
countenance becoming more overcast, I suddenly remembered that I might
have been all wrong, and was perhaps playing the fool unwittingly; and
I began gently to withdraw myself from his arms- but he eagerly
snatched me closer.
'No- no- Jane; you must not go. No- I have touched you, heard
you, felt the comfort of your presence- the sweetness of your
consolation: I cannot give up these joys. I have little left in
myself- I must have you. The world may laugh- may call me absurd,
selfish- but it does not signify. My very soul demands you: it will be
satisfied, or it will take deadly vengeance on its frame.'
'Well, sir, I will stay with you: I have said so.'
'Yes- but you understand one thing by staying with me; and I
understand another. You, perhaps, could make up your mind to be
about my hand and chair- to wait on me as a kind little nurse (for you