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MIDDLEMARCH-Part64_GEORGE ELIOT(1819-1880)_English Literature(文学)-第2页

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"What, my love, is the bearing of your remark?"

"That you have been too liberal in arrangements for me--I mean,



with regard to property; and that makes me unhappy."

"How so? I have none but comparatively distant connections."



"I have been led to think about your aunt Julia, and how she was left

in poverty only because she married a poor man, an act which was



not disgraceful, since he was not unworthy. It was on that ground,

I know, that you educated Mr. Ladislaw and provided for his mother."



Dorothea waited a few moments for some answer that would help her onward.

None came, and her next words seemed the more forcible to her,



falling clear upon the dark silence.

"But surely we should regard his claim as a much greater one, even to



the half of that property which I know that you have destined for me.

And I think he ought at once to be provided for on that understanding.



It is not right that he should be in the dependence of poverty

while we are rich. And if there is any objection to the proposal



he mentioned, the giving him his true place and his true share

would set aside any motive for his accepting it."



"Mr. Ladislaw has probably been speaking to you on this subject?"

said Mr. Casaubon, with a certain biting quickness not habitual



to him.

"Indeed, no!" said Dorothea, earnestly. "How can you imagine it,



since he has so lately declined everything from you? I fear you

think too hardly of him, dear. He only told me a little about his



parents and grandparents, and almost all in answer to my questions.

You are so good, so just--you have done everything you thought



to be right. But it seems to me clear that more than that is right;

and I must speak about it, since I am the person who would get what is



called benefit by that `more' not being done."

There was a perceptible pause before Mr. Casaubon replied,



not quickly as before, but with a still more biting emphasis.

"Dorothea, my love, this is not the first occasion, but it were well



that it should be the last, on which you have assumed a judgment

on subjects beyond your scope. Into the question how far conduct,



especially in the matter of alliances, constitutes a forfeiture

of family claims, I do not now enter. Suffice it, that you



are not here qualified to discriminate. What I now wish you to

understand is, that I accept no revision, still less dictation within



that range of affairs which I have deliberated upon as distinctly

and properly mine. It is not for you to interfere between me



and Mr. Ladislaw, and still less to encourage communications

from him to you which constitute a criticism on my procedure."



Poor Dorothea, shrouded in the darkness, was in a tumult of

conflicting emotions. Alarm at the possible effect on himself of her



husband's strongly manifested anger, would have checked any expression

of her own resentment, even if she had been quite free from doubt



and compunction under the consciousness that there might be some

justice in his last insinuation. Hearing him breathe quickly after



he had spoken, she sat listening, frightened, wretched--with a dumb

inward cry for help to bear this nightmare of a life in which every



energy was arrested by dread. But nothing else happened, except

that they both remained a long while sleepless, without speaking again.



The next day, Mr. Casaubon received the following answer from

Will Ladislaw:--



"DEAR MR. CASAUBON,--I have given all due consideration to your letter

of yesterday, but I am unable to take precisely your view of our



mutual position. With the fullest acknowledgment of your generous

conduct to me in the past, I must still maintain that an obligation



of this kind cannot fairly fetter me as you appear to expect that

it should. Granted that a benefactor's wishes may constitute a claim;



there must always be a reservation as to the quality of those wishes.




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