“Can’t you understand that I had to know Larsan’s true personality?”
“No doubt,” I said, “but why did you go to America to find that out?”
He sat smoking his pipe, and made no further reply. I began to see that I was touching2 on the secret that concerned Mademoiselle Stangerson. Rouletabille evidently had found it necessary to go to America to find out what the mysterious tie was that bound her to Larsan by so strange and terrible a bond. In America he had learned who Larsan was and had obtained information which closed his mouth. He had been to Philadelphia.
And now, what was this mystery which held Mademoiselle Stangerson and Monsieur Robert Darzac in so inexplicable3 a silence? After so many years and the publicity4 given the case by a curious and shameless press; now that Monsieur Stangerson knows all and has forgiven all, all may be told. In every phase of this remarkable5 story Mademoiselle Stangerson had always been the sufferer.
The beginning dates from the time when, as a young girl, she was living with her father in Philadelphia. A visitor at the house, a Frenchman, had succeeded by his wit, grace and persistent6 attention, in gaining her affections. He was said to be rich and had asked her of her father. Monsieur Stangerson, on making inquiries7 as to Monsieur Jean Roussel, found that the man was a swindler and an adventurer. Jean Roussel was but another of the many names under which the notorious Ballmeyer, a fugitive8 from France, tried to hide himself. Monsieur Stangerson did not know of his identity with Ballmeyer; he learned that the man was simply undesirable9 for his daughter. He not only refused to give his consent to the marriage but denied him admission into the house. Mathilde Stangerson, however, had fallen in love. To her Jean Roussel was everything that her love painted him. She was indignant at her father’s attitude, and did not conceal10 her feelings. Her father sent her to stay with an aunt in Cincinnati. There she was joined by Jean Roussel and, in spite of the reverence11 she felt for her father, ran away with him to get married.
They went to Louisville and lived there for some time. One morning, however, a knock came at the door of the house in which they were and the police entered to arrest Jean Roussel. It was then that Mathilde Stangerson, or Roussel, learned that her husband was no other than the notorious Ballmeyer!
The young woman in her despair tried to commit suicide. She failed in this, and was forced to rejoin her aunt in Cincinnati, The old lady was overjoyed to see her again. She had been anxiously searching for her and had not dared to tell Monsieur Stangerson of her disappearance12. Mathilde swore her to secrecy13, so that her father should not know she had been away. A month later, Mademoiselle Stangerson returned to her father, repentant14, her heart dead within her, hoping only one thing: that she would never again see her husband, the horrible Ballmeyer. A report was spread, a few weeks later, that he was dead, and she now determined15 to atone16 for her disobedience by a life of labour and devotion for her father. And she kept her word.
All this she had confessed to Robert Darzac, and, believing Ballmeyer dead, had given herself to the joy of a union with him. But fate had resuscitated17 Jean Roussel—the Ballmeyer of her youth. He had taken steps to let her know that he would never allow her to marry Darzac—that he still loved her.
Mademoiselle Stangerson never for one moment hesitated to confide18 in Monsieur Darzac. She showed him the letter in which Jean Roussel asked her to recall the first hours of their union in their beautiful and charming Louisville home. “The presbytery has lost nothing of its charm, nor the garden its brightness,” he had written. The scoundrel pretended to be rich and claimed the right of taking her back to Louisville. She had told Darzac that if her father should know of her dishonour19, she would kill herself. Monsieur Darzac had sworn to silence her persecutor20, even if he had to kill him. He was outwitted and would have succumbed21 had it not been for the genius of Rouletabille.
Mademoiselle Stangerson was herself helpless in the hands of such a villain22. She had tried to kill him when he had first threatened and then attacked her in The Yellow Room. She had, unfortunately, failed, and felt herself condemned23 to be for ever at the mercy of this unscrupulous wretch24 who was continually demanding her presence at clandestine25 interviews. When he sent her the letter through the Post Office, asking her to meet him, she had refused. The result of her refusal was the tragedy of The Yellow Room. The second time he wrote asking for a meeting, the letter reaching her in her sick chamber26, she had avoided him by sleeping with her servants. In that letter the scoundrel had warned her that, since she was too ill to come to him, he would come to her, and that he would be in her chamber at a particular hour on a particular night. Knowing that she had everything to fear from Ballmeyer, she had left her chamber on that night. It was then that the incident of the “inexplicable gallery” occurred.
The third time she had determined to keep the appointment. He asked for it in the letter he had written in her own room, on the night of the incident in the gallery, which he left on her desk. In that letter he threatened to burn her father’s papers if she did not meet him. It was to rescue these papers that she made up her mind to see him. She did not for one moment doubt that the wretch would carry out his threat if she persisted in avoiding him, and in that case the labours of her father’s lifetime would be for ever lost. Since the meeting was thus inevitable27, she resolved to see her husband and appeal to his better nature. It was for this interview that she had prepared herself on the night the keeper was killed. They did meet, and what passed between them may be imagined. He insisted that she renounce28 Darzac. She, on her part, affirmed her love for him. He stabbed her in his anger, determined to convict Darzac of the crime. As Larsan he could do it, and had so managed things that Darzac could never explain how he had employed the time of his absence from the chateau29. Ballmeyer’s precautions were most cunningly taken.
Larsan had threatened Darzac as he had threatened Mathilde—with the same weapon, and the same threats. He wrote Darzac urgent letters, declaring himself ready to deliver up the letters that had passed between him and his wife, and to leave them for ever, if he would pay him his price. He asked Darzac to meet him for the purpose of arranging the matter, appointing the time when Larsan would be with Mademoiselle Stangerson. When Darzac went to Epinay, expecting to find Ballmeyer or Larsan there, he was met by an accomplice30 of Larsan’s, and kept waiting until such time as the “coincidence” could be established.
It was all done with Machiavellian31 cunning; but Ballmeyer had reckoned without Joseph Rouletabille.
Now that the Mystery of The Yellow Room has been cleared up, this is not the time to tell of Rouletabille’s adventures in America. Knowing the young reporter as we do, we can understand with what acumen32 he had traced, step by step, the story of Mathilde Stangerson and Jean Roussel. At Philadelphia he had quickly informed himself as to Arthur William Rance. There he learned of Rance’s act of devotion and the reward he thought himself entitled to for it. A rumour33 of his marriage with Mademoiselle Stangerson had once found its way into the drawing-rooms of Philadelphia. He also learned of Rance’s continued attentions to her and his importunities for her hand. He had taken to drink, he had said, to drown his grief at his unrequited love. It can now be understood why Rouletabille had shown so marked a coolness of demeanour towards Rance when they met in the witnesses’ room, on the day of the trial.
The strange Roussel-Stangerson mystery had now been laid bare. Who was this Jean Roussel? Rouletabille had traced him from Philadelphia to Cincinnati. In Cincinnati he became acquainted with the old aunt, and had found means to open her mouth. The story of Ballmeyer’s arrest threw the right light on the whole story. He visited the “presbytery”—a small and pretty dwelling34 in the old colonial style—which had, indeed, “lost nothing of its charm.” Then, abandoning his pursuit of traces of Mademoiselle Stangerson, he took up those of Ballmeyer. He followed them from prison to prison, from crime to crime. Finally, as he was about leaving for Europe, he learned in New York that Ballmeyer had, five years before, embarked35 for France with some valuable papers belonging to a merchant of New Orleans whom he had murdered.
And yet the whole of this mystery has not been revealed. Mademoiselle Stangerson had a child, by her husband,—a son. The infant was born in the old aunt’s house. No one knew of it, so well had the aunt managed to conceal the event.
What became of that son?—That is another story which, so far, I am not permitted to relate.
About two months after these events, I came upon Rouletabille sitting on a bench in the Palais de Justice, looking very depressed36.
“What’s the matter, old man?” I asked. “You are looking very down. cast. How are your friends getting on?”
“Apart from you,” he said, “I have no friends.”
“I hope that Monsieur Darzac—”
“No doubt.”
“And Mademoiselle Stangerson—How is she?”
“Better—much better.”
“Then you ought not to be sad.”
“I am sad,” he said, “because I am thinking of the perfume of the lady in black—”
“The perfume of the lady in black!—I have heard you often refer to it. Tell me why it troubles you.”
“Perhaps—some day; some day,” said Rouletabille.
And he heaved a profound sigh.
The End
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1
adjournment
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| 休会； 延期； 休会期； 休庭期 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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3
inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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publicity
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| n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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6
persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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7
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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8
fugitive
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| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
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undesirable
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| adj.不受欢迎的，不良的，不合意的，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子 | |
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10
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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12
disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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repentant
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| adj.对…感到悔恨的 | |
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15
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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atone
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| v.赎罪，补偿 | |
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17
resuscitated
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| v.使（某人或某物）恢复知觉，苏醒( resuscitate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18
confide
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| v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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dishonour
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| n./vt.拒付（支票、汇票、票据等）；vt.凌辱，使丢脸；n.不名誉，耻辱，不光彩 | |
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persecutor
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| n. 迫害者 | |
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21
succumbed
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| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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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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wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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clandestine
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| adj.秘密的，暗中从事的 | |
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26
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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27
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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28
renounce
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| v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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chateau
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| n.城堡，别墅 | |
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30
accomplice
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| n.从犯，帮凶，同谋 | |
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31
machiavellian
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| adj.权谋的，狡诈的 | |
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32
acumen
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| n.敏锐，聪明 | |
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33
rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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34
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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35
embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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