The Woman in White Wilkie Collins (bts books to read txt) š
- Author: Wilkie Collins
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āāāMrs. Catherick is a decent, well-behaved, respectable woman; middle-aged, and with the remains of having been moderately, only moderately, nice-looking. There is something in her manner and in her appearance, however, which I canāt make out. She is reserved about herself to the point of downright secrecy, and there is a look in her faceā āI canāt describe itā āwhich suggests to me that she has something on her mind. She is altogether what you would call a walking mystery. Her errand at Limmeridge House, however, was simple enough. When she left Hampshire to nurse her sister, Mrs. Kempe, through her last illness, she had been obliged to bring her daughter with her, through having no one at home to take care of the little girl. Mrs. Kempe may die in a weekās time, or may linger on for months; and Mrs. Catherickās object was to ask me to let her daughter, Anne, have the benefit of attending my school, subject to the condition of her being removed from it to go home again with her mother, after Mrs. Kempeās death. I consented at once, and when Laura and I went out for our walk, we took the little girl (who is just eleven years old) to the school that very day.āāā
Once more Miss Fairlieās figure, bright and soft in its snowy muslin dressā āher face prettily framed by the white folds of the handkerchief which she had tied under her chinā āpassed by us in the moonlight. Once more Miss Halcombe waited till she was out of sight, and then went onā ā
āāāI have taken a violent fancy, Philip, to my new scholar, for a reason which I mean to keep till the last for the sake of surprising you. Her mother having told me as little about the child as she told me of herself, I was left to discover (which I did on the first day when we tried her at lessons) that the poor little thingās intellect is not developed as it ought to be at her age. Seeing this I had her up to the house the next day, and privately arranged with the doctor to come and watch her and question her, and tell me what he thought. His opinion is that she will grow out of it. But he says her careful bringing-up at school is a matter of great importance just now, because her unusual slowness in acquiring ideas implies an unusual tenacity in keeping them, when they are once received into her mind. Now, my love, you must not imagine, in your offhand way, that I have been attaching myself to an idiot. This poor little Anne Catherick is a sweet, affectionate, grateful girl, and says the quaintest, prettiest things (as you shall judge by an instance), in the most oddly sudden, surprised, half-frightened way. Although she is dressed very neatly, her clothes show a sad want of taste in colour and pattern. So I arranged, yesterday, that some of our darling Lauraās old white frocks and white hats should be altered for Anne Catherick, explaining to her that little girls of her complexion looked neater and better all in white than in anything else. She hesitated and seemed puzzled for a minute, then flushed up, and appeared to understand. Her little hand clasped mine suddenly. She kissed it, Philip, and said (oh, so earnestly!), āI will always wear white as long as I live. It will help me to remember you, maāam, and to think that I am pleasing you still, when I go away and see you no more.ā This is only one specimen of the quaint things she says so prettily. Poor little soul! She shall have a stock of white frocks, made with good deep tucks, to let out for her as she growsā āāāā
Miss Halcombe paused, and looked at me across the piano.
āDid the forlorn woman whom you met in the highroad seem young?ā she asked. āYoung enough to be two- or three-and-twenty?ā
āYes, Miss Halcombe, as young as that.ā
āAnd she was strangely dressed, from head to foot, all in white?ā
āAll in white.ā
While the answer was passing my lips Miss Fairlie glided into view on the terrace for the third time. Instead of proceeding on her walk, she stopped, with her back turned towards us, and, leaning on the balustrade of the terrace, looked down into the garden beyond. My eyes fixed upon the white gleam of her muslin gown and headdress in the moonlight, and a sensation, for which I can find no nameā āa sensation that quickened my pulse, and raised a fluttering at my heartā ābegan to steal over me.
āAll in white?ā Miss Halcombe repeated. āThe most important sentences in the letter, Mr. Hartright, are those at the end, which I will read to you immediately. But I canāt help dwelling a little upon the coincidence of the white costume of the woman you met, and the white frocks which produced that strange answer from my motherās little scholar. The doctor may have been wrong when he discovered the childās defects of intellect, and predicted that she would āgrow out of them.ā She may never have grown out of them, and the old grateful fancy about dressing in white, which was a serious feeling to the girl, may be a serious feeling to the woman still.ā
I said a few words in answerā āI hardly know what. All my attention was concentrated on the white gleam of Miss Fairlieās muslin dress.
āListen to the last sentences of the letter,ā said Miss Halcombe. āI think they will surprise you.ā
As she raised the letter to the light of the candle, Miss Fairlie turned from the balustrade, looked doubtfully up and down the terrace, advanced a step towards the glass
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