"The probabilities are that she has gone off with Arnedo. Was it likely that this girl could continue long in the nunnery you condemned5 her to? Of course she wanted Pampa! Those fellows know how to keep the interest of women. When a girl falls in love with one of them she never gets over it. I know dozens of cases! It's as though they were bewitched. Well, now you're free! That scheme of yours really was ridiculous!"
Monsalvat looked at him hard. Torres was aware of his friend's reproach but did not desist from his criticism. They stood facing one another in the doctor's consultation6 room. Torres in his long white apron7 looked even more like a Moor8 than usual, for the enveloping9 white brought out sharply the blackness of his eyes and crisply curling hair.
"Yes, ridiculous!" he repeated. "Do you think that such magnanimous acts suit these times? It's all right to want to rescue a girl from living as Nacha was doing—you may even go so far as to fall in love with her and want to marry her! That kind of thing happens every day. But the absurdity10 in all this is that a man with your gifts should devote himself to missionary11 work and go about among lost women with the idea that he is going to save them!"
Monsalvat did not care to hear more of this and went away.
Within a few days a letter reached him from Nacha. Its few short lines had evidently been written in haste. She had been locked up, she wrote, in a house of ill-fame in the la Boca section; and she added that she was not seeing Pampa. Monsalvat must not look for her! It was her destiny to be "bad," and she had to fulfill13 this destiny. She hoped he would be happy, and go back to his place in the world, to that carefree life from which, all unknowingly, she had drawn14 him away. Monsalvat remained a long time looking at this letter, reading it over and over, pausing at every word. If only between the lines, he might discover the address of the house where Nacha was being held—
Not yet defeated, he once more set out on a search for her. He looked at the list of houses the doctor had given him to see if there were any house in la Boca mentioned there; but there was none. However, there were ten or twelve in the Barracas quarter. One afternoon, after leaving the Ministry15 he set out to visit one of these.
In a low section of the city, at the back of a two-storied house, in a dark corner of a street that led nowhere, he found the wretched house that was listed. At his knock at the door a toothless and unkempt old hag appeared. She was standing16 barefoot in the dirty water that she was swishing over the stone floor with an old broom. Monsalvat had never seen so lamentable17 a specimen18 of humanity. The bony old creature was scantily19 covered by a wrapper which, as it flapped open, revealed the appalling20 ugliness of her shrunken, discolored flesh and deformed21 body. When Monsalvat asked for the proprietor22 of the house, this human remnant showed her livid gums, and assured him she was the person in question. With a few apologies, she made him come in, and leaving him, went to put on more decent attire23. Monsalvat found himself in a room permeated24 by a peculiar25 smell compounded of incense26 and smoke from the stove. It amused him to observe that the walls were papered with pictures of saints. In a corner, a candle was burning in front of St. Anthony. The chromos covered everything, even the head of the wooden bed, and the door.
The old woman returned somewhat tidier in appearance, and accompanied by a red-haired girl of about seventeen, poorly dressed, and very deaf. Monsalvat thought she must be a servant in one of the wretched houses of the neighborhood. He informed the old woman of his purpose in coming, and she at once asked for money. He gave her ten pesos which she acknowledged by telling him that the day before a girl had told a story about a woman who had been stolen and locked up in a certain house in la Boca.
Where could he see the girl?
The old woman screamed into the red-haired girl's ear inquiring who had told her this story. She mentioned a name.
"It's someone who just happened to be here—she isn't likely to come back. But I'll tell you where you can see her. Do you know the Basque woman's house? Well, they're going to have a party there tomorrow night, and the girl is sure to be there. Ask for Gertrude. She's a thin, dark piece ... puts on lots of airs."
Monsalvat could not leave without calling the old woman to account for her trade, or at least for having such young girls about. The hag laughed shrilly27, opening her toothless mouth wide, and rocking her body back and forth29. Whenever she stopped a moment in her glee she wiped her nose on her arm.
"So you think we ruin girls, do you? That's a good one! Listen, tell me! How old do you think I am? Fifty-two—not a year more! Well, look, in all the twenty years I've been in this business I never deceived nor ruined any woman. A good one, that is! I don't force women to this kind of work. Criminal, you call it? Well, what about the 'City of Paris' that pays its employees so little they have to get money somewhere else? What do you call that? Say, I know something about what's going on! I used to be up in the world once! You ought to have seen the folks who came to my house! Yes, a fine idea, you have! But I don't take advantage of anybody—Talk to me! Say, listen! Women don't ruin other women! It's you fine gentlemen that ruin them! That's a good one! Ha-ha! And if some woman helps to ruin another it's not us poor ones! That's a good one all right!"
The next evening Monsalvat set out for the Basque woman's house, where he was to inquire for "Gertrude." He went through dark sinister30 streets and at last came to what he thought must be the place. It was in a junction31 of two alleys32, near the Hospicio de la Merced.
A desolate33 quarter of the town it was, depressing in lines and color. A short narrow street went upgrade between two high walls, then turned abruptly34. From the direction in which Monsalvat was approaching, the walls and trees of the women's insane asylum35 alone were visible. All the rest was sky and night. Silence like that of the desert reigned36, and a solitude37 fit for nameless crimes. Monsalvat shivered with a vague uneasiness. He turned at the end of the passage, and saw a multitude of distant lights. The view widened. Something ominous38 breathed in the thick darkness. On one side of the street stretched a low wall; and in the distance, beyond that, the wide inky railroad. The huge formless bulks of empty cars mingled39 in undistinguishable masses down there in those dreary40 yards; and beyond, from the skyline of the city electric lights were glittering. Here and there yellow signals glowed in the blackness, and to the left stretched a line of dingy41 houses. The house Monsalvat was seeking must be one of these.
In a building in front of him a door was open. He could hear talking inside, laughter, the sound of a piano. He called out to announce his presence. Someone shouted to him to come in. From the other end of the entrance hall a girl, who was having some beer with her escort, called out to ask him what he wanted. Perhaps Monsalvat's appearance aroused mistrust in her companion. At any rate they replied that the lady of the house was busy and that a party was going on. Monsalvat however was persistent42. Finally they let him pass into an inner room. The proprietress, a very tall and heavy Basque, whom he encountered in the patio43, seemed to have her doubts about him too. Monsalvat made up some pretext44 for staying there a few moments, and in addition gave the woman money. The girl who was drinking beer turned out to be Gertrude. The proprietress called her aside so that Monsalvat could talk to her.
"How should I know?" exclaimed Gertrude. "I heard the story; but who knows if it's true? And what's more I don't remember anything about it. That was a good many days ago."
"It isn't so many days ago, because all this happened last week."
"I tell you I don't know anything about it. I wasn't the one who told the story in the first place. It was somebody else."
Monsalvat noticed that the youth who had been drinking beer with her was watching him. In the inner room a tango was going on. From the patio Monsalvat could see the profile of a tall mulatto who was playing the piano, in a very temperamental style, striking the piano case, whistling, breaking out into song. The air was heavy with odors and smoke, and the sensuousness45 of the dance floated out into the patio like the scent46 of an overripe fruit. Monsalvat was on the point of leaving, tired of his vain attempt to get information, when the girl suddenly changed her manner. Monsalvat thought he had noticed the youth making signs to her, but at the time attached no importance to this detail. Gertrude, now gracious and smiling, said that she would give him the address of the house the girl was supposed to be in; but begged him not to tell anyone she had done so, or they would kill her. At this point the youth drew near, and in greeting to Monsalvat, removed his cap. Gertrude mentioned a street and number, and explained to the youth what it was all about. The latter offered to accompany Monsalvat. He knew the house in question, and if the gentleman went alone, they would not let him in. The young fellow appeared good-natured, and Monsalvat concluded that he was probably a young workman. With his characteristic hopefulness where human nature was concerned he accepted the proffered47 company, and, after the youth had taken leave of three or four friends there, they started off together.
For a quarter of an hour they walked through dark streets entirely48 unknown to Monsalvat. Then they came out on a wilderness49 of vacant lots. Suddenly, as they turned a corner, his guide gave a peculiar whistle so shrill28 that it pierced the darkness like a knife. Before Monsalvat could ask what this meant he saw four toughs descending50 on him with pointing revolvers. Obviously this was no time for talk, nor for complaint. Resignedly he handed over all the money he had with him.
He was not disheartened, however, nor was he angry with the thieves. He told himself that the poor devils no doubt needed the money, and thought no more of the incident. Following, as he believed, the same road he had come by, he reached the river, and at sight of it, felt that he had returned again to civilized52 regions. After inquiring his road, he started off on foot, for he had no other way of covering the long distance separating him from la Boca.
As he went along he pondered his situation; and doubt tormented53 him. Failure appeared constantly in his path. For the hundredth time he went over the confession54 Nacha had made to him in Julieta's presence on the eve of her abduction. How could she possibly fear being attracted by Arnedo, brutal55 and tyrannous as he was? How, after several months of an honest and decent life, could it be so easy for her to go back to a vicious world? Yet that was what her return to Arnedo meant. What unfathomable depths, what mysteries there are in human hearts! He could not believe that Nacha had ceased to love him. She loved him, not only, as she supposed, as a daughter loves her father, or as a sister her brother, or a believer God: she loved him with her whole being. But Nacha must have had her moments of doubt too, and it was then that the memory of her life with Pampa, its violences and its caresses56, must have pursued her as Pampa himself was doing; and her very honesty with herself would in such a case make her feel ashamed, and confirm her fears that she was destined57 to an evil life.
He was following the river bank where old boats lay sleeping. A sailor's chanty disturbed the silence. Taverns58, bearing exotic names that recalled all the countries of the earth, lined the other side of the street, and within, grimy men were drinking. Monsalvat thought of his earlier years, of his travels, of his sojourns59 in Italy, of the women who had loved him, of his carefree and happy life. And there he was, on his way back from a house of ill-fame, fresh from the society of a thief, trudging60 along in this wretched district, in search of a lost woman! And he felt an immense pity for himself....
He asked a passer-by to direct him to the address Gertrude had given him. It was not far from there. With a good-bye to the river, which had summoned before him some of his happiest memories, saddening him withal, he set out for his destination.
Now he was passing through a street which had on one side a high wall, possibly that of a cathedral, or a convent, or perhaps merely that of a factory, a black railing topping it; and now he was going down another street lined with taverns, and Scandinavian lodging61 houses. Monsalvat looked in through some of the open doorways62, his eye attracted by foreign wall decorations. In one of these lodging places, the proprietor and his family were entertaining the boarders. A small house, its balconies full of potted flowers, rubbed shoulders with a tightly closed hovel in front of which was a street lamp bearing the legend "Fram." In another of these taverns an old street-walker, wearing an extraordinary assortment63 of garments, and ironically enough preserving, even in her present decay, something of the unusual, even noble beauty she had once possessed64, was amusing, with her drunken antics, four tall, fair-haired and silent men who were evidently sailors. Monsalvat passed on through another street, shaded by a few trees; and the taverns here, with their walls of one color, vivid blues65, or greens, suggested the decorations of Russian ballets. Finally, among the shanties66 built on piles, because of flood tides, and constructed of the cheapest sort of wood, with tin roofs, he found the address Gertrude had mentioned; for it was not fictitious67. Pushing open the door, he went in. No, Nacha could not possibly be here. No one could be capable of holding a woman prisoner in such a place. Only the off-scourings of the human race could frequent such a den12 as this! The patio, of large proportions, opening into low-ceilinged rooms, was roofed over. About fifty individuals, dirty and ill-smelling, sat, or stood about, in groups. There were even some negroes there, clearly North Americans. No one was talking. Three or four women, dressed in screaming red, were running about from one group to another.... No! Nacha was not there! And Monsalvat went away convinced that he had been the victim of a brutal joke.
The following day, desperately68 anxious to find Nacha, and save her from the fatal surroundings into which she had probably fallen, he returned to the house near the Hospicio de la Merced. By dint69 of money he succeeded in interviewing Gertrude alone. The girl, with admirable levity70, laughed at the trick she had played him. Then she tried to put the blame on the youth who had led Monsalvat into the ambush71.
"And how is it you are living with a thief?" Monsalvat inquired.
"But you know that he assaults people and robs them?"
"Well, what of it? And what's that to you?"
After a long discussion and the promise of more money if it proved that she had not deceived him again, Monsalvat obtained the address he wanted. It was that of a house of good appearance between Lezama Park and la Boca; and it cost him a considerable sum to get into it. At his request the proprietress introduced all the girls who were there at the moment. But Nacha was not among them. One girl, however, turned out to have been a member of the group who had been with Nacha in the cabaret on the night he came to her defence. Monsalvat took her aside. She was a fat, stupid-looking creature, sniffling constantly.
"I saw you that night, you remember? And I wanted to know you. What luck to meet you at last, old fellow!"
This was very friendly treatment from a person he had never spoken to before. Monsalvat explained the object of his visit. The girl looked disappointed, but gave him what information she had.
"I don't know anything, you understand! But I heard talk about something going on. One night they brought a girl here, and kept her two days—but I was away all that time. Then they took her somewhere else. And you say it was Nacha? Who would have thought it! And she was always so stuck-up—to think of what's happened to her now!"
Monsalvat asked her to explain what she meant.
"Why they say that she was taken to one of those houses—oh, the very worst! Somewhere in Olavarría Street, or Necochea—I'm not sure which. If you want to find her, go to those houses and inquire."
Monsalvat started out again. Twice he had gone down into this hell; he had never thought he would have to descend51 to the very lowest circles of the abyss. But for Nacha's sake he went even into those ghastly caverns73 where lie the unhappy beings who have lost not only their bodies, but their minds and their souls too. And as he wandered among the shades there—they could not be called living beings—Monsalvat wondered how this last of all crimes could be allowed in a world that also contains beauty and kindness; for these women had been degraded from the human estate to that of beasts. And other human beings had allowed this to happen; and still other human beings had caused it....
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1
ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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3
disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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4
automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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5
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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6
consultation
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| n.咨询；商量；商议；会议 | |
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apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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moor
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| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
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enveloping
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的现在分词 ) | |
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10
absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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11
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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13
fulfill
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| vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意 | |
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14
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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15
ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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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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17
lamentable
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| adj.令人惋惜的，悔恨的 | |
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18
specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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19
scantily
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| adv.缺乏地；不充足地；吝啬地；狭窄地 | |
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20
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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deformed
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| adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的 | |
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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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23
attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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permeated
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| 弥漫( permeate的过去式和过去分词 )； 遍布； 渗入； 渗透 | |
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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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incense
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| v.激怒；n.香，焚香时的烟，香气 | |
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shrilly
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| 尖声的； 光亮的，耀眼的 | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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alleys
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| 胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径 | |
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33
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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asylum
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| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
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reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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41
dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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42
persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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43
patio
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| n.庭院，平台 | |
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pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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sensuousness
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| n.知觉 | |
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46
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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47
proffered
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| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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48
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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49
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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50
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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51
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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52
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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53
tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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54
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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55
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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56
caresses
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| 爱抚，抚摸( caress的名词复数 ) | |
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57
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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58
taverns
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| n.小旅馆，客栈，酒馆( tavern的名词复数 ) | |
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59
sojourns
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| n.逗留，旅居( sojourn的名词复数 ) | |
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60
trudging
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的现在分词形式） | |
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61
lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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62
doorways
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| n.门口，门道( doorway的名词复数 ) | |
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63
assortment
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| n.分类，各色俱备之物，聚集 | |
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64
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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65
blues
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| n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐 | |
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66
shanties
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| n.简陋的小木屋( shanty的名词复数 )；铁皮棚屋；船工号子；船歌 | |
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67
fictitious
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| adj.虚构的，假设的；空头的 | |
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68
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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69
dint
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| n.由于，靠；凹坑 | |
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70
levity
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| n.轻率，轻浮，不稳定，多变 | |
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71
ambush
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| n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击 | |
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72
pry
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| vi.窥(刺)探，打听；vt.撬动(开，起) | |
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73
caverns
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| 大山洞，大洞穴( cavern的名词复数 ) | |
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