Jane Eyre 简爱 Chapter 28

TWO days are passed. It is a summer evening; the coachman has set me down at a place called Whitcross; he could take me no farther for the sum I had given, and I was not possessed ¹ of another shilling in the world. The coach is a mile off by this time; I am alone. At this moment I discover that I forgot to take my parcel out of the pocket of the coach, where I had placed it for safety; there it remains ², there it must remain; and now, I am absolutely destitute ³., ,Whitcross is no town, nor even a hamlet; it is but a stone pillar set up where four roads meet: whitewashed ⁴, I suppose, to be more obvious at a distance and in darkness. Four arms spring from its summit: the nearest town to which these point is, according to the inscription ⁵, distant ten miles; the farthest, above twenty. From the well-known names of these towns I learn in what county I have lighted; a north-midland shire, dusk with moorland, ridged with mountain: this I see. There are great moors ⁸ behind and on each hand of me; there are waves of mountains far beyond that deep valley at my feet. The population here must be thin, and I see no passengers on these roads: they stretch out east, west, north, and south-white, broad, lonely; they are all cut in the moor ⁶, and the heather grows deep and wild to their very verge ⁹. Yet a chance traveller might pass by; and I wish no eye to see me now: strangers would wonder what I am doing, lingering here at the sign-post, evidently objectless and lost. I might be questioned: I could give no answer but what would sound incredible and excite suspicion. Not a tie holds me to human society at this moment- not a charm or hope calls me where my fellow-creatures are- none that saw me would have a kind thought or a good wish for me., ,I have no relative but the universal mother, Nature: I will seek her breast and ask repose ¹⁰., , ,Some time passed before I felt tranquil ¹⁵ even here: I had a vague dread ¹⁶ that wild cattle might be near, or that some sportsman or poacher might discover me. If a gust ¹⁷ of wind swept the waste, I looked up, fearing it was the rush of a bull; if a plover ¹⁸ whistled, I imagined it a man. Finding my apprehensions ¹⁹ unfounded, however, and calmed by the deep silence that reigned ²⁰ as evening declined at nightfall, I took confidence. As yet I had not thought; I had only listened, watched, dreaded ²¹; now I regained ²³ the faculty ²⁴ of reflection., ,What was I to do? Where to go? Oh, intolerable questions, when I could do nothing and go nowhere!- when a long way must yet be measured by my weary, trembling limbs before I could reach human habitation- when cold charity must be entreated ²⁵ before I could get a lodging ²⁶: reluctant sympathy importuned ²⁸, almost certain repulse ²⁹ incurred ³⁰, before my tale could be listened to, or one of my wants relieved!, ,He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。,He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物 。