简爱中英文版（66）

grate壁炉
mantelpiece壁炉架
inadvertently不注意地
yelp吠声
whine哀鸣
desperation绝望

The manor house of Ferndean was an extremely old building. I had heard of it before . Mr. Rochester often spoke of it, and sometimes went there.
I reached it on a dark evening. The front door opened slowly. A man came out into the twilight and stood on the step. He stretched out his hand as if to feel whether it was raining. It was my master, Mr. Rochester. He went back in drearily.
I now drew near and knocked. John’s wife opened
the door.
“Mary, how are you? ”I said.
She jumped as if she had seen a ghost. I calmed her down and explained to her that I had come to see Mr. Rochester. I saw that she was carrying a tray.
“Is that for Mr Rochester?” I asked.
“Yes.“
“Give the tray to me. I will carry it in.”
I took it from her hand and sh e pointed to a door. I walked in, and Mary shut the door behind me.
This room looked gloomy, A neglected handful of fire burnt low in the grate . Leaning over it, with his head supported against the high mantelpiece. was my blind master. His old dog, Pilot, lay on one side and coiled up as if he were afraid of being inadvertently trodden upon. Pilot pricked up his ears when I came in, and then he jumped up with a yelp and a whine, and bounded toward me.
“Give me the water, Mary. ”he said.
“Mary is in the kitchen, ”I answered， handing him the water.
He recognized my voice immediately.
“Is that Jane?” he said. “Am I going mad? It can’t be.. it cant be!”
“It is me, Jane Eyre, sir.”
“The Jane Eyre who left me?”
“I will never leave you again, sir.”
“I cannot believe it. Embrace me, Jane.”
I Pressed my lips to his once brilliant and now blind eyes. I swept his hair from his brow , and kissed that too.
“It is you! Have you come back to me then?”
“Yes.”
The evening flew by, I did not let go of his hands while I related to him, in detail. my experiences since the day l left Thornfield Hall. We talked for hours, and I ell asleep next to him, still holding his hands.
We went for a walk early next morning. He had his hand on my shoulder as I guided him through the woods. Sudden/y he stopped.
“Miss Eyre, you can leave me, ”he said.
“But this is my home, next to you. I told you I would never leave you again.”
“No， Jane， this is not your home， because your heart is not with me. lt is with this cousin-this St. John. Jane，leave me. Go and marry Rivers, and go to India with him.”
“You can try to push me away all you want, but I will never leave you, I do not love St. John. He is my cousin, and a friend.”
Mr. Rochester smiled.
“Then wlll you marry me ?”he asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“You will marry a poor blind man?”
“Yes,sir.”
“You will marry a crippled man, twenty years older
than you, whom you will have to wait on?”
“Yes, sir.”
He embraced me and kissed me over and over again.
On the way back to the house, Mr. Rochester stopped to tell me how a few nights earlier, in a moment of desperation, he had called out my name three times. He thought he had heard my answer. Had he not been blind, he would have seen an expression of utter shock on my face. Yet I made no sound, and did not tell him that it was his voice that I heard at Moor House that had brought me to him. I did not want to upset him or excite him in his fragile condition.
He stretched his hand out to be led back to the house. I took that dear hand, held it a moment to my lips. and then put it around my shoulder. We strolled homeward, contented and blissfully.