Nearly two hours had passed before they returned. As they did so, Rachel Lake went swiftly and silently before her brother. The moon had gone down, and the glen was darker than ever. Noiselessly they re-entered the little hall of Redman’s Farm. The candles were still burning in the sitting-room1, and the light was dazzling after the profound darkness in which they had been for so long.
Captain Lake did not look at all like a London dandy now. His dress was confoundedly draggled; the conventional countenance2, too, was wanting. There was a very natural savagery3 and dejection there, and a wild leer in his yellow eyes.
Rachel sat down. No living woman ever showed a paler face, and she stared with a look that was sharp and stern upon the wainscot before her.
For some minutes they were silent; and suddenly, with an exceeding bitter cry, she stood up, close to him, seizing him in her tiny hands by the collar, and with wild eyes gazing into his, she said —
‘See what you’ve brought me to — wretch4, wretch, wretch!’
And she shook him with violence as she spoke5. It was wonderful how that fair young face could look so terrible.
‘There, Radie, there,’ said Lake, disengaging her fingers. ‘You’re a little hysterical6, that’s all. It will be over in a minute; but don’t make a row. You’re a good girl, Radie. For Heaven’s sake, don’t spoil all by folly7 now.’
He was overawed and deprecatory.
‘A slave! only think — a slave! Oh frightful8, frightful! Is it a dream? Oh frightful, frightful! Stanley, Stanley, it would be mercy to kill me,’ she broke out again.
‘Now, Radie, listen to reason, and don’t make a noise; you know we agreed, you must go, and I can’t go with you.’
Lake was cooler by this time, and his sister more excited than before they went out.
‘I used to be brave; my courage I think is gone; but who’d have imagined what’s before me?’
Stanley walked to the window and opened the shutter9 a little. He forgot how dark it was. The moon had gone down. He looked at his watch and then at Rachel. She was sitting, and in no calmer state; serene10 enough in attitude, but the terribly wild look was unchanged. He looked at his watch again, and held it to his ear, and consulted it once more before he placed the tiny gold disk again in his pocket.
‘This won’t do,’ he muttered.
With one of the candles in his hand he went out and made a hurried, peeping exploration, and soon, for the rooms were quickly counted in Redman’s Farm, he found her chamber11 small, neat, simplex munditiis. Bright and natty12 were the chintz curtains, and the little toilet set out, not inelegantly, and her pet piping-goldfinch asleep on his perch13, with his bit of sugar between the wires of his cage; her pillow so white and unpressed, with its little edging of lace. Were slumbers14 sweet as of old ever to know it more? What dreams were henceforward to haunt it? Shadows were standing16 about that lonely bed already. I don’t know whether Stanley Lake felt anything of this, being very decidedly of the earth earthy. But there are times when men are translated from their natures, and forced to be romantic and superstitious17.
When he came back to the drawing-room, a toilet bottle of eau de cologne in his hand, with her lace handkerchief he bathed her temples and forehead. There was nothing very brotherly in his look as he peered into her pale, sharp features, during the process. It was the dark and pallid18 scrutiny19 of a familiar of the Holy Office, bringing a victim back to consciousness.
She was quickly better.
‘There, don’t mind me,’ she said sharply; and getting up she looked down at her dress and thin shoes, and seeming to recollect20 herself, she took the candle he had just set down, and went swiftly to her room.
Gliding21 without noise from place to place, she packed a small black leather bag with a few necessary articles. Then changed her dress quickly, put on her walking boots, a close bonnet22 and thick veil, and taking her purse, she counted over its contents, and then standing in the midst of the room looked round it with a great sigh, and a strange look, as if it was all new to her. And she threw back her veil, and going hurriedly to the toilet, mechanically surveyed herself in the glass. And she looked fixedly24 on the pale features presented to her, and said —
‘Rachel Lake, Rachel Lake! what are you now?’
And so, with knitted brows and stern lips, a cadaveric25 gaze was returned on her from the mirror.
A few minutes later her brother, who had been busy down stairs, put his head in and asked —
‘Will you come with me now, Radie, or do you prefer to wait here?’
‘I’ll stay here — that is, in the drawing-room,’ she answered, and the face was withdrawn26.
In the little hall Stanley looked again at his watch, and getting quietly out, went swiftly through the tiny garden, and once upon the mill-road, ran at a rapid pace down towards the town.
The long street of Gylingden stretched dim and silent before him. Slumber15 brooded over the little town, and his steps sounded sharp and hollow among the houses. He slackened his pace, and tapped sharply at the little window of that modest post-office, at which the young ladies in the pony27 carriage had pulled up the day before, and within which Luke Waggot was wont28 to sleep in a sort of wooden box that folded up and appeared to be a chest of drawers all day. Luke took care of Mr. Larkin’s dogs, and groomed29 Mr. Wylder’s horse, and ‘cleaned up’ his dog-cart, for Mark being close about money, and finding that the thing was to be done more cheaply that way, put up his horse and dog-cart in the post-office premises30, and so evaded31 the livery charges of the ‘Brandon Arms.’
But Luke was not there; and Captain Lake recollecting32 his habits and his haunt, hurried on to the ‘Silver Lion,’ which has its gable towards the common, only about a hundred steps away, for distances are not great in Gylingden. Here were the flow of soul and of stout33, long pipes, long yarns34, and tolerably long credits; and the humble35 scapegraces of the town resorted thither36 for the pleasures of a club-life, and often revelled37 deep into the small hours of the morning.
So Luke came forth38.
D— it, where’s the note?’ said the captain, rummaging39 uneasily in his pockets.
‘You know me — eh!’
‘Captain Lake. Yes, Sir.’
‘Well — oh! here it is.’
It was a scrap40 pencilled on the back of a letter —
‘LUKE WAGGOT,
‘Put the horse to and drive the dog-cart to the “White House.” Look out for me there. We must catch the up mail train at Dollington. Be lively. If Captain Lake chooses to drive you need not come.
‘M. WYLDER.’
‘I’ll drive,’ said Captain Lake. ‘Lose no time and I’ll give you half-a-crown.’
Luke stuck on his greasy41 wideawake, and in a few minutes more the dog-cart was trundled out into the lane, and the horse harnessed, went between the shafts42 with that wonderful cheerfulness with which they bear to be called up under startling circumstances at unseasonable hours.
‘Easily earned, Luke,’ said Captain Lake, in his soft tones.
The captain had buttoned the collar of his loose coat across his face, and it was dark beside. But Luke knew his peculiar43 smile, and presumed it; so he grinned facetiously44 as he put the coin in his breeches pocket and thanked him; and in another minute the captain, with a lighted cigar between his lips, mounted to the seat, took the reins45, the horse bounded off, and away rattled46 the light conveyance47, sparks flying from the road, at a devil of a pace, down the deserted48 street of Gylingden, and quickly melted in darkness.
That night a spectre stood by old Tamar’s bedside, in shape of her young mistress, and shook her by the shoulder, and stooping, said sternly, close in her face —
‘Tamar, I’m going away — only for a few days; and mind this — I’d rather be dead than any creature living should know it. Little Margery must not suspect — you’ll manage that. Here’s the key of my bed-room — say I’m sick — and you must go in and out, and bring tea and drinks, and talk and whisper a little, you understand, as you might with a sick person, and keep the shutters49 closed; and if Miss Brandon sends to ask me to the Hall, say I’ve a headache, and fear I can’t go. You understand me clearly, Tamar?’
‘Yes, Miss Radie,’ answered old Tamar, wonder-stricken, with a strange expression of fear in her face.
‘And listen,’ she continued, ‘you must go into my room, and bring the message back, as if from me, with my love to Miss Brandon; and if she or Mrs. William Wylder, the vicar’s wife, should call to see me, always say I’m asleep and a little better. You see exactly what I mean?’
‘Yes, Miss,’ answered Tamar, whose eyes were fixed23 in a sort of fascination50, full on those of her mistress.
‘If Master Stanley should call, he is to do just as he pleases. You used to be accurate, Tamar; may I depend upon you?’
‘Yes, Ma’am, certainly.’
‘If I thought you’d fail me now, Tamar, I should never come back. Good-night, Tamar. There — don’t bless me. Good-night.’
When the light wheels of the dog-cart gritted51 on the mill-road before the little garden gate of Redman’s Farm, the tall slender figure of Rachel Lake was dimly visible, standing cloaked and waiting by it. Silently she handed her little black leather bag to her brother, and then there was a pause. He stretched his hand to help her up.
In a tone that was icy and bitter, she said —
‘To save myself I would not do it. You deserve no love from me — you’ve showed me none — never, Stanley; and yet I’m going to give the most desperate proof of love that ever sister gave — all for your sake; and it’s guilt52, guilt, but my fate, and I’ll go, and you’ll never thank me; that’s all.’
In a moment more she sat beside him; and silent as the dead in Charon’s boat, away they glided53 toward the ‘White House which lay upon the high road to Dollington.
The sleepy clerk that night in the Dollington station stamped two first-class tickets for London, one of which was for a gentleman, and the other for a cloaked lady, with a very thick veil, who stood outside on the platform; and almost immediately after the scream of the engine was heard piercing the deep tatting, the Cyclopean red lamps glared nearer and nearer, and the palpitating monster, so stupendous and so docile54, came smoothly55 to a stand-still before the trelliswork and hollyhocks of that pretty station.
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1
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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savagery
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| n.野性 | |
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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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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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hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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shutter
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| n.百叶窗；(照相机)快门；关闭装置 | |
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serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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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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natty
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| adj.整洁的，漂亮的 | |
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perch
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| n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于 | |
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14
slumbers
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| 睡眠，安眠( slumber的名词复数 ) | |
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slumber
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| n.睡眠，沉睡状态 | |
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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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superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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pallid
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| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
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scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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cadaveric
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| 尸体的 | |
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withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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groomed
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| v.照料或梳洗（马等）( groom的过去式和过去分词 )；使做好准备；训练；（给动物）擦洗 | |
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premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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evaded
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| 逃避( evade的过去式和过去分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出 | |
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recollecting
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| v.记起，想起( recollect的现在分词 ) | |
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yarns
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| n.纱( yarn的名词复数 )；纱线；奇闻漫谈；旅行轶事 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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revelled
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| v.作乐( revel的过去式和过去分词 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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rummaging
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| 翻找，搜寻( rummage的现在分词 )； 海关检查 | |
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40
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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greasy
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| adj. 多脂的，油脂的 | |
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42
shafts
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| n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等） | |
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43
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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facetiously
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| adv.爱开玩笑地；滑稽地，爱开玩笑地 | |
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45
reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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46
rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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47
conveyance
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| n.(不动产等的)转让，让与；转让证书；传送；运送；表达；（正）运输工具 | |
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48
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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49
shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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50
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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51
gritted
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| v.以沙砾覆盖（某物），撒沙砾于( grit的过去式和过去分词 )；咬紧牙关 | |
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52
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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53
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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54
docile
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| adj.驯服的，易控制的，容易教的 | |
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smoothly
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| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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