But still there was no sound at the door; there was time to look round all the peaceable vast room, and be struck by the quietness, the repose13 of the scene in which some act of this mysterious drama was about to be enacted14. It was always very light here, but the bright day and the sunshine out of doors, made it now even lighter15 than usual, and refused to any of us the slightest shade for our faces, whatever undue16 expression might come to them. Sara had adopted the only expedient17 possible, by turning her back upon the light, and had, besides, a little shelter in her hat. But dear Aunt Milly, looking at her favourite with a troubled inquiring expression, and laying down the work she had in hand in order to examine Sara’s countenance18 the better, was so fully19 set forth20 in all her looks, movements, and almost feelings, by that broad clear day-light, that I shrank back from it in spite of myself, fearing that it would betray me too. The only shadow in the room was that afforded by Miss Mortimer’s screen. She sat there just as usual, in her violet-coloured dress, her light muslin embroidered21 scarf, worn without any lining22, now that the weather was warm, and her pretty cap, with ribbons corresponding to her dress; her head moving so slightly that it was difficult to perceive the motion; her pattern-book open on her knee, her head bent23 over it. At this moment, when the thunders of Providence24 were just about to break over her, she sat there, with her head over her knitting-book, counting her stitches, and trying a new pattern. When I saw how she was occupied, my own trembling pretence at work fell from my hands. I gazed at her openly with a wonder which was almost awe25. My heart cried out against her in her dread26 composure. The Avenger27 was coming, and there she sat, all conscious, aware, in every nerve, of her guilt28, and yet able to maintain that hideous29 calm. Yes! it would have been sublime30 had she been a good woman, threatened by some undeserved doom31. I declare it was ghastly, devilish, dreadful to me!
All this time nobody came to the door. I daresay, perhaps, it was not very many minutes after all; but in the excitement and suspense32 it seemed a very long time to me. And either the house was specially33 quiet, or there was something in my agitated34 condition which made me think so. Miss Mortimer never lifted her head; if she had not been so engaged with her pattern, surely she would have noticed the perplexed looks of Aunt Milly, and my excited face. But she did not, she kept{334} working on at her new stitch. We all relapsed into perfect silence; Sara’s voluble excuses for herself died all at once off her lips. Aunt Milly dropped into a strange anxious silence, looking at her. As for myself, I could not have spoken a word whatever had been the consequences. Sara’s nervous motion of her foot on the carpet startled me so much that I had nearly committed myself by some cry of agitation36. It was a dread, inexplainable pause, which nobody dared either break or account for. Dead silence and expectation. And Miss Mortimer bending her head over her pattern-book counting the loops for her new stitch.
The bell did not ring. If it had rung it must have startled us all so much as to diminish the sense of what was coming; there was no such premonition;—a little sound of steps and subdued37 voices in the hall made my heart beat so loud that I felt sure my Aunt Milly must have heard it. Sara looked up at me suddenly when that sound became audible. Her face was perfectly38 colourless, and her hands firmly clasped together.
“Children, what is it?” said Aunt Milly, with a sharp frightened cry, breaking off suddenly in a troubled manner as the steps drew nearer. Miss Mortimer lifted her head from her book. She looked up, she looked full at me; she smiled. She was listening, but she was not afraid.
When suddenly the door was thrown open; Ellis called out, with his fullest voice: “The Count Sormonata,” and somebody came in. I cannot tell who it was that came in. I heard Sara cry out with a kind of shriek39 and repeat the name, “The Count Sermoneta!” The work and the book and all the trifling40 matters about her fell off from Miss Mortimer. She rose up, clenching41 her hand, ghastly, like a dead woman. She cried out in a voice I shall never forget: “he is dead, dead!” she cried, with the wildest scream and outcry. “I tell you, he is dead, dead! My God, he is dead! Will nobody believe me?” shrieked42 out the miserable43 woman. Her sister ran to her, and was thrust away with those terrible clenched44 hands. But she never turned to look, nor cast aside her screen that hid the new comer from her. She stood still like some frightful45 statue, rigid46, with her wild eyes fixed47 upon the air before her—heaven knows what she might see there!—listening in some frightful agony to the steps that came slowly up the room. When that scream burst from her the footsteps faltered48 and stopped. Then Miss Mortimer looked at me, the only creature she saw before her, and laughed a dreadful laugh of madness and misery49. “He knows it!” she cried out, triumphantly50, “if you did not, he{335} does. He is dead, dead!” and then came to another dreadful pause, leaning her clenched hands upon the table and fixing her wild eyes upon something straight before her. While I followed the mad stare of her eyes with a shudder51 I could not refrain, another person came with noiseless rapidity into the spot she was gazing on. It was not a spectre—it was simply Luigi, from whose face agitation had banished52 all the colour, and who stood trembling and speechless, wringing53 his hands, and gazing at her with an unspeakable appeal and entreaty54. She did not say anything more; she stood with her eyes full opened and staring wide, leaning her hands on that table. I believe, if anybody had touched her, she would have fallen. I almost believed, while I looked at her, that she had died standing55, and that it was a lifeless form that stood fixed in that horrible erect56 attitude, fronting us all, fronting a thousand times more than us, all the guilt and sins of her life. I gave a cry myself in the extremity57 of my terror and trouble. I went to her, I cannot tell how, stumbling over Aunt Milly, who had either fallen or fainted, or I cannot tell what. I went and put my arm round that dreadful ghastly figure. It was not her I was approaching, but it, the terrible mask and image of her. I had not a thought but that she was dead.
When I touched her, she fell, as I had thought she would. But so strong an impression did her dreadful appearance have upon me, that, when her figure sank into the chair and showed some elasticity58, instead of going down on the floor, crumbling59 down, dropping to pieces, as somehow I had expected, I was struck with a horrible fear and surprise. She was not dead. I called out to them all, what were we to do? and she seemed to hear me. I saw, with a terror I cannot explain, her terrible eyes turn from Luigi—they looked at me, at Aunt Milly, they cast a glance over the room. Was it that the spirit was living and the body dead?
I cannot tell what we did for a dreadful interval60 after that. Carson came into the confused crowd. Luigi disappeared to find a doctor, and we tried to get her lifted and laid upon the sofa. But though she neither moved nor spoke35, and scarcely seemed to breathe, she resisted, in some dreadful way, and would not be removed. I shall never forget that dreadful face; when I am ill it comes back to me, a recollection never to be banished;—dead—yet never consenting to die, keeping alive, determined61, resolute62, unshaken. I can see the discoloured lips begin to move, the words formed on the inarticulate tongue, the eyes lightening out of that fixed stare. Half the house had{336} stolen into the room in this dreadful emergency without anybody observing them. But the dead woman observed them. And I, who was standing nearest, recoiled63 from her side, and the whole circle round her broke up and fell back in speechless horror, when a sound broke from that dreadful convulsed mouth. Old Carson, trembling but faithful, stood by her mistress. The poor creature said she understood that sound. It was to send everybody away, said the woman, whose limbs would scarcely support her, and whose very teeth chattered64. They all went away, terrified but curious; the boldest lingered behind the screen. Nobody remained within sight of those dreadful eyes but Aunt Milly and me. We two stood huddled65 on each other, not daring to say a word, or even to exchange looks. Carson stood by her mistress’s side. Carson knew all and everything, more than we knew. She held some cordial to the dead lips, she chafed66 the ghastly hand, she gazed with pitiful eyes and tears and entreaties67 at the terrible face. This woman was not deserted68 in her terrible necessity. The voice of that humble69 love reached somehow to the springs of existence, and she came back slowly, in a solemn, fearful waking, out of death into life. We stood looking on, with an awe and terror impossible to describe. It was a miracle slowly enacting70 before us. She was dead and was alive again. Ghastly and dreadful, like a woman out of the grave, Miss Mortimer woke up to all her misery again.
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1
bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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8
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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accounting
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| n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表 | |
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emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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traitors
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| 卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 )； 叛徒； 背叛者； 背信弃义的人 | |
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repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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enacted
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| 制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
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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16
undue
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| adj.过分的；不适当的；未到期的 | |
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expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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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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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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avenger
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| n. 复仇者 | |
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guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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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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specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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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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agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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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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41
clenching
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的现在分词 ) | |
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42
shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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43
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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44
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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46
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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47
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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48
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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49
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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50
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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51
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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52
banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53
wringing
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| 淋湿的，湿透的 | |
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54
entreaty
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| n.恳求，哀求 | |
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55
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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56
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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57
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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elasticity
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| n.弹性，伸缩力 | |
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59
crumbling
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| adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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61
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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63
recoiled
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| v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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64
chattered
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| （人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤 | |
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65
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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66
chafed
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| v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的过去式 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒 | |
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67
entreaties
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| n.恳求，乞求( entreaty的名词复数 ) | |
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68
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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69
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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70
enacting
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| 制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的现在分词 ) | |
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