Daniel Deronda George Eliot (best book clubs TXT) đ
- Author: George Eliot
Book online «Daniel Deronda George Eliot (best book clubs TXT) đ». Author George Eliot
âYou are very generous,â she said, not moving her eyes, and speaking with a gentle intonation.
âYou accept what will make such things a matter of course?â said Grandcourt, without any new eagerness. âYou consent to become my wife?â
This time Gwendolen remained quite pale. Something made her rise from her seat in spite of herself and walk to a little distance. Then she turned and with her hands folded before her stood in silence.
Grandcourt immediately rose too, resting his hat on the chair, but still keeping hold of it. The evident hesitation of this destitute girl to take his splendid offer stung him into a keenness of interest such as he had not known for years. None the less because he attributed her hesitation entirely to her knowledge about Mrs. Glasher. In that attitude of preparation, he said,
âDo you command me to go?â No familiar spirit could have suggested to him more effective words.
âNo,â said Gwendolen. She could not let him go: that negative was a clutch. She seemed to herself to be, after all, only drifted toward the tremendous decisionâ âbut drifting depends on something besides the currents when the sails have been set beforehand.
âYou accept my devotion?â said Grandcourt, holding his hat by his side and looking straight into her eyes, without other movement. Their eyes meeting in that way seemed to allow any length of pause: but wait as long as she would, how could she contradict herself? What had she detained him for? He had shut out any explanation.
âYes,â came as gravely from Gwendolenâs lips as if she had been answering to her name in a court of justice. He received it gravely, and they still looked at each other in the same attitude. Was there ever such a way before of accepting the bliss-giving âYesâ? Grandcourt liked better to be at that distance from her, and to feel under a ceremony imposed by an indefinable prohibition that breathed from Gwendolenâs bearing.
But he did at length lay down his hat and advance to take her hand, just pressing his lips upon it and letting it go again. She thought his behavior perfect, and gained a sense of freedom which made her almost ready to be mischievous. Her âYesâ entailed so little at this moment that there was nothing to screen the reversal of her gloomy prospects; her vision was filled by her own release from the Momperts, and her motherâs release from Sawyerâs Cottage. With a happy curl of the lips, she said,
âWill you not see mamma? I will fetch her.â
âLet us wait a little,â said Grandcourt, in his favorite attitude, having his left forefinger and thumb in his waistcoat pocket, and with his right hand caressing his whisker, while he stood near Gwendolen and looked at herâ ânot unlike a gentleman who has a felicitous introduction at an evening party.
âHave you anything else to say to me?â said Gwendolen, playfully.
âYesâ âI know having things said to you is a great bore,â said Grandcourt, rather sympathetically.
âNot when they are things I like to hear.â
âWill it bother you to be asked how soon we can be married?â
âI think it will, today,â said Gwendolen, putting up her chin saucily.
âNot today, then, but tomorrow. Think of it before I come tomorrow. In a fortnightâ âor three weeksâ âas soon as possible.â
âAh, you think you will be tired of my company,â said Gwendolen. âI notice when people are married the husband is not so much with his wife as when they are engaged. But perhaps I shall like that better, too.â
She laughed charmingly.
âYou shall have whatever you like,â said Grandcourt.
âAnd nothing that I donât like?â âplease say that; because I think I dislike what I donât like more than I like what I like,â said Gwendolen, finding herself in the womanâs paradise, where all her nonsense is adorable.
Grandcourt paused; these were subtleties in which he had much experience of his own. âI donât knowâ âthis is such a brute of a world, things are always turning up that one doesnât like. I canât always hinder your being bored. If you like to ride Criterion, I canât hinder his coming down by some chance or other.â
âAh, my friend Criterion, how is he?â
âHe is outside: I made the groom ride him, that you might see him. He had the sidesaddle on for an hour or two yesterday. Come to the window and look at him.â
They could see the two horses being taken slowly round the sweep, and the beautiful creatures, in their fine grooming, sent a thrill of exultation through Gwendolen. They were the symbols of command and luxury, in delightful contrast with the ugliness of poverty and humiliation at which she had lately been looking close.
âWill you ride Criterion tomorrow?â said Grandcourt. âIf you will, everything shall be arranged.â
âI should like it of all things,â said Gwendolen. âI want to lose myself in a gallop again. But now I must go and fetch mamma.â
âTake my arm to the door, then,â said Grandcourt, and she accepted. Their faces were very near each other, being almost on a level, and he was looking at her. She thought his manners as a lover more agreeable than any she had seen described. She had no alarm lest he meant to kiss her, and was so much at her ease, that she suddenly paused in the middle of the room and said half archly, half earnestly,
âOh, while I think of itâ âthere is something I dislike that you can save me from. I do not like Mr. Lushâs company.â
âYou shall not have
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