The Woman in White Wilkie Collins (bts books to read txt) đ
- Author: Wilkie Collins
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âHave you any leisure time to spare,â she asked, âbefore you begin to work in your own room?â
âCertainly, Miss Halcombe. I have always time at your service.â
âI want to say a word to you in private, Mr. Hartright. Get your hat and come out into the garden. We are not likely to be disturbed there at this hour in the morning.â
As we stepped out on to the lawn, one of the under-gardenersâ âa mere ladâ âpassed us on his way to the house, with a letter in his hand. Miss Halcombe stopped him.
âIs that letter for me?â she asked.
âNay, miss; itâs just said to be for Miss Fairlie,â answered the lad, holding out the letter as he spoke.
Miss Halcombe took it from him and looked at the address.
âA strange handwriting,â she said to herself. âWho can Lauraâs correspondent be? Where did you get this?â she continued, addressing the gardener.
âWell, miss,â said the lad, âI just got it from a woman.â
âWhat woman?â
âA woman well stricken in age.â
âOh, an old woman. Anyone you knew?â
âI cannaâ takâ it on myselâ to say that she was other than a stranger to me.â
âWhich way did she go?â
âThat gate,â said the under-gardener, turning with great deliberation towards the south, and embracing the whole of that part of England with one comprehensive sweep of his arm.
âCurious,â said Miss Halcombe; âI suppose it must be a begging-letter. There,â she added, handing the letter back to the lad, âtake it to the house, and give it to one of the servants. And now, Mr. Hartright, if you have no objection, let us walk this way.â
She led me across the lawn, along the same path by which I had followed her on the day after my arrival at Limmeridge.
At the little summerhouse, in which Laura Fairlie and I had first seen each other, she stopped, and broke the silence which she had steadily maintained while we were walking together.
âWhat I have to say to you I can say here.â
With those words she entered the summerhouse, took one of the chairs at the little round table inside, and signed to me to take the other. I suspected what was coming when she spoke to me in the breakfast-room; I felt certain of it now.
âMr. Hartright,â she said, âI am going to begin by making a frank avowal to you. I am going to sayâ âwithout phrase-making, which I detest, or paying compliments, which I heartily despiseâ âthat I have come, in the course of your residence with us, to feel a strong friendly regard for you. I was predisposed in your favour when you first told me of your conduct towards that unhappy woman whom you met under such remarkable circumstances. Your management of the affair might not have been prudent, but it showed the self-control, the delicacy, and the compassion of a man who was naturally a gentleman. It made me expect good things from you, and you have not disappointed my expectations.â
She pausedâ âbut held up her hand at the same time, as a sign that she awaited no answer from me before she proceeded. When I entered the summerhouse, no thought was in me of the woman in white. But now, Miss Halcombeâs own words had put the memory of my adventure back in my mind. It remained there throughout the interviewâ âremained, and not without a result.
âAs your friend,â she proceeded, âI am going to tell you, at once, in my own plain, blunt, downright language, that I have discovered your secretâ âwithout help or hint, mind, from anyone else. Mr. Hartright, you have thoughtlessly allowed yourself to form an attachmentâ âa serious and devoted attachment I am afraidâ âto my sister Laura. I donât put you to the pain of confessing it in so many words, because I see and know that you are too honest to deny it. I donât even blame youâ âI pity you for opening your heart to a hopeless affection. You have not attempted to take any underhand advantageâ âyou have not spoken to my sister in secret. You are guilty of weakness and want of attention to your own best interests, but of nothing worse. If you had acted, in any single respect, less delicately and less modestly, I should have told you to leave the house without an instantâs notice, or an instantâs consultation of anybody. As it is, I blame the misfortune of your years and your positionâ âI donât blame you. Shake handsâ âI have given you pain; I am going to give you more, but there is no help for itâ âshake hands with your friend, Marian Halcombe, first.â
The sudden kindnessâ âthe warm, high-minded, fearless sympathy which met me on such mercifully equal terms, which appealed with such delicate and generous abruptness straight to my heart, my honour, and my courage, overcame me in an instant. I tried to look at her when she took my hand, but my eyes were dim. I tried to thank her, but my voice failed me.
âListen to me,â she said, considerately avoiding all notice of my loss of self-control. âListen to me, and let us get it over at once. It is a real true relief to me that I am not obliged, in what I have now to say, to enter into the questionâ âthe hard and cruel question as I think itâ âof social inequalities. Circumstances which will try you to the quick, spare me the ungracious necessity of paining a man who has lived in friendly intimacy under the same roof with myself by any humiliating reference to matters of rank and station. You must leave Limmeridge House, Mr. Hartright, before more harm is done. It is my duty to say that to you; and it would be equally my duty to say it, under precisely the same serious necessity, if you were the representative of the oldest
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