The intensity1 of the question, the compelling, self-forgetful passion of the man, had a startling effect upon the crowd of people huddled2 before him. With one accord, and without stopping to pick their way, they made for the open doorway3, knocking the smaller pieces of furniture about and creating havoc4 generally. Some fled the house; others stopped to peer in again from behind the folds of the curtain which had been only partially5 torn from its fastenings. Miss Weeks was the only one to stand her ground.
When the room was quite cleared and the noise abated6 (it was a frightful7 experience to see how little the judge had been affected8 by all this hubbub9 of combined movement and sound), she stepped within the line of his vision and lifted her feeble and ineffectual hand in an effort to attract his attention to herself.
But he did not notice her, any more than he had noticed the others. Still looking in the one direction, he cried aloud in troubled tones:
“She stood there! the woman stood there and I saw her! Where is she now?”
“She is no longer in the house,” came in gentle reply from the only one in or out of the room courageous10 enough to speak. “She went out when she saw us coming. We knew that she had no right to be here. That is why we intruded11 ourselves, sir. We did not like the looks of her, and so followed her in to prevent mischief12.”
“Ah!”
The expletive fell unconsciously. He seemed to be trying to adjust himself to some mental experience he could neither share with others nor explain to himself.
“She was here, then?— a woman with a little child? It wasn’t an illusion, a —.” Memory was coming back and with it a realisation of his position. Stopping short, he gazed down from his great height upon the trembling little body of whose identity he had but a vague idea, and thundered out in great indignation:
“How dared you! How dared she!” Then as his mind regained13 its full poise14, “And how, even if you had the temerity15 to venture an entrance here, did you manage to pass my gates? They are never open. Bela sees to that.”
Bela!
He may have observed the pallor which blanched16 her small, tense features as this name fell so naturally from his lips, or some instinct of his own may have led him to suspect tragedy where all was so abnormally still, for, as she watched, she saw his eyes, fixed17 up to now upon her face, leave it and pass furtively18 and with many hesitations19 from object to object, towards that spot behind him, where lay the source of her great terror, if not of his. So lingeringly and with such dread20 was this done, that she could barely hold back her weak woman’s scream in the intensity of her suspense21. She knew just where his glances fell without following them with her own. She saw them pass the door where so many faces yet peered in (he saw them not), and creep along the wall beyond, inch by inch, breathlessly and with dread, till finally, with fatal precision, they reached the point where the screen had stood, and not finding it, flew in open terror to the door it was set there to conceal22 — when that something else, huddled in oozing23 blood, on the floor beneath, drew them unto itself with the irresistibleness of grim reality, and he forgot all else in the horror of a sight for which his fears, however great, had failed to prepare him.
Dead! BELA! Dead! and lying in his blood! The rest may have been no dream, but this was surely one, or his eyes, used to inner visions, were playing him false.
Grasping the table at his side to steady his failing limbs, he pulled himself along by its curving edge till he came almost abreast24 of the helpless figure which for so many years had been the embodiment of faithful and unwearied service.
Then and then only, did the truth of his great misfortune burst upon his bewildered soul; and with a cry which tore the ears of all hearers and was never forgotten by any one there, he flung himself down beside the dead negro, and, turning him hastily over, gazed in his face.
Was that a sob25? Yes; thus much the heart gave; but next moment the piteous fact of loss was swallowed up in the recognition of its manner, and, bounding to his feet with the cry, “Killed! Killed at his post!” he confronted the one witness of his anguish26 of whose presence he was aware, and fiercely demanded: “Where are the wretches27 who have done this? No single arm could have knocked down Bela. He has been set upon — beaten with clubs, and —” Here his thought was caught up by another, and that one so fearsome and unsettling that bewilderment again followed rage, and with the look of a haunted spirit, he demanded in a voice made low by awe28 and dread of its own sound, “AND WHERE WAS I, WHEN ALL THIS HAPPENED?”
“You? You were seated there,” murmured the little woman, pointing at the great chair. “You were not — quite — quite yourself,” she softly explained, wondering at her own composure. Then quickly, as she saw his thoughts revert29 to the dead friend at his feet, “Bela was not hurt here. He was down town when it happened; but he managed to struggle home and gain this place, which he tried to hold against the men who followed him. He thought you were dead, you sat there so rigid30 and so white, and, before he quite gave up, he asked us all to promise not to let any one enter this room till your son Oliver came.”
Understanding partly, but not yet quite clear in his mind, the judge sighed, and stooping again, straightened the faithful negro’s limbs. Then, with a sidelong look in her direction, he felt in one of the pockets of the dead negro’s coat, and drawing out a small key, held it in one hand while he fumbled31 in his own for another, which found, he became on the instant his own man again.
Miss Weeks, seeing the difference in him, and seeing too, that the doorway was now clear of the wondering, awestruck group which had previously32 blocked it, bowed her slight body and proceeded to withdraw; but the judge, staying her by a gesture, she waited patiently near one of the book-racks against which she had stumbled, to hear what he had to say.
“I must have had an attack of some kind,” he calmly remarked. “Will you be good enough to explain exactly what occurred here that I may more fully33 comprehend my own misfortune and the death of this faithful friend?”
Then she saw that his faculties34 were now fully restored, and came a step forward. But before she could begin her story, he added this searching question:
“Was it he who let you in — you and others — I think you said others? Was it he who unlocked my gates?”
Miss Weeks sighed and betrayed fluster35. It was not easy to relate her story; besides it was wofully incomplete. She knew nothing of what had happened down town, she could only tell what had passed before her eyes. But there was one thing she could make clear, to him, and that was how the seemingly impassable gates had been made ready for the woman’s entrance and afterwards taken such advantage of by herself and others. A pebble36 had done it all,— a pebble placed in the gateway37 by Bela’s hands.
As she described this, and insisted upon the fact in face of the judge’s almost frenzied38 disclaimer, she thought she saw the hair move on his forehead. Bela a traitor39, and in the interests of the woman who had fronted him from the other end of the room at the moment consciousness had left him! Evidently this intrusive40 little body did not know Bela or his story, or —
Why should interruption come then? Why was he stopped, when in the passion of the moment, he might have let fall some word of enlightenment which would have eased the agitated41 curiosity of the whole town! Miss Weeks often asked herself this question, and bewailed the sudden access of sounds in the rooms without, which proclaimed the entrance of the police and put a new strain upon the judge’s faculty42 of self-control and attention to the one matter in hand.
The commonplaces of an official inquiry43 were about to supersede44 the play of a startled spirit struggling with a problem of whose complexities45 he had received but a glimpse.
收听单词发音 |
1
intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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havoc
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| n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱 | |
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partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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abated
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| 减少( abate的过去式和过去分词 )； 减去； 降价； 撤消（诉讼） | |
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7
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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hubbub
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| n.嘈杂；骚乱 | |
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courageous
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| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
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intruded
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| n.侵入的，推进的v.侵入，侵扰，打扰( intrude的过去式和过去分词 )；把…强加于 | |
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mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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temerity
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| n.鲁莽，冒失 | |
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blanched
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| v.使变白( blanch的过去式 )；使（植物）不见阳光而变白；酸洗（金属）使有光泽；用沸水烫（杏仁等）以便去皮 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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furtively
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| adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地 | |
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hesitations
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| n.犹豫( hesitation的名词复数 )；踌躇；犹豫（之事或行为）；口吃 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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23
oozing
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| v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的现在分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出 | |
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24
abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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wretches
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| n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 )；可怜的人；恶棍；坏蛋 | |
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28
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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29
revert
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| v.恢复，复归，回到 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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31
fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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32
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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fluster
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| adj.慌乱，狼狈，混乱，激动 | |
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pebble
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| n.卵石，小圆石 | |
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gateway
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| n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法 | |
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frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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40
intrusive
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| adj.打搅的；侵扰的 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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supersede
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| v.替代；充任 | |
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45
complexities
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| 复杂性(complexity的名词复数)； 复杂的事物 | |
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