Mark had said it so lightly, however, that he was the more struck with his host’s appearing to turn just paler; and, with it, the latter now was listening. “You hear something?”
“I thought you did.” Winch himself, on Mark’s own pressure of the outside bell, had opened the door of the apartment — an indication then, it sufficiently3 appeared, that Sunday afternoons were servants’, or attendants’, or even trained nurses’ holidays. It had also marked the stage of his convalescence4, and to that extent — after his first flush of surprise — had but smoothed Monteith’s way. At present he barely gave further attention; detaching himself as under some odd cross-impulse, he had quitted the spot and then taken, in the wide room, a restless turn — only, however, to revert5 in a moment to his friend’s just-uttered deprecation of the danger of boring him. “If I make you take advantage of me — that is blessedly talk to me — it’s exactly what I want to do. Talk to me — talk to me!” He positively6 waved it on; pulling up again, however, in his own talk, to say with a certain urgency: “Hadn’t you better sit down?”
Mark, who stayed before the fire, couldn’t but excuse himself. “Thanks — I’m very well so. I think of things and I fidget.”
Winch stood a moment with his eyes on the ground. “Are you very sure?”
“Quite — I’m all right if you don’t mind.”
“Then as you like!” With which, shaking to extravagance again his long legs, Newton had swung off — only with a movement that, now his back was turned, affected7 his visitor as the most whimsical of all the forms of his rather unnatural8 manner. He was curiously9 different with his back turned, as Mark now for the first time saw it — dangling10 and somewhat wavering, as from an excess of uncertainty11 of gait; and this impression was so strange, it created in our friend, uneasily and on the spot, such a need of explanation, that his speech was stayed long enough to give Winch time to turn round again. The latter had indeed by this moment reached one of the limits of the place, the wide studio bay, where he paused, his back to the light and his face afresh presented, to let his just passingly depressed12 and quickened eyes take in as much as possible of the large floor, range over it with such brief freedom of search as the disposition13 of the furniture permitted. He was looking for something, though the betrayed reach of vision was but of an instant. Mark caught it, however, and with his own sensibility all in vibration14, found himself feeling at once that it meant something and that what it meant was connected with his entertainer’s slightly marked appeal to him, the appeal of a moment before, not to remain standing15. Winch knew by this time quite easily enough that he was hanging fire; which meant that they were suddenly facing each other across the wide space with a new consciousness.
Everything had changed — changed extraordinarily16 with the mere17 turning of that gentleman’s back, the treacherous18 aspect of which its owner couldn’t surely have suspected. If the question was of the pitch of their sensibility, at all events, it wouldn’t be Mark’s that should vibrate to least purpose. Visibly it had come to his host that something had within the few instants remarkably19 happened, but there glimmered21 on him an induction22 that still made him keep his own manner. Newton himself might now resort to any manner he liked. His eyes had raked the floor to recover the position of something dropped or misplaced, and something, above all, awkward or compromising; and he had wanted his companion not to command this scene from the hearth-rug, the hearthrug where he had been just before holding him, hypnotising him to blindness, because the object in question would there be most exposed to sight Mark embraced this with a further drop — while the apprehension23 penetrated24 — of his power to go on, and with an immense desire at the same time that his eyes should seem only to look at his friend; who broke out now, for that matter, with a fresh appeal. “Aren’t you going to take advantage of me, man — aren’t you going to take it?”
Everything had changed, we have noted25, and nothing could more have proved it than the fact that, by the same turn, sincerity26 of desire had dropped out of Winch’s chords, while irritation27, sharp and almost imperious, had come in. “That’s because he sees I see something!” Mark said to himself; but he had no need to add that it shouldn’t prevent his seeing more — for the simple reason that, in a miraculous28 fashion, this was exactly what he did do in glaring out the harder. It was beyond explanation, but the very act of blinking thus in an attempt at showy steadiness became one and the same thing with an optical excursion lasting29 the millionth of a minute and making him aware that the edge of a rug, at the point where an arm-chair, pushed a little out of position, over-straddled it, happened just not wholly to have covered in something small and queer, neat and bright, crooked30 and compact, in spite of the strong toe-tip surreptitiously applied31 to giving it the right lift Our gentleman, from where he hovered32, and while looking straight at the master of the scene, yet saw, as by the tiny flash of a reflection from fine metal, under the chair. What he recognised, or at least guessed at, as sinister33, made him for a moment turn cold, and that chill was on him while Winch again addressed him — as differently as possible from any manner yet used. “I beg of you in God’s name to talk to me — to talk to me!”
It had the ring of pure alarm and anguish34, but was by this turn at least more human than the dazzling glitter of intelligence to which the poor man had up to now been treating him. “It’s you, my good friend, who are in deep trouble,” Mark was accordingly quick to reply, “and I ask your pardon for being so taken up with my own sorry business.”
“Of course I’m in deep trouble” — with which Winch came nearer again; “but turning you on was exactly what I wanted.”
Mark Monteith, at this, couldn’t, for all his rising dismay, but laugh out; his sense of the ridiculous so swallowed up, for that brief convulsion, his sense of the sinister. Of such conivence in pain, it seemed, was the fact of another’s pain, and of so much worth again disinterested35 sympathy! “Your interest was then ——?”
“My interest was in your being interesting. For you are! And my nerves —!” said Newton Winch with a face from which the mystifying smile had vanished, yet in which distinction, as Mark so persistently36 appreciated it, still sat in the midst of ravage37.
Mark wondered and wondered — he made strange things out. “Your nerves have needed company.” He could lay his hand on him now, even as shortly before he had felt Winch’s own pressure of possession and detention38. “As good for you yourself, that — or still better,” he went on — “than I and my grievance39 were to have found you. Talk to we, talk to we, Newton Winch!” he added with an immense inspiration of charity.
“That’s a different matter — that others but too much can do! But I’ll say this. If you want to go to Phil Bloodgood ——!”
“Well?” said Mark as he stopped. He stopped, and Mark had now a hand on each of his shoulders and held him at arm’s-length, held him with a fine idea that was not disconnected from the sight of the small neat weapon he had been fingering in the low luxurious40 morocco chair — it was of the finest orange colour — and then had laid beside him on the carpet; where, after he had admitted his visitor, his presence of mind coming back to it and suggesting that he couldn’t pick it up without making it more conspicuous41, he had thought, by some swing of the foot or other casual manoeuvre42, to dissimulate43 its visibility.
They were at close quarters now as not before and Winch perfectly44 passive, with eyes that somehow had no shadow of a secret left and with the betrayal to the sentient45 hands that grasped him of an intense, an extraordinary general tremor46. To Mark’s challenge he opposed afresh a brief silence, but the very quality of it, with his face speaking, was that of a gaping47 wound. “Well, you needn’t take that trouble. You see I’m such another.”
“Such another as Phil ———?”
He didn’t blink. “I don’t know for sure, but I guess I’m worse.”
“Do you mean you’re guilty ———?”
“I mean I shall be wanted. Only I’ve stayed to take it.”
Mark threw back his head, but only tightened48 his hands. He inexpressibly understood, and nothing in life had ever been so strange and dreadful to him as his thus helping49 himself by a longer and straighter stretch, as it were, to the monstrous50 sense of his friend’s “education.” It had been, in its immeasurable action, the education of business, of which the fruits were all around them. Yet prodigious51 was the interest, for prodigious truly — it seemed to loom52 before Mark — must have been the system. “To ‘take’ it?” he echoed; and then, though faltering53 a little, “To take what?”
He had scarce spoken when a long sharp sound shrilled54 in from the outer door, seeming of so high and peremptory55 a pitch that with the start it gave him his grasp of his host’s shoulders relaxed an instant, though to the effect of no movement in them but what came from just a sensibly intenser vibration of the whole man. “For that!” said Newton Winch.
“Then you’ve known ———?”
“I’ve expected. You’ve helped me to wait.” And then as Mark gave an ironic56 wail57: “You’ve tided me over. My condition has wanted somebody or something. Therefore, to complete this service, will you be so good as to open the door?”
Deep in the eyes Mark looked him, and still to the detection of no glimmer20 of the earlier man in the depths. The earlier man had been what he invidiously remembered — yet would he had been the whole simpler story! Then he moved his own eyes straight to the chair under which the revolver lay and which was but a couple of yards away. He felt his companion take this consciousness in, and it determined58 in them another long, mute exchange. “What do you mean to do?”
“Nothing.”
“On your honour?”
“My ‘honour’?” his host returned with an accent that he felt even as it sounded he should never forget.
It brought to his own face a crimson59 flush — he dropped his guarding hands. Then as for a last look at him: “You’re wonderful!”
“We are wonderful,” said Newton Winch, while, simultaneously60 with the words, the pressed electric bell again and for a longer time pierced the warm cigaretted air.
Mark turned, threw up his arms, and it was only when he had passed through the vestibule and laid his hand on the door-knob that the horrible noise dropped. The next moment he was face to face with two visitors, a nondescript personage in a high hat and an astrakhan collar and cuffs61, and a great belted constable62, a splendid massive New York “officer” of the type he had had occasion to wonder at much again in the course of his walk, the type so by itself — his wide observation quite suggested — among those of the peacemakers of the earth. The pair stepped straight in — no word was said; but as he closed the door behind them Mark heard the infallible crack of a discharged pistol and, so nearly with it as to make all one violence, the sound of a great fall; things the effect of which was to lift him, as it were, with his company, across the threshold of the room in a shorter time than that taken by this record of the fact. But their rush availed little; Newton was stretched on his back before the fire; he had held the weapon horribly to his temple, and his upturned face was disfigured. The emissaries of the law, looking down at him, exhaled63 simultaneously a gruff imprecation, and then while the worthy64 in the high hat bent65 over the subject of their visit the one in the helmet raised a severe pair of eyes to Mark. “Don’t you think, sir, you might have prevented it?”
Mark took a hundred things in, it seemed to him — things of the scene, of the moment, and of all the strange moments before; but one appearance more vividly66 even than the others stared out at him. “I really think I must practically have caused it.”
The End
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1
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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convalescence
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| n.病后康复期 | |
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revert
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| v.恢复，复归，回到 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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10
dangling
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| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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11
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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vibration
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| n.颤动，振动；摆动 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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16
extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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17
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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19
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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glimmered
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| v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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induction
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| n.感应，感应现象 | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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24
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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25
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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28
miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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29
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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31
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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32
hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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33
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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34
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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disinterested
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| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
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persistently
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| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
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ravage
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| vt.使...荒废，破坏...；n.破坏，掠夺，荒废 | |
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38
detention
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| n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下 | |
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grievance
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| n.怨愤，气恼，委屈 | |
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40
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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41
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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42
manoeuvre
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| n.策略，调动；v.用策略，调动 | |
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43
dissimulate
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| v.掩饰，隐藏 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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sentient
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| adj.有知觉的，知悉的；adv.有感觉能力地 | |
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tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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47
gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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48
tightened
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| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
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49
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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50
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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51
prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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52
loom
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| n.织布机，织机；v.隐现，(危险、忧虑等)迫近 | |
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53
faltering
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| 犹豫的，支吾的，蹒跚的 | |
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54
shrilled
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| （声音）尖锐的，刺耳的，高频率的( shrill的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55
peremptory
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| adj.紧急的，专横的，断然的 | |
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56
ironic
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| adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的 | |
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57
wail
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| vt./vi.大声哀号，恸哭；呼啸，尖啸 | |
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58
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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59
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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60
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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61
cuffs
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| n.袖口( cuff的名词复数 )v.掌打，拳打( cuff的第三人称单数 ) | |
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62
constable
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| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
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63
exhaled
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| v.呼出，发散出( exhale的过去式和过去分词 )；吐出（肺中的空气、烟等），呼气 | |
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64
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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65
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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66
vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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