前言

秘方简介

常用词列表

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

LIMMERIDGE HOUSE, Nov. 8.[1]

[1] The passages omitted 省略, here and else‧where 在别处, in Miss Halcombe's Diary are only those which bear no reference to Miss Fairlie or to any of the persons with whom 谁 she is associated 关联 in these pages.

This morning Mr. Gilmore left us.

His interview 访问 with Laura had evidently 明显地 grieved 悼 and surprised him more than he liked to confess 供认. I felt afraid, from his look and manner when we parted, that she might have inadvertently 不经意间 betrayed 背叛 to him the real secret of her depression 忧闷，压抑，不快乐 and my anxiety 焦虑. This doubt grew grow on me so, after he had gone, that I declined 下降 riding out with Sir 先生 Percival, and went up to Laura's room instead.

I have been sadly 悲哀的 distrustful of myself 我, in this difficult and lament‧able 哀叹‧能够的 matter, ever since I found out my own ignorance 无知 of the strength of Laura's unhappy 不快乐 attachment 附件. I ought to have known that the delicacy 美味 and forbearance and sense of honour which drew draw me to poor Hartright, and made me so sincerely 真诚的 admire and respect him, were just the qualities to appeal 上诉 most irresistibly 不可抗拒 to Laura's natural 自然 sensitiveness and natural 自然 generosity 慷慨 of nature. And yet, until she opened her heart to me of her own accord, I had no suspicion 怀疑 that this new feeling had taken root so deeply. I once thought time and care might remove 去掉 it. I now fear that it will remain with her and alter 改变 her for life. The discovery 发现 that I have committed 承诺 such an error 错误 in judgment 判断 as this makes me hesitate 犹豫 about everything else. I hesitate about Sir 先生 Percival, in the face of the plainest proofs 证明. I hesitate even in speaking to Laura. On this very morning I doubted, with my hand on the door, whether I should ask her the questions I had come to put, or not.

When I went into her room I found her walking up and down in great impatience 不耐烦. She looked flushed 红晕 and excited, and she came forward at once, and spoke speak to me before I could open my lips.

"I wanted you," she said. "Come and sit down on the sofa 沙发 with me. Marian! I can bear this no longer—I must and will end it."

There was too much colour in her cheeks 脸颊, too much energy 能源 in her manner, too much firmness in her voice. The little book of Hartright's drawings—the fatal 致命 book that she will dream over when‧ever 随时 she is alone—was in one of her hands. I began by gently and firmly taking it from her, and putting it out of sight on a side-table.

"Tell me quietly, my darling 宠儿, what you wish to do," I said. "Has Mr. Gilmore been advising you?"

She shook shake her head. "No, not in what I am thinking of now. He was very kind and good to me, Marian, and I am ashamed 惭愧的 to say I distressed 苦难 him by crying. I am miserably 悲惨的 help‧less 无助—I can't control myself 我. For my own sake 缘故, and for all our sakes 缘故, I must have courage 勇气 enough to end it."

"Do you mean courage enough to claim your release 发布?" I asked.

"No," she said simply. " Courage, dear, to tell the truth."

She put her arms round my neck, and rested her head quietly on my bosom. On the opposite wall hung the miniature 微型 portrait 肖像 of her father. I bent bend over her, and saw that she was looking at it while her head lay lie on my breast 乳房.

"I can never claim my release 发布 from my engagement 订婚," she went on. "Whatever way it ends it must end wretchedly for me. All I can do, Marian, is not to add the remembrance 纪念 that I have broken break my promise and forgotten forget my father's dying words, to make that wretchedness worse."

"What is it you propose, then?" I asked.

"To tell Sir 先生 Percival Glyde the truth with my own lips," she answered, "and to let him release 发布 me, if he will, not because I ask him, but because he knows all."

"What do you mean, Laura, by 'all'? Sir 3 Percival will know enough (he has told me so himself) if he knows that the engagement 订婚 is opposed to your own wishes."

"Can I tell him that, when the engagement 订婚 was made for me by my father, with my own consent 同意? I should have kept my promise, not happily, I am afraid, but still contentedly—" she stopped, turned her face to me, and laid her cheek 脸颊 close against mine—"I should have kept my engagement 订婚, Marian, if another love had not grown grow up in my heart, which was not there when I first promised to be Sir Percival's wife."

"Laura! you will never lower your‧self 你自己 by making a confession 承认 to him?"

"I shall lower myself 我, indeed, if I gain my release 发布 by hiding from him what he has a right to know."

"He has not the shadow of a right to know it!"

"Wrong, Marian, wrong! I ought to deceive 欺诈 no one—least of all the man to whom 谁 my father gave me, and to whom I gave myself 我." She put her lips to mine, and kissed 接吻 me. "My own love," she said softly, "you are so much too fond 喜欢的 of me, and so much too proud of me, that you forget, in my case, what you would remember in your own. Better that Sir Percival should doubt my motives 动机, and misjudge my conduct 进行 if he will, than that I should be first false 虚伪的 to him in thought, and then mean enough to serve my own interests by hiding the false‧hood 虚伪的‧引擎罩."

I held her away from me in astonishment 惊愕. For the first time in our lives we had changed places—the resolution 解析度 was all on her side, the hesitation 犹豫 all on mine. I looked into the pale, quiet, resigned 辞职 young face—I saw the pure, innocent 无辜 heart, in the loving eyes that looked back at me—and the poor worldly cautions 小心 and objections 反对 that rose rise to my lips dwindled 缩小 and died away in their own emptiness 空虚. I hung my head in silence. In her place the despicably small pride 自尊 which makes so many women deceitful would have been my pride, and would have made me deceitful too.

"Don't be angry 生气的 with me, Marian," she said, mistaking my silence.

I only answered by drawing her close to me again. I was afraid of crying if I spoke. My tears do not flow so easily as they ought—they come almost like men's tears, with sobs 哭泣 that seem to tear me in pieces, and that frighten 使惊恐 every one about me.

"I have thought of this, love, for many days," she went on, twining 双胞胎之一 and twisting 扭成一束 my hair with that childish 幼稚 restlessness in her fingers, which poor Mrs. Vesey still tries so patiently and so vainly 徒劳的 to cure 治愈 her of—"I have thought of it very seriously, and I can be sure of my courage 3 when my own conscience 良心 tells me I am right. Let me speak to him to-morrow—in your presence, Marian. I will say nothing that is wrong, nothing that you or I need be ashamed 惭愧的 of—but, oh, it will ease 轻松 my heart so to end this miserable 悲惨的 concealment! Only let me know and feel that I have no deception 骗局 to answer for on my side, and then, when he has heard what I have to say, let him act towards me as he will."

She sighed 叹, and put her head back in its old position on my bosom. Sad 悲哀的 misgivings 疑虑 about what the end would be weighed 称重 upon my mind, but still distrusting 怀疑 myself 我, I told her that I would do as she wished. She thanked me, and we passed gradually 逐步地 into talking of other things.

At dinner she joined us again, and was more easy and more her‧self 她自己 with Sir Percival than I have seen her yet. In the evening she went to the piano 钢琴, choosing new music of the dexterous, tune‧less 曲调‧少, florid kind. The lovely 可爱的 old melodies 旋律 of Mozart, which poor Hartright was so fond 喜欢的 of, she has never played since he left. The book is no longer in the music-stand. She took the volume 卷 away her‧self 她自己, so that nobody might find it out and ask her to play from it.

I had no opportunity of discovering whether her purpose of the morning had changed or not, until she wished Sir Percival good-night—and then her own words informed me that it was unaltered. She said, very quietly, that she wished to speak to him after break‧fast 早餐, and that he would find her in her sitting-room with me. He changed colour at those words, and I felt his hand trembling 发抖 a little when it came to my turn to take it. The event of the next morning would decide his future life, and he evidently 明显地 knew it.

I went in, as usual, through the door between our two bed‧room 卧室, to bid 出价 Laura good-night before she went to sleep. In stooping 哈腰 over her to kiss 接吻 her I saw the little book of Hartright's drawings half hidden hide under her pillow 枕头, just in the place where she used to hide her favourite toys 玩具 when she was a child. I could not find it in my heart to say anything, but I pointed to the book and shook my head. She reached both hands up to my cheeks 脸颊, and drew my face down to hers till 到 our lips met.

"Leave it there to-night," she whispered 低声说; "to-morrow may be cruel 残酷的, and may make me say good-bye 再见 to it for ever."

9th.—The first event of the morning was not of a kind to raise my spirits—a letter arrived for me from poor Walter Hartright. It is the answer to mine describing the manner in which Sir Percival cleared himself of the suspicions 怀疑 raised by Anne Catherick's letter. He writes shortly and bitterly about Sir Percival's explanations 说明, only saying that he has no right to offer an opinion on the conduct 进行 of those who are above him. This is sad 悲哀的, but his occasional 偶然 references to himself grieve 悼 me still more. He says that the effort to return to his old habits 习惯 and pursuits 追求 grows harder instead of easier to him every day and he implores me, if I have any interest, to exert 发挥 it to get him employment 雇用 that will necessitate 必要 his absence 缺席 from England, and take him among new scenes and new people. I have been made all the readier to comply 执行 with this request by a passage at the end of his letter, which has almost alarmed 警告 me.

After mentioning that he has neither seen nor heard anything of Anne Catherick, he suddenly breaks off, and hints 暗示 in the most abrupt 突兀, mysterious 神秘 manner, that he has been perpetually 永动的 watched and followed by strange men ever since he returned to London. He acknowledges 确认 that he cannot prove this extra‧ordinary 非凡的 suspicion 怀疑 by fixing on any particular persons, but he declares that the suspicion itself 本身 is present to him night and day. This has frightened 使惊恐 me, because it looks as if his one fixed idea about Laura was becoming too much for his mind. I will write immediately to some of my mother's influential 有影响的 old friends in London, and press his claims on their notice. Change of scene and change of occupation 占用 may really be the salvation 救恩 of him at this crisis 危机 in his life.

Greatly to my relief, Sir Percival sent send an apology 道歉认错 for not joining us at break‧fast 早餐. He had taken an early cup of coffee in his own room, and he was still engaged 从事 there in writing letters. At eleven 十一 o' clock 钟, if that hour was convenient 方便的, he would do himself the honour of waiting on Miss Fairlie and Miss Halcombe.

My eyes were on Laura's face while the message was being delivered. I had found her unaccountably quiet and composed on going into her room in the morning, and so she remained all through breakfast. Even when we were sitting together on the sofa 沙发 in her room, waiting for Sir Percival, she still preserved her self 自己-control.

"Don't be afraid of me, Marian," was all she said; "I may forget myself 我 with an old friend like Mr. Gilmore, or with a dear sister 姐妹 like you, but I will not forget myself 我 with Sir Percival Glyde."

I looked at her, and listened to her in silent surprise. Through all the years of our close intimacy 亲密关系 this passive 被动 force in her character had been hidden hide from me—hidden hide even from her‧self 她自己, till 到 love found it, and suffering called it forth.

As the clock 钟 on the mantelpiece struck strike eleven 十一 Sir Percival knocked 敲 at the door and came in. There was sup‧press 压制 anxiety 焦虑 and agitation 搅动 in every line of his face. The dry, sharp cough 咳嗽, which teases 逗 him at most times, seemed to be troubling him more incessantly than ever. He sat sit down opposite to us at the table, and Laura remained by me. I looked attentively 注意的 at them both, and he was the palest of the two.

He said a few unimportant 不重要 words, with a visible 可以看见的；可视的 effort to preserve his customary 习惯的 ease 轻松 of manner. But his voice was not to be steadied, and the rest‧less 不安 uneasiness in his eyes was not to be concealed 隐藏. He must have felt this himself, for he stopped in the middle of a sentence 句子, and gave up even the attempt to hide his embarrassment 困窘 any longer.

There was just one moment of dead silence before Laura addressed him.

"I wish to speak to you, Sir Percival," she said, "on a subject that is very important to us both. My sister 姐妹 is here, because her presence helps me and gives me confidence 信心. She has not suggested one word of what I am going to say—I speak from my own thoughts, not from hers. I am sure you will be kind enough to understand that before I go any farther?"

Sir Percival bowed 弓. She had proceeded 继续 thus far, with perfect outward 向外的 tranquillity and perfect propriety of manner. She looked at him, and he looked at her. They seemed, at the outset 开始, at least, resolved 解决 to understand one another plainly.

"I have heard from Marian," she went on, "that I have only to claim my release 发布 from our engagement 订婚 to obtain 获得 that release 发布 from you. It was forbearing and generous 慷慨的 on your part, Sir Percival, to send me such a message. It is only doing you justice to say that I am grateful 感激的 for the offer, and I hope and believe that it is only doing myself 我 justice to tell you that I decline 下降 to accept it."

His attentive 注意的 face relaxed 放松 a little. But I saw one of his feet, softly, quietly, incessantly beating on the carpet 地毯 under the table, and I felt that he was secretly as anxious 焦急的 as ever.

"I have not forgotten," she said, "that you asked my father's per‧mission 允许 before you honoured me with a proposal of marriage. Perhaps you have not forgotten either what I said when I consented 同意 to our engagement 订婚? I ventured 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 to tell you that my father's influence and advice 劝告 had mainly decided me to give you my promise. I was guided by my father, because I had always found him the truest of all advisers 顾问, the best and fondest 喜欢的 of all protectors 保护者 and friends. I have lost him now—I have only his memory to love, but my faith in that dear dead friend has never been shaken shake. I believe at this moment, as truly 真 as I ever believed, that he knew what was best, and that his hopes and wishes ought to be my hopes and wishes too."

Her voice trembled 发抖 for the first time. Her rest‧less 不安 fingers stole their way into my lap 膝部, and held fast by one of my hands. There was another moment of silence, and then Sir Percival spoke.

"May I ask," he said, "if I have ever proved myself 我 unworthy of the trust which it has been hitherto 迄今 my greatest honour and greatest happiness 幸福 to possess 拥有?"

"I have found nothing in your conduct 进行 to blame 指责," she answered. "You have always treated me with the same delicacy 美味 and the same forbearance. You have deserved 应受 my trust, and, what is of far more importance in my estimation 估计, you have deserved my father's trust, out of which mine grew. You have given me no excuse 原谅, even if I had wanted to find one, for asking to be released 发布 from my pledge 保证. What I have said so far has been spoken speak with the wish to acknowledge 确认 my whole obligation 义务；责任；职责 to you. My regard for that obligation, my regard for my father's memory, and my regard for my own promise, all forbid 禁止 me to set the example, on my side, of with‧draw 撤回 from our present position. The breaking of our engagement 订婚 must be entirely your wish and your act, Sir Percival—not mine."

The uneasy 不安 beating of his foot suddenly stopped, and he leaned lean forward eagerly 渴望的 across the table.

"My act?" he said. "What reason can there be on my side for withdrawing?"

I heard her breath quickening 加速—I felt her hand growing cold. In spite 恶意 of what she had said to me when we were alone, I began to be afraid of her. I was wrong.

"A reason that it is very hard to tell you," she answered. "There is a change in me, Sir Percival—a change which is serious enough to justify 为…辩护；证明…正当；是…的正当理由 you, to your‧self 你自己 and to me, in breaking off our engagement 订婚."

His face turned so pale again that even his lips lost their colour. He raised the arm which lay on the table, turned a little away in his chair, and supported his head on his hand, so that his profile 简短的描述 only was presented to us.

"What change?" he asked. The tone 音 in which he put the question jarred 罐 on me—there was something painfully 痛苦 sup‧press 压制 in it.

She sighed 叹 heavily 很大，沉重地, and leaned towards me a little, so as to rest her shoulder against mine. I felt her trembling, and tried to spare 节省；多余的；备用件 her by speaking myself 我. She stopped me by a warning pressure of her hand, and then addressed Sir Percival one more, but this time without looking at him.

"I have heard," she said, "and I believe it, that the fondest and truest of all affect‧ion 感情 is the affect‧ion 感情 which a woman ought to bear to her husband. When our engagement 订婚 began that affect‧ion 感情 was mine to give, if I could, and yours to win, if you could. Will you pardon 宽恕；说啥？ me, and spare 节省；多余的；备用件 me, Sir Percival, if I acknowledge 确认 that it is not so any longer?"

A few tears gathered in her eyes, and dropped over her cheeks 脸颊 slowly as she paused 暂停 and waited for his answer. He did not utter 说出 a word. At the beginning of her reply he had moved the hand on which his head rested, so that it hid hide his face. I saw nothing but the upper part of his figure at the table. Not a muscle 肌肉，身体部份 of him moved. The fingers of the hand which supported his head were dented 凹痕 deep in his hair. They might have expressed hidden hide anger 生气 or hidden hide grief 哀思—it was hard to say which—there was no significant 重大 trembling in them. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, to tell the secret of his thoughts at that moment—the moment which was the crisis 危机 of his life and the crisis 危机 of hers.

I was determined to make him declare himself, for Laura's sake 缘故.

"Sir Percival!" I interposed sharply, "have you nothing to say when my sister has said so much? More, in my opinion," I added, my unlucky 不幸的 temper 性情 getting the better of me, "than any man alive 活的；有生命的, in your position, has a right to hear from her."

That last rash 皮疹 sentence 句子 opened a way for him by which to escape me if he chose choose, and he instantly 瞬间 took advantage of it.

" Pardon 宽恕；说啥？ me, Miss Halcombe," he said, still keeping his hand over his face, " pardon me if I remind you that I have claimed no such right."

The few plain words which would have brought him back to the point from which he had wandered 漫步 were just on my lips, when Laura checked me by speaking again.

"I hope I have not made my painful 痛苦 acknowledgment 承认 in vain 徒劳的," she continued. "I hope it has secured 安全 me your entire confidence 信心 in what I have still to say?"

"Pray be assured 向…保证；肯定地说 of it." He made that brief 简要 reply warmly, dropping his hand on the table while he spoke, and turning towards us again. Whatever outward 向外的 change had passed over him was gone now. His face was eager 渴望的 and expect‧ant 期望‧蚂蚁—it expressed nothing but the most intense 强烈的，极度的 anxiety to hear her next words.

"I wish you to understand that I have not spoken from any selfish 自私的 motive 动机," she said. "If you leave me, Sir Percival, after what you have just heard, you do not leave me to marry another man, you only allow me to remain a single woman for the rest of my life. My fault 缺点 towards you has begun and ended in my own thoughts. It can never go any farther. No word has passed—" She hesitated 犹豫, in doubt about the expression she should use next, hesitated in a momentary 短暂的 confusion 混乱 which it was very sad and very painful 痛苦 to see. "No word has passed," she patiently and resolutely resumed 恢复, "between myself 我 and the person to whom 谁 I am now referring for the first and last time in your presence of my feelings towards him, or of his feelings towards me—no word ever can pass—neither he nor I are likely, in this world, to meet again. I ear‧nest 热心的 beg 乞讨 you to spare 节省；多余的；备用件 me from saying any more, and to believe me, on my word, in what I have just told you. It is the truth. Sir Percival, the truth which I think my promised husband has a claim to hear, at any sacrifice 牺牲 of my own feelings. I trust to his generosity 慷慨 to pardon 宽恕；说啥？ me, and to his honour to keep my secret."

"Both those trusts are sacred 神圣的 to me," he said, "and both shall be sacredly 神圣的 kept."

After answering in those terms he paused, and looked at her as if he was waiting to hear more.

"I have said all I wish to say," she added quietly—"I have said more than enough to justify 为…辩护；证明…正当；是…的正当理由 you in withdrawing from your engagement 订婚."

"You have said more than enough," he answered, "to make it the dearest object of my life to keep the engagement 订婚." With those words he rose from his chair, and advanced a few steps towards the place where she was sitting.

She started violently 猛烈, and a faint 微弱的 cry of surprise escaped her. Every word she had spoken had innocently 无辜 betrayed 背叛 her purity 纯度 and truth to a man who thoroughly understood understand the price‧less 无价 value of a pure and true woman. Her own noble 高尚的 conduct 进行 had been the hidden hide enemy, through‧out 始终, of all the hopes she had trusted to it. I had dreaded 恐惧 this from the first. I would have prevented it, if she had allowed me the smallest chance of doing so. I even waited and watched now, when the harm 损害 was done, for a word from Sir Percival that would give me the opportunity of putting him in the wrong.

"You have left it to me, Miss Fairlie, to resign 辞职 you," he continued. "I am not heart‧less 心‧少 enough to resign a woman who has just shown her‧self 她自己 to be the noblest 高尚的 of her sex 性别."

He spoke with such warmth 温暖 and feeling, with such passionate 多情 enthusiasm 热情, and yet with such perfect delicacy 美味, that she raised her head, flushed 红晕 up a little, and looked at him with sudden animation 动画 and spirit.

"No!" she said firmly. "The most wretched 不幸的人 of her sex 性别, if she must give her‧self 她自己 in marriage when she cannot give her love."

"May she not give it in the future," he asked, "if the one object of her husband's life is to deserve 应受 it?"

"Never!" she answered. "If you still persist 坚持 in maintaining 保持 our engagement 订婚, I may be your true and faithful 可信 wife, Sir Percival—your loving wife, if I know my own heart, never!"

She looked so irresistibly 不可抗拒 beautiful 美丽 as she said those brave 勇敢的 words that no man alive 活的；有生命的 could have steeled 钢 his heart against her. I tried hard to feel that Sir Percival was to blame 指责, and to say so, but my woman‧hood 女人‧引擎罩 would pity 怜悯 him, in spite 恶意 of myself 我.

"I gratefully 感激的 accept your faith and truth," he said. "The least that you can offer is more to me than the utmost 极 that I could hope for from any other woman in the world."

Her left hand still held mine, but her right hand hung listlessly at her side. He raised it gently to his lips—touched it with them, rather than kissed it—bowed to me—and then, with perfect delicacy 美味 and discretion 慎重, silently quitted 放弃 the room.

She neither moved nor said a word when he was gone—she sat by me, cold and still, with her eyes fixed on the ground grind. I saw it was hope‧less 绝望 and use‧less 无用 to speak, and I only put my arm round her, and held her to me in silence. We remained together so for what seemed a long and weary 厌倦 time—so long and so weary 厌倦, that I grew uneasy 不安 and spoke to her softly, in the hope of producing a change.

The sound of my voice seemed to startle 惊吓 her into consciousness 意识. She suddenly drew her‧self 她自己 away from me and rose to her feet.

"I must submit 给, Marian, as well as I can," she said. "My new life has its hard duties, and one of them begins to-day."

As she spoke she went to a side-table near the window, on which her sketching 草图 materials were placed, gathered them together carefully 小心, and put them in a drawer 抽屉 of her cabinet 内阁. She locked the drawer and brought the key to me.

"I must part from everything that reminds me of him," she said. "Keep the key wherever 随地 you please—I shall never want it again."

Before I could say a word she had turned away to her book-case, and had taken from it the album 相册;唱片 that contained Walter Hartright's drawings. She hesitated for a moment, holding the little volume 卷 fondly 喜欢的 in her hands—then lifted it to her lips and kissed it.

"Oh, Laura! Laura!" I said, not angrily 生气的, not reprovingly—with nothing but sorrow 悲痛 in my voice, and nothing but sorrow in my heart.

"It is the last time, Marian," she pleaded 求情. "I am bidding 出价 it good-bye 再见 for ever."

She laid the book on the table and drew out the comb 梳子 that fastened 系牢 her hair. It fell fall, in its match‧less 比赛；火柴‧少 beauty, over her back and shoulders, and dropped round her, far below her waist 腰. She separated one long, thin lock from the rest, cut it off, and pinned 钉 it carefully 小心, in the form of a circle, on the first blank 空白 page of the album 相册;唱片. The moment it was fastened she closed the volume 卷 hurriedly, and placed it in my hands.

"You write to him and he writes to you," she said. "While I am alive, if he asks after me always tell him I am well, and never say I am unhappy 不快乐. Don't distress 苦难 him, Marian, for my sake, don't distress 苦难 him. If I die first, promise you will give him this little book of his drawings, with my hair in it. There can be no harm 损害, when I am gone, in telling him that I put it there with my own hands. And say—oh, Marian, say for me, then, what I can never say for myself 我—say I loved him!"

She flung her arms round my neck, and whispered the last words in my ear with a passionate 多情 delight in uttering 说出 them which it almost broke break my heart to hear. All the long restraint 克制 she had imposed 强加 on her‧self 她自己 gave way in that first last out‧burst 突发 of tenderness 压痛. She broke from me with hysterical 歇斯底里 vehemence, and threw throw her‧self 她自己 on the sofa 沙发 in a paroxysm of sobs 哭泣 and tears that shook her from head to foot.

I tried vainly to soothe 缓和 her and reason with her—she was past being soothed 缓和, and past being reasoned with. It was the sad, sudden end for us two of this memorable 难忘 day. When the fit had worn wear itself 本身 out she was too exhausted 排气 to speak. She slumbered towards the afternoon, and I put away the book of drawings so that she might not see it when she woke 醒:wake. My face was calm 镇定的, whatever my heart might be, when she opened her eyes again and looked at me. We said no more to each other about the distressing 苦难 interview 访问 of the morning. Sir Percival's name was not mentioned. Walter Hartright was not alluded 暗示 to again by either of us for the remainder 余 of the day.

10th.—Finding that she was composed and like her‧self 她自己 this morning, I returned to the painful 痛苦 subject of yesterday, for the sole 唯一 purpose of imploring her to let me speak to Sir Percival and Mr. Fairlie, more plainly and strongly than she could speak to either of them her‧self 她自己, about this lament‧able 哀叹‧能够的 marriage. She interposed, gently but firmly, in the middle of my remonstrances.

"I left yesterday to decide," she said; "and yesterday has decided. It is too late to go back."

Sir Percival spoke to me this afternoon about what had passed in Laura's room. He assured me that the unparalleled trust she had placed in him had awakened 憬 such an answering conviction 定罪 of her innocence 无辜 and integrity 廉正 in his mind, that he was guilt‧less 有罪‧少 of having felt even a moment's unworthy jealousy 妒忌, either at the time when he was in her presence, or after‧ward 之后 when he had withdrawn from it. Deeply as he lamented 哀叹 the unfortunate 不幸的 attachment 附件 which had hindered 阻碍 the progress he might otherwise have made in her esteem 尊重 and regard, he firmly believed that it had remained unacknowledged in the past, and that it would remain, under all changes of circumstance 环境 which it was possible to contemplate 沉思, unacknowledged in the future. This was his absolute conviction 定罪; and the strongest proof 证明 he could give of it was the assurance 保证, which he now offered, that he felt no curiosity 好奇心 to know whether the attachment 附件 was of recent date or not, or who had been the object of it. His implicit 含蓄 confidence in Miss Fairlie made him satisfied with what she had thought fit to say to him, and he was honestly 诚实的 innocent 无辜 of the slightest feeling of anxiety to hear more.

He waited after saying those words and looked at me. I was so conscious of my unreasonable 不合理 prejudice 成见 against him—so conscious of an unworthy suspicion 3 that he might be speculating 推测 on my impulsively 浮躁 answering the very questions which he had just described himself as resolved 解决 not to ask—that I evaded 逃避 all reference to this part of the subject with something like a feeling of confusion 混乱 on my own part. At the same time I was resolved 解决 not to lose even the smallest opportunity of trying to plead 求情 Laura's cause, and I told him boldly 胆大的；醒目的 that I regretted 后悔 his generosity 慷慨 had not carried him one step farther, and induced 促使 him to with‧draw 撤回 from the engagement 订婚 altogether 全部地.

Here, again, he disarmed 撤防 me by not attempting to defend himself. He would merely beg me to remember the difference there was between his allowing Miss Fairlie to give him up, which was a matter of sub‧mission 服从 only, and his forcing himself to give up Miss Fairlie, which was, in other words, asking him to be the suicide of his own hopes. Her conduct 进行 of the day before had so strengthened 加强 the unchangeable love and admiration 钦佩 of two long years, that all active content‧ion 争夺 against those feelings, on his part, was hence‧forth 今后 entirely out of his power. I must think him weak, selfish 自私的, unfeeling towards the very woman whom 4 he idolised, and he must bow 弓 to my opinion as resignedly as he could—only putting it to me, at the same time, whether her future as a single woman, pining 松树 under an unhappily 不快乐 placed attachment 附件 which she could never acknowledge 确认, could be said to promise her a much brighter prospect 展望 than her future as the wife of a man who worshipped 崇拜 the very ground she walked on? In the last case there was hope from time, however slight it might be—in the first case, on her own showing, there was no hope at all.

I answered him—more because my tongue 舌头 is a woman's, and must answer, than because I had anything convincing 说服 to say. It was only too plain that the course Laura had adopted the day before had offered him the advantage if he chose to take it—and that he had chosen choose to take it. I felt this at the time, and I feel it just as strongly now, while I write these lines, in my own room. The one hope left is that his motives 动机 really spring, as he says they do, from the irresistible 不可抗拒 strength of his attachment 附件 to Laura.

Before I close my diary 日记 for to-night I must record that I wrote to-day, in poor Hartright's interest, to two of my mother's old friends in London—both men of influence and position. If they can do anything for him, I am quite sure they will. Except Laura, I never was more anxious 焦急的 about any one than I am now about Walter. All that has happened since he left us has only increased my strong regard and sympathy 同情 for him. I hope I am doing right in trying to help him to employment 雇用 abroad 到国外—I hope, most earnestly and anxiously 焦急的, that it will end well.

11th.—Sir Percival had an interview 访问 with Mr. Fairlie, and I was sent for to join them.

I found Mr. Fairlie greatly relieved 解除 at the prospect 展望 of the "family worry" (as he was pleased to describe his niece 外甥女's marriage) being settled at last. So far, I did not feel called on to say anything to him about my own opinion, but when he proceeded 继续, in his most aggravatingly languid manner, to suggest that the time for the marriage had better be settled next, in accordance 按照 with Sir Percival's wishes, I enjoyed the satisfaction 满足 of assailing Mr. Fairlie's nerves 神经 with as strong a protest 抗议 against hurrying Laura's decision as I could put into words. Sir Percival immediately assured me that he felt the force of my objection 反对, and begged 乞讨 me to believe that the proposal had not been made in consequence 后果 of any interference 干涉 on his part. Mr. Fairlie leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, said we both of us did honour to human nature, and then repeated his suggestion 建议 as coolly as if neither Sir Percival nor I had said a word in opposition 反对 to it. It ended in my flatly declining 下降 to mention the subject to Laura, unless she first approached it of her own accord. I left the room at once after making that declaration 宣言. Sir Percival looked seriously embarrassed 阻碍 and distressed 苦难, Mr. Fairlie stretched out his lazy 懒惰的 legs on his velvet 丝绒 foot‧stool 脚；英尺‧粪便, and said, "Dear Marian! how I envy 嫉妒 you your robust 强大的 nervous 担心的 system! Don't bang 砰 the door!"

On going to Laura's room I found that she had asked for me, and that Mrs. Vesey had informed her that I was with Mr. Fairlie. She inquired 打听 at once what I had been wanted for, and I told her all that had passed, without attempting to conceal 隐藏 the vexation and annoyance 恼怒 that I really felt. Her answer surprised and distressed 苦难 me inexpressibly—it was the very last reply that I should have expected her to make.

"My uncle 叔叔 is right," she said. "I have caused trouble and anxiety enough to you, and to all about me. Let me cause no more, Marian—let Sir Percival decide."

I remonstrated warmly, but nothing that I could say moved her.

"I am held to my engagement 订婚," she replied; "I have broken with my old life. The evil day will not come the less surely because I put it off. No, Marian! once again my uncle 叔叔 is right. I have caused trouble enough and anxiety enough, and I will cause no more."

She used to be pliability itself 本身, but she was now inflexibly passive 被动 in her resignation 辞职—I might almost say in her despair 绝望. Dearly as I love her, I should have been less pained if she had been violently agitated 激荡—it was so shockingly unlike 不像 her natural 自然 character to see her as cold and insensible as I saw her now.

12th.—Sir Percival put some questions to me at breakfast about Laura, which left me no choice but to tell him what she had said.

While we were talking she her‧self 她自己 came down and joined us. She was just as unnaturally 不自然 composed in Sir Percival's presence as she had been in mine. When breakfast was over he had an opportunity of saying a few words to her privately, in a recess 凹槽 of one of the windows. They were not more than two or three minutes together, and on their separating she left the room with Mrs. Vesey, while Sir Percival came to me. He said he had entreated her to favour him by maintaining 保持 her privilege 特权 of fixing the time for the marriage at her own will and pleasure. In reply she had merely expressed her acknowledgments 承认, and had desired him to mention what his wishes were to Miss Halcombe.

I have no patience 耐心 to write more. In this instance 例, as in every other, Sir Percival has carried his point with the utmost 极 possible credit 信用 to himself, in spite of everything that I can say or do. His wishes are now, what they were, of course, when he first came here; and Laura having resigned her‧self 她自己 to the one inevitable 必然 sacrifice 牺牲 of the marriage, remains as coldly hope‧less 绝望 and enduring 忍受 as ever. In parting with the little occupations 占用 and relics 遗迹 that reminded her of Hartright, she seems to have parted with all her tenderness 压痛 and all her impressibility. It is only three o' clock 钟 in the afternoon while I write these lines, and Sir Percival has left us already, in the happy hurry of a bridegroom, to prepare for the bride 新娘's reception 招待会 at his house in Hampshire. Unless some extra‧ordinary 非凡的 event happens to prevent it they will be married exactly at the time when he wished to be married—before the end of the year. My very fingers burn as I write it!

13th.—A sleep‧less 睡‧少 night, through uneasiness about Laura. Towards the morning I came to a resolution 解析度 to try what change of scene would do to rouse 唤醒 her. She cannot surely remain in her present torpor of insensibility, if I take her away from Limmeridge and surround her with the pleasant faces of old friends? After some consideration 考虑 I decided on writing to the Arnolds, in Yorkshire. They are simple, kind-hearted, hospitable people, and she has known them from her childhood 童年. When I had put the letter in the post-bag 袋 I told her what I had done. It would have been a relief to me if she had shown the spirit to resist 抵抗 and object. But no—she only said, "I will go any‧where 任何地方 with you, Marian. I dare 敢 say you are right—I dare say the change will do me good."

14th.—I wrote to Mr. Gilmore, informing him that there was really a prospect 展望 of this miserable 悲惨的 marriage taking place, and also mentioning my idea of trying what change of scene would do for Laura. I had no heart to go into particulars. Time enough for them when we get nearer to the end of the year.

15th.—Three letters for me. The first, from the Arnolds, full of delight at the prospect 展望 of seeing Laura and me. The second, from one of the gentlemen to whom 5 I wrote on Walter Hartright's behalf 代表, informing me that he has been fortunate 侥幸的 enough to find an opportunity of complying 执行 with my request. The third, from Walter himself, thanking me, poor fellow, in the warmest terms, for giving him an opportunity of leaving his home, his country, and his friends. A private expedition 远征 to make excavations 挖掘 among the ruined 破坏 cities of Central 中央 America is, it seems, about to sail 航行；帆 from Liverpool. The draughtsman who had been already appointed to accompany 陪 it has lost heart, and withdrawn at the eleventh hour, and Walter is to fill his place. He is to be engaged 从事 for six months certain, from the time of the landing in Honduras, and for a year after‧ward 之后, if the excavations 挖掘 are successful 成功, and if the funds 基金 hold out. His letter ends with a promise to write me a fare‧well 告别 line when they are all on board ship, and when the pilot 飞行员 leaves them. I can only hope and pray earnestly that he and I are both acting in this matter for the best. It seems such a serious step for him to take, that the mere contemplation of it startles 惊吓 me. And yet, in his unhappy 不快乐 position, how can I expect him or wish him to remain at home?

16th.—The carriage 运输 is at the door. Laura and I set out on our visit to the Arnolds to-day.

POLESDEAN LODGE 存放, YORKSHIRE.

23rd.—A week in these new scenes and among these kind-hearted people has done her some good, though not so much as I had hoped. I have resolved 解决 to pro‧long 延长 our stay for another week at least. It is use‧less 无用 to go back to Limmeridge till there is an absolute necessity 必须 for our return.

24th.—Sad news by this morning's post. The expedition 远征 to Central 中央 America sailed 航行；帆 on the twenty 二十-first. We have parted with a true man—we have lost a faithful 可信 friend. Water Hartright has left England.

25th.—Sad news yesterday—ominous 不祥的 news to-day. Sir Percival Glyde has written to Mr. Fairlie, and Mr. Fairlie has written to Laura and me, to recall 召回 us to Limmeridge immediately.

What can this mean? Has the day for the marriage been fixed in our absence 缺席?

II

LIMMERIDGE HOUSE.

November 27th.—My forebodings are realised. The marriage is fixed for the twenty 二十-second of December.

The day after we left for Polesdean Lodge 存放 Sir Percival wrote, it seems, to Mr. Fairlie, to say that the necessary repairs 修理 and alterations 改造 in his house in Hampshire would occupy 占据 a much longer time in completion than he had originally 本来 anticipated 预期. The proper estimates 估计 were to be submitted 给 to him as soon as possible, and it would greatly facilitate 促进 his entering into definite 定 arrangements 安排 with the work‧people 工作‧人们, if he could be informed of the exact period at which the wedding 结婚 ceremony 典礼 might be expected to take place. He could then make all his calculations 计算 in reference to time, besides writing the necessary apologies 道歉认错 to friends who had been engaged 从事 to visit him that winter, and who could not, of course, be received when the house was in the hands of the workmen.

To this letter Mr. Fairlie had replied by requesting Sir Percival himself to suggest a day for the marriage, subject to Miss Fairlie's approval 批准；同意；赞成, which her guardian 监护人 willingly 甘心 undertook to do his best to obtain 获得. Sir Percival wrote back by the next post, and proposed (in accordance 按照 with his own views and wishes from the first?) the latter part of December—perhaps the twenty 二十-second, or twenty 二十-fourth, or any other day that the lady and her guardian 监护人 might prefer. The lady not being at hand to speak for her‧self 她自己, her guardian 监护人 had decided, in her absence, on the earliest day mentioned—the twenty 二十-second of December, and had written to recall 召回 us to Limmeridge in consequence 后果.

After explaining these particulars to me at a private interview 访问 yesterday, Mr. Fairlie suggested, in his most amiable 可亲 manner, that I should open the necessary negotiations 谈判 to-day. Feeling that resistance 抵抗 was use‧less 无用, unless I could first obtain 获得 Laura's authority 权威 to make it, I consented 同意 to speak to her, but declared, at the same time, that I would on no consideration 考虑 under‧take 承担 to gain her consent 同意 to Sir Percival's wishes. Mr. Fairlie complimented 赞扬 me on my "excellent conscience 良心," much as he would have complimented 赞扬 me, if he had been out walking, on my "excellent constitution 宪法," and seemed perfectly satisfied, so far, with having simply shifted 转移 one more family responsibility 责任 from his own shoulders to mine.

This morning I spoke to Laura as I had promised. The composure—I may almost say, the insensibility—which she has so strangely and so resolutely maintained 保持 ever since Sir Percival left us, was not proof 证明 against the shock of the news I had to tell her. She turned pale and trembled violently.

"Not so soon!" she pleaded 求情. "Oh, Marian, not so soon!"

The slightest hint 暗示 she could give was enough for me. I rose to leave the room, and fight her battle for her at once with Mr. Fairlie.

Just as my hand was on the door, she caught catch fast hold of my dress and stopped me.

"Let me go!" I said. "My tongue 舌头 burns to tell your uncle that he and Sir Percival are not to have it all their own way."

She sighed 叹 bitterly, and still held my dress.

"No!" she said faintly 微弱的. "Too late, Marian, too late!"

"Not a minute too late," I retorted 反驳. "The question of time is our question—and trust me, Laura, to take a woman's full advantage of it."

I unclasped her hand from my gown 袍 while I spoke; but she slipped both her arms round my waist 腰 at the same moment, and held me more effectually than ever.

"It will only involve us in more trouble and more confusion," she said. "It will set you and my uncle at variance 方差, and bring Sir Percival here again with fresh causes of complaint 抱怨—"

"So much the better!" I cried out passionately 热情. "Who cares for his causes of complaint? Are you to break your heart to set his mind at ease? No man under heaven 天 deserves 应受 these sacrifices 牺牲 from us women. Men! They are the enemies of our innocence 无辜 and our peace—they drag 拖拽 us away from our parents' love and our sisters 姐妹' friend‧ship 友情—they take us body and soul to themselves, and fasten 系牢 our help‧less 无助 lives to theirs as they chain up a dog to his kennel. And what does the best of them give us in return? Let me go, Laura—I'm mad 疯狂的 when I think of it!"

The tears— miserable 悲惨的, weak, women's tears of vexation and rage 愤怒—started to my eyes. She smiled sadly, and put her handkerchief 手帕 over my face to hide for me the betrayal 辜负 of my own weakness 弱点—the weakness 弱点 of all others which she knew that I most despised 讨厌.

"Oh, Marian!" she said. "You crying! Think what you would say to me, if the places were changed, and if those tears were mine. All your love and courage and devotion 忠诚 will not alter 改变 what must happen, sooner or later. Let my uncle have his way. Let us have no more troubles and heart-burnings that any sacrifice of mine can prevent. Say you will live with me, Marian, when I am married—and say no more."

But I did say more. I forced back the contemptible tears that were no relief to me, and that only distressed 苦难 her, and reasoned and pleaded 求情 as calmly 镇定的 as I could. It was of no avail 果. She made me twice 两次 repeat the promise to live with her when she was married, and then suddenly asked a question which turned my sorrow 悲痛 and my sympathy 同情 for her into a new direction.

"While we were at Polesdean," she said, "you had a letter, Marian——"

Her altered 改变 tone 音—the abrupt 突兀 manner in which she looked away from me and hid hide her face on my shoulder—the hesitation 犹豫 which silenced her before she had completed her question, all told me, but too plainly, to whom the half-expressed inquiry 调查 pointed.

"I thought, Laura, that you and I were never to refer to him again," I said gently.

"You had a letter from him?" she persisted 坚持.

"Yes," I replied, "if you must know it."

"Do you mean to write to him again?"

I hesitated. I had been afraid to tell her of his absence from England, or of the manner in which my exertions to serve his new hopes and projects 项目 had connected 连接 me with his departure 离开. What answer could I make? He was gone where no letters could reach him for months, perhaps for years, to come.

"Suppose I do mean to write to him again," I said at last. "What then, Laura?"

Her cheek 脸颊 grew burning hot against my neck, and her arms trembled and tightened 收紧 round me.

"Don't tell him about the twenty 二十-second," she whispered. "Promise, Marian—pray promise you will not even mention my name to him when you write next."

I gave the promise. No words can say how sorrow‧fully 悲痛‧完全地 I gave it. She instantly took her arm from my waist 腰, walked away to the window, and stood looking out with her back to me. After a moment she spoke once more, but without turning round, without allowing me to catch the smallest glimpse 一瞥 of her face.

"Are you going to my uncle's room?" she asked. "Will you say that I consent 同意 to whatever arrangement 安排 he may think best? Never mind leaving me, Marian. I shall be better alone for a little while."

I went out. If, as soon as I got into the passage, I could have transported 运输 Mr. Fairlie and Sir Percival Glyde to the utter‧most 说出‧最 ends of the earth by lifting one of my fingers, that finger would have been raised without an instant 瞬间's hesitation 犹豫. For once my unhappy 不快乐 temper now stood my friend. I should have broken down altogether 全部地 and burst 爆裂 into a violent 猛烈 fit of crying, if my tears had not been all burnt burn up in the heat of my anger 生气. As it was, I dashed 短跑 into Mr. Fairlie's room—called to him as harshly 粗暴地 as possible, "Laura consents 同意 to the twenty 二十-second"—and dashed 短跑 out again without waiting for a word of answer. I banged 砰 the door after me, and I hope I shattered 打碎 Mr. Fairlie's nervous 担心的 system for the rest of the day.

28th.—This morning I read poor Hartright's fare‧well 告别 letter over again, a doubt having crossed my mind since yesterday, whether I am acting wisely 明智的；聪明的 in concealing 隐藏 the fact of his departure 离开 from Laura.

On reflection 反映, I still think I am right. The allusions 典故 in his letter to the preparations 制备 made for the expedition 远征 to Central 中央 America, all show that the leaders 领导 of it know it to be dangerous 危险. If the discovery 发现 of this makes me uneasy 不安, what would it make her? It is bad enough to feel that his departure 离开 has deprived 剥夺 us of the friend of all others to whose 谁的 devotion 忠诚 we could trust in the hour of need, if ever that hour comes and finds us help‧less 无助; but it is far worse to know that he has gone from us to face the perils 岌 of a bad climate 气候, a wild country, and a disturbed 打扰 population. Surely it would be a cruel 残酷的 candour to tell Laura this, without a pressing and a positive 正 necessity 必须 for it?

I almost doubt whether I ought not to go a step farther, and burn the letter at once, for fear of its one day falling into wrong hands. It not only refers to Laura in terms which ought to remain a secret for ever between the writer and me, but it reiterates 重申 his suspicion—so obstinate, so unaccountable, and so alarming 警告—that he has been secretly watched since he left Limmeridge. He declares that he saw the faces of the two strange men who followed him about the streets of London, watching him among the crowd which gathered at Liverpool to see the expedition 远征 embark 从事, and he positively 积极 asserts 断言 that he heard the name of Anne Catherick pronounced 发音 behind him as he got into the boat. His own words are, "These events have a meaning, these events must lead to a result. The mystery of Anne Catherick is not cleared up yet. She may never cross my path 小路 again, but if ever she crosses yours, make better use of the opportunity, Miss Halcombe, than I made of it. I speak on strong conviction 定罪—I entreat you to remember what I say." These are his own expressions. There is no danger of my forgetting them—my memory is only too ready to dwell 住 on any words of Hartright's that refer to Anne Catherick. But there is danger in my keeping the letter. The merest accident 意外事件 might place it at the mercy 宽容 of strangers 陌生人. I may fall ill 生病—I may die. Better to burn it at once, and have one anxiety the less.

It is burnt. The ashes 灰 of his fare‧well 告别 letter—the last he may ever write to me—lie in a few black fragments 分段 on the hearth 炉. Is this the sad end to all that sad story? Oh, not the end—surely, surely not the end already!

29th.—The preparations 制备 for the marriage have begun. The dress‧maker 衣服‧制作者 has come to receive her orders. Laura is perfectly impassive, perfectly care‧less 粗心 about the question of all others in which a woman's personal 个人 interests are most closely bound 必定；跳 up. She has left it all to the dress‧maker 衣服‧制作者 and to me. If poor Hartright had been the baronet, and the husband of her father's choice, how differently she would have behaved 表现! How anxious 焦急的 and capricious she would have been, and what a hard task 任务 the best of dressmakers would have found it to please her!

30th.—We hear every day from Sir Percival. The last news is that the alterations 改造 in his house will occupy 占据 from four to six months before they can be properly completed. If painters 画家, paperhangers, and upholsterers could make happiness 幸福 as well as splendour, I should be interested about their proceedings 继续 in Laura's future home. As it is, the only part of Sir Percival's last letter which does not leave me as it found me, perfectly indifferent 冷漠 to all his plans and projects 项目, is the part which refers to the wedding 结婚 tour. He proposes, as Laura is delicate 微妙的；纤弱的, and as the winter threatens to be unusually 异常 severe 严峻的, to take her to Rome, and to remain in Italy until the early part of next summer. If this plan should not be approved, he is equally ready, although he has no establishment 机构 of his own in town, to spend the season in London, in the most suit‧able 适当 furnished house that can be obtained 获得 for the purpose.

Putting myself 我 and my own feelings entirely out of the question (which it is my duty to do, and which I have done), I, for one, have no doubt of the propriety of adopting the first of these proposals. In either case a separation 分离 between Laura and me is inevitable 必然. It will be a longer separation, in the event of their going abroad 到国外, than it would be in the event of their remaining in London—but we must set against this disadvantage 坏处 the benefit 效益 to Laura, on the other side, of passing the winter in a mild 温柔的 climate 气候, and more than that, the immense 极大的 assistance 帮助 in raising her spirits, and reconciling 调和 her to her new existence, which the mere wonder and excitement 激动 of travelling for the first time in her life in the most interesting country in the world, must surely afford 买得起. She is not of a disposition 性格 to find resources 资源 in the conventional 传统的；常规的；普通的 gaieties and excitements 激动 of London. They would only make the first oppression 压迫 of this lament‧able 哀叹‧能够的 marriage fall the heavier on her. I dread 恐惧 the beginning of her new life more than words can tell, but I see some hope for her if she travels—none if she remains at home.

It is strange to look back at this latest entry 条目 in my journal 日志, and to find that I am writing of the marriage and the parting with Laura, as people write of a settled thing. It seems so cold and so unfeeling to be looking at the future already in this cruelly 残酷的 composed way. But what other way is possible, now that the time is drawing so near? Before another month is over our heads she will be his Laura instead of mine! His Laura! I am as little able to realise the idea which those two words convey 传达—my mind feels almost as dulled 钝的；没兴趣 and stunned 击晕 by it—as if writing of her marriage were like writing of her death.

December 1st.—A sad, sad day—a day that I have no heart to describe at any length. After weakly putting it off last night, I was obliged 责成 to speak to her this morning of Sir Percival's proposal about the wedding 结婚 tour.

In the full conviction 定罪 that I should be with her wherever 随地 she went, the poor child—for a child she is still in many things—was almost happy at the prospect 展望 of seeing the wonders of Florence and Rome and Naples. It nearly broke my heart to dispel 打消 her delusion 妄想, and to bring her face to face with the hard truth. I was obliged 责成 to tell her that no man tolerates 容忍 a rival 对手—not even a woman rival—in his wife's affect‧ion 感情, when he first marries, whatever he may do after‧ward 之后. I was obliged 责成 to warn her that my chance of living with her permanently 永久 under her own roof, depended entirely on my not arousing 引起 Sir Percival's jealousy 妒忌 and distrust 怀疑 by standing between them at the beginning of their marriage, in the position of the chosen depositary of his wife's closest secrets. Drop by drop I poured 淋；倒 the profaning bitterness 苦味 of this world's wisdom 智慧 into that pure heart and that innocent 无辜 mind, while every higher and better feeling within me recoiled from my miserable 3 task 任务. It is over now. She has learnt learn her hard, her inevitable 必然 lesson 教训. The simple illusions 错觉 of her girl‧hood 女孩‧引擎罩 are gone, and my hand has stripped them off. Better mine than his—that is all my consolation 安慰—better mine than his.

So the first proposal is the proposal accepted. They are to go to Italy, and I am to arrange, with Sir Percival's per‧mission 允许, for meeting them and staying with them when they return to England. In other words, I am to ask a personal 个人 favour, for the first time in my life, and to ask it of the man of all others to whom I least desire to owe 欠…债 a serious obligation 义务；责任；职责 of any kind. Well! I think I could do even more than that, for Laura's sake.

2nd.—On looking back, I find myself 我 always referring to Sir Percival in disparaging terms. In the turn affairs have now taken. I must and will root out my prejudice 成见 against him, I cannot think how it first got into my mind. It certainly never existed in former times.

Is it Laura's reluctance 不情愿 to become his wife that has set me against him? Have Hartright's perfectly intelligible prejudices 成见 infected 感染 me without my suspecting 怀疑；嫌疑犯 their influence? Does that letter of Anne Catherick's still leave a lurking 匿伏 distrust 怀疑 in my mind, in spite of Sir Percival's explanation 说明, and of the proof 证明 in my possession 所有物 of the truth of it? I cannot account for the state of my own feelings; the one thing I am certain of is, that it is my duty—doubly my duty now—not to wrong Sir Percival by unjustly 不公 distrusting 怀疑 him. If it has got to be a habit 习惯 with me always to write of him in the same unfavourable manner, I must and will break myself 我 of this unworthy tendency 趋势, even though the effort should force me to close the pages of my journal 日志 till the marriage is over! I am seriously dissatisfied 使不满意 with myself 我—I will write no more to-day.

December 16th.—A whole fort‧night 两星期 has passed, and I have not once opened these pages. I have been long enough away from my journal 日志 to come back to it with a healthier 健康 and better mind, I hope, so far as Sir Percival is concerned.

There is not much to record of the past two weeks. The dresses are almost all finished, and the new travelling trunks 树干 have been sent here from London. Poor dear Laura hardly leaves me for a moment all day, and last night, when neither of us could sleep, she came and crept 爬行:creep into my bed to talk to me there. "I shall lose you so soon, Marian," she said; "I must make the most of you while I can."

They are to be married at Limmeridge Church, and thank Heaven 天, not one of the neighbours is to be invited to the ceremony 典礼. The only visitor 访问者 will be our old friend, Mr. Arnold, who is to come from Polesdean to give Laura away, her uncle being far too delicate 微妙的；纤弱的 to trust himself outside the door in such inclement weather as we now have. If I were not determined, from this day forth, to see nothing but the bright side of our prospects 展望, the melancholy 愁绪 absence of any male 男性的 relative of Laura's, at the most important moment of her life, would make me very gloomy 阴沉 and very distrustful of the future. But I have done with gloom 愁云 and distrust 怀疑—that is to say, I have done with writing about either the one or the other in this journal 日志.

Sir Percival is to arrive to-morrow. He offered, in case we wished to treat him on terms of rigid 死板 etiquette, to write and ask our clergy‧man 牧师 to grant 发放 him the hospitality 待客 of the rectory, during the short period of his sojourn at Limmeridge, before the marriage. Under the circumstances 环境, neither Mr. Fairlie nor I thought it at all necessary for us to trouble ourselves 我们自己 about attending to trifling 琐事 forms and ceremonies 典礼. In our wild moor‧land 泊‧陆地；着陆 country, and in this great lonely 孤独的 house, we may well claim to be beyond the reach of the trivial 不重要的 conventionalities which hamper 阻碍 people in other places. I wrote to Sir Percival to thank him for his polite 有礼貌的 offer, and to beg that he would occupy 占据 his old rooms, just as usual, at Limmeridge House.

17th.—He arrived to-day, looking, as I thought, a little worn and anxious 3, but still talking and laughing like a man in the best possible spirits. He brought with him some really beautiful 美丽 presents in jewellery, which Laura received with her best grace 优雅；惠赐, and, outwardly 向外的 at least, with perfect self 自己- possession 所有物. The only sign I can detect 发现，察觉，看出 of the struggle it must cost her to preserve appearances at this trying time, expresses itself 本身 in a sudden unwillingness 不愿意, on her part, ever to be left alone. Instead of retreating 撤退 to her own room, as usual, she seems to dread 恐惧 going there. When I went upstairs 楼上 to-day, after lunch 午餐, to put on my bonnet 帽子 for a walk, she volunteered 志愿者 to join me, and again, before dinner, she threw the door open between our two rooms, so that we might talk to each other while we were dressing. "Keep me always doing something," she said; "keep me always in company with somebody. Don't let me think—that is all I ask now, Marian—don't let me think."

This sad change in her only increases her attractions 吸引 for Sir Percival. He interprets 翻译，弄清含义 it, I can see, to his own advantage. There is a feverish flush 红晕 in her cheeks 脸颊, a feverish brightness 亮度 in her eyes, which he welcomes as the return of her beauty and the recovery 失而复得 of her spirits. She talked to-day at dinner with a gaiety 快乐 and carelessness so false 虚伪的, so shockingly out of her character, that I secretly longed to silence her and take her away. Sir Percival's delight and surprise appeared to be beyond all expression. The anxiety which I had noticed on his face when he arrived totally disappeared 不见 from it, and he looked, even to my eyes, a good ten 十 years younger than he really is.

There can be no doubt—though some strange perversity prevents me from seeing it myself 我—there can be no doubt that Laura's future husband is a very hand‧some 英俊 man. Regular features 特征 form a personal 个人 advantage to begin with—and he has them. Bright brown eyes, either in man or woman, are a great attraction 吸引—and he has them. Even baldness, when it is only baldness over the fore‧head 前额 (as in his case), is rather becoming than not in a man, for it heightens 变高 the head and adds to the intelligence 情报 of the face. Grace 优雅；惠赐 and ease of movement 运动, untiring animation 动画 of manner, ready, pliant, conversational 对话的 powers—all these are unquestionable merits 值得, and all these he certainly possesses 拥有. Surely Mr. Gilmore, ignorant 愚昧 as he is of Laura's secret, was not to blame for feeling surprised that she should repent of her marriage engagement 订婚? Any one else in his place would have shared our good old friend's opinion. If I were asked, at this moment, to say plainly what defects 缺陷 I have discovered in Sir Percival, I could only point out two. One, his incessant restlessness and excitability—which may be caused, naturally 自然地 enough, by unusual 异常 energy 能源 of character. The other, his short, sharp, ill 生病-tempered 性情 manner of speaking to the servants 仆人—which may be only a bad habit 习惯 after all. No, I cannot dispute 争议 it, and I will not dispute 争议 it—Sir Percival is a very hand‧some 英俊 and a very agree‧able 合适的 man. There! I have written it down at last, and I am glad 高兴的 it's over.

18th.—Feeling weary 厌倦 and depressed 压抑 this morning, I left Laura with Mrs. Vesey, and went out alone for one of my brisk 轻快 midday 正午 walks, which I have discontinued 中止 too much of late. I took the dry airy 轻快的 road over the moor 泊 that leads to Todd's Corner. After having been out half an hour, I was excessively 过度的 surprised to see Sir Percival approaching me from the direction of the farm. He was walking rapidly, swinging his stick, his head erect 直立 as usual, and his shooting jacket 衣服 flying open in the wind. When we met he did not wait for me to ask any questions—he told me at once that he had been to the farm to inquire 打听 if Mr. or Mrs. Todd had received any tidings 潮汐, since his last visit to Limmeridge, of Anne Catherick.

"You found, of course, that they had heard nothing?" I said.

"Nothing whatever," he replied. "I begin to be seriously afraid that we have lost her. Do you happen to know," he continued, looking me in the face very attentively "if the artist 艺术家—Mr. Hartright—is in a position to give us any further information?"

"He has neither heard of her, nor seen her, since he left Cumberland," I answered.

"Very sad," said Sir Percival, speaking like a man who was disappointed 使失望, and yet, oddly 奇怪 enough, looking at the same time like a man who was relieved. "It is impossible to say what misfortunes 不幸 may not have happened to the miserable creature 动物；生物. I am inexpressibly annoyed 打扰 at the failure of all my efforts to restore 修复；使复位；使复职 her to the care and protection which she so urgently 急迫的 needs."

This time he really looked annoyed. I said a few sympathising words, and we then talked of other subjects on our way back to the house. Surely my chance meeting with him on the moor 泊 has disclosed 透露 another favourable trait 特征 in his character? Surely it was singularly 单数 considerate and unselfish of him to think of Anne Catherick on the eve 前夕 of his marriage, and to go all the way to Todd's Corner to make inquiries 调查 about her, when he might have passed the time so much more agree‧able 合适的 in Laura's society? Considering that he can only have acted from motives 动机 of pure charity 慈善, his conduct 进行, under the circumstances 环境, shows unusual 异常 good feeling and deserves extra‧ordinary 非凡的 praise 赞扬. Well! I give him extraordinary 3 praise—and there's an end of it.

19th.—More discoveries 发现 in the inexhaustible mine of Sir Percival's virtues 美德.

To-day I approached the subject of my proposed sojourn under his wife's roof when he brings her back to England. I had hardly dropped my first hint 暗示 in this direction before he caught me warmly by the hand, and said I had made the very offer to him which he had been, on his side, most anxious to make to me. I was the companion 同伴 of all others whom he most sincerely longed to secure 安全 for his wife, and he begged me to believe that I had conferred 授予 a lasting favour on him by making the proposal to live with Laura after her marriage, exactly as I had always lived with her before it.

When I had thanked him in her name and mine for his considerate kindness 善良 to both of us, we passed next to the subject of his wedding 结婚 tour, and began to talk of the English society in Rome to which Laura was to be introduced. He ran over the names of several friends whom he expected to meet abroad this winter. They were all English, as well as I can remember, with one exception. The one exception was Count Fosco.

The mention of the Count's name, and the discovery that he and his wife are likely to meet the bride 新娘 and bridegroom on the continent 大陆, puts Laura's marriage, for the first time, in a distinctly 历历 favourable light. It is likely to be the means of healing 治愈 a family feud 世仇. Hitherto Madame Fosco has chosen to forget her obligations 义务；责任；职责 as Laura's aunt 阿姨 out of sheer spite against the late Mr. Fairlie for his conduct 进行 in the affair of the legacy 遗产. Now however, she can persist 坚持 in this course of conduct 进行 no longer. Sir Percival and Count Fosco are old and fast friends, and their wives will have no choice but to meet on civil 国内 terms. Madame Fosco in her maiden 少女 days was one of the most impertinent women I ever met with—capricious, exacting, and vain 徒劳的 to the last degree of absurdity. If her husband has succeeded in bringing her to her senses, he deserves the gratitude 感谢 of every member of the family, and he may have mine to begin with.

I am becoming anxious to know the Count. He is the most intimate 亲密 friend of Laura's husband, and in that capacity 容量 he excites my strongest interest. Neither Laura nor I have ever seen him. All I know of him is that his accidental 偶然 presence, years ago, on the steps of the Trinita del Monte at Rome, assisted 帮助；协助；援助 Sir Percival's escape from robbery 抢劫案 and assassination 暗杀 at the critical 危急 moment when he was wounded 创伤 in the hand, and might the next instant 瞬间 have been wounded in the heart. I remember also that, at the time of the late Mr. Fairlie's absurd 荒诞 objections to his sister's marriage, the Count wrote him a very temperate 适度的 and sensible 明智 letter on the subject, which, I am ashamed 惭愧的 to say, remained unanswered 悬而未决. This is all I know of Sir Percival's friend. I wonder if he will ever come to England? I wonder if I shall like him?

My pen 笔 is running away into mere speculation 推测. Let me return to sober 清醒 matter of fact. It is certain that Sir Percival's reception 招待会 of my venture‧some 企业；投机活动；商业冒险‧一些 proposal to live with his wife was more than kind, it was almost affectionate 亲热. I am sure Laura's husband will have no reason to complain 抱怨 of me if I can only go on as I have begun. I have already declared him to be hand‧some 英俊, agree‧able 合适的, full of good feeling towards the unfortunate 不幸的 and full of affectionate 亲热 kindness 善良 towards me. Really, I hardly know myself 我 again, in my new character of Sir Percival's warmest friend.

20th.—I hate Sir Percival! I flatly deny 拒绝 his good looks. I consider him to be eminently 杰出 ill-tempered and disagree‧able 不同意‧能够的, and totally wanting in kindness 善良 and good feeling. Last night the cards for the married couple were sent home. Laura opened the packet 包 and saw her future name in print for the first time. Sir Percival looked over her shoulder familiarly at the new card which had already transformed 使彻底改观；使大变样 Miss Fairlie into Lady Glyde—smiled with the most odious self-complacency 自满, and whispered something in her ear. I don't know what it was—Laura has refused to tell me—but I saw her face turn to such a deadly whiteness that I thought she would have fainted 微弱的. He took no notice of the change—he seemed to be barbarously unconscious 无意识 that he had said anything to pain her. All my old feelings of hostility 敌意 towards him revived 复活 on the instant, and all the hours that have passed since have done nothing to dissipate 消散 them. I am more unreasonable 不合理 and more unjust 不公 than ever. In three words—how glibly my pen 笔 writes them!—in three words, I hate him.

21st.—Have the anxieties 焦虑 of this anxious time shaken me a little, at last? I have been writing, for the last few days, in a tone 音 of levity which, Heaven knows, is far enough from my heart, and which it has rather shocked me to discover on looking back at the entries 条目 in my journal 日志.

Perhaps I may have caught the feverish excitement 激动 of Laura's spirits for the last week. If so, the fit has already passed away from me, and has left me in a very strange state of mind. A persistent 一贯 idea has been forcing itself 本身 on my attention, ever since last night, that something will yet happen to prevent the marriage. What has produced this singular 单数 fancy 想像? Is it the indirect 间接 result of my apprehensions 顾虑 for Laura's future? Or has it been unconsciously 不知不觉 suggested to me by the increasing 增加 restlessness and irritability which I have certainly observed in Sir Percival's manner as the wedding 结婚-day draws nearer and nearer? Impossible to say. I know that I have the idea—surely the wildest idea, under the circumstances 环境, that ever entered a woman's head?—but try as I may, I cannot trace 跟踪 it back to its source 资源.

This last day has been all confusion and wretchedness. How can I write about it?—and yet, I must write. Anything is better than brooding 窝 over my own gloomy 阴沉 thoughts.

Kind Mrs. Vesey, whom we have all too much over‧look 俯瞰 and forgotten of late, innocently 无辜 caused us a sad morning to begin with. She has been, for months past, secretly making a warm Shetland shawl for her dear pupil 学生—a most beautiful 美丽 and surprising piece of work to be done by a woman at her age and with her habits. The gift 赠品 was presented this morning, and poor warm-hearted Laura completely broke down when the shawl was put proudly on her shoulders by the loving old friend and guardian 监护人 of her mother‧less 母亲‧少 childhood 童年. I was hardly allowed time to quiet them both, or even to dry my own eyes, when I was sent for by Mr. Fairlie, to be favoured with a long recital 演奏会 of his arrangements 安排 for the preservation 保存 of his own tranquillity on the wedding 结婚-day.

"Dear Laura" was to receive his present—a shabby 破旧 ring, with her affectionate 亲热 uncle's hair for an ornament 装饰, instead of a precious 宝贵的 stone, and with a heart‧less 心‧少 French inscription 题词 inside, about congenial sentiments 情绪 and eternal 永恒 friend‧ship 友情—"dear Laura" was to receive this tender 纤弱的 tribute 贡 from my hands immediately, so that she might have plenty of time to recover 恢复 from the agitation 搅动 produced by the gift 赠品 before she appeared in Mr. Fairlie's presence. "Dear Laura" was to pay him a little visit that evening, and to be kind enough not to make a scene. "Dear Laura" was to pay him another little visit in her wedding 结婚-dress the next morning, and to be kind enough, again, not to make a scene. "Dear Laura" was to look in once more, for the third time, before going away, but without harrowing his feelings by saying when she was going away, and without tears—"in the name of pity 怜悯, in the name of everything, dear Marian, that is most affectionate 亲热 and most domestic 国内, and most delightfully 愉快 and charmingly self-composed, without tears!" I was so exasperated 恶化 by this miserable selfish 自私的 trifling 琐事, at such a time, that I should certainly have shocked Mr. Fairlie by some of the hardest and rudest 粗鲁的 truths he has ever heard in his life, if the arrival 到达 of Mr. Arnold from Polesdean had not called me away to new duties downstairs 楼下.

The rest of the day is indescribable. I believe no one in the house really knew how it passed. The confusion of small events, all huddled 乱堆 together one on the other, bewildered 困惑 everybody. There were dresses sent home that had been forgotten—there were trunks to be packed and unpacked 解压 and packed again—there were presents from friends far and near, friends high and low. We were all need‧less 不必要 hurried, all nervously 担心的 expect‧ant 期望‧蚂蚁 of the morrow. Sir Percival, especially, was too rest‧less 不安 now to remain five minutes together in the same place. That short, sharp cough 咳嗽 of his troubled him more than ever. He was in and out of doors all day long, and he seemed to grow so inquisitive on a sudden, that he questioned the very strangers 陌生人 who came on small errands 使命 to the house. Add to all this, the one perpetual 永动的 thought in Laura's mind and mine, that we were to part the next day, and the haunting 出没 dread 恐惧, unexpressed by either of us, and yet ever present to both, that this deplorable marriage might prove to be the one fatal 致命 error 错误 of her life and the one hope‧less 绝望 sorrow 悲痛 of mine. For the first time in all the years of our close and happy inter‧course 交往 we almost avoided looking each other in the face, and we ref‧rain 副歌, by common consent 同意, from speaking together in private through the whole evening. I can dwell 住 on it no longer. Whatever future sorrows 悲痛 may be in store for me, I shall always look back on this twenty 二十-first of December as the most comfort‧less 安慰‧少 and most miserable day of my life.

I am writing these lines in the solitude 孤独 of my own room, long after mid‧night 午夜, having just come back from a stolen look at Laura in her pretty little white bed—the bed she has occupied 占据 since the days of her girl‧hood 女孩‧引擎罩.

There she lay, unconscious 无意识 that I was looking at her—quiet, more quiet than I had dared 敢 to hope, but not sleeping. The glimmer of the night-light showed me that her eyes were only partially 部分 closed—the traces 跟踪 of tears glistened 闪亮 between her eyelids 眼皮. My little keep‧sake 保持‧缘故—only a brooch—lay on the table at her bed‧side 床头, with her prayer-book, and the miniature 微型 portrait 肖像 of her father which she takes with her wherever 随地 she goes. I waited a moment, looking at her from behind her pillow 枕头, as she lay beneath 之下 me, with one arm and hand resting on the white cover‧lid 覆盖‧盖子, so still, so quietly breathing 呼吸, that the frill on her night-dress never moved—I waited, looking at her, as I have seen her thou‧sand 千 of times, as I shall never see her again—and then stole back to my room. My own love! with all your wealth 财产, and all your beauty, how friend‧less 朋友‧少 you are! The one man who would give his heart's life to serve you is far away, tossing 折腾, this stormy 暴风雨 night, on the awful 糟糕的 sea. Who else is left to you? No father, no brother—no living creature 动物；生物 but the help‧less 无助, use‧less 无用 woman who writes these sad lines, and watches by you for the morning, in sorrow 4 that she cannot compose, in doubt that she cannot conquer 征服. Oh, what a trust is to be placed in that man's hands to-morrow! If ever he forgets it—if ever he injures 损伤 a hair of her head!——

THE TWENTY-SECOND OF DECEMBER. Seven 七 o'clock 3. A wild, unsettled 搞糟 morning. She has just risen rise—better and calmer 镇定的, now that the time has come, than she was yesterday.

Ten 十 o'clock. She is dressed. We have kissed each other—we have promised each other not to lose courage. I am away for a moment in my own room. In the whirl 旋转 and confusion of my thoughts, I can detect 发现，察觉，看出 that strange fancy 想像 of some hindrance 妨害 happening to stop the marriage still hanging about my mind. Is it hanging about his mind too? I see him from the window, moving hither and thither uneasily 不安 among the carriages 运输 at the door.—How can I write such folly 蠢事! The marriage is a certainty 确定性. In less than half an hour we start for the church.

Eleven o'clock. It is all over. They are married.

Three o'clock. They are gone! I am blind with crying—I can write no more——

---

[The First Epoch of the Story closes here.]

THE SECOND EPOCH

THE STORY CONTINUED BY MARIAN HALCOMBE.

I

BLACKWATER PARK, HAMPSHIRE.

June 11th, 1850.—Six months to look back on—six long, lonely 孤独的 months since Laura and I last saw each other!

How many days have I still to wait? Only one! To-morrow, the twelfth, the travellers return to England. I can hardly realise my own happiness 幸福—I can hardly believe that the next four-and-twenty 二十 hours will complete the last day of separation 分离 between Laura and me.

She and her husband have been in Italy all the winter, and after‧ward 之后 in the Tyrol. They come back, accompanied 陪 by Count Fosco and his wife, who propose to settle somewhere in the neighbourhood of London, and who have engaged 从事 to stay at Blackwater Park for the summer months before deciding on a place of residence 住宅. So long as Laura returns, no matter who returns with her. Sir Percival may fill the house from floor to ceiling 天花板, if he likes, on condition that his wife and I inhabit 居住于 it together.

Meanwhile 同时, here I am, established 建立 at Blackwater Park, "the ancient and interesting seat" (as the county 县 history obligingly informs me) "of Sir Percival Glyde, Bart.," and the future abiding 遵守-place (as I may now venture 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 to add on my account) of plain Marian Halcombe, spinster, now settled in a snug little sitting-room, with a cup of tea 茶水 by her side, and all her earthly possessions 所有物 ranged round her in three boxes and abag 袋.

I left Limmeridge yesterday, having received Laura's delightful 愉快 letter from Paris the day before. I had been previously 先前 uncertain 不确定 whether I was to meet them in London or in Hampshire, but this last letter informed me that Sir Percival proposed to land at Southampton, and to travel straight on to his country-house. He has spent spend so much money abroad that he has none left to defray the expenses of living in London for the remainder 余 of the season, and he is economically 经济 resolved 解决 to pass the summer and autumn 秋 quietly at Blackwater. Laura has had more than enough of excitement 激动 and change of scene, and is pleased at the prospect 展望 of country tranquillity and retirement 退休 which her husband's prudence provides for her. As for me, I am ready to be happy any‧where 任何地方 in her society. We are all, therefore, well contented in our various ways, to begin with.

Last night I slept sleep in London, and was delayed 延迟 there so long to-day by various calls and commissions 佣金, that I did not reach Blackwater this evening till after dusk 黄昏.

Judging by my vague 模糊 impressions 印象 of the place thus far, it is the exact opposite of Limmeridge.

The house is situated 位于 on a dead flat, and seems to be shut 关闭 in—almost suffocated 窒息, to my north-country notions 概念, by trees. I have seen nobody but the man-servant 仆人 who opened the door to me, and the house‧keep 管家, a very civil 国内 person, who showed me the way to my own room, and got me my tea. I have a nice little boudoir and bed‧room 卧室, at the end of a long passage on the first floor. The servants and some of the spare 3 rooms are on the second floor, and all the living rooms are on the ground floor. I have not seen one of them yet, and I know nothing about the house, except that one wing 翅膀 of it is said to be five hundred 百 years old, that it had a moat round it once, and that it gets its name of Blackwater from a lake in the park.

Eleven o'clock has just struck, in a ghostly 鬼 and solemn 庄严的 manner, from a turret over the centre of the house, which I saw when I came in. A large dog has been woke, apparently 据…所知；看来；据说；听说 by the sound of the bell 钟, and is howling 嗥 and yawning 打哈欠 drearily 凄凉, somewhere round a corner. I hear echoing 回声 foot‧step 脚步 in the passages below, and the iron 铁器 thumping 扑通 of bolts 螺栓 and bars at the house door. The servants are evidently 明显地 going to bed. Shall I follow their example?

No, I am not half sleepy 困 enough. Sleepy, did I say? I feel as if I should never close my eyes again. The bare 光秃秃的 anticipation 预期 of seeing that dear face, and hearing that well-known voice to-morrow, keeps me in a perpetual 永动的 fever 发热 of excitement 激动. If I only had the privileges 特权 of a man, I would order out Sir Percival's best horse instantly, and tear away on a night-gallop 驰骋, east‧ward 东方的, to meet the rising sun—a long, hard, heavy, cease‧less 停止‧少 gallop 驰骋 of hours and hours, like the famous 著名 highway‧man 公路‧男人's ride to York. Being, however, nothing but a woman, condemned 谴责 to patience 耐心, propriety, and petticoats for life, I must respect the house-keeper's opinions, and try to compose myself 我 in some feeble 微弱 and feminine 女人 way.

Reading is out of the question—I can't fix my attention on books. Let me try if I can write myself 我 into sleepiness and fatigue 疲劳. My journal 日志 has been very much neglected 疏忽 of late. What can I recall 召回—standing, as I now do, on the threshold 阈 of a new life—of persons and events, of chances and changes, during the past six months—the long, weary 厌倦, empty interval 间隔 since Laura's wedding 结婚-day?

Walter Hartright is upper‧most 最高的 in my memory, and he passes first in the shadowy 神出鬼没 procession 队伍 of my absent 缺席的 friends. I received a few lines from him, after the landing of the expedition 远征 in Honduras, written more cheerfully 乐意 and hopefully 希望 than he has written yet. A month or six weeks later I saw an extract 提取 from an American newspaper, describing the departure 离开 of the adventurers 冒险家 on their inland 内陆 journey 旅行. They were last seen entering a wild primeval forest, each man with his rifle 步枪 on his shoulder and his baggage 行李 at his back. Since that time, civilisation has lost all trace 跟踪 of them. Not a line more have I received from Walter, not a fragment 分段 of news from the expedition 远征 has appeared in any of the public journals 日志.

The same dense 稠密, disheartening obscurity hangs over the fate 命运 and for‧tune 命运 of Anne Catherick, and her companion 同伴, Mrs. Clements. Nothing whatever has been heard of either of them. Whether they are in the country or out of it, whether they are living or dead, no one knows. Even Sir Percival's solicitor 律师 has lost all hope, and has ordered the use‧less 无用 search after the fugitives 逃亡 to be finally given up.

Our good old friend Mr. Gilmore has met with a sad check in his active professional 专业的 career. Early in the spring we were alarmed by hearing that he had been found insensible at his desk, and that the seizure 发作 was pronounced to be an apoplectic fit. He had been long complaining 抱怨 of fulness and oppression 压迫 in the head, and his doctor had warned him of the consequences 后果 that would follow his persistency in continuing to work, early and late, as if he were still a young man. The result now is that he has been positively 积极 ordered to keep out of his office for a year to come, at least, and to seek 寻求 repose of body and relief of mind by altogether 全部地 changing his usual mode 方式 of life. The business is left, accordingly 于是, to be carried on by his partner 伙伴, and he is himself, at this moment, away in Germany, visiting some relations who are settled there in mercantile pursuits 追求. Thus another true friend and trust‧worthy 可靠 adviser 顾问 is lost to us—lost, I earnestly hope and trust, for a time only.

Poor Mrs. Vesey travelled with me as far as London. It was impossible to abandon 放弃 her to solitude 孤独 at Limmeridge after Laura and I had both left the house, and we have arranged that she is to live with an unmarried 未婚 younger sister of hers, who keeps a school at Clapham. She is to come here this autumn 秋 to visit her pupil 学生—I might almost say her adopted child. I saw the good old lady safe to her destination 目的地, and left her in the care of her relative, quietly happy at the prospect 展望 of seeing Laura again in a few months' time.

As for Mr. Fairlie, I believe I am guilty 有罪的；内疚的 of no injustice 不公正 if I describe him as being unutterably relieved by having the house clear of us women. The idea of his missing his niece 外甥女 is simply preposterous—he used to let months pass in the old times without attempting to see her—and in my case and Mrs. Vesey's, I take leave to consider his telling us both that he was half heart-broken at our departure 离开, to be equivalent 当量 to a confession 承认 that he was secretly rejoiced 欢庆 to get rid 使摆脱 of us. His last cap‧rice 盖‧稻 has led him to keep two photographers 摄影师 incessantly employed in producing sun-pictures of all the treasures 金银财宝 and curiosities 好奇心 in his possession 所有物. One complete copy of the collection of the photographs 照片 is to be presented to the Mechanics' Institution 机构 of Carlisle, mounted 增加 on the finest card‧board 纸板, with ostentatious red-letter inscriptions 题词 underneath 在...之下, "Madonna and Child by Raphael. In the possession 3 of Frederick Fairlie, Esquire." " Copper 铜 coin 硬币 of the period of Tiglath Pileser. In the possession of Frederick Fairlie, Esquire." "Unique 独特 Rembrandt etching 蚀刻. Known all over Europe as The Smudge, from a printer's blot 斑点 in the corner which exists in no other copy. Valued at three hundred 百 guineas 几内亚. In the possession of Frederick Fairlie, Esq." Dozens of photographs of this sort, and all inscribed 题 in this manner, were completed before I left Cumberland, and hundreds 百 more remain to be done. With this new interest to occupy 占据 him, Mr. Fairlie will be a happy man for months and months to come, and the two unfortunate 不幸的 photographers 摄影师 will share the social martyrdom which he has hitherto 迄今 inflicted 造成 on his valet alone.

So much for the persons and events which hold the fore‧most 最重要的是 place in my memory. What next of the one person who holds the fore‧most 最重要的是 place in my heart? Laura has been present to my thoughts all the while I have been writing these lines. What can I recall 召回 of her during the past six months, before I close my journal 日志 for the night?

I have only her letters to guide me, and on the most important of all the questions which our correspondence 对应 can discuss, every one of those letters leaves me in the dark.

Does he treat her kindly? Is she happier now than she was when I parted with her on the wedding 结婚-day? All my letters have contained these two inquiries, put more or less directly, now in one form, and now in another, and all, on that point only, have remained without reply, or have been answered as if my questions merely related to the state of her health. She informs me, over and over again, that she is perfectly well—that travelling agrees with her—that she is getting through the winter, for the first time in her life, without catching cold—but not a word can I find any‧where 任何地方 which tells me plainly that she is reconciled 调和 to her marriage, and that she can now look back to the twenty 二十-second of December without any bitter feelings of repentance and regret 后悔. The name of her husband is only mentioned in her letters, as she might mention the name of a friend who was travelling with them, and who had undertaken to make all the arrangements 安排 for the journey 旅行. "Sir Percival" has settled that we leave on such a day—"Sir Percival" has decided that we travel by such a road. Sometimes she writes "Percival" only, but very seldom 很少—in nine 九 cases out of ten 十 she gives him his title.

I cannot find that his habits and opinions have changed and coloured hers in any single particular. The usual moral trans‧formation 转型 which is insensibly wrought 锻 in a young, fresh, sensitive woman by her marriage, seems never to have taken place in Laura. She writes of her own thoughts and impressions 印象, amid 际 all the wonders she has seen, exactly as she might have written to some one else, if I had been travelling with her instead of her husband. I see no betrayal 辜负 anywhere 3 of sympathy of any kind existing between them. Even when she wanders 漫步 from the subject of her travels, and occupies 占据 her‧self 她自己 with the prospects 展望 that await 等待 her in England, her speculations 推测 are busied with her future as my sister, and persistently 一贯 neglect 疏忽 to notice her future as Sir Percival's wife. In all this there is no under‧tone 在…下面‧口气，话语表达 of complaint 抱怨 to warn me that she is absolutely unhappy 不快乐 in her married life. The impression 印象 I have derived 派生 from our correspondence 对应 does not, thank God, lead me to any such distressing 苦难 conclusion 结论 as that. I only see a sad torpor, an unchangeable indifference 漠不关心, when I turn my mind from her in the old character of a sister, and look at her, through the medium 中 of her letters, in the new character of a wife. In other words, it is always Laura Fairlie who has been writing to me for the last six months, and never Lady Glyde.

The strange silence which she maintains 保持 on the subject of her husband's character and conduct 进行, she preserves with almost equal resolution 解析度 in the few references which her later letters contain to the name of her husband's bosom friend, Count Fosco.

For some unexplained reason the Count and his wife appear to have changed their plans abruptly 突然, at the end of last autumn 秋, and to have gone to Vienna instead of going to Rome, at which latter place Sir Percival had expected to find them when he left England. They only quitted 放弃 Vienna in the spring, and travelled as far as the Tyrol to meet the bride 新娘 and bridegroom on their home‧ward 家‧病房 journey 旅行. Laura writes readily enough about the meeting with Madame Fosco, and assures 向…保证；肯定地说 me that she has found her aunt 阿姨 so much changed for the better—so much quieter, and so much more sensible 明智 as a wife than she was as a single woman—that I shall hardly know her again when I see her here. But on the subject of Count Fosco (who interests me infinitely 无限地 more than his wife), Laura is provokingly circumspect and silent. She only says that he puzzles 使迷惑 her, and that she will not tell me what her impression 印象 of him is until I have seen him, and formed my own opinion first.

This, to my mind, looks ill for the Count. Laura has preserved, far more perfectly than most people do in later life, the child's subtle 微妙 faculty 学院 of knowing a friend by instinct 直觉, and if I am right in assuming 承担 that her first impression 印象 of Count Fosco has not been favourable, I for one am in some danger of doubting and distrusting 怀疑 that illustrious foreigner before I have so much as set eyes on him. But, patience 耐心, patience 3—this uncertainty 不确定, and many uncertainties 不确定 more, cannot last much longer. To-morrow will see all my doubts in a fair way of being cleared up, sooner or later.

Twelve o'clock has struck, and I have just come back to close these pages, after looking out at my open window.

It is a still, sultry, moon‧less 月亮‧少 night. The stars are dull 钝的；没兴趣 and few. The trees that shut 关闭 out the view on all sides look dimly 暗淡 black and solid in the distance, like a great wall of rock. I hear the croaking of frogs 青蛙, faint 微弱的 and far off, and the echoes 回声 of the great clock hum 哼 in the air‧less 天空‧少 calm 镇定的 long after the strokes 一击;轻抚 have ceased 停止. I wonder how Blackwater Park will look in the day‧time 白天? I don't altogether 3 like it by night.

12th.—A day of investigations 调查 and discoveries—a more interesting day, for many reasons, than I had ventured to anticipate 预期.

I began my sight-seeing, of course, with the house.

The main body of the building is of the time of that highly-overrated woman, Queen 女王 Elizabeth. On the ground floor there are two hugely 巨大 long galleries 画廊, with low ceilings 天花板 lying parallel 位置 with each other, and rendered 给予 additionally 另外 dark and dismal 惨淡 by hideous 可怕 family portraits 肖像—every one of which I should like to burn. The rooms on the floor above the two galleries 画廊 are kept in tolerable repair 修理, but are very seldom 很少 used. The civil 国内 house‧keep 管家, who acted as my guide, offered to show me over them, but considerately added that she feared I should find them rather out of order. My respect for the integrity 廉正 of my own petticoats and stockings infinitely 无限地 exceeds 超过 my respect for all the Elizabethan bedrooms in the kingdom 王国, so I positively 积极 declined 下降 exploring the upper regions 地区 of dust and dirt at the risk of soiling my nice clean clothes. The house‧keep 管家 said, "I am quite of your opinion, miss," and appeared to think me the most sensible 明智 woman she had met with for a long time past.

So much, then, for the main building. Two wings 翅膀 are added at either end of it. The half-ruined wing 翅膀 on the left (as you approach the house) was once a place of residence 住宅 standing by itself 本身, and was built in the fourteenth century. One of Sir Percival's maternal 母系 ancestors 祖先—I don't remember, and don't care which—tacked 钉 on the main building, at right angles to it, in the aforesaid Queen 女王 Elizabeth's time. The house‧keep 管家 told me that the architecture 建筑 of "the old wing," both outside and inside, was considered remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 fine by good judges. On further investigation 调查 I discovered that good judges could only exercise their abilities on Sir Percival's piece of antiquity 古代 by previously 先前 dismissing 解雇 from their minds all fear of damp 微湿的, darkness 黑暗, and rats 鼠. Under these circumstances 环境, I unhesitatingly acknowledged 确认 myself 我 to be no judge at all, and suggested that we should treat "the old wing" precisely 精确地 as we had previously 先前 treated the Elizabethan bedrooms. Once more the house‧keep 管家 said, "I am quite of your opinion, miss," and once more she looked at me with undisguised admiration 钦佩 of my extraordinary common-sense.

We went next to the wing on the right, which was built, by way of completing the wonderful 精彩 architectural 建筑的 jumble 混乱 at Blackwater Park, in the time of George the Second.

This is the habit‧able 习惯‧能够的 part of the house, which has been repaired 修理 and redecorated inside on Laura's account. My two rooms, and all the good bedrooms besides, are on the first floor, and the basement 地下室 contains a drawing-room, a dining 吃饭-room, a morning-room, a library, and a pretty little boudoir for Laura, all very nicely ornamented 装饰 in the bright modern way, and all very elegantly 优雅 furnished with the delightful 愉快 modern luxuries 豪华. None of the rooms are anything like so large and airy 轻快的 as our rooms at Limmeridge, but they all look pleasant to live in. I was terribly afraid, from what I had heard of Blackwater Park, of fatiguing 疲劳 antique 古董 chairs, and dismal 惨淡 stained glass, and musty, frouzy hangings, and all the barbarous lumber 木料 which people born bear without a sense of comfort accumulate 积累 about them, in defiance 蔑视 of the consideration 考虑 due to the convenience 方便 of their friends. It is an inexpressible relief to find that the nineteenth century has invaded 入侵 this strange future home of mine, and has swept sweep the dirty 肮脏 "good old times" out of the way of our daily life.

I dawdled away the morning—part of the time in the rooms downstairs 楼下, and part out of doors in the great square which is formed by the three sides of the house, and by the lofty 高远 iron 铁器 railings 围栏；钢轨 and gates 门 which protect it in front. A large circular 圆形的 fish-pond 池塘 with stone sides, and an allegorical leaden monster 怪物 in the middle, occupies 占据 the centre of the square. The pond 池塘 itself 本身 is full of gold 金 and silver 银 fish, and is encircled 包围 by a broad belt 腰带 of the softest turf 草皮 I ever walked on. I loitered here on the shady 阴凉 side pleasantly enough till luncheon 午餐-time, and after that took my broad straw 稻草 hat and wandered out alone in the warm lovely 可爱的 sun‧light 阳光 to explore the grounds.

Daylight 日光 confirmed 确认 the impression 印象 which I had felt the night before, of there being too many trees at Blackwater. The house is stifled 窒息 by them. They are, for the most part, young, and planted far too thickly. I suspect 怀疑；嫌疑犯 there must have been a ruinous cutting down of timber 木材 all over the estate 房地产 before Sir Percival's time, and an angry 生气的 anxiety on the part of the next possessor 拥有者 to fill up all the gaps 缺口 as thickly and rapidly as possible. After looking about me in front of the house, I observed a flower-garden on my left hand, and walked towards it to see what I could discover in that direction.

On a nearer view the garden proved to be small and poor and ill kept. I left it behind me, opened a little gate 门 in a ring fence 栅栏, and found myself 我 in a plantation 种植园 of fir 冷杉-trees.

A pretty winding path 小路, artificially 人造的 made, led me on among the trees, and my north-country experience soon informed me that I was approaching sandy 沙, heathy ground. After a walk of more than half a mile, I should think, among the firs 冷杉, the path took a sharp turn—the trees abruptly 突然 ceased 停止 to appear on either side of me, and I found myself 我 standing suddenly on the margin 差额 of a vast 广大 open space, and looking down at the Blackwater lake from which the house takes its name.

The ground, shelving away below me, was all sand 沙, with a few little heathy hillocks to break the monotony of it in certain places. The lake itself 本身 had evidently 明显地 once flowed to the spot on which I stood, and had been gradually 逐步地 wasted and dried up to less than a third of its former size. I saw its still, stagnant 滞 waters, a quarter of a mile away from me in the hollow 空的, separated into pools and ponds 池塘 by twining reeds 芦苇 and rushes 仓促, and little knolls of earth. On the farther bank from me the trees rose thickly again, and shut out the view, and cast 投 their black shadows on the sluggish 迟缓, shallow 浅的 water. As I walked down to the lake, I saw that the ground on its farther side was damp 微湿的 and marshy, overgrown with rank 排列 grass 草 and dismal 惨淡 willows 柳. The water, which was clear enough on the open sandy 沙 side, where the sun shone 发光:shine, looked black and poisonous 有毒 opposite to me, where it lay deeper under the shade 遮阳；阴 of the spongy banks, and the rank over‧hang 悬垂 thickets and tangled 纠纷 trees. The frogs 青蛙 were croaking, and the rats 鼠 were slipping in and out of the shadowy 神出鬼没 water, like live shadows themselves, as I got nearer to the marshy side of the lake. I saw here, lying half in and half out of the water, the rotten 腐烂的 wreck 破坏；使遇难 of an old over‧turn 颠覆 boat, with a sickly spot of sun‧light 阳光 glimmering through a gap 缺口 in the trees on its dry surface, and a snake basking in the midst 中间 of the spot, fantastically 奇妙 coiled 盘 and treacherously 奸诈 still. Far and near the view suggested the same dreary 凄凉 impressions 印象 of solitude 孤独 and decay 腐烂, and the glorious 辉煌 brightness 亮度 of the summer sky over‧head 高架 seemed only to deepen 变深 and harden 使硬化 the gloom 愁云 and barrenness of the wilderness 荒野 on which it shone 发光:shine. I turned and retraced my steps to the high heathy ground, directing them a little aside from my former path towards a shabby 破旧 old wooden 木制的 shed, which stood on the outer skirt 裙子 of the fir 冷杉 plantation 种植园, and which had hitherto 迄今 been too unimportant 不重要 to share my notice with the wide, wild prospect 展望 of the lake.

On approaching the shed I found that it had once been a boat-house, and that an attempt had apparently been made to convert 转变 it after‧ward 之后 into a sort of rude 粗鲁的 arbour, by placing inside it a fir‧wood 冷杉‧木材；树林 seat, a few stools 粪便, and a table. I entered the place, and sat down for a little while to rest and get my breath again.

I had not been in the boat-house more than a minute when it struck me that the sound of my own quick breathing was very strangely echoed 回声 by something beneath 之下 me. I listened intently 意图 for a moment, and heard a low, thick, sobbing 哭泣 breath that seemed to come from the ground under the seat which I was occupying 占据. My nerves 神经 are not easily shaken by trifles 琐事, but on this occasion I started to my feet in a fright 恐怖—called out—received no answer—summoned 召唤 back my recreant courage, and looked under the seat.

There, crouched 蹲伏 up in the farthest corner, lay the forlorn cause of my terror 恐怖, in the shape of a poor little dog—a black and white spaniel. The creature 动物；生物 moaned 呻吟 feebly 微弱 when I looked at it and called to it, but never stirred 搅动. I moved away the seat and looked closer. The poor little dog's eyes were glazing 釉 fast, and there were spots of blood on its glossy 光滑 white side. The misery 痛苦 of a weak, help‧less 无助, dumb 哑 creature 3 is surely one of the saddest 悲哀的 of all the mournful sights which this world can show. I lifted the poor dog in my arms as gently as I could, and contrived 图谋 a sort of make-shift 转移 hammock for him to lie in, by gathering up the front of my dress all round him. In this way I took the creature, as painlessly as possible, and as fast as possible, back to the house.

Finding no one in the hall I went up at once to my own sitting-room, made a bed for the dog with one of my old shawls, and rang the bell 钟. The largest and fattest of all possible house-maids 女佣 answered it, in a state of cheerful 快乐 stupidity 糊涂事 which would have provoked 惹 the patience of a saint 圣. The girl's fat, shape‧less 形状‧少 face actually stretched into a broad grin 微笑 at the sight of the wounded creature on the floor.

"What do you see there to laugh at?" I asked, as angrily as if she had been aservant 仆人 of my own. "Do you know whose 谁的 dog it is?"

"No, miss, that I certainly don't." She stooped 哈腰, and looked down at the spaniel's injured 损伤 side— brightened 变亮 suddenly with the irradiation of a new idea—and pointing to the wound 创伤 with a chuckle 暗笑 of satisfaction 满足, said, "That's Baxter's doings, that is."

I was so exasperated 恶化 that I could have boxed her ears. "Baxter?" I said. "Who is the brute 畜生 you call Baxter?"

The girl grinned 微笑 again more cheerfully 乐意 than ever. " Bless 祝福 you, miss! Baxter's the keeper, and when he finds strange dogs hunting about, he takes and shoots 'em. It's keeper's dooty miss, I think that dog will die. Here's where he's been shot shoot, ain't it? That's Baxter's doings, that is. Baxter's doings, miss, and Baxter's dooty."

I was almost wicked 邪恶的 enough to wish that Baxter had shot the house‧maid 房屋‧女佣 instead of the dog. Seeing that it was quite use‧less 无用 to expect this densely 密地 impenetrable person‧age 人‧年龄 to give me any help in relieving 解除 the suffering creature at our feet, I told her to request the house‧keep 管家's attendance 勤 with my compliments 赞扬. She went out exactly as she had come in, grinning 微笑 from ear to ear. As the door closed on her she said to her‧self 她自己 softly, "It's Baxter's doings and Baxter's dooty—that's what it is."

The house‧keep 管家, a person of some education and intelligence 情报, thoughtfully 沉思地 brought upstairs 楼上 with her some milk 奶 and some warm water. The instant she saw the dog on the floor she started and changed colour.

"Why, Lord bless 祝福 me," cried the house‧keep 管家, "that must be Mrs. Catherick's dog!"

" Whose 谁的?" I asked, in the utmost 极 astonishment 惊愕.

"Mrs. Catherick's. You seem to know Mrs. Catherick, Miss Halcombe?"

"Not personally 亲自, but I have heard of her. Does she live here? Has she had any news of her daughter?"

"No, Miss Halcombe, she came here to ask for news."

"When?"

"Only yesterday. She said some one had reported that a stranger answering to the description of her daughter had been seen in our neighbourhood. No such report has reached us here, and no such report was known in the village, when I sent to make inquiries there on Mrs. Catherick's account. She certainly brought this poor little dog with her when she came, and I saw it trot 小跑 out after her when she went away. I suppose the creature strayed 流浪 into the plantations 种植园, and got shot. Where did you find it, Miss Halcombe?"

"In the old shed that looks out on the lake."

"Ah, yes, that is the plantation 种植园 side, and the poor thing dragged 拖拽 itself 本身, I suppose, to the nearest shelter, as dogs will, to die. If you can moisten its lips with the milk 奶, Miss Halcombe, I will wash the clotted 凝块 hair from the wound 创伤. I am very much afraid it is too late to do any good. However, we can but try."

Mrs. Catherick! The name still rang in my ears, as if the house‧keep 管家 had only that moment surprised me by uttering 说出 it. While we were attending to the dog, the words of Walter Hartright's caution 小心 to me returned to my memory: "If ever Anne Catherick crosses your path, make better use of the opportunity, Miss Halcombe, than I made of it." The finding of the wounded spaniel had led me already to the discovery of Mrs. Catherick's visit to Blackwater Park, and that event might lead in its turn, to something more. I determined to make the most of the chance which was now offered to me, and to gain as much information as I could.

"Did you say that Mrs. Catherick lived anywhere in this neighbourhood?" I asked.

"Oh dear, no," said the house‧keep 管家. "She lives at Welmingham, quite at the other end of the county 县—five-and-twenty 二十 miles off, at least."

"I suppose you have known Mrs. Catherick for some years?"

"On the contrary 相反, Miss Halcombe, I never saw her before she came here yesterday. I had heard of her, of course, because I had heard of Sir Percival's kindness 善良 in putting her daughter under medical care. Mrs. Catherick is rather a strange person in her manners, but extremely respect‧able 可敬-looking. She seemed sorely 疼痛的 put out when she found that there was no foundation 基础—none, at least, that any of us could discover—for the report of her daughter having been seen in this neighbourhood."

"I am rather interested about Mrs. Catherick," I went on, continuing the conversation as long as possible. "I wish I had arrived here soon enough to see her yesterday. Did she stay for any length of time?"

"Yes," said the house‧keep 管家, "she stayed for some time; and I think she would have remained longer, if I had not been called away to speak to a strange gentle‧man 先生—a gentleman who came to ask when Sir Percival was expected back. Mrs. Catherick got up and left at once, when she heard the maid 女佣 tell me what the visitor 访问者's errand 使命 was. She said to me, at parting, that there was no need to tell Sir Percival of her coming here. I thought that rather an odd 奇 remark to make, especially to a person in my responsible situation."

I thought it an odd 奇 remark too. Sir Percival had certainly led me to believe, at Limmeridge, that the most perfect confidence existed between himself and Mrs. Catherick. If that was the case, why should she be anxious to have her visit at Blackwater Park kept a secret from him?

"Probably," I said, seeing that the house‧keep 管家 expected me to give my opinion on Mrs. Catherick's parting words, "probably she thought the announcement 公告 of her visit might vex Sir Percival to no purpose, by reminding him that her lost daughter was not found yet. Did she talk much on that subject?"

"Very little," replied the house‧keep 管家. "She talked principally 原则上 of Sir Percival, and asked a great many questions about where he had been travelling, and what sort of lady his new wife was. She seemed to be more soured 有酸味的 and put out than distressed 苦难, by failing to find any traces 跟踪 of her daughter in these parts. 'I give her up,' were the last words she said that I can remember; 'I give her up, ma 嘛'am, for lost.' And from that she passed at once to her questions about Lady Glyde, wanting to know if she was a hand‧some 英俊, amiable 可亲 lady, comely and healthy 健康 and young——Ah, dear! I thought how it would end. Look, Miss Halcombe, the poor thing is out of its misery 痛苦 at last!"

The dog was dead. It had given a faint 微弱的, sobbing 哭泣 cry, it had suffered an instant's convulsion of the limbs 肢, just as those last words, "comely and healthy 健康 and young," dropped from the house‧keep 管家's lips. The change had happened with startling 惊吓 suddenness—in one moment the creature lay life‧less 生活‧少 under our hands.

Eight 八 o'clock. I have just returned from dining downstairs 楼下, in solitary 孤 state. The sunset 日落 is burning redly on the wilderness 荒野 of trees that I see from my window, and I am poring 孔 over my journal 日志 again, to calm my impatience 不耐烦 for the return of the travellers. They ought to have arrived, by my calculations, before this. How still and lonely 孤独的 the house is in the drowsy evening quiet! Oh me! how many minutes more before I hear the carriage 运输 wheels and run downstairs 楼下 to find myself 我 in Laura's arms?

The poor little dog! I wish my first day at Blackwater Park had not been associated 关联 with death, though it is only the death of a stray 流浪 animal.

Welmingham—I see, on looking back through these private pages of mine, that Welmingham is the name of the place where Mrs. Catherick lives. Her note is still in my possession, the note in answer to that letter about her unhappy 不快乐 daughter which Sir Percival obliged 责成 me to write. One of these days, when I can find a safe opportunity, I will take the note with me by way of introduction 介绍, and try what I can make of Mrs. Catherick at a personal 个人 interview 访问. I don't understand her wishing to conceal 隐藏 her visit to this place from Sir Percival's knowledge, and I don't feel half so sure, as the house‧keep 管家 seems to do, that her daughter Anne is not in the neighbourhood after all. What would Walter Hartright have said in this emergency 急? Poor, dear Hartright! I am beginning to feel the want of his honest 诚实的 advice 劝告 and his willing help already.

Surely I heard something. Was it a bustle 忙碌 of foot‧step 脚步 below stairs 楼梯? Yes! I hear the horses' feet—I hear the rolling wheels——

II

June 15th.—The confusion of their arrival 到达 has had time to sub‧side 塌陷. Two days have elapsed 过去 since the return of the travellers, and that interval 间隔 has sufficed 满足 to put the new machinery of our lives at Blackwater Park in fair working order. I may now return to my journal 日志, with some little chance of being able to continue the entries 条目 in it as collectedly as usual.

I think I must begin by putting down an odd 奇 remark which has suggested itself 本身 to me since Laura came back.

When two members of a family or two intimate 亲密 friends are separated, and one goes abroad and one remains at home, the return of the relative or friend who has been travelling always seems to place the relative or friend who has been staying at home at a painful 痛苦 disadvantage 坏处 when the two first meet. The sudden encounter 遭遇 of the new thoughts and new habits eagerly gained in the one case, with the old thoughts and old habits passively 被动 preserved in the other, seems at first to part the sympathies 同情 of the most loving relatives and the fondest friends, and to set a sudden strangeness, unexpected 意外 by both and uncontrollable by both, between them on either side. After the first happiness 幸福 of my meeting with Laura was over, after we had sat down together hand in hand to recover 恢复 breath enough and calmness enough to talk, I felt this strangeness instantly, and I could see that she felt it too. It has partially 部分 worn away, now that we have fallen fall back into most of our old habits, and it will probably disappear 不见 before long. But it has certainly had an influence over the first impressions 印象 that I have formed of her, now that we are living together again—for which reason only I have thought fit to mention it here.

She has found me unaltered, but I have found her changed.

Changed in person, and in one respect changed in character. I cannot absolutely say that she is less beautiful 美丽 than she used to be—I can only say that she is less beautiful 美丽 to me.

Others, who do not look at her with my eyes and my recollections 回忆, would probably think her improved. There is more colour and more decision and roundness of out‧line 概述；轮廓线 in her face than there used to be, and her figure seems more firmly set and more sure and easy in all its movements 运动 than it was in her maiden 少女 days. But I miss something when I look at her—something that once belonged to the happy, innocent 无辜 life of Laura Fairlie, and that I cannot find in Lady Glyde. There was in the old times a freshness, a softness, an ever-varying 变化 and yet ever-remaining tenderness 压痛 of beauty in her face, the charm 魔力；使陶醉 of which it is not possible to express in words, or, as poor Hartright used often to say, in painting either. This is gone. I thought I saw the faint 3 reflection 反映 of it for a moment when she turned pale under the agitation 搅动 of our sudden meeting on the evening of her return, but it has never reappeared 再现 since. None of her letters had prepared me for a personal 个人 change in her. On the contrary 相反, they had led me to expect that her marriage had left her, in appearance at least, quite unaltered. Perhaps I read her letters wrongly in the past, and am now reading her face wrongly in the present? No matter! Whether her beauty has gained or whether it has lost in the last six months, the separation 3 either way has made her own dear self more precious 宝贵的 to me than ever, and that is one good result of her marriage, at any rate!

The second change, the change that I have observed in her character, has not surprised me, because I was prepared for it in this case by the tone 音 of her letters. Now that she is at home again, I find her just as unwilling 不甘 to enter into any details on the subject of her married life as I had previously 先前 found her all through the time of our separation, when we could only communicate 通信 with each other by writing. At the first approach I made to the forbidden 禁止:forbid topic 话题 she put her hand on my lips with a look and gesture 手势 which touchingly, almost painfully 痛苦, recalled 召回 to my memory the days of her girl‧hood 女孩‧引擎罩 and the happy bygone time when there were no secrets between us.

" Whenever 随时 you and I are together, Marian," she said, "we shall both be happier and easier with one another, if we accept my married life for what it is, and say and think as little about it as possible. I would tell you everything, darling 宠儿, about myself 我," she went on, nervously buckling 扣 and unbuckling the ribbon 带 round my waist 腰, "if my confidences 信心 could only end there. But they could not—they would lead me into confidences about my husband too; and now I am married, I think I had better avoid them, for his sake, and for your sake, and for mine. I don't say that they would distress 苦难 you, or distress 苦难 me—I wouldn't have you think that for the world. But—I want to be so happy, now I have got you back again, and I want you to be so happy too——" She broke off abruptly 突然, and looked round the room, my own sitting-room, in which we were talking. "Ah!" she cried, clapping 拍 her hands with a bright smile of recognition 认识, "another old friend found already! Your book-case, Marian—your dear-little-shabby 破旧-old-satin 缎-wood book-case—how glad 高兴的 I am you brought it with you from Limmeridge! And the horrid heavy man's umbrella 雨伞, that you always would walk out with when it rained! And first and fore‧most 最重要的是 of all, your own dear, dark, clever 聪明的, gipsy-face, looking at me just as usual! It is so like home again to be here. How can we make it more like home still? I will put my father's portrait 肖像 in your room instead of in mine—and I will keep all my little treasures from Limmeridge here—and we will pass hours and hours every day with these four friendly walls round us. Oh, Marian!" she said, suddenly seating her‧self 她自己 on a foot‧stool 脚；英尺‧粪便 at my knees, and looking up earnestly in my face, "promise you will never marry, and leave me. It is selfish 3 to say so, but you are so much better off as a single woman—unless—unless you are very fond 喜欢的 of your husband—but you won win't be very fond 3 of any‧body 任何人 but me, will you?" She stopped again, crossed my hands on my lap 膝部, and laid her face on them. "Have you been writing many letters, and receiving many letters lately 近来?" she asked, in low, suddenly-altered tones 音. I understood what the question meant, but I thought it my duty not to encourage her by meeting her half way. "Have you heard from him?" she went on, coaxing 哄 me to for‧give 原谅 the more direct appeal 上诉 on which she now ventured, by kissing 接吻 my hands, upon which her face still rested. "Is he well and happy, and getting on in his profession? Has he recovered 恢复 himself—and forgotten me?"

She should not have asked those questions. She should have remembered her own resolution 解析度, on the morning when Sir Percival held her to her marriage engagement 订婚, and when she resigned the book of Hartright's drawings into my hands for ever. But, ah me! where is the fault‧less 缺点‧少 human creature who can per‧severe 持之以恒 in a good resolution 解析度, without sometimes failing and falling back? Where is the woman who has ever really torn tear from her heart the image 图片 that has been once fixed in it by a true love? Books tell us that such unearthly 挖掘 creatures 动物；生物 have existed—but what does our own experience say in answer to books?

I made no attempt to remonstrate with her: perhaps, because I sincerely appreciated 欣赏 the fear‧less 害怕‧少 candour which let me see, what other women in her position might have had reasons for concealing 隐藏 even from their dearest friends—perhaps, because I felt, in my own heart and conscience 良心, that in her place I should have asked the same questions and had the same thoughts. All I could honestly do was to reply that I had not written to him or heard from him lately 近来, and then to turn the conversation to less dangerous 危险 topics 话题.

There has been much to sadden 使悲哀 me in our interview 访问—my first confidential 秘密的 interview 访问 with her since her return. The change which her marriage has produced in our relations towards each other, by placing a forbidden subject between us, for the first time in our lives; the melancholy 愁绪 conviction 定罪 of the dearth of all warmth 温暖 of feeling, of all close sympathy, between her husband and her‧self 她自己, which her own unwilling 不甘 words now force on my mind; the distressing 苦难 discovery that the influence of that ill-fated 命运 attachment 附件 still remains (no matter how innocently 无辜, how harm‧less 无害) rooted as deeply as ever in her heart—all these are disclosures 泄露 to sadden 使悲哀 any woman who loves her as dearly, and feels for her as acutely 急性, as I do.

There is only one consolation 安慰 to set against them—a consolation 安慰 that ought to comfort me, and that does comfort me. All the graces 优雅；惠赐 and gentleness of her character—all the frank 坦率 affect‧ion 感情 of her nature—all the sweet, simple, womanly charms 魔力；使陶醉 which used to make her the darling 宠儿 and delight of every one who approached her, have come back to me with her‧self 她自己. Of my other impressions 印象 I am sometimes a little inclined 倾斜 to doubt. Of this last, best, happiest of all impressions 印象, I grow more and more certain every hour in the day.

Let me turn, now, from her to her travelling companions 同伴. Her husband must engage 从事 my attention first. What have I observed in Sir Percival, since his return, to improve my opinion of him?

I can hardly say. Small vexations and annoyances 恼怒 seem to have beset him since he came back, and no man, under those circumstances 环境, is ever presented at his best. He looks, as I think, thinner than he was when he left England. His wearisome cough 咳嗽 and his comfort‧less 安慰‧少 restlessness have certainly increased. His manner—at least his manner towards me—is much more abrupt 突兀 than it used to be. He greeted 欢迎 me, on the evening of his return, with little or nothing of the ceremony 典礼 and civility of former times—no polite 有礼貌的 speeches of welcome—no appearance of extraordinary gratification at seeing me—nothing but a short shake of the hand, and a sharp "How-d'ye-do, Miss Halcombe—glad to see you again." He seemed to accept me as one of the necessary fixtures 夹具 of Blackwater Park, to be satisfied at finding me established 建立 in my proper place, and then to pass me over altogether.

Most men show something of their disposition 性格 in their own houses, which they have concealed 隐藏 else‧where 在别处, and Sir Percival has already displayed 显示 a mania 狂躁 for order and regularity 规律性, which is quite a new revelation 启示 of him, so far as my previous 以前 knowledge of his character is concerned. If I take a book from the library and leave it on the table, he follows me and puts it back again. If I rise from a chair, and let it remain where I have been sitting, he carefully 小心 restores 修复；使复位；使复职 it to its proper place against the wall. He picks up stray 流浪 flower-blossoms 开花 from the carpet 地毯, and mutters 咕哝 to himself as discontentedly as if they were hot cinders burning holes in it, and he storms 暴风雨 at the servants if there is a crease 皱 in the table‧cloth 桌；表‧布, or a knife missing from its place at the dinner-table, as fiercely 凶猛的 as if they had personally 亲自 insulted 侮辱 him.

I have already referred to the small annoyances which appear to have troubled him since his return. Much of the alteration 改造 for the worse which I have noticed in him may be due to these. I try to persuade 说服 myself 我 that it is so, because I am anxious not to be disheartened already about the future. It is certainly trying to any man's temper to be met by a vexation the moment he sets foot in his own house again, after a long absence, and this annoying 打扰 circumstance 环境 did really happen to Sir Percival in my presence.

On the evening of their arrival 到达 the house‧keep 管家 followed me into the hall to receive her master and mistress 情妇 and their guests. The instant he saw her, Sir Percival asked if any one had called lately 近来. The house‧keep 管家 mentioned to him, in reply, what she had previously 先前 mentioned to me, the visit of the strange gentleman to make inquiries about the time of her master's return. He asked immediately for the gentleman's name. No name had been left. The gentleman's business? No business had been mentioned. What was the gentleman like? The house‧keep 管家 tried to describe him, but failed to distinguish the name‧less 名字‧少 visitor by any personal 个人 peculiarity which her master could recognise. Sir Percival frowned 皱眉, stamped 邮票 angrily on the floor, and walked on into the house, taking no notice of any‧body 任何人. Why he should have been so discomposed by a trifle 琐事 I cannot say—but he was seriously discomposed, beyond all doubt.

Upon the whole, it will be best, perhaps, if I abstain from forming a decisive 决定性的 opinion of his manners, language, and conduct 进行 in his own house, until time has enabled 启用 him to shake off the anxieties, whatever they may be, which now evidently 明显地 troubled his mind in secret. I will turn over to a new page, and my pen 笔 shall let Laura's husband alone for the present.

The two guests—the Count and Countess Fosco—come next in my catalogue. I will dispose 部署 of the Countess first, so as to have done with the woman as soon as possible.

Laura was certainly not charge‧able 装载‧能够的 with any exaggeration 夸张, in writing me word that I should hardly recognise her aunt 阿姨 again when we met. Never before have I beheld such a change produced in a woman by her marriage as has been produced in Madame Fosco.

As Eleanor Fairlie (aged seven 七-and-thirty 三十), she was always talking pretentious non‧sense 废话, and always worrying the unfortunate 不幸的 men with every small exact‧ion 准确的‧离子 which a vain 徒劳的 and foolish 傻 woman can impose 强加 on long-suffering male 男性的 humanity 人性. As Madame Fosco (aged three-and-forty 四十), she sits for hours together without saying a word, frozen 使结冰；不动:freeze up in the strangest manner in her‧self 她自己. The hideously 可怕 ridiculous 荒谬 love-locks which used to hang on either side of her face are now replaced by stiff 严厉的 little rows 行 of very short curls 一绺鬈发, of the sort one sees in old-fashioned wigs 假发. A plain, matronly cap 盖 covers her head, and makes her look, for the first time in her life since I remember her, like a decent 正经 woman. Nobody (putting her husband out of the question, of course) now sees in her, what everybody once saw—I mean the structure 结构体 of the female skeleton 骨架, in the upper regions 地区 of the collar 衣领-bones 骨头 and the shoulder-blades 刀片. Clad in quiet black or grey 灰色:gray gowns 袍, made high round the throat—dresses that she would have laughed at, or screamed 叫喊 at, as the whim 怪念头 of the moment inclined 倾斜 her, in her maiden 少女 days—she sits speech‧less 演说‧少 in corners; her dry white hands (so dry that the pores 孔 of her skin 皮 look chalky) incessantly engaged 从事, either in monotonous embroidery work or in rolling up end‧less 无穷 cigarettes 香烟，纸烟 for the Count's own particular smoking. On the few occasions when her cold blue eyes are off her work, they are generally turned on her husband, with the look of mute 静音 submissive inquiry 调查 which we are all familiar with in the eyes of a faithful 可信 dog. The only approach to an inward 向内的 thaw 解冻 which I have yet detected 发现，察觉，看出 under her outer covering of icy 冷冰冰 constraint 约束, has betrayed 背叛 itself 本身, once or twice 两次, in the form of a sup‧press 压制 tigerish jealousy 妒忌 of any woman in the house (the maids 女佣 included) to whom the Count speaks, or on whom he looks with anything approaching to special interest or attention. Except in this one particular, she is always, morning, noon 正午, and night, indoors 室内的 and out, fair weather or foul 犯规, as cold as a statue 雕像, and as impenetrable as the stone out of which it is cut. For the common purposes of society the extraordinary change thus produced in her is, beyond all doubt, a change for the better, seeing that it has transformed her into a civil 国内, silent, unobtrusive woman, who is never in the way. How far she is really reformed 改革 or deteriorated 恶化 in her secret self, is another question. I have once or twice 两次 seen sudden changes of expression on her pinched 捏 lips, and heard sudden inflexions of tone 音 in her calm voice, which have led me to suspect 怀疑；嫌疑犯 that her present state of suppression 抑制 may have sealed 封上，海豹 up something dangerous 危险 in her nature, which used to evaporate 蒸发 harm‧less 无害 in the freedom of her former life. It is quite possible that I may be altogether wrong in this idea. My own impression 印象, however, is, that I am right. Time will show.

And the magician 魔术师 who has wrought 锻 this wonderful 精彩 trans‧formation 转型—the foreign husband who has tamed 驯服的 this once way‧ward 路；方法‧病房 English woman till her own relations hardly know her again—the Count himself? What of the Count?

This in two words: He looks like a man who could tame 驯服的 anything. If he had married a tigress, instead of a woman, he would have tamed the tigress. If he had married me, I should have made his cigarettes, as his wife does—I should have held my tongue 舌头 when he looked at me, as she holds hers.

I am almost afraid to confess 供认 it, even to these secret pages. The man has interested me, has attracted 吸引 me, has forced me to like him. In two short days he has made his way straight into my favourable estimation 估计, and how he has worked the miracle 奇迹 is more than I can tell.

It absolutely startles 惊吓 me, now he is in my mind, to find how plainly I see him!—how much more plainly than I see Sir Percival, or Mr. Fairlie, or Walter Hartright, or any other absent 缺席的 person of whom I think, with the one exception of Laura her‧self 她自己! I can hear his voice, as if he was speaking at this moment. I know what his conversation was yesterday, as well as if I was hearing it now. How am I to describe him? There are peculiarities in his personal 个人 appearance, his habits, and his amusements 娱乐, which I should blame in the boldest 胆大的；醒目的 terms, or ridicule 嘲笑 in the most merciless manner, if I had seen them in another man. What is it that makes me unable 无法 to blame them, or to ridicule 嘲笑 them in him?

For example, he is immensely 极大的 fat. Before this time I have always especially disliked 反感 corpulent humanity 人性. I have always maintained 保持 that the popular notion 概念 of connecting 连接 excessive 过度的 grossness of size and excessive good-humour as inseparable allies 联盟；盟友 was equivalent 当量 to declaring, either that no people but amiable 可亲 people ever get fat, or that the accidental 偶然 addition 加成 of so many pounds of flesh 肉 has a directly favourable influence over the disposition 性格 of the person on whose 谁的 body they accumulate 积累. I have invariably 不变地 combated 战斗 both these absurd 荒诞 assertions 断言 by quoting 引用 examples of fat people who were as mean, vicious 恶毒, and cruel 残酷的 as the leanest and the worst 生病:ill of their neighbours. I have asked whether Henry the Eighth was an amiable 可亲 character? Whether Pope Alexander the Sixth was a good man? Whether Mr. Murderer and Mrs. Murderess Manning were not both unusually 异常 stout 肥硕 people? Whether hired 聘用 nurses 护士, proverbially as cruel 3 a set of women as are to be found in all England, were not, for the most part, also as fat a set of women as are to be found in all England?—and so on, through dozens of other examples, modern and ancient, native 本土的 and foreign, high and low. Holding these strong opinions on the subject with might and main as I do at this moment, here, nevertheless 虽然, is Count Fosco, as fat as Henry the Eighth himself, established 建立 in my favour, at one day's notice, without let or hindrance 妨害 from his own odious corpulence. Marvellous indeed!

Is it his face that has recommended him?

It may be his face. He is a most remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 likeness 像, on a large scale, of the great Napoleon. His features 特征 have Napoleon's magnificent 华丽的 regularity 规律性—his expression recalls 召回 the grandly 宏大的 calm, immovable power of the Great Soldier's face. This striking resemblance 相似 certainly impressed 给…留下深刻印象；使钦佩 me, to begin with; but there is something in him besides the resemblance 相似, which has impressed me more. I think the influence I am now trying to find is in his eyes. They are the most unfathomable grey 灰色:gray eyes I ever saw, and they have at times a cold, clear, beautiful 美丽, irresistible 不可抗拒 glitter 闪光 in them which forces me to look at him, and yet causes me sensations 感觉, when I do look, which I would rather not feel. Other parts of his face and head have their strange peculiarities. His complex‧ion 肤色, for instance 例, has a singular 单数 sallow-fairness 公平, so much at variance 方差 with the dark-brown colour of his hair, that I suspect the hair of being a wig 假发, and his face, closely shaven all over, is smoother and freer from all marks and wrinkles 皱纹 than mine, though (according to Sir Percival's account of him) he is close on sixty 六十 years of age. But these are not the prominent 突出 personal 个人 characteristics 特性 which distinguish him, to my mind, from all the other men I have ever seen. The marked peculiarity which singles him out from the rank and file 文件 of humanity 人性 lies entirely, so far as I can tell at present, in the extraordinary expression and extraordinary power of his eyes.

His manner and his command of our language may also have assisted him, in some degree, to establish 建立 himself in my good opinion. He has that quiet deference 尊重, that look of pleased, attentive 注意的 interest in listening to a woman, and that secret gentleness in his voice in speaking to a woman, which, say what we may, we can none of us resist 抵抗. Here, too, his unusual 异常 command of the English language necessarily helps him. I had often heard of the extraordinary aptitude which many Italians show in mastering our strong, hard, Northern 北方的 speech; but, until I saw Count Fosco, I had never supposed it possible that any foreigner could have spoken English as he speaks it. There are times when it is almost impossible to detect 发现，察觉，看出 by his accent 口音 that he is not a country‧man 农村人 of our own, and as for fluency 流畅, there are very few born Englishmen who can talk with as few stoppages and repetitions 重复 as the Count. He may construct 构造 his sentences 句子 more or less in the foreign way, but I have never yet heard him use a wrong expression, or hesitate 3 for a moment in his choice of a word.

All the smallest characteristics 特性 of this strange man have something strikingly 惊人 original 原版的 and perplexingly contradictory 矛盾 in them. Fat as he is and old as he is, his movements 运动 are astonishingly light and easy. He is as noise‧less 噪音‧少 in a room as any of us women, and more than that, with all his look of unmistakable 明白的 mental 心理 firmness and power, he is as nervously sensitive as the weakest of us. He starts at chance noises 噪音 as inveterately as Laura her‧self 她自己. He winced WINCE and shuddered 不寒而栗 yesterday, when Sir Percival beat one of the spaniels, so that I felt ashamed 3 of my own want of tenderness 压痛 and sensibility 感性 by comparison 比较 with the Count.

The relation of this last incident 事件 reminds me of one of his most curious peculiarities, which I have not yet mentioned—his extraordinary fondness for pet 宠物 animals.

Some of these he has left on the Continent, but he has brought with him to this house a cockatoo, two canary-birds, and a whole family of white mice. He attends to all the necessities 必须 of these strange favourites himself, and he has taught teach the creatures to be surprisingly 出奇 fond of him and familiar with him. The cockatoo, a most vicious 恶毒 and treacherous 奸诈 bird towards every one else, absolutely seems to love him. When he lets it out of its cage 笼子, it hops 跳 on to his knee, and claws 爪 its way up his great big body, and rubs 擦 its top-knot 结 against his sallow double chin 下巴 in the most caressing 抚摸 manner imaginable. He has only to set the doors of the canaries' cages 笼子 open, and to call them, and the pretty little cleverly 聪明的 trained creatures perch 栖息 fearlessly on his hand, mount 增加 his fat outstretched fingers one by one, when he tells them to "go upstairs 楼上," and sing together as if they would burst 爆裂 their throats with delight when they get to the top finger. His white mice live in a little pagoda of gaily 快乐的-painted wire‧work 金属丝‧工作, designed and made by himself. They are almost as tame 驯服的 as the canaries, and they are perpetually 永动的 let out like the canaries. They crawl 爬行 all over him, popping 流行的 in and out of his waist‧coat 腰‧上衣, and sitting in couples, white as snow, on his capacious shoulders. He seems to be even fonder 喜欢的 of his mice than of his other pets 宠物, smiles at them, and kisses 接吻 them, and calls them by all sorts of endearing 爱戴 names. If it be possible to suppose an Englishman with any taste for such childish 幼稚 interests and amusements 娱乐 as these, that Englishman would certainly feel rather ashamed of them, and would be anxious to apologise for them, in the company of grown-up people. But the Count, apparently, sees nothing ridiculous 荒谬 in the amazing 使大为惊奇，使惊愕 contrast 对比 between his colossal 庞大 self and his frail 脆弱 little pets. He would blandly 平淡 kiss 接吻 his white mice and twitter to his canary-birds amid 际 an assembly 部件 of English fox 狐狸-hunters 猎人, and would only pity 怜悯 them as barbarians when they were all laughing their loudest 响亮的 at him.

It seems hardly credible 可信的 while I am writing it down, but it is certainly true, that this same man, who has all the fondness of an old maid 女佣 for his cockatoo, and all the small dexterities of an organ 器官；机构-boy in managing his white mice, can talk, when anything happens to rouse 唤醒 him, with a daring 敢 independence 独立 of thought, a knowledge of books in every language, and an experience of society in half the capitals of Europe, which would make him the prominent 突出 person‧age 人‧年龄 of any assembly 部件 in the civilised world. This trainer of canary-birds, this architect 建筑师 of a pagoda for white mice, is (as Sir Percival himself has told me) one of the first experimental 试验 chemists 化学家 living, and has discovered, among other wonderful 精彩 inventions 发明, a means of petrifying the body after death, so as to preserve it, as hard as marble 大理石, to the end of time. This fat, indolent, elderly 年老的；上了年纪的 man, whose 4 nerves 神经 are so finely strung that he starts at chance noises, and winces WINCE when he sees a house-spaniel get a whipping 鞭打, went into the stable 稳定-yard on the morning after his arrival 到达, and put his hand on the head of a chained blood‧hound 血‧猎犬—a beast 野兽 so savage 野蛮人 that the very groom 马夫 who feeds him keeps out of his reach. His wife and I were present, and I shall not forget the scene that followed, short as it was.

"Mind that dog, sir," said the groom 马夫; "he flies at everybody!" "He does that, my friend," replied the Count quietly, "because everybody is afraid of him. Let us see if he flies at me." And he laid his plump 丰满, yellow-white fingers, on which the canary-birds had been perching 栖息 ten 十 minutes before, upon the formidable 强大 brute 畜生's head, and looked him straight in the eyes. "You big dogs are all cowards," he said, addressing the animal contemptuously, with his face and the dog's within an inch of each other. "You would kill a poor cat 猫, you infernal coward 胆小鬼. You would fly at a starving 饿死 beggar 乞丐, you infernal coward. Anything that you can surprise unawares 不知道—anything that is afraid of your big body, and your wicked 邪恶的 white teeth, and your slobbering, blood‧thirsty 血‧渴 mouth, is the thing you like to fly at. You could throttle 风门 me at this moment, you mean, miserable bully 欺负, and you daren't so much as look me in the face, because I'm not afraid of you. Will you think better of it, and try your teeth in my fat neck? Bah! not you!" He turned away, laughing at the astonishment 惊愕 of the men in the yard, and the dog crept back meekly to his kennel. "Ah! my nice waist‧coat 腰‧上衣!" he said pathetically 可怜. "I am sorry 对不起的 I came here. Some of that brute 畜生's slobber has got on my pretty clean waist‧coat 腰‧上衣." Those words express another of his incomprehensible 费解的 oddities. He is as fond of fine clothes as the veriest fool in existence, and has appeared in four magnificent 华丽的 waistcoats already—all of light garish colours, and all immensely large even for him—in the two days of his residence 住宅 at Blackwater Park.

His tact and cleverness in small things are quite as notice‧able 显 as the singular 单数 inconsistencies 前后矛盾 in his character, and the childish 幼稚 triviality of his ordinary tastes and pursuits 追求.

I can see already that he means to live on excellent terms with all of us during the period of his sojourn in this place. He has evidently 明显地 discovered that Laura secretly dislikes 反感 him (she confessed 供认 as much to me when I pressed her on the subject)—but he has also found out that she is extravagantly 靡 fond of flowers. Whenever she wants a nose‧gay 鼻子‧快乐的 he has got one to give her, gathered and arranged by himself, and greatly to my amusement 娱乐, he is always cunningly 狡猾 provided with a duplicate 重复, composed of exactly the same flowers, grouped in exactly the same way, to appease his icily 冷冰冰 jealous 妒忌的 wife before she can so much as think her‧self 她自己 aggrieved. His management 管理 of the Countess (in public) is a sight to see. He bows 弓 to her, he habitually 惯常的 addresses her as "my angel 天使," he carries his canaries to pay her little visits on his fingers and to sing to her, he kisses her hand when she gives him his cigarettes; he presents her with sugar 食糖-plums 李子 in return, which he puts into her mouth playfully 调皮, from a box in his pocket 口袋. The rod 杆 of iron with which he rules her never appears in company—it is a private rod, and is always kept upstairs 楼上.

His method 方法 of recommending himself to me is entirely different. He flatters 奉承 my vanity 虚荣 by talking to me as seriously and sensibly 理智 as if I was a man. Yes! I can find him out when I am away from him—I know he flatters 奉承 my vanity 虚荣, when I think of him up here in my own room—and yet, when I go downstairs 楼下, and get into his company again, he will blind me again, and I shall be flattered 奉承 again, just as if I had never found him out at all! He can manage me as he manages his wife and Laura, as he managed the blood‧hound 血‧猎犬 in the stable 稳定-yard, as he manages Sir Percival himself, every hour in the day. "My good Percival! how I like your rough English humour!"—"My good Percival! how I enjoy your solid English sense!" He puts the rudest remarks Sir Percival can make on his effeminate tastes and amusements 娱乐 quietly away from him in that manner—always calling the baronet by his Christian name, smiling at him with the calmest 镇定的 superiority 优势, patting 拍 him on the shoulder, and bearing with him benignantly, as a good-humoured father bears with a way‧ward 路；方法‧病房 son.

The interest which I really cannot help feeling in this strangely original 原版的 man has led me to question Sir Percival about his past life.

Sir Percival either knows little, or will tell me little, about it. He and the Count first met many years ago, at Rome, under the dangerous 危险 circumstances 环境 to which I have alluded 暗示 elsewhere. Since that time they have been perpetually 永动的 together in London, in Paris, and in Vienna—but never in Italy again; the Count having, oddly 奇怪 enough, not crossed the frontiers 边境 of his native 本土的 country for years past. Perhaps he has been made the victim 受害者 of some political persecution 迫害? At all events, he seems to be patriotically 爱国的 anxious not to lose sight of any of his own countrymen who may happen to be in England. On the evening of his arrival 到达 he asked how far we were from the nearest town, and whether we knew of any Italian gentlemen who might happen to be settled there. He is certainly in correspondence 对应 with people on the Continent, for his letters have all sorts of odd 奇 stamps 邮票 on them, and I saw one for him this morning, waiting in his place at the breakfast-table, with a huge 巨大, official-looking seal 封上，海豹 on it. Perhaps he is in correspondence 对应 with his government? And yet, that is hardly to be reconciled 调和 either with my other idea that he may be a political exile 流亡.

How much I seem to have written about Count Fosco! And what does it all amount to?—as poor, dear Mr. Gilmore would ask, in his impenetrable business-like way I can only repeat that I do assuredly feel, even on this short acquaintance 熟人, a strange, half-willing, half-unwilling 不甘 liking for the Count. He seems to have established 建立 over me the same sort of ascendency which he has evidently 明显地 gained over Sir Percival. Free, and even rude 粗鲁的, as he may occasionally 偶尔，间或；有时 be in his manner towards his fat friend, Sir Percival is nevertheless 虽然 afraid, as I can plainly see, of giving any serious offence to the Count. I wonder whether I am afraid too? I certainly never saw a man, in all my experience, whom I should be so sorry 对不起的 to have for an enemy. Is this because I like him, or because I am afraid of him? Chi sa?—as Count Fosco might say in his own language. Who knows?

June 16th.—Something to chronicle 编年史 to-day besides my own ideas and impressions 印象. A visitor has arrived—quite unknown 未知 to Laura and to me, and apparently quite unexpected 意外 by Sir Percival.

We were all at lunch 午餐, in the room with the new French windows that open into the verandah, and the Count (who devours 吞食 pastry 糕点 as I have never yet seen it devoured 吞食 by any human beings 蜜蜂 but girls at boarding-schools) had just amused 使人发笑 us by asking gravely 坟墓；严重的 for his fourth tart 酸—when theservant 仆人 entered to announce 宣布 the visitor.

"Mr. Merriman has just come, Sir Percival, and wishes to see you immediately."

Sir Percival started, and looked at the man with an expression of angry alarm 警告.

"Mr. Merriman!" he repeated, as if he thought his own ears must have deceived 欺诈 him.

"Yes, Sir Percival—Mr. Merriman, from London."

"Where is he?"

"In the library, Sir Percival."

He left the table the instant the last answer was given, and hurried out of the room without saying a word to any of us.

"Who is Mr. Merriman?" asked Laura, appealing 上诉 to me.

"I have not the least idea," was all I could say in reply.

The Count had finished his fourth tart 酸, and had gone to a side-table to look after his vicious 恶毒 cockatoo. He turned round to us with the bird perched 栖息 on his shoulder.

"Mr. Merriman is Sir Percival's solicitor 律师," he said quietly.

Sir Percival's solicitor 律师. It was a perfectly straight‧forward 直截了当 answer to Laura's question, and yet, under the circumstances 环境, it was not satisfactory 满意. If Mr. Merriman had been specially sent for by his client 客户, there would have been nothing very wonderful 精彩 in his leaving town to obey 服从 the summons 召唤. But when a lawyer travels from London to Hampshire without being sent for, and when his arrival 到达 at a gentleman's house seriously startles 惊吓 the gentleman himself, it may be safely taken for granted 发放 that the legal 法律 visitor is the bearer of some very important and very unexpected 意外 news—news which may be either very good or very bad, but which cannot, in either case, be of the common every‧day 日常的 kind.

Laura and I sat silent at the table for a quarter of an hour or more, wondering uneasily 不安 what had happened, and waiting for the chance of Sir Percival's speedy 迅速 return. There were no signs of his return, and we rose to leave the room.

The Count, attentive 注意的 as usual, advanced from the corner in which he had been feeding his cockatoo, with the bird still perched 栖息 on his shoulder, and opened the door for us. Laura and Madame Fosco went out first. Just as I was on the point of following them he made a sign with his hand, and spoke to me, before I passed him, in the oddest 奇 manner.

"Yes," he said, quietly answering the unexpressed idea at that moment in my mind, as if I had plainly confided 信任 it to him in so many words—"yes, Miss Halcombe, something has happened."

I was on the point of answering, "I never said so," but the vicious 恶毒 cockatoo ruffled 生气 his clipped 夹 wings and gave a screech 尖叫 that set all my nerves 神经 on edge in an instant, and made me only too glad to get out of the room.

I joined Laura at the foot of the stairs. The thought in her mind was the same as the thought in mine, which Count Fosco had surprised, and when she spoke her words were almost the echo 回声 of his. She, too, said to me secretly that she was afraid something had happened.

III

June 16th.—I have a few lines more to add to this day's entry 条目 before I go to bed to-night.

About two hours after Sir Percival rose from the luncheon 午餐-table to receive his solicitor 律师, Mr. Merriman, in the library, I left my room alone to take a walk in the plantations 种植园. Just as I was at the end of the landing the library door opened and the two gentlemen came out. Thinking it best not to disturb 打扰 them by appearing on the stairs, I resolved 解决 to defer 延缓 going down till they had crossed the hall. Although they spoke to each other in guarded tones 音, their words were pronounced with sufficient 足够 distinctness of utterance 发声 to reach my ears.

"Make your mind easy, Sir Percival," I heard the lawyer say; "it all rests with Lady Glyde."

I had turned to go back to my own room for a minute or two, but the sound of Laura's name on the lips of a stranger stopped me instantly. I dare‧say 敢‧说 it was very wrong and very discredit‧able 怀疑‧能够的 to listen, but where is the woman, in the whole range of our sex 性别, who can regulate 调节 her actions by the abstract 抽象 principles 原理 of honour, when those principles 原理 point one way, and when her affect‧ion 感情, and the interests which grow out of them, point the other?

I listened—and under similar 类似 circumstances 环境 I would listen again—yes! with my ear at the key‧hole 钥匙‧洞, if I could not possibly manage it in any other way.

"You quite understand, Sir Percival," the lawyer went on. "Lady Glyde is to sign her name in the presence of a witness—or of two witnesses, if you wish to be particularly careful 小心—and is then to put her finger on the seal 封上，海豹 and say, 'I deliver this as my act and deed 行为.' If that is done in a week's time the arrangement 安排 will be perfectly successful 成功, and the anxiety will be all over. If not——"

"What do you mean by 'if not'?" asked Sir Percival angrily. "If the thing must be done it shall be done. I promise you that, Merriman."

"Just so, Sir Percival—just so; but there are two alter‧native 替代 in all trans‧action 交易, and we lawyers like to look both of them in the face boldly. If through any extraordinary circumstance 环境 the arrangement 安排 should not be made, I think I may be able to get the parties to accept bills at three months. But how the money is to be raised when the bills fall due——"

"Damn 该死的 the bills! The money is only to be got in one way, and in that way, I tell you again, it shall be got. Take a glass of wine, Merriman, before you go."

"Much obliged 责成, Sir Percival, I have not a moment to lose if I am to catch the up-train. You will let me know as soon as the arrangement 安排 is complete? and you will not forget the caution 小心 I recommended——"

"Of course I won't. There's the dog-cart 运货马车 at the door for you. My groom 马夫 will get you to the station in no time. Benjamin, drive like mad! Jump in. If Mr. Merriman misses the train you lose your place. Hold fast, Merriman, and if you are upset 打翻 trust to the devil 魔鬼 to save his own." With that parting benediction the baronet turned about and walked back to the library.

I had not heard much, but the little that had reached my ears was enough to make me feel uneasy 不安. The "something" that "had happened" was but too plainly a serious money embarrassment 困窘, and Sir Percival's relief from it depended upon Laura. The prospect 展望 of seeing her involved in her husband's secret difficulties filled me with dismay 沮丧, exaggerated 夸大, no doubt, by my ignorance 无知 of business and my settled distrust 怀疑 of Sir Percival. Instead of going out, as I proposed, I went back immediately to Laura's room to tell her what I had heard.

She received my bad news so composedly as to surprise me. She evidently 明显地 knows more of her husband's character and her husband's embarrassments 困窘 than I have suspected 怀疑；嫌疑犯 up to this time.

"I feared as much," she said, "when I heard of that strange gentleman who called, and declined 下降 to leave his name."

"Who do you think the gentleman was, then?" I asked.

"Some person who has heavy claims on Sir Percival," she answered, "and who has been the cause of Mr. Merriman's visit here to-day."

"Do you know anything about those claims?"

"No, I know no particulars."

"You will sign nothing, Laura, without first looking at it?"

"Certainly not, Marian. Whatever I can harm‧less 无害 and honestly do to help him I will do—for the sake of making your life and mine, love, as easy and as happy as possible. But I will do nothing ignorantly 愚昧, which we might, one day, have reason to feel ashamed of. Let us say no more about it now. You have got your hat on—suppose we go and dream away the afternoon in the grounds?"

On leaving the house we directed our steps to the nearest shade 遮阳；阴.

As we passed an open space among the trees in front of the house, there was Count Fosco, slowly walking backwards 向后的 and forwards on the grass 草, sunning himself in the full blaze 火焰 of the hot June afternoon. He had a broad straw 稻草 hat on, with a violet 紫色-coloured ribbon 带 round it. A blue blouse 衬衫, with profuse white fancy 想像-work over the bosom, covered his prodigious body, and was girt about the place where his waist 4 might once have been with a broad scar‧let 猩红 leather 皮 belt 腰带. Nankeen trousers 长裤, displaying 显示 more white fancy 3-work over the ankles 踝, and purple 紫色的 morocco slip‧per 拖鞋, adorned 装饰 his lower extremities. He was singing Figaro's famous 著名 song in the Barber 理发师 of Seville, with that crisply 脆 fluent 流利 vocalisation which is never heard from any other than an Italian throat, accompanying 陪 himself on the concertina, which he played with ecstatic 欣喜若狂 throwings-up of his arms, and graceful 优美 twistings 扭成一束 and turnings of his head, like a fat St. Cecilia masquerading in male attire 服装. "Figaro qua! Figaro la! Figaro su! Figaro giu!" sang sing the Count, jauntily tossing 折腾 up the concertina at arm's length, and bowing 弓 to us, on one side of the instrument, with the airy 轻快的 grace and elegance 优雅 of Figaro himself at twenty 二十 years of age.

"Take my word for it, Laura, that man knows something of Sir Percival's embarrassments 困窘," I said, as we returned the Count's salutation from a safe distance.

"What makes you think that?" she asked.

"How should he have known, otherwise, that Mr. Merriman was Sir Percival's solicitor 律师?" I rejoined 归队. "Besides, when I followed you out of the luncheon 午餐-room, he told me, without a single word of inquiry 调查 on my part, that something had happened. Depend upon it, he knows more than we do."

"Don't ask him any questions if he does. Don't take him into our confidence!"

"You seem to dislike 反感 him, Laura, in a very determined manner. What has he said or done to justify 为…辩护；证明…正当；是…的正当理由 you?"

"Nothing, Marian. On the contrary 相反, he was all kindness 善良 and attention on our journey 3 home, and he several times checked Sir Percival's out‧break 暴发 of temper, in the most considerate manner towards me. Perhaps I dislike 反感 him because he has so much more power over my husband than I have. Perhaps it hurts 损害 my pride to be under any obligations to his interference 干涉. All I know is, that I do dislike 反感 him."

The rest of the day and evening passed quietly enough. The Count and I played at chess 棋. For the first two games he politely 有礼貌的 allowed me to conquer 征服 him, and then, when he saw that I had found him out, begged my pardon 4, and at the third game checkmated me in ten 十 minutes. Sir Percival never once referred, all through the evening, to the lawyer's visit. But either that event, or something else, had produced a singular 单数 alteration 改造 for the better in him. He was as polite 有礼貌的 and agree‧able 合适的 to all of us, as he used to be in the days of his probation 缓刑 at Limmeridge, and he was so amazingly 令人惊讶 attentive 注意的 and kind to his wife, that even icy 冷冰冰 Madame Fosco was roused 唤醒 into looking at him with a grave 坟墓；严重的 surprise. What does this mean? I think I can guess—I am afraid Laura can guess—and I am sure Count Fosco knows. I caught Sir Percival looking at him for approval 批准；同意；赞成 more than once in the course of the evening.

June 17th.—A day of events. I most fervently hope I may not have to add, a day of disasters 灾难，大祸 as well.

Sir Percival was as silent at breakfast as he had been the evening before, on the subject of the mysterious 神秘 "arrangement 安排" (as the lawyer called it) which is hanging over our heads. An hour after‧ward 之后, however, he suddenly entered the morning-room, where his wife and I were waiting, with our hats on, for Madame Fosco to join us, and inquired for the Count.

"We expect to see him here directly," I said.

"The fact is," Sir Percival went on, walking nervously about the room, "I want Fosco and his wife in the library, for a mere business formality 礼节, and I want you there, Laura, for a minute too." He stopped, and appeared to notice, for the first time, that we were in our walking costume 服装. "Have you just come in?" he asked, "or were you just going out?"

"We were all thinking of going to the lake this morning," said Laura. "But if you have any other arrangement 安排 to propose——"

"No, no," he answered hastily 草草. "My arrangement 安排 can wait. After lunch 午餐 will do as well for it as after breakfast. All going to the lake, eh? A good idea. Let's have an idle 无意义的 morning—I'll be one of the party."

There was no mistaking his manner, even if it had been possible to mistake the uncharacteristic readiness 准备就绪 which his words expressed, to submit 给 his own plans and projects 项目 to the convenience 方便 of others. He was evidently 明显地 relieved at finding any excuse 原谅 for delaying 延迟 the business formality 礼节 in the library, to which his own words had referred. My heart sank 淹没:sink within me as I drew the inevitable 必然 inference 推理.

The Count and his wife joined us at that moment. The lady had her husband's embroidered 绣 tobacco 烟草-pouch 袋, and her store of paper in her hand, for the manufacture of the eternal 永恒 cigarettes. The gentleman, dressed, as usual, in his blouse 衬衫 and straw 稻草 hat, carried the gay 快乐的 little pagoda- cage 笼子, with his darling 宠儿 white mice in it, and smiled on them, and on us, with a bland 平淡 amiability which it was impossible to resist.

"With your kind per‧mission 允许," said the Count, "I will take my small family here—my poor-little-harm‧less 无害-pretty-Mouseys, out for an airing along with us. There are dogs about the house, and shall I leave my forlorn white children at the mercies 宽容 of the dogs? Ah, never!"

He chirruped paternally 父亲的 at his small white children through the bars of the pagoda, and we all left the house for the lake.

In the plantation 种植园 Sir Percival strayed 流浪 away from us. It seems to be part of his rest‧less 不安 disposition 性格 always to separate himself from his companions 同伴 on these occasions, and always to occupy 占据 himself when he is alone in cutting new walking-sticks for his own use. The mere act of cutting and lopping at hazard 冒险 appears to please him. He has filled the house with walking-sticks of his own making, not one of which he ever takes up for a second time. When they have been once used his interest in them is all exhausted 排气, and he thinks of nothing but going on and making more.

At the old boat-house he joined us again. I will put down the conversation that ensued 接踵而至 when we were all settled in our places exactly as it passed. It is an important conversation, so far as I am concerned, for it has seriously disposed 部署 me to distrust 怀疑 the influence which Count Fosco has exercised over my thoughts and feelings, and to resist it for the future as resolutely as I can.

The boat-house was large enough to hold us all, but Sir Percival remained outside trimming 修剪 the last new stick with his pocket 口袋-axe 斧子. We three women found plenty of room on the large seat. Laura took her work, and Madame Fosco began her cigarettes. I, as usual, had nothing to do. My hands always were, and always will be, as awkward 难堪 as a man's. The Count good-humouredly took a stool 粪便 many sizes too small for him, and balanced himself on it with his back against the side of the shed, which creaked 吱吱 and groaned 呻吟 under his weight. He put the pagoda- cage 笼子 on his lap 膝部, and let out the mice to crawl 爬行 over him as usual. They are pretty, innocent 无辜-looking little creatures, but the sight of them creeping 爬行 about a man's body is for some reason not pleasant to me. It excites a strange responsive 响应 creeping in my own nerves 神经, and suggests hideous 可怕 ideas of men dying in prison with the crawling 爬行 creatures of the dungeon preying 猎物 on them undisturbed.

The morning was windy 有风 and cloudy 多云的, and the rapid alternations of shadow and sun‧light 阳光 over the waste of the lake made the view look doubly wild, weird 奇怪的, and gloomy 阴沉.

"Some people call that picturesque 如画," said Sir Percival, pointing over the wide prospect 展望 with his half-finished walking-stick. "I call it a blot 斑点 on a gentleman's property. In my great-grand‧father 祖父's time the lake flowed to this place. Look at it now! It is not four feet deep anywhere, and it is all puddles and pools. I wish I could afford 买得起 to drain 排水 it, and plant it all over. My bailiff (a superstitious idiot 白痴) says he is quite sure the lake has a curse 诅咒 on it, like the Dead Sea. What do you think, Fosco? It looks just the place for a murder, doesn't it?"

"My good Percival," remonstrated the Count. "What is your solid English sense thinking of? The water is too shallow 浅的 to hide the body, and there is sand 沙 every‧where 到处 to print off the murderer's foot‧step 脚步. It is, upon the whole, the very worst place for a murder that I ever set my eyes on."

"Humbug!" said Sir Percival, cutting away fiercely at his stick. "You know what I mean. The dreary 凄凉 scenery 风景, the lonely 3 situation. If you choose to understand me, you can—if you don't choose, I am not going to trouble myself 我 to explain my meaning."

"And why not," asked the Count, "when your meaning can be explained by anybody in two words? If a fool was going to commit 承诺 a murder, your lake is the first place he would choose for it. If a wise 明智的；聪明的 man was going to commit 承诺 a murder, your lake is the last place he would choose for it. Is that your meaning? If it is, there is your explanation 说明 for you ready made. Take it, Percival, with your good Fosco's blessing 祝福."

Laura looked at the Count with her dislike 反感 for him appearing a little too plainly in her face. He was so busy with his mice that he did not notice her.

"I am sorry to hear the lake-view connected with anything so horrible 可怕 as the idea of murder," she said. "And if Count Fosco must divide murderers 凶手 into classes, I think he has been very unfortunate 不幸的 in his choice of expressions. To describe them as fools only seems like treating them with an indulgence 放纵 to which they have no claim. And to describe them as wise 明智的；聪明的 men sounds to me like a down‧right 彻头彻尾 contradiction 矛盾 in terms. I have always heard that truly 真 wise men are truly 真 good men, and have a horror 恐怖 of crime 罪行."

"My dear lady," said the Count, "those are admirable 令人钦佩 sentiments 情绪, and I have seen them stated at the tops of copy-books." He lifted one of the white mice in the palm 棕榈 of his hand, and spoke to it in his whimsical way. "My pretty little smooth white rascal," he said, "here is a moral lesson 教训 for you. A truly 真 wise mouse 老鼠 is a truly 真 good mouse. Mention that, if you please, to your companions 同伴, and never gnaw at the bars of your cage 笼子 again as long as you live."

"It is easy to turn everything into ridicule 嘲笑," said Laura resolutely; "but you will not find it quite so easy, Count Fosco, to give me an instance 例 of a wise man who has been a great criminal 罪犯."

The Count shrugged 耸 his huge 巨大 shoulders, and smiled on Laura in the friendliest manner.

"Most true!" he said. "The fool's crime 罪行 is the crime that is found out, and the wise man's crime is the crime that is not found out. If I could give you an instance 例, it would not be the instance 例 of a wise man. Dear Lady Glyde, your sound English common sense has been too much for me. It is check‧mate 检查‧伴，友 for me this time, Miss Halcombe—ha?"

"Stand to your guns, Laura," sneered 冷笑 Sir Percival, who had been listening in his place at the door. "Tell him next, that crimes 罪行 cause their own detect‧ion 发现. There's another bit 一点 of copy-book morality 道德 for you, Fosco. Crimes cause their own detect‧ion 发现. What infernal humbug!"

"I believe it to be true," said Laura quietly.

Sir Percival burst out laughing, so violently, so outrageously 蛮横的, that he quite startled 惊吓 us all—the Count more than any of us.

"I believe it too," I said, coming to Laura's rescue 营救.

Sir Percival, who had been unaccountably amused at his wife's remark, was just as unaccountably irritated 刺激 by mine. He struck the new stick savagely 野蛮人 on the sand, and walked away from us.

"Poor dear Percival!" cried Count Fosco, looking after him gaily, "he is the victim 受害者 of English spleen. But, my dear Miss Halcombe, my dear Lady Glyde, do you really believe that crimes cause their own detect‧ion 发现? And you, my angel 天使," he continued, turning to his wife, who had not uttered 说出 a word yet, "do you think so too?"

"I wait to be instructed 指导," replied the Countess, in tones 音 of freezing 使结冰；不动 rep‧roof 代表‧屋顶, intended for Laura and me, "before I venture 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 on giving my opinion in the presence of well-informed men."

"Do you, indeed?" I said. "I remember the time, Countess, when you advocated 主张；拥护；支持；提倡 the Rights of Women, and freedom of female opinion was one of them."

"What is your view of the subject, Count?" asked Madame Fosco, calmly proceeding 继续 with her cigarettes, and not taking the least notice of me.

The Count stroked 一击;轻抚 one of his white mice reflectively 反光 with his chubby little finger before he answered.

"It is truly 真 wonderful 精彩," he said, "how easily Society can console 安慰 itself 本身 for the worst of its shortcomings 缺点 with a little bit 一点 of clap 拍-trap 陷阱；诱骗. The machinery it has set up for the detect‧ion 发现 of crime is miserably ineffective 不灵—and yet only invent 发明 a moral epigram, saying that it works well, and you blind everybody to its blunders 错误 from that moment. Crimes cause their own detect‧ion 发现, do they? And murder will out (another moral epigram), will it? Ask Coroners who sit at inquests in large towns if that is true, Lady Glyde. Ask secretaries of life-assurance 保证 companies if that is true, Miss Halcombe. Read your own public journals 日志. In the few cases that get into the newspapers, are there not instances 例 of slain bodies found, and no murderers 凶手 ever discovered? Multiply 乘 the cases that are reported by the cases that are not reported, and the bodies that are found by the bodies that are not found, and what conclusion 结论 do you come to? This. That there are foolish 傻 criminals 罪犯 who are discovered, and wise criminals who escape. The hiding of a crime, or the detect‧ion 发现 of a crime, what is it? A trial of skill between the police on one side, and the individual on the other. When the criminal 罪犯 is a brutal 野蛮, ignorant 愚昧 fool, the police in nine 九 cases out of ten 十 win. When the criminal is a resolute, educated 教育, highly-intelligent 智能 man, the police in nine 九 cases out of ten 十 lose. If the police win, you generally hear all about it. If the police lose, you generally hear nothing. And on this tottering foundation 基础 you build up your comfort‧able 舒服；自在 moral maxim that Crime causes its own detect‧ion 发现! Yes—all the crime you know of. And what of the rest?"

"Devilish true, and very well put," cried a voice at the entrance 入口 of the boat-house. Sir Percival had recovered 恢复 his equanimity, and had come back while we were listening to the Count.

"Some of it may be true," I said, "and all of it may be very well put. But I don't see why Count Fosco should celebrate 庆祝 the victory of the criminal 3 over Society with so much exultation, or why you, Sir Percival, should applaud 鼓掌欢迎 him so loudly 响亮的 for doing it."

"Do you hear that, Fosco?" asked Sir Percival. "Take my advice, and make your peace with your audience. Tell them virtue 美德's a fine thing—they like that, I can promise you."

The Count laughed inwardly 向内的 and silently, and two of the white mice in his waist‧coat 腰‧上衣, alarmed by the internal 内部 convulsion going on beneath them, darted 镖 out in a violent 猛烈 hurry, and scrambled 争夺 into their cage 4 again.

"The ladies, my good Percival, shall tell me about virtue," he said. "They are better authorities 权威 than I am, for they know what virtue is, and I don't."

"You hear him?" said Sir Percival. "Isn't it awful 糟糕的?"

"It is true," said the Count quietly. "I am a citizen of the world, and I have met, in my time, with so many different sorts of virtue, that I am puzzled 使迷惑, in my old age, to say which is the right sort and which is the wrong. Here, in England, there is one virtue. And there, in China, there is another virtue. And John Englishman says my virtue is the genuine 真正 virtue. And John Chinaman says my virtue is the genuine 真正 virtue. And I say Yes to one, or No to the other, and am just as much bewildered 困惑 about it in the case of John with the top-boots 靴；鞋 as I am in the case of John with the pig‧tail 猪‧尾. Ah, nice little Mousey! come, kiss me. What is your own private notion 概念 of a virtuous 贤 man, my pret-pret-pretty? A man who keeps you warm, and gives you plenty to eat. And a good notion 概念, too, for it is intelligible, at the least."

"Stay a minute, Count," I interposed. "Accepting your illustration 插图, surely we have one unquestionable virtue in England which is wanting in China. The Chinese authorities 权威 kill thou‧sand 千 of innocent 无辜 people on the most frivolous pretexts. We in England are free from all guilt of that kind—we commit 承诺 no such dreadful 可怕 crime—we abhor reckless 鲁莽 blood‧shed 血‧棚 with all our hearts."

"Quite right, Marian," said Laura. "Well thought of, and well expressed."

"Pray allow the Count to proceed 继续," said Madame Fosco, with stern 严肃 civility. "You will find, young ladies, that he never speaks without having excellent reasons for all that he says."

"Thank you, my angel 天使," replied the Count. "Have a bon-bon?" He took out of his pocket a pretty little inlaid box, and placed it open on the table. "Chocolat a la Vanille," cried the impenetrable man, cheerfully 乐意 rattling 霸王鞭 the sweetmeats in the box, and bowing all round. "Offered by Fosco as an act of homage 尊敬 to the charming 魔力；使陶醉 society."

"Be good enough to go on, Count," said his wife, with a spiteful reference to myself 我. "Oblige me by answering Miss Halcombe."

"Miss Halcombe is unanswerable," replied the polite 3 Italian; "that is to say, so far as she goes. Yes! I agree with her. John Bull does abhor the crimes of John Chinaman. He is the quickest old gentleman at finding out faults 缺点 that are his neighbours', and the slowest old gentleman at finding out the faults that are his own, who exists on the face of creation 创建. Is he so very much better in this way than the people whom he condemns 谴责 in their way? English Society, Miss Halcombe, is as often the accomplice as it is the enemy of crime. Yes! yes! Crime is in this country what crime is in other countries—a good friend to a man and to those about him as often as it is an enemy. A great rascal provides for his wife and family. The worse he is the more he makes them the objects for your sympathy. He often provides also for himself. A profligate spendthrift who is always borrowing 借 money will get more from his friends than the rigidly 死板 honest 诚实的 man who only borrows 借 of them once, under pressure of the direst 可怕的 want. In the one case the friends will not be at all surprised, and they will give. In the other case they will be very much surprised, and they will hesitate. Is the prison that Mr. Scoundrel lives in at the end of his career a more uncomfortable 不舒服 place than the work‧house 工作‧房屋 that Mr. Honesty 诚实 lives in at the end of his career? When John-Howard-Philanthropist wants to relieve 解除 misery 痛苦 he goes to find it in prisons, where crime is wretched 不幸的人—not in huts 小屋 and hovels, where virtue is wretched 不幸的人 too. Who is the English poet who has won the most universal 普遍的 sympathy—who makes the easiest of all subjects for pathetic 可怜 writing and pathetic 可怜 painting? That nice young person who began life with a forgery, and ended it by a suicide—your dear, romantic 浪漫, interesting Chatterton. Which gets on best, do you think, of two poor starving 饿死 dressmakers—the woman who resists 抵抗 temptation 诱惑 and is honest, or the woman who falls under temptation 诱惑 and steals 偷? You all know that the stealing 偷 is the making of that second woman's for‧tune 命运—it advertises her from length to breadth 宽度 of good-humoured, charitable 慈善 England—and she is relieved, as the breaker of a commandment 诫命, when she would have been left to starve 饿死, as the keeper of it. Come here, my jolly 欢乐 little Mouse 老鼠! Hey! presto! pass! I transform 使彻底改观；使大变样 you, for the time being, into a respect‧able 可敬 lady. Stop there, in the palm 棕榈 of my great big hand, my dear, and listen. You marry the poor man whom you love, Mouse 3, and one half your friends pity 3, and the other half blame you. And now, on the contrary 相反, you sell your‧self 你自己 for gold 金 to a man you don't care for, and all your friends rejoice 欢庆 over you, and a minister of public worship 崇拜 sanctions 制裁 the base horror 恐怖 of the vilest of all human bar‧gain 讨价还价；交易, and smiles and smirks after‧ward 之后 at your table, if you are polite enough to ask him to breakfast. Hey! presto! pass! Be a mouse again, and squeak 吱. If you continue to be a lady much longer, I shall have you telling me that Society abhors crime—and then, Mouse, I shall doubt if your own eyes and ears are really of any use to you. Ah! I am a bad man, Lady Glyde, am I not? I say what other people only think, and when all the rest of the world is in a conspiracy 阴谋 to accept the mask 面具 for the true face, mine is the rash 皮疹 hand that tears off the plump 丰满 paste‧board 粘贴；面团‧板，上船, and shows the bare 光秃秃的 bones beneath. I will get up on my big elephant 象's legs, before I do myself 我 any more harm 损害 in your amiable 可亲 estimations 估计—I will get up and take a little airy 轻快的 walk of my own. Dear ladies, as your excellent Sheridan said, I go—and leave my character behind me."

He got up, put the cage 5 on the table, and paused for a moment to count the mice in it. "One, two, three, four——Ha!" he cried, with a look of horror 恐怖, "where, in the name of Heaven, is the fifth—the youngest, the whitest, the most amiable 可亲 of all—my Benjamin of mice!"

Neither Laura nor I were in any favor‧able 有利 disposition 性格 to be amused. The Count's glib cynicism 玩世不恭 had revealed 揭示 a new aspect 方面 of his nature from which we both recoiled. But it was impossible to resist the comical distress 苦难 of so very large a man at the loss of so very small a mouse. We laughed in spite of ourselves 我们自己; and when Madame Fosco rose to set the example of leaving the boat-house empty, so that her husband might search it to its remotest 远程 corners, we rose also to follow her out.

Before we had taken three steps, the Count's quick eye discovered the lost mouse under the seat that we had been occupying 占据. He pulled aside the bench 长凳, took the little animal up in his hand, and then suddenly stopped, on his knees, looking intently 意图 at a particular place on the ground just beneath him.

When he rose to his feet again, his hand shook so that he could hardly put the mouse back in the cage, and his face was of a faint livid yellow hue 色调 all over.

"Percival!" he said, in a whisper 低声说. "Percival! come here."

Sir Percival had paid no attention to any of us for the last ten 十 minutes. He had been entirely absorbed 吸收 in writing figures on the sand, and then rubbing 擦 them out again with the point of his stick.

"What's the matter now?" he asked, lounging 休息室 care‧less 粗心 into the boat-house.

"Do you see nothing there?" said the Count, catching him nervously by the collar 衣领 with one hand, and pointing with the other to the place near which he had found the mouse.

"I see plenty of dry sand," answered Sir Percival, "and a spot of dirt in the middle of it."

"Not dirt," whispered the Count, fastening 系牢 the other hand suddenly on Sir Percival's collar, and shaking it in his agitation 搅动. "Blood."

Laura was near enough to hear the last word, softly as he whispered it. She turned to me with a look of terror 恐怖.

"Nonsense, my dear," I said. "There is no need to be alarmed. It is only the blood of a poor little stray 流浪 dog."

Everybody was astonished 使惊讶, and everybody's eyes were fixed on me inquiringly.

"How do you know that?" asked Sir Percival, speaking first.

"I found the dog here, dying, on the day when you all returned from abroad," I replied. "The poor creature had strayed 流浪 into the plantation 种植园, and had been shot by your keeper."

"Whose 5 dog was it?" inquired Sir Percival. "Not one of mine?"

"Did you try to save the poor thing?" asked Laura earnestly. "Surely you tried to save it, Marian?"

"Yes," I said, "the house‧keep 管家 and I both did our best—but the dog was mortally 凡人 wounded, and he died under our hands."

"Whose dog was it?" persisted 坚持 Sir Percival, repeating his question a little irritably 急躁. "One of mine?"

"No, not one of yours."

"Whose then? Did the house‧keep 管家 know?"

The house‧keep 管家's report of Mrs. Catherick's desire to conceal 隐藏 her visit to Blackwater Park from Sir Percival's knowledge recurred 复发 to my memory the moment he put that last question, and I half doubted the discretion 慎重 of answering it; but in my anxiety to quiet the general alarm 警告, I had thoughtlessly advanced too far to draw back, except at the risk of exciting suspicion, which might only make matters worse. There was nothing for it but to answer at once, without reference to results.

"Yes," I said. "The house‧keep 管家 knew. She told me it was Mrs. Catherick's dog."

Sir Percival had hitherto 迄今 remained at the inner 里面的 end of the boat-house with Count Fosco, while I spoke to him from the door. But the instant Mrs. Catherick's name passed my lips he pushed by the Count roughly, and placed himself face to face with me under the open day‧light 日光.

"How came the house‧keep 管家 to know it was Mrs. Catherick's dog?" he asked, fixing his eyes on mine with a frowning 皱眉 interest and attention, which half angered 生气, half startled 惊吓 me.

"She knew it," I said quietly, "because Mrs. Catherick brought the dog with her."

"Brought it with her? Where did she bring it with her?"

"To this house."

"What the devil 魔鬼 did Mrs. Catherick want at this house?"

The manner in which he put the question was even more offensive 进攻 than the language in which he expressed it. I marked my sense of his want of common politeness 礼貌 by silently turning away from him.

Just as I moved the Count's persuasive 说服力 hand was laid on his shoulder, and the Count's mellifluous voice interposed to quiet him.

"My dear Percival!—gently—gently!"

Sir Percival looked round in his angriest manner. The Count only smiled and repeated the soothing 缓和 application.

"Gently, my good friend—gently!"

Sir Percival hesitated, followed me a few steps, and, to my great surprise, offered me an apology 道歉认错.

"I beg your pardon 5, Miss Halcombe," he said. "I have been out of order lately 近来, and I am afraid I am a little irritable 急躁. But I should like to know what Mrs. Catherick could possibly want here. When did she come? Was the house‧keep 管家 the only person who saw her?"

"The only person," I answered, "so far as I know."

The Count interposed again.

"In that case why not question the house‧keep 管家?" he said. "Why not go, Percival, to the fountain 喷泉-head of information at once?"

"Quite right!" said Sir Percival. "Of course the house‧keep 管家 is the first person to question. Excessively stupid 愚蠢的 of me not to see it myself 我." With those words he instantly left us to return to the house.

The motive 动机 of the Count's interference, which had puzzled me at first, betrayed 背叛 itself 本身 when Sir Percival's back was turned. He had a host 主人 of questions to put to me about Mrs. Catherick, and the cause of her visit to Blackwater Park, which he could scarcely 缺乏的 have asked in his friend's presence. I made my answers as short as I civilly 国内 could, for I had already determined to check the least approach to any exchanging of confidences between Count Fosco and myself 我. Laura, however, unconsciously 不知不觉 helped him to extract 提取 all my information, by making inquiries her‧self 她自己, which left me no alter‧native 替代 but to reply to her, or to appear in the very unenviable and very false 虚伪的 character of a depositary of Sir Percival's secrets. The end of it was, that, in about ten 十 minutes' time, the Count knew as much as I know of Mrs. Catherick, and of the events which have so strangely connected us with her daughter, Anne, from the time when Hartright met with her to this day.

The effect of my information on him was, in one respect, curious enough.

Intimately as he knows Sir Percival, and closely as he appears to be associated 关联 with Sir Percival's private affairs in general, he is certainly as far as I am from knowing anything of the true story of Anne Catherick. The unsolved mystery in connection with this unhappy 不快乐 woman is now rendered 给予 doubly suspicious 可疑的, in my eyes, by the absolute conviction 定罪 which I feel, that the clue 线索 to it has been hidden hide by Sir Percival from the most intimate 亲密 friend he has in the world. It was impossible to mistake the eager 渴望的 curiosity 好奇心 of the Count's look and manner while he drank drink in greedily 贪婪 every word that fell from my lips. There are many kinds of curiosity 好奇心, I know—but there is no misinterpreting the curiosity 好奇心 of blank 空白 surprise: if I ever saw it in my life I saw it in the Count's face.

While the questions and answers were going on, we had all been strolling 漫步 quietly back through the plantation 种植园. As soon as we reached the house the first object that we saw in front of it was Sir Percival's dog-cart 运货马车, with the horse put to and the groom 马夫 waiting by it in his stable 稳定- jacket 衣服. If these unexpected 意外 appearances were to be trusted, the examination 检查 of the house-keeper had produced important results already.

"A fine horse, my friend," said the Count, addressing the groom 马夫 with the most engaging 从事 familiarity 熟悉 of manner, "You are going to drive out?"

"I am not going, sir," replied the man, looking at his stable 稳定- jacket, and evidently 明显地 wondering whether the foreign gentleman took it for his livery. "My master drives himself."

"Aha!" said the Count, "does he indeed? I wonder he gives himself the trouble when he has got you to drive for him. Is he going to fatigue 疲劳 that nice, shining 发光, pretty horse by taking him very far to-day?"

"I don't know, sir," answered the man. "The horse is a mare 母马, if you please, sir. She's the highest-couraged 勇气 thing we've got in the stables 稳定. Her name's Brown Molly, sir, and she'll go till she drops. Sir Percival usually takes Isaac of York for the short distances."

"And your shining courageous 勇敢 Brown Molly for the long?"

"Logical inference 推理, Miss Halcombe," continued the Count, wheeling round briskly 轻快, and addressing me. "Sir Percival is going a long distance to-day."

I made no reply. I had my own inferences 推理 to draw, from what I knew through the house‧keep 管家 and from what I saw before me, and I did not choose to share them with Count Fosco.

When Sir Percival was in Cumberland (I thought to myself 我), he walked away a long distance, on Anne's account, to question the family at Todd's Corner. Now he is in Hampshire, is he going to drive away a long distance, on Anne's account again, to question Mrs. Catherick at Welmingham?

We all entered the house. As we crossed the hall Sir Percival came out from the library to meet us. He looked hurried and pale and anxious—but for all that, he was in his most polite mood 心境 when he spoke to us.

"I am sorry to say I am obliged 责成 to leave you," he began—"a long drive—a matter that I can't very well put off. I shall be back in good time to-morrow—but before I go I should like that little business-formality 礼节, which I spoke of this morning, to be settled. Laura, will you come into the library? It won't take a minute—a mere formality 礼节. Countess, may I trouble you also? I want you and the Countess, Fosco, to be witnesses to a signature 签名—nothing more. Come in at once and get it over."

He held the library door open until they had passed in, followed them, and shut it softly.

I remained, for a moment after‧ward 之后, standing alone in the hall, with my heart beating fast and my mind misgiving 疑虑 me sadly. Then I went on to the stair‧case 楼梯, and ascended 登 slowly to my own room.

IV

June 17th.—Just as my hand was on the door of my room, I heard Sir Percival's voice calling to me from below.

"I must beg you to come downstairs 楼下 again," he said. "It is Fosco's fault 缺点, Miss Halcombe, not mine. He has started some nonsensical objection 反对 to his wife being one of the witnesses, and has obliged 责成 me to ask you to join us in the library."

I entered the room immediately with Sir Percival. Laura was waiting by the writing-table, twisting and turning her garden hat uneasily 不安 in her hands. Madame Fosco sat near her, in an arm-chair, imperturbably admiring her husband, who stood by himself at the other end of the library, picking off the dead leaves from the flowers in the window.

The moment I appeared the Count advanced to meet me, and to offer his explanations 说明.

"A thou‧sand 千 pardons 宽恕；说啥？, Miss Halcombe," he said. "You know the character which is given to my countrymen by the English? We Italians are all wily and suspicious 可疑的 by nature, in the estimation 估计 of the good John Bull. Set me down, if you please, as being no better than the rest of my race. I am a wily Italian and a suspicious Italian. You have thought so your‧self 你自己, dear lady, have you not? Well! it is part of my wiliness and part of my suspicion to object to Madame Fosco being a witness to Lady Glyde's signature 签名, when I am also a witness myself 我."

"There is not the shadow of a reason for his objection 反对," interposed Sir Percival. "I have explained to him that the law of England allows Madame Fosco to witness a signature as well as her husband."

"I admit it," resumed 恢复 the Count. "The law of England says, Yes, but the conscience 3 of Fosco says, No." He spread out his fat fingers on the bosom of his blouse 衬衫, and bowed solemnly 庄严的, as if he wished to introduce his conscience to us all, in the character of an illustrious addition 加成 to the society. "What this document 文件 which Lady Glyde is about to sign may be," he continued, "I neither know nor desire to know. I only say this, circumstances 环境 may happen in the future which may oblige 责成 Percival, or his representatives, to appeal 上诉 to the two witnesses, in which case it is certainly desirable 合意 that those witnesses should represent two opinions which are perfectly independent 独立 the one of the other. This cannot be if my wife signs as well as myself 我, because we have but one opinion between us, and that opinion is mine. I will not have it cast 投 in my teeth, at some future day, that Madame Fosco acted under my coercion 强迫, and was, in plain fact, no witness at all. I speak in Percival's interest, when I propose that my name shall appear (as the nearest friend of the husband), and your name, Miss Halcombe (as the nearest friend of the wife). I am a Jesuit, if you please to think so—a splitter 分裂 of straws 稻草—a man of trifles 琐事 and crochets and scruples—but you will humour me, I hope, in merciful consideration 考虑 for my suspicious 3 Italian character, and my uneasy 不安 Italian conscience." He bowed again, stepped back a few paces 步伐，速度, and withdrew his conscience from our society as politely as he had introduced it.

The Count's scruples might have been honourable and reasonable enough, but there was something in his manner of expressing them which increased my unwillingness 不愿意 to be concerned in the business of the signature 签名. No consideration 考虑 of less importance than my consideration 考虑 for Laura would have induced 促使 me to consent 同意 to be a witness at all. One look, however, at her anxious face decided me to risk anything rather than desert 沙漠；抛弃 her.

"I will readily remain in the room," I said. "And if I find no reason for starting any small scruples on my side, you may rely 依靠 on me as a witness."

Sir Percival looked at me sharply, as if he was about to say something. But at the same moment, Madame Fosco attracted his attention by rising from her chair. She had caught her husband's eye, and had evidently 明显地 received her orders to leave the room.

"You needn't go," said Sir Percival.

Madame Fosco looked for her orders again, got them again, said she would prefer leaving us to our business, and resolutely walked out. The Count lit a cigarette 香烟，纸烟, went back to the flowers in the window, and puffed 噗 little jets 喷射 of smoke at the leaves, in a state of the deepest anxiety about killing the insects 虫.

Meanwhile 同时 Sir Percival unlocked 开锁 a cup‧board 橱柜 beneath one of the book-cases, and produced from it a piece of parchment, folded 折叠 long‧wise 长的‧明智的；聪明的, many times over. He placed it on the table, opened the last fold 折叠 only, and kept his hand on the rest. The last fold displayed 显示 a strip of blank 空白 parchment with little wafers stuck stick on it at certain places. Every line of the writing was hidden hide in the part which he still held folded up under his hand. Laura and I looked at each other. Her face was pale, but it showed no indecision and no fear.

Sir Percival dipped 浸 a pen 3 in ink 墨水, and handed it to his wife. "Sign your name there," he said, pointing to the place. "You and Fosco are to sign after‧ward 之后, Miss Halcombe, opposite those two wafers. Come here, Fosco! witnessing a signature 4 is not to be done by mooning out of window and smoking into the flowers."

The Count threw away his cigarette 香烟，纸烟, and joined us at the table, with his hands care‧less 粗心 thrust 推力 into the scar‧let 猩红 belt 腰带 of his blouse 衬衫, and his eyes steadily fixed on Sir Percival's face. Laura, who was on the other side of her husband, with the pen in her hand, looked at him too. He stood between them holding the folded parchment down firmly on the table, and glancing 一瞥 across at me, as I sat opposite to him, with such a sinister 险恶 mixture 混合 of suspicion and embarrassment 困窘 on his face that he looked more like a prisoner 犯人，囚犯 at the bar than a gentleman in his own house.

"Sign there," he repeated, turning suddenly on Laura, and pointing once more to the place on the parchment.

"What is it I am to sign?" she asked quietly.

"I have no time to explain," he answered. "The dog-cart 运货马车 is at the door, and I must go directly. Besides, if I had time, you wouldn't understand. It is a purely formal document 文件, full of legal 法律 technicalities, and all that sort of thing. Come! come! sign your name, and let us have done as soon as possible."

"I ought surely to know what I am signing, Sir Percival, before I write my name?"

"Nonsense! What have women to do with business? I tell you again, you can't understand it."

"At any rate, let me try to understand it. Whenever Mr. Gilmore had any business for me to do, he always explained it first, and I always understood him."

"I dare say he did. He was your servant 3, and was obliged 责成 to explain. I am your husband, and am not obliged 责成. How much longer do you mean to keep me here? I tell you again, there is no time for reading anything—the dog-cart 运货马车 is waiting at the door. Once for all, will you sign or will you not?"

She still had the pen in her hand, but she made no approach to signing her name with it.

"If my signature 5 pledges 保证 me to anything," she said, "surely I have some claim to know what that pledge 保证 is?"

He lifted up the parchment, and struck it angrily on the table.

"Speak out!" he said. "You were always famous 著名 for telling the truth. Never mind Miss Halcombe, never mind Fosco—say, in plain terms, you distrust 怀疑 me."

The Count took one of his hands out of his belt 3 and laid it on Sir Percival's shoulder. Sir Percival shook it off irritably 急躁. The Count put it on again with unruffled composure.

"Control your unfortunate 不幸的 temper, Percival," he said "Lady Glyde is right."

"Right!" cried Sir Percival. "A wife right in distrusting 怀疑 her husband!"

"It is unjust 不公 and cruel to accuse 指责 me of distrusting 怀疑 you," said Laura. "Ask Marian if I am not justified 为…辩护；证明…正当；是…的正当理由 in wanting to know what this writing requires of me before I sign it."

"I won't have any appeals 上诉 made to Miss Halcombe," retorted 反驳 Sir Percival. "Miss Halcombe has nothing to do with the matter."

I had not spoken hitherto 迄今, and I would much rather not have spoken now. But the expression of distress 苦难 in Laura's face when she turned it towards me, and the insolent injustice 不公正 of her husband's conduct 进行, left me no other alter‧native 替代 than to give my opinion, for her sake, as soon as I was asked for it.

" Excuse 原谅 me, Sir Percival," I said—"but as one of the witnesses to the signature, I venture 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 to think that I have something to do with the matter. Laura's objection 3 seems to me a perfectly fair one, and speaking for myself 我 only, I cannot assume 承担 the responsibility 责任 of witnessing her signature, unless she first understands what the writing is which you wish her to sign."

"A cool declaration 宣言, upon my soul!" cried Sir Percival. "The next time you invite your‧self 你自己 to a man's house, Miss Halcombe, I recommend you not to repay 偿还 his hospitality 待客 by taking his wife's side against him in a matter that doesn't concern you."

I started to my feet as suddenly as if he had struck me. If I had been a man, I would have knocked him down on the threshold 阈 of his own door, and have left his house, never on any earthly consideration 考虑 to enter it again. But I was only a woman—and I loved his wife so dearly!

Thank God, that faithful 可信 love helped me, and I sat down again without saying a word. She knew what I had suffered and what I had sup‧press 压制. She ran round to me, with the tears streaming from her eyes. "Oh, Marian!" she whispered softly. "If my mother had been alive, she could have done no more for me!"

"Come back and sign!" cried Sir Percival from the other side of the table.

"Shall I?" she asked in my ear; "I will, if you tell me."

"No," I answered. "The right and the truth are with you—sign nothing, unless you have read it first."

"Come back and sign!" he reiterated 重申, in his loudest and angriest tones 音.

The Count, who had watched Laura and me with a close and silent attention, interposed for the second time.

"Percival!" he said. "I remember that I am in the presence of ladies. Be good enough, if you please, to remember it too."

Sir Percival turned on him speech‧less 演说‧少 with passion 激情，热情；强烈情感. The Count's firm hand slowly tightened its grasp 把握 on his shoulder, and the Count's steady voice quietly repeated, "Be good enough, if you please, to remember it too."

They both looked at each other. Sir Percival slowly drew his shoulder from under the Count's hand, slowly turned his face away from the Count's eyes, doggedly looked down for a little while at the parchment on the table, and then spoke, with the sullen sub‧mission 服从 of a tamed animal, rather than the becoming resignation 辞职 of a convinced 说服 man.

"I don't want to offend 触怒 anybody," he said, "but my wife's obstinacy is enough to try the patience of a saint 圣. I have told her this is merely a formal document 文件—and what more can she want? You may say what you please, but it is no part of a woman's duty to set her husband at defiance 蔑视. Once more, Lady Glyde, and for the last time, will you sign or will you not?"

Laura returned to his side of the table, and took up the pen again.

"I will sign with pleasure," she said, "if you will only treat me as a responsible being. I care little what sacrifice is required of me, if it will affect 影响 no one else, and lead to no ill results—"

"Who talked of a sacrifice being required of You?" he broke in, with a half-sup‧press 压制 return of his former violence 暴力.

"I only meant," she resumed 恢复, "that I would refuse no concession 让步 which I could honourably make. If I have a scruple about signing my name to an engagement 订婚 of which I know nothing, why should you visit it on me so severely 严峻的? It is rather hard, I think, to treat Count Fosco's scruples so much more indulgently than you have treated mine."

This unfortunate 不幸的, yet most natural 自然, reference to the Count's extraordinary power over her husband, indirect 间接 as it was, set Sir Percival's smouldering temper on fire again in an instant.

"Scruples!" he repeated. "Your scruples! It is rather late in the day for you to be scrupulous. I should have thought you had got over all weakness 弱点 of that sort, when you made a virtue of necessity by marrying me."

The instant he spoke those words, Laura threw down the pen—looked at him with an expression in her eyes which, through‧out 始终 all my experience of her, I had never seen in them before, and turned her back on him in dead silence.

This strong expression of the most open and the most bitter con‧tempt 鄙视 was so entirely unlike 不像 her‧self 她自己, so utterly 完全 out of her character, that it silenced us all. There was something hidden hide, beyond a doubt, under the mere surface-brutality 残酷 of the words which her husband had just addressed to her. There was some lurking 匿伏 insult 侮辱 beneath them, of which I was wholly 全 ignorant 愚昧, but which had left the mark of its profanation so plainly on her face that even a stranger might have seen it.

The Count, who was no stranger, saw it as distinctly 历历 as I did. When I left my chair to join Laura, I heard him whisper 低声说 under his breath to Sir Percival, "You idiot 白痴!"

Laura walked before me to the door as I advanced, and at the same time her husband spoke to her once more.

"You positively 积极 refuse, then, to give me your signature?" he said, in the altered tone 音 of a man who was conscious that he had let his own licence of language seriously injure 损伤 him.

"After what you have just said to me," she replied firmly, "I refuse my signature until I have read every line in that parchment from the first word to the last. Come away, Marian, we have remained here long enough."

"One moment!" interposed the Count before Sir Percival could speak again—"one moment, Lady Glyde, I implore you!"

Laura would have left the room without noticing him, but I stopped her.

"Don't make an enemy of the Count!" I whispered. "Whatever you do, don't make an enemy of the Count!"

She yielded to me. I closed the door again, and we stood near it waiting. Sir Percival sat down at the table, with his elbow 弯头 on the folded parchment, and his head resting on his clenched 咬紧 fist 拳头. The Count stood between us—master of the dreadful 可怕 position in which we were placed, as he was master of everything else.

"Lady Glyde," he said, with a gentleness which seemed to address itself 本身 to our forlorn situation instead of to ourselves 我们自己, "pray pardon me if I venture 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 to offer one suggestion 建议, and pray believe that I speak out of my profound 深刻 respect and my friendly regard for the mistress 情妇 of this house." He turned sharply towards Sir Percival. "Is it absolutely necessary," he asked "that this thing here, under your elbow 弯头, should be signed to-day?"

"It is necessary to my plans and wishes," returned the other sulkily. "But that consideration 考虑, as you may have noticed, has no influence with Lady Glyde."

"Answer my plain question plainly. Can the business of the signature be put off till to-morrow—Yes or No?"

"Yes, if you will have it so."

"Then what are you wasting your time for here? Let the signature wait till to-morrow—let it wait till you come back."

Sir Percival looked up with a frown 皱眉 and an oath 誓言.

"You are taking a tone 音 with me that I don't like," he said. "A tone 音 I won't bear from any man."

"I am advising you for your good," returned the Count, with a smile of quiet con‧tempt 鄙视. "Give your‧self 你自己 time—give Lady Glyde time. Have you forgotten that your dog-cart 4 is waiting at the door? My tone 音 surprises you—ha? I dare say it does—it is the tone 音 of a man who can keep his temper. How many doses 剂量 of good advice have I given you in my time? More than you can count. Have I ever been wrong? I defy 违抗 you to quote 引用 me an instance 例 of it. Go! take your drive. The matter of the signature can wait till to-morrow. Let it wait—and renew 更新 it when you come back."

Sir Percival hesitated and looked at his watch. His anxiety about the secret journey which he was to take that day, revived 复活 by the Count's words, was now evidently 明显地 disputing 争议 possession of his mind with his anxiety to obtain 获得 Laura's signature. He considered for a little while, and then got up from his chair.

"It is easy to argue me down," he said, "when I have no time to answer you. I will take your advice, Fosco—not because I want it, or believe in it, but because I can't stop here any longer." He paused, and looked round darkly at his wife. "If you don't give me your signature when I come back to-morrow!" The rest was lost in the noise 噪音 of his opening the book-case cup‧board 橱柜 again, and locking up the parchment once more. He took his hat and gloves 手套 off the table, and made for the door. Laura and I drew back to let him pass. "Remember to-morrow!" he said to his wife, and went out.

We waited to give him time to cross the hall and drive away. The Count approached us while we were standing near the door.

"You have just seen Percival at his worst, Miss Halcombe," he said. "As his old friend, I am sorry for him and ashamed of him. As his old friend, I promise you that he shall not break out to-morrow in the same disgraceful manner in which he has broken out to-day."

Laura had taken my arm while he was speaking and she pressed it significantly 显著 when he had done. It would have been a hard trial to any woman to stand by and see the office of apologist for her husband's misconduct 处理不当 quietly assumed 承担 by his male friend in her own house—and it was a trial to her. I thanked the Count civilly 国内, and let her out. Yes! I thanked him: for I felt already, with a sense of inexpressible helplessness and humiliation 屈辱, that it was either his interest or his cap‧rice 盖‧稻 to make sure of my continuing to reside 居住 at Blackwater Park, and I knew after Sir Percival's conduct 进行 to me, that without the support of the Count's influence, I could not hope to remain there. His influence, the influence of all others that I dreaded 恐惧 most, was actually the one tie which now held me to Laura in the hour of her utmost 极 need!

We heard the wheels of the dog-cart 5 crashing 碰撞 on the gravel 碎石 of the drive as we came into the hall. Sir Percival had started on his journey.

"Where is he going to, Marian?" Laura whispered. "Every fresh thing he does seems to terrify 惊吓 me about the future. Have you any suspicions?"

After what she had undergone that morning, I was unwilling 不甘 to tell her my suspicions.

"How should I know his secrets?" I said evasively.

"I wonder if the house‧keep 管家 knows?" she persisted 坚持.

"Certainly not," I replied. "She must be quite as ignorant 愚昧 as we are."

Laura shook her head doubtfully 疑.

"Did you not hear from the house‧keep 管家 that there was a report of Anne Catherick having been seen in this neighbourhood? Don't you think he may have gone away to look for her?"

"I would rather compose myself 我, Laura, by not thinking about it at all, and after what has happened, you had better follow my example. Come into my room, and rest and quiet your‧self 你自己 a little."

We sat down together close to the window, and let the fragrant summer air breathe 呼吸 over our faces.

"I am ashamed to look at you, Marian," she said, "after what you submitted to downstairs 楼下, for my sake. Oh, my own love, I am almost heartbroken when I think of it! But I will try to make it up to you—I will indeed!"

"Hush! hush 嘘!" I replied; "don't talk so. What is the trifling 琐事 mortification of my pride compared to the dreadful 可怕 sacrifice of your happiness 幸福?"

"You heard what he said to me?" she went on quickly and vehemently. "You heard the words—but you don't know what they meant—you don't know why I threw down the pen and turned my back on him." She rose in sudden agitation 搅动, and walked about the room. "I have kept many things from your knowledge, Marian, for fear of distressing 苦难 you, and making you unhappy 不快乐 at the outset 开始 of our new lives. You don't know how he has used me. And yet you ought to know, for you saw how he used me to-day. You heard him sneer 冷笑 at my presuming 假设 to be scrupulous—you heard him say I had made a virtue of necessity in marrying him." She sat down again, her face flushed 红晕 deeply, and her hands twisted 扭成一束 and twined 双胞胎之一 together in her lap 膝部. "I can't tell you about it now," she said; "I shall burst out crying if I tell you now—later, Marian, when I am more sure of myself 我. My poor head aches 疼痛, darling 宠儿—aches, aches, aches. Where is your smelling-bottle? Let me talk to you about your‧self 你自己. I wish I had given him my signature, for your sake. Shall I give it to him to-morrow? I would rather compromise 妥协 myself 我 than compromise 妥协 you. After your taking my part against him, he will lay all the blame on you if I refuse again. What shall we do? Oh, for a friend to help us and advise us!—a friend we could really trust!"

She sighed 叹 bitterly. I saw in her face that she was thinking of Hartright—saw it the more plainly because her last words set me thinking of him too. In six months only from her marriage we wanted the faithful 可信 service he had offered to us in his fare‧well 告别 words. How little I once thought that we should ever want it at all!

"We must do what we can to help ourselves 我们自己," I said. "Let us try to talk it over calmly, Laura—let us do all in our power to decide for the best."

Putting what she knew of her husband's embarrassments 困窘 and what I had heard of his conversation with the lawyer together, we arrived necessarily at the conclusion 结论 that the parchment in the library had been drawn draw up for the purpose of borrowing money, and that Laura's signature was absolutely necessary to fit it for the attainment 素养 of Sir Percival's object.

The second question, concerning the nature of the legal 法律 contract 合同 by which the money was to be obtained 获得, and the degree of personal 个人 responsibility 责任 to which Laura might subject her‧self 她自己 if she signed it in the dark, involved considerations 考虑 which lay far beyond any knowledge and experience that either of us possessed 拥有. My own convictions 定罪 led me to believe that the hidden hide contents of the parchment concealed 隐藏 a trans‧action 交易 of the meanest and the most fraudulent 骗人的 kind.

I had not formed this conclusion 结论 in consequence 后果 of Sir Percival's refusal 拒绝 to show the writing or to explain it, for that refusal 拒绝 might well have proceeded 继续 from his obstinate disposition 性格 and his domineering temper alone. My sole 唯一 motive 动机 for distrusting 怀疑 his honesty 诚实 sprang from the change which I had observed in his language and his manners at Blackwater Park, a change which convinced 说服 me that he had been acting a part through‧out 始终 the whole period of his probation 缓刑 at Limmeridge House. His elaborate 阐述 delicacy 美味, his ceremonious politeness 礼貌 which harmonised so agree‧able 合适的 with Mr. Gilmore's old-fashioned notions 概念, his modesty 谦虚 with Laura, his candour with me, his moderation 适度 with Mr. Fairlie—all these were the artifices of a mean, cunning 狡猾, and brutal 野蛮 man, who had dropped his disguise 伪装 when his practised duplicity had gained its end, and had openly shown himself in the library on that very day. I say nothing of the grief 哀思 which this discovery caused me on Laura's account, for it is not to be expressed by any words of mine. I only refer to it at all, because it decided me to oppose her signing the parchment, whatever the consequences 后果 might be, unless she was first made acquainted 认识 with the contents.

Under these circumstances 环境, the one chance for us when to-morrow came was to be provided with an objection to giving the signature, which might rest on sufficiently 充分地 firm commercial or legal 法律 grounds to shake Sir Percival's resolution 解析度, and to make him suspect that we two women understood the laws and obligations of business as well as himself.

After some pondering 思考, I determined to write to the only honest man within reach whom we could trust to help us discreetly 慎重 in our forlorn situation. That man was Mr. Gilmore's partner 伙伴, Mr. Kyrle, who conducted 进行 the business now that our old friend had been obliged 责成 to with‧draw 撤回 from it, and to leave London on account of his health. I explained to Laura that I had Mr. Gilmore's own authority 权威 for placing implicit 含蓄 confidence in his partner's integrity 廉正, discretion 慎重, and accurate 准确的；精确的；正确的 knowledge of all her affairs, and with her full approval 批准；同意；赞成 I sat down at once to write the letter, I began by stating our position to Mr. Kyrle exactly as it was, and then asked for his advice in return, expressed in plain, down‧right 彻头彻尾 terms which he could comprehend 理解 without any danger of misinterpretations and mistakes. My letter was as short as I could possibly make it, and was, I hope, unencumbered by need‧less 不必要 apologies and need‧less 不必要 details.

Just as I was about to put the address on the envelope 信封 an obstacle 障碍 was discovered by Laura, which in the effort and preoccupation 当务之急 of writing had escaped my mind altogether.

"How are we to get the answer in time?" she asked. "Your letter will not be delivered in London before to-morrow morning, and the post will not bring the reply here till the morning after."

The only way of over‧come 战胜 this difficulty was to have the answer brought to us from the lawyer's office by a special messenger 信使. I wrote a post‧script 邮件‧脚本 to that effect, begging 乞讨 that the messenger might be despatched with the reply by the eleven 十一 o'clock morning train, which would bring him to our station at twenty 二十 minutes past one, and so enable 启用 him to reach Blackwater Park by two o'clock at the latest. He was to be directed to ask for me, to answer no questions addressed to him by any one else, and to deliver his letter into no hands but mine.

"In case Sir Percival should come back to-morrow before two o'clock," I said to Laura, "the wisest 明智的；聪明的 plan for you to adopt is to be out in the grounds all the morning with your book or your work, and not to appear at the house till the messenger 信使 has had time to arrive with the letter. I will wait here for him all the morning, to guard against any misadventures or mistakes. By following this arrangement 安排 I hope and believe we shall avoid being taken by surprise. Let us go down to the drawing-room now. We may excite suspicion if we remain shut up together too long."

"Suspicion?" she repeated. "Whose suspicion can we excite, now that Sir Percival has left the house? Do you mean Count Fosco?"

"Perhaps I do, Laura."

"You are beginning to dislike 反感 him as much as I do, Marian."

"No, not to dislike 反感 him. Dislike is always more or less associated 关联 with con‧tempt 鄙视—I can see nothing in the Count to despise 讨厌."

"You are not afraid of him, are you?"

"Perhaps I am—a little."

"Afraid of him, after his interference in our favour to-day!"

"Yes. I am more afraid of his interference than I am of Sir Percival's violence 暴力. Remember what I said to you in the library. Whatever you do, Laura, don't make an enemy of the Count!"

We went downstairs 楼下. Laura entered the drawing-room, while I proceeded 继续 across the hall, with my letter in my hand, to put it into the post-bag, which hung against the wall opposite to me.

The house door was open, and as I crossed past it, I saw Count Fosco and his wife standing talking together on the steps outside, with their faces turned towards me.

The Countess came into the hall rather hastily 草草, and asked if I had leisure 闲暇 enough for five minutes' private conversation. Feeling a little surprised by such an appeal 上诉 from such a person, I put my letter into the bag, and replied that I was quite at her disposal 处置. She took my arm with unaccustomed friendliness 友好 and familiarity 熟悉, and instead of leading me into an empty room, drew me out with her to the belt of turf 草皮 which surrounded the large fish-pond 池塘.

As we passed the Count on the steps he bowed and smiled, and then went at once into the house, pushing the hall door to after him, but not actually closing it.

The Countess walked me gently round the fish-pond 池塘. I expected to be made the depositary of some extraordinary confidence, and I was astonished to find that Madame Fosco's communication 通讯 for my private ear was nothing more than a polite assurance 保证 of her sympathy for me, after what had happened in the library. Her husband had told her of all that had passed, and of the insolent manner in which Sir Percival had spoken to me. This information had so shocked and distressed 苦难 her, on my account and on Laura's, that she had made up her mind, if anything of the sort happened again, to mark her sense of Sir Percival's outrageous 蛮横的 conduct 进行 by leaving the house. The Count had approved of her idea, and she now hoped that I approved of it too.

I thought this a very strange proceeding 继续 on the part of such a remarkably reserved woman as Madame Fosco, especially after the inter‧change 互换 of sharp speeches which had passed between us during the conversation in the boat-house on that very morning. However, it was my plain duty to meet a polite and friendly advance on the part of one of my elders 年长的 with a polite and friendly reply. I answered the Countess accordingly 于是 in her own tone 音, and then, thinking we had said all that was necessary on either side, made an attempt to get back to the house.

But Madame Fosco seemed resolved 解决 not to part with me, and to my unspeakable amazement 惊愕, resolved 解决 also to talk. Hitherto the most silent of women, she now persecuted 迫害 me with fluent 流利 conventionalities on the subject of married life, on the subject of Sir Percival and Laura, on the subject of her own happiness 幸福, on the subject of the late Mr. Fairlie's conduct 进行 to her in the matter of her legacy 遗产, and on half a dozen other subjects besides, until she had detained 扣留 me walking round and round the fish-pond 池塘 for more than half an hour, and had quite wearied 厌倦 me out. Whether she discovered this or not, I cannot say, but she stopped as abruptly 突然 as she had begun—looked towards the house door, resumed 恢复 her icy 冷冰冰 manner in a moment, and dropped my arm of her own accord before I could think of an excuse 3 for accomplishing 完成；实现；达到；做到 my own release 发布 from her.

As I pushed open the door and entered the hall, I found myself 我 suddenly face to face with the Count again. He was just putting a letter into the post-bag.

After he had dropped it in and had closed the bag, he asked me where I had left Madame Fosco. I told him, and he went out at the hall door immediately to join his wife. His manner when he spoke to me was so unusually 异常 quiet and subdued 征服 that I turned and looked after him, wondering if he were ill or out of spirits.

Why my next proceeding 继续 was to go straight up to the post-bag and take out my own letter and look at it again, with a vague 模糊 distrust 怀疑 on me, and why the looking at it for the second time instantly suggested the idea to my mind of sealing 封上，海豹 the envelope 信封 for its greater security 安全—are mysteries which are either too deep or too shallow 浅的 for me to fathom. Women, as everybody knows, constantly 总是；经常地，不断地 act on impulses 冲动 which they cannot explain even to themselves, and I can only suppose that one of those impulses 冲动 was the hidden hide cause of my unaccountable conduct 进行 on this occasion.

Whatever influence animated 活跃 me, I found cause to congratulate 祝贺 myself 我 on having obeyed 服从 it as soon as I prepared to seal 封上，海豹 the letter in my own room. I had originally 本来 closed the envelope 信封 in the usual way by moistening the adhesive point and pressing it on the paper beneath, and when I now tried it with my finger, after a lapse 失误 of full three-quarters of an hour, the envelope 3 opened on the instant, without sticking or tearing. Perhaps I had fastened it insufficiently 不足? Perhaps there might have been some defect 缺陷 in the adhesive gum 胶?

Or, perhaps——No! it is quite revolting 反叛 enough to feel that third conjecture 推测 stirring 搅动 in my mind. I would rather not see it con‧front 面对 me in plain black and white.

I almost dread 恐惧 to-morrow—so much depends on my discretion 慎重 and self-control. There are two pre‧caution 预防, at all events, which I am sure not to forget. I must be careful 小心 to keep up friendly appearances with the Count, and I must be well on my guard when the messenger 信使 from the office comes here with the answer to my letter.

V

June 17th.—When the dinner hour brought us together again, Count Fosco was in his usual excellent spirits. He exerted 发挥 himself to interest and amuse 使人发笑 us, as if he was determined to efface from our memories all recollection 回忆 of what had passed in the library that afternoon. Lively descriptions of his adventures 冒险活动 in travelling, amusing 使人发笑 anecdotes 轶事 of remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 people whom he had met with abroad, quaint 精巧 comparisons 比较 between the social customs 习惯 of various nations, illustrated 说明 by examples drawn from men and women indiscriminately all over Europe, humorous 幽默 confessions 承认 of the innocent 无辜 follies 蠢事 of his own early life, when he ruled the fashions of a second-rate Italian town, and wrote preposterous romances 浪漫 on the French model for a second-rate Italian newspaper—all flowed in success‧ion 演替 so easily and so gaily from his lips, and all addressed our various curiosities 好奇心 and various interests so directly and so delicately 微妙的；纤弱的, that Laura and I listened to him with as much attention and, inconsistent 不符 as it may seem, with as much admiration 钦佩 also, as Madame Fosco her‧self 她自己. Women can resist a man's love, a man's fame, a man's personal 个人 appearance, and a man's money, but they cannot resist a man's tongue 3 when he knows how to talk to them.

After dinner, while the favourable impression 印象 which he had produced on us was still vivid 生动 in our minds, the Count modestly 谦虚的 withdrew to read in the library.

Laura proposed a stroll 漫步 in the grounds to enjoy the close of the long evening. It was necessary in common politeness 礼貌 to ask Madame Fosco to join us, but this time she had apparently received her orders before‧hand 预先, and she begged we would kindly excuse her. "The Count will probably want a fresh supply of cigarettes," she remarked by way of apology 道歉认错, "and nobody can make them to his satisfaction 满足 but myself 我." Her cold blue eyes almost warmed as she spoke the words—she looked actually proud of being the officiating medium 中 through which her lord and master composed himself with tobacco 烟草-smoke!

Laura and I went out together alone.

It was a misty, heavy evening. There was a sense of blight 枯萎病 in the air; the flowers were drooping in the garden, and the ground was parched and dewless. The western heaven, as we saw it over the quiet trees, was of a pale yellow hue 色调, and the sun was setting faintly in a haze 阴霾. Coming rain seemed near—it would fall probably with the fall of night.

"Which way shall we go?" I asked

"Towards the lake, Marian, if you like," she answered.

"You seem unaccountably fond, Laura, of that dismal 惨淡 lake."

"No, not of the lake but of the scenery 风景 about it. The sand and heath 健康 and the fir 冷杉-trees are the only objects I can discover, in all this large place, to remind me of Limmeridge. But we will walk in some other direction if you prefer it."

"I have no favourite walks at Blackwater Park, my love. One is the same as another to me. Let us go to the lake—we may find it cooler in the open space than we find it here."

We walked through the shadowy 神出鬼没 plantation 种植园 in silence. The heaviness in the evening air oppressed 压迫 us both, and when we reached the boat-house we were glad to sit down and rest inside.

A white fog 多雾路段 hung low over the lake. The dense 稠密 brown line of the trees on the opposite bank appeared above it, like a dwarf 矮人 forest floating 漂浮 in the sky. The sandy 沙 ground, shelving down‧ward 向下 from where we sat, was lost mysteriously 神秘 in the outward 向外的 layers 层 of the fog 多雾路段. The silence was horrible 可怕. No rustling 沙沙 of the leaves—no bird's note in the wood—no cry of water-fowl from the pools of the hidden hide lake. Even the croaking of the frogs 青蛙 had ceased 停止 to-night.

"It is very desolate 荒凉 and gloomy 阴沉," said Laura. "But we can be more alone here than anywhere else."

She spoke quietly and looked at the wilderness 荒野 of sand and mist 薄雾 with steady, thoughtful 周到 eyes. I could see that her mind was too much occupied 占据 to feel the dreary 凄凉 impressions 印象 from without which had fastened themselves already on mine.

"I promised, Marian, to tell you the truth about my married life, instead of leaving you any longer to guess it for your‧self 你自己," she began. "That secret is the first I have ever had from you, love, and I am determined it shall be the last. I was silent, as you know, for your sake—and perhaps a little for my own sake as well. It is very hard for a woman to confess 供认 that the man to whom she has given her whole life is the man of all others who cares least for the gift. If you were married your‧self 你自己, Marian—and especially if you were happily married—you would feel for me as no single woman can feel, however kind and true she may be."

What answer could I make? I could only take her hand and look at her with my whole heart as well as my eyes would let me.

"How often," she went on, "I have heard you laughing over what you used to call your ' poverty 贫穷!' how often you have made me mock 嘲笑-speeches of congratulation 祝贺 on my wealth 财产! Oh, Marian, never laugh again. Thank God for your poverty—it has made you your own mistress 情妇, and has saved you from the lot that has fallen on me."

A sad beginning on the lips of a young wife!—sad in its quiet plain-spoken truth. The few days we had all passed together at Blackwater Park had been many enough to show me—to show any one—what her husband had married her for.

"You shall not be distressed 苦难," she said, "by hearing how soon my disappointments 失望 and my trials began—or even by knowing what they were. It is bad enough to have them on my memory. If I tell you how he received the first and last attempt at remonstrance that I ever made, you will know how he has always treated me, as well as if I had described it in so many words. It was one day at Rome when we had ridden ride out together to the tomb 墓 of Cecilia Metella. The sky was calm and lovely, and the grand 宏大的 old ruin 破坏 looked beautiful 美丽, and the remembrance 纪念 that a husband's love had raised it in the old time to a wife's memory, made me feel more tenderly 纤弱的 and more anxiously towards my husband than I had ever felt yet. 'Would you build such a tomb 墓 for me, Percival?' I asked him. 'You said you loved me dearly before we were married, and yet, since that time——' I could get no farther. Marian! he was not even looking at me! I pulled down my veil 面纱, thinking it best not to let him see that the tears were in my eyes. I fancied 想像 he had not paid any attention to me, but he had. He said, 'Come away,' and laughed to himself as he helped me on to my horse. He mounted his own horse and laughed again as we rode ride away. 'If I do build you a tomb 墓,' he said, 'it will be done with your own money. I wonder whether Cecilia Metella had a for‧tune 命运 and paid for hers.' I made no reply—how could I, when I was crying behind my veil 面纱? 'Ah, you light-complex‧ion 肤色 women are all sulky,' he said. 'What do you want? compliments 赞扬 and soft speeches? Well! I'm in a good humour this morning. Consider the compliments 赞扬 paid and the speeches said.' Men little know when they say hard things to us how well we remember them, and how much harm 3 they do us. It would have been better for me if I had gone on crying, but his con‧tempt 鄙视 dried up my tears and hardened 使硬化 my heart. From that time, Marian, I never checked myself 我 again in thinking of Walter Hartright. I let the memory of those happy days, when we were so fond of each other in secret, come back and comfort me. What else had I to look to for consolation 安慰? If we had been together you would have helped me to better things. I know it was wrong, darling 宠儿, but tell me if I was wrong without any excuse."

I was obliged 责成 to turn my face from her. "Don't ask me!" I said. "Have I suffered as you have suffered? What right have I to decide?"

"I used to think of him," she pursued 追求, dropping her voice and moving closer to me, "I used to think of him when Percival left me alone at night to go among the Opera 歌剧 people. I used to fancy what I might have been if it had pleased God to bless 祝福 me with poverty 贫穷, and if I had been his wife. I used to see myself 我 in my neat 整洁的 cheap 便宜的 gown 袍, sitting at home and waiting for him while he was earning our bread 面包—sitting at home and working for him and loving him all the better because I had to work for him—seeing him come in tired and taking off his hat and coat for him, and, Marian, pleasing him with little dishes 盘 at dinner that I had learnt to make for his sake. Oh! I hope he is never lonely enough and sad enough to think of me and see me as I have thought of him and see him!"

As she said those melancholy 愁绪 words, all the lost tenderness 压痛 returned to her voice, and all the lost beauty trembled back into her face. Her eyes rested as lovingly 含情脉脉 on the blighted 枯萎病, solitary 孤, ill-omened view before us, as if they saw the friendly hills of Cumberland in the dim 暗淡 and threatening sky.

"Don't speak of Walter any more," I said, as soon as I could control myself 我. "Oh, Laura, spare us both the wretchedness of talking of him now!"

She roused 唤醒 her‧self 她自己, and looked at me tenderly.

"I would rather be silent about him for ever," she answered, "than cause you a moment's pain."

"It is in your interests," I pleaded 求情; "it is for your sake that I speak. If your husband heard you——"

"It would not surprise him if he did hear me."

She made that strange reply with a weary 厌倦 calmness and coldness. The change in her manner, when she gave the answer, startled 惊吓 me almost as much as the answer itself 本身.

"Not surprise him!" I repeated. "Laura! remember what you are saying—you frighten 使惊恐 me!"

"It is true," she said; "it is what I wanted to tell you to-day, when we were talking in your room. My only secret when I opened my heart to him at Limmeridge was a harm‧less 无害 secret, Marian—you said so your‧self 你自己. The name was all I kept from him, and he has discovered it."

I heard her, but I could say nothing. Her last words had killed the little hope that still lived in me.

"It happened at Rome," she went on, as wearily 厌倦 calm and cold as ever. "We were at a little party given to the English by some friends of Sir Percival's—Mr. and Mrs. Markland. Mrs. Markland had the reputation 名气 of sketching 草图 very beautifully 精美, and some of the guests prevailed 战胜 on her to show us her drawings. We all admired them, but something I said attracted her attention particularly to me. 'Surely you draw your‧self 你自己?' she asked. 'I used to draw a little once,' I answered, 'but I have given it up.' 'If you have once drawn,' she said, 'you may take to it again one of these days, and if you do, I wish you would let me recommend you a master.' I said nothing—you know why, Marian—and tried to change the conversation. But Mrs. Markland persisted 坚持. 'I have had all sorts of teachers,' she went on, 'but the best of all, the most intelligent 智能 and the most attentive 4, was a Mr. Hartright. If you ever take up your drawing again, do try him as a master. He is a young man— modest 谦虚的 and gentleman‧like 先生‧喜欢；象—I am sure you will like him. 'Think of those words being spoken to me publicly, in the presence of strangers 陌生人—strangers 陌生人 who had been invited to meet the bride 新娘 and bridegroom! I did all I could to control myself 我—I said nothing, and looked down close at the drawings. When I ventured to raise my head again, my eyes and my husband's eyes met, and I knew, by his look, that my face had betrayed 背叛 me. 'We will see about Mr. Hartright,' he said, looking at me all the time, 'when we get back to England. I agree with you, Mrs. Markland—I think Lady Glyde is sure to like him.' He laid an emphasis 重点 on the last words which made my cheeks 脸颊 burn, and set my heart beating as if it would stifle 窒息 me. Nothing more was said. We came away early. He was silent in the carriage 运输 driving back to the hotel. He helped me out, and followed me upstairs 楼上 as usual. But the moment we were in the drawing-room, he locked the door, pushed me down into a chair, and stood over me with his hands on my shoulders. 'Ever since that morning when you made your audacious confession 承认 to me at Limmeridge,' he said, 'I have wanted to find out the man, and I found him in your face to-night. Your drawing-master was the man, and his name is Hartright. You shall repent it, and he shall repent it, to the last hour of your lives. Now go to bed and dream of him if you like, with the marks of my horse‧whip 马‧鞭打 on his shoulders.' Whenever he is angry with me now he refers to what I acknowledged 确认 to him in your presence with a sneer 冷笑 or a threat 威胁. I have no power to prevent him from putting his own horrible 可怕 construction 施工 on the confidence I placed in him. I have no influence to make him believe me, or to keep him silent. You looked surprised to-day when you heard him tell me that I had made a virtue of necessity in marrying him. You will not be surprised again when you hear him repeat it, the next time he is out of temper——Oh, Marian! don't! don't! you hurt 损害 me!"

I had caught her in my arms, and the sting 叮 and torment 折磨 of my remorse 悔恨 had closed them round her like a vice 副职的；副的. Yes! my remorse 悔恨. The white despair 绝望 of Walter's face, when my cruel words struck him to the heart in the summer-house at Limmeridge, rose before me in mute 静音, unendurable reproach 责备. My hand had pointed the way which led the man my sister loved, step by step, far from his country and his friends. Between those two young hearts I had stood, to sunder them for ever, the one from the other, and his life and her life lay wasted before me alike 同样的 in witness of the deed 行为. I had done this, and done it for Sir Percival Glyde.

For Sir Percival Glyde.

I heard her speaking, and I knew by the tone 音 of her voice that she was comforting me—I, who deserved nothing but the reproach 责备 of her silence! How long it was before I mastered the absorbing 吸收 misery 3 of my own thoughts, I cannot tell. I was first conscious that she was kissing me, and then my eyes seemed to wake 醒 on a sudden to their sense of outward 向外的 things, and I knew that I was looking mechanically 机械 straight before me at the prospect 展望 of the lake.

"It is late," I heard her whisper. "It will be dark in the plantation 种植园." She shook my arm and repeated, "Marian! it will be dark in the plantation 种植园."

"Give me a minute longer," I said—"a minute, to get better in."

I was afraid to trust myself 我 to look at her yet, and I kept my eyes fixed on the view.

It was late. The dense 稠密 brown line of trees in the sky had faded 褪去 in the gathering darkness 黑暗 to the faint resemblance 相似 of a long wreath of smoke. The mist 薄雾 over the lake below had stealthily enlarged 放大, and advanced on us. The silence was as breath‧less 咋舌 as ever, but the horror 恐怖 of it had gone, and the solemn 庄严的 mystery of its stillness was all that remained.

"We are far from the house," she whispered. "Let us go back."

She stopped suddenly, and turned her face from me towards the entrance 入口 of the boat-house.

"Marian!" she said, trembling violently. "Do you see nothing? Look!"

"Where?"

"Down there, below us."

She pointed. My eyes followed her hand, and I saw it too.

A living figure was moving over the waste of heath 健康 in the distance. It crossed our range of view from the boat-house, and passed darkly along the outer edge of the mist 薄雾. It stopped far off, in front of us—waited—and passed on; moving slowly, with the white cloud of mist 薄雾 behind it and above it—slowly, slowly, till it glided 滑行 by the edge of the boat-house, and we saw it no more.

We were both unnerved by what had passed between us that evening. Some minutes elapsed 过去 before Laura would venture 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 into the plantation 种植园, and before I could make up my mind to lead her back to the house.

"Was it a man or a woman?" she asked in a whisper, as we moved at last into the dark dampness of the outer air.

"I am not certain."

"Which do you think?"

"It looked like a woman."

"I was afraid it was a man in a long cloak 披风."

"It may be a man. In this dim 暗淡 light it is not possible to be certain."

"Wait, Marian! I'm frightened—I don't see the path. Suppose the figure should follow us?"

"Not at all likely, Laura. There is really nothing to be alarmed about. The shores of the lake are not far from the village, and they are free to any one to walk on by day or night. It is only wonderful 精彩 we have seen no living creature there before."

We were now in the plantation 种植园. It was very dark—so dark, that we found some difficulty in keeping the path. I gave Laura my arm, and we walked as fast as we could on our way back.

Before we were half-way through she stopped, and forced me to stop with her. She was listening.

"Hush," she whispered. "I hear something behind us."

"Dead leaves," I said to cheer 欢呼 her, "or a twig 枝条 blown blow off the trees."

"It is summer time, Marian, and there is not a breath of wind. Listen!"

I heard the sound too—a sound like a light foot‧step 脚步 following us.

"No matter who it is, or what it is," I said, "let us walk on. In another minute, if there is anything to alarm 警告 us, we shall be near enough to the house to be heard."

We went on quickly—so quickly, that Laura was breath‧less 咋舌 by the time we were nearly through the plantation 种植园, and within sight of the lighted windows.

I waited a moment to give her breathing-time. Just as we were about to proceed 继续 she stopped me again, and signed to me with her hand to listen once more. We both heard distinctly 历历 a long, heavy sigh 叹 behind us, in the black depths of the trees.

"Who's there?" I called out.

There was no answer.

"Who's there?" I repeated.

An instant of silence followed, and then we heard the light fall of the foot‧step 脚步 again, fainter 微弱的 and fainter— sinking 淹没 away into the darkness 黑暗—sinking, sinking, sinking—till they were lost in the silence.

We hurried out from the trees to the open lawn 草坪 beyond, crossed it rapidly; and without another word passing between us, reached the house.

In the light of the hall-lamp 灯 Laura looked at me, with white cheeks 脸颊 and startled 惊吓 eyes.

"I am half dead with fear," she said. "Who could it have been?"

"We will try to guess to-morrow," I replied. "In the mean‧time 其时 say nothing to any one of what we have heard and seen."

"Why not?"

"Because silence is safe, and we have need of safety 安全 in this house."

I sent Laura upstairs 楼上 immediately, waited a minute to take off my hat and put my hair smooth, and then went at once to make my first investigations 调查 in the library, on pretence of searching for a book.

There sat the Count, filling out the largest easy-chair in the house, smoking and reading calmly, with his feet on an ottoman, his cravat across his knees, and his shirt 衬衫 collar 3 wide open. And there sat Madame Fosco, like a quiet child, on a stool 粪便 by his side, making cigarettes. Neither husband nor wife could, by any possibility 可能性, have been out late that evening, and have just got back to the house in a hurry. I felt that my object in visiting the library was answered the moment I set eyes on them.

Count Fosco rose in polite confusion and tied his cravat on when I entered the room.

"Pray don't let me disturb 打扰 you," I said. "I have only come here to get a book."

"All unfortunate 不幸的 men of my size suffer from the heat," said the Count, refreshing 使恢复 himself gravely with a large green fan 扇子. "I wish I could change places with my excellent wife. She is as cool at this moment as a fish in the pond 池塘 outside."

The Countess allowed her‧self 她自己 to thaw 解冻 under the influence of her husband's quaint 精巧 comparison 比较. "I am never warm, Miss Halcombe," she remarked, with the modest 谦虚的 air of a woman who was confessing 供认 to one of her own merits 值得.

"Have you and Lady Glyde been out this evening?" asked the Count, while I was taking a book from the shelves to preserve appearances.

"Yes, we went out to get a little air."

"May I ask in what direction?"

"In the direction of the lake—as far as the boat-house."

"Aha? As far as the boat-house?"

Under other circumstances 环境 I might have resented 愤恨 his curiosity 好奇心. But to-night I hailed 冰雹 it as another proof 3 that neither he nor his wife were connected with the mysterious 神秘 appearance at the lake.

"No more adventures, I suppose, this evening?" he went on. "No more discoveries, like your discovery of the wounded dog?"

He fixed his unfathomable grey 灰色:gray eyes on me, with that cold, clear, irresistible 不可抗拒 glitter 闪光 in them which always forces me to look at him, and always makes me uneasy 不安 while I do look. An unutterable suspicion that his mind is prying 撬 into mine over‧come 战胜 me at these times, and it overcame me now.

"No," I said shortly; "no adventures—no discoveries."

I tried to look away from him and leave the room. Strange as it seems, I hardly think I should have succeeded in the attempt if Madame Fosco had not helped me by causing him to move and look away first.

"Count, you are keeping Miss Halcombe standing," she said.

The moment he turned round to get me a chair, I seized 抓住 my opportunity—thanked him—made my excuses 原谅—and slipped out.

An hour later, when Laura's maid 女佣 happened to be in her mistress 情妇's room, I took occasion to refer to the closeness 亲近 of the night, with a view to ascertaining 探明 next how the servants had been passing their time.

"Have you been suffering much from the heat downstairs 楼下?" I asked.

"No, miss," said the girl, "we have not felt it to speak of."

"You have been out in the woods then, I suppose?"

"Some of us thought of going, miss. But cook said she should take her chair into the cool court-yard, outside the kitchen door, and on second thoughts, all the rest of us took our chairs out there too."

The house‧keep 管家 was now the only person who remained to be accounted for.

"Is Mrs. Michelson gone to bed yet?" I inquired.

"I should think not, miss," said the girl, smiling. "Mrs. Michelson is more likely to be getting up just now than going to bed."

"Why? What do you mean? Has Mrs. Michelson been taking to her bed in the day‧time 白天?"

"No, miss, not exactly, but the next thing to it. She's been asleep 睡着的 all the evening on the sofa 沙发 in her own room."

Putting together what I observed for myself 我 in the library, and what I have just heard from Laura's maid 女佣, one conclusion 结论 seems inevitable 必然. The figure we saw at the lake was not the figure of Madame Fosco, of her husband, or of any of the servants. The foot‧step 脚步 we heard behind us were not the foot‧step 脚步 of any one belonging to the house.

Who could it have been?

It seems use‧less 无用 to inquire 打听. I cannot even decide whether the figure was a man's or a woman's. I can only say that I think it was a woman's.

VI

June 18th.—The misery of self-reproach 责备 which I suffered yesterday evening, on hearing what Laura told me in the boat-house, returned in the loneliness 孤单 of the night, and kept me waking 醒 and wretched 不幸的人 for hours.

I lighted my candle 蜡烛 at last, and searched through my old journals 日志 to see what my share in the fatal 致命 error 错误 of her marriage had really been, and what I might have once done to save her from it. The result soothed 缓和 me a little for it showed that, however blindly and ignorantly 愚昧 I acted, I acted for the best. Crying generally does me harm; but it was not so last night—I think it relieved me. I rose this morning with a settled resolution 解析度 and a quiet mind. Nothing Sir Percival can say or do shall ever irritate 刺激 me again, or make me forget for one moment that I am staying here in defiance 蔑视 of mortifications, insults 侮辱, and threats 威胁, for Laura's service and for Laura's sake.

The speculations 推测 in which we might have indulged 放纵 this morning, on the subject of the figure at the lake and the foot‧step 脚步 in the plantation 种植园, have been all suspended 暂停 by a trifling 琐事 accident 意外事件 which has caused Laura great regret 后悔. She has lost the little brooch I gave her for a keep‧sake 保持‧缘故 on the day before her marriage. As she wore wear it when we went out yesterday evening we can only suppose that it must have dropped from her dress, either in the boat-house or on our way back. The servants have been sent to search, and have returned unsuccessful 不成功. And now Laura her‧self 她自己 has gone to look for it. Whether she finds it or not the loss will help to excuse her absence from the house, if Sir Percival returns before the letter from Mr. Gilmore's partner is placed in my hands.

One o'clock has just struck. I am considering whether I had better wait here for the arrival 到达 of the messenger 4 from London, or slip away quietly, and watch for him outside the lodge 存放 gate 门.

My suspicion of everybody and everything in this house inclines 倾斜 me to think that the second plan may be the best. The Count is safe in the breakfast-room. I heard him, through the door, as I ran upstairs 楼上 ten 十 minutes since, exercising his canary-birds at their tricks 哄骗；诀窍:—"Come out on my little finger, my pret-pret-pretties! Come out, and hop 跳 upstairs 楼上! One, two, three—and up! Three, two, one—and down! One, two, three—twit-twit-twit-tweet!" The birds burst into their usual ecstasy 狂喜 of singing, and the Count chirruped and whistled 吹口哨 at them in return, as if he was a bird himself. My room door is open, and I can hear the shrill singing and whistling 吹口哨 at this very moment. If I am really to slip out without being observed, now is my time.

Four o'clock. The three hours that have passed since I made my last entry 条目 have turned the whole march 行军；三月 of events at Blackwater Park in a new direction. Whether for good or for evil, I cannot and dare not decide.

Let me get back first to the place at which I left off, or I shall lose myself 我 in the confusion of my own thoughts.

I went out, as I had proposed, to meet the messenger 5 with my letter from London at the lodge 3 gate. On the stairs I saw no one. In the hall I heard the Count still exercising his birds. But on crossing the quadrangle outside, I passed Madame Fosco, walking by her‧self 她自己 in her favourite circle, round and round the great fish-pond 池塘. I at once slackened my pace 步伐，速度, so as to avoid all appearance of being in a hurry, and even went the length, for caution 小心's sake, of inquiring 打听 if she thought of going out before lunch 3. She smiled at me in the friendliest manner—said she preferred remaining near the house, nodded 点头 pleasantly, and re-entered the hall. I looked back, and saw that she had closed the door before I had opened the wicket 便门 by the side of the carriage 3 gates.

In less than a quarter of an hour I reached the lodge.

The lane 车道 outside took a sudden turn to the left, ran on straight for a hundred 百 yards or so, and then took another sharp turn to the right to join the high-road. Between these two turns, hidden hide from the lodge on one side, and from the way to the station on the other, I waited, walking backwards and forwards. High hedges 树篱 were on either side of me, and for twenty 二十 minutes, by my watch, I neither saw nor heard anything. At the end of that time the sound of a carriage caught my ear, and I was met, as I advanced towards the second turning, by a fly from the rail‧way 铁路. I made a sign to the driver to stop. As he obeyed me a respect‧able 可敬-looking man put his head out of the window to see what was the matter.

"I beg your pardon," I said, "but am I right in supposing that you are going to Blackwater Park?"

"Yes, ma 嘛'am."

"With a letter for any one?"

"With a letter for Miss Halcombe, ma 嘛'am."

"You may give me the letter. I am Miss Halcombe."

The man touched his hat, got out of the fly immediately, and gave me the letter.

I opened it at once and read these lines. I copy them here, thinking it best to destroy the original 原版的 for caution 3's sake.

"DEAR MADAM,—Your letter received this morning has caused me very great anxiety. I will reply to it as briefly 短时间地 and plainly as possible.

"My careful 小心 consideration 考虑 of the statement 声明 made by your‧self 你自己, and my knowledge of Lady Glyde's position, as defined 确定 in the settlement 沉降, lead me, I regret 后悔 to say, to the conclusion 结论 that a loan of the trust money to Sir Percival (or, in other words, a loan of some portion 一部分；一份 of the twenty 二十 thou‧sand 千 pounds of Lady Glyde's for‧tune 命运) is in contemplation, and that she is made a party to the deed 行为, in order to secure 安全 her approval 批准；同意；赞成 of a flag‧rant 旗；石地板‧胡言乱语 breach 突破口 of trust, and to have her signature produced against her if she should complain 抱怨 here‧after 此后. It is impossible, on any other sup‧position SUP‧位置, to account, situated 位于 as she is, for her execution 执行 to a deed 3 of any kind being wanted at all.

"In the event of Lady Glyde's signing such a document 文件, as I am compelled 迫使 to suppose the deed in question to be, her trustees 受托人 would be at liberty 自由 to advance money to Sir Percival out of her twenty 二十 thou‧sand 千 pounds. If the amount so lent 把…借给:lend should not be paid back, and if Lady Glyde should have children, their fortune 3 will then be diminished 减少 by the sum 和, large or small, so advanced. In plainer terms still, the trans‧action 交易, for anything that Lady Glyde knows to the contrary 相反, may be a fraud 舞弊 upon her unborn children.

"Under these serious circumstances 环境, I would recommend Lady Glyde to assign 分配 as a reason for with‧hold 扣压 her signature, that she wishes the deed to be first submitted to myself 我, as her family solicitor 律师 (in the absence of my partner, Mr. Gilmore). No reasonable objection can be made to taking this course—for, if the trans‧action 交易 is an honourable one, there will necessarily be no difficulty in my giving my approval 4.

"Sincerely assuring 向…保证；肯定地说 you of my readiness 准备就绪 to afford any additional 额外 help or advice that may be wanted, I beg to remain, Madam, your faithful 可信 servant,

"WILLIAM KYRLE."

I read this kind and sensible 明智 letter very thankfully 感激地. It supplied Laura with a reason for objecting to the signature which was unanswerable, and which we could both of us understand. The messenger waited near me while I was reading to receive his directions when I had done.

"Will you be good enough to say that I understand the letter, and that I am very much obliged 责成?" I said. "There is no other reply necessary at present."

Exactly at the moment when I was speaking those words, holding the letter open in my hand, Count Fosco turned the corner of the lane 车道 from the high-road, and stood before me as if he had sprung up out of the earth.

The suddenness of his appearance, in the very last place under heaven in which I should have expected to see him, took me completely by surprise. The messenger wished me good-morning, and got into the fly again. I could not say a word to him—I was not even able to return his bow 弓. The conviction 定罪 that I was discovered—and by that man, of all others—absolutely petrified me.

"Are you going back to the house, Miss Halcombe?" he inquired, without showing the least surprise on his side, and without even looking after the fly, which drove drive off while he was speaking to me.

I collected myself 我 sufficiently 充分地 to make a sign in the affirmative 肯定.

"I am going back too," he said. "Pray allow me the pleasure of accompanying 陪 you. Will you take my arm? You look surprised at seeing me!"

I took his arm. The first of my scattered 散落 senses that came back was the sense that warned me to sacrifice anything rather than make an enemy of him.

"You look surprised at seeing me!" he repeated in his quietly pertinacious way.

"I thought, Count, I heard you with your birds in the breakfast-room," I answered, as quietly and firmly as I could.

"Surely. But my little feathered 羽毛 children, dear lady, are only too like other children. They have their days of perversity, and this morning was one of them. My wife came in as I was putting them back in their cage, and said she had left you going out alone for a walk. You told her so, did you not?"

"Certainly."

"Well, Miss Halcombe, the pleasure of accompanying 陪 you was too great a temptation 诱惑 for me to resist. At my age there is no harm in confessing so much as that, is there? I seized my hat, and set off to offer myself 我 as your escort 护送. Even so fat an old man as Fosco is surely better than no escort 护送 at all? I took the wrong path—I came back in despair 绝望, and here I am, arrived (may I say it?) at the height 高度 of my wishes."

He talked on in this complimentary 免费 strain 压力 with a fluency 流畅 which left me no exertion to make beyond the effort of maintaining 保持 my composure. He never referred in the most distant 遥远的 manner to what he had seen in the lane 车道, or to the letter which I still had in my hand. This ominous 不祥的 discretion 慎重 helped to convince 说服 me that he must have surprised, by the most dishonourable means, the secret of my application in Laura's interest to the lawyer; and that, having now assured himself of the private manner in which I had received the answer, he had discovered enough to suit his purposes, and was only bent on trying to quiet the suspicions which he knew he must have aroused 引起 in my mind. I was wise enough, under these circumstances 环境, not to attempt to deceive 欺诈 him by plausible 似是而非 explanations 说明, and woman enough, notwithstanding 虽然 my dread 恐惧 of him, to feel as if my hand was tainted 污点 by resting on his arm.

On the drive in front of the house we met the dog-cart being taken round to the stables 稳定. Sir Percival had just returned. He came out to meet us at the house-door. Whatever other results his journey might have had, it had not ended in softening 软的:soft his savage 野蛮人 temper.

"Oh! here are two of you come back," he said, with a lowering face. "What is the meaning of the house being deserted 沙漠；抛弃 in this way? Where is Lady Glyde?"

I told him of the loss of the brooch, and said that Laura had gone into the plantation 种植园 to look for it.

"Brooch or no brooch," he growled 吠声 sulkily, "I recommend her not to forget her appointment 约定 in the library this afternoon. I shall expect to see her in half an hour."

I took my hand from the Count's arm, and slowly ascended 登 the steps. He honoured me with one of his magnificent 华丽的 bows, and then addressed himself gaily to the scowling master of the house.

"Tell me, Percival," he said, "have you had a pleasant drive? And has your pretty shining Brown Molly come back at all tired?"

"Brown Molly be hanged—and the drive too! I want my lunch."

"And I want five minutes' talk with you, Percival, first," returned the Count. "Five minutes' talk, my friend, here on the grass."

"What about?"

"About business that very much concerns you."

I lingered 萦绕 long enough in passing through the hall-door to hear this question and answer, and to see Sir Percival thrust 推力 his hands into his pockets 口袋 in sullen hesitation 犹豫.

"If you want to badger 獾 me with any more of your infernal scruples," he said, "I for one won't hear them. I want my lunch."

"Come out here and speak to me," repeated the Count, still perfectly uninfluenced by the rudest speech that his friend could make to him.

Sir Percival descended 下来 the steps. The Count took him by the arm, and walked him away gently. The "business," I was sure, referred to the question of the signature. They were speaking of Laura and of me beyond a doubt. I felt heart-sick and faint with anxiety. It might be of the last importance to both of us to know what they were saying to each other at that moment, and not one word of it could by any possibility 可能性 reach my ears.

I walked about the house, from room to room, with the lawyer's letter in my bosom (I was afraid by this time even to trust it under lock and key), till the oppression 压迫 of my suspense 悬念 half maddened me. There were no signs of Laura's return, and I thought of going out to look for her. But my strength was so exhausted 排气 by the trials and anxieties of the morning that the heat of the day quite over‧power 压倒 me, and after an attempt to get to the door I was obliged 责成 to return to the drawing-room and lie down on the nearest sofa 沙发 to recover 恢复.

I was just composing myself 我 when the door opened softly and the Count looked in.

"A thou‧sand 千 pardons, Miss Halcombe," he said; "I only venture 5 to disturb you because I am the bearer of good news. Percival—who is capricious in everything, as you know—has seen fit to alter 改变 his mind at the last moment, and the business of the signature is put off for the present. A great relief to all of us, Miss Halcombe, as I see with pleasure in your face. Pray present my best respects and felicitations, when you mention this pleasant change of circumstances 环境 to Lady Glyde."

He left me before I had recovered 恢复 my astonishment 惊愕. There could be no doubt that this extraordinary alteration 改造 of purpose in the matter of the signature was due to his influence, and that his discovery of my application to London yesterday, and of my having received an answer to it to-day, had offered him the means of interfering 干预 with certain success.

I felt these impressions 印象, but my mind seemed to share the exhaustion 衰竭 of my body, and I was in no condition to dwell 住 on them with any useful 有用 reference to the doubtful 疑 present or the threatening future. I tried a second time to run out and find Laura, but my head was giddy and my knees trembled under me. There was no choice but to give it up again and return to the sofa 沙发, sorely against my will.

The quiet in the house, and the low murmuring 私语 hum 哼 of summer insects outside the open window, soothed 缓和 me. My eyes closed of themselves, and I passed gradually 逐步地 into a strange condition, which was not waking—for I knew nothing of what was going on about me, and not sleeping—for I was conscious of my own repose. In this state my fevered 发热 mind broke loose from me, while my weary 厌倦 body was at rest, and in a trance, or day-dream of my fancy—I know not what to call it—I saw Walter Hartright. I had not thought of him since I rose that morning—Laura had not said one word to me either directly or indirectly 间接 referring to him—and yet I saw him now as plainly as if the past time had returned, and we were both together again at Limmeridge House.

He appeared to me as one among many other men, none of whose faces I could plainly discern 辨别. They were all lying on the steps of an immense 极大的 ruined temple 庙. Colossal tropical 热带 trees—with rank creepers twining end‧less 不休 about their trunks, and hideous 可怕 stone idols 偶像 glimmering and grinning 微笑 at intervals 间隔 behind leaves and stalks 茎 and branches—surrounded the temple and shut out the sky, and threw a dismal 惨淡 shadow over the forlorn band of men on the steps. White exhalations twisted and curled 一绺鬈发 up stealthily from the ground, approached the men in wreaths like smoke, touched them, and stretched them out dead, one by one, in the places where they lay. An agony 痛苦 of pity and fear for Walter loosened 变松 my tongue, and I implored him to escape. "Come back, come back!" I said. "Remember your promise to her and to me. Come back to us before the Pestilence reaches you and lays you dead like the rest!"

He looked at me with an unearthly 挖掘 quiet in his face. "Wait," he said, "I shall come back. The night when I met the lost Woman on the high‧way 公路 was the night which set my life apart 相隔 to be the instrument of a Design that is yet unseen 看不见. Here, lost in the wilderness 荒野, or there, welcomed back in the land of my birth, I am still walking on the dark road which leads me, and you, and the sister of your love and mine, to the unknown 未知 Retribution and the inevitable 必然 End. Wait and look. The Pestilence which touches the rest will pass me."

I saw him again. He was still in the forest, and the numbers of his lost companions 同伴 had dwindled 缩小 to very few. The temple was gone, and the idols 偶像 were gone—and in their place the figures of dark, dwarfish men lurked 匿伏 murderously 杀 among the trees, with bows in their hands, and arrows 箭头；矢 fitted to the string 绳子. Once more I feared for Walter, and cried out to warn him. Once more he turned to me, with the immovable quiet in his face.

"Another step," he said, "on the dark road. Wait and look. The arrows that strike the rest will spare me."

I saw him for the third time in a wrecked 破坏；使遇难 ship, stranded 缕 on a wild, sandy 沙 shore. The over‧load 超载 boats were making away from him for the land, and he alone was left to sink 淹没 with the ship. I cried to him to hail 冰雹 the hindmost boat, and to make a last effort for his life. The quiet face looked at me in return, and the unmoved voice gave me back the change‧less 改变‧少 reply. "Another step on the journey. Wait and look. The Sea which drowns 淹死 the rest will spare me."

I saw him for the last time. He was kneeling 跪 by a tomb 墓 of white marble 大理石, and the shadow of a veiled 面纱 woman rose out of the grave 坟墓；严重的 beneath and waited by his side. The unearthly 挖掘 quiet of his face had changed to an unearthly 挖掘 sorrow 5. But the terrible certainty 确定性 of his words remained the same. "Darker and darker," he said; "farther and farther yet. Death takes the good, the beautiful 美丽, and the young—and spares 节省；多余的；备用件 me. The Pestilence that wastes, the Arrow 箭头；矢 that strikes, the Sea that drowns, the Grave that closes over Love and Hope, are steps of my journey, and take me nearer and nearer to the End."

My heart sank under a dread 恐惧 beyond words, under a grief 哀思 beyond tears. The darkness 黑暗 closed round the pilgrim 朝圣 at the marble 大理石 tomb 墓—closed round the veiled woman from the grave—closed round the dreamer who looked on them. I saw and heard no more.

I was aroused 引起 by a hand laid on my shoulder. It was Laura's.

She had dropped on her knees by the side of the sofa 沙发. Her face was flushed 红晕 and agitated 激荡, and her eyes met mine in a wild bewildered 困惑 manner. I started the instant I saw her.

"What has happened?" I asked. "What has frightened you?"

She looked round at the half-open door, put her lips close to my ear, and answered in a whisper—

"Marian!—the figure at the lake—the foot‧step 脚步 last night—I've just seen her! I've just spoken to her!"

"Who, for Heaven's sake?"

"Anne Catherick."

I was so startled 惊吓 by the disturbance 骚乱 in Laura's face and manner, and so dismayed 沮丧 by the first waking impressions 印象 of my dream, that I was not fit to bear the revelation 启示 which burst upon me when that name passed her lips. I could only stand rooted to the floor, looking at her in breath‧less 咋舌 silence.

She was too much absorbed 吸收 by what had happened to notice the effect which her reply had produced on me. "I have seen Anne Catherick! I have spoken to Anne Catherick!" she repeated as if I had not heard her. "Oh, Marian, I have such things to tell you! Come away—we may be interrupted 打断 here—come at once into my room."

With those eager words she caught me by the hand, and led me through the library, to the end room on the ground floor, which had been fitted up for her own especial use. No third person, except her maid 女佣, could have any excuse for surprising us here. She pushed me in before her, locked the door, and drew the chintz curtains 窗帘 that hung over the inside.

The strange, stunned 击晕 feeling which had taken possession of me still remained. But a growing conviction 定罪 that the complications 复杂化 which had long threatened to gather about her, and to gather about me, had suddenly closed fast round us both, was now beginning to penetrate 穿透 my mind. I could not express it in words—I could hardly even realise it dimly 暗淡 in my own thoughts. "Anne Catherick!" I whispered to myself 我, with use‧less 无用, help‧less 无助 reiteration—"Anne Catherick!"

Laura drew me to the nearest seat, an ottoman in the middle of the room. "Look!" she said, "look here!"—and pointed to the bosom of her dress.

I saw, for the first time, that the lost brooch was pinned in its place again. There was something real in the sight of it, something real in the touching of it after‧ward 之后, which seemed to steady the whirl 旋转 and confusion in my thoughts, and to help me to compose myself 我.

"Where did you find your brooch?" The first words I could say to her were the words which put that trivial 不重要的 question at that important moment.

"She found it, Marian."

"Where?"

"On the floor of the boat-house. Oh, how shall I begin—how shall I tell you about it! She talked to me so strangely—she looked so fearfully 可怕 ill—she left me so suddenly!"

Her voice rose as the tumult of her recollections 回忆 pressed upon her mind. The inveterate distrust 怀疑 which weighs 称重, night and day, on my spirits in this house, instantly roused 唤醒 me to warn her—just as the sight of the brooch had roused 唤醒 me to question her, the moment before.

"Speak low," I said. "The window is open, and the garden path runs beneath it. Begin at the beginning, Laura. Tell me, word for word, what passed between that woman and you."

"Shall I close the window?"

"No, only speak low—only remember that Anne Catherick is a dangerous 危险 subject under your husband's roof. Where did you first see her?"

"At the boat-house, Marian. I went out, as you know, to find my brooch, and I walked along the path through the plantation 种植园, looking down on the ground carefully 小心 at every step. In that way I got on, after a long time, to the boat-house, and as soon as I was inside it, I went on my knees to hunt over the floor. I was still searching with my back to the door‧way 门口, when I heard a soft, strange voice behind me say, 'Miss Fairlie.'"

"Miss Fairlie!"

"Yes, my old name—the dear, familiar name that I thought I had parted from for ever. I started up—not frightened, the voice was too kind and gentle to frighten anybody—but very much surprised. There, looking at me from the door‧way 门口, stood a woman, whose face I never remembered to have seen before—"

"How was she dressed?"

"She had a neat 整洁的, pretty white gown 袍 on, and over it a poor worn thin dark shawl. Her bonnet 帽子 was of brown straw 3, as poor and worn as the shawl. I was struck by the difference between her gown 袍 and the rest of her dress, and she saw that I noticed it. 'Don't look at my bonnet 帽子 and shawl,' she said, speaking in a quick, breath‧less 咋舌, sudden way; 'if I mustn't wear white, I don't care what I wear. Look at my gown 袍 as much as you please—I'm not ashamed of that.' Very strange, was it not? Before I could say anything to soothe 缓和 her, she held out one of her hands, and I saw my brooch in it. I was so pleased and so grateful 感激的, that I went quite close to her to say what I really felt. 'Are you thankful 感谢 enough to do me one little kindness 善良?' she asked. 'Yes, indeed,' I answered, 'any kindness 善良 in my power I shall be glad to show you.' 'Then let me pin 钉 your brooch on for you, now I have found it.' Her request was so unexpected 意外, Marian, and she made it with such extraordinary eagerness, that I drew back a step or two, not well knowing what to do. 'Ah!' she said, 'your mother would have let me pin on the brooch.' There was something in her voice and her look, as well as in her mentioning my mother in that reproachful manner, which made me ashamed of my distrust 怀疑. I took her hand with the brooch in it, and put it up gently on the bosom of my dress. 'You knew my mother?' I said. 'Was it very long ago? have I ever seen you before?' Her hands were busy fastening the brooch: she stopped and pressed them against my breast 乳房. 'You don't remember a fine spring day at Limmeridge,' she said, 'and your mother walking down the path that led to the school, with a little girl on each side of her? I have had nothing else to think of since, and I remember it. You were one of the little girls, and I was the other. Pretty, clever 聪明的 Miss Fairlie, and poor dazed 迷乱 Anne Catherick were nearer to each other then than they are now!'"

"Did you remember her, Laura, when she told you her name?"

"Yes, I remembered your asking me about Anne Catherick at Limmeridge, and your saying that she had once been considered like me."

"What reminded you of that, Laura?"

"She reminded me. While I was looking at her, while she was very close to me, it came over my mind suddenly that we were like each other! Her face was pale and thin and weary 厌倦—but the sight of it startled 惊吓 me, as if it had been the sight of my own face in the glass after a long illness 疾病. The discovery—I don't know why—gave me such a shock, that I was perfectly incapable 无法 of speaking to her for the moment."

"Did she seem hurt 损害 by your silence?"

"I am afraid she was hurt by it. 'You have not got your mother's face,' she said, 'or your mother's heart. Your mother's face was dark, and your mother's heart, Miss Fairlie, was the heart of an angel 天使.' 'I am sure I feel kindly towards you,' I said, 'though I may not be able to express it as I ought. Why do you call me Miss Fairlie?——' 'Because I love the name of Fairlie and hate the name of Glyde,' she broke out violently. I had seen nothing like madness 疯狂 in her before this, but I fancied I saw it now in her eyes. 'I only thought you might not know I was married,' I said, remembering the wild letter she wrote to me at Limmeridge, and trying to quiet her. She sighed 叹 bitterly, and turned away from me. 'Not know you were married?' she repeated. 'I am here because you are married. I am here to make atonement to you, before I meet your mother in the world beyond the grave.' She drew farther and farther away from me, till she was out of the boat-house, and then she watched and listened for a little while. When she turned round to speak again, instead of coming back, she stopped where she was, looking in at me, with a hand on each side of the entrance. 'Did you see me at the lake last night?' she said. 'Did you hear me following you in the wood? I have been waiting for days together to speak to you alone—I have left the only friend I have in the world, anxious and frightened about me—I have risked being shut up again in the mad-house—and all for your sake, Miss Fairlie, all for your sake.' Her words alarmed me, Marian, and yet there was something in the way she spoke that made me pity her with all my heart. I am sure my pity must have been sincere 真诚的, for it made me bold 胆大的；醒目的 enough to ask the poor creature to come in, and sit down in the boat-house, by my side."

"Did she do so?"

"No. She shook her head, and told me she must stop where she was, to watch and listen, and see that no third person surprised us. And from first to last, there she waited at the entrance, with a hand on each side of it, sometimes bending in suddenly to speak to me, sometimes drawing back suddenly to look about her. 'I was here yesterday,' she said, 'before it came dark, and I heard you, and the lady with you, talking together. I heard you tell her about your husband. I heard you say you had no influence to make him believe you, and no influence to keep him silent. Ah! I knew what those words meant—my conscience told me while I was listening. Why did I ever let you marry him! Oh, my fear—my mad, miserable, wicked 邪恶的 fear! 'She covered up her face in her poor worn shawl, and moaned 呻吟 and murmured 私语 to her‧self 她自己 behind it. I began to be afraid she might break out into some terrible despair 3 which neither she nor I could master. 'Try to quiet your‧self 你自己,' I said; 'try to tell me how you might have prevented my marriage.' She took the shawl from her face, and looked at me vacantly 空的. 'I ought to have had heart enough to stop at Limmeridge,' she answered. 'I ought never to have let the news of his coming there frighten me away. I ought to have warned you and saved you before it was too late. Why did I only have courage enough to write you that letter? Why did I only do harm, when I wanted and meant to do good? Oh, my fear—my mad, miserable, wicked 3 fear!' She repeated those words again, and hid hide her face again in the end of her poor worn shawl. It was dreadful 可怕 to see her, and dreadful 可怕 to hear her."

"Surely, Laura, you asked what the fear was which she dwelt on so earnestly?"

"Yes, I asked that."

"And what did she say?"

"She asked me in return, if I should not be afraid of a man who had shut me up in a mad-house, and who would shut me up again, if he could? I said, 'Are you afraid still? Surely you would not be here if you were afraid now?' 'No,' she said, 'I am not afraid now.' I asked why not. She suddenly bent forward into the boat-house, and said, 'Can't you guess why?' I shook my head. 'Look at me,' she went on. I told her I was grieved 悼 to see that she looked very sorrowful and very ill. She smiled for the first time. 'Ill?' she repeated; 'I'm dying. You know why I'm not afraid of him now. Do you think I shall meet your mother in heaven? Will she for‧give 原谅 me if I do?' I was so shocked and so startled 惊吓, that I could make no reply. 'I have been thinking of it,' she went on, 'all the time I have been in hiding from your husband, all the time I lay ill. My thoughts have driven drive me here—I want to make atonement—I want to undo 解开 all I can of the harm I once did.' I begged her as earnestly as I could to tell me what she meant. She still looked at me with fixed vacant 空的 eyes. 'Shall I undo 解开 the harm?' she said to her‧self 她自己 doubtfully 疑. 'You have friends to take your part. If you know his Secret, he will be afraid of you, he won't dare use you as he used me. He must treat you mercifully for his own sake, if he is afraid of you and your friends. And if he treats you mercifully, and if I can say it was my doing——' I listened eagerly for more, but she stopped at those words."

"You tried to make her go on?"

"I tried, but she only drew her‧self 她自己 away from me again, and leaned her face and arms against the side of the boat-house. 'Oh!' I heard her say, with a dreadful 可怕, distracted 转移 tenderness 压痛 in her voice, 'oh! if I could only be buried 埋葬 with your mother! If I could only wake 醒 at her side, when the angel 天使's trumpet 喇叭 sounds, and the graves 坟墓；严重的 give up their dead at the resurrection 复活!'—Marian! I trembled from head to foot—it was horrible 可怕 to hear her. 'But there is no hope of that,' she said, moving a little, so as to look at me again, 'no hope for a poor stranger like me. I shall not rest under the marble 大理石 cross that I washed with my own hands, and made so white and pure for her sake. Oh no! oh no! God's mercy 宽容, not man's, will take me to her, where the wicked cease 停止 from troubling and the weary 厌倦 are at rest.' She spoke those words quietly and sorrow‧fully 悲痛‧完全地, with a heavy, hope‧less 绝望 sigh 叹, and then waited a little. Her face was confused 使困窘 and troubled, she seemed to be thinking, or trying to think. 'What was it I said just now?' she asked after a while. 'When your mother is in my mind, everything else goes out of it. What was I saying? what was I saying?' I reminded the poor creature, as kindly and delicately as I could. 'Ah, yes, yes,' she said, still in a vacant 空的, perplexed 困扰 manner. 'You are help‧less 无助 with your wicked husband. Yes. And I must do what I have come to do here—I must make it up to you for having been afraid to speak out at a better time.' 'What is it you have to tell me?' I asked. 'The Secret that your cruel husband is afraid of,' she answered. 'I once threatened him with the Secret, and frightened him. You shall threaten him with the Secret, and frighten him too.' Her face darkened 变暗, and a hard, angry stare fixed itself 本身 in her eyes. She began waving her hand at me in a vacant 空的, unmeaning manner. 'My mother knows the Secret,' she said. 'My mother has wasted under the Secret half her life‧time 一生. One day, when I was grown up, she said something to me. And the next day your husband——'"

"Yes! yes! Go on. What did she tell you about your husband?"

"She stopped again, Marian, at that point——"

"And said no more?"

"And listened eagerly. 'Hush!' she whispered, still waving her hand at me. 'Hush!' She moved aside out of the door‧way 门口, moved slowly and stealthily, step by step, till I lost her past the edge of the boat-house."

"Surely you followed her?"

"Yes, my anxiety made me bold 胆大的；醒目的 enough to rise and follow her. Just as I reached the entrance, she appeared again suddenly, round the side of the boat-house. 'The Secret,' I whispered to her—'wait and tell me the Secret!' She caught hold of my arm, and looked at me with wild frightened eyes. 'Not now,' she said, 'we are not alone—we are watched. Come here to-morrow at this time—by your‧self 你自己—mind—by your‧self 你自己.' She pushed me roughly into the boat-house again, and I saw her no more."

"Oh, Laura, Laura, another chance lost! If I had only been near you she should not have escaped us. On which side did you lose sight of her?"

"On the left side, where the ground sinks 淹没 and the wood is thickest."

"Did you run out again? did you call after her?"

"How could I? I was too terrified 惊吓 to move or speak."

"But when you did move—when you came out?"

"I ran back here, to tell you what had happened."

"Did you see any one, or hear any one, in the plantation 种植园?"

"No, it seemed to be all still and quiet when I passed through it."

I waited for a moment to consider. Was this third person, supposed to have been secretly present at the interview 访问, a reality 现实, or the creature of Anne Catherick's excited fancy? It was impossible to determine. The one thing certain was, that we had failed again on the very brink 边缘 of discovery—failed utterly 完全 and irretrievably, unless Anne Catherick kept her appointment 约定 at the boat-house for the next day.

"Are you quite sure you have told me everything that passed? Every word that was said?" I inquired.

"I think so," she answered. "My powers of memory, Marian, are not like yours. But I was so strongly impressed, so deeply interested, that nothing of any importance can possibly have escaped me."

"My dear Laura, the merest trifles 琐事 are of importance where Anne Catherick is concerned. Think again. Did no chance reference escape her as to the place in which she is living at the present time?"

"None that I can remember."

"Did she not mention a companion 同伴 and friend—a woman named Mrs. Clements?"

"Oh yes! yes! I forgot forget that. She told me Mrs. Clements wanted sadly to go with her to the lake and take care of her, and begged and prayed that she would not venture 6 into this neighbourhood alone."

"Was that all she said about Mrs. Clements?"

"Yes, that was all."

"She told you nothing about the place in which she took refuge 避难所 after leaving Todd's Corner?"

"Nothing—I am quite sure."

"Nor where she has lived since? Nor what her illness 疾病 had been?"

"No, Marian, not a word. Tell me, pray tell me, what you think about it. I don't know what to think, or what to do next."

"You must do this, my love: You must carefully 小心 keep the appointment 约定 at the boat-house to-morrow. It is impossible to say what interests may not depend on your seeing that woman again. You shall not be left to your‧self 你自己 a second time. I will follow you at a safe distance. Nobody shall see me, but I will keep within hearing of your voice, if anything happens. Anne Catherick has escaped Walter Hartright, and has escaped you. Whatever happens, she shall not escape me."

Laura's eyes read mine attentively.

"You believe," she said, "in this secret that my husband is afraid of? Suppose, Marian, it should only exist after all in Anne Catherick's fancy? Suppose she only wanted to see me and to speak to me, for the sake of old remembrances 纪念? Her manner was so strange—I almost doubted her. Would you trust her in other things?"

"I trust nothing, Laura, but my own observation 意见 of your husband's conduct 进行. I judge Anne Catherick's words by his actions, and I believe there is a secret."

I said no more, and got up to leave the room. Thoughts were troubling me which I might have told her if we had spoken together longer, and which it might have been dangerous 危险 for her to know. The influence of the terrible dream from which she had awakened 憬 me hung darkly and heavily 很大，沉重地 over every fresh impression 印象 which the progress of her narrative 叙述 produced on my mind. I felt the ominous 不祥的 future coming close, chilling 寒意 me with an unutterable awe 威严, forcing on me the conviction 定罪 of an unseen 看不见 design in the long series 系列 of complications which had now fastened round us. I thought of Hartright—as I saw him in the body when he said fare‧well 告别; as I saw him in the spirit in my dream—and I too began to doubt now whether we were not advancing blind‧fold 失明的‧折叠 to an appointed and an inevitable 必然 end.

Leaving Laura to go upstairs 楼上 alone, I went out to look about me in the walks near the house. The circumstances 环境 under which Anne Catherick had parted from her had made me secretly anxious to know how Count Fosco was passing the afternoon, and had rendered 给予 me secretly distrustful of the results of that solitary 孤 journey from which Sir Percival had returned but a few hours since.

After looking for them in every direction and discovering nothing, I returned to the house, and entered the different rooms on the ground floor one after another. They were all empty. I came out again into the hall, and went upstairs 楼上 to return to Laura. Madame Fosco opened her door as I passed it in my way along the passage, and I stopped to see if she could inform me of the whereabouts 下落 of her husband and Sir Percival. Yes, she had seen them both from her window more than an hour since. The Count had looked up with his customary 习惯的 kindness 善良, and had mentioned with his habitual 惯常的 attention to her in the smallest trifles 琐事, that he and his friend were going out together for a long walk.

For a long walk! They had never yet been in each other's company with that object in my experience of them. Sir Percival cared for no exercise but riding, and the Count (except when he was polite enough to be my escort 护送) cared for no exercise at all.

When I joined Laura again, I found that she had called to mind in my absence the impending 即将发生 question of the signature to the deed, which, in the interest of discussing her interview 访问 with Anne Catherick, we had hitherto 迄今 over‧look 俯瞰. Her first words when I saw her expressed her surprise at the absence of the expected summons 召唤 to attend Sir Percival in the library.

"You may make your mind easy on that subject," I said. "For the present, at least, neither your resolution 解析度 nor mine will be exposed 暴露 to any further trial. Sir Percival has altered his plans—the business of the signature is put off."

"Put off?" Laura repeated amazedly. "Who told you so?"

"My authority 权威 is Count Fosco. I believe it is to his interference that we are indebted 感激的 for your husband's sudden change of purpose."

"It seems impossible, Marian. If the object of my signing was, as we suppose, to obtain 获得 money for Sir Percival that he urgently wanted, how can the matter be put off?"

"I think, Laura, we have the means at hand of setting that doubt at rest. Have you forgotten the conversation that I heard between Sir Percival and the lawyer as they were crossing the hall?"

"No, but I don't remember——"

"I do. There were two alter‧native 替代 proposed. One was to obtain 获得 your signature to the parchment. The other was to gain time by giving bills at three months. The last resource 资源 is evidently 明显地 the resource 资源 now adopted, and we may fairly hope to be relieved from our share in Sir Percival's embarrassments 困窘 for some time to come."

"Oh, Marian, it sounds too good to be true!"

"Does it, my love? You complimented 赞扬 me on my ready memory not long since, but you seem to doubt it now. I will get my journal 日志, and you shall see if I am right or wrong."

I went away and got the book at once.

On looking back to the entry 条目 referring to the lawyer's visit, we found that my recollection 回忆 of the two alter‧native 替代 presented was accurately 准确的；精确的；正确的 correct. It was almost as great a relief to my mind as to Laura's, to find that my memory had served me, on this occasion, as faithfully 忠实 as usual. In the perilous uncertainty 不确定 of our present situation, it is hard to say what future interests may not depend upon the regularity 规律性 of the entries 条目 in my journal 日志, and upon the reliability 可靠性 of my recollection 回忆 at the time when I make them.

Laura's face and manner suggested to me that this last consideration 考虑 had occurred 发生 to her as well as to myself 我. Anyway 无论如何, it is only a trifling 琐事 matter, and I am almost ashamed to put it down here in writing—it seems to set the forlornness of our situation in such a miserably vivid 生动 light. We must have little indeed to depend on, when the discovery that my memory can still be trusted to serve us is hailed 冰雹 as if it was the discovery of a new friend!

The first bell 钟 for dinner separated us. Just as it had done ringing, Sir Percival and the Count returned from their walk. We heard the master of the house storming 暴风雨 at the servants for being five minutes late, and the master's guest interposing, as usual, in the interests of propriety, patience, and peace.

---

The evening has come and gone. No extraordinary event has happened. But I have noticed certain peculiarities in the conduct 进行 of Sir Percival and the Count, which have sent me to my bed feeling very anxious and uneasy 不安 about Anne Catherick, and about the results which to-morrow may produce.

I know enough by this time, to be sure, that the aspect 方面 of Sir Percival which is the most false 3, and which, therefore, means the worst, is his polite aspect 方面. That long walk with his friend had ended in improving his manners, especially towards his wife. To Laura's secret surprise and to my secret alarm 警告, he called her by her Christian name, asked if she had heard lately 4 from her uncle, inquired when Mrs. Vesey was to receive her invitation 邀请 to Blackwater, and showed her so many other little attentions that he almost recalled 召回 the days of his hateful court‧ship 法院‧船 at Limmeridge House. This was a bad sign to begin with, and I thought it more ominous 不祥的 still that he should pretend 假装 after dinner to fall asleep 睡着的 in the drawing-room, and that his eyes should cunningly 狡猾 follow Laura and me when he thought we neither of us suspected him. I have never had any doubt that his sudden journey by himself took him to Welmingham to question Mrs. Catherick—but the experience of to-night has made me fear that the expedition 远征 was not undertaken in vain 徒劳的, and that he has got the information which he unquestionably left us to collect. If I knew where Anne Catherick was to be found, I would be up to-morrow with sun‧rise 日出 and warn her.

While the aspect 方面 under which Sir Percival presented himself to-night was unhappily 不快乐 but too familiar to me, the aspect 方面 under which the Count appeared was, on the other hand, entirely new in my experience of him. He permitted me, this evening, to make his acquaintance 熟人, for the first time, in the character of a Man of Sentiment—of sentiment 情绪, as I believe, really felt, not assumed 承担 for the occasion.

For instance 例, he was quiet and subdued 征服—his eyes and his voice expressed a rest‧rain 抑制 sensibility 感性. He wore (as if there was some hidden hide connection between his showiest finery and his deepest feeling) the most magnificent 华丽的 waist‧coat 腰‧上衣 he has yet appeared in—it was made of pale sea-green silk 丝, and delicately trimmed 修剪 with fine silver 银 braid 编织. His voice sank into the tenderest 纤弱的 inflections 拐点, his smile expressed a thoughtful 周到, fatherly admiration 钦佩, whenever he spoke to Laura or to me. He pressed his wife's hand under the table when she thanked him for trifling 琐事 little attentions at dinner. He took wine with her. "Your health and happiness 幸福, my angel 天使!" he said, with fond glistening 闪亮 eyes. He ate little or nothing, and sighed 叹, and said "Good Percival!" when his friend laughed at him. After dinner, he took Laura by the hand, and asked her if she would be "so sweet as to play to him." She complied 执行, through sheer astonishment 惊愕. He sat by the piano 钢琴, with his watch-chain resting in folds 折叠, like a golden 金色的 serpent, on the sea-green protuberance of his waist‧coat 腰‧上衣. His immense 极大的 head lay languidly on one side, and he gently beat time with two of his yellow-white fingers. He highly approved of the music, and tenderly admired Laura's manner of playing—not as poor Hartright used to praise 赞扬 it, with an innocent 无辜 enjoyment 享受 of the sweet sounds, but with a clear, cultivated 耕作, practical knowledge of the merits 值得 of the composition 作文；构图, in the first place, and of the merits 值得 of the player's touch in the second. As the evening closed in, he begged that the lovely dying light might not be profaned, just yet, by the appearance of the lamps 灯. He came, with his horribly 可怕 silent tread 踏, to the distant 遥远的 window at which I was standing, to be out of his way and to avoid the very sight of him—he came to ask me to support his protest 抗议 against the lamps. If any one of them could only have burnt him up at that moment, I would have gone down to the kitchen and fetched 取 it myself 我.

"Surely you like this modest 谦虚的, trembling English twilight 暮?" he said softly. "Ah! I love it. I feel my inborn admiration 钦佩 of all that is noble 高尚的, and great, and good, purified 净化 by the breath of heaven on an evening like this. Nature has such imperishable charms, such inextinguishable tenderness 压痛 for me!—I am an old, fat man—talk which would become your lips, Miss Halcombe, sounds like a derision and a mockery on mine. It is hard to be laughed at in my moments of sentiment 情绪, as if my soul was like myself 我, old and overgrown. Observe, dear lady, what a light is dying on the trees! Does it penetrate 穿透 your heart, as it penetrates 穿透 mine?"

He paused, looked at me, and repeated the famous 著名 lines of Dante on the Evening-time, with a melody 旋律 and tenderness 压痛 which added a charm 魔力；使陶醉 of their own to the match‧less 比赛；火柴‧少 beauty of the poetry 诗歌 itself 本身.

"Bah!" he cried suddenly, as the last cadence of those noble 高尚的 Italian words died away on his lips; "I make an old fool of myself 我, and only weary 厌倦 you all! Let us shut up the window in our bosoms and get back to the matter-of-fact world. Percival! I sanction 制裁 the admission 准许进入 of the lamps. Lady Glyde—Miss Halcombe—Eleanor, my good wife—which of you will indulge 放纵 me with a game at dominoes?"

He addressed us all, but he looked especially at Laura.

She had learnt to feel my dread 恐惧 of offending 触怒 him, and she accepted his proposal. It was more than I could have done at that moment. I could not have sat down at the same table with him for any consideration 考虑. His eyes seemed to reach my inmost soul through the thickening 变浓厚 obscurity of the twilight 暮. His voice trembled along every nerve 神经 in my body, and turned me hot and cold alternately 备用. The mystery and terror 恐怖 of my dream, which had haunted 出没 me at intervals 间隔 all through the evening, now oppressed 压迫 my mind with an unendurable foreboding and an unutterable awe 威严. I saw the white tomb 墓 again, and the veiled woman rising out of it by Hartright's side. The thought of Laura welled up like a spring in the depths of my heart, and filled it with waters of bitterness 苦味, never, never known to it before. I caught her by the hand as she passed me on her way to the table, and kissed her as if that night was to part us for ever. While they were all gazing 凝视 at me in astonishment 惊愕, I ran out through the low window which was open before me to the ground—ran out to hide from them in the darkness 黑暗, to hide even from myself 我.

We separated that evening later than usual. Towards mid‧night 午夜 the summer silence was broken by the shuddering 不寒而栗 of a low, melancholy 愁绪 wind among the trees. We all felt the sudden chill 寒意 in the atmosphere 大气层, but the Count was the first to notice the steal‧thy 偷，拿‧你的 rising of the wind. He stopped while he was lighting my candle 蜡烛 for me, and held up his hand warningly—

"Listen!" he said. "There will be a change to-morrow."

VII

June 19th.—The events of yesterday warned me to be ready, sooner or later, to meet the worst. To-day is not yet at an end, and the worst has come.

Judging by the closest calculation 计算 of time that Laura and I could make, we arrived at the conclusion 结论 that Anne Catherick must have appeared at the boat-house at half-past two o'clock on the afternoon of yesterday. I accordingly 于是 arranged that Laura should just show her‧self 她自己 at the luncheon 午餐-table to-day, and should then slip out at the first opportunity, leaving me behind to preserve appearances, and to follow her as soon as I could safely do so. This mode of proceeding 继续, if no obstacles 障碍 occurred 发生 to thwart 阻挠 us, would enable 启用 her to be at the boat-house before half-past two, and (when I left the table, in my turn) would take me to a safe position in the plantation 种植园 before three.

The change in the weather, which last night's wind warned us to expect, came with the morning. It was raining heavily 很大，沉重地 when I got up, and it continued to rain until twelve 十二 o'clock—when the clouds dispersed 分散, the blue sky appeared, and the sun shone 发光:shine again with the bright promise of a fine afternoon.

My anxiety to know how Sir Percival and the Count would occupy 占据 the early part of the day was by no means set at rest, so far as Sir Percival was concerned, by his leaving us immediately after breakfast, and going out by himself, in spite of the rain. He neither told us where he was going nor when we might expect him back. We saw him pass the breakfast-room window hastily 草草, with his high boots and his water‧proof 防水 coat on—and that was all.

The Count passed the morning quietly indoors, some part of it in the library, some part in the drawing-room, playing odds 奇 and ends of music on the piano 钢琴, and humming 哼 to himself. Judging by appearances, the sentimental 感伤 side of his character was persistently 一贯 inclined 倾斜 to betray 背叛 itself 本身 still. He was silent and sensitive, and ready to sigh 叹 and languish ponderously (as only fat men can sigh 叹 and languish) on the smallest provocation 挑衅.

Luncheon-time came and Sir Percival did not return. The Count took his friend's place at the table, plaintively devoured 吞食 the greater part of a fruit tart 酸, submerged 淹没 under a whole jugful of cream 乳霜, and explained the full merit 值得 of the achievement 成就 to us as soon as he had done. "A taste for sweets," he said in his softest tones 音 and his tenderest manner, "is the innocent 无辜 taste of women and children. I love to share it with them—it is another bond 键, dear ladies, between you and me."

Laura left the table in ten 十 minutes' time. I was sorely tempted 引诱 to accompany 陪 her. But if we had both gone out together we must have excited suspicion, and worse still, if we allowed Anne Catherick to see Laura, accompanied 陪 by a second person who was a stranger to her, we should in all probability 可能性 forfeit 丧失 her confidence from that moment, never to regain 恢复 it again.

I waited, therefore, as patiently as I could, until the servant came in to clear the table. When I quitted 放弃 the room, there were no signs, in the house or out of it, of Sir Percival's return. I left the Count with a piece of sugar 食糖 between his lips, and the vicious 恶毒 cockatoo scrambling 争夺 up his waist‧coat 腰‧上衣 to get at it, while Madame Fosco, sitting opposite to her husband, watched the proceedings 继续 of his bird and himself as attentively as if she had never seen anything of the sort before in her life. On my way to the plantation 种植园 I kept carefully 小心 beyond the range of view from the luncheon 午餐-room window. Nobody saw me and nobody followed me. It was then a quarter to three o'clock by my watch.

Once among the trees I walked rapidly, until I had advanced more than half-way through the plantation 种植园. At that point I slackened my pace 步伐，速度 and proceeded 继续 cautiously 小心的, but I saw no one, and heard no voices. By little and little I came within view of the back of the boat-house—stopped and listened—then went on, till I was close behind it, and must have heard any persons who were talking inside. Still the silence was unbroken—still far and near no sign of a living creature appeared anywhere.

After skirting 裙子 round by the back of the building, first on one side and then on the other, and making no discoveries, I ventured in front of it, and fairly looked in. The place was empty.

I called, "Laura!"—at first softly, then louder 响亮的 and louder. No one answered and no one appeared. For all that I could see and hear, the only human creature in the neighbourhood of the lake and the plantation 种植园 was myself 我.

My heart began to beat violently, but I kept my resolution 解析度, and searched, first the boat-house and then the ground in front of it, for any signs which might show me whether Laura had really reached the place or not. No mark of her presence appeared inside the building, but I found traces 跟踪 of her outside it, in foot‧step 脚步 on the sand.

I detected the foot‧step 脚步 of two persons—large foot‧step 脚步 like a man's, and small foot‧step 脚步, which, by putting my own feet into them and testing their size in that manner, I felt certain were Laura's. The ground was confusedly marked in this way just before the boat-house. Close against one side of it, under shelter of the projecting 项目 roof, I discovered a little hole in the sand—a hole artificially made, beyond a doubt. I just noticed it, and then turned away immediately to trace 跟踪 the foot‧step 脚步 as far as I could, and to follow the direction in which they might lead me.

They led me, starting from the left-hand side of the boat-house, along the edge of the trees, a distance, I should think, of between two and three hundred 百 yards, and then the sandy 沙 ground showed no further trace 跟踪 of them. Feeling that the persons whose course I was tracking 小路 must necessarily have entered the plantation 种植园 at this point, I entered it too. At first I could find no path, but I discovered one after‧ward 之后, just faintly traced 跟踪 among the trees, and followed it. It took me, for some distance, in the direction of the village, until I stopped at a point where another foot-track 小路 crossed it. The brambles grew thickly on either side of this second path. I stood looking down it, uncertain 不确定 which way to take next, and while I looked I saw on one thorny branch some fragments 分段 of fringe 边缘 from a woman's shawl. A closer examination 检查 of the fringe 边缘 satisfied me that it had been torn from a shawl of Laura's, and I instantly followed the second path. It brought me out at last, to my great relief, at the back of the house. I say to my great relief, because I inferred 推断 that Laura must, for some unknown 未知 reason, have returned before me by this round‧about 迂回 way. I went in by the court-yard and the offices. The first person whom I met in crossing the servants' hall was Mrs. Michelson, the house‧keep 管家.

"Do you know," I asked, "whether Lady Glyde has come in from her walk or not?"

"My lady came in a little while ago with Sir Percival," answered the house‧keep 管家. "I am afraid, Miss Halcombe, something very distressing 苦难 has happened."

My heart sank within me. "You don't mean an accident?" I said faintly.

"No, no—thank God, no accident. But my lady ran upstairs 楼上 to her own room in tears, and Sir Percival has ordered me to give Fanny warning to leave in an hour's time."

Fanny was Laura's maid 女佣—a good affectionate 亲热 girl who had been with her for years—the only person in the house whose fidelity 保真度 and devotion 忠诚 we could both depend upon.

"Where is Fanny?" I inquired.

"In my room, Miss Halcombe. The young woman is quite over‧come 战胜, and I told her to sit down and try to recover 恢复 her‧self 她自己."

I went to Mrs. Michelson's room, and found Fanny in a corner, with her box by her side, crying bitterly.

She could give me no explanation 说明 whatever of her sudden dismissal 解雇. Sir Percival had ordered that she should have a month's wages, in place of a month's warning, and go. No reason had been assigned 分配—no objection had been made to her conduct 进行. She had been forbidden to appeal 上诉 to her mistress 情妇, forbidden even to see her for a moment to say good-bye 再见. She was to go without explanations 说明 or fare‧well 告别, and to go at once.

After soothing 缓和 the poor girl by a few friendly words, I asked where she proposed to sleep that night. She replied that she thought of going to the little inn 小旅馆 in the village, the land‧lady 陆地；着陆‧女士 of which was a respect‧able 可敬 woman, known to the servants at Blackwater Park. The next morning, by leaving early, she might get back to her friends in Cumberland without stopping in London, where she was a total stranger.

I felt directly that Fanny's departure 离开 offered us a safe means of communication 通讯 with London and with Limmeridge House, of which it might be very important to avail 果 ourselves 我们自己. Accordingly, I told her that she might expect to hear from her mistress 情妇 or from me in the course of the evening, and that she might depend on our both doing all that lay in our power to help her, under the trial of leaving us for the present. Those words said, I shook hands with her and went upstairs 楼上.

The door which led to Laura's room was the door of an ante-chamber 室 opening on to the passage. When I tried it, it was bolted 螺栓 on the inside.

I knocked, and the door was opened by the same heavy, overgrown house‧maid 房屋‧女佣 whose lumpish insensibility had tried my patience so severely on the day when I found the wounded dog.

I had, since that time, discovered that her name was Margaret Porcher, and that she was the most awkward 难堪, slatternly, and obstinate servant in the house.

On opening the door she instantly stepped out to the threshold 阈, and stood grinning 微笑 at me in stolid silence.

"Why do you stand there?" I said. "Don't you see that I want to come in?"

"Ah, but you mustn't come in," was the answer, with another and a broader grin 微笑 still.

"How dare you talk to me in that way? Stand back instantly!"

She stretched out a great red hand and arm on each side of her, so as to bar the door‧way 门口, and slowly nodded 点头 her addle head at me.

"Master's orders," she said, and nodded 点头 again.

I had need of all my self-control to warn me against contesting 比赛 the matter with her, and to remind me that the next words I had to say must be addressed to her master. I turned my back on her, and instantly went downstairs 楼下 to find him. My resolution 解析度 to keep my temper under all the irritations 刺激 that Sir Percival could offer was, by this time, as completely forgotten—I say so to my shame 羞愧—as if I had never made it. It did me good, after all I had suffered and sup‧press 压制 in that house—it actually did me good to feel how angry I was.

The drawing-room and the breakfast-room were both empty. I went on to the library, and there I found Sir Percival, the Count, and Madame Fosco. They were all three standing up, close together, and Sir Percival had a little slip of paper in his hand. As I opened the door I heard the Count say to him, "No—a thou‧sand 千 times over, no."

I walked straight up to him, and looked him full in the face.

"Am I to understand, Sir Percival, that your wife's room is a prison, and that your house‧maid 房屋‧女佣 is the gaoler who keeps it?" I asked.

"Yes, that is what you are to understand," he answered. "Take care my gaoler hasn't got double duty to do—take care your room is not a prison too."

"Take you care how you treat your wife, and how you threaten me," I broke out in the heat of my anger. "There are laws in England to protect women from cruelty 残酷 and out‧rage 暴行. If you hurt a hair of Laura's head, if you dare to interfere 干预 with my freedom, come what may, to those laws I will appeal 上诉."

Instead of answering me he turned round to the Count.

"What did I tell you?" he asked. "What do you say now?"

"What I said before," replied the Count—"No."

Even in the vehemence of my anger I felt his calm, cold, grey 灰色:gray eyes on my face. They turned away from me as soon as he had spoken, and looked significantly 显著 at his wife. Madame Fosco immediately moved close to my side, and in that position addressed Sir Percival before either of us could speak again.

"Favour me with your attention for one moment," she said, in her clear icily 冷冰冰-sup‧press 压制 tones 音. "I have to thank you, Sir Percival, for your hospitality 待客, and to decline 下降 taking advantage of it any longer. I remain in no house in which ladies are treated as your wife and Miss Halcombe have been treated here to-day!"

Sir Percival drew back a step, and stared at her in dead silence. The declaration 宣言 he had just heard—a declaration 宣言 which he well knew, as I well knew, Madame Fosco would not have ventured to make without her husband's permission 3—seemed to petrify him with surprise. The Count stood by, and looked at his wife with the most enthusiastic 热情 admiration 钦佩.

"She is sublime 升华!" he said to himself. He approached her while he spoke, and drew her hand through his arm. "I am at your service, Eleanor," he went on, with a quiet dignity 尊严 that I had never noticed in him before. "And at Miss Halcombe's service, if she will honour me by accepting all the assistance 帮助 I can offer her."

"Damn 该死的 it! what do you mean?" cried Sir Percival, as the Count quietly moved away with his wife to the door.

"At other times I mean what I say, but at this time I mean what my wife says," replied the impenetrable Italian. "We have changed places, Percival, for once, and Madame Fosco's opinion is—mine."

Sir Percival crumpled 弄皱 up the paper in his hand, and pushing past the Count, with another oath 誓言, stood between him and the door.

"Have your own way," he said, with baffled 障 rage 愤怒 in his low, half-whispering 低声说 tones 音. "Have your own way—and see what comes of it." With those words he left the room.

Madame Fosco glanced 一瞥 inquiringly at her husband. "He has gone away very suddenly," she said. "What does it mean?"

"It means that you and I together have brought the worst-tempered man in all England to his senses," answered the Count. "It means, Miss Halcombe, that Lady Glyde is relieved from a gross 毛 indignity, and you from the repetition 重复 of an unpardonable insult 侮辱. Suffer me to express my admiration 钦佩 of your conduct 进行 and your courage at a very trying moment."

" Sincere 真诚的 admiration 钦佩," suggested Madame Fosco.

" Sincere admiration 钦佩," echoed 回声 the Count.

I had no longer the strength of my first angry resistance 抵抗 to out‧rage 暴行 and injury 伤 to support me. My heart-sick anxiety to see Laura, my sense of my own help‧less 无助 ignorance 无知 of what had happened at the boat-house, pressed on me with an intolerable 无法忍受 weight. I tried to keep up appearances by speaking to the Count and his wife in the tone 音 which they had chosen to adopt in speaking to me, but the words failed on my lips—my breath came short and thick—my eyes looked longingly, in silence, at the door. The Count, understanding my anxiety, opened it, went out, and pulled it to after him. At the same time Sir Percival's heavy step descended the stairs. I heard them whispering together outside, while Madame Fosco was assuring me, in her calmest and most conventional 传统的；常规的；普通的 manner, that she rejoiced, for all our sakes, that Sir Percival's conduct 进行 had not obliged 责成 her husband and her‧self 她自己 to leave Blackwater Park. Before she had done speaking the whispering ceased 停止, the door opened, and the Count looked in.

"Miss Halcombe," he said, "I am happy to inform you that Lady Glyde is mistress 情妇 again in her own house. I thought it might be more agree‧able 合适的 to you to hear of this change for the better from me than from Sir Percival, and I have therefore expressly returned to mention it."

"Admirable delicacy 美味!" said Madame Fosco, paying back her husband's tribute 贡 of admiration 钦佩 with the Count's own coin 硬币, in the Count's own manner. He smiled and bowed as if he had received a formal compliment 赞扬 from a polite stranger, and drew back to let me pass out first.

Sir Percival was standing in the hall. As I hurried to the stairs I heard him call impatiently 不耐烦 to the Count to come out of the library.

"What are you waiting there for?" he said. "I want to speak to you."

"And I want to think a little by myself 我," replied the other. "Wait till later, Percival, wait till later."

Neither he nor his friend said any more. I gained the top of the stairs and ran along the passage. In my haste 匆忙 and my agitation 搅动 I left the door of the ante-chamber 室 open, but I closed the door of the bed‧room 卧室 the moment I was inside it.

Laura was sitting alone at the far end of the room, her arms resting wearily 厌倦 on a table, and her face hidden hide in her hands. She started up with a cry of delight when she saw me.

"How did you get here?" she asked. "Who gave you leave? Not Sir Percival?"

In my over‧power 压倒 anxiety to hear what she had to tell me, I could not answer her—I could only put questions on my side. Laura's eagerness to know what had passed downstairs 楼下 proved, however, too strong to be resisted 抵抗. She persistently 一贯 repeated her inquiries.

"The Count, of course," I answered impatiently 不耐烦. "Whose influence in the house——"

She stopped me with a gesture 手势 of disgust 反感.

"Don't speak of him," she cried. "The Count is the vilest creature breathing! The Count is a miserable Spy——!"

Before we could either of us say another word we were alarmed by a soft knocking 敲 at the door of the bedroom.

I had not yet sat down, and I went first to see who it was. When I opened the door Madame Fosco con‧front 面对 me with my handkerchief 手帕 in her hand.

"You dropped this downstairs 楼下, Miss Halcombe," she said, "and I thought I could bring it to you, as I was passing by to my own room."

Her face, naturally 自然地 pale, had turned to such a ghastly 阴森 whiteness that I started at the sight of it. Her hands, so sure and steady at all other times, trembled violently, and her eyes looked wolfishly past me through the open door, and fixed on Laura.

She had been listening before she knocked! I saw it in her white face, I saw it in her trembling hands, I saw it in her look at Laura.

After waiting an instant she turned from me in silence, and slowly walked away.

I closed the door again. "Oh, Laura! Laura! We shall both rue 后悔 the day when you called the Count a Spy!"

"You would have called him so your‧self 你自己, Marian, if you had known what I know. Anne Catherick was right. There was a third person watching us in the plantation 种植园 yesterday, and that third person—-"

"Are you sure it was the Count?"

"I am absolutely certain. He was Sir Percival's spy 间谍—he was Sir Percival's informer—he set Sir Percival watching and waiting, all the morning through, for Anne Catherick and for me."

"Is Anne found? Did you see her at the lake?"

"No. She has saved her‧self 她自己 by keeping away from the place. When I got to the boat-house no one was there."

"Yes? Yes?"

"I went in and sat waiting for a few minutes. But my restlessness made me get up again, to walk about a little. As I passed out I saw some marks on the sand, close under the front of the boat-house. I stooped 哈腰 down to examine them, and discovered a word written in large letters on the sand. The word was—LOOK."

"And you scraped 擦 away the sand, and dug 挖:dig a hollow 空的 place in it?"

"How do you know that, Marian?"

"I saw the hollow place myself 我 when I followed you to the boat-house. Go on—go on!"

"Yes, I scraped away the sand on the surface, and in a little while I came to a strip of paper hidden hide beneath, which had writing on it. The writing was signed with Anne Catherick's initials 初始."

"Where is it?"

"Sir Percival has taken it from me."

"Can you remember what the writing was? Do you think you can repeat it to me?"

"In substance 物质 I can, Marian. It was very short. You would have remembered it, word for word."

"Try to tell me what the substance was before we go any further."

She complied 执行. I write the lines down here exactly as she repeated them to me. They ran thus—

"I was seen with you, yesterday, by a tall, stout 肥硕 old man, and had to run to save myself 我. He was not quick enough on his feet to follow me, and he lost me among the trees. I dare not risk coming back here to-day at the same time. I write this, and hide it in the sand, at six in the morning, to tell you so. When we speak next of your wicked husband's Secret we must speak safely, or not at all. Try to have patience. I promise you shall see me again and that soon.—A. C."

The reference to the "tall, stout 肥硕 old man" (the terms of which Laura was certain that she had repeated to me correctly) left no doubt as to who the intruder 侵入者 had been. I called to mind that I had told Sir Percival, in the Count's presence the day before, that Laura had gone to the boat-house to look for her brooch. In all probability 可能性 he had followed her there, in his officious way, to relieve 解除 her mind about the matter of the signature, immediately after he had mentioned the change in Sir Percival's plans to me in the drawing-room. In this case he could only have got to the neighbourhood of the boat-house at the very moment when Anne Catherick discovered him. The suspiciously 可疑的 hurried manner in which she parted from Laura had no doubt prompted 敏捷的 his use‧less 无用 attempt to follow her. Of the conversation which had previously 先前 taken place between them he could have heard nothing. The distance between the house and the lake, and the time at which he left me in the drawing-room, as compared with the time at which Laura and Anne Catherick had been speaking together, proved that fact to us at any rate, beyond a doubt.

Having arrived at something like a conclusion 结论 so far, my next great interest was to know what discoveries Sir Percival had made after Count Fosco had given him his information.

"How came you to lose possession of the letter?" I asked. "What did you do with it when you found it in the sand?"

"After reading it once through," she replied, "I took it into the boat-house with me to sit down and look over it a second time. While I was reading a shadow fell across the paper. I looked up, and saw Sir Percival standing in the door‧way 门口 watching me."

"Did you try to hide the letter?"

"I tried, but he stopped me. 'You needn't trouble to hide that,' he said. 'I happen to have read it.' I could only look at him help‧less 无助—I could say nothing. 'You understand?' he went on; 'I have read it. I dug 挖:dig it up out of the sand two hours since, and buried it again, and wrote the word above it again, and left it ready to your hands. You can't lie your‧self 你自己 out of the scrape 擦 now. You saw Anne Catherick in secret yesterday, and you have got her letter in your hand at this moment. I have not caught her yet, but I have caught you. Give me the letter.' He stepped close up to me—I was alone with him, Marian—what could I do?—I gave him the letter."

"What did he say when you gave it to him?"

"At first he said nothing. He took me by the arm, and led me out of the boat-house, and looked about him on all sides, as if he was afraid of our being seen or heard. Then he clasped 钩 his hand fast round my arm, and whispered to me, 'What did Anne Catherick say to you yesterday? I insist 咬定 on hearing every word, from first to last.'"

"Did you tell him?"

"I was alone with him, Marian—his cruel hand was bruising 挫伤 my arm—what could I do?"

"Is the mark on your arm still? Let me see it."

"Why do you want to see it?"

"I want to see it, Laura, because our endurance 耐力 must end, and our resistance must begin to-day. That mark is a weapon to strike him with. Let me see it now—I may have to swear 发誓 to it at some future time."

"Oh, Marian, don't look so—don't talk so! It doesn't hurt me now!"

"Let me see it!"

She showed me the marks. I was past grieving 悼 over them, past crying over them, past shuddering 不寒而栗 over them. They say we are either better than men, or worse. If the temptation 诱惑 that has fallen in some women's way, and made them worse, had fallen in mine at that moment—Thank God! my face betrayed 背叛 nothing that his wife could read. The gentle, innocent 无辜, affectionate 亲热 creature thought I was frightened for her and sorry for her, and thought no more.

"Don't think too seriously of it, Marian," she said simply, as she pulled her sleeve 袖 down again. "It doesn't hurt me now."

"I will try to think quietly of it, my love, for your sake.—Well! well! And you told him all that Anne Catherick had said to you—all that you told me?"

"Yes, all. He insisted 咬定 on it—I was alone with him—I could conceal 隐藏 nothing."

"Did he say anything when you had done?"

"He looked at me, and laughed to himself in a mocking 嘲笑, bitter way. 'I mean to have the rest out of you,' he said, 'do you hear?—the rest.' I declared to him solemnly that I had told him everything I knew. 'Not you,' he answered, 'you know more than you choose to tell. Won't you tell it? You shall! I'll wring 拧 it out of you at home if I can't wring 拧 it out of you here.' He led me away by a strange path through the plantation 种植园—a path where there was no hope of our meeting you—and he spoke no more till we came within sight of the house. Then he stopped again, and said, 'Will you take a second chance, if I give it to you? Will you think better of it, and tell me the rest?' I could only repeat the same words I had spoken before. He cursed 诅咒 my obstinacy, and went on, and took me with him to the house. 'You can't deceive 欺诈 me,' he said, 'you know more than you choose to tell. I'll have your secret out of you, and I'll have it out of that sister of yours as well. There shall be no more plotting 情节 and whispering between you. Neither you nor she shall see each other again till you have confessed the truth. I'll have you watched morning, noon 正午, and night, till you confess 3 the truth.' He was deaf 聋的 to everything I could say. He took me straight upstairs 楼上 into my own room. Fanny was sitting there, doing some work for me, and he instantly ordered her out. 'I'll take good care you're not mixed up in the conspiracy 阴谋,' he said. 'You shall leave this house to-day. If your mistress 情妇 wants a maid 女佣, she shall have one of my choosing.' He pushed me into the room, and locked the door on me. He set that sense‧less 感觉‧少 woman to watch me outside, Marian! He looked and spoke like a madman. You may hardly understand it—he did indeed."

"I do understand it, Laura. He is mad—mad with the terrors 恐怖 of a guilty 有罪的；内疚的 conscience. Every word you have said makes me positively 积极 certain that when Anne Catherick left you yesterday you were on the eve 前夕 of discovering a secret which might have been your vile husband's ruin 破坏, and he thinks you have discovered it. Nothing you can say or do will quiet that guilty distrust 怀疑, and convince 说服 his false nature of your truth. I don't say this, my love, to alarm 4 you. I say it to open your eyes to your position, and to convince 说服 you of the urgent 急迫的 necessity of letting me act, as I best can, for your protection while the chance is our own. Count Fosco's interference has secured 安全 me access 访问 to you to-day, but he may with‧draw 撤回 that interference to-morrow. Sir Percival has already dismissed 解雇 Fanny because she is a quick-witted 风趣 girl, and devotedly attached 连接 to you, and has chosen a woman to take her place who cares nothing for your interests, and whose dull 钝的；没兴趣 intelligence 情报 lowers her to the level of the watch-dog in the yard. It is impossible to say what violent measures he may take next, unless we make the most of our opportunities while we have them."

"What can we do, Marian? Oh, if we could only leave this house, never to see it again!"

"Listen to me, my love, and try to think that you are not quite help‧less 无助 so long as I am here with you."

"I will think so—I do think so. Don't altogether forget poor Fanny in thinking of me. She wants help and comfort too."

"I will not forget her. I saw her before I came up here, and I have arranged to communicate 通信 with her to-night. Letters are not safe in the post-bag at Blackwater Park, and I shall have two to write to-day, in your interests, which must pass through no hands but Fanny's."

"What letters?"

"I mean to write first, Laura, to Mr. Gilmore's partner, who has offered to help us in any fresh emergency 急. Little as I know of the law, I am certain that it can protect a woman from such treatment 治疗 as that ruffian has inflicted 造成 on you to-day. I will go into no details about Anne Catherick, because I have no certain information to give. But the lawyer shall know of those bruises 挫伤 on your arm, and of the violence offered to you in this room—he shall, before I rest to-night!"

"But think of the exposure 经受, Marian!"

"I am calculating 计算 on the exposure. Sir Percival has more to dread 恐惧 from it than you have. The prospect 展望 of an exposure may bring him to terms when nothing else will."

I rose as I spoke, but Laura entreated me not to leave her. "You will drive him to desperation 绝望," she said, "and increase our dangers ten‧fold 10‧折叠."

I felt the truth—the disheartening truth—of those words. But I could not bring myself 我 plainly to acknowledge 确认 it to her. In our dreadful 可怕 position there was no help and no hope for us but in risking the worst. I said so in guarded terms. She sighed 叹 bitterly, but did not contest 比赛 the matter. She only asked about the second letter that I had proposed writing. To whom was it to be addressed?

"To Mr. Fairlie," I said. "Your uncle is your nearest male relative, and the head of the family. He must and shall interfere 干预."

Laura shook her head sorrow‧fully 悲痛‧完全地.

"Yes, yes," I went on, "your uncle is a weak, selfish, worldly man, I know, but he is not Sir Percival Glyde, and he has no such friend about him as Count Fosco. I expect nothing from his kindness 善良 or his tenderness 压痛 of feeling towards you or towards me, but he will do anything to pamper his own indolence, and to secure 安全 his own quiet. Let me only persuade 说服 him that his interference at this moment will save him inevitable 必然 trouble and wretchedness and responsibility 责任 here‧after 此后, and he will bestir himself for his own sake. I know how to deal with him, Laura—I have had some practice."

"If you could only prevail 战胜 on him to let me go back to Limmeridge for a little while and stay there quietly with you, Marian, I could be almost as happy again as I was before I was married!"

Those words set me thinking in a new direction. Would it be possible to place Sir Percival between the two alter‧native 替代 of either exposing 暴露 himself to the scandal 丑闻 of legal 法律 interference on his wife's behalf 代表, or of allowing her to be quietly separated from him for a time under pre‧text 预‧文字材料 of a visit to her uncle's house? And could he, in that case, be reckoned 估计 on as likely to accept the last resource 资源? It was doubtful 疑—more than doubtful 疑. And yet, hope‧less 绝望 as the experiment seemed, surely it was worth trying. I resolved 解决 to try it in sheer despair of knowing what better to do.

"Your uncle shall know the wish you have just expressed," I said, "and I will ask the lawyer's advice on the subject as well. Good may come of it—and will come of it, I hope."

Saying that I rose again, and again Laura tried to make me resume 恢复 my seat.

"Don't leave me," she said uneasily 不安. "My desk is on that table. You can write here."

It tried me to the quick to refuse her, even in her own interests. But we had been too long shut up alone together already. Our chance of seeing each other again might entirely depend on our not exciting any fresh suspicions. It was full time to show myself 我, quietly and unconcernedly, among the wretches 不幸的人 who were at that very moment, perhaps, thinking of us and talking of us downstairs 楼下. I explained the miserable necessity to Laura, and prevailed 战胜 on her to recognise it as I did.

"I will come back again, love, in an hour or less," I said. "The worst is over for to-day. Keep your‧self 你自己 quiet and fear nothing."

"Is the key in the door, Marian? Can I lock it on the inside?"

"Yes, here is the key. Lock the door, and open it to nobody until I come upstairs 楼上 again."

I kissed her and left her. It was a relief to me as I walked away to hear the key turned in the lock, and to know that the door was at her own command.