[Villette by Charlotte Bronte]@TWC D-Link bookVillette CHAPTER XXII 18/20
Adversity gave me and my mother one passing scowl and brush, but we defied her, or rather laughed at her, and she went by.". "There is no cultivation in all this." "I do not give way to melancholy." "Yes: I have seen you subdued by that feeling." "About Ginevra Fanshawe--eh ?" "Did she not sometimes make you miserable ?" "Pooh! stuff! nonsense! You see I am better now." If a laughing eye with a lively light, and a face bright with beaming and healthy energy, could attest that he was better, better he certainly was. "You do not look much amiss, or greatly out of condition," I allowed. "And why, Lucy, can't you look and feel as I do--buoyant, courageous, and fit to defy all the nuns and flirts in Christendom? I would give gold on the spot just to see you snap your fingers.
Try the manoeuvre." "If I were to bring Miss Fanshawe into your presence just now ?" "I vow, Lucy, she should not move me: or, she should move me but by one thing--true, yes, and passionate love.
I would accord forgiveness at no less a price." "Indeed! a smile of hers would have been a fortune to you a while since." "Transformed, Lucy: transformed! Remember, you once called me a slave! but I am a free man now!" He stood up: in the port of his head, the carriage of his figure, in his beaming eye and mien, there revealed itself a liberty which was more than ease--a mood which was disdain of his past bondage. "Miss Fanshawe," he pursued, "has led me through a phase of feeling which is over: I have entered another condition, and am now much disposed to exact love for love--passion for passion--and good measure of it, too." "Ah, Doctor! Doctor! you said it was your nature to pursue Love under difficulties--to be charmed by a proud insensibility!". He laughed, and answered, "My nature varies: the mood of one hour is sometimes the mockery of the next.
Well, Lucy" (drawing on his gloves), "will the Nun come again to-night, think you ?" "I don't think she will." "Give her my compliments, if she does--Dr.John's compliments--and entreat her to have the goodness to wait a visit from him.
Lucy, was she a pretty nun? Had she a pretty face? You have not told me that yet; and _that_ is the really important point." "She had a white cloth over her face," said I, "but her eyes glittered." "Confusion to her goblin trappings!" cried he, irreverently: "but at least she had handsome eyes--bright and soft." "Cold and fixed," was the reply. "No, no, we'll none of her: she shall not haunt you, Lucy.
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