Home / News Author Index Title Index Category Index Search Your Bookshelf |
Anne Bronte: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall53. CHAPTER LIII (continued)'I believe not.' 'Nobody dead? nobody married?' 'No.' 'Or - or expecting to marry? - No old ties dissolved or new ones formed? no old friends forgotten or supplanted?' She dropped her voice so low in the last sentence that no one could have caught the concluding words but myself, and at the same time turned her eyes upon me with a dawning smile, most sweetly melancholy, and a look of timid though keen inquiry that made my cheeks tingle with inexpressible emotions. 'I believe not,' I answered. 'Certainly not, if others are as little changed as I.' Her face glowed in sympathy with mine. 'And you really did not mean to call?' she exclaimed. 'I feared to intrude.' 'To intrude!' cried she, with an impatient gesture. 'What - ' but as if suddenly recollecting her aunt's presence, she checked herself, and, turning to that lady, continued - 'Why, aunt, this man is my brother's close friend, and was my own intimate acquaintance (for a few short months at least), and professed a great attachment to my boy - and when he passes the house, so many scores of miles from his home, he declines to look in for fear of intruding!' 'Mr. Markham is over-modest,' observed Mrs. Maxwell. 'Over-ceremonious rather,' said her niece - 'over - well, it's no matter.' And turning from me, she seated herself in a chair beside the table, and pulling a book to her by the cover, began to turn over the leaves in an energetic kind of abstraction. 'If I had known,' said I, 'that you would have honoured me by remembering me as an intimate acquaintance, I most likely should not have denied myself the pleasure of calling upon you, but I thought you had forgotten me long ago.' This is page 468 of 479. [Marked] This title is on Your Bookshelf. Buy a copy of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall at Amazon.com
Customize text appearance: |
(c) 2003-2012 LiteraturePage.com and Michael Moncur.
All rights
reserved.
For information about public domain texts appearing here, read the copyright information and disclaimer. |