His heart misgave1 him. He felt that a crisis was coming; and he read —
‘I cannot tell you, my poor brother, how miserable2 I am. I have just learned that a very dangerous person has discovered more about that dreadful evening than we believed known to anybody in Gylingden. I am subjected to the most agonising suspicions and insults. Would to Heaven I were dead! But living, I cannot endure my present state of mind longer. To-morrow morning I will see Dorcas — poor Dorcas! — and tell her all. I am weary of urging you, in vain, to do so. It would have been much better. But although, after that interview, I shall, perhaps, never see her more, I shall yet be happier, and, I think, relieved from suspense3, and the torments4 of mystery. So will she. At all events, it is her right to know all — and she shall.
‘YOUR OUTCAST AND MISERABLE SISTER.’
On Stanley’s lips his serene5, unpleasant smile was gleaming, as he closed the note carelessly. He intended to speak, but his voice caught. He cleared it, and sipped6 a little claret.
‘For a clever girl she certainly does write the most wonderful rubbish. Such an effusion! And she sends it tossing about, from hand to hand, among the servants. I’ve anticipated her, however, Dorkie.’ And he took her hand and kissed it. ‘She does not know I’ve told you all myself.’
Stanley went to the library, and Dorcas to the conservatory7, neither very happy, each haunted by an evil augury8, and a sense of coming danger. The deepening shadow warned Dorcas that it was time to repair to the Dutch room, where she found lights and tea prepared.
In a few minutes more the library door opened and Stanley Lake peeped in.
‘Radie not come yet?’ said he entering. ‘We certainly are much pleasanter in this room, Dorkie, more, in proportion, than we two should have been in the drawing-room.’
He seated himself beside her, drawing his chair very close to hers, and taking her hand in his. He was more affectionate this evening than usual. What did it portend9? she thought. She had already begun to acquiesce10 in Rachel’s estimate of Stanley, and to fancy that whatever he did it was with an unacknowledged purpose.
‘Does little Dorkie love me?’ said Lake, in a sweet undertone.
There was reproach, but love too, in the deep soft glance she threw upon him.
‘You must promise me not to be frightened at what I am going to tell you,’ said Lake.
She heard him with sudden panic, and a sense of cold stole over her. He looked like a ghost — quite white — smiling. She knew something was coming — the secret she had invoked11 so long — and she was appalled12.
‘Don’t be frightened, darling. It is necessary to tell you; but it is really not much when you hear me out. You’ll say so when you have quite heard me. So you won’t be frightened?’
She was gazing straight into his wild yellow eyes, fascinated, with a look of expecting terror.
‘You are nervous, darling,’ he continued, laying his hand on hers. ‘Shall we put it off for a little? You are frightened.’
‘Not much frightened, Stanley,’ she whispered.
‘Well, we had better wait. I see, Dorcas, you are frightened and nervous. Don’t keep looking at me; look at something else, can’t you? You make yourself nervous that way. I promise, upon my honour, I’ll not say a word about it till you bid me.’
‘I know, Stanley — I know.’
‘Then, why won’t you look down, or look up, or look any way you please, only don’t stare at me so.’
‘Yes — oh, yes,’ and she shut her eyes.
‘I’m sorry I began,’ he said, pettishly13. ‘You’ll make a fuss. You’ve made yourself quite nervous; and I’ll wait a little.’
‘Oh! no, Stanley, now — for Heaven’s sake, now. I was only a little startled; but I am quite well again. Is it anything about marriage? Oh, Stanley, in mercy, tell me was there any other engagement?’
‘Nothing, darling — nothing on earth of the sort;’ and he spoke14 with an icy little laugh. ‘Your poor soldier is altogether yours, Dorkie,’ and he kissed her cheek.
‘Thank God for that!’ said Dorcas, hardly above her breath.
‘What I have to say is quite different, and really nothing that need affect you; but Rachel has made such a row about it. Fifty fellows, I know, are in much worse fixes; and though it is not of so much consequence, still I think I should not have told you; only, without knowing it, you were thwarting15 me, and helping16 to get me into a serious difficulty by your obstinacy17 — or what you will — about Five Oaks.’
Somehow trifling18 as the matter was, Stanley seemed to grow more and more unwilling19 to disclose it, and rather shrank from it now.
‘Now, Dorcas, mind, there must be no trifling. You must not treat me as Rachel has. If you can’t keep a secret — for it is a secret — say so. Shall I tell you?’
‘Yes, Stanley — yes. I’m your wife.’
‘Well, Dorcas, I told you something of it; but only a part, and some circumstances I did intentionally20 colour a little; but I could not help it, unless I had told everything; and no matter what you or Rachel may say, it was kinder to withhold21 it as long as I could.’
He glanced at the door, and spoke in a lower tone.
And so, with his eyes lowered to the table at which he sat, glancing ever and anon sideways at the door, and tracing little figures with the tip of his finger upon the shining rosewood, he went on murmuring his strange and hateful story in the ear of his wife.
It was not until he had spoken some three or four minutes that Dorcas suddenly uttered a wild scream, and started to her feet. And Stanley also rose precipitately22, and caught her in his arms, for she was falling.
As he supported her in her chair, the library door opened, and the sinister23 face of Uncle Lorne looked in, and returned the captain’s stare with one just as fixed24 and horrified25.
‘Hush!’ whispered Uncle Lorne, and he limped softly into the room, and stopped about three yards away, ‘she is not dead, but sleepeth.’
‘Hallo! Larcom,’ shouted Lake.
‘I tell you she’s dreaming the same dream that I dreamt in the middle of the night.’
‘Hallo! Larcom.’
‘Mark’s on leave to-night, in uniform; his face is flattened26 against the window. This is his lady, you know.’
‘Hallo! D— you — are you there?’ shouted the captain, very angry.
‘I saw Mark following you like an ape, on all-fours; such nice white teeth! grinning at your heels. But he can’t bite yet — ha, ha, ha! Poor Mark!’
‘Will you be so good, Sir, as to touch the bell?’ said Lake, changing his tone.
He was afraid to remove his arm from Dorcas, and he was splashing water from a glass upon her face and forehead.
‘No — no. No bell yet — time enough — ding, dong. You say, dead and gone.’
Captain Lake cursed him and his absent keeper between his teeth; still in a rather flurried way, prosecuting27 his conjugal28 attentions.
‘There was no bell for poor Mark; and he’s always listening, and stares so. A cat may look, you know.’
‘Can’t you touch the bell, Sir? What are you standing29 there for?’ snarled30 Lake, with a glare at the old man. He looked as if he could have murdered him.
‘Standing between the living and the dead!’
‘Here, Reuben, here; where the devil have you been — take him away. He has terrified her. By —— he ought to be shot.’
The keeper silently slid his arm into Uncle Lorne’s, and, unresisting, the old man talking to himself the while, drew him from the room.
Larcom, about to announce Miss Lake, and closely followed by that young lady, passed the grim old phantom31 on the lobby.
‘Be quick, you are wanted there,’ said the attendant as he passed.
Dorcas, pale as marble, sighing deeply again and again, her rich black hair drenched32 in water, which trickled33 over her cheeks, like the tears and moisture of agony, was recovering. There was water spilt on the table, and the fragments of a broken glass upon the floor.
The moment Rachel saw her, she divined what had happened, and, gliding34 over, she placed her arm round her.
‘You’re better, darling. Open the window, Stanley. Send her maid.’
‘Aye, send her maid,’ cried Captain Lake to Larcom. ‘This is your d — d work. A nice mess you have made of it among you.’
‘Are you better, Dorcas?’ said Rachel.
‘Yes — much better. I’m glad, darling, I understand you now. Radie, kiss me.’
Next morning, before early family prayers, while Mr. Jos. Larkin was locking the despatch35 box which was to accompany him to London Mr. Larcom arrived at the Lodge36.
He had a note for Mr. Larkin’s hand, which he must himself deliver; and so he was shown into that gentleman’s official cabinet, and received with the usual lofty kindness.
‘Well, Mr. Larcom, pray sit down. And can I do anything for you, Mr. Larcom?’ said the good attorney, waving his long hand toward a vacant chair.
‘A note, Sir.’
‘Oh, yes; very well.’ And the tall attorney rose, and, facing the rural prospect38 at his window, with his back to Mr. Larcom, he read, with a faint smile, the few lines, in a delicate hand, consenting to the sale of Five Oaks.
He had to look for a time at the distant prospect to allow his smile to subside39, and to permit the conscious triumph which he knew beamed through his features to discharge itself and evaporate in the light and air before turning to Mr. Larcom, which he did with an air of sudden recollection.
‘Ah — all right, I was forgetting; I must give you a line.’
So he did, and hid away the note in his despatch-box, and said —
‘The family all quite well, I hope?’ whereat Larcom shook his head.
‘My mistress’— he always called her so, and Lake the capting —‘has been takin’ on hoffle, last night, whatever come betwixt ’em. She was fainted outright40 in her chair in the Dutch room; and he said it was the old gentleman — Old Flannels41, we calls him, for shortness — but lor’ bless you, she’s too used to him to be frightened, and that’s only a make-belief; and Miss Dipples, her maid, she says as how she was worse up stairs, and she’s made up again with Miss Lake, which she was very glad, no doubt, of the making friends, I do suppose; but it’s a bin37 a bad row, and I suspeck amost he’s used vilins.’
‘Compulsion, I suppose; you mean constraint42?’ suggested Larkin, very curious.
‘Well, that may be, Sir, but I amost suspeck she’s been hurted somehow. She got them crying fits up stairs, you know; and the capting, he’s hoffle bad-tempered43 this morning, and he never looked near her once, after his sister came; and he left them together, talking and crying, and he locked hisself into the library, like one as knowed he’d done something to be ashamed on, half the night.’
‘It’s not happy, Larcom, I’m much afraid; it’s not happy,’ and the attorney rose, shaking his tall bald head, and his hands in his pockets, and looked down in meditation44.
‘In the Dutch room, after tea, I suppose?’ said the attorney.
‘Before tea, Sir, just as Miss Lake harrived in the brougham.’
And so on. But there was no more to be learned, and Mr. Larcom returned and attended the captain very reverentially at his solitary45 breakfast.
Mr. Jos. Larkin was away for London. And a very serene companion he was, if not very brilliant. Everything was going perfectly46 smoothly47 with him. A celestial48 gratitude49 glowed and expanded within his breast. His angling had been prosperous hitherto, but just now he had made a miraculous50 draught51, and his nets and his heart were bursting. Delightful52 sentiment, the gratitude of a righteous man; a man who knows that his heart is not set upon the things of the world; who has, like King Solomon, made wisdom his first object, and who finds riches added thereto!
There was no shadow of self-reproach to slur53 the sunny landscape. He had made a splendid purchase from Captain Lake it was true. He drew his despatch-box nearer to him affectionately, as he thought on the precious records it contained. But who in this wide-awake world was better able to take care of himself than the gallant54 captain? If it were not the best thing for the captain, surely it would not have been done. Whom have I defrauded55? My hands are clean! He had made a still better purchase from the vicar; but what would have become of the vicar if he had not been raised up to purchase? And was it not speculative56, and was it not possible that he should lose all that money, and was it not, on the whole, the wisest thing that the vicar, under his difficulties, could have been advised to do?
So reasoned the good attorney, as with a languid smile and a sigh of content, his long hand laid across the cover of the despatch-box by his side, he looked forth57 through the plate-glass window upon the sunny fields and hedgerows that glided58 by him, and felt the blessed assurance, ‘look, whatsoever59 he doeth it shall prosper,’ mingling60 in the hum of surrounding nature. And as his eyes rested on the flying diorama of trees, and farmsteads, and standing crops, and he felt already the pride of a great landed proprietor61, his long fingers fiddled62 pleasantly with the rough tooling of his morocco leather box; and thinking of the signed articles within, it seemed as though an angelic hand had placed them there while he slept, so wondrous63 was it all; and he fancied under the red tape a label traced in the neatest scrivenery, with a pencil of light, containing such gratifying testimonials to his deserts, ‘as well done good and faithful servant,’ ‘the saints shall inherit the earth,’ and so following; and he sighed again in the delicious luxury of having secured both heaven and mammon. And in this happy state, and volunteering all manner of courtesies, opening and shutting windows, lending his railway guide and his newspapers whenever he had an opportunity, he at length reached the great London terminus, and was rattling64 over the metropolitan65 pavement, with his hand on his despatch-box, to his cheap hotel near the Strand66.
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1
misgave
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| v.使（某人的情绪、精神等）疑虑，担忧，害怕( misgive的过去式 ) | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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6
sipped
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| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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conservatory
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| n.温室，音乐学院；adj.保存性的，有保存力的 | |
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augury
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| n.预言，征兆，占卦 | |
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portend
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| v.预兆，预示；给…以警告 | |
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acquiesce
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| vi.默许，顺从，同意 | |
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invoked
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| v.援引( invoke的过去式和过去分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
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12
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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13
pettishly
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14
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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15
thwarting
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| 阻挠( thwart的现在分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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19
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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intentionally
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| ad.故意地，有意地 | |
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withhold
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| v.拒绝，不给；使停止，阻挡 | |
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precipitately
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| adv.猛进地 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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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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horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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prosecuting
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| 检举、告发某人( prosecute的现在分词 )； 对某人提起公诉； 继续从事（某事物）； 担任控方律师 | |
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conjugal
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| adj.婚姻的，婚姻性的 | |
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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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30
snarled
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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31
phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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32
drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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33
trickled
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| v.滴( trickle的过去式和过去分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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35
despatch
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| n./v.(dispatch)派遣；发送；n.急件；新闻报道 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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bin
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| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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38
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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39
subside
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| vi.平静，平息；下沉，塌陷，沉降 | |
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outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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41
flannels
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| 法兰绒男裤； 法兰绒( flannel的名词复数 ) | |
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42
constraint
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| n.(on)约束，限制；限制(或约束)性的事物 | |
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bad-tempered
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| adj.脾气坏的 | |
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44
meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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45
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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46
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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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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48
celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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49
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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50
miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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51
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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52
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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53
slur
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| v.含糊地说；诋毁；连唱；n.诋毁；含糊的发音 | |
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54
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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55
defrauded
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| v.诈取，骗取( defraud的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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56
speculative
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| adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的 | |
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57
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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58
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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59
whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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60
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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61
proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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62
fiddled
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| v.伪造( fiddle的过去式和过去分词 )；篡改；骗取；修理或稍作改动 | |
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63
wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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64
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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metropolitan
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| adj.大城市的，大都会的 | |
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66
strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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