Jane Eyre 简爱 Chapter 15

MR. ROCHESTER did, on a future occasion, explain it. It was one afternoon, when he chanced to meet me and Adele in the grounds: and while she played with Pilot and her shuttlecock, he asked me to walk up and down a long beech ¹ avenue within sight of her., ,He then said that she was the daughter of a French opera-dancer, Celine Varens, towards whom he had once cherished what he called a 'grande passion.' This passion Celine had professed ² to return with even superior ardour. He thought himself her idol ³, ugly as he was: he believed, as he said, that she preferred his 'taille d'athlete' to the elegance ⁴ of the Apollo Belvidere., ,'And, Miss Eyre, so much was I flattered by this preference of the Gallic sylph for her British gnome ⁵, that I installed her in an hotel; gave her a complete establishment of servants, a carriage, cashmeres, diamonds, dentelles, etc. In short, I began the process of ruining myself in the received style, like any other spoony. I had not, it seems, the originality ⁶ to chalk out a new road to shame and destruction, but trode the old track with stupid exactness not to deviate ⁷ an inch from the beaten centre. I had- as I deserved to have- the fate of all other spoonies. Happening to call one evening when Celine did not expect me, I found her out; but it was a warm night, and I was tired with strolling through Paris, so I sat down in her boudoir; happy to breathe the air consecrated ⁸ so lately by her presence. No,- I exaggerate; I never thought there was any consecrating ⁹ virtue ¹⁰ about her: it was rather a sort of pastille perfume she had left; a scent ¹¹ of musk ¹² and amber ¹³, than an odour of sanctity. I was just beginning to stifle ¹⁴ with the fumes ¹⁵ of conservatory ¹⁶ flowers and sprinkled essences, when I bethought myself to open the window and step out on to the balcony. It was moonlight and gaslight besides, and very still and serene ¹⁷. The balcony was furnished with a chair or two; I sat down, and took out a cigar,- I will take one now, if you will excuse me.', , ,'You never felt jealousy ²⁷, did you, Miss Eyre? Of course not: I need not ask you; because you never felt love. You have both sentiments yet to experience: your soul sleeps; the shock is yet to be given which shall waken it. You think all existence lapses ²⁸ in as quiet a flow as that in which your youth has hitherto slid away. Floating on with closed eyes and muffled ears, you neither see the rocks bristling ²⁹ not far off in the bed of the flood, nor hear the breakers boil at their base. But I tell you- and you may mark my words- you will come some day to a craggy pass in the channel, where the whole of life's stream will be broken up into whirl and tumult ³⁰, foam ³¹ and noise: either you will be dashed to atoms on crag points, or lifted up and borne on by some master-wave into a calmer current- as I am now., ,'I like this day; I like that sky of steel; I like the sterness and stillness of the world under this frost. I like Thornfield, its antiquity ³², its retirement ³³, its old crow-trees and thorn-trees, its grey facade ³⁴, and lines of dark windows reflecting that metal welkin: and yet how long have I abhorred ³⁵ the very thought of it, shunned ³⁶ it like a great plague-house? How I do still abhor-', ,Exasperated,he leaped the stream,and strode towards beech clump.他满腔恼怒 ，跳过小河
，大踏步向毛榉林子走去 。,These, at least, were their professed reasons for pulling out of the deal. 至少这些是他们自称退出这宗交易的理由
。