Jane Eyre 简爱 Chapter 4

FROM my discourse ¹ with Mr. Lloyd, and from the above reported conference between Bessie and Abbot, I gathered enough of hope to suffice as a motive ² for wishing to get well: a change seemed near,- I desired and waited it in silence. It tarried, however: days and weeks passed: I had regained ³ my normal state of health, but no new allusion ⁴ was made to the subject over which I brooded. Mrs. Reed surveyed me at times with a severe eye, but seldom addressed me: since my illness, she had drawn ⁵ a more marked line of separation than ever between me and her own children; appointing me a small closet to sleep in by myself, condemning ⁶ me to take my meals alone, and pass all my time in the nursery, while my cousins were constantly in the drawing-room. Not a hint, however, did she drop about sending me to school: still I felt an instinctive ⁷ certainty that she would not long endure me under the same roof w with my doll on my knee till the fire got low, glancing round occasionally to make sure that nothing worse than myself haunted the shadowy room; and when the embers sank to a dull red, I undressed hastily, tugging ⁹ at knots and strings ¹⁰ as I best might, and sought shelter from cold and darkness in my crib. To this crib I always took my doll; human beings must love something, and, in the dearth ¹¹ of worthier ¹² objects of affection, v?粥which had stirred my corruption ¹³ before, he thought it better to desist, and ran from me uttering execrations, and vowing ¹⁴ I had burst his nose. I had indeed levelled at that prominent feature as hard a blow as my knuckles ¹⁵ could inflict ¹⁶; and when I saw that either that or my look daunted ¹⁷ him, I had the greatest inclination ¹⁸ to follow up my advantage to purpose; but he was already with his mama. I heard him in a blubbering tone commence the tale of how 'that nasty Jane Eyre' had flown at him like a mad cat: he was stopped rather harshly- 'Don't talk to me about her, John: I told you not to go near her; she is not worthy ¹⁹ of notice; I do not choose that either you or your sisters should associate with her.', ,Here, leaning over the banister, I cried out suddenly, and without at all deliberating on my words-'They are not fit to associate with me.', ,Mrs. Reed was rather a stout ²⁰ woman; but, on hearing this strange and audacious declaration, she ran nimbly up the stair, swept me like a whirlwind into the nursery, and crushing me down on the edge of my crib, dared me in an emphatic ²¹ voice to rise from that place, or utter one syllable ²² during the remainder of the day., , ,'What?' said Mrs. Reed under her breath: her usually cold composed grey eye became troubled with a look like fear; she took her hand from my arm, and gazed at me as if she really did not know whether I were child or fiend. I was now in for it., ,'My Uncle Reed is in heaven, and can see all you do and think; and so can papa and mama: they know how you shut me up all day long, and how you wish me dead.'Mrs. Reed soon rallied her spirits: she shook me most soundly, she boxed both my ears, and then left me without a word. Bessie supplied the hiatus by a homily of an hour's length, in which she proved beyond a doubt that I was the most wicked and abandoned child ever reared under a roof. I half believed her; for I felt indeed only bad feelings surging in my breast., ,He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。,The police could not find a motive for the murder.警察不能找到谋杀的动机 。