CHAPTER 33 A STRANGE STEP

 One day, when my head was clearer, I seemed to have lain a great while waiting for someone to come. I asked where Mrs. Harborough was.

 

She was "engaged for the moment."

 

Presently I asked what kept her. The nurse rang and sent a message.

 

Mrs. Harborough came up at once. She had been talking to Mr. Annan, she said. And would I like to see him?

 

No. I shrank under the bedclothes, and turned my face to the wall.

 

An afternoon, soon after that, brought me the sudden clear sense of Eric's being again in the house. I was sure that he timed his visits so that he might see the doctor. When the doctor left the room that afternoon I asked if Mr. Annan had been again.

 

Yes; and did I want to see him now?

 

No.

 

"He has come to-day with another friend of yours," said Mrs. Harborough, lingering¹.[Pg 337]

 

"One of the Helmstones?" I asked dully.

 

"No; Mr. Dallas."

 

Ranny! Ranny was downstairs. The happy, care-free people were going still about the world.

 

"Is he married?" I asked.

 

"Married?" Mrs. Harborough seemed surprised. Certainly, he seemed free to devote a great deal of time to us. Mr. Annan and he between them had left no means untried, she said.

 

"I have been told a thousand times," I interrupted, "that everything has been done, but no one ever tells me what." I fell to crying.

 

Looking more stirred than I had ever thought to see her, she told me that young Dallas had offered rewards, and had gone from place to place in search....

 

I seized her hands. I made her sit by the bedside.

 

Yes, and always he had come back here, making his report and asking questions.

 

Eric brought the doctors and the nurses ... but Ranny had done better. Ranny had stirred up Scotland Yard. When Eric told him the nurse had said I was for ever raving² about barred windows,[Pg 338] Ranny had flung³ out of my aunt's drawing-room and was gone a day and a night.

 

Yes, he came back. He had found the house. He got a warrant⁴, and he went with the police when they made their search. He had seen the woman. She brazened it out. She had never heard of either Bettina or me.

 

My story? Oh, very possible, she said, that I and my sister had been "seeing life." No uncommon⁵ thing for young women to lie about their escapades. "Drugged?" the usual excuse.

 

The next day I asked them to let me see Ranny. They refused.

 

I did not sleep that night.

 

The doctor came earlier the next morning and was troubled. "What is it?" he said.

 

I told him. "I will promise to be very quiet," I said. I would promise anything if they would only let me see Ranny.

 

Mrs. Harborough went out and sent a message. Mr. Dallas was staying quite near, she said. But I waited for him for a thousand years. And then ... a footstep on the stair.

 

My heart drew quivering⁶ back from the two-edged knife of Wanting-to-know and Dreading-to-know.[Pg 339] Then all that poignancy⁷ of feeling fell to dulness, for the step was not Ranny's and not Eric's. I had never heard this slow, uncertain footfall.

 

The door opened, and it was Ranny.

 

He did not look at me.

 

His eyes went circling low, like swallows before rain. They settled on the coverlid till, slowly, he had come and stood beside me.

 

Then Ranny lifted his eyes....

 

Oh, poor eyes! Poor soul looking out of them!

 

"Ranny," I whispered, "speak to me."

 

"I have failed," he said. He leaned heavily against the chair.

 

"I have heard," I managed to say, "how hard you have been trying...."

 

"But I have failed!" he said once more; and I hope I may never again hear such an accent.

 

I pointed⁸ to the chair ... we could neither of us speak for a while. And then he cleared his throat.

 

"They took her out of that house and hid her," he said. "And then they took her abroad. I[Pg 340] traced her to their house in Paris. But she had gone. Always I have been too late."

 

When I could speak I said: "You are a good friend, Ranny...."

 

He made an impatient gesture. "Nothing is any good!" He stood up. "But I wanted you to know that I am trying.... Trying still. Nothing that you could do but I am doing it. Will you believe that?"

 

"But, Ranny," I said, "how can you do all this? Haven't you ... other claims?"

 

"Other claims?" he said, as though he had never heard of them.

 

"You surely did have other claims?"

 

"I thought I had. But when this came I saw they were nothing." He stopped an instant near the door. "You don't believe I would lie to you?"

 

"No," I said.

 

"Then get well. You have something to live for. You and Annan. Not like me."

 

He went out with that strange-sounding step.

1 lingering   

a.拖延的，依依不舍的

参考例句：

• a painful and lingering death 痛苦而拖延时日的死亡
• Unemployment and lingering disease cooperated to make his family broken. 失业加上长期的疾病，使他倾家荡产。

2 raving   

adj.说胡话的；疯狂的，怒吼的；非常漂亮的；令人醉心[痴心]的v.胡言乱语(rave的现在分词)n.胡话；疯话adv.胡言乱语地；疯狂地

参考例句：

• The man's a raving lunatic. 那个男子是个语无伦次的疯子。
• When I told her I'd crashed her car, she went stark raving bonkers. 我告诉她我把她的车撞坏了时，她暴跳如雷。

3 flung   

（尤指生气地）扔( fling的过去式和过去分词 )； 猛动（身体或身体部位）； 粗暴地（向某人）说； 气势汹汹地（对某人）说

参考例句：

• expeditions to the far-flung corners of the world 去世界偏远地方的探险
• Someone had flung a brick through the window. 有人把一块砖扔进了窗户。

4 warrant   

n.正当理由，根据，委任状，准许；vt.保证，辩解，担保，授权

参考例句：

• I will warrant him an honest and reliable fellow.我可以保证他是一个诚实可靠的人。
• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。

5 uncommon   

adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的

参考例句：

• Such attitudes were not at all uncommon thirty years ago.这些看法在30年前很常见。
• Phil has uncommon intelligence.菲尔智力超群。

6 quivering   

adj.颤抖的v.微颤，抖动( quiver的现在分词 )；使震动

参考例句：

• He is quivering with anger. 他气得全身发抖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The pine needles were still quivering. 松针还在抖动着。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 poignancy   

n.辛酸事，尖锐

参考例句：

• As she sat in church her face had a pathos and poignancy. 当她坐在教堂里时，脸上带着一种哀婉和辛辣的表情。
• The movie, "Trains, Planes, and Automobiles" treats this with hilarity and poignancy. 电影“火车，飞机和汽车”是以欢娱和热情庆祝这个节日。

8 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。