--here was a new scheme for getting
her to Delaford!--but her spirit was stubborn.
"His fortune too!--for at my time of life you
know,
everybody cares about THAT;--and though I neither know
nor desire to know, what it really is, I am sure it must be
a good one."
Here they were interrupted by the entrance
of a
third person, and Elinor withdrew to think it all over
in private, to wish success to her friend, and yet
in wishing it, to feel a pang for Willoughby.
CHAPTER 46
Marianne"s illness, though weakening in its
kind,
had not been long enough to make her recovery slow;
and with youth, natural strength, and her mother"s presence
in aid, it proceeded so smoothly as to enable her to remove,
within four days after the arrival of the latter,
into Mrs. Palmer"s dressing-room. When there, at her own
particular request, for she was impatient to pour forth
her thanks to him for fetching her mother, Colonel Brandon
was invited to visit her.
His emotion on entering the room, in seeing
her altered
looks, and in receiving the pale hand which she immediately
held out to him, was such, as, in Elinor"s conjecture,
must arise from something more than his affection for Marianne,
or the consciousness of its being known to others;
and she soon discovered in his melancholy eye and varying
complexion as he looked at her sister, the probable
recurrence of many past scenes of misery to his mind,
brought back by that resemblance between Marianne and Eliza
already acknowledged, and now strengthened by the hollow eye,
the sickly skin, the posture of reclining weakness,
and the warm acknowledgment of peculiar obligation.
Mrs. Dashwood, not less watchful of what passed
than
her daughter, but with a mind very differently influenced,
and therefore watching to very different effect,
saw nothing in the Colonel"s behaviour but what arose
from the most simple and self-evident sensations, while in
the actions and words of Marianne she persuaded herself
to think that something more than gratitude already dawned.
At the end of another day or two, Marianne
growing
visibly stronger every twelve hours, Mrs. Dashwood,
urged equally by her own and her daughter"s wishes,
began to talk of removing to Barton. On HER measures
depended those of her two friends; Mrs. Jennings could
not quit Cleveland during the Dashwoods" stay; and Colonel
Brandon was soon brought, by their united request,
to consider his own abode there as equally determinate,
if not equally indispensable. At his and Mrs. Jennings"s
united request in return, Mrs. Dashwood was prevailed
on to accept the use of his carriage on her journey back,
for the better accommodation of her sick child; and the Colonel,
at the joint invitation of Mrs. Dashwood and Mrs. Jennings,
whose active good-nature made her friendly and hospitable
for other people as well as herself, engaged with pleasure
to redeem it by a visit at the cottage, in the course
of a few weeks.
The day of separation and departure arrived;
and Marianne, after taking so particular and lengthened
a leave of Mrs. Jennings, one so earnestly grateful, so full
of respect and kind wishes as seemed due to her own heart
from a secret acknowledgment of past inattention, and bidding
Colonel Brandon farewell with a cordiality of a friend,
was carefully assisted by him into the carriage, of which he
seemed anxious that she should engross at least half.
Mrs. Dashwood and Elinor then followed, and the others
were left by themselves, to talk of the travellers,
and feel their own dullness, till Mrs. Jennings was summoned
to her chaise to take comfort in the gossip of her maid
for the loss of her two young companions; and Colonel Brandon
immediately afterwards took his solitary way to Delaford.
The Dashwoods were two days on the road, and
Marianne
bore her journey on both, without essential fatigue.
Every thing that the most zealous affection, the most
solicitous care could do to render her comfortable,
was the office of each watchful companion, and each
found their reward in her bodily ease, and her calmness
of spirits. To Elinor, the observation of the latter
was particularly grateful. She, who had seen her week
after week so constantly suffering, oppressed by anguish
of heart which she had neither courage to speak of,
nor fortitude to conceal, now saw with a joy, which no other
could equally share, an apparent composure of mind, which,
in being the result as she trusted of serious reflection,
must eventually lead her to contentment and cheerfulness.
As they approached Barton, indeed, and entered
on scenes of which every field and every tree brought
some peculiar, some painful recollection, she grew silent
and thoughtful, and turning away her face from their notice,
sat earnestly gazing through the window. But here,
Elinor could neither wonder nor blame; and when she saw,
as she assisted Marianne from the carriage, that she
had been crying, she saw only an emotion too natural
in itself to raise any thing less tender than pity,
and in its unobtrusiveness entitled to praise. In the
whole of her subsequent manner, she traced the direction
of a mind awakened to reasonable exertion; for no sooner
had they entered their common sitting-room, than Marianne
turned her eyes around it with a look of resolute firmness,
as if determined at once to accustom herself to the sight
of every object with which the remembrance of Willoughby could
be connected.--She said little, but every sentence aimed
at cheerfulness, and though a sigh sometimes escaped her,
it never passed away without the atonement of a smile.
After dinner she would try her piano-forte. She went to it;
but the music on which her eye first rested was an opera,
procured for her by Willoughby, containing some of their
favourite duets, and bearing on its outward leaf her own name
in his hand-writing.--That would not do.--She shook her head,
put the music aside, and after running over the keys
for a minute, complained of feebleness in her fingers,
and closed the instrument again; declaring however
with firmness as she did so, that she should in future
practice much.
The next morning produced no abatement in these
happy symptoms. On the contrary, with a mind and body
alike strengthened by rest, she looked and spoke with
more genuine spirit, anticipating the pleasure of
Margaret"s return, and talking of the dear family party
which would then be restored, of their mutual pursuits
and cheerful society, as the only happiness worth a wish.
"When the weather is settled, and I have recovered
my strength," said she, "we will take long walks together
every day. We will walk to the farm at the edge of the down,
and see how the children go on; we will walk to Sir John"s
new plantations at Barton Cross, and the Abbeyland;
and we will often go the old ruins of the Priory,
and try to trace its foundations as far as we are told
they once reached. I know we shall be happy. I know
the summer will pass happily away. I mean never to be
later in rising than six, and from that time till dinner
I shall divide every moment between music and reading.
I have formed my plan, and am determined to enter on a course
of serious study. Our own library is too well known to me,
to be resorted to for any thing beyond mere amusement.
But there are many works well worth reading at the Park;
and there are others of more modern production which I
know I can borrow of Colonel Brandon. By reading only six
hours a-day, I shall gain in the course of a twelve-month
a great deal of instruction which I now feel myself
to want."
Elinor honoured her for a plan which originated
so nobly as this; though smiling to see the same eager
fancy which had been leading her to the extreme of languid
indolence and selfish repining, now at work in introducing
excess into a scheme of such rational employment and virtuous
self-control. Her smile however changed to a sigh when she
remembered that promise to Willoughby was yet unfulfilled,
and feared she had that to communicate which might again
unsettle the mind of Marianne, and ruin at least for a time
this fair prospect of busy tranquillity. Willing therefore
to delay the evil hour, she resolved to wait till her
sister"s health were more secure, before she appointed it.
But the resolution was made only to be broken.
Marianne had been two or three days at home,
before
the weather was fine enough for an invalid like herself
to venture out. But at last a soft, genial morning appeared;
such as might tempt the daughter"s wishes and the
mother"s confidence; and Marianne, leaning on Elinor"s arm,
was authorised to walk as long as she could without fatigue,
in the lane before the house.
The sisters set out at a pace, slow as the
feebleness
of Marianne in an exercise hitherto untried since her
illness required;--and they had advanced only so far
beyond the house as to admit a full view of the hill,
the important hill behind, when pausing with her eyes
turned towards it, Marianne calmly said,
"There, exactly there,"--pointing with one
hand,
"on that projecting mound,--there I fell; and there I
first saw Willoughby."
Her voice sunk with the word, but presently
reviving
she added,
"I am thankful to find that I can look with
so little pain
on the spot!
小说推荐
- 洛川的理智与情感
- 《洛川的理智与情感》作者:巴赫的幽灵我叫邱慕颖,今年28岁,大提琴手。我的世界里充满色彩,在上学的时候,他们叫我摇滚Cello,因为我不喜欢循规蹈矩的演奏方式 我叫洛川,今年30岁,金融风险管理人。我的世界里不能有意外,意外对我来说意味着灾难,我的工作就是在灾难来临之前脱身。如果你让我描述什么叫做生
- 都市言情未知连载中
- 最新章:第30章
- 书剑恩仇录 英文版 The Book and The Sword
- 作者所写的《书剑恩仇录 英文版 The Book and The Sword》无弹窗免费全文阅读为转载作品,章节由网友发布
- 武侠小说未知连载中
- 最新章:第253章
- Foundation 4 - Foundation and Empire
- 阿西莫夫基地系列英文版基地三部曲-第二部:基地与帝国《基地与帝国》是“基地”系列三部曲中的第二部。此时,由伟大的心理史学家哈里谢顿所创立的基地,虽然已在银河外缘立稳了脚跟,但还得面对来自银河帝国的压力 垂死的帝国仍拥有银河中最强大的武力。一位野心勃勃的将军,率太空舰队攻向基地,聚居在基地小行星上的学
- 科幻小说未知连载中
- 最新章:第115章
- 神行机甲1and2
- 神行机甲Ⅱ作者:九戈龙色胆包天的唐纳,竟然跑到教师宿舍,与温柔如水的女老师在床上“盖棉被纯聊天,高亢激烈的“讨论”声震云霄“快乐似神仙”的歌声,让女老师的父亲破门而入,被迫“鸣金收兵”的唐纳这才发现,自己竟勾搭上了贵族的女儿…这下事情大条了!他一个小小平民,如何斗得过势力显赫的贵族?何况是濒临暴走的
- 科幻小说未知连载中
- 最新章:第350章
- 王者大陆and荣耀联盟
- 王者荣耀大唐世界观同人改编:以联盟的方式将不同英雄集结,进行未知的战斗 在王者大陆东部,大唐刚刚建立不久,长安之柱发生变化,预示着不凡之事将要降临 何人知晓那是大吉抑或是不祥?西域魔种降临,受到挑唆而与大唐为敌的敌国也纷纷来到,再加上故国王子,西域长城危机四伏,长城守卫军将如何集结,保卫长.城 长安
- 玄幻小说元峻道人连载中
- 最新章:荣耀联盟2:尧天 尾声
- 心理师手记 情感之乱
- 《情感之乱》作者:张楚涵简介:作者简介张楚涵,国家职业心理咨询师,上海黄手绢心理咨询中心创办人。毕业于解放军第四军医大学,多年以来在部队医院、干休所从事内科心理治疗工作,离开军营后潜心专研心理学,于2002年创立上海首家私人心理咨询机构,目前已成功指导个案数千例,同时担任多家报刊杂志的心理专栏作家,
- 都市言情未知连载中
- 最新章:第34章
- 智尊无上:从收集智慧结晶开始
- 六岁了,我不想学文,只能撒谎说要学武,却没想到开启系统。触摸任意人造物,就能获得智慧结晶提升系统推演能力 老娘教我学武,系统开启武道修行学科知识供我学习。拿到一颗血气丹,系统开启药科让我学习 拿到储物袋,怎么没开启炼器,而是锻造学科?我要升级学科知识,系统要能量 那我只能拼命赚元石了 作者:弓长舒所
- 玄幻小说弓长舒连载中
- 最新章:第十八章 物质与虚无
- 无处牵手—一个男人与六个女人的感情纠葛
- 本书讲述了一个男人与六个女人的感情纠葛,心灵一次次在不意间被擦伤。一阵惊愕伤感后,主人公弃官出走寻找真爱的感人故事 2001年10月,作品的第三稿首先在网络上连载,并参加了当年全球华文文学作品大赛,获得了广大读者和评委的关注和好评,最终以最高票夺得长篇小说“最佳人气大奖。现在呈现在读者面前的是这部获
- 都市言情未知连载中
- 少女梦想与情感 时间之夜
- 少女梦想与情感:时间之夜作者:胡玥 序壹读胡玥的《时间之夜(1 文/刘润为 我读过胡玥不少的作品《时间之夜》是写得最好的一部 古人论文,有有意为文和真能文之分。所谓有意为文,就是硬作;所谓真能文,就是有感而发。二者的根本区别在于是否出自真实的人生体验。有了真实的人生体验,才能真正做到歌有所思、哭有所
- 都市言情未知连载中
- 最新章:第33章