Matters happen strangely quite as frequently as they go on in the regular groove3 of routine, and hence it happened, one morning at breakfast, that is to say, on the morning after the tragedy at the convict prison, that Sir Mark put on his gold spectacles as soon as he had finished his eggs and bacon and one cup of coffee, and, taking the freshly aired paper, opened it with a good deal of rustling4 noise, and coughed.
Edie looked across at her cousin with a mischievous5 smile, but Myra was gazing thoughtfully before her, and the glance missed its mark.
“Hum! ha!” growled6 Sir Mark. “‘London, South, and Channel. Same as number three.’ Confound number three! Who wants to refer to that? Oh, here we are: ‘Light winds, shifting to east. Fine generally.’ Climate’s improving, girls. More coffee, Myra. Pass my cup, Edie, dear.”
He skimmed over the summary, and then turned to the police cases, found nothing particular, and went on to the sessions, stopping to refresh himself from time to time, while Edie wondered what her cousin’s thoughts might be.
“Dear me!” exclaimed the admiral suddenly; “how singular! I must read you this, girls. Here’s another forgery7 of foreign banknotes.”
The click of Myra’s teacup as she suddenly set it down made the admiral drop the paper and read in his child’s blank face the terrible slip he had made.
“O Myra, my darling!” he cried apologetically; “I am so sorry;” and he turned to Edie, who looked daggers8.
“It is nothing, papa,” said Myra coldly, as she tried hard to master her emotion.
“But it is something, my dear. I wouldn’t have said a word only I caught sight of Percy Guest’s name as junior for the defence.”
It was Edie’s turn now to look startled, and Sir Mark hurriedly fixed9 upon her to become the scapegoat10 for his awkward allusion11, and divert Myra’s attention.
“Can’t congratulate the prisoner upon his counsel,” he said. “The man’s too young and inexperienced. Only the other day a mere12 student. It’s like putting a midshipman as second in command of an ironclad.”
Edie’s eyes now seemed to dart13 flames, and she looked up boldly at her uncle.
“Oh, yes,” he said, “I mean it. Very nice fellow, Percy Guest, in a social way, but I should be sorry to trust an important case with him. Here, I’ll read it, and see what it’s all about. No; never mind, I know you girls don’t care about law.”
The morning meal had been commenced cheerfully. There was sunshine without and at the table, Edie had thought how bright and well her cousin looked, and augured14 pleasant times of the future.
“If she could only feel herself free,” was her constant thought when Myra gave way to some fit of despondency.
“I’m sure that she loves Malcolm Stratton, and what is the good of a stupid old law if all it does is to make people uncomfortable. I wish I knew the Archbishop of Canterbury or the judge of the Court of Divorce, or whoever it is settles those things. I’d soon make them see matters in a different light. Poor Myra would be obedient then, and there’d be an end of all this moping. I believe she delights in making herself miserable15.”
It was just when Edie had reached this point and she was stirring her tea, and thinking how easily she could settle matters if she were at the head of affairs, so as to make everybody happy, herself included, when her uncle made his malapropos remarks.
There was no more sunshine in the dining room after that. Myra looked cold and pale, the admiral was uncomfortable behind the paper, in which he enveloped16 himself as in a cloud, from which came a hand at intervals17 to feel about the table in an absurd way for toast or his coffee cup, which was twice over nearly overturned.
Then he became visible for a moment or two as he turned the paper, but it closed him in again, and from behind it there came, now and then, a fidgeting nervous cough, which was as annoying to the utterer as to those who listened.
“Going out to-day, girls?” asked Sir Mark at last, but without removing the paper.
“Yes, uncle,” said Edie sharply, for her cousin had given her an imploring18 look, and the girl could see that Myra was greatly agitated19 still; “the carriage is coming round at two. Shall we drop you at the club?”
“Great Heavens!” ejaculated the old man in a tone which startled both his hearers, and as if expectant from some premonition, Myra thrust back her chair, and sat gazing at the paper wildly.
“What is it, uncle?” cried Edie.
“Eh? Oh, nothing, my dear,” said Sir Mark confusedly, as he rustled20 the paper and hurriedly turned it. “More horrors. These editors seem to revel21 in them, or the public do. So shocking; no sooner is one at an end, than another begins.”
He had screened his face again as quickly as he could, for he was a miserable dissembler, and Edie and Myra exchanged glances. Then, rising slowly with her hand pressed to her breast, Myra made as if she would go to the other side of the table, but her strength failed her, and as her father cleared his throat with a sonorous22 cough, she clung to the edge, crumpling23 up the white cloth in her damp fingers.
Edie rose too, but throwing up her head, Myra motioned her back imperiously, and stood for a few moments with her lips parted and eyes dilated24, gazing at the paper, as if devouring25 its contents, while from behind it came the admiral’s voice with forced carelessness.
“For my part,” he said, with a clumsy effort to hide his own emotion, “I am beginning to think that the ordinary daily newspapers are unsuitable reading for young ladies, who had better keep to the magazines and journals specially26 devoted27 to their wants.”
There was no word spoken in return, and after another cough, the old man continued:
“What was that you said about dropping me at the club? By all means, yes. My leg was rather bad in the night. Don’t care so much about walking as I used.”
Still there was no reply, and, as if struck by the notion that he had been left alone in the room, Sir Mark coughed again nervously28, and slowly moved himself in his chair, to turn the paper slightly aside, and, as if by accident, so that he could see beyond one side.
He sat there the next moment petrified29, and staring at his daughter’s wildly excited face, for, resting one hand on the table, she was leaning toward him, her hand extended to take the paper, and her eyes questioning his, while Edie, looking terribly agitated, was also leaning forward as if to restrain her cousin.
Sir Mark’s lips parted and moved, but he made no sound. Then recovering himself, he hastily closed the paper, doubled it over again, and rose from his chair.
“Myra, my darling!” he cried, “are you ill?”
Her lips now moved in turn, but without a sound at first; then she threw back her head, and her eyes grew more dilated as she cried hoarsely30:
“That paper—there is news—something about my husband.”
“Edie, ring! She is ill,” cried Sir Mark.
“No, stop!” cried Myra. “I am not a child now, father. I tell you that there is news in that paper about my husband. Give it to me. I will see.”
Sir Mark was as agitated now as his child, and with a hurried gesture, perfectly31 natural under the circumstances, he thrust the paper behind him. “No, no, my child,” he stammered32, with his florid face growing mottled and strange.
“I say there is, father, and you are deceiving me.”
“Well, yes, a little, my darling,” he said hastily. “A little. Not for your ears, dear. Another time when you are cool and calm, you know. Edie, my dear, come to her; talk to her. Myra, my child, leave it to me.”
Myra’s hand went to her throat as if she were stifling33, but once more she forced back her emotion.
“Something about—the prison—my husband?”
“Yes, yes, my dear. Nothing so very particular. Now do—do leave it to me, and try to be calm. You frighten me. There, there, my pet,” he continued, trying to take her hand; “go to your room for a bit with Edie, and—yes, yes, lie down.”
“Give me the paper,” she said hoarsely.
“No, no, I cannot, indeed, my dear.”
“Ah!” cried the agitated girl wildly. “I know—they have set him free?”
Sir Mark glanced at his niece, and then passed his hand over his beaded forehead.
“Yes, yes, my dear,” he faltered34; “he is free.”
“Ah! and he will come here and claim me, and then—”
She reeled as if to fall, but her force of will was too great, and she mastered her emotion again, stepped forward, and seized the paper, her senses swimming as she turned it again and again, till the large type of the telegram caught her attention.
Then she closed her eyes for a few moments, drew a long breath, and they saw her compress her lips and read without a tremor35:
Daring attempted Escape.
Serious Affray.
Our correspondent at Grey Cliff telegraphs of a desperate attempt made by three of the convicts at The Foreland last night about eight o’clock. By some means they managed to elude36 the vigilance of the warders after the cells had been visited and lights were out, reached the yard, and scaled the lofty wall. Then, favoured by the darkness of the night, they threaded their way among the sentries37, and reached the cliffs of the dangerous rocky coast, where, their evasion38 having been discovered, they were brought to bay by a party of the armed warders. In the affray which ensued two of the warders were dangerously wounded with stones, and the convicts were making their way down the cliffs to the sea when orders were given to fire. One of the men was shot down, while, in the desperate attempts to escape recapture, the others went headlong down the almost perpendicular39 precipice40 which guards the eastern side of The Foreland.
Upon the warders descending42 with ropes, two of the men were brought up, one with a shot through the leg, the other suffering from a badly fractured skull43, while, in spite of vigorous search by the boats of H.M.S. Merlin, the body of the third man, which had been heard to plunge44 into the sea, was not recovered. We regret to add that the man injured by his fall expired in the ambulance on the way back to the prison. He was the notorious convict Barron, or Dale, sentenced to seven years’ penal45 servitude, about a twelvemonth ago, for the daring fraud upon the Russian government by the issue of forged rouble notes.
The paper fell from Myra’s hands as she stood there motionless, and apparently46 unmoved by the tidings she had read. Then turning slowly, she held out her hand to Edie, who obeyed the imploring look in her eyes, and led her from the dining room to her own chamber47 without a word.
“Myra,” she whispered then, and she pressed closely toward her cousin, whose lips now parted, and she heard almost like a sigh:
“Free—free!”
“Talk to me, dear, talk to me,” whispered Edie. “It frightens me when you look like that.”
Myra turned to her, caught her cousin to her breast, and kissed her rapidly twice. Then, thrusting her away, she whispered faintly:
“Go now—go, dear. I can bear no more;” and when, a few moments later, Edie looked back from the door she was about to close, Myra was in the act of sinking upon her knees by the bedside, where she buried her face in her hands.
But hardly had the door closed when she sprang to her feet, and hurried across to shoot the bolt, and then stand with her hands to her head, and starting eyes, picturing in imagination the scene of the past night. The darkness and James Barron—her husband—the man who had haunted her night and day in connection with the hour when he would come back and claim her, not at the end of seven years, but earlier, released before his time—that man—while she sat below in her room at the piano—yes, she recalled vividly48 every minute of the previous night—she sat playing the melodies of old ballads49, favourites of her father, with Percy Guest talking to Edie, and at that time this man was fighting to escape—this man, her horror. And had he succeeded he would have come there.
She shuddered50 as, from the brief description of the struggle, she saw him trying to descend41 the rocky face of the cliff, stumble when shots were fired, and fall headlong upon the cruel stones.
It was horrible—too horrible to bear; and yet she felt obliged to dwell upon it all, and go over it again and again, shuddering51 at the pictures her active brain evoked52 till the agony was maddening.
Then, to make her horror culminate53, doubt stepped in to ask her, as if in an insidious54 whisper, whether she could believe it to be all true, and not some reporter’s error.
She felt as if she were withering55 beneath some cold mental blast, and in spite of the horror, her hopes and dreams, which would have place, shrank back again. For it might be a mistake. Some other wretched man had striven to escape, and in the hurry and darkness had been mistaken for her husband.
But hope came again directly, and while shuddering at the thoughts, she recalled how explicit56 it had all been. There could be no mistake. She was wife no longer—tied no more by those hated bonds to a wretched adventurer—a forger—whose sole aim had been to get her father’s money—she was free, and Malcolm Stratton had told her—
She shuddered again at the horror of dwelling57 upon such thoughts at a moment when her ears were stunned58 by the news of death; but the thoughts were imperious. She had never loved this man, and the ceremony had only been performed under misapprehension. Once more she was free—free to follow the bent59 of her affections—free to give herself to the man she knew she loved.
What had Malcolm Stratton said—what had he said?
A mist had been gathering60 about her mental vision, and she staggered toward her bedside, once more to sink down and bury her burning face in her hands, for her emotion was greater than she could bear.
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1
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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crookedness
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| [医]弯曲 | |
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groove
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| n.沟，槽；凹线，（刻出的）线条，习惯 | |
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rustling
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| n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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7
forgery
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| n.伪造的文件等，赝品，伪造（行为） | |
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8
daggers
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| 匕首，短剑( dagger的名词复数 ) | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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scapegoat
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| n.替罪的羔羊，替人顶罪者；v.使…成为替罪羊 | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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dart
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| v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲 | |
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14
augured
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| v.预示，预兆，预言( augur的过去式和过去分词 )；成为预兆；占卜 | |
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15
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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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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18
imploring
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| 恳求的，哀求的 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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rustled
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| v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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21
revel
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| vi.狂欢作乐，陶醉；n.作乐，狂欢 | |
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sonorous
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| adj.响亮的，回响的；adv.圆润低沉地；感人地；n.感人，堂皇 | |
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23
crumpling
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| 压皱，弄皱( crumple的现在分词 )； 变皱 | |
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dilated
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| adj.加宽的，扩大的v.（使某物）扩大，膨胀，张大( dilate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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29
petrified
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| adj.惊呆的；目瞪口呆的v.使吓呆，使惊呆；变僵硬；使石化(petrify的过去式和过去分词) | |
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hoarsely
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| adv.嘶哑地 | |
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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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32
stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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35
tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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elude
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| v.躲避，困惑 | |
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sentries
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| 哨兵，步兵( sentry的名词复数 ) | |
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evasion
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| n.逃避，偷漏(税) | |
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perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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41
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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43
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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44
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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45
penal
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| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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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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vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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49
ballads
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| 民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴 | |
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50
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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51
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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52
evoked
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| [医]诱发的 | |
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53
culminate
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| v.到绝顶，达于极点，达到高潮 | |
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54
insidious
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| adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧 | |
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55
withering
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| 使人畏缩的，使人害羞的，使人难堪的 | |
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56
explicit
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| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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57
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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58
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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59
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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