Dearest Mother:
Where could we go that disgrace would not follow us? Let us then accept the judge’s offer. I am the more inclined to do this because of the possible hope that some day he may come to care for me and allow me to make life a little brighter for him. The fact that for some mysterious reason he feels himself cut off from all intercourse1 with his son, may prove a bond of sympathy between us. I, too, am cut off from all companionship with Oliver. Between us also a wall is raised. Do not mind that tear-drop, mamma. It is the last.
Kisses for my comforter. Come soon.
REUTHER.
Over this letter Deborah Scoville sat for two hours, then she rang for Mrs. Yardley.
The maid who answered her summons surveyed her in amazement2. It was the first time that she had seen her uncovered face.
Mrs. Yardley was not long in coming up.
“Mrs. Averill —” she began in a sort of fluster3, as she met her strange guest’s quiet eye.
But she got no further. That guest had a correction to make.
“My name is not Averill,” she protested. “You must excuse the temporary deception4. It is Scoville. I once occupied your present position in this house.”
Mrs. Yardley had heard all about the Scovilles; and, while a flush rose to her cheeks, her eyes snapped with sudden interest.
“Ah!” came in quick exclamation5, followed, however, by an apologetic cough and the somewhat forced and conventional remark: “You find the place changed, no doubt?”
“Very much so, and for the better, Mrs. Yardley.” Then, with a straightforward6 meeting of the other’s eye calculated to disarm7 whatever criticism the situation might evoke8, she quietly added, “You need no longer trouble yourself with serving me my meals in my room. I will eat dinner in the public dining-room to-day with the rest of the boarders. I have no further reason for concealing9 who I am or what my future intentions are. I am going to live with Judge Ostrander, Mrs. Yardley;— keep house for him, myself and daughter. His man is dead and he feels very helpless. I hope that I shall be able to make him comfortable.”
Mrs. Yardley’s face was a study. In all her life she had never heard news that surprised her more. In fact, she was mentally aghast. Judge Ostrander admitting any one into his home, and this woman above all! Yet, why not? He, certainly, would have to have some one. And this woman had always been known as a notable housekeeper10. In another moment, she had accepted the situation, like the very sensible woman she was, and Mrs. Scoville had the satisfaction of seeing the promise of real friendly support in the smile with which Mrs. Yardley remarked:
“It’s a good thing for you and a very good thing for the judge. It may shake him out of his habit of seclusion11. If it does, you will be the city’s benefactor12. Good luck to you, madam. And you have a daughter, you say?”
After Mrs. Yardley’s departure, Mrs. Scoville, as she now expected herself to be called, sat for a long time brooding. Would her quest be facilitated or irretrievably hindered by her presence in the judge’s house? She had that yet to learn. Meanwhile, there was one thing more to be accomplished13. She set about it that evening.
Veiled, but in black now, she went into town. Getting down at the corner of Colburn Avenue and Perry Street, she walked a short distance on Perry, then rang the bell of an attractive-looking house of moderate dimensions. Being admitted, she asked to see Mr. Black, and for an hour sat in close conversation with him. Then she took a trolley-car which carried her into the suburbs. When she alighted, it was unusually late for a woman to be out alone; but she had very little physical fear, and walked on steadily14 enough for a block or two till she came to a corner, where a high fence loomed15 forbiddingly between her and a house so dark that it was impossible to distinguish between its chimneys and the encompassing16 trees whose swaying tops could be heard swishing about uneasily in the keen night air. An eerie17 accompaniment, this latter, to the beating of Deborah’s heart already throbbing18 with anticipation19 and keyed to an unusual pitch by her own daring.
Was she quite alone in the seemingly quiet street? She could hear no one, see no one. A lamp burned in front of Miss Weeks’ small house, but the road it illumined (I speak of the one running down to the ravine) showed only darkened houses.
She had left the corner and was passing the gate of the Ostrander homestead, when she heard, coming from some distant point within, a low and peculiar20 sound which held her immovable for a moment, then sent her on shuddering21.
It was the sound of hammering.
What is there in a rat-tat-tat in the dead of night which rouses the imagination and fills the mind with suggestions which we had rather not harbour when in the dark and alone? Deborah Scoville was not superstitious22, but she had keen senses and mercurial23 spirits and was easily moved by suggestion.
Hearing this sound and locating it where she did, she remembered, with a quick inner disturbance24, that the judge’s house held a secret; a secret of such import to its owner that the dying Bela had sought to preserve it at the cost of his life.
Oh, she had heard all about that! The gossip at Claymore Inn had been great, and nothing had been spared her curiosity. There was something in this house which it behooved25 the judge to secrete26 from sight yet more completely before her own and Reuther’s entrance, and he was at work upon it now, hammering with his own hand while other persons slept! No wonder she edged her way along the fence with a shrinking, yet persistent27, step. She was circling her future home and that house held a mystery.
And yet, like any other imaginative person under a stress of aroused feeling, she might very easily be magnifying some commonplace act into one of terrifying possibilities. One can hammer very innocently in his own house, even at night, when making preparations to receive fresh inmates28 after many years of household neglect.
She recognised her folly29 before reaching the adjoining field. But she went on. Where the fence turned, she turned, there being no obstruction30 to her doing so. This brought her into a wilderness31 of tangled32 grasses where free stepping was difficult. As she groped her way along, she had ample opportunity to hear again the intermittent33 sounds of the hammer, and to note that they reached their maximum at a point where the ell of the judge’s study approached the fences.
Rat-tat-tat; rat-tat-tat. She hated the sound even while she whispered to herself:
“It is just some household matter he is at work upon;— rehanging pictures or putting up shelves. It can be nothing else.”
Yet on laying her ear to the fence, she felt her sinister34 fears return; and, with shrinking glances into a darkness which told her nothing, she added in fearful murmur35 to herself:
“What am I taking Reuther into? I wish I knew. I wish I knew.”
收听单词发音 |
1
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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fluster
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| adj.慌乱，狼狈，混乱，激动 | |
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deception
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| n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计 | |
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exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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6
straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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7
disarm
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| v.解除武装，回复平常的编制，缓和 | |
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8
evoke
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| vt.唤起，引起，使人想起 | |
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9
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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12
benefactor
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| n. 恩人，行善的人，捐助人 | |
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13
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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15
loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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encompassing
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| v.围绕( encompass的现在分词 )；包围；包含；包括 | |
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17
eerie
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| adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的 | |
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throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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mercurial
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| adj.善变的，活泼的 | |
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disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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behooved
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| v.适宜( behoove的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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secrete
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| vt.分泌；隐匿，使隐秘 | |
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persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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29
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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30
obstruction
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| n.阻塞，堵塞；障碍物 | |
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31
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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33
intermittent
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| adj.间歇的，断断续续的 | |
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34
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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35
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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