CHAPTER XXIX WHERE?

 I stood ringing. I thundered at the knocker.

 

I beat the door with my fist.

 

An old man opened at last.

 

"Mrs. Harborough! Where is she?" The old man tried to keep me out. But he was gentle and frail¹. I forced my way past. I called and ran along a passage, trying doors that opened into the darkness.

 

At last! A room where a woman sat alone—reading by a shaded light.

 

"Who are you?" I cried out. She laid her book in her lap. "Are you Mrs. Harborough? Then come—come quickly ... I'll tell you on the way——"

 

The old woman lifted the folds of her double chin and looked at me through spectacles.

 

"You must come and help me to get Bettina...." I broke into distracted sobbing² on the name. "Bettina——! Bettina——!" I seized the lady's hand and tried to draw her out of her chair.[Pg 304]

 

But I was full of trembling. She sat there massive, calm, with a power of inert³ resistance, that made me feel I could as easily drag her house out of the Square by its knocker, as move the woman planted there in her chair.

 

Neither haste nor perturbation in the voice that asked me: "What has happened?"

 

"Not yet!" I cried out. "Nothing has happened yet! But we must be quick. Oh, God, let us be quick——"

 

The butler had followed me in and was asking something. "Yes," said the quiet voice, "pay the cabman."

 

"No!" I shrieked⁴. "Keep him! I must go back, instantly...." And through my own strange-sounding voice, hers reached me.

 

"You must see that you are quite unintelligible⁵. Sit down and collect yourself."

 

"Sit down! Isn't it enough that one woman sits still, while—while——"

 

She was putting questions.

 

I heard a reproach that seemed to fill the house: "You never came to meet us!"

 

And while the charge was ringing I felt, with anguish⁶, the injustice⁷ of it. How could one have expected this woman to come![Pg 305]

 

But she should be moved and stirred at last!

 

"I sent my maid," she was defending herself, "—only a minute or two late."

 

"The other woman was not late!"

 

"Who?"

 

I begged the butler to get a cloak for Mrs. Harborough. She was saying Bettina and I should have waited. And again that I must calm myself and tell her——

 

"Someone pretended to be you!" I hurled⁸ it at her. "She took us to a house—a place where they do worse than murder. Betty is there now——" I told her all I could pack into a few sentences.

 

"It isn't possible," my aunt said. "This is England."

 

"Come and see! Betty——" But they only thought me mad; they tortured me with questions.

 

I caught her by the arm. "God won't forgive you if you wait an instant more."

 

Oh, but she was old and unbelieving! So old, I felt she had looked on unmoved at evil since the world began.

 

But she was sending for wraps, sending messages. Still she sat there, in the heavy, square-backed chair, her hands upon her knees, her two[Pg 306] feet side by side as motionless as the footstool, her heavy shoulders high and square, her lace cap with square ends falling either side her face, like the head-dress of an Egyptian, her air of monumental calm more like a Theban statue than a living woman.

 

I turned away.

 

The figure in the chair rose up at last.

 

Oh, but slowly—slow, and stiff, and ponderous⁹.

 

I felt in her all the heaviness of the acquiescent¹⁰ since Time began.

 

"That is right," she said to the old man who had brought the maid.

 

And the maid was old, too.

 

Three helpless ghosts.

 

Like death the sense came over me that I was as badly off with these three, as I had been alone. Again I turned from them, frantic¹¹.

 

"I will go out," I cried, "and find help." I ran towards the door.

 

It was then the old man made the first sane¹² suggestion. We could telephone to the police.

 

That would save time! The police would meet us outside Betty's prison.[Pg 307]

 

I followed the butler into the hall. We all stood there, by the telephone. Ages seemed to go by while he was getting the number. And when he had got the number, he could not hear the questions that were put. I tore the receiver out of his hand—I pushed him aside. But I had never used the telephone before, and I spoke¹³ too loudly. When they told me so, I sobbed¹⁴. The voice at the other end was faint and cool. Oh, the easy way the world was taking Betty's fate!

 

And then the faint cool voice at the other end said something which showed me I was not believed.

 

He, too, was thinking I was out of my mind.

 

The receiver dropped from my hand.

 

"They cannot understand," I said. I told Mrs. Harborough that she must go to Bettina, and I would bring the police.

 

Some objection was made. I did not stop to hear it: "I cannot wait for any words! And I will not wait another second for any human soul!"

 

Then, running beside me as I made for the front door, the old butler spoke again: "——a[Pg 308] policeman in our square." He would call the policeman in.

 

The old man was right. A policeman stood at the corner, watching that no harm should come to the ladies of Lowndes Square.

 

I had run out, with the butler protesting at my heels: "Not in the street, miss!" he said, with the first hint of emotion I had found in him.

 

I did not wait; but he must have brought the policeman in during my outpouring, for the look of the hall during those swift seconds is stamped on my brain. The elderly maid kneeling at her mistress's feet, changing her shoes; the policeman facing my aunt, helmet in hand, his reverent¹⁵ eye falling before the dignity of Mrs. Harborough, while I, at his elbow, poured out broken sentences, interlarded with: "I'll tell you the rest as we go——"

 

My strained voice was grown weak. I wondered, suddenly, if it had ever really reached their ears.

 

I was like a person down under the sea, trying to make my voice heard through a mile of murky¹⁶ water.[Pg 309]

 

I was like a woman buried alive, who, in the black middle of the night, beats at her coffin-lid in some deserted¹⁷ graveyard¹⁸.

 

"It is no use!" I cried. "I shall go back alone."

 

At last we were all going out of the door. The policeman put on his helmet.

 

"And where is this house?" he asked.

 

"It is—it is——"

 

A pit of blackness opened. I felt myself falling headlong. I heard a cry that made my flesh writhe—as though the cry had been Bettina's, and not mine.

 

A voice said: "It is not possible you have forgotten the address!"

 

I had never known it!

1 frail   

adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的

参考例句：

• Mrs. Warner is already 96 and too frail to live by herself.华纳太太已经九十六岁了，身体虚弱，不便独居。
• She lay in bed looking particularly frail.她躺在床上，看上去特别虚弱。

2 sobbing   

<主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的

参考例句：

• I heard a child sobbing loudly. 我听见有个孩子在呜呜地哭。
• Her eyes were red with recent sobbing. 她的眼睛因刚哭过而发红。

3 inert   

adj.无活动能力的，惰性的；迟钝的

参考例句：

• Inert gas studies are providing valuable information about other planets,too.对惰性气体的研究，也提供了有关其它行星的有价值的资料。
• Elemental nitrogen is a very unreactive and inert material.元素氮是一个十分不活跃的惰性物质。

4 shrieked   

v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She shrieked in fright. 她吓得尖叫起来。
• Li Mei-t'ing gave a shout, and Lu Tzu-hsiao shrieked, "Tell what? 李梅亭大声叫，陆子潇尖声叫：“告诉什么？ 来自汉英文学 - 围城

5 unintelligible   

adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的

参考例句：

• If a computer is given unintelligible data, it returns unintelligible results.如果计算机得到的是难以理解的数据，它给出的也将是难以理解的结果。
• The terms were unintelligible to ordinary folk.这些术语一般人是不懂的。

6 anguish   

n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼

参考例句：

• She cried out for anguish at parting.分手时，她由于痛苦而失声大哭。
• The unspeakable anguish wrung his heart.难言的痛苦折磨着他的心。

7 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

8 hurled   

v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂

参考例句：

• He hurled a brick through the window. 他往窗户里扔了块砖。
• The strong wind hurled down bits of the roof. 大风把屋顶的瓦片刮了下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 ponderous   

adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的

参考例句：

• His steps were heavy and ponderous.他的步伐沉重缓慢。
• It was easy to underestimate him because of his occasionally ponderous manner.由于他偶尔现出的沉闷的姿态，很容易使人小看了他。

10 acquiescent   

adj.默许的，默认的

参考例句：

• My brother is of the acquiescent rather than the militant type.我弟弟是属于服从型的而不是好斗型的。
• She is too acquiescent,too ready to comply.她太百依百顺了。

11 frantic   

adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的

参考例句：

• I've had a frantic rush to get my work done.我急急忙忙地赶完工作。
• He made frantic dash for the departing train.他发疯似地冲向正开出的火车。

12 sane   

adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的

参考例句：

• He was sane at the time of the murder.在凶杀案发生时他的神志是清醒的。
• He is a very sane person.他是一个很有头脑的人。

13 spoke   

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

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

14 sobbed   

哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说

参考例句：

• She sobbed out the story of her son's death. 她哭诉着她儿子的死。
• She sobbed out the sad story of her son's death. 她哽咽着诉说她儿子死去的悲惨经过。

15 reverent   

adj.恭敬的，虔诚的

参考例句：

• He gave reverent attention to the teacher.他恭敬地听老师讲课。
• She said the word artist with a gentle,understanding,reverent smile.她说作家一词时面带高雅，理解和虔诚的微笑。

16 murky   

adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗

参考例句：

• She threw it into the river's murky depths.她把它扔进了混浊的河水深处。
• She had a decidedly murky past.她的历史背景令人捉摸不透。

17 deserted   

adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的

参考例句：

• The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
• The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。

18 graveyard   

n.坟场

参考例句：

• All the town was drifting toward the graveyard.全镇的人都象流水似地向那坟场涌过去。
• Living next to a graveyard would give me the creeps.居住在墓地旁边会使我毛骨悚然。