Her baby had fallen asleep. I knew this by the faint, low sweetness of her croon; and, shuddering1 with the horrors I had witnessed — horrors which acquired a double force from the contrast presented by the peace of this quiet spot and the hallowing influence of the sleeping infant — I threw myself down in the darkness at her feet, gasping2 out:
“Oh, thank God and your uncle’s seeming harshness that you have escaped the doom3 which has overtaken those others! You and your babe are still alive; while they ——”
“What of them? What has happened to them? You are breathless, trembling; you have brought no bread ——”
“No, no. Food in this house means death. Your relatives gave food and wine to your uncle at a supper; he, though now in his grave, has returned the same to them. There was a bottle ——”
I stopped, appalled4. A shriek5, muffled6 by distance but quivering with the same note of death I had heard before, had gone up again from the other side of the wall against which we were leaning.
“Oh!” she gasped7, “and my father was at that supper! my father, who died last night cursing the day he was born! We are an accursed race! I have known it all my life. Perhaps that was why I mistook passion for love. And my baby — O God, have mercy! God, have mercy!”
The plaintiveness8 of that cry, the awesomeness9 of what I had seen — of what was going on at that moment almost within the reach of our arms — the darkness, the desolation of our two souls, affected10 me as I had never been affected in my whole life before. In the concentrated experience of the last two hours I seemed to have lived years under this woman’s eyes; to know her as I did my own heart; to love her as I did my own soul. No growth of feeling ever brought the ecstasy11 of that moment’s inspiration. With no sense of doing anything strange, with no fear of being misunderstood, I reached out my hand, and, touching12 hers where it lay clasped about her infant, I said:
“We are two poor wayfarers13. A rough road loses half its difficulties when trodden by two. Shall we, then, fare on together — you, I, and the little child?”
She gave a sob14; there was sorrow, longing15, grief, hope in its thrilling, low sound. As I recognised the latter emotion I drew her to my breast. The child did not separate us.
“We shall be happy,” I murmured, and her sigh seemed to answer a delicious “Yes,” when suddenly there came a shock to the partition against which we leaned, and, starting from my clasp, she cried:
“Our duty is in there. Shall we think of ourselves, or even of each other, while these men, all relatives of mine, are dying on the other side of this wall?”
Seizing my hand, she dragged me to the trap; but here I took the lead and helped her down the ladder. When I had her safely on the floor at the foot she passed in front of me again; but once up the steps and in front of the kitchen door I thrust her behind me, for one glance into the room beyond had convinced me it was no place for her.
But she would not be held back. She crowded forward beside me, and together we looked upon the wreck17 within. It was a never-to-be-forgotten scene. The demon18 that was in those men had driven them to demolish19 furniture, dishes, everything. In one heap lay what, an hour before, had been an inviting20 board surrounded by rollicking and greedy guests. But it was not upon this overthrow21 we stopped to look. It was upon something that mingled22 with it, dominated it, and made of this chaos23 only a setting to awful death. Janet’s face, in all its natural hideousness24 and depravity, looked up from the floor beside this heap; and farther on, lay the twisted figure of him they called Hector, with something more than the seams of greedy longing round his wide-staring eyes and icy temples. Two in this room! and on the threshold of the one beyond a moaning third, who sank into eternal silence as we approached; and before the fireplace in the great room a horrible crescent that had once been aged25 Luke, upon whom we had no sooner turned our backs than we caught glimpses here and there of other prostrate26 forms which moved once under our eyes and then moved no more.
One only still stood upright, and he was the man whose obtrusive27 figure and sordid28 expression had so revolted me in the beginning. There was no colour now in his flabby and heavily fallen cheeks. The eyes, in whose false sheen I had seen so much of evil, were glazed29 now, and his big and burly frame shook the door it pressed against. He was staring at a small slip of paper he held, and, from his anxious looks, appeared to miss something which neither of us had power to supply. It was a spectacle to make devils rejoice and mortals fly aghast. But Eunice had a spirit like an angel, and, drawing near him, she said:
“Is there anything I can do for you, Cousin John?”
He started, looked at her with the same blank gaze he had hitherto cast at the wall, then some words formed on his working lips, and we heard:
“I cannot reckon; I was never good at figures. But if Luke is gone, and William, and Hector, and Barbara’s boy, and Janet, how much does that leave for me?”
He was answered almost the moment he spoke30, but it was by other tongues, and in another world than this. As his body fell forward I tore open the door before which he had been standing31, and, lifting the almost fainting Eunice in my arms, I carried her out into the night. As I did so I caught a final glimpse of the pictured face I had found it so hard to understand a couple of hours before. I understood it now.
A surprise awaited us as we turned toward the gate. The mist had lifted, and a keen but not unpleasant wind was driving from the north. Borne on it we heard voices. The village had emptied itself, probably at the alarm given by the lawyer, and it was these good men and women whose approach we heard. As we had nothing to fear from them we went forward to meet them. As we did so three crouching32 figures rose from some bushes we passed and ran scurrying33 before us through the gateway34. They were the late-comers who had shown such despair at being shut out from this fatal house, and who probably were not yet acquainted with the doom they had escaped.
There were lanterns in the hands of some of the men who now approached. As we stopped before them these lanterns were held up, and by the light they gave we saw, first, the lawyer’s frightened face, then the visages of two men who seemed to be persons of some authority.
“What news?” faltered35 the lawyer, seeing by our faces that we knew the worst.
“Bad,” I returned; “the poison had lost none of its virulence36 by being mixed so long with the wine.”
“How many?” asked the man on his right anxiously.
“Eight,” was my solemn reply.
“There were but eight,” faltered the lawyer; “that means, then, all?”
“All,” I repeated.
A murmur16 of horror rose, swelled37, then died out in tumult38 as the crowd swept on past us.
For a moment we stood watching these people; saw them pause before the door we had left open behind us, then rush in, leaving a wail39 of terror on the shuddering midnight air. When all was quiet again, Eunice laid her hand upon my arm.
“Where shall we go?” she asked despairingly. “I do not know of a house that will open to me.”
The answer to her question came from other lips than mine.
“I do not know one that will not,” spoke up a voice behind our backs. “Your withdrawal40 from the circle of heirs did not take from you your rightful claim to an inheritance which, according to your uncle’s will, could be forfeited41 only by a failure to arrive at the place of distribution within the hour set by the testator. As I see the matter now, this appeal to the honesty of the persons so collected was a test by which my unhappy client strove to save from the general fate such members of his miserable42 family as fully43 recognised their sin and were truly repentant44.”
It was Lawyer Smead. He had lingered behind the others to tell her this. She was, then, no outcast, but rich, very rich; how rich I dared not acknowledge to myself, lest a remembrance of the man who was the last to perish in that house of death should return to make this calculation hateful. It was a blow which struck deep — deeper than any either of us had sustained that night. As we came to realise it, I stepped slowly back, leaving her standing erect45 and tall in the middle of the roadway, with her baby in her arms. But not for long; soon she was close at my side murmuring softly:
“Two wayfarers still! Only, the road will be more difficult and the need of companionship greater. Shall we fare on together, you, I— and the little child?”
The End
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收听单词发音
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1
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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2
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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3
doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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4
appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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5
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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6
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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7
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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8
plaintiveness
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9
awesomeness
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| 可怕的 | |
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10
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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11
ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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12
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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13
wayfarers
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| n.旅人，（尤指）徒步旅行者( wayfarer的名词复数 ) | |
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14
sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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15
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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16
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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17
wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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18
demon
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| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
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19
demolish
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| v.拆毁(建筑物等)，推翻(计划、制度等) | |
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20
inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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21
overthrow
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| v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆 | |
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22
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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23
chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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24
hideousness
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25
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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27
obtrusive
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| adj.显眼的；冒失的 | |
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28
sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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29
glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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30
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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31
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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32
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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33
scurrying
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 ) | |
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34
gateway
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| n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法 | |
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35
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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36
virulence
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| n.毒力，毒性；病毒性；致病力 | |
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37
swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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38
tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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39
wail
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| vt./vi.大声哀号，恸哭；呼啸，尖啸 | |
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40
withdrawal
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| n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销 | |
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41
forfeited
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| （因违反协议、犯规、受罚等）丧失，失去( forfeit的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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43
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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44
repentant
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| adj.对…感到悔恨的 | |
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45
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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