“Good morning,” said she. “Let us go down. Let us go down together. I slept wretchedly and do not feel very strong. When did Mr. Packard come in?”
“Late. He went directly to the library. He said that he had but a short time in which to rest, and would take what sleep he could get on the lounge, when I told him of your very natural nervous attack.”
She sighed — a sigh which came from no inconsiderable depths — then with a proud and resolute4 gesture preceded me down-stairs.
Her husband was already in the breakfast-room. I could hear his voice as we turned at the foot of the stairs. Mrs. Packard, hearing it, too, drew herself up still more firmly and was passing bravely forward, when Nixon’s gray head protruded5 from the doorway6 and I heard him say:
“There’s company for breakfast, ma’am. His Honor could not spare Mr. Steele and asked me to set a place for him.”
I noted7 a momentary8 hesitation9 on Mrs. Packard’s part, then she silently acquiesced10 and we both passed on. In another instant we were receiving the greetings and apologies of the gentlemen. If Mr. Steele had expected that his employer’s wife would offer him her hand, he was disappointed.
“I am happy to welcome one who has proved so useful to my husband,” she remarked with cool though careful courtesy as we all sat down at the table; and, without waiting for an answer, she proceeded to pour the coffee with a proud grace which gave no hint of the extreme feeling by which I had seen her moved the night before.
Had I known her better I might have found something extremely unnatural11 in her manner and the very evident restraint she put upon herself through the whole meal; but not having any acquaintance with her ordinary bearing under conditions purely12 social, I was thrown out of my calculations by the cold ease with which she presided at her end of the table, and the set smile with which she greeted all remarks, whether volunteered by her husband or by his respectful but affable secretary. I noticed, however, that she ate little.
Nixon, whom I dared not watch, did not serve with his usual precision — this I perceived from the surprised look cast at him by Mayor Packard on at least two occasions. Though to the ordinary eye a commonplace meal, it had elements of tragedy in it which made the least movement on the part of those engaged in it of real moment to me. I was about to leave the table unenlightened, however, when Mrs. Packard rose and, drawing a letter from under the tray before which she sat, let her glances pass from one gentleman to the other with a look of decided13 inquiry14. I drew in my breath and by dropping my handkerchief sought an excuse for lingering in the room an instant longer.
“Will — may I ask one of you,” she stammered15 with her first show of embarrassment16 during the meal, “to — to post this letter for me?”
Both gentlemen were standing17 and both gentlemen reached for it; but it was into the secretary’s hand she put it, though her husband’s was much the nearer. As Mr. Steele received it he gave it the casual glance natural under the circumstances — a glance which instantly, however, took on an air of surprise that ended in a smile.
“Have you not made some mistake?” he asked.
“This does not look like a letter.” And he handed her back the paper she had given him. With an involuntary ingathering of her breath, she seemed to wake out of some dream and, looking down at the envelope she held, she crushed it in her hand with a little laugh in which I heard the note of real gaiety for the first time.
“Pardon me,” she exclaimed; and, meeting his amused gaze with one equally expressive18, she carelessly added: “I certainly brought a letter down with me.”
Bowing pleasantly, but with that indefinable air of respect which bespeaks19 the stranger, he waited while she hastened back to the tray and drew from under it a second paper.
“Pardon my carelessness,” she said. “I must have caught up a scrawl20 of the baby’s in taking this from my desk.”
She brought forward a letter and ended the whole remarkable21 episode by handing it now to her husband, who, with an apologetic glance at the other, put it in his pocket.
I say remarkable; for in the folded slip which had passed back and forth22 between her and the secretary, I saw, or thought I saw, a likeness23 to the paper she had brought the night before out of the attic24.
If Mayor Packard saw anything unusual in his wife’s action he made no mention of it when I went into his study at nine o’clock. And it was so much of an enigma25 to me that I was not ready to venture a question regarding it.
Her increased spirits and more natural conduct were the theme of the few sentences he addressed me, and while he urged precaution and a continued watch upon his wife, he expressed the fondest hope that he should find her fully2 restored on his return at the end of two weeks.
I encouraged his hopes, and possibly shared them; but I changed my mind, as he probably did his, when a few minutes later we met her in the hall hurrying toward us with a newspaper in her hand and a ghastly look on her face. “See! see! what they have dared to print!” she cried, with a look, full of anguish26, into his bewildered face.
He took the sheet, read, and flushed, then suddenly grew white. “Outrageous!” he exclaimed. Then tenderly, “My poor darling! that they should dare to drag your name into this abominable27 campaign!”
“And for no reason,” she faltered28; “there is nothing wrong with me. You believe that; you are sure of that,” she cried. I saw the article later. It ran something like this:
“Rumor has it that not even our genial29 mayor’s closet is free from the proverbial skeleton. Mrs. Packard’s health is not what it was — and some say that the causes are not purely physical.”
He tried to dissimulate30. Putting his arm about her, he kissed her fondly and protested with mingled31 energy and feeling:
“I believe you to be all you should be — a true woman and true wife.”
Her face lighted and she clung for a moment in passionate32 delight to his breast; then she caught his look, which was tender but not altogether open, and the shadows fell again as she murmured:
“You are not satisfied. Oh, what do you see, what do others see, that I should be the subject of doubt? Tell me! I can never right myself till I know.”
“I see a troubled face when I should see a happy one,” he answered lightly; then, as she still clung in very evident question to his arm, he observed gravely: “Two weeks ago you were the life of this house, and of every other house into which your duties carried you. Why shouldn’t you be the same to-day? Answer me that, dear, and all my doubts will vanish, I assure you.”
“Henry,”— drooping33 her head and lacing her fingers in and out with nervous hesitation — “you will think me very foolish — I know that it will sound foolish, childish even, and utterly34 ridiculous; but I can explain myself no other way. I have had a frightful35 experience — here — in my own house — on the spot where I have been so happy, so unthinkingly happy. Henry — do not laugh — it is real, very real, to me. The specter which is said to haunt these walls has revealed itself to me. I have seen the ghost.”
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1
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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protruded
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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acquiesced
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| v.默认，默许( acquiesce的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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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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16
embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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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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expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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bespeaks
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| v.预定( bespeak的第三人称单数 )；订（货）；证明；预先请求 | |
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scrawl
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| vt.潦草地书写；n.潦草的笔记，涂写 | |
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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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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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attic
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| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
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enigma
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| n.谜，谜一样的人或事 | |
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anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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abominable
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| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
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28
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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29
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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dissimulate
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| v.掩饰，隐藏 | |
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31
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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32
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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33
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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34
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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