By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and gray roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light green of the new foliage1.
"Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker2 Street.
But Holmes shook his head gravely.
"Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered3 houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation4 and of the impunity5 with which crime may be committed there."
"Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these dear old Homesteads?"
"They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest6 alleys8 in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside."
"You horrify9 me!"
"But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile7 that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard's blow, does not beget10 sympathy and indignation among the neighbors, and then the whole machinery11 of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is not personally threatened."
1 foliage | |
n.叶子,树叶,簇叶 | |
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2 baker | |
n.面包师 | |
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3 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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4 isolation | |
n.隔离,孤立,分解,分离 | |
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5 impunity | |
n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除 | |
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6 vilest | |
adj.卑鄙的( vile的最高级 );可耻的;极坏的;非常讨厌的 | |
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7 vile | |
adj.卑鄙的,可耻的,邪恶的;坏透的 | |
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8 alleys | |
胡同,小巷( alley的名词复数 ); 小径 | |
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9 horrify | |
vt.使恐怖,使恐惧,使惊骇 | |
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10 beget | |
v.引起;产生 | |
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11 machinery | |
n.(总称)机械,机器;机构 | |
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