Shirley Charlotte BrontĂ« (free ebook reader for pc .txt) đ
- Author: Charlotte Brontë
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Caroline was not unhappy that eveningâ âfar otherwise; but as she gazed she sighed, and as she sighed a hand circled her, and rested quietly on her waist. Caroline thought she knew who had drawn near; she received the touch unstartled.
âI am looking at Venus, mamma. See, she is beautiful. How white her lustre is, compared with the deep red of the bonfires!â
The answer was a closer caress; and Caroline turned, and looked, not into Mrs. Pryorâs matron face, but up at a dark manly visage. She dropped her watering-pot and stepped down from the pedestal.
âI have been sitting with âmammaâ an hour,â said the intruder. âI have had a long conversation with her. Where, meantime, have you been?â
âTo Fieldhead. Shirley is as naughty as ever, Robert. She will neither say Yes nor No to any question put. She sits alone. I cannot tell whether she is melancholy or nonchalant. If you rouse her or scold her, she gives you a look, half wistful, half reckless, which sends you away as queer and crazed as herself. What Louis will make of her, I cannot tell. For my part, if I were a gentleman, I think I would not dare undertake her.â
âNever mind them. They were cut out for each other. Louis, strange to say, likes her all the better for these freaks. He will manage her, if anyone can. She tries him, however. He has had a stormy courtship for such a calm character; but you see it all ends in victory for him. Caroline, I have sought you to ask an audience. Why are those bells ringing?â
âFor the repeal of your terrible lawâ âthe Orders you hate so much. You are pleased, are you not?â
âYesterday evening at this time I was packing some books for a sea-voyage. They were the only possessions, except some clothes, seeds, roots, and tools, which I felt free to take with me to Canada. I was going to leave you.â
âTo leave me? To leave me?â
Her little fingers fastened on his arm; she spoke and looked affrighted.
âNot nowâ ânot now. Examine my faceâ âyes, look at me well. Is the despair of parting legible thereon?â
She looked into an illuminated countenance, whose characters were all beaming, though the page itself was dusk. This face, potent in the majesty of its traits, shed down on her hope, fondness, delight.
âWill the repeal do you goodâ âmuch good, immediate good?â she inquired.
âThe repeal of the Orders in Council saves me. Now I shall not turn bankrupt; now I shall not give up business; now I shall not leave England; now I shall be no longer poor; now I can pay my debts; now all the cloth I have in my warehouses will be taken off my hands, and commissions given me for much more. This day lays for my fortunes a broad, firm foundation, on which, for the first time in my life, I can securely build.â
Caroline devoured his words; she held his hand in hers; she drew a long breath.
âYou are saved? Your heavy difficulties are lifted?â
âThey are lifted. I breathe. I can act.â
âAt last! Oh, Providence is kind! Thank Him, Robert.â
âI do thank Providence.â
âAnd I also, for your sake!â She looked up devoutly.
âNow I can take more workmen, give better wages, lay wiser and more liberal plans, do some good, be less selfish. Now, Caroline, I can have a houseâ âa home which I can truly call mineâ âand nowâ ââ
He paused, for his deep voice was checked.
âAnd now,â he resumedâ âânow I can think of marriage, now I can seek a wife.â
This was no moment for her to speak. She did not speak.
âWill Caroline, who meekly hopes to be forgiven as she forgivesâ âwill she pardon all I have made her suffer, all that long pain I have wickedly caused her, all that sickness of body and mind she owed to me? Will she forget what she knows of my poor ambition, my sordid schemes? Will she let me expiate these things? Will she suffer me to prove that, as I once deserted cruelly, trifled wantonly, injured basely, I can now love faithfully, cherish fondly, treasure tenderly?â
His hand was in Carolineâs still; a gentle pressure answered him.
âIs Caroline mine?â
âCaroline is yours.â
âI will prize her. The sense of her value is here, in my heart; the necessity for her society is blended with my life. Not more jealous shall I be of the blood whose flow moves my pulses than of her happiness and well-being.â
âI love you, too, Robert, and will take faithful care of you.â
âWill you take faithful care of me? Faithful care! As if that rose should promise to shelter from tempest this hard gray stone! But she will care for me, in her way. These hands will be the gentle ministrants of every comfort I can taste. I know the being I seek to entwine with my own will bring me a solace, a charity, a purity, to which, of myself, I am a stranger.â
Suddenly Caroline was troubled; her lip quivered.
âWhat flutters my dove?â asked Moore, as she nestled to and then uneasily shrank from him.
âPoor mamma! I am all mamma has. Must I leave her?â
âDo you know, I thought of that difficulty. I and âmammaâ have discussed it.â
âTell me what you wish, what you would like, and I will consider if it is possible to consent. But I cannot desert her, even for you. I cannot break her heart, even for
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