英文讀書筆記

　　there was a carpet - a good one but the pattern was obliterated by dust; a fireplace hung with cut-paper dropping to pieces; a handsome oak-bedstead with ample crimson curtains of rather expensive material and modern make; but they had evidently experienced rough usage: the vallances hung in festoons wrenched from their rings and the iron rod supporting them was bent in an arc on one side causing the drapery to trail upon the floor. the chairs were also damaged many of them severely; and deep indentations deformed the panels of the walls.

　　paragraph 6

　　mrs. linton sat in a loose white dress with a light shawl over her shoulders in the recess of the open window as usual. her thick long hair had been partly removed at the beginning of her illness and now she wore it simply combed in its natural tresses over her temples and neck. her appearance was altered as i had told heathcliff; but when she was calm there seemed unearthly beauty in the change. the flash of her eyes had been succeeded by a dreamy and melancholy softness; they no longer gave the impression of looking at the objects around her: they appeared always to gaze beyond and far beyond - you would have said out of this world. then the paleness of her face - its haggard aspect having vanished as she recovered flesh - and the peculiar expression arising from her mental state though painfully suggestive of their causes added to the touching interest which she awakened; and - invariably to me i know and to any person who saw her i should think - refuted more tangible proofs of convalescence and stamped her as one doomed to decay.

　　paragraph 7

　　in her eagerness she rose and supported herself on the arm of the chair. at that earnest appeal he turned to her looking absolutely desperate. his eyes wide and wet at last flashed fiercely on her; his breast heaved convulsively. an instant they held asunder and then how they met i hardly saw but catherine made a spring and he caught her and they were locked in an embrace from which i thought my mistress would never be released alive: in fact to my eyes she seemed directly insensible. he flung himself into the nearest seat and on my approaching hurriedly to ascertain if she had fainted he gnashed at me and foamed like a mad dog and gathered her to him with greedy jealousy. i did not feel as if i were in the company of a creature of my own species: it appeared that he would not understand though i spoke to him; so i stood off and held my tongue in great perplexity.

　　paragraph 8

　　the intruder was mrs. heathcliff. she certainly seemed in no laughing predicament: her hair streamed on her shoulders dripping with snow and water; she was dressed in the girlish dress she commonly wore befitting her age more than her position: a low frock with short sleeves and nothing on either head or neck. the frock was of light silk and clung to her with wet and her feet were protected merely by thin slippers; add to this a deep cut under one ear which only the cold prevented from bleeding profusely a white face scratched and bruised and a frame hardly able to support itself through fatigue; and you may fancy my first fright was not much allayed when i had had leisure to examine her.

　　paragraph 9

　　heathcliff did not glance my way and i gazed up and contemplated his features almost as confidently as if they had been turned to stone. his forehead that i once thought so manly and that i now think so diabolical was shaded with a heavy cloud; his basilisk eyes were nearly quenched by sleeplessness and weeping perhaps for the lashes were wet then: his lips devoid of their ferocious sneer and sealed in an expression of unspeakable sadness. had it been another i would have covered my face in the presence of such grief. in his case i was gratified; and ignoble as it seems to insult a fallen enemy i couldn't miss this chance of sticking in a dart: his weakness was the only time when i could taste the delight of paying wrong for wrong.