米德尔马契 英文版 Middlemarch
乔治.艾略特 George Eliot
CHAPTER LIX.
They said of old the Soul had human shape,But smaller, subtler than the fleshly self,So wandered forth for airing when it pleased.And see! beside her cherub-face there floatsA pale-lipped form aerial whisperingIts promptings in that little shell her ear."
News is often dispersed as thoughtlessly and effectively as thatpollen which the bees carry off (having no idea how powdery they are)when they are buzzing in search of their particular nectar.This fine comparison has reference to Fred Vincy, who on that eveningat Lowick Parsonage heard a lively discussion among the ladies onthe news which their old servant had got from Tantripp concerningMr. Casaubon's strange mention of Mr. Ladislaw in a codicil to his willmade not long before his death. Miss Winifred was astounded to findthat her brother had known the fact before, and observed that Camdenwas the most wonderful man for knowing things and not telling them;whereupon Mary Garth said that the codicil had perhaps got mixedup with the habits of spiders, which Miss Winifred never wouldlisten to. Mrs. Farebrother considered that the news had somethingto do with their having only once seen Mr. Ladislaw at Lowick,and Miss Noble made many small compassionate mewings.
Fred knew little and cared less about Ladislaw and the Casaubons,and his mind never recurred to that discussion till one day callingon Rosamond at his mother's request to deliver a message as he passed,he happened to see Ladislaw going away. Fred and Rosamond had littleto say to each other now that marriage had removed her from collisionwith the unpleasantness of brothers, and especially now that he hadtaken what she held the stupid and even reprehensible step of givingup the Church to take to such a business as Mr. Garth's. HenceFred talked by preference of what he considered indifferent news,and "a propos of that young Ladislaw" mentioned what he hadheard at Lowick Parsonage.
Now Lydgate, like Mr. Farebrother, knew a great deal more thanhe told, and when he had once been set thinking about the relationbetween Will and Dorothea his conjectures had gone beyond the fact.He imagined that there was a passionate attachment on both sides,and this struck him as much too serious to gossip about.He remembered Will's irritability when he had mentioned Mrs. Casaubon,and was the more circumspect. On the whole his surmises, in additionto what he knew of the fact, increased his friendliness and tolerancetowards Ladislaw, and made him understand the vacillation which kepthim at Middlemarch after he had said that he should go away.It was significant of the separateness between Lydgate's mind andRosamond's that he had no impulse to speak to her on the subject;indeed, he did not quite trust her reticence towards Will.And he was right there; though he had no vision of the wayin which her mind would act in urging her to speak.
When she repeated Fred's news to Lydgate, he said, "Take care youdon't drop the faintest hint to Ladislaw, Rosy. He is likely to flyout as if you insulted him. Of course it is a painful affair."
Rosamond turned her neck and patted her hair, looking the imageof placid indifference. But the next time Will came when Lydgatewas away, she spoke archly about his not going to London as hehad threatened.
"I know all about it. I have a confidential little bird," said she,showing very pretty airs of her head over the bit of work heldhigh between her active fingers. "There is a powerful magnetin this neighborhood."
"To be sure there is. Nobody knows that better than you," said Will,with light gallantry, but inwardly prepared to be angry.
"It is really the most charming romance: Mr. Casaubon jealous,and foreseeing that there was no one else whom Mrs. Casaubon wouldso much like to marry, and no one who would so much like to marryher as a certain gentleman; and then laying a plan to spoil allby making her forfeit her property if she did marry that gentleman--and then--and then--and then--oh, I have no doubt the end will bethoroughly romantic."
"Great God! what do you mean?" said Will, flushing over face and ears,his features seeming to change as if he had had a violent shake."Don't joke; tell me what you mean."
"You don't really know?" said Rosamond, no longer playful, and desiringnothing better than to tell in order that she might evoke effects.
"No!" he returned, impatiently.
"Don't know that Mr. Casaubon has left it in his will thatif Mrs. Casaubon marries you she is to forfeit all her property?"
"How do you know that it is true?" said Will, eagerly.
"My brother Fred heard it from the Farebrothers." Will started upfrom his chair and reached his hat.
"I dare say she likes you better than the property," said Rosamond,looking at him from a distance.
"Pray don't say any more about it," said Will, in a hoarse undertoneextremely unlike his usual light voice. "It is a foul insultto her and to me." Then he sat down absently, looking before him,but seeing nothing.
"Now you are angry with _me_," said Rosamond. "It is too badto bear _me_ malice. You ought to be obliged to me for telling you."
"So I am," said Will, abruptly, speaking with that kind of doublesoul which belongs to dreamers who answer questions.
"I expect to hear of the marriage," said Rosamond, playfully.
"Never! You will never hear of the marriage!"
With those words uttered impetuously, Will rose, put out his handto Rosamond, still with the air of a somnambulist, and went away.
When he was gone, Rosamond left her chair and walked to the other endof the room, leaning when she got there against a chiffonniere,and looking out of the window wearily. She was oppressed by ennui,and by that dissatisfaction which in women's minds is continuallyturning into a trivial jealousy, referring to no real claims,springing from no deeper passion than the vague exactingnessof egoism, and yet capable of impelling action as well as speech."There really is nothing to care for much," said poor Rosamond inwardly,thinking of the family at Quallingham, who did not write to her;and that perhaps Tertius when he came home would tease herabout expenses. She had already secretly disobeyed him by askingher father to help them, and he had ended decisively by saying,"I am more likely to want help myself."