Chapter 24 CHAPTER FOUR An Hour of Joy Brings Many Hours of Sorrow

The next day, the atmosphere in Hualuo Village was dull.Yeobright had been in the study, sitting with the book open before him; but all this time he was reading a blank, which was sad.He made up his mind that he should never show any signs of sullenness towards his mother, and he sometimes talked to her about the past, and he didn't care about her few words in reply.With the same determination, at about seven o'clock in the evening, he still said perfunctorily that there will be a lunar eclipse tonight.I want to go out and have a look.Then he put on his coat and left her. Before the rising moon could be seen in front of the house, Yeobright climbed the hillside and out of the valley until his whole body was bathed in moonlight.But even at this moment, he still didn't stop, he was walking in the direction of Yuzhong.

Half an hour later he was standing on top of the rain mound.The whole sky was clear from one end to the other, and the moon spread its light all over the heath, but did not quite illuminate it all, except for places where white flint and glistening quartz sand appeared on the paths and rivers. , only to show the bright spots in the surrounding shadows.After standing for a while, he knelt down and touched the heather.The heather was dry, and he sat down on the rain mound, his face turned up to the moon, and the little moon silhouette was reflected in his eyes. He came here often, but he never talked to his mother about his purpose; this was the first time he had told his purpose, but it was only a superficial confession, and the real purpose was concealed.It was a moral question, and three months ago he would not have believed that he would encounter such a question.He had thought that by returning to work in this backwater, he would be able to escape the inevitable troubles of society; but here, too, there were troubles.He longed more than ever to go to another world, where ambition would not be the only sign of success. Perhaps this silvery moon that now cast its light on him, what in the past Time may be such a world.He looked across a long distance to the far and vast countryside, to the bay in front of Rainmound, to the melancholy Chris Sea, the stormy sea, to the lake of dreams, to the vast expanse of the Wald Plains, to the wonderful He kept looking at the forest mountain range, and he felt as if he was wandering in this desert place, standing on its empty mountain, trekking through its desert, reaching the bottom of the valley and the ancient ocean, or going straight to the crater. side.

As he gazed at this distant, ever-changing landscape, a tawny shadow appeared beneath the moon: a lunar eclipse had begun.It also marks the arrival of a pre-appointed moment: for this distant celestial phenomenon has been used by the earth as a signal from the lover.Seeing this sight, Yeobright's heart returned to the earth; he stood up, shook himself, and listened.Time passed minute by minute, maybe ten minutes later, and the shadow on the moon became bigger and bigger.He heard a rustling sound from the left, and a figure in a cloak looking up appeared at the foot of the rain mound, so Climb ran down.After a while the figure fell into his arms, and his lips were pressed against hers.

My Eustacia! Clem, dearest! In less than three months, the two of them have reached such a point. They hugged each other like this for a long time, without saying a word, because no language can express their state of mind at the moment: language is like the rusty tools of the past barbarous age, which can only be used occasionally. . I'm starting to wonder why you're not here yet, said Yeobright.At this moment she moved away from his arms slightly. You said you'd wait ten minutes after the shadow on the edge of the moon; it's exactly ten minutes past now. Well, all we have to do is think about the two of us being here.

After finishing speaking, the two held hands and fell into silence again, and the shadow on the moon widened a little. It seems like a long time since you last saw me, doesn't it?she asked. I always feel very sad. Isn't it long enough?That's because you've been busy with your own business and turned a blind eye to my absence.For someone like me with nothing to do, I just feel like I've been living in a stagnant pool. My dear, I would rather endure tedium than waste time and shorten my life by doing nothing. Then how to live?You've been thinking that you wished you didn't love me.

How can it be possible for a person to love and have such a wish at the same time?No, Eustacia. Men do, women don't. Well, no matter what I think, one thing is for sure I really love you more than anything, and beyond words, I love you unbearably, I'm a man I've never met before with any woman Generate a fleeting liking, that's all.Let me take a good look at your face illuminated by the moonlight, and firmly remember every curve and entire outline of this face!This face is only slightly different from the faces I've seen so many times before I met you; but what a difference it is, it's all the difference between having everything and having nothing.Let me kiss these lips again!Here, here, and here.Eustacia, how heavy your eyes are!

No, that's how I generally see people.Sometimes I feel that it is a kind of heart-wrenching pity that I should have been born human, welling up from the depths of my feelings. You don't feel that way now, do you? Gone.But I know we won't love each other like this forever.Nothing can guarantee that love will last forever.It will sublimate and disappear like a spirit, so I am filled with fear. You don't have to be so scared. Ah, you don't understand.You have seen more of the world than I have, and have lived in great cities and among many people, of which I have only heard, and you are older than I am; and yet I am older than you in this respect longer.Once I was in love with another man, and now I'm in love with you.

For heaven's sake, Eustacia, don't say that! But I don't think I was the first to feel worried.I'm afraid, this is how our business will end: your mother will find out that you have met me, and she will influence you to abandon me! Never.She already knew about these encounters. Is she against me? I won't say it. OK, let's go!Go and obey her.I will ruin you.You are being silly to meet me like this, kiss me and walk away.ever you hear?forever! I do not go. This is your only chance.For many men, love brings them disaster. You're so desperate, you're utterly delusional, you say it on purpose; you're misunderstood.I came out to meet you tonight, besides loving you, there is another reason.I don't think like you, I think our relationship is lasting, but I agree with you that we can't live like this anymore.

oh!It's because of your mother.Yes, that's the case!I know. Don't worry about the reason.Believe this: I can't bring myself to lose you.I want you to be with me forever.Tonight, I don't want you to go.Dearest, there is only one cure for this anxiety of yours and you must be my wife. She was taken aback; then she managed to speak with such composure that the cure for love, says the cynic, is the cure for worry. You must answer me.when can i get youI don't mean immediately. I must think about it, murmured Eustacia.Tell me about Paris now.Is there anywhere else in the world like it?

It's really beautiful.But will you be mine? I will not be anyone else's person in this world Does this answer satisfy you? Yes, at the moment. Now tell me about the Tuileries Palace [Note: The old Royal Palace in Paris, France, was burned down in 1871, and now only the Tuileries Garden remains. ], and the Louvre, she continued, deliberately digressing. I hate talking about Paris!By the way, I remember that there is a sunny room in the Louvre, which is very suitable for you to live in, and it is the Apollon Museum.The windows there are basically facing east, and early in the morning, when the sun is shining brightly, the whole room is simply dazzling and impeccable.The light is reflected from the surface of the gold-encrusted object, and shines on the resplendent and magnificent boxes placed in the house, and then reflects from the boxes to the gold and silver plates, and then reflects from the plates to the jewels and jade, and from these jewels. The reflection of the jade on the porcelain made the room intertwined into a perfect net of light, which dazzled people.But now, let's talk about our marriage

And the Palace of Versailles, the king's art gallery is always such a magnificent room, isn't it? good.But what's the point of talking about these magnificent rooms?By the way, the Petit Trianon Palace [Note: The Royal Villa in the Gardens of the Palace of Versailles, France. 】It's beautiful, it will make us comfortable, you can walk in the garden, the moon is like water, and you will think that you are walking in some bushy place in England; the place is built in the fashion of England of. I don't want to think about it that way! Then you can always walk on the lawn in front of the palace.Everything there will undoubtedly make you feel that you are living in some romantic world in history. He went on talking about all these things that were completely new to her, describing Fontainebleau, Saint-Cloud. ], the great woods, and the haunts known to many Parisians; until she said When do you usually go to those places? Sunday. Oh yes.I don't like Sundays in England.I shall blend in perfect harmony with the ways of life in Paris!Dear Clem, will you go back there again? Climb shook his head and fixed his eyes on the lunar eclipse. If you'll go back again, I'll be that, she said softly, resting her head on his chest.If you agree, I promise you that I won't ask you to wait for a minute. How strange that you and my mother should think exactly the same on this matter!said Yeobright, I swore I would never go back, Eustacia.It's not that I don't like the place, I just don't like the profession. But you can find another job. No.Besides, that would ruin my plan.Don't push me, Eustacia.Will you marry me? I can't speak. Forget about Paris; it's no better than anywhere else.Promise me baby! I am quite sure that you will never carry out that educational plan of yours; and it will be all right for me then; and therefore I promise you that I will be yours forever and ever. Climb gently pressed her face close to his own, and kissed her. ah!But you don't know what you have left in me, she said. Sometimes I feel Eustacia.There was nothing in Vey that would have made her a good housewife.Forget it, let it be and see, our time is passing, passing, passing!She points to the half-eclipse of the moon. You are too blue. No.I just can't think of anything that's out of this reality.We know what that is.We're together now, but not knowing how long we'll be together like this is something that always haunts me and keeps me dreading the possibility of something terrible happening, even when I have good reason Hope it's a bright time to come Clem, the light of this eclipse falls on your face with a strangely unfamiliar color that makes its shadows look as if they were cut out of gold.That means you should do better than this. You are too high-spirited, Eustacia, no, not exactly high-spirited, but the pursuit of enjoyment.I think, I should have the same temperament as you, so that you can live happily.However, I am far from that, and I can live and die in this backwater, as long as I can do my proper work. There was in his tone a suspicion of his own position as a pious suitor, of the justice of his attitude towards a man whose tastes were only in rare and rare places similar to his .She understood what he meant and whispered, in a voice full of confidence and eagerness of encouragement, Don't get me wrong, Clem: As much as I love Paris, it's you who I love.To me it is heaven to be your wife and live in Paris; but I would rather live with you in this backwater than not be your wife.In every respect, I have got it, and I have gained a lot.This is also my truth. That's what a woman said.Now I have to leave you soon.I want to take you home. But you have to go home too, right?She asked, yes, I saw that the sand in the hourglass was almost gone, and the lunar eclipse was a little bigger.don't go!Just let the time go by itself; then I won't force you any more.You'll go home and sleep soundly; I'll keep sighing in my sleep!Have you ever dreamed about me? I can't recall a lucid dream about you. I see your face in every dream scene I have and hear your voice in every sound in my dreams.I wish I hadn't had that dream.My feelings are too much.Such love, they say, cannot last.It's sure to last though!Also, I remember seeing a Hungarian light motorcycle officer riding down the street at Beleikou once, and even though he was a complete stranger and never talked to me, I fell in love with him, and I really loved him. Thought I was going to die for this love but I didn't, and finally I didn't think about him anymore.How dreadful it would be if I could no longer love you, my Clem! Please don't say such nonsense anymore.When we do see that moment come, we say, I've lived enough to lose my faith and my purpose in life, and die.Look, the hourglass is done, let's go now. They walked arm in arm towards Misty Heights, and when they were almost at Eustacia's house, he said, It was too late for me to visit your grandfather any more.Do you think he would object to this matter between us? I will talk to him.I've always been so used to making my own decisions, it never occurred to me that we should ask his opinion. Then they parted reluctantly, and Clem walked downhill towards Hualuo Village. As he distanced himself a little from the glamorous aura of his Olympian beauty, a new sadness developed in him, making his face sad too.He felt again and again that this love placed him in a dilemma.Although Eustacia was outwardly content to wait through the uncertain phase of his endeavors before him, and wait for him to make something of his new endeavors, he could not help seeing at once that her love He is not so much in love with someone who is bent on living his old life (but a life that is very attractive to her) as he is in love with someone from the bustling world (where she should be) Belonging to that world) guests.When they met, she often revealed a word or a certain action.That means that even though she did not ask him to return to the capital of France as a condition for marriage, she had such an expectation in her heart for the result of this marriage; The good times suddenly became gloomy in his heart.Not only that, but such a big rift appeared in the relationship between him and his mother.Whenever something happened that would cause him to disappoint his mother more than usual, he would go for a walk by himself in a melancholy mood; He was so disturbed that he hardly slept at night.If only Mrs. Yeobright could see what a safe and meaningful purpose he had, and which was hardly affected by his affection for Eustacia, who knew what to him. Look at it differently! Thus, as Yeobright's eyes grew accustomed to the dazzling halo of love and beauty that first surrounded him, he also began to realize the predicament he was facing.There were times when he wished he had never known Eustacia at all, but immediately felt that his wish was unnatural.Three incompatible but progressive factors had to be sustained: his mother's confidence in him, his plans to become a teacher, and Eustacia's happiness.His fiery personality made it impossible for him to give up one of these factors, and at least two of these three factors were what he hoped to maintain.Although his love is like Petrarch [Note: Italian poet, founder and great representative of the European humanism movement. ] as pure as his love for his Laura, but it was this love that turned what had been a mere hindrance into fetters of every kind.It had been difficult for him to hold firmly to his position, which was now complicated by the addition of Eustacia.Just as his mother was preparing to put up with a plan he had told her, another plan, even more unacceptable than the previous one, came up, and the combination of the two must have been even more unbearable for her.