關燈 巨大 直達底部
親,雙擊螢幕即可自動滾動
第83部分

etly to his masterhood; smile undisturbed at his ineradicable ambition; discriminate the Christian from the man: profoundly esteem the one; and freely forgive the other。 I should suffer often; no doubt; attached to him only in this capacity: my body would be under rather a stringent yoke; but my heart and mind would be free。 I should still have my unblighted self to turn to: my natural unenslaved feelings with which to municate in moments of loneliness。 There would be recesses in my mind which would be only mine; to which he never came; and sentiments growing there fresh and sheltered which his austerity could never blight; nor his measured warrior…march trample down: but as his wife—at his side always; and always restrained; and always checked—forced to keep the fire of my nature continually low; to pel it to burn inwardly and never utter a cry; though the imprisoned flame consumed vital after vital—this would be unendurable。

“St。 John!” I exclaimed; when I had got so far in my meditation。

“Well?” he answered icily。

“I repeat I freely consent to go with you as your fellow…missionary; but not as your wife; I cannot marry you and bee part of you。”

“A part of me you must bee;” he answered steadily; “otherwise the whole bargain is void。 How can I; a man not yet thirty; take out with me to India a girl of nieen; unless she be married to me? How can we be for ever together—sometimes in solitudes; sometimes amidst savage tribes—and unwed?”

“Very well;” I said shortly; “under the circumstances; quite as well as if I were either your real sister; or a man and a clergyman like yourself。”

“It is known that you are not my sister; I cannot introduce you as such: to attempt it would be to fasten injurious suspicions on us both。 And for the r