Nell’s little purse was exhausted2; but although it lay empty by his side, and the other players had now risen from the table, the old man sat poring over the cards, dealing3 them as they had been dealt before, and turning up the different hands to see what each man would have held if they had still been playing. He was quite absorbed in this occupation, when the child drew near and laid her hand upon his shoulder, telling him it was near midnight.
‘See the curse of poverty, Nell,’ he said, pointing to the packs he had spread out upon the table. ‘If I could have gone on a little longer, only a little longer, the luck would have turned on my side. Yes, it’s as plain as the marks upon the cards. See here — and there — and here again.’
‘Put them away,’ urged the child. ‘Try to forget them.’
‘Try to forget them!’ he rejoined, raising his haggard face to hers, and regarding her with an incredulous stare. ‘To forget them! How are we ever to grow rich if I forget them?’
The child could only shake her head.
‘No, no, Nell,’ said the old man, patting her cheek; ‘they must not be forgotten. We must make amends4 for this as soon as we can. Patience — patience, and we’ll right thee yet, I promise thee. Lose to-day, win to-morrow. And nothing can be won without anxiety and care — nothing. Come, I am ready.’
‘Do you know what the time is?’ said Mr Groves5, who was smoking with his friends. ‘Past twelve o’clock —’
‘— And a rainy night,’ added the stout6 man.
‘The Valiant7 Soldier, by James Groves. Good beds. Cheap entertainment for man and beast,’ said Mr Groves, quoting his sign-board. ‘Half-past twelve o’clock.’
‘It’s very late,’ said the uneasy child. ‘I wish we had gone before. What will they think of us! It will be two o’clock by the time we get back. What would it cost, sir, if we stopped here?’
‘Two good beds, one-and-sixpence; supper and beer one shilling; total two shillings and sixpence,’ replied the Valiant Soldier.
Now, Nell had still the piece of gold sewn in her dress; and when she came to consider the lateness of the hour, and the somnolent8 habits of Mrs Jarley, and to imagine the state of consternation9 in which they would certainly throw that good lady by knocking her up in the middle of the night — and when she reflected, on the other hand, that if they remained where they were, and rose early in the morning, they might get back before she awoke, and could plead the violence of the storm by which they had been overtaken, as a good apology for their absence — she decided10, after a great deal of hesitation11, to remain. She therefore took her grandfather aside, and telling him that she had still enough left to defray the cost of their lodging12, proposed that they should stay there for the night.
‘If I had had but that money before — If I had only known of it a few minutes ago!’ muttered the old man.
‘We will decide to stop here if you please,’ said Nell, turning hastily to the landlord.
‘I think that’s prudent,’ returned Mr Groves. ‘You shall have your suppers directly.’
Accordingly, when Mr Groves had smoked his pipe out, knocked out the ashes, and placed it carefully in a corner of the fire-place, with the bowl downwards13, he brought in the bread and cheese, and beer, with many high encomiums upon their excellence14, and bade his guests fall to, and make themselves at home. Nell and her grandfather ate sparingly, for both were occupied with their own reflections; the other gentlemen, for whose constitutions beer was too weak and tame a liquid, consoled themselves with spirits and tobacco.
As they would leave the house very early in the morning, the child was anxious to pay for their entertainment before they retired15 to bed. But as she felt the necessity of concealing16 her little hoard17 from her grandfather, and had to change the piece of gold, she took it secretly from its place of concealment18, and embraced an opportunity of following the landlord when he went out of the room, and tendered it to him in the little bar.
‘Will you give me the change here, if you please?’ said the child.
Mr James Groves was evidently surprised, and looked at the money, and rang it, and looked at the child, and at the money again, as though he had a mind to inquire how she came by it. The coin being genuine, however, and changed at his house, he probably felt, like a wise landlord, that it was no business of his. At any rate, he counted out the change, and gave it her. The child was returning to the room where they had passed the evening, when she fancied she saw a figure just gliding19 in at the door. There was nothing but a long dark passage between this door and the place where she had changed the money, and, being very certain that no person had passed in or out while she stood there, the thought struck her that she had been watched.
But by whom? When she re-entered the room, she found its inmates20 exactly as she had left them. The stout fellow lay upon two chairs, resting his head on his hand, and the squinting21 man reposed22 in a similar attitude on the opposite side of the table. Between them sat her grandfather, looking intently at the winner with a kind of hungry admiration23, and hanging upon his words as if he were some superior being. She was puzzled for a moment, and looked round to see if any else were there. No. Then she asked her grandfather in a whisper whether anybody had left the room while she was absent. ‘No,’ he said, ‘nobody.’
It must have been her fancy then; and yet it was strange, that, without anything in her previous thoughts to lead to it, she should have imagined this figure so very distinctly. She was still wondering and thinking of it, when a girl came to light her to bed.
The old man took leave of the company at the same time, and they went up stairs together. It was a great, rambling24 house, with dull corridors and wide staircases which the flaring25 candles seemed to make more gloomy. She left her grandfather in his chamber26, and followed her guide to another, which was at the end of a passage, and approached by some half-dozen crazy steps. This was prepared for her. The girl lingered a little while to talk, and tell her grievances27. She had not a good place, she said; the wages were low, and the work was hard. She was going to leave it in a fortnight; the child couldn’t recommend her to another, she supposed? Instead she was afraid another would be difficult to get after living there, for the house had a very indifferent character; there was far too much card-playing, and such like. She was very much mistaken if some of the people who came there oftenest were quite as honest as they might be, but she wouldn’t have it known that she had said so, for the world. Then there were some rambling allusions28 to a rejected sweetheart, who had threatened to go a soldiering — a final promise of knocking at the door early in the morning — and ‘Good night.’
The child did not feel comfortable when she was left alone. She could not help thinking of the figure stealing through the passage down stairs; and what the girl had said did not tend to reassure29 her. The men were very ill-looking. They might get their living by robbing and murdering travellers. Who could tell?
Reasoning herself out of these fears, or losing sight of them for a little while, there came the anxiety to which the adventures of the night gave rise. Here was the old passion awakened30 again in her grandfather’s breast, and to what further distraction31 it might tempt32 him Heaven only knew. What fears their absence might have occasioned already! Persons might be seeking for them even then. Would they be forgiven in the morning, or turned adrift again! Oh! why had they stopped in that strange place? It would have been better, under any circumstances, to have gone on!
At last, sleep gradually stole upon her — a broken, fitful sleep, troubled by dreams of falling from high towers, and waking with a start and in great terror. A deeper slumber33 followed this — and then — What! That figure in the room.
A figure was there. Yes, she had drawn34 up the blind to admit the light when it should be dawn, and there, between the foot of the bed and the dark casement35, it crouched36 and slunk along, groping its way with noiseless hands, and stealing round the bed. She had no voice to cry for help, no power to move, but lay still, watching it.
On it came — on, silently and stealthily, to the bed’s head. The breath so near her pillow, that she shrunk back into it, lest those wandering hands should light upon her face. Back again it stole to the window — then turned its head towards her.
The dark form was a mere37 blot38 upon the lighter39 darkness of the room, but she saw the turning of the head, and felt and knew how the eyes looked and the ears listened. There it remained, motionless as she. At length, still keeping the face towards her, it busied its hands in something, and she heard the chink of money.
Then, on it came again, silent and stealthy as before, and replacing the garments it had taken from the bedside, dropped upon its hands and knees, and crawled away. How slowly it seemed to move, now that she could hear but not see it, creeping along the floor! It reached the door at last, and stood upon its feet. The steps creaked beneath its noiseless tread, and it was gone.
The first impulse of the child was to fly from the terror of being by herself in that room — to have somebody by — not to be alone — and then her power of speech would be restored. With no consciousness of having moved, she gained the door.
There was the dreadful shadow, pausing at the bottom of the steps.
She could not pass it; she might have done so, perhaps, in the darkness without being seized, but her blood curdled40 at the thought. The figure stood quite still, and so did she; not boldly, but of necessity; for going back into the room was hardly less terrible than going on.
The rain beat fast and furiously without, and ran down in plashing streams from the thatched roof. Some summer insect, with no escape into the air, flew blindly to and fro, beating its body against the walls and ceiling, and filling the silent place with murmurs41. The figure moved again. The child involuntarily did the same. Once in her grandfather’s room, she would be safe.
It crept along the passage until it came to the very door she longed so ardently42 to reach. The child, in the agony of being so near, had almost darted43 forward with the design of bursting into the room and closing it behind her, when the figure stopped again.
The idea flashed suddenly upon her — what if it entered there, and had a design upon the old man’s life! She turned faint and sick. It did. It went in. There was a light inside. The figure was now within the chamber, and she, still dumb — quite dumb, and almost senseless — stood looking on.
The door was partly open. Not knowing what she meant to do, but meaning to preserve him or be killed herself, she staggered forward and looked in.
What sight was that which met her view!
The bed had not been lain on, but was smooth and empty. And at a table sat the old man himself; the only living creature there; his white face pinched and sharpened by the greediness which made his eyes unnaturally44 bright — counting the money of which his hands had robbed her.
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1
fortitude
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| n.坚忍不拔；刚毅 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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amends
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| n. 赔偿 | |
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groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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7
valiant
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| adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人 | |
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somnolent
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| adj.想睡的，催眠的；adv.瞌睡地；昏昏欲睡地；使人瞌睡地 | |
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consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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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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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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12
lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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16
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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17
hoard
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| n./v.窖藏，贮存，囤积 | |
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18
concealment
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| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
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19
gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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20
inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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21
squinting
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| 斜视( squint的现在分词 )； 眯着眼睛； 瞟； 从小孔或缝隙里看 | |
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22
reposed
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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24
rambling
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| adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的 | |
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flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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grievances
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| n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚 | |
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28
allusions
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| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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29
reassure
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| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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30
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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31
distraction
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| n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐 | |
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32
tempt
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| vt.引诱，勾引，吸引，引起…的兴趣 | |
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33
slumber
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| n.睡眠，沉睡状态 | |
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34
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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35
casement
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| n.竖铰链窗；窗扉 | |
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36
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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38
blot
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| vt.弄脏（用吸墨纸）吸干；n.污点，污渍 | |
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39
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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40
curdled
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| v.（使）凝结( curdle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
murmurs
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| n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 )；低语声；怨言；嘀咕 | |
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42
ardently
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| adv.热心地，热烈地 | |
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43
darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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44
unnaturally
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| adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地 | |
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