友情提示:如果本网页打开太慢或显示不完整,请尝试鼠标右键“刷新”本网页!阅读过程发现任何错误请告诉我们,谢谢!! 报告错误
狗狗书籍 返回本书目录 我的书架 我的书签 TXT全本下载 进入书吧 加入书签

Jane Eyre-第7章

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!




“what made you ill yesterday?”

“she had a fall;” said bessie; again putting in her word。

“fall! why; that is like a baby again! can’t she manage to walk at her age? she must be eight or nine years old。”

“i was knocked down;” was the blunt explanation; jerked out of me by another pang of mortified pride; “but that did not make me ill;” i added; while mr。 lloyd helped himself to a pinch of snuff。

as he was returning the box to his waistcoat pocket; a loud bell rang for the servants’ dinner; he knew what it was。 “that’s for you; nurse;” said he; “you can go down; i’ll give miss jane a lecture till you e back。”

bessie would rather have stayed; but she was obliged to go; because punctuality at meals was rigidly enforced at gateshead hall。

“the fall did not make you ill; what did; then?” pursued mr。 lloyd when bessie was gone。

“i was shut up in a room where there is a ghost till after dark。”

i saw mr。 lloyd smile and frown at the same time。

“ghost! what; you are a baby after all! you are afraid of ghosts?”

“of mr。 reed’s ghost i am: he died in that room; and was laid out there。 neither bessie nor any one else will go into it at night; if they can help it; and it was cruel to shut me up alone without a candle;—so cruel that i think i shall never forget it。”

“nonsense! and is it that makes you so miserable? are you afraid now in daylight?”

“no: but night will e again before long: and besides;—i am unhappy;—very unhappy; for other things。”

“what other things? can you tell me some of them?”

how much i wished to reply fully to this question! how difficult it was to frame any answer! children can feel; but they cannot analyse their feelings; and if the analysis is partially effected in thought; they know not how to express the result of the process in words。 fearful; however; of losing this first and only opportunity of relieving my grief by imparting it; i; after a disturbed pause; contrived to frame a meagre; though; as far as it went; true response。

“for one thing; i have no father or mother; brothers or sisters。”

“you have a kind aunt and cousins。”

again i paused; then bunglingly enounced—

“but john reed knocked me down; and my aunt shut me up in the red… room。”

mr。 lloyd a second time produced his snuff…box。

“don’t you think gateshead hall a very beautiful house?” asked he。 “are you not very thankful to have such a fine place to live at?”

“it is not my house; sir; and abbot says i have less right to be here than a servant。”

“pooh! you can’t be silly enough to wish to leave such a splendid place?”

“if i had anywhere else to go; i should be glad to leave it; but i can never get away from gateshead till i am a woman。”

“perhaps you may—who knows? have you any relations besides mrs。 reed?”

“i think not; sir。”

“none belonging to your father?”

“i don’t know。 i asked aunt reed once; and she said possibly i might have some poor; low relations called eyre; but she knew nothing about them。”

“if you had such; would you like to go to them?”

i reflected。 poverty looks grim to grown people; still more so to children: they have not much idea of industrious; working; respectable poverty; they think of the word only as connected with ragged clothes; scanty food; fireless grates; rude manners; and debasing vices: poverty for me was synonymous with degradation。

“no; i should not like to belong to poor people;” was my reply。

“not even if they were kind to you?”

i shook my head: i could not see how poor people had the means of being kind; and then to learn to speak like them; to adopt their manners; to be uneducated; to grow up like one of the poor women i saw sometimes nursing their children or washing their clothes at the cottage doors of the village of gateshead: no; i was not heroic enough to purchase liberty at the price of caste。

“but are your relatives so very poor? are they working people?”

“i cannot tell; aunt。 reed says if i have any; they must be a beggarly set: i should not like to go a begging。”

“would you like to go to school?”

again i reflected: i scarcely knew what school was: bessie sometimes spoke of it as a place where young ladies sat in the stocks; wore backboards; and were expected to be exceedingly genteel and precise: john reed hated his school; and abused his master; but john reed’s tastes were no rule for mine; and if bessie’s accounts of school…discipline (gathered from the young ladies of a family where she had lived before ing to gateshead) were somewhat appalling; her details of certain acplishments attained by these same young ladies were; i thought; equally attractive。 she boasted of beautiful paintings of landscapes and flowers by them executed; of songs they could sing and pieces they could play; of purses they could net; of french books they could translate; till my spirit was moved to emulation as i listened。 besides; school would be a plete change: it implied a long journey; an entire separation from gateshead; an entrance into a new life。

“i should indeed like to go to school;” was the audible conclusion of my musings。

“well; well! who knows what may happen?” said mr。 lloyd; as he got up。 “the child ought to have change of air and scene;” he added; speaking to himself; “nerves not in a good state。”

bessie now returned; at the same moment the carriage was heard rolling up the gravel…walk。

“is that your mistress; nurse?” asked mr。 lloyd。 “i should like to speak to her before i go。”

bessie invited him to walk into the breakfast…room; and led the way out。 in the interview which followed between him and mrs。 reed; i presume; from after…occurrences; that the apothecary ventured to remend my being sent to school; and the remendation was no doubt readily enough adopted; for as abbot said; in discussing the subject with bessie when both sat sewing in the nursery one night; after i was in bed; and; as they thought; asleep; “missis was; she dared say; glad enough to get rid of such a tiresome; ill… conditioned child; who always looked as if she were watching everybody; and scheming plots underhand。” abbot; i think;
返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0
未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
温馨提示: 温看小说的同时发表评论,说出自己的看法和其它小伙伴们分享也不错哦!发表书评还可以获得积分和经验奖励,认真写原创书评 被采纳为精评可以获得大量金币、积分和经验奖励哦!