Kitabı oku: «Незнакомка из Уайлдфелл-Холла. Уровень 2 / The Tenant of Wildfell Hall», sayfa 6

Chapter VI

During the next four months I did not enter Mrs. Graham's house; but still the ladies continued to talk about her. And still our acquaintance continued, though slowly, to advance. Sometimes I saw her myself, not only when she came to church, but when she was out on the hills with her son. I liked to see Mrs. Graham, and to talk to her. I decidedly liked to talk to her little companion, who was a very amiable and intelligent little fellow. We soon became excellent friends. What pleased her best of all was to see him with Sancho, while I walked by her side – not for love of my company (though I sometimes deluded myself with that idea). Those active sports were invigorating to her son, that's all.

One bright February morning, during twenty minutes' stroll along the moor, she was discoursing with so much eloquence and depth of thought, that I went home enchanted. And I thought it was, perhaps, better to spend one's days with such a woman than with Eliza Millward. Then I (figuratively) blushed for my inconstancy.

“However,” thought I, “I cannot marry Eliza, since my mother so strongly objects to it. So I must not delude the girl with the idea that I intended to do so. Mrs. Graham can be equally objectionable. But I shall not fall seriously in love with the young widow, I think, nor she with me – that's certain.”

One calm, clear afternoon, in March, I saw Mrs. Graham down by the brook, with a sketch-book in her hand. She was absorbed in her favourite art, while Arthur was constructing dams and breakwaters in the shallow, stony stream.

“Do you not find it a desolate place to live in?” said I, after a moment of silent contemplation.

“I do, sometimes,” replied she. “On winter evenings, when Arthur is in bed, and I am sitting there alone. But it is folly to give way to such weakness, I know. Rachel is satisfied with such a life. Indeed, I must be thankful for such an asylum.”

Then bid me good-evening and withdrew.

Soon perceived Mr. Lawrence, on his pretty grey pony. I went a little out of my way to speak to him.

“Was that Mrs. Graham you were speaking to just now?” said he.

“Yes.”

“Humph! I thought so.”

“Well! What then?”

“Oh, nothing!” replied he. “Only I thought you disliked her.”

“Suppose I did. Can't a man change his mind?”

“Yes, of course,” returned he. “Then you have changed your mind?”

“I can't say that I have exactly. No; I think I hold the same opinion – but slightly ameliorated.”

“Oh!” He glanced up at the moon.

“Lawrence,” said I calmly, “are you in love with Mrs. Graham?”

He laughed.

“I am in love with her!” repeated he. “Why do you think so?”

“From the interest you take in the progress of my acquaintance with the lady, and the changes of my opinion concerning her, I thought you were jealous.”

He laughed again.

“Jealous! no. But I thought you were going to marry Eliza Millward.”

“You thought wrong, then; I am not going to marry either one or the other.”

Chapter VII

Not many days after this, on a mild sunny morning, I was out on the hill-side. I beheld three persons below. They were Eliza Millward, Fergus, and Rose; so I crossed the field to meet them. They told me that they were going to Wildfell Hall. I joined them, and offered my arm to Eliza, who readily accepted it.

So we went all. The meagre old maid-servant, that opened the door, ushered us into a tolerably spacious and lofty room.

The lady was seated in a stiff, high-backed arm-chair, with a small round table, containing a desk and a work-basket on one side of her, and her little boy on the other. The boy was leaning his elbow on her knee, and reading to her, with wonderful fluency, from a small volume that lay in her lap.

I do not think Mrs. Graham was particularly delighted to see us. There was something indescribably chilly in her quiet, calm civility; but I did not talk much to her. I called Arthur to me, and he and I and Sancho amused ourselves very pleasantly together. Fergus was interrupting the conversation, or filling up a pause with some impertinent question or remark. At one time it was,

“It, amazes me, Mrs. Graham, how you can choose such a dilapidated, rickety old place as this to live in. If you can't afford to occupy the whole house, why can't you take a neat little cottage?”

“Perhaps this romantic, old-fashioned place, Mr. Fergus,” replied she, “has many advantages over a cottage. You see, the rooms are larger and more airy. The unoccupied apartments, which I don't pay for, may serve as lumber-rooms. They are very useful for my little boy to run about in on rainy days when he can't go out. Then there is the garden for him to play in, and for me to work in.”

“But then how can you bear such a situation – your nearest neighbours two miles distant, and nobody passes by? Rose will go mad in such a place.”

“The loneliness of the place was one of its chief recommendations. I like to be quiet.”

“Oh! Do you want to tell us to leave you alone?”

“No, I dislike an extensive acquaintance; but if I have a few friends, of course I am glad to see them occasionally. No one can be happy in eternal solitude. Therefore, Mr. Fergus, if you choose to enter my house as a friend, I will make you welcome. If not, I will keep you away.”