The coroner, who fully1 realized that for that one day of his life as a provincial2 solicitor3 he was living in the gaze of the world, had resolved to be worthy4 of the fleeting5 eminence6. He was a large man of jovial7 temper, with a strong interest in the dramatic aspects of his work, and the news of Manderson's mysterious death within his jurisdiction8 had made him the happiest coroner in England. A respectable capacity for marshaling facts was fortified9 in him by a copiousness10 of impressive language that made juries as clay in his hands and sometimes disguised a doubtful interpretation11 of the rules of evidence.
The court was held in a long unfurnished room lately built onto the hotel, and intended to serve as a ball-room or concert-hall. A regiment12 of reporters was entrenched13 in the front seats, and those who were to be called on to give evidence occupied chairs to one side of the table behind which the coroner sat, while the jury, in double row, with plastered hair and a spurious ease of manner, flanked him on the other side. An undistinguished public filled the rest of the space, and listened, in an awed14 silence, to the opening solemnities. The newspaper men, well used to these, muttered among themselves. Those of them who knew Trent by sight, assured the rest that he was not in the court.
The identity of the dead man was proved by his wife, the first witness called, from whom the coroner, after some inquiry15 into the health and circumstances of the deceased, proceeded to draw an account of the last occasion on which she had seen her husband alive. Mrs. Manderson was taken through her evidence by the coroner with the sympathy which every man felt for that dark figure of grief. She lifted her thick veil before beginning to speak, and the extreme paleness and unbroken composure of the lady produced a singular impression. This was not an impression of hardness. Interesting femininity was the first thing to be felt in her presence. She was not even enigmatic. It was only clear that the force of a powerful character was at work to master the emotions of her situation. Once or twice as she spoke16 she touched her eyes with her handkerchief, but her voice was low and clear to the end.
Her husband, she said, had come up to his bedroom about his usual hour for retiring on the Sunday night. His room was really a dressing-room attached to her own bedroom, communicating with it by a door which was usually kept open during the night. Both dressing-room and bedroom were entered by other doors giving on the passage. Her husband had always had a preference for the greatest simplicity17 in his bedroom arrangements, and liked to sleep in a small room. She had not been awake when he came up, but had been half-aroused, as usually happened, when the light was switched on in her husband's room. She had spoken to him. She had no clear recollection of what she had said, as she had been very drowsy18 at the time; but she had remembered that he had been out for a moonlight run in the car, and she believed she had asked whether he had had a good run, and what time it was. She had asked what the time was because she felt as if she had only been a very short time asleep, and she had expected her husband to be out very late. In answer to her question he had told her it was half-past eleven, and had gone on to say that he had changed his mind about going for a run.
"Did he say why?" the coroner asked.
"Yes," replied the lady, "he did explain why. I remember very well what he said, because—" she stopped with a little appearance of confusion.
"Because—" the coroner insisted gently.
"Because my husband was not as a rule communicative about his business affairs," answered the witness, raising her chin with a faint touch of defiance19. "He did not—did not think they would interest me, and as a rule referred to them as little as possible. That is why I was rather surprised when he told me that he had sent Mr. Marlowe to Southampton to bring back some important information from a man who was leaving for Paris by the next day's boat. He said that Mr. Marlowe could do it quite easily if he had no accident. He said that he had started in the car, and then walked back home a mile or so, and felt all the better for it."
"Did he say any more?"
"Nothing, as well as I remember," the witness said. "I was very sleepy, and I dropped off again in a few moments. I just remember my husband turning his light out, and that is all. I never saw him again alive."
"And you heard nothing in the night?"
"No; I never woke until my maid brought my tea in the morning at seven o'clock. She closed the door leading to my husband's room, as she always did, and I supposed him to be still there. He always needed a great deal of sleep. He sometimes slept until quite late in the morning. I had breakfast in my sitting-room20. It was about ten when I heard that my husband's body had been found." The witness dropped her head and silently waited for her dismissal.
But it was not to be yet.
"Mrs. Manderson." The coroner's voice was sympathetic, but it had a hint of firmness in it now. "The question I am going to put to you must, in these sad circumstances, be a painful one; but it is my duty to ask it. Is it the fact that your relations with your late husband had not been, for some time past, relations of mutual21 affection and confidence? Is it the fact that there was an estrangement22 between you?"
The lady drew herself up again and faced her questioner, the color rising in her cheeks. "If that question is necessary," she said with cold distinctness, "I will answer it so that there shall be no misunderstanding. During the last few months of my husband's life his attitude towards me had given me great anxiety and sorrow. He had changed towards me; he had become very reserved and seemed mistrustful. I saw much less of him than before; he seemed to prefer to be alone. I can give no explanation at all of the change. I tried to work against it; I did all I could with justice to my own dignity, as I thought. Something was between us, I did not know what, and he never told me. My own obstinate23 pride prevented me from asking what it was in so many words; I only made a point of being to him exactly as I had always been, so far as he would allow me. I suppose I shall never know now what it was." The witness, whose voice had trembled in spite of her self-control, over the last few sentences, drew down her veil when she had said this, and stood erect24 and quiet.
One of the jury asked a question, not without obvious hesitation25. "Then was there never anything of the nature of what they call Words between you and your husband, ma'am?"
"Never." The word was colorlessly spoken; but everyone felt that a crass26 misunderstanding of the possibilities of conduct in the case of a person like Mrs. Manderson had been visited with some severity.
Did she know, the coroner asked, of any other matter which might have been preying27 upon her husband's mind recently?
Mrs. Manderson knew of none whatever. The coroner intimated that her ordeal28 was at an end, and the veiled lady made her way to the door. The general attention, which followed her for a few moments, was now eagerly directed upon Martin, whom the coroner had proceeded to call.
It was at this moment that Trent appeared at the doorway29, and edged his way into the great room. But he did not look at Martin. He was observing the well-balanced figure that came quickly toward him along an opening path in the crowd, and his eye was gloomy. He started, as he stood aside from the door with a slight bow, to hear Mrs. Manderson address him by name in a low voice. He followed her a pace or two into the hall.
"I wanted to ask you," she said in a voice now weak and oddly broken, "if you would give me your arm a part of the way to the house. I could not see my uncle near the door, and I suddenly felt rather faint.... I shall be better in the air.... No, no! I cannot stay here—please, Mr. Trent!" she said, as he began to make an obvious suggestion. "I must go to the house." Her hand tightened30 momentarily on his arm as if, for all her weakness, she could drag him from the place; then again she leaned heavily upon it, and with that support, and with bent31 head, she walked slowly from the hotel and along the oak-shaded path toward White Gables.
Trent went in silence, his thoughts whirling, dancing insanely to a chorus of "Fool! fool!" All that he alone knew, all that he guessed and suspected of this affair rushed through his brain in a rout32; but the touch of her unnerved hand upon his arm never for an instant left his consciousness, filling him with an exaltation that enraged33 and bewildered him. He was still cursing himself furiously behind the mask of conventional solicitude34 that he turned to the lady when he had attended her to the house, and seen her sink upon a couch in the morning room. Raising her veil, she thanked him gravely and frankly35, with a look of sincere gratitude36 in her eyes. She was much better now, she said, and a cup of tea would work a miracle upon her. She hoped she had not taken him away from anything important. She was ashamed of herself; she thought she could go through with it, but she had not expected those last questions. "I am glad you did not hear me," she said when he explained. "But of course you will read it all in the reports. It shook me so to have to speak of that," she added simply, "and to keep from making an exhibition of myself took it out of me. And all those staring men by the door! Thank you again for helping37 me when I asked you.... I thought I might," she ended queerly, with a little tired smile; and Trent took himself away, his hand still quivering from the cool touch of her fingers.
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1
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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solicitor
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| n.初级律师，事务律师 | |
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4
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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5
fleeting
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| adj.短暂的，飞逝的 | |
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6
eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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jovial
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| adj.快乐的，好交际的 | |
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8
jurisdiction
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| n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权 | |
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9
fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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copiousness
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| n.丰裕，旺盛 | |
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11
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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13
entrenched
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| adj.确立的，不容易改的(风俗习惯) | |
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14
awed
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| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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16
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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17
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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18
drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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20
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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21
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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22
estrangement
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| n.疏远，失和，不和 | |
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obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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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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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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crass
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| adj.愚钝的，粗糙的；彻底的 | |
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27
preying
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| v.掠食( prey的现在分词 )；掠食；折磨；（人）靠欺诈为生 | |
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28
ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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29
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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30
tightened
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| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
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31
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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32
rout
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| n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮 | |
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33
enraged
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| 使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 )； 歜； 激愤 | |
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34
solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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35
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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36
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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37
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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