No further opportunity was afforded me that night for studying the three leading characters in the remarkable1 drama I saw unfolding before me. A task was assigned me by the captain which took me from the house, and I missed the next scene—the arrival of the coroner. But I repaid myself for this loss in a way I thought justified2 by the importance of my own theory and the evident necessity there was of collecting each and every point of evidence which could give coloring to the charge, in the event of this crime coming to be looked on at headquarters as one of murder.
Observing that a light was still burning in Uncle David's domicile, I crossed to his door and rang the bell. I was answered by the deep and prolonged howl of a dog, soon cut short by his master's amiable3 greeting. This latter was a surprise to me. I had heard so often of Mr. Moore's churlishness as a host that I had expected some rebuff. But I encountered no such tokens of hostility4. His brow was smooth and his smile cheerfully condescending5. Indeed, he appeared anxious to have me enter, and cast an indulgent look at Rudge, whose irrepressible joy at this break in the monotony of his existence was tinged6 with a very evident dread8 of offending his master. Interested anew, I followed this man of contradictory9 impulses into the room toward which he led me.
The time has now come for a more careful description of this peculiar10 man. Mr. Moore was tall and of that refined spareness of shape which suggests the scholar. Yet he had not the scholar's eye. On the contrary, his regard was quick, if not alert, and while it did not convey actual malice11 or ill-will, it roused in the spectator an uncomfortable feeling, not altogether easy to analyze12. He wore his iron gray locks quite long, and to this distinguishing idiosyncrasy, as well as to his invariable custom of taking his dog with him wherever he went, was due the interest always shown in him by street urchins13. On account of his whimsicalities, he had acquired the epithet14 of Uncle David among them, despite his aristocratic connections and his gentlemanlike bearing. His clothes formed no exception to the general air of individuality which marked him. They were of different cut from those of other men, and in this as in many other ways he was a law to himself; notably15 so in the following instance: He kept one day of the year religiously, and kept it always in the same way. Long years before, he had been blessed with a wife who both understood and loved him. He had never forgotten this fact, and once a year, presumably on the anniversary of her death, it was his custom to go to the cemetery16 where she lay and to spend the whole day under the shadow of the stone he had raised to her memory. No matter what the weather, no matter what the condition of his own health, he was always to be seen in this spot, at the hour of seven, leaning against the shaft17 on which his wife's name was written, eating his supper in the company of his dog. It was a custom he had never omitted. So well known was it to the boys and certain other curious individuals in the neighborhood that he never lacked an audience, though woe18 betide the daring foot that presumed to invade the precincts of the lot he called his, or the venturesome voice which offered to raise itself in gibe19 or jeer20. He had but to cast a glance at Rudge and an avenging21 rush scattered22 the crowd in a twinkling. But he seldom had occasion to resort to this extreme measure for preserving the peace and quiet of his solemn watch. As a rule he was allowed to eat his meal undisturbed, and to pass out unmolested even by ridicule23, though his teeth might still be busy over some final tidbit. Often the great tears might be seen hanging undried upon his withered24 cheeks.
So much for one oddity which may stand as a sample of many others.
One glance at the room into which he ushered25 me showed why he cherished so marked a dislike for visitors. It was bare to the point of discomfort26, and had it not been for a certain quaintness27 in the shape of the few articles to be seen there, I should have experienced a decided28 feeling of repulsion, so pronounced was the contrast between this poverty-stricken interior and the polished bearing of its owner. He, I am sure, could have shown no more elevated manners if he had been doing the honors of a palace. The organ, with the marks of home construction upon it, was the only object visible which spoke29 of luxury or even comfort.
But enough of these possibly uninteresting details. I did not dwell on them myself, except in a vague way and while waiting for him to open the conversation. This he did as soon as he saw that I had no intention of speaking first.
"And did you find any one in the old house?" he asked.
Keeping him well under my eye, I replied with intentional30 brusqueness:
"She has gone there once too often!"
The stare he gave me was that of an actor who feels that some expression of surprise is expected from him.
"She?" he repeated. "Whom can you possibly mean by she?"
The surprise I expressed at this bold attempt at ingenuousness31 was better simulated than his, I hope.
"You don't know!" I exclaimed. "Can you live directly opposite a place of such remarkable associations and not interest yourself in who goes in and out of its deserted32 doors?"
"I don't sit in my front window," he peevishly33 returned.
I let my eye roam toward a chair standing34 suspiciously near the very window he had designated.
"But you saw the light?" I suggested.
"I saw that from the door-step when I went out to give Rudge his usual five minutes' breathing spell on the stoop. But you have not answered my question; whom do you mean by she?"
"Veronica Jeffrey," I replied. "She who was Veronica Moore. She has visited this haunted house of hers for the last time."
"Last time!" Either he could not or would not understand me.
"What has happened to my niece?" he cried, rising with an energy that displaced the great dog and sent him, with hanging head and trailing tail, to his own special sleeping-place under the table. "Has she run upon a ghost in those dismal35 apartments? You interest me greatly. I did not think she would ever have the pluck to visit this house again after what happened at her wedding."
"She has had the pluck," I assured him; "and what is more, she has had enough of it not only to reenter the house, but to reenter it alone. At least, such is the present inference. Had you been blessed with more curiosity and made more frequent use of the chair so conveniently placed for viewing the opposite house, you might have been in a position to correct this inference. It would help the police materially to know positively36 that she had no companion in her fatal visit."
"Fatal?" he repeated, running his finger inside his neckband, which suddenly seemed to have grown too tight for comfort. "Can it be that my niece has been frightened to death in that old place? You alarm me."
He did not look alarmed, but then he was not of an impressible nature. Yet he was of the same human clay as the rest of us, and, if he knew no more of this occurrence than he tried to make out, could not be altogether impervious37 to what I had to say next.
"You have a right to be alarmed," I assented38. "She was not frightened to death, yet is she lying dead on the library floor." Then, with a glance at the windows about me, I added lightly: "I take it that a pistol-shot delivered over there could not be heard in this room."
He sank rather melodramatically into his seat, yet his face and form did not lose that sudden assumption of dignity which I had observed in him ever since my entrance into the house.
"I am overwhelmed by this news," he remarked. "She has shot herself? Why?"
"I did not say that she had shot herself," I carefully repeated. "Yet the facts point that way and Mr. Jeffrey accepts the suicide theory without question."
"Ah, Mr. Jeffrey is there!"
"Most certainly; he was sent for at once."
"And Miss Tuttle? She came with him of course?"
"She came, but not with him. She is very fond of her sister."
"I must go over at once," he cried, leaping again to his feet and looking about for his hat. "It is my duty to make them feel at home; in short, to—to put the house at their disposal." Here he found his hat and placed it on his head. "The property is mine now, you know," he politely explained, turning, with a keen light in his gray eye, full upon me and overwhelming me with the grand air of a man who has come unexpectedly into his own. "Mrs. Jeffrey's father was my younger brother—the story is an old and long one—and the property, which in all justice should have been divided between us, went entirely39 to him. But he was a good fellow in the main and saw the injustice40 of his father's will as clearly as I did, and years ago made one on his own account bequeathing me the whole estate in case he left no issue, or that issue died. Veronica was his only child; Veronica has died; therefore the old house is mine and all that goes with it, all that goes with it."
There was the miser's gloating in this repetition of a phrase sufficiently41 expressive42 in itself, or rather the gloating of a man who sees himself suddenly rich after a life of poverty. There was likewise a callousness43 as regarded his niece's surprising death which I considered myself to have some excuse for noticing.
"You accept her death very calmly," I remarked. "Probably you knew her to be possessed44 of an erratic45 mind."
He was about to bestow46 an admonitory kick on his dog, who had been indiscreet enough to rise at his master's first move, but his foot stopped in mid47 air, in his anxiety to concentrate all his attention on his answer.
"I am a man of few sentimentalities," he coldly averred48. "I have loved but one person in my whole life. Why then should I be expected to mourn over a niece who did not care enough for me to invite me to her wedding? It would be an affectation unworthy the man who has at last come to fill his rightful position in this community as the owner of the great Moore estate. For great it shall be," he emphatically continued. "In three years you will not know the house over yonder. Despite its fancied ghosts and death-dealing fireplace, it will stand A Number One in Washington. I, David Moore, promise you this; and I am not a man to utter fatuous49 prophecies. But I must be missed over there." Here he gave the mastiff the long delayed kick. "Rudge, stay here! The vestibule opposite is icy. Besides, your howls are not wanted in those old walls tonight even if you would go with me, which I doubt. He has never been willing to cross to that side of the street," the old gentleman went on to complain, with his first show of irritation50. "But he'll have to overcome that prejudice soon, even if I have to tear up the old hearthstone and reconstruct the walls. I can't live without Rudge, and I will not live in any other place than in the old home of my ancestors."
I was by this time following him out.
"You have failed to answer the suggestion I made you a minute since," I hazarded. "Will you pardon me if I put it now as a question? Your niece, Mrs. Jeffrey, seemed to have everything in the world to make her happy, yet she took her life. Was there a taint51 of insanity52 in her blood, or was her nature so impulsive53 that her astonishing death in so revolting a place should awaken54 in you so little wonder?"
A gleam of what had made him more or less feared by the very urchins who dogged his steps and made sport of him at a respectful distance shot from his eye as he glowered55 back at me from the open door. But he hastily suppressed this sign of displeasure and replied with the faintest tinge7 of sarcasm56:
"There! you are expecting from me feelings which belong to youth or to men of much more heart than understanding. I tell you that I have no feelings. My niece may have developed insanity or she may simply have drunk her cup of pleasure dry at twenty-two and come to its dregs prematurely57. I do not know and I do not care. What concerns me is that the responsibility of a large fortune has fallen upon me most unexpectedly and that I have pride enough to wish to show myself capable of sustaining the burden. Besides, they may be tempted58 to do some mischief59 to the walls or floors over there. The police respect no man's property. But I am determined60 they shall respect mine. No rippings up or tearings down will I allow unless I stand by to supervise the job. I am master of the old homestead now and I mean to show it." And with a last glance at the dog, who uttered the most mournful of protests in reply, he shut the front door and betook himself to the other side of the street.
As I noticed his assured bearing as he disappeared within the forbidding portal which, according to his own story, had for so long a time been shut against him, I asked myself if the candle which I had noticed lying on his mantel-shelf was of the same make and size as those I had found in my late investigations61 in the house he was then entering.
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1
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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condescending
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| adj.谦逊的,故意屈尊的 | |
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tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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tinge
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| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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contradictory
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| adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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analyze
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| vt.分析，解析 (=analyse) | |
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urchins
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| n.顽童( urchin的名词复数 )；淘气鬼；猬；海胆 | |
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epithet
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| n.（用于褒贬人物等的）表述形容词，修饰语 | |
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notably
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| adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地 | |
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cemetery
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| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
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shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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gibe
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| n.讥笑；嘲弄 | |
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jeer
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| vi.嘲弄，揶揄；vt.奚落；n.嘲笑，讥评 | |
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21
avenging
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| adj.报仇的，复仇的v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的现在分词 )；为…报复 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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24
withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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ushered
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| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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quaintness
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| n.离奇有趣，古怪的事物 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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30
intentional
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| adj.故意的，有意（识）的 | |
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31
ingenuousness
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| n.率直；正直；老实 | |
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32
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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peevishly
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| adv．暴躁地 | |
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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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dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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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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impervious
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| adj.不能渗透的，不能穿过的，不易伤害的 | |
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38
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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40
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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43
callousness
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44
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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erratic
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| adj.古怪的，反复无常的，不稳定的 | |
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bestow
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| v.把…赠与，把…授予；花费 | |
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mid
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| adj.中央的，中间的 | |
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averred
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| v.断言( aver的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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fatuous
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| adj.愚昧的；昏庸的 | |
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50
irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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51
taint
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| n.污点；感染；腐坏；v.使感染；污染 | |
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52
insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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53
impulsive
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| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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54
awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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55
glowered
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| v.怒视( glower的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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56
sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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57
prematurely
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| adv.过早地，贸然地 | |
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58
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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59
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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