The Woodlanders Part 2 by Thomas Hardy (best romantic books to read txt) 📕

Seat.  If The Little Breach,  Quarrel,  Or Whatever It Might Be

Called,  Of Yesterday,  Was To Be Healed up It Must Be Done By Her

On The Instant.  She Crossed into The Orchard,  And Clambered

Through The Gap After Giles,  Just As He Was Diminishing to A Faun-

Like Figure Under The Green Canopy And Over The Brown Floor.

Grace Had Been Wrong--Very Far Wrong--In Assuming that The Letter

Had No Reference To Herself Because Giles Had Turned away Into The

Wood After Its Perusal.  It Was,  Sad To Say,  Because The Missive

Had So Much Reference To Herself That He Had Thus Turned away.  He

Feared that His Grieved discomfiture Might Be Observed.  The

Letter Was From Beaucock,  Written A Few Hours Later Than Melbury'S

To His Daughter.  It Announced failure.

Giles Had Once Done That Thriftless Man A Good Turn,  And Now Was

The Moment When Beaucock Had Chosen To Remember It In his Own Way.

During his Absence In town With Melbury,  The Lawyer'S Clerk Had

Naturally Heard A Great Deal Of The Timber-Merchant'S Family

Scheme Of Justice To Giles,  And His Communication Was To Inform

Winterborne At The Earliest Possible Moment That Their Attempt Had

Failed,  In order That The Young Man Should Not Place Himself In a

False Position Towards Grace In the Belief Of Its Coming success.

The News Was,  In sum,  That Fitzpiers'S Conduct Had Not Been

Sufficiently Cruel To Grace To Enable Her To Snap The Bond.  She

Was Apparently Doomed to Be His Wife Till The End Of The Chapter.

Winterborne Quite Forgot His Superficial Differences With The Poor

Girl Under The Warm Rush Of Deep And Distracting love For Her

Which The Almost Tragical Information Engendered.

To Renounce Her Forever--That Was Then The End Of It For Him,

After All.  There Was No Longer Any Question About Suitability,  Or

Room For Tiffs On Petty Tastes.  The Curtain Had Fallen Again

Between Them.  She Could Not Be His.  The Cruelty Of Their Late

Revived hope Was Now Terrible.  How Could They All Have Been So

Simple As To Suppose This Thing could Be Done?

It Was At This Moment That,  Hearing some One Coming behind Him,  He

Turned and Saw Her Hastening on Between The Thickets.  He

Perceived in an Instant That She Did Not Know The Blighting news.

"Giles,  Why Didn'T You Come Across To Me?" She Asked,  With Arch

Reproach.  "Didn'T You See Me Sitting there Ever So Long?"

"Oh Yes," He Said,  In unprepared,  Extemporized tones,  For Her

Unexpected presence Caught Him Without The Slightest Plan Of

Behavior In the Conjuncture.  His Manner Made Her Think That She

Had Been Too Chiding in her Speech; And A Mild Scarlet Wave Passed

Over Her As She Resolved to Soften It.

"I Have Had Another Letter From My Father," She Hastened to

Continue.  "He Thinks He May Come Home This Evening.  And--In View

Of His Hopes--It Will Grieve Him If There Is Any Little Difference

Between Us,  Giles."

"There Is None," He Said,  Sadly Regarding her From The Face

Downward As He Pondered how To Lay The Cruel Truth Bare.

"Still--I Fear You Have Not Quite Forgiven Me About My Being

Uncomfortable At The Inn."

"I Have,  Grace,  I'M Sure."

"But You Speak In quite An Unhappy Way," She Returned,  Coming up

Close To Him With The Most Winning of The Many Pretty Airs That

Appertained to Her.  "Don'T You Think You Will Ever Be Happy,

Giles?"

He Did Not Reply For Some Instants.  "When The Sun Shines On The

North Front Of Sherton Abbey--That'S When My Happiness Will Come

To Me!" Said He,  Staring as It Were Into The Earth.

"But--Then That Means That There Is Something more Than My

Offending you In not Liking the Three Tuns.  If It Is Because I--

Did Not Like To Let You Kiss Me In the Abbey--Well,  You Know,

Giles,  That It Was Not On Account Of My Cold Feelings,  But Because

I Did Certainly,  Just Then,  Think It Was Rather Premature,  In

Spite Of My Poor Father.  That Was The True Reason--The Sole One.

But I Do Not Want To Be Hard--God Knows I Do Not," She Said,  Her

Voice Fluctuating.  "And Perhaps--As I Am On The Verge Of Freedom--

I Am Not Right,  After All,  In thinking there Is Any Harm In your

Kissing me."

"Oh God!" Said Winterborne Within Himself.  His Head Was Turned

Askance As He Still Resolutely Regarded the Ground.  For The Last

Several Minutes He Had Seen This Great Temptation Approaching him

In Regular Siege; And Now It Had Come.  The Wrong,  The Social Sin,

Of Now Taking advantage Of The Offer Of Her Lips Had A Magnitude,

In The Eyes Of One Whose Life Had Been So Primitive,  So Ruled by

Purest Household Laws,  As Giles'S,  Which Can Hardly Be Explained.

"Did You Say Anything?" She Asked,  Timidly.

"Oh No--Only That--"

"You Mean That It Must Be Settled,  Since My Father Is Coming

Home?" She Said,  Gladly.

Winterborne,  Though Fighting valiantly Against Himself All This

While--Though He Would Have Protected grace'S Good Repute As The

Apple Of His Eye--Was A Man; And,  As Desdemona Said,  Men Are Not

Gods.  In face Of The Agonizing seductiveness Shown By Her,  In her

Unenlightened school-Girl Simplicity About The Laws And

Ordinances,  He Betrayed a Man'S Weakness.  Since It Was So--Since

It Had Come To This,  That Grace,  Deeming herself Free To Do It,

Was Virtually Asking him To Demonstrate That He Loved her--Since

He Could Demonstrate It Only Too Truly--Since Life Was Short And

Love Was Strong--He Gave Way To The Temptation,  Notwithstanding

That He Perfectly Well Knew Her To Be Wedded irrevocably To

Fitzpiers.  Indeed,  He Cared for Nothing past Or Future,  Simply

Accepting the Present And What It Brought,  Desiring once In his

Life To Clasp In his Arms Her He Had Watched over And Loved so

Long.

She Started back Suddenly From His Embrace,  Influenced by A Sort

Of Inspiration.  "Oh,  I Suppose," She Stammered,  "That I Am Really

Free?--That This Is Right? Is There Really A New Law? Father

Cannot Have Been Too Sanguine In saying--"

He Did Not Answer,  And A Moment Afterwards Grace Burst Into Tears

In Spite Of Herself.  "Oh,  Why Does Not My Father Come Home And

Explain," She Sobbed,  "And Let Me Know Clearly What I Am? It Is

Too Trying,  This,  To Ask Me To--And Then To Leave Me So Long In so

Vague A State That I Do Not Know What To Do,  And Perhaps Do

Wrong!"

Winterborne Felt Like A Very Cain,  Over And Above His Previous

Sorrow.  How He Had Sinned against Her In not Telling her What He

Knew.  He Turned aside; The Feeling of His Cruelty Mounted higher

And Higher.  How Could He Have Dreamed of Kissing her? He Could

Hardly Refrain From Tears.  Surely Nothing more Pitiable Had Ever

Been Known Than The Condition Of This Poor Young Thing,  Now As

Heretofore The Victim Of Her Father'S Well-Meant But Blundering

Policy.

Even In the Hour Of Melbury'S Greatest Assurance Winterborne Had

Harbored a Suspicion That No Law,  New Or Old,  Could Undo Grace'S

Marriage Without Her Appearance In public; Though He Was Not

Sufficiently Sure Of What Might Have Been Enacted to Destroy By

His Own Words Her Pleasing idea That A Mere Dash Of The Pen,  On

Her Father'S Testimony,  Was Going to Be Sufficient.  But He Had

Never Suspected the Sad Fact That The Position Was Irremediable.

Poor Grace,  Perhaps Feeling that She Had Indulged in too Much

Fluster For A Mere Kiss,  Calmed herself At Finding how Grave He

Was.  "I Am Glad We Are Friends Again Anyhow," She Said,  Smiling

Through Her Tears.  "Giles,  If You Had Only Shown Half The

Boldness Before I Married that You Show Now,  You Would Have

Carried me Off For Your Own First Instead Of Second.  If We Do

Marry,  I Hope You Will Never Think Badly Of Me For Encouraging you

A Little,  But My Father Is So Impatient,  You Know,  As His Years

And Infirmities Increase,  That He Will Wish To See Us A Little

Advanced when He Comes.  That Is My Only Excuse."

Me," Grace Continued; "Whose Wife I Am,  Or Whose I Am Not.  I Do

Love Giles; I Cannot Help That; And I Have Gone Further With Him

Than I Should Have Done If I Had Known Exactly How Things Were.

But I Do Not Reproach You."

"Then Giles Did Not Tell You?" Said Melbury.

"No," Said She.  "He Could Not Have Known It.  His Behavior To Me

Proved that He Did Not Know."

Her Father Said Nothing more,  And Grace Went Away To The Solitude

Of Her Chamber.

Her Heavy Disquietude Had Many Shapes; And For A Time She Put

Aside The Dominant Fact To Think Of Her Too Free Conduct Towards

Giles.  His Love-Making had Been Brief As It Was Sweet; But Would

He On Reflection Contemn Her For Forwardness? How Could She Have

Been So Simple As To Suppose She Was In a Position To Behave As

She Had Done! Thus She Mentally Blamed her Ignorance; And Yet In

The Centre Of Her Heart She Blessed it A Little For What It Had

Momentarily Brought Her.

Life Among The People Involved in these Events Seemed to Be

Suppressed and Hide-Bound For A While.  Grace Seldom Showed

Herself Outside The House,  Never Outside The Garden; For She

Feared she Might Encounter Giles Winterborne; And That She Could

Not Bear.

This Pensive Intramural Existence Of The Self-Constituted nun

Appeared likely To Continue For An Indefinite Time.  She Had

Learned that There Was One Possibility In which Her Formerly

Imagined position Might Become Real,  And Only One; That Her

Husband'S Absence Should Continue Long Enough To Amount To

Positive Desertion.