酷兔英语
    当前位置:
  1. 首页
  2. 文章
  3. 娱乐英语
  4. 原版小说
  5. 正文

Life and Letters of Robert Browning-Part18_Mrs.Sutherland Orr(1828-1903)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

0 收藏 0 分享 0 赞

章节正文
文章总共2页
by a sudden impulse which his after-judgment would condemn.



Neither of these things occurred. The offer was indeed made

under a sudden and overmastering impulse. But it was persistently repeated,



till it had obtained a conditionalassent. No sane man

in Mr. Browning's position could have been ignorant of the responsibilities



he was incurring. He had, it is true, no experience of illness.

Of its nature, its treatment, its symptoms direct and indirect,



he remained pathetically ignorant to his dying day. He did not know

what disqualifications for active existence might reside in the fragile,



recumbent form, nor in the long years lived without change of air or scene

beyond the passage, not always even allowed, from bed-room to sitting-room,



from sofa to bed again. But he did know that Miss Barrett

received him lying down, and that his very ignorance of her condition



left him without security for her ever being able to stand.

A strong sense of sympathy and pity could alone entirely justify or explain



his act -- a strong desire to bring sunshine into that darkened life.

We might be sure that these motives had been present with him



if we had no direct authority for believing it; and we have this authority

in his own comparatively" target="_blank" title="ad.比较地；比较上">comparatively recent words: `She had so much need



of care and protection. There was so much pity in what I felt for her!'

The pity was, it need hardly be said, at no time a substitute for love,



though the love in its full force only developed itself later;

but it supplied an additional incentive.



Miss Barrett had made her acceptance of Mr. Browning's proposal

contingent on her improving in health. The outlook was therefore vague.



But under the influence of this great new happiness she did gain

some degree of strength. They saw each other three times a week;



they exchanged letters constantly, and a very deep and perfect understanding

established itself between them. Mr. Browning never mentioned his visits



except to his own family, because it was naturally feared

that if Miss Barrett were known to receive one person, other friends,



or even acquaintances, would claim admittance to her; and Mr. Kenyon,

who was greatly pleased by the result of his introduction,



kept silence for the same reason.

In this way the months slipped by till the summer of 1846



was drawing to its close, and Miss Barrett's doctor then announced

that her only chance of even comparativerecovery lay



in spending the coming winter in the South. There was no rational obstacle

to her acting on this advice, since more than one of her brothers



was willing to escort her; but Mr. Barrett, while surrounding his daughter

with every possible comfort, had resigned himself to her invalid condition



and expected her also to acquiesce in it. He probably did not believe

that she would benefit by the proposed change. At any rate



he refused his consent to it. There remained to her only one alternative --

to break with the old home and travel southwards as Mr. Browning's wife.



When she had finally assented to this course, she took a preparatory step

which, in so far as it was known, must itself have been sufficiently startling



to those about her: she drove to Regent's Park, and when there,

stepped out of the carriage and on to the grass. I do not know



how long she stood -- probably only for a moment; but I well remember hearing

that when, after so long an interval, she felt earth under her feet



and air about her, the sensation was almost bewilderingly strange.

They were married, with strictprivacy, on September 12, 1846,



at St. Pancras Church.

The engaged pair had not only not obtained Mr. Barrett's



sanction to their marriage; they had not even invoked it;

and the doubly clandestine character thus forced upon the union



could not be otherwise than repugnant to Mr. Browning's pride;

but it was dictated by the deepest filialaffection on the part



of his intended wife. There could be no question in so enlightened a mind




文章总共2页
文章标签:名著  

章节正文
Copyright © 2023 Qeto All rights reserved.
商务合作 | 联系我们 | 关于我们 | 版权声明 | 隐私条款 | 如果智培

京ICP备05059198号-1 京公网安备 11011202003401号