She was wild with excitement and alarm, her face alternately flushed and paled, her form trembling with endeavor to move, to push herself forward, to follow those dreadful emissaries of the law whose heavy steps were very audible, now on the stairs, now overhead.
The other members of the party were in strange contrast to her anxiety. Meredith lay back in his chair rubbing his hands moved apparently1 by the supremest sense of the ludi{248}crous, unable to see it in any but a ridiculous light. Gussy leaned on the back of his chair, smiling in sympathy with him, yet a little pale and wondering, beginning to realize that something disagreeable, painful, might be going on, though it did not mean fatigue2 or excitement to her patient. Julia, finally roused from her book, had got up bewildered, and stood asking what was the matter, getting no reply from anyone.
The door of the drawing-room had been left open, and across the hall, at the opposite door of what was now Meredith’s room, stood the nurse in her white cap and apron3, with a wondering face, looking out.
“I thought I knew a great deal about the folly4 of the authorities,” said Meredith, “and of Scotland Yard in particular, but this is the climax5. By-the-bye, I see an opportunity for a great sensation, which, if I were at the Old Bailey, would make my fortune. ‘The prisoner, accused of a murderous assault upon Mr. Meredith, was defended by that gentleman in person.’ What a situation for the press—one might add, ‘who is a family connection,’ eh, Gussy?” he said, putting up his hand to take hers, which was upon the back of his chair.
“Oh, Charley! but speak to mamma. Mamma is miserable6. Everything about Dolff makes her so anxious.”
“Even such an excellent joke?” said Meredith: but he did not say anything to comfort Mrs. Harwood.
In the midst of his laugh a sudden gravity came over him. He looked at her again with a quick, scrutinizing8 glance. Dolff was not all. She had been bewildered—taken by surprise, but was not really anxious about her son. Now, however, as she sat listening, waiting, her suspense9 became unbearable10. A woman imprisoned11 in her chair never moving, unable to walk a step, she looked as if at any moment she might dart12 out of it and fling herself after the invaders13. Her hands moved uneasily upon the arms of her chair, plucking at them as if to raise herself. The light in her eyes was a wild glare of desperation. The color fluttered on her face, now ebbing14 away and leaving her ghastly, now coming back with a sudden flush. He remembered suddenly all that might be involved in a search of that house, and that for anything he knew a secret which it was of the utmost importance he should fathom15 now lay, as it were, within reach of his hand. He became serious all at once, the laugh passing suddenly from his face. He got up but not to stop the examination, as Gussy hoped. He did not even stop to soothe16 Mrs. Harwood, but strolled out into the hall on his unsteady limbs, forgetting them all.
“I must go after them,” Mrs. Harwood cried again, half{249} raising herself in her chair. “I must go after them. Gussy, they may go—how can we tell where they may go?”
“No, mamma, there is nothing to be alarmed about. Vicars will see to that.”
“How can we tell where Vicars is? I have been afraid of something of the kind all my life. Gussy, I must go myself. I must go myself!”
“Oh, hush17, mamma,” said Gussy; she was not alarmed about a risk which had never frightened her at all. Mrs. Harwood was always nervous; but Gussy, who had been used to it for years, had never believed that anything would happen. So long as Charley did not throw himself back—was not over-excited. This was what Gussy most feared.
“I’ll take you wherever you like, mamma,” said Julia, coming with a rush to the back of the chair, and projecting her mother into the hall with a force which nearly shook her out of it. Mrs. Harwood’s precipitate18 progress was arrested by Meredith, who called out to Julia to go softly, and caught at the arm of the chair as it swung past.
“Are you coming too, to keep an eye on them?” he said.
“I don’t like,” said Mrs. Harwood, trying to subdue19 the trembling of her lips, “to have such people all over my house.”
“Oh, they are honest enough; there will be no picking or stealing. As for the thing itself, it’s a farce20. I daresay Dolff has gone out. And, if not, what does it matter? If there is any such ridiculous idea about, you had better meet it and be done with it. It’s a wonder they don’t arrest me for knocking down myself.”
“Oh,” said Mrs. Harwood faintly, “I am not afraid for Dolff.”
“You can have nothing else to be afraid of,” said Meredith, in his careless tones. “A search by the police is nothing unless there happens to be something for them to find out. Nothing is of any importance unless it is true. They may search till they are tired, but, so long as there is nobody in hiding, what can it matter? Don’t trouble yourself about nothing. Let me take you back to your comfortable fireside.”
“No, no,” said Mrs. Harwood, more and more troubled; “I will stay here.”
He had not, it was evident, found the way to save her, with all his philosophy.
“No?” said Meredith, interrogatively. “It’s rather cold here, however, after the cosiness21 of the drawing-room. I hope you’ll not catch cold. If it is any satisfaction to you, of course, there’s nothing to be said: but I should think you might let me look out for these fellows and send them off. Julia{250} and me,” he added, with a wave of his hand to Julia, and the smile which was so exasperating22.
He kept wondering all the time where Janet was—Janet, who had disappeared without attracting any notice, and who probably, he thought, had helped to smuggle23 Dolff away somewhere, uselessly—because when such an accusation24 was once made, it was much better to brave it out. It was like the folly of a woman to try to smuggle him away, when the only thing was to brave it out.
“This is the only place where there is no draught,” he said, pushing Mrs. Harwood’s chair directly in front of the door which led to the wing—the door, which, on the night of the ball, he and Janet had miraculously25 found unfastened.
The door, he remarked once more, had every appearance of being a door built up and impracticable. To say, in a carefully-kept house like this, that it was covered with dust would not have been true, but there was an air about it as if it had been covered with dust. Meredith smiled at himself while he made this reflection. His heart was singularly buoyant and free, full of excitement, yet of pleasurable excitement. He was on the eve of finding out something he wanted to find out, and he was most particularly concerned that the circumstances which favored him should overwhelm Mrs. Harwood. He placed her almost exactly in front of the door as if she had intended to veil it, and drew over one of the hall chairs beside her and threw himself down upon it.
“This is the most sheltered spot,” he said, “out of reach of the door and several other draughts26. If you will stay out in the hall and catch cold, Mrs. Harwood, you are safest here.”
She glanced at the door as he drew her up to it with a repressed shudder27. She had become deadly pale, and in the faint light looked as if she had suddenly become a hundred years old, withered28 and shrunken up with age. Julia, very much startled, and with eyes wide open and astonished, stood by her mother.
“I shouldn’t have put her by that nasty shut-up door; there is always a wind from under it,” she said.
“Hush—oh, hush!” said Mrs. Harwood, with a shiver.
The detective and his companion were coming downstairs, led by the sniffing29 and contemptuous Priscilla. They came down cautiously with their heavy boots, as if they might have slipped on the soft carpets.
“Well,” said Meredith, as they came in sight, “found anything? We are waiting here to hear your news.”
“No, sir; the young gentleman have got clean away, so far{251} as I can see,” said the policeman; “but you know, sir, as well as me, for a man that’s known to struggle with the p’leece is no good. He’ll be got at, sooner or later, and it’s far better to give himself up at once.”
“That is exactly my opinion,” said Meredith, “and I should have given him that advice if either of us had known what you meant; but, you see, a young gentleman who has nothing on his conscience does not think what is the wisest thing to do about the police—for he does not expect to have anything to do with them.”
“I hope he have as easy a conscience as that,” said the detective.
“I hope he has, and I don’t doubt it, either. Well—what are you going to do now? You’ve looked through all this part of the house, I suppose?”
“We began with the upper rooms first.”
“That was scarcely wise of you,” said Meredith, “he might have popped out of one of those rooms and run for it, while you were busy upstairs.”
“Scarcely that, sir,” said the policeman, with a grin—and he opened the door, revealing suddenly a colleague erect30 and burly in his blue uniform upon the step outside.
This sight made even Meredith silent for a moment. It made the peril31 and the watch real, and brought before him all the difficulties to be encountered if Dolff (which seemed incredible) should actually be taken, committed to prison, and tried for a murderous attack upon his own life. It was so appalling32, and he knew so little how to meet it if it really became an actual situation to be reckoned with, that for a moment he was stunned33; then he thought it best to burst into a laugh. The effect on Mrs. Harwood was naturally still more serious. The poor lady began to cry:
“Is it my boy, my Dolff, that they are hunting down like that? Oh! Charley, you are the only one that can tell them how—how ridiculous it is—tell them it’s not true.”
“I’m very sorry, ma’am, to disturb you,” said the policeman, “but will you just move your chair from that door? I beg your pardon, I didn’t know the lady couldn’t move—let me do it—thank you, miss—away from that door.”
“That’s not a door,” said Julia, promptly34, “it’s been shut up since ever I remember; that other is the dining-room where Charley Meredith lives, and that is the library that is standing35 open. And this is the passage that leads to the kitchen and the pantry. And there’s the drawing-room on the other side, And this is a cupboard, and this{252}——”
“Beg your pardon, miss, we’ll find them all out as we comes to them,” the man said. “It’s hard work, and it’s harder still when we haves to do it in the face of a lot of ladies as is innocent of everything, and don’t even know what we means when we speak. Won’t you say to the lady, sir, as she’ll be far better in her own room, and to let us do what is our painful dooty?”
“It is unnecessary for you to say anything, Charley,” said Mrs. Harwood; “if my house is to be treated like a thieves’ den7, at least I shall stay here.”
“If it upsets you, lady, don’t blame us,” said the policeman, respectfully enough.
They went through all the rooms while she sat watching, Meredith lounging beside her in a chair, occasionally getting up to take a turn about the hall. If the policeman had been a man of any penetration36, he would have seen that his investigations37 in these rooms were of no interest to the watchers, but that their excitement grew fierce every time he emerged into the hall.
Meredith felt the fire in his veins38 burn stronger as they came back and forward. It was with difficulty he could restrain his agitation39. Mrs. Harwood’s chair had been pushed aside, leaving the access open to that mysterious door. She sat with her head turned away a little, her hands clasped together, an image of suspense and painful anxiety, listening for the men’s steps as they drew nearer. Gussy had followed the rest of the party, though it was against all her principles to yield to this excitement and make a show, as she said, of her feelings. She was vexed40 especially to see her mother “give way.”
“Let me put you back into the drawing-room, mamma. What is the use of staying here? Dolff has gone out, evidently. It is very silly of him, but still he has done so. It will do him no good for you to catch cold here. Charley, do tell her to come in. As for you, you will throw yourself back a week at least. Oh, for goodness’ sake, do not make everything worse by staying here!”
Mrs. Harwood made no reply. She shook her head with speechless impatience41, and turned her face away. She was beyond all considerations but one, and she could not bear any interruptions, a voice, a sound, which kept her strained ears from the knowledge of the men’s movements, and where they were. Gussy’s whisper continued to Meredith was torture to her. She raised her hand with an imperative42 gesture to have silence, silence! her heart beating in her ears like a sledge{253}hammer rising and falling was surely enough, without having any whispering and foolish, vain, ineffectual words.
“There’s nothing now but this door,” said the policeman, coming out somewhat crestfallen43. “He’s nowhere else, that’s clear. If he ain’t here he’s given us the slip—for the moment. Hallo! it’s locked, this one is! I’ll thank you, sir, to get me the key.”
“I have always understood,” said Meredith, blandly44, “that the door was built up, or fastened up. It has never been used since I have known the house.”
“I told you so,” said Julia, “if you had listened to me. It isn’t a door at all, and leads to nowhere. It was once the door of the wing,” she continued, with the liking45 of a child for giving information, “but it has never once been opened since ever I was born.”
“The wing! that’s them empty rooms as we see from the garden—the very place for a man to hide. Tell you what, sir, I can’t bear to upset the lady—but we must break in if we can’t get in quietly. You might try if you couldn’t get us the key, and take the ladies away—anyhow, get the old lady to go away—whatever happens, she’d better not be here.”
“There is no key,” she said.
“I give you five minutes to think of it, lady,” said the man; “otherwise we must break in the door.”
There was a dreadful silence—a silence which no one dared to break.
“I am telling you the truth; you cannot open it, it has always been shut up. There is no key.”
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收听单词发音
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1
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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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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8
scrutinizing
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| v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的现在分词 ) | |
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9
suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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10
unbearable
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| adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的 | |
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11
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
dart
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| v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲 | |
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13
invaders
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| 入侵者，侵略者，侵入物( invader的名词复数 ) | |
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14
ebbing
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的现在分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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15
fathom
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| v.领悟，彻底了解 | |
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16
soothe
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| v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承 | |
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17
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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18
precipitate
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| adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物 | |
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19
subdue
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| vt.制服，使顺从，征服；抑制，克制 | |
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farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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cosiness
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| n.舒适，安逸 | |
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exasperating
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| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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smuggle
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| vt.私运；vi.走私 | |
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24
accusation
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| n.控告，指责，谴责 | |
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miraculously
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| ad.奇迹般地 | |
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draughts
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| n. <英>国际跳棋 | |
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27
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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28
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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29
sniffing
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| n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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30
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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31
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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32
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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33
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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34
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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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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36
penetration
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| n.穿透，穿人，渗透 | |
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37
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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38
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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39
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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40
vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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41
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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42
imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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43
crestfallen
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| adj. 挫败的，失望的，沮丧的 | |
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44
blandly
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| adv.温和地，殷勤地 | |
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45
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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46
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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47
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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