Man and Wife Wilkie Collins (read 50 shades of grey .TXT) đ
- Author: Wilkie Collins
Book online «Man and Wife Wilkie Collins (read 50 shades of grey .TXT) đ». Author Wilkie Collins
Anne left the room. In the passage she was obliged to wait, and support herself against the wall. His unnatural politeness was horrible; his carefully asserted repentance chilled her to the soul with dread. She had never feltâ âin the time of his fiercest anger and his foulest languageâ âthe unutterable horror of him that she felt now.
Hester Dethridge came out, closing the door behind her. She looked attentively at Anneâ âthen wrote on her slate, and held it out, with these words on it:
âDo you believe him?â
Anne pushed the slate away, and ran upstairs. She fastened the doorâ âand sank into a chair.
âHe is plotting something against me,â she said to herself. âWhat?â
A sickening, physical sense of dreadâ âentirely new in her experience of herselfâ âmade her shrink from pursuing the question. The sinking at her heart turned her faint. She went to get the air at the open window.
At the same moment there was a ring at the gate bell. Suspicious of anything and everything, she felt a sudden distrust of letting herself be seen. She drew back behind the curtain and looked out.
A manservant, in livery, was let in. He had a letter in his hand. He said to the girl as he passed Anneâs window, âI come from Lady Holchester; I must see Mr. Delamayn instantly.â
They went in. There was an interval. The footman reappeared, leaving the place. There was another interval. Then there came a knock at the door. Anne hesitated. The knock was repeated, and the dumb murmuring of Hester Dethridge was heard outside. Anne opened the door.
Hester came in with the breakfast. She pointed to a letter among other things on the tray. It was addressed to Anne, in Geoffreyâs handwriting, and it contained these words:
âMy father died yesterday. Write your orders for your mourning. The boy will take them. You are not to trouble yourself to go to London. Somebody is to come here to you from the shop.â
Anne dropped the paper on her lap without looking up. At the same moment Hester Dethridgeâs slate was passed stealthily between her eyes and the noteâ âwith these words traced on it. âHis mother is coming today. His brother has been telegraphed from Scotland. He was drunk last night. Heâs drinking again. I know what that means. Look out, missusâ âlook out.â
Anne signed to her to leave the room. She went out, pulling the door to, but not closing it behind her.
There was another ring at the gate bell. Once more Anne went to the window. Only the lad, this time; arriving to take his orders for the day. He had barely entered the garden when he was followed by the postman with letters. In a minute more Geoffreyâs voice was heard in the passage, and Geoffreyâs heavy step ascended the wooden stairs. Anne hurried across the room to draw the bolts. Geoffrey met her before she could close the door.
âA letter for you,â he said, keeping scrupulously out of the room. âI donât wish to force your inclinationsâ âI only request you to tell me who itâs from.â
His manner was as carefully subdued as ever. But the unacknowledged distrust in him (when he looked at her) betrayed itself in his eye.
She glanced at the handwriting on the address.
âFrom Blanche,â she answered.
He softly put his foot between the door and the postâ âand waited until she had opened and read Blancheâs letter.
âMay I see it?â he askedâ âand put in his hand for it through the door.
The spirit in Anne which would once have resisted him was dead in her now. She handed him the open letter.
It was very short. Excepting some brief expressions of fondness, it was studiously confined to stating the purpose for which it had been written. Blanche proposed to visit Anne that afternoon, accompanied by her uncle, she sent word beforehand, to make sure of finding Anne at home. That was all. The letter had evidently been written under Sir Patrickâs advice.
Geoffrey handed it back, after first waiting a moment to think.
âMy father died yesterday,â he said. âMy wife canât receive visitors before he is buried. I donât wish to force your inclinations. I only say I canât let visitors in here before the funeralâ âexcept my own family. Send a note downstairs. The lad will take it to your friend when he goes to London.â With those words he left.
An appeal to the proprieties of life, in the mouth of Geoffrey Delamayn, could only mean one of two things. Either he had spoken in brutal mockeryâ âor he had spoken with some ulterior object in view. Had he seized on the event of his fatherâs death as a pretext for isolating his wife from all communication with the outer world? Were there reasons, which had not yet asserted themselves, for his dreading the result, if he allowed Anne to communicate with her friends?
The hour wore on, and Hester Dethridge appeared again. The lad was waiting for Anneâs orders for her mourning, and for her note to Mrs. Arnold Brinkworth.
Anne wrote the orders and the note. Once more the horrible slate appeared when she had done, between the writing paper and her eyes, with the hard lines of warning pitilessly traced on it. âHe has locked the gate. When thereâs a ring we are to come to him for the key. He has written to a woman. Name outside the letter, Mrs. Glenarm. He has had more brandy. Like my husband. Mind yourself.â
The one way out of the high walls all round the cottage locked. Friends forbidden to see her. Solitary imprisonment, with her husband for a jailer. Before she had been four-and-twenty hours in the cottage it had come to that. And what was to follow?
She went back mechanically to the window. The sight of the outer world, the occasional view of a passing vehicle, helped to sustain her.
The lad appeared in the front garden departing to perform his errand to London. Geoffrey went with him to open the
Comments (0)