The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Anne BrontĂ« (librera reader .txt) đ
- Author: Anne Brontë
Book online «The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Anne BrontĂ« (librera reader .txt) đ». Author Anne BrontĂ«
âWell! here they both are,â cried my mother, looking round upon us without retarding the motion of her nimble fingers and glittering needles. âNow shut the door, and come to the fire, while Rose gets the tea ready; Iâm sure you must be starved;â âand tell me what youâve been about all day;â âI like to know what my children have been about.â
âIâve been breaking in the grey coltâ âno easy business thatâ âdirecting the ploughing of the last wheat stubbleâ âfor the ploughboy has not the sense to direct himselfâ âand carrying out a plan for the extensive and efficient draining of the low meadow-lands.â
âThatâs my brave boy!â âand Fergus, what have you been doing?â
âBadger-baiting.â
And here he proceeded to give a particular account of his sport, and the respective traits of prowess evinced by the badger and the dogs; my mother pretending to listen with deep attention, and watching his animated countenance with a degree of maternal admiration I thought highly disproportioned to its object.
âItâs time you should be doing something else, Fergus,â said I, as soon as a momentary pause in his narration allowed me to get in a word.
âWhat can I do?â replied he; âmy mother wonât let me go to sea or enter the army; and Iâm determined to do nothing elseâ âexcept make myself such a nuisance to you all, that you will be thankful to get rid of me on any terms.â
Our parent soothingly stroked his stiff, short curls. He growled, and tried to look sulky, and then we all took our seats at the table, in obedience to the thrice-repeated summons of Rose.
âNow take your tea,â said she; âand Iâll tell you what Iâve been doing. Iâve been to call on the Wilsons; and itâs a thousand pities you didnât go with me, Gilbert, for Eliza Millward was there!â
âWell! what of her?â
âOh, nothing!â âIâm not going to tell you about her;â âonly that sheâs a nice, amusing little thing, when she is in a merry humour, and I shouldnât mind calling herâ ââ
âHush, hush, my dear! your brother has no such idea!â whispered my mother earnestly, holding up her finger.
âWell,â resumed Rose; âI was going to tell you an important piece of news I heard thereâ âI have been bursting with it ever since. You know it was reported a month ago, that somebody was going to take Wildfell Hallâ âandâ âwhat do you think? It has actually been inhabited above a week!â âand we never knew!â
âImpossible!â cried my mother.
âPreposterous!!!â shrieked Fergus.
âIt has indeed!â âand by a single lady!â
âGood gracious, my dear! The place is in ruins!â
âShe has had two or three rooms made habitable; and there she lives, all aloneâ âexcept an old woman for a servant!â
âOh, dear! that spoils itâ âIâd hoped she was a witch,â observed Fergus, while carving his inch-thick slice of bread and butter.
âNonsense, Fergus! But isnât it strange, mamma?â
âStrange! I can hardly believe it.â
âBut you may believe it; for Jane Wilson has seen her. She went with her mother, who, of course, when she heard of a stranger being in the neighbourhood, would be on pins and needles till she had seen her and got all she could out of her. She is called Mrs. Graham, and she is in mourningâ ânot widowâs weeds, but slightish mourningâ âand she is quite young, they sayâ ânot above five or six and twentyâ âbut so reserved! They tried all they could to find out who she was and where she came from, and, all about her, but neither Mrs. Wilson, with her pertinacious and impertinent home-thrusts, nor Miss Wilson, with her skilful manoeuvring, could manage to elicit a single satisfactory answer, or even a casual remark, or chance expression calculated to allay their curiosity, or throw the faintest ray of light upon her history, circumstances, or connections. Moreover, she was barely civil to them, and evidently better pleased to say âgoodbye,â than âhow do you do.â But Eliza Millward says her father intends to call upon her soon, to offer some pastoral advice, which he fears she needs, as, though she is known to have entered the neighbourhood early last week, she did not make her appearance at church on Sunday; and sheâ âEliza, that isâ âwill beg to accompany him, and is sure she can succeed in wheedling something out of herâ âyou know, Gilbert, she can do anything. And we should call some time, mamma; itâs only proper, you know.â
âOf course, my dear. Poor thing! How lonely she must feel!â
âAnd pray, be quick about it; and mind you bring me word how much sugar she puts in her tea, and what sort of caps and aprons she wears, and all about it; for I donât know how I can live till I know,â said Fergus, very gravely.
But if he intended the speech to be hailed as a masterstroke of wit, he signally failed, for nobody laughed. However, he was not much disconcerted at that; for when he had taken a mouthful of bread and butter and was about to swallow a gulp of tea, the humour of the thing burst upon him with such irresistible force, that he was obliged to jump up from the table, and rush snorting and choking from the room; and a minute after, was heard screaming in fearful agony in the garden.
As for me, I was hungry, and contented myself with silently demolishing the tea, ham, and toast, while my mother and sister went on talking, and continued to discuss the apparent or non-apparent circumstances, and probable or improbable history of the mysterious lady; but I must confess that, after my brotherâs misadventure, I once or twice raised the cup to my lips, and put it down again without daring to taste the contents, lest I should injure my dignity by a similar explosion.
The next day my mother and Rose hastened to pay their compliments to the fair recluse; and came back but little wiser than they went; though my mother declared she did not regret
Comments (0)