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"This is the assembly night," said William. "If I were at Portsmouth I should be at it, perhaps." ¡¡¡¡ "But you do not wish yourself at Portsmouth, William?" ¡¡¡¡ "No, Fanny, that I do not. I shall have enough of Portsmouth and of dancing too, when I cannot have you. And I do not know that there would be any good in going to the assembly, for I might not get a partner. The Portsmouth girls turn up their noses at anybody who has not a commission. One might as well be nothing as a midshipman. One _is_ nothing, indeed. You remember the Gregorys; they are grown up amazing fine girls, but they will hardly speak to _me_, because Lucy is courted by a lieutenant." Oh! shame, shame! But never mind it, William" (her own cheeks in a glow of indignation as she spoke). "It is not worth minding. It is no reflection on _you_;
it is no more than what the greatest admirals have all experienced, more or less, in their time. You must think of that, you must try to make up your mind to it as one of the hardships which fall to every sailor's share, like bad weather and hard living, only with this advantage, that there will be an end to it, that there will come a time when you will have nothing of that sort to endure. When you are a lieutenant! only think, William, when you are a lieutenant, how little you will care for any nonsense of this kind."

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¡¡¡¡A citizeness of France? ¡¡¡¡Yes. By birth. ¡¡¡¡Her name and family", "Lucie Manette, only daughter of Doctor Manette, the good physician who sits there." ¡¡¡¡This answer had a happy effect upon the audience. Cries in exaltation of the well-known good physician rent the hall. So capriciously were the people moved, that tears immediately rolled down several ferocious countenances which had been glaring at the prisoner a moment before,
as if with impatience to pluck him out into the streets and kill him. ¡¡¡¡On these few steps of his dangerous way, Charles Darnay had set his foot according to Doctor Manette's reiterated instructions. The same cautious counsel directed every step that lay before him, and had prepared every inch of his road. ¡¡¡¡The President asked, why had he returned to France when he did, and not sooner?

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We had now seen all there was to see. It would have been in vain to represent to such a man as the Worshipful Mr. Creakle, that Twenty Seven and Twenty Eight were perfectly consistent and unchanged; that exactly what they were then, they had always been; that the hypocritical knaves were just the subjects to make that sort of profession in such a place;
that they knew its market-value at least as well as we did, in the immediate service it would do them when they were expatriated; in a word, that it was a rotten, hollow, painfully suggestive piece of business altogether. We left them to their system and themselves, and went home wondering. ¡¡¡¡'Perhaps it's a good thing, Traddles,' said I, 'to have an unsound Hobby ridden hard; for it's the sooner ridden to death.' ¡¡¡¡'I hope so,' replied Traddles.

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I could not eat, I could not sit still, I could not continue steadfast to anything. Something within me, faintly answering to the storm without, tossed up the depths of my memory and made a tumult in them. Yet, in all the hurry of my thoughts, wild running with the thundering sea, - the storm, and my uneasiness regarding Ham were always in the fore-ground. ¡¡¡¡My dinner went away almost untasted, and I tried to refresh myself with a glass or two of wine. In vain. I fell into a dull slumber before the fire, without losing my consciousness,
either of the uproar out of doors, or of the place in which I was. Both became overshadowed by a new and indefinable horror; and when I awoke - or rather when I shook off the lethargy that bound me in my chair- my whole frame thrilled with objectless and unintelligible fear. ¡¡¡¡I walked to and fro, tried to read an old gazetteer, listened to the awful noises: looked at faces, scenes, and figures in the fire. At length, the steady ticking of the undisturbed clock on the wall tormented me to that degree that I resolved to go to bed.

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Miss Mills must have been born to be a blessing to us. She ascertained from me in a few words what it was all about, comforted Dora, and gradually convinced her that I was not a labourer - from my manner of stating the case I believe Dora concluded that I was a navigator, and went balancing myself up and down a plank all day with a wheelbarrow - and so brought us together in peace. When we were quite composed, and Dora had gone up-stairs to put some rose-water to her eyes, Miss Mills rang for tea. In the ensuing interval,

I told Miss Mills that she was evermore my friend, and that my heart must cease to vibrate ere I could forget her sympathy. ¡¡¡¡I then expounded to Miss Mills what I had endeavoured, so very unsuccessfully, to expound to Dora. Miss Mills replied, on general principles, that the Cottage of content was better than the Palace of cold splendour, and that where love was, all was.

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Thus what is one Man's Safety, is another Man's Destruction; for it seems these Men, whoever they were, being out of their Knowledge, and the Rocks being wholly under Water, had been driven upon them in the Night, the Wind blowing hard at E. and E.N.E: Had they seen the Island, as I must necessarily suppose they did not, they must, as I thought, have endeavour'd to have sav'd themselves on Shore by the Help of their Boat; but their firing of Guns for Help, especially when they saw, as I imagin'd, my Fire, fill'd me with many Thoughts: First, I imagin'd that upon seeing my Light, they might have put themselves into their Boat, and have endeavour'd to make the Shore; but that the Sea going very high, they might have been cast away; other Times I
Case many Ways; as particularly by the Breaking of the Sea upon their Ship, which many Times obliges Men to stave, or take in Pieces their Boat; and sometimes to throw it over-board with their own Hands: Other Times I imagin'd, they had some other Ship, or Ships in Company, who upon the Signals of Distress they had made, had taken them up, and carry'd them off: Other whiles I fancy'd, they were all gone off to Sea in their Boat, and being hurry'd away by the Current that I had been formerly in, were carry'd out into the great Ocean, where there was nothing but Misery and Perishing; and that perhaps they might by this Time think of starving, and of being in a Condition to eat one another.

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I employ'd my self in Planting my Second Rows of Stakes or Piles and in this Wicker working all the Summer, or dry Season, when another Business took me up more Time than it could be imagin'd I could spare.
I mention'd before, That I had a great Mind to see the whole Island, and that I had travell'd up the Brook, and so on to where I built my Bower, and where I had an Opening quite to the Sea on the other Side of the Island; I now resolv'd to travel quite Cross to the Sea-Shore on that Side; so taking my Gun, a Hatchet, and my Dog, and a larger Quantity of Powder and Shot than usual, with two Bisket Cakes, and a great Bunch of Raisins in my Pouch for my Store, I began my Journey; when I had pass'd the Vale where my Bower stood as above, I came within View of the Sea, to the West, and it being a very clear Day, I fairly descry'd Land, whether an Island or a Continent, I could not tell; but it lay very high, extending from the West, to the W. S. W. at a very great Distance; by my Guess it could not be less than Fifteen or Twenty Leagues off.
I could not tell what Part of the World this might be, otherwise than that I know it must be Part of America, and as I concluded by all my Observations, must be near the Spanish Dominions, and perhaps was all Inhabited by Savages, where if I should have landed, I had been in a worse Condition than I was now; and therefore I acquiesced in the Dispositions of Providence, which I began now to own, and to believe, order'd every Thing for the best; I say, I quieted my Mind with this, and left afflicting my self with Fruitless Wishes of being there

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Be that as it would, we were oblig'd to go on Shoar somewhere or other for Water, for we had not a Pint left in the Boat; when or where to get to it was the Point: Xury said, if I would let him go on Shoar with one of the Jarrs, he would find if there was any Water and bring some to me. I ask'd him why he would go? Why I should not go and he stay in the Boat? The Boy answer'd with so much Affection that made me love him ever after. Says he, If wild Mans come, they eat me, you go wey. Well, Xury, said I, we will both go, and if the wild Mans come we will kill them, they shall eat neither of us; so I gave Xury a piece of Rusk-bread to Eat and a Dram out of our Patroon's Case of Bottles which I mentioned before; and we hal'd the Boat in as near the Shoar as we thought was proper, and so waded on Shoar, carrying nothing but our Arms and two Jarrs for Water.
I did not care to go out of Sight of the Boat, fearing the coming of Canoes with Savages down the River; but the Boy seeing a low Place about a Mile up the Country rambled to it; and by and by I saw him come running towards me, I thought he was pursued by some Savage, or frighted with some wild Beast, and I run forward towards him to help him, but when I came nearer to him, I saw something hanging over his Shoulders which was a Creature that he had shot, like a Hare but different in Colour, and longer Legs, however we were very glad of it, and it was very good Meat; but the great Joy that poor Xury came with, was to tell me he had found good Water and seen no wild Mans.

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I know he has a bad nature,' said Catherine: `he's your son. But I'm glad I've a better, to forgive it; and I know he loves me, and for that reason I love him. Mr Heathcliff, you have nobody to love you; and, however miserable you make us, we shall still have the revenge of thinking that your cruelty arises from your greater misery. You are miserable, are you not? Lonely, like the devil, and envious like him? Nobody loves you--nobody will cry for you when you die! I wouldn't be you!'
Catherine spoke with a kind of dreary triumph: she seemed to have made up her mind to enter into the spirit of her future family, and draw pleasure from the griefs of her enemies.
`You shall be sorry to be yourself presently', said her father-in-law, `if you stand there another minute. Begone, witch, and get your things!'
She scornfully withdrew. In her absence, I began to beg for Zillah's place at the Heights, offering to resign mine to her; but he would suffer it on no account. He bid me be silent; and then, for the first time, allowed himself a glance round the room and a look at the pictures. Having studied Mrs Linton, he said:
`I shall have that home. Not because I need it, but--' He turned abruptly to the fire, and continued, with what, for lack of a better word, I must call a smile--`I'Il tell you what I did yesterday! I got the sexton, who was digging Linton's grave, to remove the earth off her coffin-lid, and I opened it. I thought, once, I would have stayed there: when I saw her face again--it.is hers yet!--he had ~ hard work to stir me; but he said it would change if the air blew on it, and so I struck one side of the coffin loose, and covered it up: not Linton's side, damn him! I wish he'd been soldered in lead. And I bribed the sexton to pull it away when I'm laid there, and slide mine out too; I'll have it made so: and then, by the time Linton gets to us he'll not know which is which!'

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Are you going to listen to her ravings?' I said passionately. `She does not know what she says. Will you ruin her, because she has not wit to help herself? Get up! You could be free instantly. That is the most diabolical deed that ever you did. We are all done for--master, mistress, and servant.
I wrung my hands, and cried out; Mr Linton hastened his step at the noise. In the midst of my agitation, I was sincerely glad to observe that Catherine's arms had fallen relaxed, and her head hung down.
`She's fainted or dead,' I thought: `so much the better. Far better that she should be dead, than lingering a burden and a misery-maker to all about her.'
Edgar sprang to his unbidden guest, blanched with astonishment and rage. What he meant to do, I cannot tell; however, the other stopped all demonstrations, at once, by placing the lifeless looking form in his arms.
`Look there!' he said; `unless you be a fiend, help her first--then you shall speak to me
He walked into the parlour, and sat down. Mr Linton summoned me, and with great difficulty, and after resorting to many means, we managed to restore her to sensation; but she was all bewildered; she sighed, and moaned, and knew nobody. Edgar, in his anxiety for her, forgot her hated friend. I did not. I went, at the earliest opportunity, and besought him to depart; affirming that Catherine was better, and he should hear from me in the morning how she passed the night.
`I shall not refuse to go out of doors,' he answered; `but I shall stay in the garden: and, Nelly, mind you keep your word to morrow. I shall be under those larch trees. Mind! or I pay another visit, whether Linton be in or not.
He sent a rapid glance through the half-open door of the chamber, and, ascertaining that what I stated was apparently true, delivered the house of his luckless

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`And you, you worthless'--he broke out as I entered, turning to his daughter-in-law, and employing an epithet as harmless as duck, or sheep, but generally represented by a dash--. `There you are, at your idle tricks again! The rest of them do earn their bread--you live on my charity! Put your trash away, and find something to do. You shall pay me for the plague of having you eternally in my sight--do you hear, damnable jade?'
`I'll put my trash away, because you can make me, if I refuse,' answered the young lady, closing her book, and throwing it on a chair. `But I'll not do anything, though you should swear your tongue out, except what I please!'
Heathcliff lifted his hand, and the speaker sprang to a safer distance, obviously acquainted with its weight. Having no desire to be entertained by a cat-and-dog combat; I stepped forward briskly, as if eager to partake the warmth of the hearth, and innocent of any knowledge of the interrupted dispute. Each had enough decorum to suspend further hostilities: Heathcliff placed his fist, out of temptation, in his pockets; Mrs Heathcliff curled her lip, and walked to a seat far off, where she kept her word by playing the part of a statue during the remainder of my stay. That was not long. I declined joining their breakfast, and, at the first gleam of dawn, took an opportunity of escaping into the free air, now clear, and still, and cold as impalpable ice.

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persevered in it- in the unflagging energy and unshaken temper with
which you have met its difficulties- I acknowledge the complement of
the qualities I seek. Jane, you are docile, diligent, disinterested,
faithful, constant, and courageous; very gentle, and very heroic:
cease to mistrust yourself- I can trust you unreservedly. As a
conductress of Indian schools, and a helper amongst Indian women, your
assistance will be to me invaluable.'
My iron shroud contracted round me; persuasion advanced with
slow, sure step. Shut my eyes as I would, these last words of his
succeeded in making the way, which had seemed blocked up,
comparatively clear. My work, which had appeared so vague, so
hopelessly diffuse, condensed itself as he proceeded, and assumed a
definite form under his shaping hand. He waited for an answer. I
demanded a quarter of an hour to think, before I again hazarded a
reply.
'Very willingly,' he rejoined; and rising, he strode a little
distance up the pass, threw himself down on a swell of heath, and
there lay still.

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But next day, Want came to me pale and bare. Long after the
little birds had left their nests; long after bees had come in the
sweet prime of day to gather the heath honey before the dew was dried-
when the long morning shadows were curtailed, and the sun filled earth
and sky- I got up, and I looked round me.
What a still, hot, perfect day! What a golden desert this spreading
moor! Everywhere sunshine. I wished I could live in it and on it. I
saw a lizard run over the crag; I saw a bee busy among the sweet
bilberries. I would fain at the moment have become bee or lizard, that
I might have found fitting nutriment, permanent shelter here. But I
was a human being, and had a human being's wants: I must not linger
where there was nothing to supply them. I rose; I looked back at the
bed I had left. Hopeless of the future, I wished but this- that my
Maker had that night thought good to require my soul of me while I
slept; and that this weary frame, absolved by death from further
conflict with fate, had now but to decay quietly, and mingle in
peace with the soil of this wilderness. Life, however, was yet in my
possession, with all its requirements, and pains, and

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purchasing a new carriage: she said the idea of his marrying Miss
Ingram still seemed strange to her; but from what everybody said,
and from what she had herself seen, she could no longer doubt that the
event would shortly take place. 'You would be strangely incredulous if
you did doubt it,' was my mental comment. 'I don't doubt it.'
The question followed, 'Where was I to go?' I dreamt of Miss Ingram
all the night: in a vivid morning dream I saw her closing the gates of
Thornfield against me and pointing me out another road; and Mr.
Rochester looked on with his arms folded- smiling sardonically, as
it seemed, at both her and me.
I had not notified to Mrs. Fairfax the exact day of my return;
for I did not wish either car or carriage to meet me at Millcote. I
proposed to walk the distance quietly by myself; and very quietly,
after leaving my box in the ostler's care, did I slip away from the
George Inn, about six o'clock of a June evening, and take the old road
to Thornfield: a road which lay chiefly through fields, and was now
little frequented.
It was not a bright or splendid summer evening, though fair and
soft: the haymakers were at work all along the road; and the sky,

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He ground his teeth and was silent: he arrested his step and struck
his boot against the hard ground. Some hated thought seemed to have
him in its grip, and to hold him so tightly that he could not advance.
We were ascending the avenue when he thus paused; the hall was
before us. Lifting his eye to its battlements, he cast over them a
glare such as I never saw before or since. Pain, shame, ire,
impatience, disgust, detestation, seemed momentarily to hold a
quivering conflict in the large pupil dilating under his ebon eyebrow.
Wild was the wrestle which should be paramount; but another feeling
rose and triumphed: something hard and cynical: self-willed and
resolute: it settled his passion and petrified his countenance: he
went on-
'During the moment I was silent, Miss Eyre, I was arranging a point
with my destiny. She stood there, by that beech-trunk- a hag like
one of those who appeared to Macbeth on the heath of Forres. "You like
Thornfield?" she said, lifting her finger; and then she wrote in the
air a memento, which ran in lurid hieroglyphics all along the
house-front, between the upper and lower row of windows, "Like it if
you can? Like it if you dare!"
'"I will like it" said I; "I dare like it;" and' (he subjoined

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This, par parenthese, will be thought cool language by persons
who entertain solemn doctrines about the angelic nature of children,
and the duty of those charged with their education to conceive for
them an idolatrous devotion: but I am not writing to flatter
parental egotism, to echo cant, or prop up humbug; I am merely telling
the truth. I felt a conscientious solicitude for Adele's welfare and
progress, and a quiet liking for her little self: just as I
cherished towards Mrs. Fairfax a thankfulness for her kindness, and
a pleasure in her society proportionate to the tranquil regard she had
for me, and the moderation of her mind and character.
Anybody may blame me who likes, when I add further, that, now and
then, when I took a walk by myself in the grounds; when I went down to
the gates and looked through them along the road; or when, while Adele
played with her nurse, and Mrs. Fairfax made jellies in the storeroom,

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and its top laden with passengers: the guard and coachman loudly urged
haste; my trunk was hoisted up; I was taken from Bessie's neck, to
which I clung with kisses.
'Be sure and take good care of her,' cried she to the guard, as
he lifted me into the inside.
'Ay, ay!' was the answer: the door was slapped to, a voice
exclaimed 'All right,' and on we drove. Thus was I severed from Bessie
and Gateshead; thus whirled away to unknown, and, as I then deemed,
remote and mysterious regions.remember but little of the journey; I only know that the day
seemed to me of a preternatural length, and that we appeared to travel
over hundreds of miles of road. We passed through several towns, and
in one, a very large one, the coach stopped; the horses were taken
out, and the passengers alighted to dine. I was carried into an inn,
where the guard wanted me to have some dinner; but, as I had no
appetite, he left me in an immense room with a fireplace at each
end, a chandelier pendent from the ceiling, and a little red gallery

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文丽突然嘎嘎笑，说:那是，老家伙身上的味儿都是馊的，谁爱闻啊。你闻闻咱大宝，那叫一个香啊！
　　佟志说:你还来劲了！
　　文丽来了谈兴，说:哎，你说也怪啊。我以前吧，看那些小年轻，从来也没什么正经话，都小屁孩儿，可现在也不知道怎么回事儿，就爱跟这些年轻人聊天，我是不是真的太老了？
　　佟志龇着牙说:你这又设套吧？我说你老了你打我，我说你不老你掐我，我不知道。
　　文丽感叹说:我跟你正经交流一次怎么就这么难啊！
　　佟志揶揄地问:真和那小弟弟特有的聊？文丽说:可不,跟年轻人交流就是简单，跟回到学生时代一样！文丽说着关灯，坦然睡去。
　　佟志瞪着双眼，睡不着了。也许是男人也有第六感吧，佟志的感觉往前发展着，因为文丽正走在出问题的边缘……
　　文丽独自在办公室里判作业，小夏进来了，告诉文丽他考上研究生了，今天去学校报到了。
　　文丽说:那不赶紧办手续去，到我这来干吗呀！
　　小夏说:今晚我们学校有个舞会，我可听人说五十年代你是咱厂舞蹈明星，会跳好多交际舞。
　　文丽的表情恍惚了一下，脸上显出年轻时代的娇羞，说:谁跟你说的？谁还记得这些事。
　　小夏殷勤地说:去吧，挺热闹的，全是大学生和老师。

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佟志赶紧四下看着，低声训斥说:什么唐诗宋词，我家可从来没那玩意儿啊，我们家只有毛选四卷，还有毛主席诗词选，要不要我给你背一段？
　　大庄说:德性，这车间没人，你是怕我给你打小报告吗？
　　佟志说:唉，这几年真是草木皆兵啊，保不齐谁就翻脸成仇了。
　　大庄说:这话我可不爱听，你们知识分子就是心眼儿小事儿多，有时候昧着良心说几句话那也是迫不得已。人活那么大，好歹还是知道的。
　　佟志说:你这意思是想拿我当垫脚石啊？我还真没看透你啊。
　　大庄说:我操，咱俩这么多年，你说这话也不怕伤我心。
　　两人抽了一会儿烟。佟志叹口气说:唉，这“文革”把人心整的啊，也就是在家里敢说几句真话。车间外面传来孩子们的笑闹声。
　　两人听着出神，大庄感慨着:孩子们是一点不知道愁啊。
　　佟志说:不上学燕妮可乐死了，天天带俩妹妹在外面疯。
　　大庄说:仨闺女还吗？
　　佟志说:！我看得一辈子。
　　佟志语气是宽慰的。大庄嫉妒了，说:瞧把你美的，闺女再好有啥用，将来一搞起对象，还不得把你心疼死。
　　佟志说:去去去，说那不中听的干吗，我闺女一般人那能沾上边吗！

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油热了。佟母炒菜，立刻炒出一片辣子油烟，呛得文丽鼻涕眼泪一起流。佟母神态自若，说:酱油、味精。
　　文丽张嘴就喊:佟……刚说了一个字，马上咽回去了，在碗架柜里翻翻没有，说:可能用完了，我去买吧。
　　佟母嘀咕着说:算了算了，这也没得那也不晓得，这过的啥子日子嘛！
　　文丽长长叹了口气，不禁想:这老太太啥时走啊！
　　吃饭的时候，佟母没理会文丽，自己盛，把浮头一层好一点的米饭盛出来，给佟志和燕妮。文丽眼巴巴看着婆婆先把一碗煳的放自己跟前，还没转过神来，那剩下的煳饭盛了一碗，就放到文丽跟前了。
　　文丽傻眼了。
　　佟
　　佟母率先吃起煳饭来。佟志不敢说什么，也开始吃饭。文丽看着眼前的煳饭，看着佟母吃得那么无所谓，只得端起饭碗。
　　佟母把腊肉盘子推到佟志跟前说:男人就得多吃肉，吃吧吃吧。
　　佟志狼吞虎咽。文丽夹了一块肉给燕妮。燕妮吃一口吐了，说:辣！文丽尝一口也觉辣，随手丢到佟志碗里。
　　佟母盯了文丽一眼，皱起眉头，说:大志，你不是考工程师吗？吃完饭看书去吧。大男人老钻厨房算什么事。