正文预览

第0章 永生是重罪

　　'That is one of my paintings over the chimney-piece.' It was alandscape in water colours, of which I had made a present to thesuperintendent, in acknowledgment of her obliging mediation with thecommittee on my behalf, and which she had framed and glazed.

　　'Nothing, indeed,' thought I, as I struggled to repress a sob,and hastily wiped away some tears, the impotent evidences of myanguish.

　　The red-room was a square chamber, very seldom slept in, I mightsay never, indeed, unless when a chance influx of visitors atGateshead Hall rendered it necessary to turn to account all theaccommodation it contained: yet it was one of the largest andstateliest chambers in the mansion. A bed supported on massive pillarsof mahogany, hung with curtains of deep red damask, stood out like atabernacle in the centre; the two large windows, with their blindsalways drawn down, were half shrouded in festoons and falls of similardrapery; the carpet was red; the table at the foot of the bed wascovered with a crimson cloth; the walls were a soft fawn colour with ablush of pink in it; the wardrobe, the toilet-table, the chairs wereof darkly polished old mahogany. Out of these deep surroundingshades rose high, and glared white, the piled-up mattresses andpillows of the bed, spread with a snowy Marseilles counterpane.Scarcely less prominent was an ample cushioned easy-chair near thehead of the bed, also white, with a footst

　　The afternoon came on wet and somewhat misty: as it waned intodusk, I began to feel that we were getting very far indeed fromGateshead: we ceased to pass through towns; the country changed; greatgrey hills heaved up round the horizon: as twilight deepened, wedescended a valley, dark with wood, and long after night hadoverclouded the prospect, I heard a wild wind rushing amongst trees.

that had forgotten to drop.

　　'What does Bessie say I have done?' I asked.

　　Clouds there are none, and clear stars beam mild,

　　'Nothing, indeed,' thought I, as I struggled to repress a sob,and hastily wiped away some tears, the impotent evidences of myanguish.

　　'A matter of six miles.'