Across the top of the well-staircase there runs a massive oak rail; and, raising her eyes accidentally, she saw an extremely odd-looking stranger, slim and long, leaning carelessly over with a pipe between his finger and thumb. Nose, lips, and chin seemed all to droop2 downward into extraordinary length, as he leant his odd peering face over the banister. In his other hand he held a coil of rope, one end of which escaped from under his elbow and hung over the rail.
Mrs. Carwell, who had no suspicion at the moment, that he was not a real person, and fancied that he was some one employed in cording the Judge’s luggage, called to know what he was doing there.
Instead of answering, he turned about, and walked across the lobby, at about the same leisurely3 pace at which she was ascending4, and entered a room, into which she followed him. It was an uncarpeted and unfurnished chamber5. An open trunk lay upon the floor empty, and beside it the coil of rope; but except herself there her. Perhaps, when she was able to think it over, it was a relief to was no one in the room.
Mrs. Carwell was very much frightened, and now concluded that the child must have seen the same ghost that had just appeared to believe so; for the face, figure, and dress described by the child were awfully6 like Pyneweck; and this certainly was not he.
Very much scared and very hysterical7, Mrs. Carwell ran down to her room, afraid to look over her shoulder, and got some companions about her, and wept, and talked, and drank more than one cordial, and talked and wept again, and so on, until, in those early days, it was ten o’clock, and time to go to bed.
A scullery maid remained up finishing some of her scouring8 and “scalding” for some time after the other servants — who, as I said, were few in number — that night had got to their beds. This was a low-browed, broad-faced, intrepid9 wench with black hair, who did not “vally a ghost not a button,” and treated the housekeeper10’s hysterics with measureless scorn.
The old house was quiet now. It was near twelve o’clock, no sounds were audible except the muffled11 wailing12 of the wintry winds, piping high among the roofs and chimneys, or rumbling13 at intervals14, in under gusts15, through the narrow channels of the street.
The spacious16 solitudes17 of the kitchen level were awfully dark, and this sceptical kitchen-wench was the only person now up and about the house. She hummed tunes18 to herself, for a time; and then stopped and listened; and then resumed her work again. At last, she was destined19 to be more terrified than even was the housekeeper.
There was a back kitchen in this house, and from this she heard, as if coming from below its foundations, a sound like heavy strokes, that seemed to shake the earth beneath her feet. Sometimes a dozen in sequence, at regular intervals; sometimes fewer. She walked out softly into the passage, and was surprised to see a dusky glow issuing from this room, as if from a charcoal20 fire.
The room seemed thick with smoke.
Looking in she very dimly beheld21 a monstrous22 figure, over a furnace, beating with a mighty23 hammer the rings and rivets24 of a chain.
The strokes, swift and heavy as they looked, sounded hollow and distant. The man stopped, and pointed25 to something on the floor, that, through the smoky haze26, looked, the thought, like a dead body. She remarked no more; but the servants in the room close by, startled from their sleep by a hideous27 scream, found her in a swoon on the flags, close to the door, where she had just witnessed this ghastly vision.
Startled by the girl’s incoherent asseverations that she had seen the Judge’s corpse28 on the floor, two servants having first searched the lower part of the house, went rather frightened up-stairs to inquire whether their master was well. They found him, not in his bed, but in his room. He had a table with candles burning at his bedside, and was getting on his clothes again; and he swore and cursed at them roundly in his old style, telling them that he had business, and that he would discharge on the spot any scoundrel who should dare to disturb him again.
So the invalid29 was left to his quietude.
In the morning it was rumored30 here and there in the street that the Judge was dead. A servant was sent from the house three doors away, by Counsellor Traverse, to inquire at Judge Harbottle’s hall door.
The servant who opened it was pale and reserved, and would only say that the Judge was ill. He had had a dangerous accident; Doctor Hedstone had been with him at seven o’clock in the morning.
There were averted31 looks, short answers, pale and frowning faces, and all the usual signs that there was a secret that sat heavily upon their minds and the time for disclosing which had not yet come. That time would arrive when the coroner had arrived, and the mortal scandal that had befallen the house could be no longer hidden. For that morning Mr. Justice Harbottle had been found hanging by the neck from the banister at the top of the great staircase, and quite dead.
There was not the smallest sign of any struggle or resistance. There had not been heard a cry or any other noise in the slightest degree indicative of violence. There was medical evidence to show that, in his atrabilious state, it was quite on the cards that he might have made away with himself. The jury found accordingly that it was a case of suicide. But to those who were acquainted with the strange story which Judge Harbottle had related to at least two persons, the fact that the catastrophe32 occurred on the morning of March 10th seemed a startling coincidence.
A few days after, the pomp of a great funeral attended him to the grave; and so, in the language of Scripture33, “the rich man died, and was buried.”
The End
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1
flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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2
droop
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| v.低垂，下垂；凋萎，萎靡 | |
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3
leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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6
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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7
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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8
scouring
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| 擦[洗]净，冲刷，洗涤 | |
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9
intrepid
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| adj.无畏的，刚毅的 | |
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10
housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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11
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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12
wailing
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱 | |
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13
rumbling
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| n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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14
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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15
gusts
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| 一阵强风( gust的名词复数 )； （怒、笑等的）爆发； （感情的）迸发； 发作 | |
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16
spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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17
solitudes
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| n.独居( solitude的名词复数 )；孤独；荒僻的地方；人迹罕至的地方 | |
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18
tunes
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| n.曲调，曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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charcoal
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| n.炭，木炭，生物炭 | |
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21
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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24
rivets
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| 铆钉( rivet的名词复数 ) | |
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25
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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26
haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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27
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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28
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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29
invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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30
rumored
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| adj.传说的，谣传的v.传闻( rumor的过去式和过去分词 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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32
catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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33
scripture
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| n.经文，圣书，手稿；Scripture:(常用复数)《圣经》，《圣经》中的一段 | |
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