📝 您未登录，登录后完成练习可保存成绩、查看最佳记录。
总字符
0
正确字符
0
错误字符
0
错误率
0.00%
耗时(秒)
0
速度 WPM
0
0 / 69
1The month of courtship had wasted: its very last hours were being numbered. There was no putting off the day that
2advanced--the bridal day; and all preparations for its arrival were complete. I, at least, had nothing more to do: there
3were my trunks, packed, locked, corded, ranged in a row along the wall of my little chamber; to-morrow, at this time,
4they would be far on their road to London: and so should I (D.V.),--or rather, not I, but one Jane Rochester, a person
5whom as yet I knew not. The cards of address alone remained to nail on: they lay, four little squares, in the drawer.
6Mr. Rochester had himself written the direction, "Mrs. Rochester, ---- Hotel, London," on each: I could not persuade
7myself to affix them, or to have them affixed. Mrs. Rochester! She did not exist: she would not be born till to-morrow,
8some time after eight o'clock A.M.; and I would wait to be assured she had come into the world alive before I assigned
9to her all that property. It was enough that in yonder closet, opposite my dressing-table, garments said to be hers had
10already displaced my black stuff Lowood frock and straw bonnet: for not to me appertained that suit of wedding raiment;
11the pearl-coloured robe, the vapoury veil pendent from the usurped portmanteau. I shut the closet to conceal the
12strange, wraith-like apparel it contained; which, at this evening hour--nine o'clock--gave out certainly a most ghostly
13shimmer through the shadow of my apartment. "I will leave you by yourself, white dream," I said. "I am feverish: I hear
14the wind blowing: I will go out of doors and feel it." It was not only the hurry of preparation that made me feverish;
15not only the anticipation of the great change--the new life which was to commence to-morrow: both these circumstances
16had their share, doubtless, in producing that restless, excited mood which hurried me forth at this late hour into the
17darkening grounds: but a third cause influenced my mind more than they. I had at heart a strange and anxious thought.
18Something had happened which I could not comprehend; no one knew of or had seen the event but myself: it had taken place
19the preceding night. Mr. Rochester that night was absent from home; nor was he yet returned: business had called him to
20a small estate of two or three farms he possessed thirty miles off--business it was requisite he should settle in
21person, previous to his meditated departure from England. I waited now his return; eager to disburthen my mind, and to
22seek of him the solution of the enigma that perplexed me. Stay till he comes, reader; and, when I disclose my secret to
23him, you shall share the confidence. I sought the orchard, driven to its shelter by the wind, which all day had blown
24strong and full from the south, without, however, bringing a speck of rain. Instead of subsiding as night drew on, it
25seemed to augment its rush and deepen its roar: the trees blew steadfastly one way, never writhing round, and scarcely
26tossing back their boughs once in an hour; so continuous was the strain bending their branchy heads northward--the
27clouds drifted from pole to pole, fast following, mass on mass: no glimpse of blue sky had been visible that July day.
28It was not without a certain wild pleasure I ran before the wind, delivering my trouble of mind to the measureless
29air-torrent thundering through space. Descending the laurel walk, I faced the wreck of the chestnut-tree; it stood up
30black and riven: the trunk, split down the centre, gasped ghastly. The cloven halves were not broken from each other,
31for the firm base and strong roots kept them unsundered below; though community of vitality was destroyed--the sap could
32flow no more: their great boughs on each side were dead, and next winter's tempests would be sure to fell one or both to
33earth: as yet, however, they might be said to form one tree--a ruin, but an entire ruin. "You did right to hold fast to
34each other," I said: as if the monster-splinters were living things, and could hear me. "I think, scathed as you look,
35and charred and scorched, there must be a little sense of life in you yet, rising out of that adhesion at the faithful,
36honest roots: you will never have green leaves more--never more see birds making nests and singing idyls in your boughs;
37the time of pleasure and love is over with you: but you are not desolate: each of you has a comrade to sympathise with
38him in his decay." As I looked up at them, the moon appeared momentarily in that part of the sky which filled their
39fissure; her disk was blood-red and half overcast; she seemed to throw on me one bewildered, dreary glance, and buried
40herself again instantly in the deep drift of cloud. The wind fell, for a second, round Thornfield; but far away over
41wood and water, poured a wild, melancholy wail: it was sad to listen to, and I ran off again. Here and there I strayed
42through the orchard, gathered up the apples with which the grass round the tree roots was thickly strewn; then I
43employed myself in dividing the ripe from the unripe; I carried them into the house and put them away in the store-room.
44Then I repaired to the library to ascertain whether the fire was lit, for, though summer, I knew on such a gloomy
45evening Mr. Rochester would like to see a cheerful hearth when he came in: yes, the fire had been kindled some time, and
46burnt well. I placed his arm-chair by the chimney-corner: I wheeled the table near it: I let down the curtain, and had
47the candles brought in ready for lighting. More restless than ever, when I had completed these arrangements I could not
48sit still, nor even remain in the house: a little time-piece in the room and the old clock in the hall simultaneously
49struck ten. "How late it grows!" I said. "I will run down to the gates: it is moonlight at intervals; I can see a good
50way on the road. He may be coming now, and to meet him will save some minutes of suspense." The wind roared high in the
51great trees which embowered the gates; but the road as far as I could see, to the right hand and the left, was all still
52and solitary: save for the shadows of clouds crossing it at intervals as the moon looked out, it was but a long pale
53line, unvaried by one moving speck. A puerile tear dimmed my eye while I looked--a tear of disappointment and
54impatience; ashamed of it, I wiped it away. I lingered; the moon shut herself wholly within her chamber, and drew close
55her curtain of dense cloud: the night grew dark; rain came driving fast on the gale. "I wish he would come! I wish he
56would come!" I exclaimed, seized with hypochondriac foreboding. I had expected his arrival before tea; now it was dark:
57what could keep him? Had an accident happened? The event of last night again recurred to me. I interpreted it as a
58warning of disaster. I feared my hopes were too bright to be realised; and I had enjoyed so much bliss lately that I
59imagined my fortune had passed its meridian, and must now decline. "Well, I cannot return to the house," I thought; "I
60cannot sit by the fireside, while he is abroad in inclement weather: better tire my limbs than strain my heart; I will
61go forward and meet him." I set out; I walked fast, but not far: ere I had measured a quarter of a mile, I heard the
62tramp of hoofs; a horseman came on, full gallop; a dog ran by his side. Away with evil presentiment! It was he: here he
63was, mounted on Mesrour, followed by Pilot. He saw me; for the moon had opened a blue field in the sky, and rode in it
64watery bright: he took his hat off, and waved it round his head. I now ran to meet him. "There!" he exclaimed, as he
65stretched out his hand and bent from the saddle: "You can't do without me, that is evident. Step on my boot-toe; give me
66both hands: mount!" I obeyed: joy made me agile: I sprang up before him. A hearty kissing I got for a welcome, and some
67boastful triumph, which I swallowed as well as I could. He checked himself in his exultation to demand, "But is there
68anything the matter, Janet, that you come to meet me at such an hour? Is there anything wrong?" "No, but I thought you
69would never come. I could not bear to wait in the house for you, especially with this rain and wind."
🎉 全部完成！共 69 行