Dickens, Charles (1812-1870)

Hard Times. For These Times.

London

Bradbury & Evans

1854

"She turned her head, and the light of her face shone in upon the midnight of his mind."

She turned her head, and the light of her face shone in upon the midnight of his mind. She sat by the bed, watching and tending his wife. That is to say, he saw that some one lay there, and he knew too well it must be she; but Eachael's hands had put a curtain up, so that she was screened from his eyes. Her disgraceful garments were removed, and some of Eachael's were in the room. Everything was in its place and order as he had always kept it, the little fire was newly trimmed, and the hearth was freshly swept. It appeared to him that he saw all this in Eachael's face, and looked at nothing besides. While looking at it, it was shut out from his view by the softened tears that filled his eyes; but, not before he had seen how earnestly she looked at him, and how her own eyes were filled too.
(p. 66)

Light::Midnight

Reading

Dickens, Charles. Hard Times ed. George Ford and Sylvère Monod (New York: Norton, 1990). <Link to Google Books>

04/18/2011