"If only Diana or Phil or Pris or Stella could drop in for a chat," she said to herself, "how delightful8 it would be! This is such a GHOSTLY night. I'm sure all the ships that ever sailed out of Four Winds to their doom9 could be seen tonight sailing up the harbor with their drowned crews on their decks, if that shrouding10 fog could suddenly be drawn11 aside. I feel as if it concealed12 innumerable mysteries—as if I were surrounded by the wraiths13 of old generations of Four Winds people peering at me through that gray veil. If ever the dear dead ladies of this little house came back to revisit it they would come on just such a night as this. If I sit here any longer I'll see one of them there opposite me in Gilbert's chair. This place isn't exactly canny14 tonight. Even Gog and Magog have an air of pricking15 up their ears to hear the footsteps of unseen guests. I'll run over to see Leslie before I frighten myself with my own fancies, as I did long ago in the matter of the Haunted Wood. I'll leave my house of dreams to welcome back its old inhabitants. My fire will give them my good-will and greeting—they will be gone before I come back, and my house will be mine once more. Tonight I am sure it is keeping a tryst16 with the past."
Laughing a little over her fancy, yet with something of a creepy sensation in the region of her spine17, Anne kissed her hand to Gog and Magog and slipped out into the fog, with some of the new magazines under her arm for Leslie.
"Leslie's wild for books and magazines," Miss Cornelia had told her, "and she hardly ever sees one. She can't afford to buy them or subscribe18 for them. She's really pitifully poor, Anne. I don't see how she makes out to live at all on the little rent the farm brings in. She never even hints a complaint on the score of poverty, but I know what it must be. She's been handicapped by it all her life. She didn't mind it when she was free and ambitious, but it must gall19 now, believe ME. I'm glad she seemed so bright and merry the evening she spent with you. Captain Jim told me he had fairly to put her cap and coat on and push her out of the door. Don't be too long going to see her either. If you are she'll think it's because you don't like the sight of Dick, and she'll crawl into her shell again. Dick's a great, big, harmless baby, but that silly grin and chuckle20 of his do get on some people's nerves. Thank goodness, I've no nerves myself. I like Dick Moore better now than I ever did when he was in his right senses—though the Lord knows that isn't saying much. I was down there one day in housecleaning time helping21 Leslie a bit, and I was frying doughnuts. Dick was hanging round to get one, as usual, and all at once he picked up a scalding hot one I'd just fished out and dropped it on the back of my neck when I was bending over. Then he laughed and laughed. Believe ME, Anne, it took all the grace of God in my heart to keep me from just whisking up that stew-pan of boiling fat and pouring it over his head."
Anne laughed over Miss Cornelia's wrath22 as she sped through the darkness. But laughter accorded ill with that night. She was sober enough when she reached the house among the willows23. Everything was very silent. The front part of the house seemed dark and deserted24, so Anne slipped round to the side door, which opened from the veranda25 into a little sitting room. There she halted noiselessly.
The door was open. Beyond, in the dimly lighted room, sat Leslie Moore, with her arms flung out on the table and her head bent26 upon them. She was weeping horribly—with low, fierce, choking sobs27, as if some agony in her soul were trying to tear itself out. An old black dog was sitting by her, his nose resting on his lap, his big doggish eyes full of mute, imploring28 sympathy and devotion. Anne drew back in dismay. She felt that she could not intermeddle with this bitterness. Her heart ached with a sympathy she might not utter. To go in now would be to shut the door forever on any possible help or friendship. Some instinct warned Anne that the proud, bitter girl would never forgive the one who thus surprised her in her abandonment of despair.
Anne slipped noiselessly from the veranda and found her way across the yard. Beyond, she heard voices in the gloom and saw the dim glow of a light. At the gate she met two men—Captain Jim with a lantern, and another who she knew must be Dick Moore—a big man, badly gone to fat, with a broad, round, red face, and vacant eyes. Even in the dull light Anne got the impression that there was something unusual about his eyes.
"Is this you, Mistress Blythe?" said Captain Jim. "Now, now, you hadn't oughter be roaming about alone on a night like this. You could get lost in this fog easier than not. Jest you wait till I see Dick safe inside the door and I'll come back and light you over the fields. I ain't going to have Dr. Blythe coming home and finding that you walked clean over Cape29 Leforce in the fog. A woman did that once, forty years ago.
"So you've been over to see Leslie," he said, when he rejoined her.
"I didn't go in," said Anne, and told what she had seen. Captain Jim sighed.
"Poor, poor, little girl! She don't cry often, Mistress Blythe—she's too brave for that. She must feel terrible when she does cry. A night like this is hard on poor women who have sorrows. There's something about it that kinder brings up all we've suffered—or feared."
"It's full of ghosts," said Anne, with a shiver. "That was why I came over—I wanted to clasp a human hand and hear a human voice.
"There seem to be so many INHUMAN30 presences about tonight. Even my own dear house was full of them. They fairly elbowed me out. So I fled over here for companionship of my kind."
"You were right not to go in, though, Mistress Blythe. Leslie wouldn't have liked it. She wouldn't have liked me going in with Dick, as I'd have done if I hadn't met you. I had Dick down with me all day. I keep him with me as much as I can to help Leslie a bit."
"Isn't there something odd about his eyes?" asked Anne.
"You noticed that? Yes, one is blue and t'other is hazel—his father had the same. It's a Moore peculiarity31. That was what told me he was Dick Moore when I saw him first down in Cuby. If it hadn't a-bin for his eyes I mightn't a-known him, with his beard and fat. You know, I reckon, that it was me found him and brought him home. Miss Cornelia always says I shouldn't have done it, but I can't agree with her. It was the RIGHT thing to do—and so 'twas the only thing. There ain't no question in my mind about THAT. But my old heart aches for Leslie. She's only twenty-eight and she's eaten more bread with sorrow than most women do in eighty years."
They walked on in silence for a little while. Presently Anne said, "Do you know, Captain Jim, I never like walking with a lantern. I have always the strangest feeling that just outside the circle of light, just over its edge in the darkness, I am surrounded by a ring of furtive32, sinister33 things, watching me from the shadows with hostile eyes. I've had that feeling from childhood. What is the reason? I never feel like that when I'm really in the darkness—when it is close all around me—I'm not the least frightened."
"I've something of that feeling myself," admitted Captain Jim. "I reckon when the darkness is close to us it is a friend. But when we sorter push it away from us—divorce ourselves from it, so to speak, with lantern light—it becomes an enemy. But the fog is lifting.
"There's a smart west wind rising, if you notice. The stars will be out when you get home."
They were out; and when Anne re-entered her house of dreams the red embers were still glowing on the hearth34, and all the haunting presences were gone.
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1
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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2
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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3
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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4
sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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5
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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6
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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7
yearned
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| 渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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9
doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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10
shrouding
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| n.覆盖v.隐瞒( shroud的现在分词 )；保密 | |
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11
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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12
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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13
wraiths
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| n.幽灵( wraith的名词复数 )；（传说中人在将死或死后不久的）显形阴魂 | |
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14
canny
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| adj.谨慎的，节俭的 | |
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15
pricking
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| 刺，刺痕，刺痛感 | |
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16
tryst
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| n.约会；v.与…幽会 | |
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spine
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| n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊 | |
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18
subscribe
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| vi.(to)订阅，订购；同意；vt.捐助，赞助 | |
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19
gall
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| v.使烦恼，使焦躁，难堪；n.磨难 | |
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20
chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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21
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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22
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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23
willows
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| n.柳树( willow的名词复数 )；柳木 | |
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24
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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26
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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27
sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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28
imploring
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| 恳求的，哀求的 | |
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29
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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30
inhuman
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| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
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31
peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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32
furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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33
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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34
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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