The Complete Works: Charlotte, Emily, Anne, Patrick & Branwell Brontë. Anne Bronte

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СКАЧАТЬ Then he approached Mason, whom the surgeon was already handling.

      “Now, my good fellow, how are you?” he asked.

      “She’s done for me, I fear,” was the faint reply.

      “Not a whit! — courage! This day fortnight you’ll hardly be a pin the worse of it: you’ve lost a little blood; that’s all. Carter, assure him there’s no danger.”

      “I can do that conscientiously,” said Carter, who had now undone the bandages; “only I wish I could have got here sooner: he would not have bled so much — but how is this? The flesh on the shoulder is torn as well as cut. This wound was not done with a knife: there have been teeth here!”

      “She bit me,” he murmured. “She worried me like a tigress, when Rochester got the knife from her.”

      “You should not have yielded: you should have grappled with her at once,” said Mr. Rochester.

      “But under such circumstances, what could one do?” returned Mason. “Oh, it was frightful!” he added, shuddering. “And I did not expect it: she looked so quiet at first.”

      “I warned you,” was his friend’s answer; “I said — be on your guard when you go near her. Besides, you might have waited till tomorrow, and had me with you: it was mere folly to attempt the interview tonight, and alone.”

      “I thought I could have done some good.”

      “You thought! you thought! Yes, it makes me impatient to hear you: but, however, you have suffered, and are likely to suffer enough for not taking my advice; so I’ll say no more. Carter — hurry! — hurry! The sun will soon rise, and I must have him off.”

      “Directly, sir; the shoulder is just bandaged. I must look to this other wound in the arm: she has had her teeth here too, I think.”

      “She sucked the blood: she said she’d drain my heart,” said Mason.

      I saw Mr. Rochester shudder: a singularly marked expression of disgust, horror, hatred, warped his countenance almost to distortion; but he only said —

      “Come, be silent, Richard, and never mind her gibberish: don’t repeat it.”

      “I wish I could forget it,” was the answer.

      “You will when you are out of the country: when you get back to Spanish Town, you may think of her as dead and buried — or rather, you need not think of her at all.”

      “Impossible to forget this night!”

      “It is not impossible: have some energy, man. You thought you were as dead as a herring two hours since, and you are all alive and talking now. There! — Carter has done with you or nearly so; I’ll make you decent in a trice. Jane” (he turned to me for the first time since his re-entrance), “take this key: go down into my bedroom, and walk straight forward into my dressing-room: open the top drawer of the wardrobe and take out a clean shirt and neck-handkerchief: bring them here; and be nimble.”

      I went; sought the repository he had mentioned, found the articles named, and returned with them.

      “Now,” said he, “go to the other side of the bed while I order his toilet; but don’t leave the room: you may be wanted again.”

      I retired as directed.

      “Was anybody stirring below when you went down, Jane?” inquired Mr. Rochester presently.

      “No, sir; all was very still.”

      “We shall get you off cannily, Dick: and it will be better, both for your sake, and for that of the poor creature in yonder. I have striven long to avoid exposure, and I should not like it to come at last. Here, Carter, help him on with his waistcoat. Where did you leave your furred cloak? You can’t travel a mile without that, I know, in this damned cold climate. In your room? — Jane, run down to Mr. Mason’s room, — the one next mine, — and fetch a cloak you will see there.”

      Again I ran, and again returned, bearing an immense mantle lined and edged with fur.

      “Now, I’ve another errand for you,” said my untiring master; “you must away to my room again. What a mercy you are shod with velvet, Jane! — a clodhopping messenger would never do at this juncture. You must open the middle drawer of my toilet-table and take out a little phial and a little glass you will find there, — quick!”

      I flew thither and back, bringing the desired vessels.

      “That’s well! Now, doctor, I shall take the liberty of administering a dose myself, on my own responsibility. I got this cordial at Rome, of an Italian charlatan — a fellow you would have kicked, Carter. It is not a thing to be used indiscriminately, but it is good upon occasion: as now, for instance. Jane, a little water.”

      He held out the tiny glass, and I half filled it from the water-bottle on the washstand.

      “That will do; — now wet the lip of the phial.”

      I did so; he measured twelve drops of a crimson liquid, and presented it to Mason.

      “Drink, Richard: it will give you the heart you lack, for an hour or so.”

      “But will it hurt me? — is it inflammatory?”

      “Drink! drink! drink!”

      Mr. Mason obeyed, because it was evidently useless to resist. He was dressed now: he still looked pale, but he was no longer gory and sullied. Mr. Rochester let him sit three minutes after he had swallowed the liquid; he then took his arm —

      “Now I am sure you can get on your feet,” he said — “try.”

      The patient rose.

      “Carter, take him under the other shoulder. Be of good cheer, Richard; step out — that’s it!”

      “I do feel better,” remarked Mr. Mason.

      “I am sure you do. Now, Jane, trip on before us away to the backstairs; unbolt the side-passage door, and tell the driver of the post-chaise you will see in the yard — or just outside, for I told him not to drive his rattling wheels over the pavement — to be ready; we are coming: and, Jane, if any one is about, come to the foot of the stairs and hem.”

      It was by this time half-past five, and the sun was on the point of rising; but I found the kitchen still dark and silent. The side-passage door was fastened; I opened it with as little noise as possible: all the yard was quiet; but the gates stood wide open, and there was a post-chaise, with horses ready harnessed, and driver seated on the box, stationed outside. I approached him, and said the gentlemen were coming; he nodded: then I looked carefully round and listened. The stillness of early morning slumbered everywhere; the curtains were yet drawn over the servants’ chamber windows; little birds were just twittering in the blossom-blanched orchard trees, whose boughs drooped like white garlands over the wall enclosing one side of the yard; the carriage horses stamped from time to time in their closed stables: all else was still.

      The gentlemen now appeared. Mason, supported by Mr. Rochester and the surgeon, seemed to walk with tolerable ease: they assisted him into the chaise; Carter followed.

      “Take СКАЧАТЬ