登陆注册
15452000000157

第157章 CHAPTER XXXVII.(1)

Just outside the little sea-side town of Eastbank is a house which, being very old, contrasts agreeably with the pretentious villas fashion has raised. It is gloomy inside, yet outside it looks like a cottage: low, rambling, gabled, and picturesque. It stands on a slope just above the sea, and its front garden runs down almost to the sea-shore. The aspect is southerly. The placid sea looks like a beautiful lake; for, about two miles out, a great tongue of land runs across and keeps the tempests out.

The cottage itself was now closed deep with green creepers, and its veranda with jessamine; and the low white walls of the garden were beautiful with vine-leaves and huge fig-leaves, that ran up them and about them, and waved over them in tropical luxuriance. In short, the house was a very bower, and looked the abode of bliss; and this time last year a young couple had spent their honeymoon there, and left it with a sigh. But one place sees many minds; and now this sweet place was the bed on which dropped the broken lily of this tale, Grace Carden.

She lay in the warm air of the veranda, and turned her hollow eyes upon the sea; and every day life crept slowly back to her young body, but not to her desolate heart.

A brain fever either kills or blunts, and Grace's agony was blunted.

Her mind was in a strange state. She was beginning to look two things in the face: that the man she loved was dead; that the man she loved, and had nearly died for, had loved another as well as herself: and this last grief, strange to say, was the saving of her.

She forgave him with all her heart, for he was dead; she made excuses for him, for she loved him; but since his whole heart had not been hers, her pride and modesty rebelled against dying for him, and she resolved to live; she fought hard to live and get well.

Finally, being a very woman, though a noble one, she hated Jael Dence.

She was not alone in the world. Her danger, her illness, and her misery had shown her the treasure of a father's love. He had found this sweet bower for her; and here he sat for hours by her side, and his hand in hers, gazing on her with touching anxiety and affection.

Business compelled him to run into Hillsborough now and then, but he dispatched it with feverish haste, and came back to her: it drove him to London; but he telegraphed to her twice a day, and was miserable till he got back. She saw the man of business turned into a man of love for her, and she felt it. "Ah, papa," she said one day, "I little thought you loved your poor Grace so much. You don't love any other child but me, do you, papa?" and with this question she clung weeping round his neck.

"My darling child, there's nothing on earth I love but you. When shall I see you smile again?"

"In a few hours, years. God knows."

One evening--he had been in Hillsborough that day--he said, "My dear, I have seen an old friend of yours to-day, Mr. Coventry. He asked very kindly after you."

Grace made no reply.

"He is almost as pale as you are. He has been very ill, he tells me. And, really, I believe it was your illness upset him."

"Poor Mr. Coventry!" said Grace, but with a leaden air of indifference.

"I hope I didn't do wrong, but when he asked after you so anxiously, I said, 'Come, and see for yourself.' Oh, you need not look frightened; he is not coming. He says you are offended with him."

"Not I. What is Mr. Coventry to me?"

"Well, he thinks so. He says he was betrayed into speaking ill to you of some one who, he thought, was living; and now that weighs upon his conscience."

"I can't understand that. I am miserable, but let me try and be just. Papa, Mr. Coventry was trying to comfort me, in his clumsy way; and what he said he did not invent--he heard it; and so many people say so that I--I--oh, papa! papa!"

Mr. Carden dropped the whole subject directly.

However, she returned to it herself, and said, listlessly, that Mr. Coventry, in her opinion, had shown more generosity than most people would in his case. She had no feeling against him; he was of no more importance in her eyes than that stool, and he might visit her if he pleased, but on one condition--that he should forget all the past, and never presume to speak to her of love. "Love! Men are all incapable of it." She was thinking of Henry, even while she was speaking of his rival.

The permission, thus limited, was conveyed to Mr. Coventry by his friend Carden; but he showed no hurry to take advantage of it; and, as for Grace, she forgot she had given it.

But this coolness of Coventry's was merely apparent. He was only awaiting the arrival of Patrick Lally from Ireland. This Lally was an old and confidential servant, who had served him formerly in many intrigues, and with whom he had parted reluctantly some months ago, and allowed him a small pension for past services. He dared not leave the villa in charge of any person less devoted to him than this Lally.

The man arrived at last, received minute instructions, and then Mr. Coventry went to Eastbank.

He found what seemed the ghost of Grace Carden lying on the sofa, looking on the sea.

At the sight of her he started back in dismay.

"What have I done?"

Those strange words fell from him before he knew what he was saying.

Grace heard them, but did not take the trouble to inquire into their meaning. She said, doggedly, "I am alive, you see. Nothing kills.

It is wonderful: we die of a fall, of a blow, of swallowing a pin; yet I am alive. But never mind me; you look unwell yourself. What is the matter?"

"Can you ask me?"

At this, which implied that her illness was the cause of his, she turned her head away from him with weariness and disgust, and looked at the sea, and thought of the dead.

Coventry sat speechless, and eyed her silent figure with miserable devotion. He was by her side once more, and no rival near. He set himself to study all her moods, and began by being inoffensive to her; in time he might be something more.

He spent four days in Eastbank, and never uttered a word of love; but his soft soothing voice was ever in her ear, and won her attention now and then; not often.

同类推荐
  • 法华传记

    法华传记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 圣佛母小字般若波罗蜜多经

    圣佛母小字般若波罗蜜多经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 权书

    权书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 略明般若末后一颂赞述

    略明般若末后一颂赞述

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 孔氏志怪

    孔氏志怪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 王牌总裁的甜心宝贝

    王牌总裁的甜心宝贝

    那一年,她高二,他大一,第一次见面,她不可救药的爱上了他,他却视她为玩物,一次次的伤害,让容思琴也恨上了这个男人。他追她六年,换来的却是他和杀父仇人在一起。带上满身的伤痕。她走了,再不出现在她的面前,他却日夜思念,原来,他以深深沦陷,再见面,“爸爸你不会不要我吧!”是爱还是不爱!
  • 重生之幼儿园我是班长

    重生之幼儿园我是班长

    我想告诉你们的是,我重生了,没错,就是回到过去,别人重生都是重生在高考前一个月什么的重要时刻,老子重生在幼儿园是几个意思?而且还他妈是小班!我一个三十岁的人重生在了五岁的幼儿园小班,励志要当一个好班长!
  • 血仇盟

    血仇盟

    基因裂子使人分子基因分裂变异,基因聚子使人分子与外界强大分子融合。看幽冥曼陀罗寒霜笑建血仇盟报血仇!
  • 我是诸天

    我是诸天

    我是系统,掌控诸天万界。“纳兰嫣然,消炎已经得到了老爷爷,你考虑得怎么样了?”“信系统,得永生……”
  • The Price She Paid

    The Price She Paid

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 网游之宠物猎人

    网游之宠物猎人

    被妹子坑选了万金油的猎人?没关系,高手玩啥都一样!PK不行?幽灵狼杀人于无形。练级不行?大地兽会龙语,刷怪一秒一大片。下副本不行?你们都让开,让我……小弟来!说我战斗不够华丽?见过万兽之王没?没见过,哥变身给你看看!什么,说这书是无敌YY流?不,其实是技术死宅流!————————新人新书,觉得还不错就点个收藏吧。
  • 痞子总裁:萌妻逃逃逃

    痞子总裁:萌妻逃逃逃

    因一场意外,两个在不同平行线上的人,站在了一起。“你身边那么多女人为何不能放过我?你喜欢我哪一点,我改还不行吗!”“你哪一点我都喜欢,我就是赖着你怎样,不服我们就生个小孩。”
  • 佳人良缘

    佳人良缘

    生下来的公主,因为诸子国的预言,被弃。十六年后再次卷入皇室狂潮,她的身份又会迎来什么样的麻烦......若我天生凤命,为何你当王时,我只是被人唾弃的妖女。。
  • 太初元气接要保生之论

    太初元气接要保生之论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • Ba/dBa/d幻想曲

    Ba/dBa/d幻想曲

    有着五位帅哥的FLY乐队已是圣叶城各所学校女生们追捧的对象,身为乐队主唱又是叶氏集团大少爷的叶辰羽更是无数少女为之疯狂的偶像,一个突然出现的女生的闯入,坚决要成为FLY键盘手的艾丝洛,会给我们带来怎样的故事呢?她和叶辰羽的恩怨又会如何纠缠呢?为了赢得和四叶草唱片公司的签约,他们又是如何实现共同的理想呢?