‘Glad you’ve come, sir,’ he said at once; ‘for perhaps you can help me out of my quandary2. You got my little note? Well, the fact is, I think—I’m almost sure, in fact—that we’ve discovered the lady.’
‘So you wrote; but how? Where? 9 ‘Well, it’s a sad case!’ murmured the chief with a shake of the head. ‘How we’re to break it to the husband, who is half mad with grief and anxiety, is a puzzler. My great fear is that the news may get to him before we’ve time to break it.’
‘Explain!’ cried Sutherland impatiently.
The chief opened his desk, and took out a large handbill, which he unfolded.
‘Just look at this, sir,’ he said, while the young man read it with a shudder3. ‘This is only a copy of the bill which the police will have all over London to-morrow, and perhaps in some of the papers. I’ve already been down to Chelsea to make an inspection4, and I don’t think there’s any mistake about it. What makes it quite clear is the bracelets6. Her Christian7 name—Madeline—is graven inside.—But you’re not well, sir. I don’t wonder it has turned you sick. Shall I give you a drop of brandy? I have it handy.’
Sutherland, who had turned faint and deadly pale, recovered himself with an effort.
‘Never mind me. Think of him, her husband. You say you haven’t communicated with him?’
‘No, sir. It was only found early this morning, and the moment I heard of the discovery I sent straight to you.’ ‘But the police——’
‘I’ve squared that. They won’t send to him to-night without communicating with me.’
‘The shock will be frightful—enough to kill him.’
‘No doubt of that, but there’s no help for it—he must know.’
‘The first thing to do is to make certain of the identity. The description may be misleading. I suppose I can see her?’
‘Yes, sir, returned the chief with alacrity8. ‘If you like I’ll go down with you at once.’
A few minutes later Sutherland and the inquiry officer were rattling9 down towards Putney in a hansom cab. It was a dark and dismal10 afternoon in autumn, and as they rapidly passed the gates of Hyde Park the leafless trees looked desolate11 through a thin mist of rain. To the eye of Edgar Sutherland everything was sombre and dreadful, dark with tragic12 shadows of sin and death.
They drove through Knightsbridge to Hammersmith, then crossing Hammersmith Bridge, beneath which the river rolled black and sinister13, came into the gloomy purlieus of a desolate waterside suburb. It was now growing dark, and the street lamps, which were few and far between, flashed dismally14 on cheerless brand-new villas15, for the most part untenanted and faced with boards ‘To Let,’ gloomy gardens, dark brickfields, and spaces of damp meadow stretching down to the river side. Here and there a tavern16 opened its bloodshot eyes, and attracted one or two dreary17 moths18 to its dingy19 gleam.
After passing through a mile or more of this gloomy neighbourhood, the cab turned down a narrow street running at right angles to the river banks, and pulled up before a desolate stone building with the inscription—‘Police Station.’
The officer alighted and led the way into a whitewashed20 room, lit by a solitary21 gas jet, and occupied by a policeman in uniform, who stood at a desk writing. Wafered on the wall, close to the desk, was a placard similar to that which Sutherland had already seen, headed in bold capitals—
FOUND DROWNED!
and giving the description of the body of a female found that morning by a waterman in the near neighbourhood of Putney Bridge.
After a few hurried words with the inquiry officer, the police sergeant22 turned to Sutherland.
‘You wish to identify, sir? I’m afraid you’ll find it a difficult job. As far as I can make out, it’s been a long time in the water.’
Sutherland shuddered23 as the sergeant, in the most business-like way possible, took down a key from a nail and led the way to the back of the building, across a damp yard, and up to a low wooden door: this he opened leisurely24 with his key, and revealed a sort of rude mortuary, lit by a gas jet turned so low down as to leave the place almost in darkness. They entered, and when the sergeant had leisurely turned up the gas, saw, stretched out upon a wooden slab25, what had once been a living woman.
She lay exactly as she had been found, with clenched26 hands and shoeless feet, clad in a plain dress of serge, partly torn and eaten away. Round her shoulders were the remains27 of a valuable shawl, firmly secured by a large common shawl pin. Her head was bare, and the loose, fair hair, tangled28 and twisted in moist knots, hung around the disfigured lineaments of a skeletonian face. So horrible was this face, so unrecognisable in its lost humanity, that Sutherland almost swooned as he looked upon it. Alas29, what likeness30 of living flesh and blood could he discover there?
‘She must have been drifting up and down for weeks,’ said the sergeant with professional stolidity31; ‘and I suppose last night’s high tide brought her up this way, and carried her into the shallows. There isn’t much remaining of the poor creature except clothes, sir; and her own father could scarcely know her. Seems to have been a fine woman, and quite young, though it’s hard to tell even that.’
There’s a ring on her finger,’ cried Sutherland—‘a wedding-ring?’
‘Yes,’ returned the sergeant, ‘and I understand the missing lady was married. But I shouldn’t go too much by that, sir. Most of the unfortunates who make a hole in the water wear wedding-rings. But these bracelets now, there’s no mistaking them. Just look, sir.’
As he spoke32, the sergeant took from a slab at the corpse33’s side one or two elegant bracelets, greatly tarnished34 by the water, but of solid gold.
‘We took them off and had them cleaned for identification; they were in a shocking state, sir, and had worked right into the bone.’
Sutherland took the bracelet5, and uttered a horrified35 exclamation36, as he deciphered, cut clearly on the solid surface, these words—
To Dear Madeline.
A birthday gift from her sister,
—Margaret Forster.
At that very moment, as Sutherland stood looking at the bracelets and feeling his heart turn sick within him, a figure flitted in through the open door, and, pushing the two other men aside, gazed on the corpse with a face almost as terrible, almost as ghastly, as its own. The inquiry officer recognised James Forster in a moment, and made a movement as if to intercept37 his view of the dead woman, but in an instant he was on his knees, gazing wildly into the cold disfigured face, and stretching out his arms in horrified entreaty38 and recognition. ‘Madeline! My darling!’
The wild cry rang out in the desolate place, with a tone of infinite agony and woe39.
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收听单词发音
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1
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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quandary
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| n.困惑，进迟两难之境 | |
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shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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bracelet
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| n.手镯，臂镯 | |
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bracelets
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| n.手镯，臂镯( bracelet的名词复数 ) | |
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7
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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8
alacrity
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| n.敏捷，轻快，乐意 | |
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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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dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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dismally
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| adv.阴暗地，沉闷地 | |
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villas
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| 别墅，公馆( villa的名词复数 )； （城郊）住宅 | |
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tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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moths
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| n.蛾( moth的名词复数 ) | |
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dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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whitewashed
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| 粉饰，美化，掩饰( whitewash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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slab
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| n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上 | |
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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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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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stolidity
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| n.迟钝，感觉麻木 | |
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32
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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corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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tarnished
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| （通常指金属）（使）失去光泽，（使）变灰暗( tarnish的过去式和过去分词 )； 玷污，败坏 | |
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horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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37
intercept
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| vt.拦截，截住，截击 | |
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entreaty
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| n.恳求，哀求 | |
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woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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