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

New Arabian Nights-Part42_ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON(1850-1894)_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
followed by the chaplain with a hand-lamp.



No sooner were they alone than Blanche advanced towards Denis with

her hands extended. Her face was flushed and excited, and her eyes



shone with tears.

"You shall not die!" she cried, "you shall marry me after all."



"You seem to think, madam," replied Denis, "that I stand much in

fear of death."



"Oh no, no," she said, "I see you are no poltroon. It is for my

own sake - I could not bear to have you slain for such a scruple."



"I am afraid," returned Denis, "that you underrate the difficulty,

madam. What you may be too generous to refuse, I may be too proud



to accept. In a moment of noble feeling towards me, you forgot

what you perhaps owe to others."



He had the decency to keep his eyes upon the floor as he said this,

and after he had finished, so as not to spy upon her confusion.



She stood silent for a moment, then walked suddenly away, and

falling on her uncle's chair, fairly burst out sobbing. Denis was



in the acme of embarrassment. He looked round, as if to seek for

inspiration, and seeing a stool, plumped down upon it for something



to do. There he sat, playing with the guard of his rapier, and

wishing himself dead a thousand times over, and buried in the



nastiest kitchen-heap in France. His eyes wandered round the

apartment, but found nothing to arrest them. There were such wide



spaces between the furniture, the light fell so baldly and

cheerlessly over all, the dark outside air looked in so coldly



through the windows, that he thought he had never seen a church so

vast, nor a tomb so melancholy. The regular sobs of Blanche de



Maletroit measured out the time like the ticking of a clock. He

read the device upon the shield over and over again, until his eyes



became obscured; he stared into shadowy corners until he imagined

they were swarming with horrible animals; and every now and again



he awoke with a start, to remember that his last two hours were

running, and death was on the march.



Oftener and oftener, as the time went on, did his glance settle on

the girl herself. Her face was bowed forward and covered with her



hands, and she was shaken at intervals by the convulsive hiccup of

grief. Even thus she was not an unpleasant object to dwell upon,



so plump and yet so fine, with a warm brown skin, and the most

beautiful hair, Denis thought, in the whole world of womankind.



Her hands were like her uncle's; but they were more in place at the

end of her young arms, and looked infinitely soft and caressing.



He remembered how her blue eyes had shone upon him, full of anger,

pity, and innocence. And the more he dwelt on her perfections, the



uglier death looked, and the more deeply was he smitten with

penitence at her continued tears. Now he felt that no man could



have the courage to leave a world which contained so beautiful a

creature; and now he would have given forty minutes of his last



hour to have unsaid his cruel speech.

Suddenly a hoarse and ragged peal of cockcrow rose to their ears



from the dark valley below the windows. And this shattering noise

in the silence of all around was like a light in a dark place, and



shook them both out of their reflections.

"Alas, can I do nothing to help you?" she said, looking up.



"Madam," replied Denis, with a fine irrelevancy, "if I have said

anything to wound you, believe me, it was for your own sake and not



for mine."

She thanked him with a tearful look.



"I feel your position cruelly," he went on. "The world has been

bitter hard on you. Your uncle is a disgrace to mankind. Believe



me, madam, there is no young gentleman in all France but would be

glad of my opportunity, to die in doing you a momentary service."



"I know already that you can be very brave and generous," she

answered. "What I WANT to know is whether I can serve you - now or



afterwards," she added, with a quaver.

"Most certainly," he answered with a smile. "Let me sit beside you



as if I were a friend, instead of a foolish intruder; try to forget

how awkwardly we are placed to one another; make my last moments go



pleasantly; and you will do me the chief service possible."

"You are very gallant," she added, with a yet deeper sadness . . .



"very gallant . . . and it somehow pains me. But draw nearer, if

you please; and if you find anything to say to me, you will at



least make certain of a very friendly listener. Ah! Monsieur de




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