前言

秘方简介

常用词列表

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

II

It was the last day of July. The long hot summer was drawing to a close; and we, the weary 厌倦 pilgrims 朝圣 of the London pavement 路面, were beginning to think of the cloud-shadows on the corn 玉米-fields, and the autumn 秋 breezes 微风 on the sea-shore.

For my own poor part, the fading 褪去 summer left me out of health, out of spirits, and, if the truth must be told, out of money as well. During the past year I had not managed my professional 专业的 resources 资源 as carefully 小心 as usual; and my extravagance now limited me to the prospect 展望 of spending 用钱；消磨时间 the autumn economically 经济 between my mother's cottage 小屋 at Hampstead and my own chambers 室 in town.

The evening, I remember, was still and cloudy 多云的; the London air was at its heaviest; the distant 遥远的 hum 哼 of the street-traffic 交通 was at its faintest 微弱的; the small pulse 脉冲 of the life within me, and the great heart of the city around me, seemed to be sinking 淹没 in unison 齐奏, languidly and more languidly, with the sinking sun. I roused 唤醒 myself 我 from the book which I was dreaming over rather than reading, and left my chambers 室 to meet the cool night air in the suburbs 市郊. It was one of the two evenings in every week which I was accustomed 使习惯 to spend with my mother and my sister 姐妹. So I turned my steps north‧ward 北方 in the direction of Hampstead.

Events which I have yet to relate make it necessary to mention in this place that my father had been dead some years at the period of which I am now writing; and that my sister Sarah and I were the sole 唯一 survivors 幸存者 of a family of five children. My father was a drawing-master before me. His exertions had made him highly successful 成功 in his profession; and his affectionate 亲热 anxiety 焦虑 to provide for the future of those who were dependent on his labours had impelled him, from the time of his marriage, to devote 奉献 to the insuring 保证 of his life a much larger portion 一部分；一份 of his income 收入 than most men consider it necessary to set aside for that purpose. Thanks to his admirable 令人钦佩 prudence and self 自己-denial 否认 my mother and sister were left, after his death, as independent 独立 of the world as they had been during his life‧time 一生. I succeeded to his connection, and had every reason to feel grateful 感激的 for the prospect 展望 that awaited 等待 me at my starting in life.

The quiet twilight 暮 was still trembling 发抖 on the top‧most 顶‧最 ridges 岭 of the heath 健康; and the view of London below me had sunk 淹没:sink into a black gulf 海湾 in the shadow of the cloudy 多云的 night, when I stood before the gate 门 of my mother's cottage 小屋. I had hardly rung the bell 钟 before the house door was opened violently 猛烈; my worthy 值得 Italian friend, Professor 教授 Pesca, appeared in the servant 仆人's place; and darted 镖 out joyously to receive me, with a shrill foreign parody 滑稽模仿 on an English cheer 欢呼.

On his own account, and, I must be allowed to add, on mine also, the Professor 教授 merits 值得 the honour of a formal introduction 介绍. Accident 意外事件 has made him the starting-point of the strange family story which it is the purpose of these pages to unfold 展开.

I had first become acquainted 认识 with my Italian friend by meeting him at certain great houses where he taught teach his own language and I taught drawing. All I then knew of the history of his life was, that he had once held a situation in the University of Padua; that he had left Italy for political reasons (the nature of which he uniformly 均匀 declined 下降 to mention to any one); and that he had been for many years respect‧able 可敬 established 建立 in London as a teacher of languages.

Without being actually a dwarf 矮人—for he was perfectly well proportioned 比例 from head to foot—Pesca was, I think, the smallest human being I ever saw out of a show-room. Remarkable 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 any‧where 任何地方, by his personal 个人 appearance, he was still further distinguished among the rank 排列 and file 文件 of man‧kind 人类 by the harm‧less 无害 eccentricity of his character. The ruling idea of his life appeared to be, that he was bound 必定；跳 to show his gratitude 感谢 to the country which had afforded 买得起 him an asylum 避难所 and a means of subsistence 生活 by doing his utmost 极 to turn himself into an Englishman. Not content with paying the nation in general the compliment 赞扬 of invariably 不变地 carrying an umbrella 雨伞, and invariably 不变地 wearing gaiters and a white hat, the Professor 教授 further aspired 立志 to become an Englishman in his habits 习惯 and amusements 娱乐, as well as in his personal 个人 appearance. Finding us distinguished, as a nation, by our love of athletic 竞技 exercises, the little man, in the innocence 无辜 of his heart, devoted 奉献 himself impromptu to all our English sports and pastimes 消遣 when‧ever 随时 he had the opportunity of joining them; firmly persuaded 说服 that he could adopt our national 国民 amusements 娱乐 of the field by an effort of will precisely 精确地 as he had adopted our national 国民 gaiters and our national 国民 white hat.

I had seen him risk his limbs 肢 blindly at a fox 狐狸-hunt and in a cricket 蟋蟀-field; and soon after‧ward 之后 I saw him risk his life, just as blindly, in the sea at Brighton.

We had met there accidentally 偶然, and were bathing 沐浴 together. If we had been engaged 从事 in any exercise peculiar 奇怪的 to my own nation I should, of course, have looked after Pesca carefully 小心; but as foreigners 外国人 are generally quite as well able to take care of themselves in the water as Englishmen, it never occurred 发生 to me that the art of swimming 游泳 might merely add one more to the list of manly exercises which the Professor 教授 believed that he could learn impromptu. Soon after we had both struck strike out from shore, I stopped, finding my friend did not gain on me, and turned round to look for him. To my horror 恐怖 and amazement 惊愕, I saw nothing between me and the beach 海滩 but two little white arms which struggled for an instant 瞬间 above the surface of the water, and then disappeared 不见 from view. When I dived 潜水 for him, the poor little man was lying quietly coiled 盘 up at the bottom, in a hollow 空的 of shingle 卵石, looking by many degrees smaller than I had ever seen him look before. During the few minutes that elapsed 过去 while I was taking him in, the air revived 复活 him, and he ascended 登 the steps of the machine with my assistance 帮助. With the partial 局部 recovery 失而复得 of his animation 动画 came the return of his wonderful 精彩 delusion 妄想 on the subject of swimming. As soon as his chattering 喋喋不休 teeth would let him speak, he smiled vacantly 空的, and said he thought it must have been the Cramp.

When he had thoroughly recovered 恢复 himself, and had joined me on the beach 海滩, his warm Southern 南部的 nature broke break through all artificial 人造的 English restraints 克制 in a moment. He overwhelmed 压倒 me with the wildest expressions of affect‧ion 感情—exclaimed 喊叫 passionately 热情, in his exaggerated 夸大 Italian way, that he would hold his life hence‧forth 今后 at my disposal 处置—and declared that he should never be happy again until he had found an opportunity of proving his gratitude 感谢 by rendering 给予 me some service which I might remember, on my side, to the end of my days.

I did my best to stop the torrent 激流 of his tears and protestations by persisting 坚持 in treating the whole adventure 冒险活动 as a good subject for a joke 笑话; and succeeded at last, as I imagined, in lessening 变少；减轻 Pesca's overwhelming 压倒 sense of obligation 义务；责任；职责 to me. Little did I think then—little did I think after‧ward 之后 when our pleasant holiday 假日 had drawn draw to an end—that the opportunity of serving me for which my grateful 感激的 companion 同伴 so ardently 热心 longed was soon to come; that he was eagerly 渴望的 to seize 抓住 it on the instant 瞬间; and that by so doing he was to turn the whole current of my existence into a new channel 渠道, and to alter 改变 me to myself 我 almost past recognition 认识.

Yet so it was. If I had not dived for Professor 教授 Pesca when he lay lie under water on his shingle 卵石 bed, I should in all human probability 可能性 never have been connected 连接 with the story which these pages will relate—I should never, perhaps, have heard even the name of the woman who has lived in all my thoughts, who has possessed 拥有 her‧self 她自己 of all my energies 能源, who has become the one guiding influence that now directs the purpose of my life.

III

Pesca's face and manner, on the evening when we con‧front 面对 each other at my mother's gate 门, were more than sufficient 足够 to inform me that something extra‧ordinary 非凡的 had happened. It was quite use‧less 无用, however, to ask him for an immediate explanation 说明. I could only conjecture 推测, while he was dragging 拖拽 me in by both hands, that (knowing my habits) he had come to the cottage 小屋 to make sure of meeting me that night, and that he had some news to tell of an unusually 异常 agree‧able 合适的 kind.

We both bounced 弹跳 into the parlour in a highly abrupt 突兀 and undignified manner. My mother sat sit by the open window laughing and fanning 扇子 her‧self 她自己. Pesca was one of her especial favourites and his wildest eccentricities were always pardon‧able 宽恕；说啥？‧能够的 in her eyes. Poor dear soul! from the first moment when she found out that the little Professor 教授 was deeply and gratefully 感激的 attached 连接 to her son, she opened her heart to him unreservedly, and took all his puzzling 使迷惑 foreign peculiarities for granted 发放, without so much as attempting to understand any one of them.

My sister Sarah, with all the advantages of youth, was, strangely enough, less pliable. She did full justice to Pesca's excellent qualities of heart; but she could not accept him implicitly 隐式, as my mother accepted him, for my sake 缘故. Her insular notions 概念 of propriety rose rise in perpetual 永动的 revolt 反叛 against Pesca's constitutional 构成 con‧tempt 鄙视 for appearances; and she was always more or less undisguisedly astonished 使惊讶 at her mother's familiarity 熟悉 with the eccentric 偏心 little foreigner. I have observed, not only in my sister's case, but in the instances 例 of others, that we of the young generation 代 are nothing like so hearty 爽朗 and so impulsive 浮躁 as some of our elders 年长的. I constantly 总是；经常地，不断地 see old people flushed 红晕 and excited by the prospect 展望 of some anticipated 预期 pleasure which altogether 全部地 fails to ruffle 生气 the tranquillity of their serene 安详 grand‧children 宏大的‧小孩. Are we, I wonder, quite such genuine 真正 boys and girls now as our seniors 前辈 were in their time? Has the great advance in education taken rather too long a stride 迈; and are we in these modern days, just the least trifle 琐事 in the world too well brought up?

Without attempting to answer those questions decisively 决定性的, I may at least record that I never saw my mother and my sister together in Pesca's society, without finding my mother much the younger woman of the two. On this occasion, for example, while the old lady was laughing heartily 爽朗 over the boyish manner in which we tumbled 下跌 into the parlour, Sarah was perturbedly picking up the broken break pieces of a teacup, which the Professor 教授 had knocked 敲 off the table in his precipitate 沉淀 advance to meet me at the door.

"I don't know what would have happened, Walter," said my mother, "if you had delayed 延迟 much longer. Pesca has been half mad 疯狂的 with impatience 不耐烦, and I have been half mad with curiosity 好奇心. The Professor 教授 has brought some wonderful 精彩 news with him, in which he says you are concerned; and he has cruelly 残酷的 refused to give us the smallest hint 暗示 of it till 到 his friend Walter appeared."

"Very provoking 惹: it spoils 损坏；变质 the Set," murmured 私语 Sarah to her‧self 她自己, mourn‧fully 悼‧完全地 absorbed 吸收 over the ruins 破坏 of the broken cup.

While these words were being spoken speak, Pesca, happily and fussily unconscious 无意识 of the irreparable wrong which the crockery had suffered at his hands, was dragging a large arm-chair to the opposite end of the room, so as to command us all three, in the character of a public speaker addressing an audience. Having turned the chair with its back towards us, he jumped into it on his knees, and excitedly addressed his small congregation 集合 of three from an impromptu pulpit 讲坛.

"Now, my good dears," began Pesca (who always said "good dears" when he meant "worthy 值得 friends"), "listen to me. The time has come—I recite 背诵 my good news—I speak at last."

"Hear, hear!" said my mother, humouring the joke 笑话.

"The next thing he will break, mamma," whispered 低声说 Sarah, "will be the back of the best arm-chair."

"I go back into my life, and I address myself 我 to the noblest 高尚的 of created beings 蜜蜂," continued Pesca, vehemently apostrophising my unworthy self 自己 over the top rail 围栏；钢轨 of the chair. "Who found me dead at the bottom of the sea (through Cramp); and who pulled me up to the top; and what did I say when I got into my own life and my own clothes again?"

"Much more than was at all necessary," I answered as doggedly as possible; for the least encouragement 鼓励 in connection with this subject invariably 不变地 let loose the Professor 教授's emotions 情感 in a flood 洪水 of tears.

"I said," persisted 坚持 Pesca, "that my life belonged to my dear friend, Walter, for the rest of my days—and so it does. I said that I should never be happy again till 到 I had found the opportunity of doing a good Something for Walter—and I have never been contented with myself 我 till this most blessed 祝福 day. Now," cried the enthusiastic 热情 little man at the top of his voice, "the over‧flow 溢出 happiness 幸福 bursts 爆裂 out of me at every pore 孔 of my skin 皮, like a perspiration; for on my faith, and soul, and honour, the something is done at last, and the only word to say now is—Right-all-right!"

It may be necessary to explain here that Pesca prided 自尊 himself on being a perfect Englishman in his language, as well as in his dress, manners, and amusements 娱乐. Having picked up a few of our most familiar colloquial expressions, he scattered 散落 them about over his conversation when‧ever 随时 they happened to occur 发生 to him, turning them, in his high relish 滋味 for their sound and his general ignorance 无知 of their sense, into compound 组合 words and repetitions 重复 of his own, and always running them into each other, as if they consisted 组成 of one long syllable 音节.

"Among the fine London Houses where I teach the language of my native 本土的 country," said the Professor 教授, rushing 仓促 into his long-deferred 延缓 explanation 说明 without another word of pre‧face 前言, "there is one, mighty 威武 fine, in the big place called Portland. You all know where that is? Yes, yes—course-of-course. The fine house, my good dears, has got inside it a fine family. A Mamma, fair and fat; three young Misses, fair and fat; two young Misters, fair and fat; and a Papa, the fairest and the fattest of all, who is a mighty 威武 merchant 商人, up to his eyes in gold 金—a fine man once, but seeing that he has got a naked 裸 head and two chins 下巴, fine no longer at the present time. Now mind! I teach the sublime 升华 Dante to the young Misses, and ah!—my-soul-bless 祝福-my-soul!—it is not in human language to say how the sublime 升华 Dante puzzles 使迷惑 the pretty heads of all three! No matter—all in good time—and the more lessons 教训 the better for me. Now mind! Imagine to yourselves that I am teaching the young Misses to-day, as usual. We are all four of us down together in the Hell 地狱 of Dante. At the Seventh Circle—but no matter for that: all the Circles are alike 同样的 to the three young Misses, fair and fat,—at the Seventh Circle, nevertheless 虽然, my pupils 学生 are sticking fast; and I, to set them going again, recite 背诵, explain, and blow myself 我 up red-hot with use‧less 无用 enthusiasm 热情, when—a creak 吱吱 of boots 靴；鞋 in the passage outside, and in comes the golden 金色的 Papa, the mighty 威武 merchant 商人 with the naked 裸 head and the two chins 下巴.—Ha! my good dears, I am closer than you think for to the business, now. Have you been patient so far? or have you said to yourselves, 'Deuce-what-the-deuce! Pesca is long-winded to-night?'"

We declared that we were deeply interested. The Professor 教授 went on:

"In his hand, the golden 金色的 Papa has a letter; and after he has made his excuse 原谅 for disturbing 打扰 us in our Infernal Region 地区 with the common mortal 凡人 Business of the house, he addresses himself to the three young Misses, and begins, as you English begin everything in this blessed world that you have to say, with a great O. 'O, my dears,' says the mighty 威武 merchant 商人, 'I have got here a letter from my friend, Mr.——'(the name has slipped out of my mind; but no matter; we shall come back to that; yes, yes—right-all-right). So the Papa says, 'I have got a letter from my friend, the Mister; and he wants a recommend from me, of a drawing-master, to go down to his house in the country.' My-soul-bless 祝福-my-soul! when I heard the golden Papa say those words, if I had been big enough to reach up to him, I should have put my arms round his neck, and pressed him to my bosom in a long and grateful 感激的 hug 拥抱! As it was, I only bounced 弹跳 upon my chair. My seat was on thorns 刺, and my soul was on fire to speak but I held my tongue 舌头, and let Papa go on. 'Perhaps you know,' says this good man of money, twiddling his friend's letter this way and that, in his golden fingers and thumbs 拇指, 'perhaps you know, my dears, of a drawing-master that I can recommend?' The three young Misses all look at each other, and then say (with the indispensable 不可缺少 great O to begin) "O, dear no, Papa! But here is Mr. Pesca' At the mention of myself 我 I can hold no longer—the thought of you, my good dears, mounts 增加 like blood to my head—I start from my seat, as if a spike 穗 had grown grow up from the ground grind through the bottom of my chair—I address myself 我 to the mighty 威武 merchant 3, and I say (English phrase 短语) 'Dear sir 先生, I have the man! The first and fore‧most 最重要的是 drawing-master of the world! Recommend him by the post to-night, and send him off, bag 袋 and baggage 行李 (English phrase 短语 again—ha!), send him off, bag and baggage, by the train to-morrow!' 'Stop, stop,' says Papa; 'is he a foreigner, or an Englishman?' 'English to the bone 骨头 of his back,' I answer. 'Respectable?' says Papa. ' Sir 先生,' I say (for this last question of his out‧rage 暴行 me, and I have done being familiar with him—) ' Sir! the immortal 不朽 fire of genius 天才 burns in this Englishman's bosom, and, what is more, his father had it before him!' 'Never mind,' says the golden barbarian of a Papa, 'never mind about his genius 天才, Mr. Pesca. We don't want genius 天才 in this country, unless it is accompanied 陪 by respect‧ability 尊重‧能力—and then we are very glad 高兴的 to have it, very glad indeed. Can your friend produce testimonials—letters that speak to his character?' I wave my hand negligently. 'Letters?' I say. 'Ha! my-soul-bless 祝福-my-soul! I should think so, indeed! Volumes of letters and portfolios 投资组合 of testimonials, if you like!' 'One or two will do,' says this man of phlegm and money. 'Let him send them to me, with his name and address. And—stop, stop, Mr. Pesca—before you go to your friend, you had better take a note.' 'Bank-note!' I say, indignantly. 'No bank-note, if you please, till my brave 勇敢的 Englishman has earned it first.' 'Bank-note!' says Papa, in a great surprise, 'who talked of bank-note? I mean a note of the terms—a memorandum 备忘录 of what he is expected to do. Go on with your lesson 教训, Mr. Pesca, and I will give you the necessary extract 提取 from my friend's letter.' Down sits the man of merchandise 商品 and money to his pen 笔, ink 墨水, and paper; and down I go once again into the Hell 地狱 of Dante, with my three young Misses after me. In ten 十 minutes' time the note is written, and the boots of Papa are creaking 吱吱 themselves away in the passage outside. From that moment, on my faith, and soul, and honour, I know nothing more! The glorious 辉煌 thought that I have caught catch my opportunity at last, and that my grateful 3 service for my dearest friend in the world is as good as done already, flies up into my head and makes me drunk drink. How I pull my young Misses and myself 我 out of our Infernal Region 地区 again, how my other business is done after‧ward 之后, how my little bit 一点 of dinner slides itself 本身 down my throat, I know no more than a man in the moon. Enough for me, that here I am, with the mighty 威武 merchant's note in my hand, as large as life, as hot as fire, and as happy as a king! Ha! ha! ha! right-right-right-all-right!" Here the Professor 教授 waved the memorandum 备忘录 of terms over his head, and ended his long and voluble narrative 叙述 with his shrill Italian parody 滑稽模仿 on an English cheer 欢呼."

My mother rose the moment he had done, with flushed 红晕 cheeks 脸颊 and brightened 变亮 eyes. She caught the little man warmly by both hands.

"My dear, good Pesca," she said, "I never doubted your true affect‧ion 感情 for Walter—but I am more than ever persuaded of it now!"

"I am sure we are very much obliged 责成 to Professor 教授 Pesca, for Walter's sake 缘故," added Sarah. She half rose, while she spoke speak, as if to approach the arm-chair, in her turn; but, observing that Pesca was rapturously kissing 接吻 my mother's hands, looked serious, and resumed 恢复 her seat. "If the familiar little man treats my mother in that way, how will he treat me?" Faces sometimes tell truth; and that was unquestionably the thought in Sarah's mind, as she sat down again.

Although I myself 我 was gratefully sensible 明智 of the kindness 善良 of Pesca's motives 动机, my spirits were hardly so much elevated 提升 as they ought to have been by the prospect 展望 of future employment 雇用 now placed before me. When the Professor 教授 had quite done with my mother's hand, and when I had warmly thanked him for his interference 干涉 on my behalf 代表, I asked to be allowed to look at the note of terms which his respect‧able 可敬 patron 顾客 had drawn up for my inspection 检查.

Pesca handed me the paper, with a triumphant 凯 flourish 繁荣 of the hand.

"Read!" said the little man majestically 雄伟. "I promise you my friend, the writing of the golden Papa speaks with a tongue 舌头 of trumpets 喇叭 for itself 本身."

The note of terms was plain, straight‧forward 直截了当, and comprehensive 全面的；综合的；详尽的, at any rate. It informed me,

First, That Frederick Fairlie, Esquire, of Limmeridge House. Cumberland, wanted to engage 从事 the services of a thoroughly competent 胜任 drawing-master, for a period of four months certain.

Secondly, That the duties which the master was expected to perform would be of a two‧fold 2‧折叠 kind. He was to super‧intend 超‧意欲 the instruction 指令 of two young ladies in the art of painting in water-colours; and he was to devote 奉献 his leisure 闲暇 time, after‧ward 之后, to the business of repairing 修理 and mounting 增加 a valuable 贵重的 collection of drawings, which had been suffered to fall into a condition of total neglect 疏忽.

Thirdly, That the terms offered to the person who should under‧take 承担 and properly perform these duties were four guineas 几内亚 a week; that he was to reside 居住 at Limmeridge House; and that he was to be treated there on the footing of a gentle‧man 先生.

Fourthly, and lastly, That no person need think of applying for this situation unless he could furnish the most unexceptionable references to character and abilities. The references were to be sent send to Mr. Fairlie's friend in London, who was empowered 授权 to conclude 得出结论 all necessary arrangements 安排. These instructions 指令 were followed by the name and address of Pesca's employer in Portland Place—and there the note, or memorandum 备忘录, ended.

The prospect 展望 which this offer of an engagement 订婚 held out was certainly an attractive 有魅力的 one. The employment 雇用 was likely to be both easy and agree‧able 合适的; it was proposed to me at the autumn 秋 time of the year when I was least occupied 占据; and the terms, judging by my personal 个人 experience in my profession, were surprisingly 出奇 liberal 自由主义的. I knew this; I knew that I ought to consider myself 我 very fortunate 侥幸的 if I succeeded in securing 安全 the offered employment 雇用—and yet, no sooner had I read the memorandum 备忘录 than I felt an inexplicable unwillingness 不愿意 within me to stir 搅动 in the matter. I had never in the whole of my previous 以前 experience found my duty and my inclination 倾角 so painfully 痛苦 and so unaccountably at variance 方差 as I found them now.

"Oh, Walter, your father never had such a chance as this!" said my mother, when she had read the note of terms and had handed it back to me.

"Such distinguished people to know," remarked Sarah, straightening 变直 her‧self 她自己 in the chair; "and on such gratifying 取悦 terms of equality 平等 too!"

"Yes, yes; the terms, in every sense, are tempting 引诱 enough," I replied impatiently 不耐烦. "But before I send in my testimonials, I should like a little time to consider——"

"Consider!" exclaimed 喊叫 my mother. "Why, Walter, what is the matter with you?"

"Consider!" echoed 回声 my sister. "What a very extra‧ordinary 非凡的 thing to say, under the circumstances 环境!"

"Consider!" chimed 钟 in the Professor 教授. "What is there to consider about? Answer me this! Have you not been complaining 抱怨 of your health, and have you not been longing for what you call a smack 拍击 of the country breeze 微风? Well! there in your hand is the paper that offers you perpetual 永动的 choking 呛 mouthfuls of country breeze 微风 for four months' time. Is it not so? Ha! Again—you want money. Well! Is four golden guineas 几内亚 a week nothing? My-soul-bless 3-my-soul! only give it to me—and my boots shall creak 吱吱 like the golden Papa's, with a sense of the over‧power 压倒 richness 丰富 of the man who walks in them! Four guineas 几内亚 a week, and, more than that, the charming 魔力；使陶醉 society of two young misses! and, more than that, your bed, your break‧fast 早餐, your dinner, your gorging 峡谷 English teas 茶水 and lunches 午餐 and drinks of foaming 泡沫 beer 啤酒, all for nothing—why, Walter, my dear good friend—deuce-what-the-deuce!—for the first time in my life I have not eyes enough in my head to look, and wonder at you!"

Neither my mother's evident 明显 astonishment 惊愕 at my behaviour, nor Pesca's fervid enumeration of the advantages offered to me by the new employment 雇用, had any effect in shaking my unreasonable 不合理 disinclination to go to Limmeridge House. After starting all the petty 小气 objections 反对 that I could think of to going to Cumberland, and after hearing them answered, one after another, to my own complete discomfiture, I tried to set up a last obstacle 障碍 by asking what was to become of my pupils in London while I was teaching Mr. Fairlie's young ladies to sketch 草图 from nature. The obvious 明显 answer to this was, that the greater part of them would be away on their autumn 3 travels, and that the few who remained at home might be confided 信任 to the care of one of my brother drawing-masters, whose 谁的 pupils I had once taken off his hands under similar 类似 circumstances 环境. My sister reminded me that this gentle‧man 先生 had expressly placed his services at my disposal 处置, during the present season, in case I wished to leave town; my mother seriously appealed 上诉 to me not to let an idle 无意义的 cap‧rice 盖‧稻 stand in the way of my own interests and my own health; and Pesca piteously entreated that I would not wound 创伤 him to the heart by rejecting 拒绝 the first grateful offer of service that he had been able to make to the friend who had saved his life.

The evident 明显 sincerity 诚意 and affect‧ion 感情 which inspired 激励，鼓舞 these remonstrances would have influenced any man with an atom 原子 of good feeling in his composition 作文；构图. Though I could not conquer 征服 my own unaccountable perversity, I had at least virtue 美德 enough to be heartily 爽朗 ashamed 惭愧的 of it, and to end the discussion pleasantly by giving way, and promising to do all that was wanted of me.

The rest of the evening passed merrily 愉快的 enough in humorous 幽默 anticipations 预期 of my coming life with the two young ladies in Cumberland. Pesca, inspired by our national 国民 grog, which appeared to get into his head, in the most marvellous manner, five minutes after it had gone down his throat, asserted 断言 his claims to be considered a complete Englishman by making a series 系列 of speeches in rapid success‧ion 演替, proposing my mother's health, my sister's health, my health, and the healths, in mass, of Mr. Fairlie and the two young Misses, pathetically 可怜 returning thanks himself, immediately after‧ward 之后, for the whole party. "A secret, Walter," said my little friend confidentially 秘密的, as we walked home together. "I am flushed 红晕 by the recollection 回忆 of my own eloquence. My soul bursts itself 本身 with ambition 抱负. One of these days I go into your noble 高尚的 Parliament. It is the dream of my whole life to be Honourable Pesca, M.P.!"

The next morning I sent my testimonials to the Professor 教授's employer in Portland Place. Three days passed, and I concluded 得出结论, with secret satisfaction 满足, that my papers had not been found sufficiently 充分地 explicit 明确的. On the fourth day, however, an answer came. It announced 宣布 that Mr. Fairlie accepted my services, and requested me to start for Cumberland immediately. All the necessary instructions 指令 for my journey 旅行 were carefully 小心 and clearly added in a post‧script 邮件‧脚本.

I made my arrangements 安排, unwillingly 不甘 enough, for leaving London early the next day. Towards evening Pesca looked in, on his way to a dinner-party, to bid 出价 me good-bye 再见.

"I shall dry my tears in your absence 缺席," said the Professor 教授 gaily 快乐的, "with this glorious 辉煌 thought. It is my auspicious hand that has given the first push to your for‧tune 命运 in the world. Go, my friend! When your sun shines 发光 in Cumberland (English pro‧verb 亲‧动词), in the name of heaven 天 make your hay 干草. Marry one of the two young Misses; become Honourable Hartright, M.P.; and when you are on the top of the ladder 梯子 remember that Pesca, at the bottom, has done it all!"

I tried to laugh with my little friend over his parting jest, but my spirits were not to be commanded. Something jarred 罐 in me almost painfully 痛苦 while he was speaking his light fare‧well 告别 words.

When I was left alone again nothing remained to be done but to walk to the Hampstead cottage 3 and bid 出价 my mother and Sarah good-bye 再见.

IV

The heat had been painfully 痛苦 oppressive 压抑 all day, and it was now a close and sultry night.

My mother and sister had spoken so many last words, and had begged 乞讨 me to wait another five minutes so many times, that it was nearly mid‧night 午夜 when the servant 仆人 locked the garden-gate behind me. I walked forward a few paces 步伐，速度 on the shortest way back to London, then stopped and hesitated 犹豫.

The moon was full and broad in the dark blue star‧less 星‧少 sky, and the broken ground of the heath 健康 looked wild enough in the mysterious 神秘 light to be hundreds 百 of miles away from the great city that lay beneath 之下 it. The idea of descending 下来 any sooner than I could help into the heat and gloom 愁云 of London repelled 击退 me. The prospect 展望 of going to bed in my air‧less 天空‧少 chambers 室, and the prospect 展望 of gradual suffocation, seemed, in my present rest‧less 不安 frame of mind and body, to be one and the same thing. I determined to stroll 漫步 home in the purer air by the most round‧about 迂回 way I could take; to follow the white winding paths 小路 across the lonely 孤独的 heath 健康; and to approach London through its most open suburb 市郊 by striking into the Finchley Road, and so getting back, in the cool of the new morning, by the western side of the Regent's Park.

I wound 创伤 my way down slowly over the heath 健康, enjoying the divine 神圣 stillness of the scene, and admiring the soft alternations of light and shade 遮阳；阴 as they followed each other over the broken ground on every side of me. So long as I was proceeding 继续 through this first and prettiest part of my night walk my mind remained passively 被动 open to the impressions 印象 produced by the view; and I thought but little on any subject—indeed, so far as my own sensations 感觉 were concerned, I can hardly say that I thought at all.

But when I had left the heath 健康 and had turned into the by-road, where there was less to see, the ideas naturally 自然地 engendered 产生 by the approaching change in my habits and occupations 占用 gradually 逐步地 drew draw more and more of my attention exclusively 只 to themselves. By the time I had arrived at the end of the road I had become completely absorbed 吸收 in my own fanciful visions 视力 of Limmeridge House, of Mr. Fairlie, and of the two ladies whose 谁的 practice in the art of water-colour painting I was so soon to super‧intend 超‧意欲.

I had now arrived at that particular point of my walk where four roads met—the road to Hampstead, along which I had returned, the road to Finchley, the road to West End, and the road back to London. I had mechanically 机械 turned in this latter direction, and was strolling 漫步 along the lonely 孤独的 high-road—idly ID wondering, I remember, what the Cumberland young ladies would look like—when, in one moment, every drop of blood in my body was brought to a stop by the touch of a hand laid lightly and suddenly on my shoulder from behind me.

I turned on the instant, with my fingers tightening 收紧 round the handle of my stick.

There, in the middle of the broad bright high-road—there, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth or dropped from the heaven 天—stood the figure of a solitary 孤 Woman, dressed from head to foot in white garments 服装, her face bent bend in grave 坟墓；严重的 inquiry 调查 on mine, her hand pointing to the dark cloud over London, as I faced her.

I was far too seriously startled 惊吓 by the suddenness with which this extra‧ordinary 非凡的 apparition stood before me, in the dead of night and in that lonely 孤独的 place, to ask what she wanted. The strange woman spoke first.

"Is that the road to London?" she said.

I looked attentively 注意的 at her, as she put that singular 单数 question to me. It was then nearly one o' clock 钟. All I could discern 辨别 distinctly 历历 by the moon‧light 月光 was a colourless, youthful 青春的 face, meagre and sharp to look at about the cheeks 脸颊 and chin 下巴; large, grave 坟墓；严重的, wistfully attentive 注意的 eyes; nervous 担心的, uncertain 不确定 lips; and light hair of a pale, brownish-yellow hue 色调. There was nothing wild, nothing immodest in her manner: it was quiet and self-controlled, a little melancholy 愁绪 and a little touched by suspicion 怀疑; not exactly the manner of a lady, and, at the same time, not the manner of a woman in the humblest 谦逊的 rank 排列 of life. The voice, little as I had yet heard of it, had something curiously still and mechanical 机械 in its tones 音, and the utterance 发声 was remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 rapid. She held a small bag in her hand: and her dress—bonnet 帽子, shawl, and gown 袍 all of white—was, so far as I could guess, certainly not composed of very delicate 微妙的；纤弱的 or very expensive 昂贵的 materials. Her figure was slight, and rather above the average height 高度—her gait and actions free from the slightest approach to extravagance. This was all that I could observe of her in the dim 暗淡 light and under the perplexingly strange circumstances 环境 of our meeting. What sort of a woman she was, and how she came to be out alone in the high-road, an hour after mid‧night 午夜, I altogether 全部地 failed to guess. The one thing of which I felt certain was, that the grossest 毛 of man‧kind 人类 could not have misconstrued her motive 动机 in speaking, even at that suspiciously 可疑的 late hour and in that suspiciously lonely 3 place.

"Did you hear me?" she said, still quietly and rapidly, and without the least fretfulness or impatience 不耐烦. "I asked if that was the way to London."

"Yes," I replied, "that is the way: it leads to St. John's Wood and the Regent's Park. You must excuse 原谅 my not answering you before. I was rather startled 惊吓 by your sudden appearance in the road; and I am, even now, quite unable 无法 to account for it."

"You don't suspect 怀疑；嫌疑犯 me of doing anything wrong, do you? I have done nothing wrong. I have met with an accident 意外事件—I am very unfortunate 不幸的 in being here alone so late. Why do you suspect me of doing wrong?"

She spoke with unnecessary 不必要 earnestness and agitation 搅动, and shrank back from me several paces. I did my best to reassure 再保证 her.

"Pray don't suppose that I have any idea of suspecting 怀疑；嫌疑犯 you," I said, "or any other wish than to be of assistance 帮助 to you, if I can. I only wondered at your appearance in the road, because it seemed to me to be empty the instant before I saw you."

She turned, and pointed back to a place at the junction 连接点 of the road to London and the road to Hampstead, where there was a gap 缺口 in the hedge 树篱.

"I heard you coming," she said, "and hid hide there to see what sort of man you were, before I risked speaking. I doubted and feared about it till you passed; and then I was obliged 责成 to steal after you, and touch you."

Steal after me and touch me? Why not call to me? Strange, to say the least of it.

"May I trust you?" she asked. "You don't think the worse of me because I have met with an accident?" She stopped in confusion 混乱; shifted 转移 her bag from one hand to the other; and sighed 叹 bitterly.

The loneliness 孤单 and helplessness of the woman touched me. The natural 自然 impulse 冲动 to assist 帮助；协助；援助 her and to spare 节省；多余的；备用件 her got the better of the judgment 判断, the caution 小心, the worldly tact, which an older, wiser 明智的；聪明的, and colder man might have summoned 召唤 to help him in this strange emergency 急.

"You may trust me for any harm‧less 无害 purpose," I said. "If it troubles you to explain your strange situation to me, don't think of returning to the subject again. I have no right to ask you for any explanations 说明. Tell me how I can help you; and if I can, I will."

"You are very kind, and I am very, very thankful 感谢 to have met you." The first touch of womanly tenderness 压痛 that I had heard from her trembled 发抖 in her voice as she said the words; but no tears glistened 闪亮 in those large, wistfully attentive 注意的 eyes of hers, which were still fixed on me. "I have only been in London once before," she went on, more and more rapidly, "and I know nothing about that side of it, yonder. Can I get a fly, or a carriage 运输 of any kind? Is it too late? I don't know. If you could show me where to get a fly—and if you will only promise not to interfere 干预 with me, and to let me leave you, when and how I please—I have a friend in London who will be glad to receive me—I want nothing else—will you promise?"

She looked anxiously 焦急的 up and down the road; shifted 转移 her bag again from one hand to the other; repeated the words, "Will you promise?" and looked hard in my face, with a pleading 求情 fear and confusion 混乱 that it troubled me to see.

What could I do? Here was a stranger utterly 完全 and help‧less 无助 at my mercy 宽容—and that stranger a forlorn woman. No house was near; no one was passing whom 谁 I could consult 咨询；请教；查阅; and no earthly right existed on my part to give me a power of control over her, even if I had known how to exercise it. I trace 跟踪 these lines, self-distrust‧fully 怀疑‧完全地, with the shadows of after-events darkening 变暗 the very paper I write on; and still I say, what could I do?

What I did do, was to try and gain time by questioning her. "Are you sure that your friend in London will receive you at such a late hour as this?" I said.

"Quite sure. Only say you will let me leave you when and how I please—only say you won win't interfere 干预 with me. Will you promise?"

As she repeated the words for the third time, she came close to me and laid her hand, with a sudden gentle stealthiness, on my bosom—a thin hand; a cold hand (when I removed 去掉 it with mine) even on that sultry night. Remember that I was young; remember that the hand which touched me was a woman's.

"Will you promise?"

"Yes."

One word! The little familiar word that is on everybody's lips, every hour in the day. Oh me! and I tremble 发抖, now, when I write it.

We set our faces towards London, and walked on together in the first still hour of the new day—I, and this woman, whose 谁的 name, whose character, whose 4 story, whose 5 objects in life, whose very presence by my side, at that moment, were fathomless mysteries to me. It was like a dream. Was I Walter Hartright? Was this the well-known, uneventful road, where holiday 假日 people strolled 漫步 on Sundays? Had I really left, little more than an hour since, the quiet, decent 正经, conventionally 传统的；常规的；普通的 domestic 国内 atmosphere 大气层 of my mother's cottage? I was too bewildered 困惑—too conscious also of a vague 模糊 sense of something like self-reproach 责备—to speak to my strange companion 同伴 for some minutes. It was her voice again that first broke the silence between us.

"I want to ask you something," she said suddenly. "Do you know many people in London?"

"Yes, a great many."

"Many men of rank and title?" There was an unmistakable 明白的 tone 音 of suspicion 怀疑 in the strange question. I hesitated about answering it.

"Some," I said, after a moment's silence.

"Many"—she came to a full stop, and looked me searchingly in the face—"many men of the rank of Baronet?"

Too much astonished to reply, I questioned her in my turn.

"Why do you ask?"

"Because I hope, for my own sake, there is one Baronet that you don't know."

"Will you tell me his name?"

"I can't—I daren't—I forget myself 我 when I mention it." She spoke loudly 响亮的 and almost fiercely 凶猛的, raised her clenched 咬紧 hand in the air, and shook shake it passionately 热情; then, on a sudden, controlled her‧self 她自己 again, and added, in tones 音 lowered to a whisper 低声说 "Tell me which of them you know."

I could hardly refuse to humour her in such a trifle 琐事, and I mentioned three names. Two, the names of fathers of families whose daughters I taught; one, the name of a bachelor 单身汉 who had once taken me a cruise 巡航 in his yacht 游艇, to make sketches 草图 for him.

"Ah! you don't know him," she said, with a sigh 叹 of relief. "Are you a man of rank and title your‧self 你自己?"

"Far from it. I am only a drawing-master."

As the reply passed my lips—a little bitterly, perhaps—she took my arm with the abruptness which characterised all her actions.

"Not a man of rank and title," she repeated to her‧self 她自己. "Thank God! I may trust him."

I had hitherto 迄今 contrived 图谋 to master my curiosity 好奇心 out of consideration 考虑 for my companion 同伴; but it got the better of me now.

"I am afraid you have serious reason to complain 抱怨 of some man of rank and title?" I said. "I am afraid the baronet, whose name you are unwilling 不甘 to mention to me, has done you some grievous wrong? Is he the cause of your being out here at this strange time of night?"

"Don't ask me: don't make me talk of it," she answered. "I'm not fit now. I have been cruelly used and cruelly wronged. You will be kinder than ever, if you will walk on fast, and not speak to me. I sadly 悲哀的 want to quiet myself 我, if I can."

We moved forward again at a quick pace 步伐，速度; and for half an hour, at least, not a word passed on either side. From time to time, being forbidden 禁止:forbid to make any more inquiries 调查, I stole a look at her face. It was always the same; the lips close shut 关闭, the brow 眉头 frowning 皱眉, the eyes looking straight forward, eagerly and yet absently 缺席的. We had reached the first houses, and were close on the new Wesleyan college, before her set features 特征 relaxed 放松 and she spoke once more.

"Do you live in London?" she said.

"Yes." As I answered, it struck me that she might have formed some intention of appealing 上诉 to me for assistance 帮助 or advice 劝告, and that I ought to spare 节省；多余的；备用件 her a possible disappointment 失望 by warning her of my approaching absence 缺席 from home. So I added, "But to-morrow I shall be away from London for some time. I am going into the country."

"Where?" she asked. "North or south?"

"North—to Cumberland."

"Cumberland!" she repeated the word tenderly 纤弱的. "Ah! wish I was going there too. I was once happy in Cumberland."

I tried again to lift the veil 面纱 that hung between this woman and me.

"Perhaps you were born bear," I said, "in the beautiful 美丽 Lake country."

"No," she answered. "I was born in Hampshire; but I once went to school for a little while in Cumberland. Lakes? I don't remember any lakes. It's Limmeridge village, and Limmeridge House, I should like to see again."

It was my turn now to stop suddenly. In the excited state of my curiosity 好奇心, at that moment, the chance reference to Mr. Fairlie's place of residence 住宅, on the lips of my strange companion 3, staggered 错开 me with astonishment 惊愕.

"Did you hear any‧body 任何人 calling after us?" she asked, looking up and down the road affrightedly, the instant I stopped.

"No, no. I was only struck by the name of Limmeridge House. I heard it mentioned by some Cumberland people a few days since."

"Ah! not my people. Mrs. Fairlie is dead; and her husband is dead; and their little girl may be married and gone away by this time. I can't say who lives at Limmeridge now. If any more are left there of that name, I only know I love them for Mrs. Fairlie's sake."

She seemed about to say more; but while she was speaking, we came within view of the turnpike, at the top of the Avenue Road. Her hand tightened 收紧 round my arm, and she looked anxiously at the gate before us.

"Is the turnpike man looking out?" she asked.

He was not looking out; no one else was near the place when we passed through the gate. The sight of the gas-lamps 灯 and houses seemed to agitate 激荡 her, and to make her impatient 不耐烦.

"This is London," she said. "Do you see any carriage 运输 I can get? I am tired and frightened 使惊恐. I want to shut 关闭 myself 我 in and be driven drive away."

I explained to her that we must walk a little further to get to a cab 出租车-stand, unless we were fortunate 侥幸的 enough to meet with an empty vehicle 车辆; and then tried to resume 恢复 the subject of Cumberland. It was use‧less 无用. That idea of shutting 关闭 her‧self 她自己 in, and being driven away, had now got full possession 所有物 of her mind. She could think and talk of nothing else.

We had hardly proceeded 继续 a third of the way down the Avenue Road when I saw a cab 出租车 draw up at a house a few doors below us, on the opposite side of the way. A gentleman got out and let himself in at the garden door. I hailed 冰雹 the cab 出租车, as the driver mounted 增加 the box again. When we crossed the road, my companion's impatience 不耐烦 increased to such an extent that she almost forced me to run.

"It's so late," she said. "I am only in a hurry because it's so late."

"I can't take you, sir 3, if you're not going towards Tottenham Court Road," said the driver civilly 国内, when I opened the cab 出租车 door. "My horse is dead beat, and I can't get him no further than the stable 稳定."

"Yes, yes. That will do for me. I'm going that way—I'm going that way." She spoke with breath‧less 咋舌 eagerness, and pressed by me into the cab 出租车.

I had assured 向…保证；肯定地说 myself 我 that the man was sober 清醒 as well as civil 国内 before I let her enter the vehicle 车辆. And now, when she was seated inside, I entreated her to let me see her set down safely at her destination 目的地.

"No, no, no," she said vehemently. "I'm quite safe, and quite happy now. If you are a gentleman, remember your promise. Let him drive on till I stop him. Thank you—oh! thank you, thank you!"

My hand was on the cab 出租车 door. She caught it in hers, kissed 接吻 it, and pushed it away. The cab 出租车 drove drive off at the same moment—I started into the road, with some vague 模糊 idea of stopping it again, I hardly knew why—hesitated from dread 恐惧 of frightening 使惊恐 and distressing 苦难 her—called, at last, but not loudly enough to attract 吸引 the driver's attention. The sound of the wheels grew grow fainter 微弱的 in the distance—the cab 出租车 melted 熔化 into the black shadows on the road—the woman in white was gone.

Ten 十 minutes or more had passed. I was still on the same side of the way; now mechanically 机械 walking forward a few paces; now stopping again absently. At one moment I found myself 我 doubting the reality 现实 of my own adventure 冒险活动; at another I was perplexed 困扰 and distressed 苦难 by an uneasy 不安 sense of having done wrong, which yet left me confusedly ignorant 愚昧 of how I could have done right. I hardly knew where I was going, or what I meant to do next; I was conscious of nothing but the confusion of my own thoughts, when I was abruptly 突然 recalled 召回 to myself 我—awakened 憬, I might almost say—by the sound of rapidly approaching wheels close behind me.

I was on the dark side of the road, in the thick shadow of some garden trees, when I stopped to look round. On the opposite and lighter side of the way, a short distance below me, a police‧man 警察 was strolling 漫步 along in the direction of the Regent's Park.

The carriage 运输 passed me—an open chaise driven by two men.

"Stop!" cried one. "There's a police‧man 警察. Let's ask him."

The horse was instantly 瞬间 pulled up, a few yards beyond the dark place where I stood.

"Policeman!" cried the first speaker. "Have you seen a woman pass this way?"

"What sort of woman, sir?"

"A woman in a lavender-coloured gown 袍——"

"No, no," interposed the second man. "The clothes we gave her were found on her bed. She must have gone away in the clothes she wore wear when she came to us. In white, police‧man 警察. A woman in white."

"I haven't seen her, sir."

"If you or any of your men meet with the woman, stop her, and send her in careful 小心 keeping to that address. I'll pay all expenses, and a fair reward 报酬 into the bar‧gain 讨价还价；交易."

The police‧man 警察 looked at the card that was handed down to him.

"Why are we to stop her, sir? What has she done?"

"Done! She has escaped from my Asylum. Don't forget; a woman in white. Drive on."

V

"She has escaped from my Asylum!"

I cannot say with truth that the terrible inference 推理 which those words suggested flashed 使闪光 upon me like a new revelation 启示. Some of the strange questions put to me by the woman in white, after my ill 生病-considered promise to leave her free to act as she pleased, had suggested the conclusion 结论 either that she was naturally 自然地 flighty and unsettled 搞糟, or that some recent shock of terror 恐怖 had disturbed 打扰 the balance of her faculties 学院. But the idea of absolute insanity 疯狂 which we all associate 关联 with the very name of an Asylum, had, I can honestly 诚实的 declare, never occurred 发生 to me, in connection with her. I had seen nothing, in her language or her actions, to justify 为…辩护；证明…正当；是…的正当理由 it at the time; and even with the new light thrown throw on her by the words which the stranger had addressed to the police‧man 警察, I could see nothing to justify it now.

What had I done? Assisted the victim 受害者 of the most horrible 可怕 of all false 虚伪的 imprisonments 徒刑 to escape; or cast 投 loose on the wide world of London an unfortunate 不幸的 creature 动物；生物, whose actions it was my duty, and every man's duty, mercifully to control? I turned sick at heart when the question occurred 发生 to me, and when I felt self-reproach‧fully 责备‧完全地 that it was asked too late.

In the disturbed state of my mind, it was use‧less 无用 to think of going to bed, when I at last got back to my chambers 室 in Clement's Inn 小旅馆. Before many hours elapsed 过去 it would be necessary to start on my journey 旅行 to Cumberland. I sat down and tried, first to sketch 草图, then to read—but the woman in white got between me and my pencil 铅笔, between me and my book. Had the forlorn creature 动物；生物 come to any harm 损害? That was my first thought, though I shrank selfishly 自私的 from con‧front 面对 it. Other thoughts followed, on which it was less harrowing to dwell 住. Where had she stopped the cab 出租车? What had become of her now? Had she been traced 跟踪 and captured 捕获 by the men in the chaise? Or was she still cap‧able 能 of controlling her own actions; and were we two following our widely parted roads towards one point in the mysterious 神秘 future, at which we were to meet once more?

It was a relief when the hour came to lock my door, to bid 出价 fare‧well 告别 to London pursuits 追求, London pupils, and London friends, and to be in movement 运动 again towards new interests and a new life. Even the bustle 忙碌 and confusion at the rail‧way 铁路 terminus, so wearisome and bewildering 困惑 at other times, roused 唤醒 me and did me good.

My travelling instructions 指令 directed me to go to Carlisle, and then to diverge 偏离 by a branch rail‧way 铁路 which ran in the direction of the coast. As a misfortune 不幸 to begin with, our engine broke down between Lancaster and Carlisle. The delay 延迟 occasioned by this accident caused me to be too late for the branch train, by which I was to have gone on immediately. I had to wait some hours; and when a later train finally deposited 留下 me at the nearest station to Limmeridge House, it was past ten 十, and the night was so dark that I could hardly see my way to the pony 小马-chaise which Mr. Fairlie had ordered to be in waiting for me.

The driver was evidently 明显地 discomposed by the lateness of my arrival 到达. He was in that state of highly respectful 尊敬的 sulkiness which is peculiar 奇怪的 to English servants 仆人. We drove away slowly through the darkness 黑暗 in perfect silence. The roads were bad, and the dense 稠密 obscurity of the night increased the difficulty of getting over the ground quickly. It was, by my watch, nearly an hour and a half from the time of our leaving the station before I heard the sound of the sea in the distance, and the crunch 紧缩 of our wheels on a smooth gravel 碎石 drive. We had passed one gate before entering the drive, and we passed another before we drew up at the house. I was received by a solemn 庄严的 man- servant 仆人 out of livery, was informed that the family had retired for the night, and was then led into a large and lofty 高远 room where my supper 晚饭 was awaiting 等待 me, in a forlorn manner, at one extremity of a lone‧some 孤单‧一些 mahogany 桃花心木 wilderness 荒野 of dining 吃饭-table.

I was too tired and out of spirits to eat or drink much, especially with the solemn 庄严的 servant 3 waiting on me as elaborately 阐述 as if a small dinner party had arrived at the house instead of a solitary 孤 man. In a quarter of an hour I was ready to be taken up to my bed‧chamber 床‧房间. The solemn servant conducted 进行 me into a prettily furnished room—said, " Breakfast 早餐 at nine 九 o' clock 钟, sir"—looked all round him to see that everything was in its proper place, and noiselessly withdrew.

"What shall I see in my dreams to-night?" I thought to myself 我, as I put out the candle 蜡烛; "the woman in white? or the unknown 未知 inhabitants 居民 of this Cumberland mansion 大厦?" It was a strange sensation 感觉 to be sleeping in the house, like a friend of the family, and yet not to know one of the inmates 犯人, even by sight!

VI

When I rose the next morning and drew up my blind, the sea opened before me joyously under the broad August sun‧light 阳光, and the distant 遥远的 coast of Scotland fringed 边缘 the horizon 地平线 with its lines of melting 熔化 blue.

The view was such a surprise, and such a change to me, after my weary 厌倦 London experience of brick 砖 and mortar 砂浆 landscape 景观, that I seemed to burst 爆裂 into a new life and a new set of thoughts the moment I looked at it. A confused 使困窘 sensation 感觉 of having suddenly lost my familiarity 熟悉 with the past, without acquiring 获得 any additional 额外 clearness of idea in reference to the present or the future, took possession 所有物 of my mind. Circumstances that were but a few days old faded 褪去 back in my memory, as if they had happened months and months since. Pesca's quaint 精巧 announcement 公告 of the means by which he had pro‧cure 促成 me my present employment 雇用; the fare‧well 告别 evening I had passed with my mother and sister; even my mysterious 神秘 adventure 冒险活动 on the way home from Hampstead—had all become like events which might have occurred 发生 at some former epoch 时代 of my existence. Although the woman in white was still in my mind, the image 图片 of her seemed to have grown dull 钝的；没兴趣 and faint 微弱的 already.

A little before nine 九 o' clock 钟, I descended 下来 to the ground-floor of the house. The solemn 3 man-servant of the night before met me wandering 漫步 among the passages, and compassionately 富于同情心的 showed me the way to the breakfast-room.

My first glance 一瞥 round me, as the man opened the door, disclosed 透露 a well-furnished breakfast-table, standing in the middle of a long room, with many windows in it. I looked from the table to the window farthest from me, and saw a lady standing at it, with her back turned towards me. The instant my eyes rested on her, I was struck by the rare beauty of her form, and by the unaffected 未受影响 grace 优雅；惠赐 of her attitude 态度. Her figure was tall, yet not too tall; comely and well-developed, yet not fat; her head set on her shoulders with an easy, pliant firmness; her waist 腰, perfection 完美 in the eyes of a man, for it occupied 占据 its natural 自然 place, it filled out its natural 自然 circle, it was visibly 可以看见的；可视的 and delightfully 愉快 undeformed by stays. She had not heard my entrance 入口 into the room; and I allowed myself 我 the luxury 豪华 of admiring her for a few moments, before I moved one of the chairs near me, as the least embarrassing 阻碍 means of attracting 吸引 her attention. She turned towards me immediately. The easy elegance 优雅 of every movement 运动 of her limbs and body as soon as she began to advance from the far end of the room, set me in a flutter 扑 of expectation 期望 to see her face clearly. She left the window—and I said to myself 我, The lady is dark. She moved forward a few steps—and I said to myself 我, The lady is young. She approached nearer—and I said to myself 我 (with a sense of surprise which words fail me to express), The lady is ugly 难看的!

Never was the old conventional 传统的；常规的；普通的 maxim, that Nature cannot err 呃, more flatly contradicted 顶撞—never was the fair promise of a lovely 可爱的 figure more strangely and startlingly belied by the face and head that crowned 王冠 it. The lady's complex‧ion 肤色 was almost swarthy, and the dark down on her upper lip was almost a moustache. She had a large, firm, masculine 男性 mouth and jaw 下巴; prominent 突出, piercing 刺穿, resolute brown eyes; and thick, coal 煤-black hair, growing unusually 异常 low down on her fore‧head 前额. Her expression—bright, frank 坦率, and intelligent 智能—appeared, while she was silent, to be altogether 全部地 wanting in those feminine 女人 attractions 吸引 of gentleness and pliability, without which the beauty of the hand‧some 英俊 woman alive 活的；有生命的 is beauty incomplete 残缺. To see such a face as this set on shoulders that a sculptor 雕塑家 would have longed to model—to be charmed 魔力；使陶醉 by the modest 谦虚的 graces 优雅；惠赐 of action through which the symmetrical limbs betrayed 背叛 their beauty when they moved, and then to be almost repelled 击退 by the masculine 男性 form and masculine 男性 look of the features 特征 in which the perfectly shaped figure ended—was to feel a sensation 感觉 oddly 奇怪 akin 类似的 to the help‧less 无助 discomfort 不舒适 familiar to us all in sleep, when we recognise yet cannot reconcile 调和 the anomalies 不规则 and contradictions 矛盾 of a dream.

"Mr. Hartright?" said the lady interrogatively, her dark face lighting up with a smile, and softening 软的:soft and growing womanly the moment she began to speak. "We resigned 辞职 all hope of you last night, and went to bed as usual. Accept my apologies 道歉认错 for our apparent 清晰可见的；显而易见的；明白易懂的 want of attention; and allow me to introduce myself 我 as one of your pupils. Shall we shake hands? I suppose we must come to it sooner or later—and why not sooner?"

These odd 奇 words of welcome were spoken in a clear, ringing, pleasant voice. The offered hand—rather large, but beautifully 精美 formed—was given to me with the easy, unaffected 未受影响 self-reliance 依赖 of a highly-bred 养育；繁殖:breed woman. We sat down together at the breakfast-table in as cordial and customary 习惯的 a manner as if we had known each other for years, and had met at Limmeridge House to talk over old times by previous 以前 appointment 约定.

"I hope you come here good-humouredly determined to make the best of your position," continued the lady. "You will have to begin this morning by putting up with no other company at breakfast than mine. My sister is in her own room, nursing 护士 that essentially 基本的 feminine 女人 malady, a slight head‧ache 头痛; and her old governess, Mrs. Vesey, is charitably 慈善 attending on her with restorative tea 茶水. My uncle 叔叔, Mr. Fairlie, never joins us at any of our meals 餐: he is an invalid 无效, and keeps bachelor 单身汉 state in his own apartments. There is nobody else in the house but me. Two young ladies have been staying here, but they went away yesterday, in despair 绝望; and no wonder. All through their visit (in consequence 后果 of Mr. Fairlie's invalid 无效 condition) we produced no such convenience 方便 in the house as a flirt‧able 调情‧能够的, dance‧able 跳舞‧能够的, small-talk‧able 说话‧能够的 creature 动物；生物 of the male 男性的 sex 性别; and the consequence 后果 was, we did nothing but quarrel 争吵, especially at dinner-time. How can you expect four women to dine 吃饭 together alone every day, and not quarrel? We are such fools, we can't entertain each other at table. You see I don't think much of my own sex 性别, Mr. Hartright—which will you have, tea or coffee?—no woman does think much of her own sex 性别, although few of them confess 供认 it as freely as I do. Dear me, you look puzzled 使迷惑. Why? Are you wondering what you will have for breakfast? or are you surprised at my care‧less 粗心 way of talking? In the first case, I advise you, as a friend, to have nothing to do with that cold ham 火腿 at your elbow 弯头, and to wait till the omelette comes in. In the second case, I will give you some tea to compose your spirits, and do all a woman can (which is very little, by-the-bye 再见) to hold my tongue 舌头."

She handed me my cup of tea, laughing gaily. Her light flow of talk, and her lively familiarity 熟悉 of manner with a total stranger, were accompanied 陪 by an unaffected 未受影响 naturalness and an easy inborn confidence 信心 in her‧self 她自己 and her position, which would have secured 安全 her the respect of the most audacious man breathing 呼吸. While it was impossible to be formal and reserved in her company, it was more than impossible to take the faintest vestige of a liberty 自由 with her, even in thought. I felt this instinctively 本能, even while I caught the infection 感染 of her own bright gaiety 快乐 of spirits—even while I did my best to answer her in her own frank 坦率, lively way.

"Yes, yes," she said, when I had suggested the only explanation 说明 I could offer, to account for my perplexed 困扰 looks, "I understand. You are such a perfect stranger in the house, that you are puzzled by my familiar references to the worthy 值得 inhabitants 居民. Natural 自然 enough: I ought to have thought of it before. At any rate, I can set it right now. Suppose I begin with myself 我, so as to get done with that part of the subject as soon as possible? My name is Marian Halcombe; and I am as inaccurate 不准确 as women usually are, in calling Mr. Fairlie my uncle 叔叔, and Miss Fairlie my sister. My mother was twice 两次 married: the first time to Mr. Halcombe, my father; the second time to Mr. Fairlie, my half-sister's father. Except that we are both orphans 孤儿, we are in every respect as unlike 不像 each other as possible. My father was a poor man, and Miss Fairlie's father was a rich man. I have got nothing, and she has a for‧tune 命运. I am dark and ugly 难看的, and she is fair and pretty. Everybody thinks me crabbed 螃蟹 and odd 奇 (with perfect justice); and everybody thinks her sweet-tempered 性情 and charming (with more justice still). In short, she is an angel 天使; and I am—— Try some of that marmalade, Mr. Hartright, and finish the sentence 句子, in the name of female propriety, for your‧self 你自己. What am I to tell you about Mr. Fairlie? Upon my honour, I hardly know. He is sure to send for you after breakfast, and you can study him for your‧self 你自己. In the mean‧time 其时, I may inform you, first, that he is the late Mr. Fairlie's younger brother; secondly, that he is a single man; and thirdly 第三, that he is Miss Fairlie's guardian 监护人. I won't live without her, and she can't live without me; and that is how I come to be at Limmeridge House. My sister and I are honestly fond 喜欢的 of each other; which, you will say, is perfectly unaccountable, under the circumstances 环境, and I quite agree with you—but so it is. You must please both of us, Mr. Hartright, or please neither of us: and, what is still more trying, you will be thrown entirely upon our society. Mrs. Vesey is an excellent person, who possesses 拥有 all the cardinal 枢机主教 virtues 美德, and counts for nothing; and Mr. Fairlie is too great an invalid 无效 to be a companion for any‧body 任何人. I don't know what is the matter with him, and the doctors don't know what is the matter with him, and he doesn't know himself what is the matter with him. We all say it's on the nerves 神经, and we none of us know what we mean when we say it. However, I advise you to humour his little peculiarities, when you see him to-day. Admire his collection of coins 硬币, prints, and water-colour drawings, and you will win his heart. Upon my word, if you can be contented with a quiet country life, I don't see why you should not get on very well here. From breakfast to lunch 午餐, Mr. Fairlie's drawings will occupy 占据 you. After lunch, Miss Fairlie and I shoulder our sketch 草图-books, and go out to misrepresent Nature, under your directions. Drawing is her favourite whim 怪念头, mind, not mine. Women can't draw—their minds are too flighty, and their eyes are too inattentive. No matter—my sister likes it; so I waste paint and spoil 损坏；变质 paper, for her sake, as composedly as any woman in England. As for the evenings, I think we can help you through them. Miss Fairlie plays delightfully 愉快. For my own poor part, I don't know one note of music from the other; but I can match you at chess 棋, backgammon, ecarte, and (with the inevitable 必然 female draw‧back 退税) even at billiards as well. What do you think of the programme? Can you reconcile 调和 your‧self 你自己 to our quiet, regular life? or do you mean to be rest‧less 不安, and secretly thirst for change and adventure 3, in the hum‧drum 哼‧鼓 atmosphere 大气层 of Limmeridge House?"

She had run on thus far, in her gracefully 优美 bantering way, with no other interruptions 中断 on my part than the unimportant 不重要 replies which politeness 礼貌 required of me. The turn of the expression, however, in her last question, or rather the one chance word, "adventure," lightly as it fell fall from her lips, recalled 召回 my thoughts to my meeting with the woman in white, and urged me to discover the connection which the stranger's own reference to Mrs. Fairlie informed me must once have existed between the name‧less 名字‧少 fugitive 逃亡 from the Asylum, and the former mistress 情妇 of Limmeridge House.

"Even if I were the most rest‧less 不安 of mankind," I said, "I should be in no danger of thirsting after adventures 冒险活动 for some time to come. The very night before I arrived at this house, I met with an adventure; and the wonder and excitement 激动 of it, I can assure 向…保证；肯定地说 you, Miss Halcombe, will last me for the whole term of my stay in Cumberland, if not for a much longer period."

"You don't say so, Mr. Hartright! May I hear it?"

"You have a claim to hear it. The chief person in the adventure was a total stranger to me, and may perhaps be a total stranger to you; but she certainly mentioned the name of the late Mrs. Fairlie in terms of the sincerest 真诚的 gratitude 感谢 and regard."

"Mentioned my mother's name! You interest me indescribably. Pray go on."

I at once related the circumstances 环境 under which I had met the woman in white, exactly as they had occurred 发生; and I repeated what she had said to me about Mrs. Fairlie and Limmeridge House, word for word.

Miss Halcombe's bright resolute eyes looked eagerly into mine, from the beginning of the narrative 叙述 to the end. Her face expressed vivid 生动 interest and astonishment 惊愕, but nothing more. She was evidently 明显地 as far from knowing of any clue 线索 to the mystery as I was myself 我.

"Are you quite sure of those words referring to my mother?" she asked.

"Quite sure," I replied. " Whoever 无论谁 she may be, the woman was once at school in the village of Limmeridge, was treated with especial kindness 善良 by Mrs. Fairlie, and, in grateful remembrance 纪念 of that kindness 善良, feels an affectionate 亲热 interest in all surviving 生存 members of the family. She knew that Mrs. Fairlie and her husband were both dead; and she spoke of Miss Fairlie as if they had known each other when they were children."

"You said, I think, that she denied 拒绝 belonging to this place?"

"Yes, she told me she came from Hampshire."

"And you entirely failed to find out her name?"

"Entirely."

"Very strange. I think you were quite justified 为…辩护；证明…正当；是…的正当理由, Mr. Hartright, in giving the poor creature 3 her liberty 自由, for she seems to have done nothing in your presence to show her‧self 她自己 unfit 不适当 to enjoy it. But I wish you had been a little more resolute about finding out her name. We must really clear up this mystery, in some way. You had better not speak of it yet to Mr. Fairlie, or to my sister. They are both of them, I am certain, quite as ignorant 愚昧 of who the woman is, and of what her past history in connection with us can be, as I am myself 我. But they are also, in widely different ways, rather nervous 担心的 and sensitive; and you would only fidget one and alarm 警告 the other to no purpose. As for myself 我, I am all aflame with curiosity 好奇心, and I devote 奉献 my whole energies 能源 to the business of discovery 发现 from this moment. When my mother came here, after her second marriage, she certainly established 建立 the village school just as it exists at the present time. But the old teachers are all dead, or gone else‧where 在别处; and no enlightenment 启示 is to be hoped for from that quarter. The only other alter‧native 替代 I can think of——"

At this point we were interrupted 打断 by the entrance 入口 of the servant, with a message from Mr. Fairlie, intimating 亲密 that he would be glad to see me, as soon as I had done breakfast.

"Wait in the hall," said Miss Halcombe, answering the servant for me, in her quick, ready way. "Mr. Hartright will come out directly. I was about to say," she went on, addressing me again, "that my sister and I have a large collection of my mother's letters, addressed to my father and to hers. In the absence of any other means of getting information, I will pass the morning in looking over my mother's correspondence 对应 with Mr. Fairlie. He was fond 喜欢的 of London, and was constantly 总是；经常地，不断地 away from his country home; and she was accustomed, at such times, to write and report to him how things went on at Limmeridge. Her letters are full of references to the school in which she took so strong an interest; and I think it more than likely that I may have discovered something when we meet again. The luncheon 午餐 hour is two, Mr. Hartright. I shall have the pleasure of introducing you to my sister by that time, and we will occupy 占据 the afternoon in driving round the neighbourhood and showing you all our pet 宠物 points of view. Till two o'clock 3, then, fare‧well 告别."

She nodded 点头 to me with the lively grace 优雅；惠赐, the delightful 愉快 refinement 精致 of familiarity 熟悉, which characterised all that she did and all that she said; and disappeared by a door at the lower end of the room. As soon as she had left me, I turned my steps towards the hall, and followed the servant, on my way, for the first time, to the presence of Mr. Fairlie.

VII

My conductor 导体 led me upstairs 楼上 into a passage which took us back to the bed‧chamber 床‧房间 in which I had slept sleep during the past night; and opening the door next to it, begged me to look in.

"I have my master's orders to show you your own sitting-room, sir," said the man, "and to inquire 打听 if you approve of the situation and the light."

I must have been hard to please, indeed, if I had not approved of the room, and of everything about it. The bow 弓-window looked out on the same lovely 可爱的 view which I had admired, in the morning, from my bed‧room 卧室. The furniture 家具 was the perfection 完美 of luxury 豪华 and beauty; the table in the centre was bright with gaily bound 必定；跳 books, elegant 优雅 conveniences 方便 for writing, and beautiful 美丽 flowers; the second table, near the window, was covered with all the necessary materials for mounting water-colour drawings, and had a little easel attached 连接 to it, which I could expand 扩大 or fold 折叠 up at will; the walls were hung with gaily tinted 着色 chintz; and the floor was spread with Indian matting 席子 in maize 玉米-colour and red. It was the prettiest and most luxurious 豪华 little sitting-room I had ever seen; and I admired it with the warmest enthusiasm 热情.

The solemn servant was far too highly trained to betray 背叛 the slightest satisfaction 满足. He bowed 弓 with icy 冷冰冰 deference 尊重 when my terms of eulogy were all exhausted 排气, and silently opened the door for me to go out into the passage again.

We turned a corner, and entered a long second passage, ascended 登 a short flight 飞行 of stairs 楼梯 at the end, crossed a small circular 圆形的 upper hall, and stopped in front of a door covered with dark baize. The servant opened this door, and led me on a few yards to a second; opened that also, and disclosed 透露 two curtains 窗帘 of pale sea-green silk 丝 hanging before us; raised one of them noiselessly; softly uttered 说出 the words, "Mr. Hartright," and left me.

I found myself 我 in a large, lofty 高远 room, with a magnificent 华丽的 carved 雕刻 ceiling 天花板, and with a carpet 地毯 over the floor, so thick and soft that it felt like piles 堆 of velvet 丝绒 under my feet. One side of the room was occupied 占据 by a long book-case of some rare inlaid wood that was quite new to me. It was not more than six feet high, and the top was adorned 装饰 with statuettes in marble 大理石, ranged at regular distances one from the other. On the opposite side stood two antique 古董 cabinets 内阁; and between them, and above them, hung a picture of the Virgin and Child, protected by glass, and bearing Raphael's name on the gilt 镀金 tablet 片剂 at the bottom of the frame. On my right hand and on my left, as I stood inside the door, were chiffoniers and little stands in buhl and marquetterie, loaded with figures in Dresden china 中国, with rare vases 花瓶, ivory 象牙 ornaments 装饰, and toys 玩具 and curiosities 好奇心 that sparkled 火花 at all points with gold 金, silver 银, and precious 宝贵的 stones. At the lower end of the room, opposite to me, the windows were concealed 隐藏 and the sun‧light 阳光 was tempered by large blinds of the same pale sea-green colour as the curtains over the door. The light thus produced was deliciously 美味的 soft, mysterious 神秘, and subdued 征服; it fell equally upon all the objects in the room; it helped to intensify 强化 the deep silence, and the air of profound 深刻 seclusion that possessed the place; and it surrounded, with an appropriate 适当 halo of repose, the solitary 孤 figure of the master of the house, leaning back, listlessly composed, in a large easy-chair, with a reading-easel fastened 系牢 on one of its arms, and a little table on the other.

If a man's personal 个人 appearance, when he is out of his dressing-room, and when he has passed forty 四十, can be accepted as a safe guide to his time of life—which is more than doubtful 疑—Mr. Fairlie's age, when I saw him, might have been reasonably computed 计算 at over fifty 五十 and under sixty 六十 years. His beard‧less 胡须‧少 face was thin, worn wear, and trans‧parent 透明 pale, but not wrinkled 皱纹; his nose was high and hooked 钩; his eyes were of a dim 暗淡 greyish blue, large, prominent 突出, and rather red round the rims 轮缘 of the eyelids 眼皮; his hair was scanty, soft to look at, and of that light sandy 沙 colour which is the last to disclose 透露 its own changes towards grey 灰色:gray. He was dressed in a dark frock-coat, of some substance 物质 much thinner than cloth 布, and in waist‧coat 腰‧上衣 and trousers 长裤 of spot‧less 地点‧少 white. His feet were effeminately small, and were clad 包层的 in buff 浅黄色-coloured silk 丝 stockings, and little womanish bronze 青铜-leather 皮 slip‧per 拖鞋. Two rings adorned 装饰 his white delicate 微妙的；纤弱的 hands, the value of which even my inexperienced 缺乏经验 observation 意见 detected 发现，察觉，看出 to be all but price‧less 无价. Upon the whole, he had a frail 脆弱, languidly-fretful, over-refined 提炼 look—something singularly 单数 and unpleasantly 不愉快 delicate in its association with a man, and, at the same time, something which could by no possibility 可能性 have looked natural 自然 and appropriate 适当 if it had been transferred 转让 to the personal 个人 appearance of a woman. My morning's experience of Miss Halcombe had predisposed me to be pleased with everybody in the house; but my sympathies 同情 shut themselves up resolutely at the first sight of Mr. Fairlie.

On approaching nearer to him, I discovered that he was not so entirely without occupation 占用 as I had at first supposed. Placed amid 际 the other rare and beautiful 美丽 objects on a large round table near him, was a dwarf 矮人 cabinet 内阁 in ebony and silver 银, containing coins of all shapes and sizes, set out in little drawers 抽屉 lined with dark purple 紫色的 velvet 丝绒. One of these drawers lay on the small table attached 连接 to his chair; and near it were some tiny 小 jeweller 宝石's brushes, a wash-leather 皮 "stump 树墩," and a little bottle of liquid 液体, all waiting to be used in various ways for the removal 切除 of any accidental 偶然 impurities which might be discovered on the coins. His frail 脆弱 white fingers were listlessly toying 玩具 with something which looked, to my uninstructed eyes, like a dirty 肮脏 pewter medal 勋章 with ragged 抹布 edges, when I advanced within a respectful 尊敬的 distance of his chair, and stopped to make my bow 弓.

"So glad to possess 拥有 you at Limmeridge, Mr. Hartright," he said in a querulous, croaking voice, which combined, in anything but an agree‧able 合适的 manner, a discordantly high tone 音 with a drowsily languid utterance 发声. "Pray sit down. And don't trouble your‧self 你自己 to move the chair, please. In the wretched 不幸的人 state of my nerves 神经, movement 运动 of any kind is exquisitely 精美 painful 痛苦 to me. Have you seen your studio 工作室? Will it do?"

"I have just come from seeing the room, Mr. Fairlie; and I assure 向…保证；肯定地说 you——"

He stopped me in the middle of the sentence 句子, by closing his eyes, and holding up one of his white hands imploringly. I paused 暂停 in astonishment 惊愕; and the croaking voice honoured me with this explanation 说明—

"Pray excuse 原谅 me. But could you contrive 图谋 to speak in a lower key? In the wretched 不幸的人 state of my nerves 神经, loud 响亮的 sound of any kind is indescribable torture 拷打 to me. You will pardon 宽恕；说啥？ an invalid 无效? I only say to you what the lament‧able 哀叹‧能够的 state of my health obliges 责成 me to say to everybody. Yes. And you really like the room?"

"I could wish for nothing prettier and nothing more comfort‧able 舒服；自在," I answered, dropping my voice, and beginning to discover already that Mr. Fairlie's selfish 自私的 affectation and Mr. Fairlie's wretched 不幸的人 nerves 神经 meant one and the same thing.

"So glad. You will find your position here, Mr. Hartright, properly recognised. There is none of the horrid English barbarity of feeling about the social position of an artist 艺术家 in this house. So much of my early life has been passed abroad 到国外, that I have quite cast 投 my insular skin 皮 in that respect. I wish I could say the same of the gentry 绅—detestable word, but I suppose I must use it—of the gentry 绅 in the neighbourhood. They are sad 悲哀的 Goths in Art, Mr. Hartright. People, I do assure 向…保证；肯定地说 you, who would have opened their eyes in astonishment 惊愕, if they had seen Charles the Fifth pick up Titian's brush for him. Do you mind putting this tray 盘子 of coins back in the cabinet 内阁, and giving me the next one to it? In the wretched 不幸的人 state of my nerves 神经, exertion of any kind is unspeakably disagree‧able 不同意‧能够的 to me. Yes. Thank you."

As a practical commentary 评论 on the liberal 自由主义的 social theory 理论 which he had just favoured me by illustrating 说明, Mr. Fairlie's cool request rather amused 使人发笑 me. I put back one drawer 抽屉 and gave him the other, with all possible politeness 礼貌. He began trifling 琐事 with the new set of coins and the little brushes immediately; languidly looking at them and admiring them all the time he was speaking to me.

"A thou‧sand 千 thanks and a thou‧sand 千 excuses 原谅. Do you like coins? Yes. So glad we have another taste in common besides our taste for Art. Now, about the pecuniary arrangements 安排 between us—do tell me—are they satisfactory 满意?"

"Most satisfactory, Mr. Fairlie."

"So glad. And—what next? Ah! I remember. Yes. In reference to the consideration 考虑 which you are good enough to accept for giving me the benefit 效益 of your accomplishments 成就 in art, my steward 管家 will wait on you at the end of the first week, to ascertain 探明 your wishes. And—what next? Curious, is it not? I had a great deal more to say: and I appear to have quite forgotten forget it. Do you mind touching the bell 钟? In that corner. Yes. Thank you."

I rang; and a new servant noiselessly made his appearance—a foreigner, with a set smile and perfectly brushed hair—a valet every inch of him.

"Louis," said Mr. Fairlie, dreamily dusting the tips 尖；窍门 of his fingers with one of the tiny 小 brushes for the coins, "I made some entries 条目 in my tablettes this morning. Find my tablettes. A thou‧sand 千 pardons 宽恕；说啥？, Mr. Hartright, I'm afraid I bore bear you."

As he wearily 厌倦 closed his eyes again, before I could answer, and as he did most assuredly bore me, I sat silent, and looked up at the Madonna and Child by Raphael. In the mean‧time 其时, the valet left the room, and returned shortly with a little ivory 象牙 book. Mr. Fairlie, after first relieving 解除 himself by a gentle sigh 叹, let the book drop open with one hand, and held up the tiny 小 brush with the other, as a sign to the servant to wait for further orders.

"Yes. Just so!" said Mr. Fairlie, consulting 咨询；请教；查阅 the tablettes. "Louis, take down that portfolio 投资组合." He pointed, as he spoke, to several portfolios 投资组合 placed near the window, on mahogany 桃花心木 stands. "No. Not the one with the green back—that contains my Rembrandt etchings 蚀刻, Mr. Hartright. Do you like etchings 蚀刻? Yes? So glad we have another taste in common. The portfolio 投资组合 with the red back, Louis. Don't drop it! You have no idea of the tortures 拷打 I should suffer, Mr. Hartright, if Louis dropped that portfolio 投资组合. Is it safe on the chair? Do you think it safe, Mr. Hartright? Yes? So glad. Will you oblige 责成 me by looking at the drawings, if you really think they are quite safe. Louis, go away. What an ass you are. Don't you see me holding the tablettes? Do you suppose I want to hold them? Then why not relieve 解除 me of the tablettes without being told? A thou‧sand 千 pardons, Mr. Hartright; servants are such asses 屁股, are they not? Do tell me—what do you think of the drawings? They have come from a sale in a shocking state—I thought they smelt smell of horrid dealers 商人，商贩' and brokers 经纪人' fingers when I looked at them last. Can you under‧take 承担 them?"

Although my nerves 神经 were not delicate 3 enough to detect 发现，察觉，看出 the odour of plebeian fingers which had offended 触怒 Mr. Fairlie's nostrils 鼻孔, my taste was sufficiently 充分地 educated 教育 to enable 启用 me to appreciate 欣赏 the value of the drawings, while I turned them over. They were, for the most part, really fine specimens 标本 of English water-colour art; and they had deserved 应受 much better treatment 治疗 at the hands of their former possessor 拥有者 than they appeared to have received.

"The drawings," I answered, "require careful 小心 straining 压力 and mounting; and, in my opinion, they are well worth——"

"I beg 乞讨 your pardon 宽恕；说啥？," interposed Mr. Fairlie. "Do you mind my closing my eyes while you speak? Even this light is too much for them. Yes?"

"I was about to say that the drawings are well worth all the time and trouble——"

Mr. Fairlie suddenly opened his eyes again, and rolled them with an expression of help‧less 无助 alarm 警告 in the direction of the window.

"I entreat you to excuse 3 me, Mr. Hartright," he said in a feeble 微弱 flutter 扑. "But surely I hear some horrid children in the garden—my private garden—below?"

"I can't say, Mr. Fairlie. I heard nothing myself 我."

"Oblige me—you have been so very good in humouring my poor nerves 神经—oblige 责成 me by lifting up a corner of the blind. Don't let the sun in on me, Mr. Hartright! Have you got the blind up? Yes? Then will you be so very kind as to look into the garden and make quite sure?"

I complied 执行 with this new request. The garden was carefully 小心 walled in, all round. Not a human creature, large or small, appeared in any part of the sacred 神圣的 seclusion. I reported that gratifying 取悦 fact to Mr. Fairlie.

"A thou‧sand 千 thanks. My fancy 想像, I suppose. There are no children, thank Heaven, in the house; but the servants (persons born without nerves 神经) will encourage the children from the village. Such brats—oh, dear me, such brats! Shall I confess 供认 it, Mr. Hartright?—I sadly want a reform 改革 in the construction 施工 of children. Nature's only idea seems to be to make them machines for the production of incessant noise 噪音. Surely our delightful 愉快 Raffaello's concept‧ion 概念 is infinitely 无限地 prefer‧able 最好?"

He pointed to the picture of the Madonna, the upper part of which represented the conventional 传统的；常规的；普通的 cherubs of Italian Art, celestially 天上 provided with sitting accommodation 住所 for their chins 下巴, on balloons 气球 of buff 浅黄色-coloured cloud.

"Quite a model family!" said Mr. Fairlie, leering at the cherubs. "Such nice round faces, and such nice soft wings 翅膀, and—nothing else. No dirty 肮脏 little legs to run about on, and no noisy 嘈杂 little lungs 肺 to scream 叫喊 with. How immeasurably superior 优越 to the existing construction 施工! I will close my eyes again, if you will allow me. And you really can manage the drawings? So glad. Is there anything else to settle? if there is, I think I have forgotten it. Shall we ring for Louis again?"

Being, by this time, quite as anxious 焦急的, on my side, as Mr. Fairlie evidently 明显地 was on his, to bring the interview 访问 to a speedy 迅速 conclusion 结论, I thought I would try to render 给予 the summoning 召唤 of the servant unnecessary 不必要, by offering the requisite 必要 suggestion 建议 on my own responsibility 责任.

"The only point, Mr. Fairlie, that remains to be discussed," I said, "refers, I think, to the instruction 指令 in sketching 草图 which I am engaged 从事 to communicate 通信 to the two young ladies."

"Ah! just so," said Mr. Fairlie. "I wish I felt strong enough to go into that part of the arrangement 安排—but I don't. The ladies who profit by your kind services, Mr. Hartright, must settle, and decide, and so on, for themselves. My niece 外甥女 is fond 喜欢的 of your charming art. She knows just enough about it to be conscious of her own sad 悲哀的 defects 缺陷. Please take pains with her. Yes. Is there anything else? No. We quite understand each other—don't we? I have no right to detain 扣留 you any longer from your delightful 愉快 pursuit 追求—have I? So pleasant to have settled everything—such a sensible 明智 relief to have done business. Do you mind ringing for Louis to carry the portfolio 投资组合 to your own room?"

"I will carry it there myself 我, Mr. Fairlie, if you will allow me."

"Will you really? Are you strong enough? How nice to be so strong! Are you sure you won't drop it? So glad to possess 拥有 you at Limmeridge, Mr. Hartright. I am such a sufferer that I hardly dare 敢 hope to enjoy much of your society. Would you mind taking great pains not to let the doors bang 砰, and not to drop the portfolio 投资组合? Thank you. Gently with the curtains, please—the slightest noise 噪音 from them goes through me like a knife. Yes. Good morning!"

When the sea-green curtains were closed, and when the two baize doors were shut behind me, I stopped for a moment in the little circular 圆形的 hall beyond, and drew a long, luxurious 豪华 breath of relief. It was like coming to the surface of the water after deep diving 潜水, to find myself 我 once more on the outside of Mr. Fairlie's room.

As soon as I was comfort‧able 舒服 established 建立 for the morning in my pretty little studio 工作室, the first resolution 解析度 at which I arrived was to turn my steps no more in the direction of the apartments occupied 占据 by the master of the house, except in the very improbable 难以置信 event of his honouring me with a special invitation 邀请 to pay him another visit. Having settled this satisfactory plan of future conduct 进行 in reference to Mr. Fairlie, I soon recovered 恢复 the serenity of temper 性情 of which my employer's haughty familiarity 熟悉 and impudent politeness 礼貌 had, for the moment, deprived 剥夺 me. The remaining hours of the morning passed away pleasantly enough, in looking over the drawings, arranging them in sets, trimming 修剪 their ragged 抹布 edges, and accomplishing 完成；实现；达到；做到 the other necessary preparations 制备 in anticipation 预期 of the business of mounting them. I ought, perhaps, to have made more progress than this; but, as the luncheon 午餐-time drew near, I grew rest‧less 不安 and unsettled 搞糟, and felt unable 无法 to fix my attention on work, even though that work was only of the humble 谦逊的 manual 手册 kind.

At two o'clock I descended again to the breakfast-room, a little anxiously. Expectations of some interest were connected with my approaching reappearance in that part of the house. My introduction 介绍 to Miss Fairlie was now close at hand; and, if Miss Halcombe's search through her mother's letters had produced the result which she anticipated, the time had come for clearing up the mystery of the woman in white.

VIII

When I entered the room, I found Miss Halcombe and an elderly 年老的；上了年纪的 lady seated at the luncheon 午餐-table.

The elderly lady, when I was presented to her, proved to be Miss Fairlie's former governess, Mrs. Vesey, who had been briefly 短时间地 described to me by my lively companion at the breakfast-table, as possessed of "all the cardinal 枢机主教 virtues, and counting for nothing." I can do little more than offer my humble 谦逊的 testimony 见证 to the truthfulness of Miss Halcombe's sketch 草图 of the old lady's character. Mrs. Vesey looked the personification of human composure and female amiability. A calm 镇定的 enjoyment 享受 of a calm existence beamed 梁 in drowsy smiles on her plump 丰满, placid face. Some of us rush 仓促 through life, and some of us saunter through life. Mrs. Vesey sat through life. Sat in the house, early and late; sat in the garden; sat in unexpected 意外 window-seats in passages; sat (on a camp-stool 粪便) when her friends tried to take her out walking; sat before she looked at anything, before she talked of anything, before she answered Yes, or No, to the commonest question—always with the same serene 安详 smile on her lips, the same vacantly 空的- attentive 注意的 turn of the head, the same snugly-comfort‧able 舒服；自在 position of her hands and arms, under every possible change of domestic 国内 circumstances 环境. A mild 温柔的, a compliant 兼容, an unutterably tranquil 宁静 and harm‧less 无害 old lady, who never by any chance suggested the idea that she had been actually alive 活的；有生命的 since the hour of her birth. Nature has so much to do in this world, and is engaged 从事 in gene‧rate 生成 such a vast 广大 variety of co-existent productions, that she must surely be now and then too flurried 慌张 and confused to distinguish between the different processes that she is carrying on at the same time. Starting from this point of view, it will always remain my private persuasion 劝说 that Nature was absorbed 吸收 in making cabbages 卷心菜 when Mrs. Vesey was born, and that the good lady suffered the consequences 后果 of a vegetable 蔬菜 preoccupation 当务之急 in the mind of the Mother of us all.

"Now, Mrs. Vesey," said Miss Halcombe, looking brighter, sharper, and readier than ever, by contrast 对比 with the undemonstrative old lady at her side, "what will you have? A cutlet?"

Mrs. Vesey crossed her dimpled hands on the edge of the table, smiled placidly, and said, "Yes, dear."

"What is that opposite Mr. Hartright? Boiled chicken 鸡, is it not? I thought you liked boiled 煮沸 chicken better than cutlet, Mrs. Vesey?"

Mrs. Vesey took her dimpled hands off the edge of the table and crossed them on her lap 膝部 instead; nodded 点头 contemplatively at the boiled chicken, and said, "Yes, dear."

"Well, but which will you have, to-day? Shall Mr. Hartright give you some chicken? or shall I give you some cutlet?"

Mrs. Vesey put one of her dimpled hands back again on the edge of the table; hesitated drowsily, and said, "Which you please, dear."

" Mercy 宽容 on me! it's a question for your taste, my good lady, not for mine. Suppose you have a little of both? and suppose you begin with the chicken, because Mr. Hartright looks devoured 吞食 by anxiety 焦虑 to carve 雕刻 for you."

Mrs. Vesey put the other dimpled hand back on the edge of the table; brightened dimly 暗淡 one moment; went out again the next; bowed obediently, and said, "If you please, sir."

Surely a mild 温柔的, a compliant 兼容, an unutterably tranquil 宁静 and harm‧less 无害 old lady! But enough, perhaps, for the present, of Mrs. Vesey.

All this time, there were no signs of Miss Fairlie. We finished our luncheon 午餐; and still she never appeared. Miss Halcombe, whose quick eye nothing escaped, noticed the looks that I cast 投, from time to time, in the direction of the door.

"I understand you, Mr. Hartright," she said; "you are wondering what has become of your other pupil 学生. She has been downstairs 楼下, and has got over her head‧ache 头痛; but has not sufficiently 充分地 recovered 恢复 her appetite 食欲 to join us at lunch 午餐. If you will put your‧self 你自己 under my charge, I think I can under‧take 承担 to find her somewhere in the garden."

She took up a parasol lying on a chair near her, and led the way out, by a long window at the bottom of the room, which opened on to the lawn 草坪. It is almost unnecessary 不必要 to say that we left Mrs. Vesey still seated at the table, with her dimpled hands still crossed on the edge of it; apparently 据…所知；看来；据说；听说 settled in that position for the rest of the afternoon.

As we crossed the lawn 草坪, Miss Halcombe looked at me significantly 显著, and shook her head.

"That mysterious 神秘 adventure of yours," she said, "still remains involved in its own appropriate 适当 mid‧night 午夜 darkness 黑暗. I have been all the morning looking over my mother's letters, and I have made no discoveries 发现 yet. However, don't despair 绝望, Mr. Hartright. This is a matter of curiosity 好奇心; and you have got a woman for your ally 联盟；盟友. Under such conditions success is certain, sooner or later. The letters are not exhausted 排气. I have three packets 包 still left, and you may confidently 确信的 rely 依靠 on my spending 用钱；消磨时间 the whole evening over them."

Here, then, was one of my anticipations 预期 of the morning still unfulfilled. I began to wonder, next, whether my introduction 介绍 to Miss Fairlie would disappoint 使失望 the expectations 期望 that I had been forming of her since breakfast-time.

"And how did you get on with Mr. Fairlie?" inquired 打听 Miss Halcombe, as we left the lawn 草坪 and turned into a shrubbery. "Was he particularly nervous 担心的 this morning? Never mind considering about your answer, Mr. Hartright. The mere fact of your being obliged 责成 to consider is enough for me. I see in your face that he was particularly nervous; and, as I am amiably 可亲 unwilling 不甘 to throw you into the same condition, I ask no more."

We turned off into a winding path 小路 while she was speaking, and approached a pretty summer-house, built of wood, in the form of a miniature 微型 Swiss chalet. The one room of the summer-house, as we ascended 登 the steps of the door, was occupied 占据 by a young lady. She was standing near a rustic 乡村 table, looking out at the inland 内陆 view of moor 泊 and hill presented by a gap 缺口 in the trees, and absently turning over the leaves of a little sketch 草图-book that lay at her side. This was Miss Fairlie.

How can I describe her? How can I separate her from my own sensations 感觉, and from all that has happened in the later time? How can I see her again as she looked when my eyes first rested on her—as she should look, now, to the eyes that are about to see her in these pages?

The water-colour drawing that I made of Laura Fairlie, at an after period, in the place and attitude 态度 in which I first saw her, lies on my desk while I write. I look at it, and there dawns 黎明 upon me brightly, from the dark greenish-brown back‧ground 背景 of the summer-house, a light, youthful 青春的 figure, clothed in a simple muslin dress, the pattern of it formed by broad alternate 备用 stripes 条纹 of delicate blue and white. A scarf 围巾 of the same material sits crisply 脆 and closely round her shoulders, and a little straw 稻草 hat of the natural 自然 colour, plainly and sparingly trimmed 修剪 with ribbon 带 to match the gown 袍, covers her head, and throws its soft pearly 梨 shadow over the upper part of her face. Her hair is of so faint 微弱的 and pale a brown—not flaxen, and yet almost as light; not golden, and yet almost as glossy 光滑—that it nearly melts 熔化, here and there, into the shadow of the hat. It is plainly parted and drawn back over her ears, and the line of it ripples 波纹 naturally 自然地 as it crosses her fore‧head 前额. The eye‧brow 眉 are rather darker than the hair; and the eyes are of that soft, limpid, turquoise blue, so often sung sing by the poets, so seldom 很少 seen in real life. Lovely eyes in colour, lovely eyes in form—large and tender 纤弱的 and quietly thoughtful 周到—but beautiful 美丽 above all things in the clear truthfulness of look that dwells 住 in their inmost depths, and shines through all their changes of expression with the light of a purer and a better world. The charm 魔力；使陶醉—most gently and yet most distinctly 历历 expressed—which they shed over the whole face, so covers and transforms 使彻底改观；使大变样 its little natural 自然 human blemishes else‧where 在别处, that it is difficult to estimate 估计 the relative merits 值得 and defects 缺陷 of the other features 特征. It is hard to see that the lower part of the face is too delicately 微妙的；纤弱的 refined 提炼 away towards the chin 下巴 to be in full and fair proportion 比例 with the upper part; that the nose, in escaping the aquiline bend (always hard and cruel 残酷的 in a woman, no matter how abstractedly perfect it may be), has erred 呃 a little in the other extreme, and has missed the ideal straightness of line; and that the sweet, sensitive lips are subject to a slight nervous 4 contract‧ion 收缩, when she smiles, which draws them upward 向上 a little at one corner, towards the cheek 脸颊. It might be possible to note these blemishes in another woman's face but it is not easy to dwell 住 on them in hers, so subtly 巧妙的 are they connected with all that is individual and characteristic 特性 in her expression, and so closely does the expression depend for its full play and life, in every other feature 特征, on the moving impulse 冲动 of the eyes.

Does my poor portrait 肖像 of her, my fond 3, patient labour of long and happy days, show me these things? Ah, how few of them are in the dim 暗淡 mechanical 机械 drawing, and how many in the mind with which I regard it! A fair, delicate girl, in a pretty light dress, trifling 琐事 with the leaves of a sketch 草图-book, while she looks up from it with truthful 真实, innocent 无辜 blue eyes—that is all the drawing can say; all, perhaps, that even the deeper reach of thought and pen 笔 can say in their language, either. The woman who first gives life, light, and form to our shadowy 神出鬼没 concept‧ion 概念 of beauty, fills a void 空虚 in our spiritual 精神 nature that has remained unknown 未知 to us till she appeared. Sympathies that lie too deep for words, too deep almost for thoughts, are touched, at such times, by other charms 魔力；使陶醉 than those which the senses feel and which the resources 资源 of expression can realise. The mystery which under‧lie 是…的深层原因；对…有重大影响 the beauty of women is never raised above the reach of all expression until it has claimed kind‧red 种类‧红色的 with the deeper mystery in our own souls. Then, and then only, has it passed beyond the narrow region 地区 on which light falls, in this world, from the pencil 铅笔 and the pen 笔.

Think of her as you thought of the first woman who quickened 加速 the pulses 脉冲 within you that the rest of her sex 性别 had no art to stir 搅动. Let the kind, candid 坦率 blue eyes meet yours, as they met mine, with the one match‧less 比赛；火柴‧少 look which we both remember so well. Let her voice speak the music that you once loved best, attuned as sweetly to your ear as to mine. Let her foot‧step 脚步, as she comes and goes, in these pages, be like that other foot‧step 脚步 to whose airy 轻快的 fall your own heart once beat time. Take her as the visionary 空想家 nursling of your own fancy 想像; and she will grow upon you, all the more clearly, as the living woman who dwells 住 in mine.

Among the sensations 感觉 that crowded on me, when my eyes first looked upon her—familiar sensations 感觉 which we all know, which spring to life in most of our hearts, die again in so many, and renew 更新 their bright existence in so few—there was one that troubled and perplexed 困扰 me: one that seemed strangely inconsistent 不符 and unaccountably out of place in Miss Fairlie's presence.

Mingling with the vivid 生动 impression 印象 produced by the charm 魔力；使陶醉 of her fair face and head, her sweet expression, and her winning simplicity 简单 of manner, was another impression 印象, which, in a shadowy 神出鬼没 way, suggested to me the idea of something wanting. At one time it seemed like something wanting in her: at another, like something wanting in myself 我, which hindered 阻碍 me from understanding her as I ought. The impression 印象 was always strongest in the most contradictory 矛盾 manner, when she looked at me; or, in other words, when I was most conscious of the harmony 和谐 and charm of her face, and yet, at the same time, most troubled by the sense of an incompleteness which it was impossible to discover. Something wanting, something wanting—and where it was, and what it was, I could not say.

The effect of this curious cap‧rice 盖‧稻 of fancy 想像 (as I thought it then) was not of a nature to set me at my ease 轻松, during a first interview 访问 with Miss Fairlie. The few kind words of welcome which she spoke found me hardly self-possessed enough to thank her in the customary 习惯的 phrases 短语 of reply. Observing my hesitation 犹豫, and no doubt attributing 特性；特质；属性 it, naturally 自然地 enough, to some momentary 短暂的 shyness on my part, Miss Halcombe took the business of talking, as easily and readily as usual, into her own hands.

"Look there, Mr. Hartright," she said, pointing to the sketch 草图-book on the table, and to the little delicate wandering hand that was still trifling 琐事 with it. "Surely you will acknowledge 确认 that your model pupil 学生 is found at last? The moment she hears that you are in the house, she seizes 抓住 her inestimable sketch 草图-book, looks universal 普遍的 Nature straight in the face, and longs to begin!"

Miss Fairlie laughed with a ready good-humour, which broke out as brightly as if it had been part of the sun‧shine 阳光 above us, over her lovely face.

"I must not take credit 信用 to myself 我 where no credit 信用 is due," she said, her clear, truthful 真实 blue eyes looking alternately 备用 at Miss Halcombe and at me. "Fond as I am of drawing, I am so conscious of my own ignorance 无知 that I am more afraid than anxious 焦急的 to begin. Now I know you are here, Mr. Hartright, I find myself 我 looking over my sketches 草图, as I used to look over my lessons when I was a little girl, and when I was sadly afraid that I should turn out not fit to be heard."

She made the confession 承认 very prettily and simply, and, with quaint 精巧, childish 幼稚 earnestness, drew the sketch 草图-book away close to her own side of the table. Miss Halcombe cut the knot 结 of the little embarrassment 困窘 forth‧with 向前‧和, in her resolute, down‧right 彻头彻尾 way.

"Good, bad, or indifferent 冷漠," she said, "the pupil's sketches 草图 must pass through the fiery 火热 ordeal 考验 of the master's judgment 判断—and there's an end of it. Suppose we take them with us in the carriage 3, Laura, and let Mr. Hartright see them, for the first time, under circumstances 环境 of perpetual 永动的 jolting 颠簸 and interruption 中断? If we can only confuse 使困窘 him all through the drive, between Nature as it is, when he looks up at the view, and Nature as it is not when he looks down again at our sketch 草图-books, we shall drive him into the last desperate 殊死 refuge 避难所 of paying us compliments 赞扬, and shall slip through his professional 专业的 fingers with our pet 宠物 feathers 羽毛 of vanity 虚荣 all unruffled."

"I hope Mr. Hartright will pay me no compliments 赞扬," said Miss Fairlie, as we all left the summer-house.

"May I venture 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 to inquire 打听 why you express that hope?" I asked.

"Because I shall believe all that you say to me," she answered simply.

In those few words she unconsciously 不知不觉 gave me the key to her whole character: to that generous 慷慨的 trust in others which, in her nature, grew innocently 无辜 out of the sense of her own truth. I only knew it intuitively 直观的 then. I know it by experience now.

We merely waited to rouse 唤醒 good Mrs. Vesey from the place which she still occupied 占据 at the deserted 沙漠；抛弃 luncheon 午餐-table, before we entered the open carriage for our promised drive. The old lady and Miss Halcombe occupied 占据 the back seat, and Miss Fairlie and I sat together in front, with the sketch 草图-book open between us, fairly exhibited 展示 at last to my professional 专业的 eyes. All serious criticism 批评 on the drawings, even if I had been disposed 部署 to volunteer 志愿者 it, was rendered 给予 impossible by Miss Halcombe's lively resolution 解析度 to see nothing but the ridiculous 荒谬 side of the Fine Arts, as practised by her‧self 她自己, her sister, and ladies in general. I can remember the conversation that passed far more easily than the sketches 草图 that I mechanically 机械 looked over. That part of the talk, especially, in which Miss Fairlie took any share, is still as vividly 生动地 impressed 给…留下深刻印象；使钦佩 on my memory as if I had heard it only a few hours ago.

Yes! let me acknowledge 确认 that on this first day I let the charm of her presence lure 饵 me from the recollection 回忆 of myself 我 and my position. The most trifling 琐事 of the questions that she put to me, on the subject of using her pencil 铅笔 and mixing her colours; the slightest alterations 改造 of expression in the lovely eyes that looked into mine with such an earnest 热心的 desire to learn all that I could teach, and to discover all that I could show, attracted 吸引 more of my attention than the finest view we passed through, or the grandest 宏大的 changes of light and shade 遮阳；阴, as they flowed into each other over the waving moor‧land 泊‧陆地；着陆 and the level beach 海滩. At any time, and under any circumstances 环境 of human interest, is it not strange to see how little real hold the objects of the natural 自然 world amid 际 which we live can gain on our hearts and minds? We go to Nature for comfort in trouble, and sympathy 同情 in joy 喜悦, only in books. Admiration of those beauties of the inanimate world, which modern poetry 诗歌 so largely and so eloquently 雄辩 describes, is not, even in the best of us, one of the original 原版的 instincts 直觉 of our nature. As children, we none of us possess it. No uninstructed man or woman possesses it. Those whose lives are most exclusively 只 passed amid 际 the ever-changing wonders of sea and land are also those who are most universally 普遍的 insensible to every aspect 方面 of Nature not directly associated 关联 with the human interest of their calling. Our capacity 容量 of appreciating 欣赏 the beauties of the earth we live on is, in truth, one of the civilised accomplishments 成就 which we all learn as an Art; and, more, that very capacity 容量 is rarely 很少；不常见；难得 practised by any of us except when our minds are most indolent and most unoccupied. How much share have the attractions of Nature ever had in the pleasurable 愉快的 or painful 痛苦 interests and emotions 情感 of ourselves 我们自己 or our friends? What space do they ever occupy 占据 in the thou‧sand 千 little narratives 叙述 of personal 个人 experience which pass every day by word of mouth from one of us to the other? All that our minds can compass 罗盘, all that our hearts can learn, can be accomplished 完成；实现；达到；做到 with equal certainty 确定性, equal profit, and equal satisfaction 满足 to ourselves 我们自己, in the poorest as in the richest prospect 展望 that the face of the earth can show. There is surely a reason for this want of inborn sympathy 同情 between the creature and the creation 创建 around it, a reason which may perhaps be found in the widely-differing 不同 destinies 命运 of man and his earthly sphere 领域. The grandest mountain prospect 展望 that the eye can range over is appointed to annihilation. The smallest human interest that the pure heart can feel is appointed to immortality.

We had been out nearly three hours, when the carriage again passed through the gates 门 of Limmeridge House.

On our way back I had let the ladies settle for themselves the first point of view which they were to sketch 草图, under my instructions 指令, on the afternoon of the next day. When they withdrew to dress for dinner, and when I was alone again in my little sitting-room, my spirits seemed to leave me on a sudden. I felt ill 生病 at ease 轻松 and dissatisfied 使不满意 with myself 我, I hardly knew why. Perhaps I was now conscious for the first time of having enjoyed our drive too much in the character of a guest, and too little in the character of a drawing-master. Perhaps that strange sense of something wanting, either in Miss Fairlie or in myself 我, which had perplexed 困扰 me when I was first introduced to her, haunted 出没 me still. Anyhow 总之, it was a relief to my spirits when the dinner-hour called me out of my solitude 孤独, and took me back to the society of the ladies of the house.

I was struck, on entering the drawing-room, by the curious contrast 对比, rather in material than in colour, of the dresses which they now wore. While Mrs. Vesey and Miss Halcombe were richly clad 包层的 (each in the manner most becoming to her age), the first in silver 银-grey 灰色:gray, and the second in that delicate primrose-yellow colour which matches so well with a dark complex‧ion 肤色 and black hair, Miss Fairlie was unpretendingly and almost poorly dressed in plain white muslin. It was spotlessly pure: it was beautifully 精美 put on; but still it was the sort of dress which the wife or daughter of a poor man might have worn, and it made her, so far as externals 外面的；外表的；来自外部的 went, look less affluent 富裕的 in circumstances 环境 than her own governess. At a later period, when I learnt learn to know more of Miss Fairlie's character, I discovered that this curious contrast 对比, on the wrong side, was due to her natural 自然 delicacy 美味 of feeling and natural 自然 intensity 强度 of aversion 厌恶 to the slightest personal 个人 display 显示 of her own wealth 财产. Neither Mrs. Vesey nor Miss Halcombe could ever induce 促使 her to let the advantage in dress desert 沙漠；抛弃 the two ladies who were poor, to lean to the side of the one lady who was rich.

When the dinner was over we returned together to the drawing-room. Although Mr. Fairlie (emulating 仿真 the magnificent 华丽的 condescension of the monarch 君主 who had picked up Titian's brush for him) had instructed 指导 his butler 男管家 to consult 咨询；请教；查阅 my wishes in relation to the wine that I might prefer after dinner, I was resolute enough to resist 抵抗 the temptation 诱惑 of sitting in solitary 孤 grandeur 富丽堂皇 among bottles of my own choosing, and sensible 明智 enough to ask the ladies' per‧mission 允许 to leave the table with them habitually 惯常的, on the civilised foreign plan, during the period of my residence 住宅 at Limmeridge House.

The drawing-room, to which we had now withdrawn for the rest of the evening, was on the ground-floor, and was of the same shape and size as the breakfast-room. Large glass doors at the lower end opened on to a terrace 阳台, beautifully 精美 ornamented 装饰 along its whole length with a profusion of flowers. The soft, hazy twilight 暮 was just shading 遮阳；阴 leaf 叶子 and blossom 开花 alike 同样的 into harmony 和谐 with its own sober 清醒 hues 色调 as we entered the room, and the sweet evening scent 香味 of the flowers met us with its fragrant welcome through the open glass doors. Good Mrs. Vesey (always the first of the party to sit down) took possession 所有物 of an arm-chair in a corner, and dozed off comfort‧able 舒服 to sleep. At my request Miss Fairlie placed her‧self 她自己 at the piano 钢琴. As I followed her to a seat near the instrument, I saw Miss Halcombe retire into a recess 凹槽 of one of the side windows, to proceed 继续 with the search through her mother's letters by the last quiet rays 光束 of the evening light.

How vividly 生动地 that peaceful 平静的 home-picture of the drawing-room comes back to me while I write! From the place where I sat I could see Miss Halcombe's graceful 优美 figure, half of it in soft light, half in mysterious 神秘 shadow, bending intently 意图 over the letters in her lap 膝部; while, nearer to me, the fair profile 简短的描述 of the player at the piano 钢琴 was just delicately defined 确定 against the faintly 微弱的-deepening 变深 back‧ground 背景 of the inner 里面的 wall of the room. Outside, on the terrace 阳台, the clustering 簇 flowers and long grasses 草 and creepers waved so gently in the light evening air, that the sound of their rustling 沙沙 never reached us. The sky was without a cloud, and the dawning 黎明 mystery of moon‧light 月光 began to tremble 发抖 already in the region 地区 of the eastern 东方的 heaven. The sense of peace and seclusion soothed 缓和 all thought and feeling into a rapt, unearthly 挖掘 repose; and the balmy quiet, that deepened 变深 ever with the deepening light, seemed to hover 徘徊 over us with a gentler influence still, when there stole upon it from the piano 钢琴 the heavenly 神圣的 tenderness 压痛 of the music of Mozart. It was an evening of sights and sounds never to forget.

We all sat silent in the places we had chosen choose—Mrs. Vesey still sleeping, Miss Fairlie still playing, Miss Halcombe still reading—till the light failed us. By this time the moon had stolen round to the terrace 阳台, and soft, mysterious 神秘 rays of light were slanting 倾斜 already across the lower end of the room. The change from the twilight 暮 obscurity was so beautiful 美丽 that we banished 放逐 the lamps, by common consent 同意, when the servant brought them in, and kept the large room unlighted, except by the glimmer of the two candles 蜡烛 at the piano 钢琴.

For half an hour more the music still went on. After that the beauty of the moon‧light 月光 view on the terrace 阳台 tempted 引诱 Miss Fairlie out to look at it, and I followed her. When the candles 蜡烛 at the piano 钢琴 had been lighted Miss Halcombe had changed her place, so as to continue her examination 检查 of the letters by their assistance 帮助. We left her, on a low chair, at one side of the instrument, so absorbed 吸收 over her reading that she did not seem to notice when we moved.

We had been out on the terrace 阳台 together, just in front of the glass doors, hardly so long as five minutes, I should think; and Miss Fairlie was, by my advice 劝告, just tying her white handkerchief 手帕 over her head as a pre‧caution 预防 against the night air—when I heard Miss Halcombe's voice—low, eager 渴望的, and altered 改变 from its natural 自然 lively tone 音— pronounce 发音 my name.

"Mr. Hartright," she said, "will you come here for a minute? I want to speak to you."

I entered the room again immediately. The piano 钢琴 stood about half-way down along the inner 里面的 wall. On the side of the instrument farthest from the terrace 阳台 Miss Halcombe was sitting with the letters scattered on her lap 膝部, and with one in her hand selected 选择 from them, and held close to the candle 蜡烛. On the side nearest to the terrace 阳台 there stood a low ottoman, on which I took my place. In this position I was not far from the glass doors, and I could see Miss Fairlie plainly, as she passed and repassed the opening on to the terrace 阳台, walking slowly from end to end of it in the full radiance of the moon.

"I want you to listen while I read the concluding 得出结论 passages in this letter," said Miss Halcombe. "Tell me if you think they throw any light upon your strange adventure on the road to London. The letter is addressed by my mother to her second husband, Mr. Fairlie, and the date refers to a period of between eleven 十一 and twelve 十二 years since. At that time Mr. and Mrs. Fairlie, and my half-sister Laura, had been living for years in this house; and I was away from them completing my education at a school in Paris."

She looked and spoke ear‧nest 热心的, and, as I thought, a little uneasily 不安 as well. At the moment when she raised the letter to the candle 蜡烛 before beginning to read it, Miss Fairlie passed us on the terrace 阳台, looked in for a moment, and seeing that we were engaged 从事, slowly walked on.

Miss Halcombe began to read as follows:—

"'You will be tired, my dear Philip, of hearing perpetually 永动的 about my schools and my scholars 学者. Lay the blame 指责, pray, on the dull 钝的；没兴趣 uniformity 均匀性 of life at Limmeridge, and not on me. Besides, this time I have something really interesting to tell you about a new scholar 学者.

"'You know old Mrs. Kempe at the village shop. Well, after years of ailing AIL, the doctor has at last given her up, and she is dying slowly day by day. Her only living relation, a sister, arrived last week to take care of her. This sister comes all the way from Hampshire—her name is Mrs. Catherick. Four days ago Mrs. Catherick came here to see me, and brought her only child with her, a sweet little girl about a year older than our darling 宠儿 Laura——'"

As the last sentence fell from the reader's lips, Miss Fairlie passed us on the terrace 阳台 once more. She was softly singing to her‧self 她自己 one of the melodies 旋律 which she had been playing earlier in the evening. Miss Halcombe waited till she had passed out of sight again, and then went on with the letter—

"'Mrs. Catherick is a decent 正经, well-behaved 表现, respect‧able 可敬 woman; middle-aged, and with the remains of having been mode‧rate 有节制的, only moderately, nice-looking. There is something in her manner and in her appearance, however, which I can't make out. She is reserved about her‧self 她自己 to the point of down‧right 彻头彻尾 secrecy 保密, and there is a look in her face—I can't describe it—which suggests to me that she has something on her mind. She is altogether 3 what you would call a walking mystery. Her errand 使命 at Limmeridge House, however, was simple enough. When she left Hampshire to nurse 护士 her sister, Mrs. Kempe, through her last illness 疾病, she had been obliged 责成 to bring her daughter with her, through having no one at home to take care of the little girl. Mrs. Kempe may die in a week's time, or may linger 萦绕 on for months; and Mrs. Catherick's object was to ask me to let her daughter, Anne, have the benefit 效益 of attending my school, subject to the condition of her being removed 去掉 from it to go home again with her mother, after Mrs. Kempe's death. I consented 同意 at once, and when Laura and I went out for our walk, we took the little girl (who is just eleven 十一 years old) to the school that very day.'"

Once more Miss Fairlie's figure, bright and soft in its snowy 似雪 muslin dress—her face prettily framed by the white folds 折叠 of the handkerchief 手帕 which she had tied under her chin 下巴—passed by us in the moon‧light 月光. Once more Miss Halcombe waited till she was out of sight, and then went on—

"'I have taken a violent 猛烈 fancy 3, Philip, to my new scholar 学者, for a reason which I mean to keep till the last for the sake of surprising you. Her mother having told me as little about the child as she told me of her‧self 她自己, I was left to discover (which I did on the first day when we tried her at lessons) that the poor little thing's intellect 智力 is not developed as it ought to be at her age. Seeing this I had her up to the house the next day, and privately arranged with the doctor to come and watch her and question her, and tell me what he thought. His opinion is that she will grow out of it. But he says her careful 小心 bringing-up at school is a matter of great importance just now, because her unusual 异常 slowness in acquiring 获得 ideas implies 意味着 an unusual 异常 tenacity in keeping them, when they are once received into her mind. Now, my love, you must not imagine, in your off-hand way, that I have been attaching 连接 myself 我 to an idiot 白痴. This poor little Anne Catherick is a sweet, affectionate 亲热, grateful girl, and says the quaintest 精巧, prettiest things (as you shall judge by an instance 例), in the most oddly 奇怪 sudden, surprised, half-frightened way. Although she is dressed very neatly 整洁的, her clothes show a sad want of taste in colour and pattern. So I arranged, yesterday, that some of our darling 宠儿 Laura's old white frocks and white hats should be altered for Anne Catherick, explaining to her that little girls of her complex‧ion 肤色 looked neater 整洁的 and better all in white than in anything else. She hesitated and seemed puzzled for a minute, then flushed 红晕 up, and appeared to understand. Her little hand clasped 钩 mine suddenly. She kissed it, Philip, and said (oh, so earnestly!), "I will always wear white as long as I live. It will help me to remember you, ma 嘛'am, and to think that I am pleasing you still, when I go away and see you no more." This is only one specimen 标本 of the quaint 精巧 things she says so prettily. Poor little soul! She shall have a stock of white frocks, made with good deep tucks 掖, to let out for her as she grows——'"

Miss Halcombe paused, and looked at me across the piano 钢琴.

"Did the forlorn woman whom 谁 you met in the high-road seem young?" she asked. "Young enough to be two- or three-and-twenty 二十?"

"Yes, Miss Halcombe, as young as that."

"And she was strangely dressed, from head to foot, all in white?"

"All in white."

While the answer was passing my lips Miss Fairlie glided 滑行 into view on the terrace 阳台 for the third time. Instead of proceeding 继续 on her walk, she stopped, with her back turned towards us, and, leaning on the balustrade of the terrace 阳台, looked down into the garden beyond. My eyes fixed upon the white gleam 闪光 of her muslin gown 袍 and head-dress in the moonlight 4, and a sensation 感觉, for which I can find no name—a sensation 感觉 that quickened 加速 my pulse 脉冲, and raised a fluttering 扑 at my heart—began to steal over me.

"All in white?" Miss Halcombe repeated. "The most important sentences 句子 in the letter, Mr. Hartright, are those at the end, which I will read to you immediately. But I can't help dwelling 住 a little upon the coincidence 巧合 of the white costume 服装 of the woman you met, and the white frocks which produced that strange answer from my mother's little scholar 学者. The doctor may have been wrong when he discovered the child's defects 缺陷 of intellect 智力, and predicted 预测 that she would 'grow out of them.' She may never have grown out of them, and the old grateful fancy about dressing in white, which was a serious feeling to the girl, may be a serious feeling to the woman still."

I said a few words in answer—I hardly know what. All my attention was concentrated 集中 on the white gleam 闪光 of Miss Fairlie's muslin dress.

"Listen to the last sentences of the letter," said Miss Halcombe. "I think they will surprise you."

As she raised the letter to the light of the candle 蜡烛, Miss Fairlie turned from the balustrade, looked doubtfully 疑 up and down the terrace 阳台, advanced a step towards the glass doors, and then stopped, facing us.

Meanwhile 同时 Miss Halcombe read me the last sentences to which she had referred—

"'And now, my love, seeing that I am at the end of my paper, now for the real reason, the surprising reason, for my fondness for little Anne Catherick. My dear Philip, although she is not half so pretty, she is, nevertheless 虽然, by one of those extraordinary 3 caprices of accidental 偶然 resemblance 相似 which one sometimes sees, the living likeness 像, in her hair, her complex‧ion 肤色, the colour of her eyes, and the shape of her face——'"

I started up from the ottoman before Miss Halcombe could pronounce 发音 the next words. A thrill 颤抖 of the same feeling which ran through me when the touch was laid upon my shoulder on the lonely high-road chilled 寒意 me again.

There stood Miss Fairlie, a white figure, alone in the moonlight 5; in her attitude 态度, in the turn of her head, in her complex‧ion 肤色, in the shape of her face, the living image 图片, at that distance and under those circumstances 环境, of the woman in white! The doubt which had troubled my mind for hours and hours past flashed into conviction 定罪 in an instant. That "something wanting" was my own recognition 认识 of the ominous 不祥的 likeness 像 between the fugitive 逃亡 from the asylum 避难所 and my pupil at Limmeridge House.

"You see it!" said Miss Halcombe. She dropped the use‧less 无用 letter, and her eyes flashed as they met mine. "You see it now, as my mother saw it eleven 十一 years since!"

"I see it—more unwillingly 不甘 than I can say. To associate 关联 that forlorn, friend‧less 朋友‧少, lost woman, even by an accidental 偶然 likeness 像 only, with Miss Fairlie, seems like casting 种姓 a shadow on the future of the bright creature who stands looking at us now. Let me lose the impression 印象 again as soon as possible. Call her in, out of the dreary 凄凉 moonlight—pray call her in!"

"Mr. Hartright, you surprise me. Whatever women may be, I thought that men, in the nineteenth century, were above superstition 迷信."

"Pray call her in!"

"Hush, hush 嘘! She is coming of her own accord. Say nothing in her presence. Let this discovery 发现 of the likeness 像 be kept a secret between you and me. Come in, Laura, come in, and wake 醒 Mrs. Vesey with the piano 钢琴. Mr. Hartright is petitioning 请愿 for some more music, and he wants it, this time, of the lightest and liveliest kind."

IX

So ended my eventful first day at Limmeridge House.

Miss Halcombe and I kept our secret. After the discovery of the likeness 像 no fresh light seemed destined 注定 to break over the mystery of the woman in white. At the first safe opportunity Miss Halcombe cautiously 小心的 led her half-sister to speak of their mother, of old times, and of Anne Catherick. Miss Fairlie's recollections 回忆 of the little scholar 学者 at Limmeridge were, however, only of the most vague 模糊 and general kind. She remembered the likeness 像 between her‧self 她自己 and her mother's favourite pupil, as something which had been supposed to exist in past times; but she did not refer to the gift 赠品 of the white dresses, or to the singular 单数 form of words in which the child had artlessly expressed her gratitude 感谢 for them. She remembered that Anne had remained at Limmeridge for a few months only, and had then left it to go back to her home in Hampshire; but she could not say whether the mother and daughter had ever returned, or had ever been heard of after‧ward 之后. No further search, on Miss Halcombe's part, through the few letters of Mrs. Fairlie's writing which she had left unread, assisted 帮助；协助；援助 in clearing up the uncertainties 不确定 still left to perplex 困扰 us. We had identified 鉴定 the unhappy 不快乐 woman whom 谁 I had met in the night-time with Anne Catherick—we had made some advance, at least, towards connecting 连接 the probably defective 缺陷 condition of the poor creature's intellect 智力 with the peculiarity of her being dressed all in white, and with the continuance, in her maturer 成熟的 years, of her childish 幼稚 gratitude 感谢 towards Mrs. Fairlie—and there, so far as we knew at that time, our discoveries had ended.

The days passed on, the weeks passed on, and the track 小路 of the golden autumn wound its bright way visibly through the green summer of the trees. Peaceful, fast-flowing, happy time! my story glides 滑行 by you now as swiftly 如飞 as you once glided 滑行 by me. Of all the treasures 金银财宝 of enjoyment 享受 that you poured 淋；倒 so freely into my heart, how much is left me that has purpose and value enough to be written on this page? Nothing but the saddest 悲哀的 of all confessions 承认 that a man can make—the confession 承认 of his own folly 蠢事.

The secret which that confession discloses 透露 should be told with little effort, for it has indirectly 间接 escaped me already. The poor weak words, which have failed to describe Miss Fairlie, have succeeded in betraying 背叛 the sensations 感觉 she awakened 憬 in me. It is so with us all. Our words are giants 巨人 when they do us an injury 伤, and dwarfs 矮人 when they do us a service.

I loved her.

Ah! how well I know all the sadness 悲 and all the mockery that is contained in those three words. I can sigh 叹 over my mournful confession 3 with the tenderest 纤弱的 woman who reads it and pities 怜悯 me. I can laugh at it as bitterly as the hardest man who tosses 折腾 it from him in con‧tempt 鄙视. I loved her! Feel for me, or despise 讨厌 me, I confess 供认 it with the same immovable resolution 解析度 to own the truth.

Was there no excuse for me? There was some excuse to be found, surely, in the conditions under which my term of hired 聘用 service was passed at Limmeridge House.

My morning hours succeeded each other calmly 镇定的 in the quiet and seclusion of my own room. I had just work enough to do, in mounting my employer's drawings, to keep my hands and eyes pleasurably 愉快的 employed, while my mind was left free to enjoy the dangerous 危险 luxury 豪华 of its own unbridled thoughts. A perilous solitude 孤独, for it lasted long enough to enervate, not long enough to fortify 强化 me. A perilous solitude 孤独, for it was followed by afternoons and evenings spent spend, day after day and week after week alone in the society of two women, one of whom 谁 possessed all the accomplishments 成就 of grace, wit 风趣, and high-breeding 养育；繁殖, the other all the charms of beauty, gentleness, and simple truth, that can purify 净化 and subdue 征服 the heart of man. Not a day passed, in that dangerous 危险 intimacy 亲密关系 of teacher and pupil, in which my hand was not close to Miss Fairlie's; my cheek 脸颊, as we bent together over her sketch 草图-book, almost touching hers. The more attentively she watched every movement 运动 of my brush, the more closely I was breathing the per‧fume 香水 of her hair, and the warm fragrance 香味 of her breath. It was part of my service to live in the very light of her eyes—at one time to be bending over her, so close to her bosom as to tremble at the thought of touching it; at another, to feel her bending over me, bending so close to see what I was about, that her voice sank 淹没:sink low when she spoke to me, and her ribbons 带 brushed my cheek 脸颊 in the wind before she could draw them back.

The evenings which followed the sketching 草图 excursions 短途旅行 of the afternoon varied 变化, rather than checked, these innocent 无辜, these inevitable 必然 familiarities 熟悉. My natural 自然 fondness for the music which she played with such tender 纤弱的 feeling, such delicate womanly taste, and her natural 自然 enjoyment 享受 of giving me back, by the practice of her art, the pleasure which I had offered to her by the practice of mine, only wove another tie which drew us closer and closer to one another. The accidents 意外事件 of conversation; the simple habits which regulated 调节 even such a little thing as the position of our places at table; the play of Miss Halcombe's ever-ready raillery, always directed against my anxiety as teacher, while it sparkled 火花 over her enthusiasm 热情 as pupil; the harm‧less 无害 expression of poor Mrs. Vesey's drowsy approval 批准；同意；赞成, which connected Miss Fairlie and me as two model young people who never disturbed her—every one of these trifles 琐事, and many more, combined to fold 折叠 us together in the same domestic 国内 atmosphere 大气层, and to lead us both insensibly to the same hope‧less 绝望 end.

I should have remembered my position, and have put myself 我 secretly on my guard. I did so, but not till it was too late. All the discretion 慎重, all the experience, which had availed 果 me with other women, and secured 安全 me against other temptations 诱惑, failed me with her. It had been my profession, for years past, to be in this close contact 联系 with young girls of all ages, and of all orders of beauty. I had accepted the position as part of my calling in life; I had trained myself 我 to leave all the sympathies natural 自然 to my age in my employer's outer hall, as coolly as I left my umbrella 雨伞 there before I went upstairs 楼上. I had long since learnt to understand, composedly and as a matter of course, that my situation in life was considered a guarantee 保证 against any of my female pupils feeling more than the most ordinary interest in me, and that I was admitted among beautiful 美丽 and captivating 着迷 women much as a harm‧less 无害 domestic 国内 animal is admitted among them. This guardian 监护人 experience I had gained early; this guardian 监护人 experience had sternly 严肃 and strictly 严格的 guided me straight along my own poor narrow path 小路, without once letting me stray 流浪 aside, to the right hand or to the left. And now I and my trusty talisman were parted for the first time. Yes, my hardly-earned self-control was as completely lost to me as if I had never possessed it; lost to me, as it is lost every day to other men, in other critical 危急 situations, where women are concerned. I know, now, that I should have questioned myself 我 from the first. I should have asked why any room in the house was better than home to me when she entered it, and barren 荒芜 as a desert 沙漠；抛弃 when she went out again—why I always noticed and remembered the little changes in her dress that I had noticed and remembered in no other woman's before—why I saw her, heard her, and touched her (when we shook hands at night and morning) as I had never seen, heard, and touched any other woman in my life? I should have looked into my own heart, and found this new growth springing up there, and plucked 采摘 it out while it was young. Why was this easiest, simplest work of self-culture 文化 always too much for me? The explanation 说明 has been written already in the three words that were many enough, and plain enough, for my confession. I loved her.

The days passed, the weeks passed; it was approaching the third month of my stay in Cumberland. The delicious 美味的 monotony of life in our calm seclusion flowed on with me, like a smooth stream with a swimmer 游泳 who glides 滑行 down the current. All memory of the past, all thought of the future, all sense of the falseness and hopelessness of my own position, lay hushed 嘘 within me into deceitful rest. Lulled by the Syren-song that my own heart sung to me, with eyes shut to all sight, and ears closed to all sound of danger, I drifted 漂移 nearer and nearer to the fatal 致命 rocks. The warning that aroused 引起 me at last, and startled 惊吓 me into sudden, self-accusing 指责 consciousness 意识 of my own weakness 弱点, was the plainest, the truest, the kindest of all warnings, for it came silently from her.

We had parted one night as usual. No word had fallen fall from my lips, at that time or at any time before it, that could betray 背叛 me, or startle 惊吓 her into sudden knowledge of the truth. But when we met again in the morning, a change had come over her—a change that told me all.

I shrank then—I shrink still—from invading 入侵 the inner‧most 里面的‧最 sanctuary 避难所 of her heart, and laying it open to others, as I have laid open my own. Let it be enough to say that the time when she first surprised my secret was, I firmly believe, the time when she first surprised her own, and the time, also, when she changed towards me in the interval 间隔 of one night. Her nature, too truthful 真实 to deceive 欺诈 others, was too noble 高尚的 to deceive itself 本身. When the doubt that I had hushed 嘘 asleep 睡着的 first laid its weary 厌倦 weight on her heart, the true face owned all, and said, in its own frank 坦率, simple language—I am sorry 对不起的 for him; I am sorry for myself 我.

It said this, and more, which I could not then interpret 翻译，弄清含义. I understood understand but too well the change in her manner, to greater kindness 善良 and quicker readiness 准备就绪 in interpreting 翻译，弄清含义 all my wishes, before others—to constraint 约束 and sadness 悲, and nervous 5 anxiety to absorb 吸收 her‧self 她自己 in the first occupation 占用 she could seize 抓住 on, whenever we happened to be left together alone. I understood why the sweet sensitive lips smiled so rarely 很少；不常见；难得 and so restrainedly now, and why the clear blue eyes looked at me, sometimes with the pity 怜悯 of an angel 天使, sometimes with the innocent 无辜 perplexity of a child. But the change meant more than this. There was a coldness in her hand, there was an unnatural 不自然 immobility in her face, there was in all her movements 运动 the mute 静音 expression of constant 不变 fear and clinging 依偎 self-reproach 责备. The sensations 感觉 that I could trace 跟踪 to her‧self 她自己 and to me, the unacknowledged sensations 感觉 that we were feeling in common, were not these. There were certain elements 元件 of the change in her that were still secretly drawing us together, and others that were, as secretly, beginning to drive us apart 相隔.

In my doubt and perplexity, in my vague 模糊 suspicion 怀疑 of something hidden hide which I was left to find by my own unaided efforts, I examined Miss Halcombe's looks and manner for enlightenment 启示. Living in such intimacy 亲密关系 as ours, no serious alteration 改造 could take place in any one of us which did not sympathetically 同情的 affect 影响 the others. The change in Miss Fairlie was reflected in her half-sister. Although not a word escaped Miss Halcombe which hinted 暗示 at an altered state of feeling towards myself 我, her penetrating 穿透 eyes had contracted 合同 a new habit 习惯 of always watching me. Sometimes the look was like sup‧press 压制 anger 生气, sometimes like sup‧press 压制 dread 恐惧, sometimes like neither—like nothing, in short, which I could understand. A week elapsed 过去, leaving us all three still in this position of secret constraint 约束 towards one another. My situation, aggravated 加剧 by the sense of my own miserable 悲惨的 weakness 弱点 and forgetfulness of myself 我, now too late awakened 憬 in me, was becoming intolerable 无法忍受. I felt that I must cast 投 off the oppression 压迫 under which I was living, at once and for ever—yet how to act for the best, or what to say first, was more than I could tell.

From this position of helplessness and humiliation 屈辱 I was rescued 营救 by Miss Halcombe. Her lips told me the bitter, the necessary, the unexpected 意外 truth; her hearty 爽朗 kindness 善良 sustained 维持；遭受 me under the shock of hearing it; her sense and courage 勇气 turned to its right use an event which threatened the worst 生病:ill that could happen, to me and to others, in Limmeridge House.

X

It was on a Thursday in the week, and nearly at the end of the third month of my sojourn in Cumberland.

In the morning, when I went down into the breakfast-room at the usual hour, Miss Halcombe, for the first time since I had known her, was absent 缺席的 from her customary 习惯的 place at the table.

Miss Fairlie was out on the lawn 草坪. She bowed to me, but did not come in. Not a word had dropped from my lips, or from hers, that could unsettle 搞糟 either of us—and yet the same unacknowledged sense of embarrassment 困窘 made us shrink alike 同样的 from meeting one another alone. She waited on the lawn 草坪, and I waited in the breakfast-room, till Mrs. Vesey or Miss Halcombe came in. How quickly I should have joined her: how readily we should have shaken shake hands, and glided 滑行 into our customary 3 talk, only a fort‧night 两星期 ago.

In a few minutes Miss Halcombe entered. She had a pre‧occupy 全神贯注 look, and she made her apologies for being late rather absently.

"I have been detained 扣留," she said, "by a consultation 会诊 with Mr. Fairlie on a domestic 国内 matter which he wished to speak to me about."

Miss Fairlie came in from the garden, and the usual morning greeting 欢迎 passed between us. Her hand struck colder to mine than ever. She did not look at me, and she was very pale. Even Mrs. Vesey noticed it when she entered the room a moment after.

"I suppose it is the change in the wind," said the old lady. "The winter is coming—ah, my love, the winter is coming soon!"

In her heart and in mine it had come already!

Our morning meal 餐—once so full of pleasant good-humoured discussion of the plans for the day—was short and silent. Miss Fairlie seemed to feel the oppression 压迫 of the long pauses 暂停 in the conversation, and looked appealingly to her sister to fill them up. Miss Halcombe, after once or twice 两次 hesitating 犹豫 and checking her‧self 她自己, in a most uncharacteristic manner, spoke at last.

"I have seen your uncle this morning, Laura," she said. "He thinks the purple 紫色的 room is the one that ought to be got ready, and he confirms 确认 what I told you. Monday is the day—not Tuesday."

While these words were being spoken Miss Fairlie looked down at the table beneath 之下 her. Her fingers moved nervously 担心的 among the crumbs 屑 that were scattered on the cloth. The paleness on her cheeks 脸颊 spread to her lips, and the lips themselves trembled visibly. I was not the only person present who noticed this. Miss Halcombe saw it, too, and at once set us the example of rising from table.

Mrs. Vesey and Miss Fairlie left the room together. The kind sorrowful blue eyes looked at me, for a moment, with the prescient sadness 悲 of a coming and a long fare‧well 告别. I felt the answering pang in my own heart—the pang that told me I must lose her soon, and love her the more unchangeably for the loss.

I turned towards the garden when the door had closed on her. Miss Halcombe was standing with her hat in her hand, and her shawl over her arm, by the large window that led out to the lawn 草坪, and was looking at me attentively.

"Have you any leisure 闲暇 time to spare 节省；多余的；备用件," she asked, "before you begin to work in your own room?"

"Certainly, Miss Halcombe. I have always time at your service."

"I want to say a word to you in private, Mr. Hartright. Get your hat and come out into the garden. We are not likely to be disturbed there at this hour in the morning."

As we stepped out on to the lawn 草坪, one of the under-gardeners 园丁—a mere lad 小伙子—passed us on his way to the house, with a letter in his hand. Miss Halcombe stopped him.

"Is that letter for me?" she asked.

"Nay, miss; it's just said to be for Miss Fairlie," answered the lad 小伙子, holding out the letter as he spoke.

Miss Halcombe took it from him and looked at the address.

"A strange hand‧write 书法," she said to her‧self 她自己. "Who can Laura's correspondent 通信者 be? Where did you get this?" she continued, addressing the gardener.

"Well, miss," said the lad 小伙子, "I just got it from a woman."

"What woman?"

"A woman well stricken in age."

"Oh, an old woman. Any one you knew?"

"I canna' tak' it on mysel' to say that she was other than a stranger to me."

"Which way did she go?"

"That gate," said the under-gardener, turning with great deliberation 审议 towards the south, and embracing 拥抱 the whole of that part of England with one comprehensive 全面的；综合的；详尽的 sweep of his arm.

"Curious," said Miss Halcombe; "I suppose it must be a begging 乞讨-letter. There," she added, handing the letter back to the lad 小伙子, "take it to the house, and give it to one of the servants. And now, Mr. Hartright, if you have no objection 反对, let us walk this way."

She led me across the lawn 草坪, along the same path by which I had followed her on the day after my arrival 到达 at Limmeridge.

At the little summer-house, in which Laura Fairlie and I had first seen each other, she stopped, and broke the silence which she had steadily maintained 保持 while we were walking together.

"What I have to say to you I can say here."

With those words she entered the summer-house, took one of the chairs at the little round table inside, and signed to me to take the other. I suspected 怀疑；嫌疑犯 what was coming when she spoke to me in the breakfast-room; I felt certain of it now.

"Mr. Hartright," she said, "I am going to begin by making a frank 坦率 avowal to you. I am going to say—without phrase 短语-making, which I detest, or paying compliments 赞扬, which I heartily 爽朗 despise 讨厌—that I have come, in the course of your residence 住宅 with us, to feel a strong friendly regard for you. I was predisposed in your favour when you first told me of your conduct 进行 towards that unhappy 不快乐 woman whom 4 you met under such remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 circumstances 环境. Your management 管理 of the affair might not have been prudent 谨慎, but it showed the self-control, the delicacy 美味, and the compassion 同情 of a man who was naturally 4 a gentleman. It made me expect good things from you, and you have not disappointed 使失望 my expectations 期望."

She paused—but held up her hand at the same time, as a sign that she awaited 等待 no answer from me before she proceeded 继续. When I entered the summer-house, no thought was in me of the woman in white. But now, Miss Halcombe's own words had put the memory of my adventure back in my mind. It remained there through‧out 始终 the interview 访问—remained, and not without a result.

"As your friend," she proceeded 继续, "I am going to tell you, at once, in my own plain, blunt 钝, down‧right 彻头彻尾 language, that I have discovered your secret—without help or hint 暗示, mind, from any one else. Mr. Hartright, you have thoughtlessly allowed your‧self 你自己 to form an attachment 附件—a serious and devoted attachment 附件 I am afraid—to my sister Laura. I don't put you to the pain of confessing 供认 it in so many words, because I see and know that you are too honest 诚实的 to deny 拒绝 it. I don't even blame 指责 you—I pity 怜悯 you for opening your heart to a hope‧less 绝望 affect‧ion 感情. You have not attempted to take any under‧hand 在…下面‧手 advantage—you have not spoken to my sister in secret. You are guilty 有罪的；内疚的 of weakness 弱点 and want of attention to your own best interests, but of nothing worse. If you had acted, in any single respect, less delicately and less modestly 谦虚的, I should have told you to leave the house without an instant's notice, or an instant's consultation 会诊 of anybody. As it is, I blame the misfortune 不幸 of your years and your position—I don't blame you. Shake hands—I have given you pain; I am going to give you more, but there is no help for it—shake hands with your friend, Marian Halcombe, first."

The sudden kindness 善良—the warm, high-minded, fear‧less 害怕‧少 sympathy which met me on such mercifully equal terms, which appealed 上诉 with such delicate and generous 慷慨的 abruptness straight to my heart, my honour, and my courage 勇气, overcame me in an instant. I tried to look at her when she took my hand, but my eyes were dim 暗淡. I tried to thank her, but my voice failed me.

"Listen to me," she said, considerately avoiding all notice of my loss of self-control. "Listen to me, and let us get it over at once. It is a real true relief to me that I am not obliged 责成, in what I have now to say, to enter into the question—the hard and cruel 残酷的 question as I think it—of social inequalities 不等式. Circumstances which will try you to the quick, spare 3 me the ungracious necessity 必须 of paining a man who has lived in friendly intimacy 亲密关系 under the same roof with myself 我 by any humiliating 羞辱 reference to matters of rank and station. You must leave Limmeridge House, Mr. Hartright, before more harm 损害 is done. It is my duty to say that to you; and it would be equally my duty to say it, under precisely 精确地 the same serious necessity, if you were the representative of the oldest and wealthiest family in England. You must leave us, not because you are a teacher of drawing——"

She waited a moment, turned her face full on me, and reaching across the table, laid her hand firmly on my arm.

"Not because you are a teacher of drawing," she repeated, "but because Laura Fairlie is engaged 从事 to be married."

The last word went like a bullet 子弹 to my heart. My arm lost all sensation 感觉 of the hand that grasped 把握 it. I never moved and never spoke. The sharp autumn breeze 微风 that scattered the dead leaves at our feet came as cold to me, on a sudden, as if my own mad hopes were dead leaves too, whirled 旋转 away by the wind like the rest. Hopes! Betrothed, or not betrothed, she was equally far from me. Would other men have remembered that in my place? Not if they had loved her as I did.

The pang passed, and nothing but the dull 钝的；没兴趣 numbing 麻木 pain of it remained. I felt Miss Halcombe's hand again, tightening its hold on my arm—I raised my head and looked at her. Her large black eyes were rooted on me, watching the white change on my face, which I felt, and which she saw.

" Crush 压破 it!" she said. "Here, where you first saw her, crush it! Don't shrink under it like a woman. Tear it out; trample 践踏 it under foot like a man!"

The sup‧press 压制 vehemence with which she spoke, the strength which her will—concentrated 集中 in the look she fixed on me, and in the hold on my arm that she had not yet relinquished 放弃—communicated 通信 to mine, steadied me. We both waited for a minute in silence. At the end of that time I had justified her generous 慷慨的 faith in my man‧hood 男人‧引擎罩—I had, outwardly 向外的 at least, recovered 恢复 my self-control.

"Are you your‧self 你自己 again?"

"Enough myself 我, Miss Halcombe, to ask your pardon 宽恕；说啥？ and hers. Enough myself 我 to be guided by your advice, and to prove my gratitude 感谢 in that way, if I can prove it in no other."

"You have proved it already," she answered, "by those words. Mr. Hartright, concealment is at an end between us. I cannot affect 影响 to hide from you what my sister has unconsciously 不知不觉 shown to me. You must leave us for her sake, as well as for your own. Your presence here, your necessary intimacy 亲密关系 with us, harm‧less 无害 as it has been, God knows, in all other respects, has unsteadied her and made her wretched 不幸的人. I, who love her better than my own life—I, who have learnt to believe in that pure, noble 高尚的, innocent 无辜 nature as I believe in my religion—know but too well the secret misery 痛苦 of self-reproach 责备 that she has been suffering since the first shadow of a feeling disloyal to her marriage engagement 订婚 entered her heart in spite 恶意 of her. I don't say—it would be use‧less 无用 to attempt to say it after what has happened—that her engagement 订婚 has ever had a strong hold on her affect‧ion 感情. It is an engagement 订婚 of honour, not of love; her father sanctioned 制裁 it on his death‧bed 死亡‧床, two years since; she her‧self 她自己 neither welcomed it nor shrank from it—she was content to make it. Till you came here she was in the position of hundreds 百 of other women, who marry men without being greatly attracted to them or greatly repelled 击退 by them, and who learn to love them (when they don't learn to hate!) after marriage, instead of before. I hope more earnestly than words can say—and you should have the self-sacrificing 牺牲 courage 勇气 to hope too—that the new thoughts and feelings which have disturbed the old calmness and the old content have not taken root too deeply to be ever removed 去掉. Your absence (if I had less belief in your honour, and your courage 3, and your sense, I should not trust to them as I am trusting now) your absence will help my efforts, and time will help us all three. It is something to know that my first confidence 信心 in you was not all misplaced 错位. It is something to know that you will not be less honest 诚实的, less manly, less considerate towards the pupil whose relation to your‧self 你自己 you have had the misfortune 不幸 to forget, than towards the stranger and the out‧cast 出‧演员 whose appeal 上诉 to you was not made in vain 徒劳的."

Again the chance reference to the woman in white! Was there no possibility 可能性 of speaking of Miss Fairlie and of me without raising the memory of Anne Catherick, and setting her between us like a fatality 病死率 that it was hope‧less 绝望 to avoid?

"Tell me what apology 道歉认错 I can make to Mr. Fairlie for breaking my engagement 订婚," I said. "Tell me when to go after that apology is accepted. I promise implicit 含蓄 obedience 遵守 to you and to your advice."

"Time is every way of importance," she answered. "You heard me refer this morning to Monday next, and to the necessity of setting the purple 紫色的 room in order. The visitor 访问者 whom 5 we expect on Monday——"

I could not wait for her to be more explicit 明确的. Knowing what I knew now, the memory of Miss Fairlie's look and manner at the breakfast-table told me that the expected visitor at Limmeridge House was her future husband. I tried to force it back; but something rose within me at that moment stronger than my own will, and I interrupted Miss Halcombe.

"Let me go to-day," I said bitterly. "The sooner the better."

"No, not to-day," she replied. "The only reason you can assign 分配 to Mr. Fairlie for your departure 离开, before the end of your engagement 订婚, must be that an unforeseen necessity compels 迫使 you to ask his per‧mission 允许 to return at once to London. You must wait till to-morrow to tell him that, at the time when the post comes in, because he will then understand the sudden change in your plans, by associating 关联 it with the arrival 到达 of a letter from London. It is miserable 悲惨的 and sickening 厌恨 to descend 下来 to deceit 欺骗, even of the most harm‧less 无害 kind—but I know Mr. Fairlie, and if you once excite his suspicions 怀疑 that you are trifling 琐事 with him, he will refuse to release 发布 you. Speak to him on Friday morning: occupy 占据 your‧self 你自己 after‧ward 之后 (for the sake of your own interests with your employer) in leaving your unfinished 未完成 work in as little confusion as possible, and quit 放弃 this place on Saturday. It will be time enough then, Mr. Hartright, for you, and for all of us."

Before I could assure 向…保证；肯定地说 her that she might depend on my acting in the strictest 严格的 accordance 按照 with her wishes, we were both startled 惊吓 by advancing foot‧step 脚步 in the shrubbery. Some one was coming from the house to seek 寻求 for us! I felt the blood rush 仓促 into my cheeks 脸颊 and then leave them again. Could the third person who was fast approaching us, at such a time and under such circumstances 环境, be Miss Fairlie?

It was a relief—so sadly, so hope‧less 绝望地 was my position towards her changed already—it was absolutely a relief to me, when the person who had disturbed us appeared at the entrance of the summer-house, and proved to be only Miss Fairlie's maid 女佣.

"Could I speak to you for a moment, miss?" said the girl, in rather a flurried 慌张, unsettled 搞糟 manner.

Miss Halcombe descended the steps into the shrubbery, and walked aside a few paces with the maid 女佣.

Left by myself 我, my mind reverted 还原, with a sense of forlorn wretchedness which it is not in any words that I can find to describe, to my approaching return to the solitude 孤独 and the despair 绝望 of my lonely London home. Thoughts of my kind old mother, and of my sister, who had rejoiced 欢庆 with her so innocently 无辜 over my prospects 展望 in Cumberland—thoughts whose long banishment from my heart it was now my shame 羞愧 and my reproach 责备 to realise for the first time—came back to me with the loving mournfulness of old, neglected 疏忽 friends. My mother and my sister, what would they feel when I returned to them from my broken engagement 订婚, with the confession of my miserable 悲惨的 secret—they who had parted from me so hopefully 希望 on that last happy night in the Hampstead cottage!

Anne Catherick again! Even the memory of the fare‧well 告别 evening with my mother and my sister could not return to me now unconnected with that other memory of the moonlight walk back to London. What did it mean? Were that woman and I to meet once more? It was possible, at the least. Did she know that I lived in London? Yes; I had told her so, either before or after that strange question of hers, when she had asked me so distrust‧fully 怀疑‧完全地 if I knew many men of the rank of Baronet. Either before or after—my mind was not calm enough, then, to remember which.

A few minutes elapsed 过去 before Miss Halcombe dismissed 解雇 the maid 女佣 and came back to me. She, too, looked flurried 慌张 and unsettled 搞糟 now.

"We have arranged all that is necessary, Mr. Hartright," she said. "We have understood each other, as friends should, and we may go back at once to the house. To tell you the truth, I am uneasy 不安 about Laura. She has sent to say she wants to see me directly, and the maid 女佣 reports that her mistress 情妇 is apparently very much agitated 激荡 by a letter that she has received this morning—the same letter, no doubt, which I sent on to the house before we came here."

We retraced our steps together hastily 草草 along the shrubbery path. Although Miss Halcombe had ended all that she thought it necessary to say on her side, I had not ended all that I wanted to say on mine. From the moment when I had discovered that the expected visitor at Limmeridge was Miss Fairlie's future husband, I had felt a bitter curiosity 好奇心, a burning envious eagerness, to know who he was. It was possible that a future opportunity of putting the question might not easily offer, so I risked asking it on our way back to the house.

"Now that you are kind enough to tell me we have understood each other, Miss Halcombe," I said, "now that you are sure of my gratitude 感谢 for your forbearance and my obedience 遵守 to your wishes, may I venture 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 to ask who"—(I hesitated—I had forced myself 我 to think of him, but it was harder still to speak of him, as her promised husband)—"who the gentleman engaged 从事 to Miss Fairlie is?"

Her mind was evidently 明显地 occupied 占据 with the message she had received from her sister. She answered in a hasty 匆, absent 缺席的 way—

"A gentleman of large property in Hampshire."

Hampshire! Anne Catherick's native 本土的 place. Again, and yet again, the woman in white. There was a fatality 病死率 in it.

"And his name?" I said, as quietly and indifferently 冷漠 as I could.

"Sir Percival Glyde."

Sir—Sir Percival! Anne Catherick's question—that suspicious 可疑的 question about the men of the rank of Baronet whom I might happen to know—had hardly been dismissed from my mind by Miss Halcombe's return to me in the summer-house, before it was recalled 召回 again by her own answer. I stopped suddenly, and looked at her.

"Sir Percival Glyde," she repeated, imagining that I had not heard her former reply.

"Knight, or Baronet?" I asked, with an agitation 搅动 that I could hide no longer.

She paused for a moment, and then answered, rather coldly—

"Baronet, of course."

XI

Not a word more was said, on either side, as we walked back to the house. Miss Halcombe hastened 加速 immediately to her sister's room, and I withdrew to my studio 工作室 to set in order all of Mr. Fairlie's drawings that I had not yet mounted and restored 修复；使复位；使复职 before I resigned them to the care of other hands. Thoughts that I had hitherto 迄今 rest‧rain 抑制, thoughts that made my position harder than ever to endure 忍受, crowded on me now that I was alone.

She was engaged 从事 to be married, and her future husband was Sir Percival Glyde. A man of the rank of Baronet, and the owner of property in Hampshire.

There were hundreds 百 of baronets in England, and dozens of land‧owner 地主 in Hampshire. Judging by the ordinary rules of evidence 证据, I had not the shadow of a reason, thus far, for connecting Sir Percival Glyde with the suspicious 可疑的 words of inquiry 调查 that had been spoken to me by the woman in white. And yet, I did connect 连接 him with them. Was it because he had now become associated 关联 in my mind with Miss Fairlie, Miss Fairlie being, in her turn, associated 关联 with Anne Catherick, since the night when I had discovered the ominous 不祥的 likeness 像 between them? Had the events of the morning so unnerved me already that I was at the mercy 宽容 of any delusion 妄想 which common chances and common coincidences 巧合 might suggest to my imagination 想像力? Impossible to say. I could only feel that what had passed between Miss Halcombe and myself 我, on our way from the summer-house, had affected 影响 me very strangely. The foreboding of some undiscoverable danger lying hid hide from us all in the darkness 黑暗 of the future was strong on me. The doubt whether I was not linked 链接 already to a chain of events which even my approaching departure 离开 from Cumberland would be power‧less 无力 to snap 卡 asunder—the doubt whether we any of us saw the end as the end would really be—gathered more and more darkly over my mind. Poignant as it was, the sense of suffering caused by the miserable 3 end of my brief 简要, presumptuous love seemed to be blunted 钝 and deadened by the still stronger sense of something obscurely 朦胧 impending 即将发生, something invisibly 无形 threatening, that Time was holding over our heads.

I had been engaged 从事 with the drawings little more than half an hour, when there was a knock 敲 at the door. It opened, on my answering; and, to my surprise, Miss Halcombe entered the room.

Her manner was angry 生气的 and agitated 激荡. She caught up a chair for her‧self 她自己 before I could give her one, and sat down in it, close at my side.

"Mr. Hartright," she said, "I had hoped that all painful 痛苦 subjects of conversation were exhausted 排气 between us, for to-day at least. But it is not to be so. There is some under‧hand 在…下面‧手 villainy at work to frighten 使惊恐 my sister about her approaching marriage. You saw me send the gardener on to the house, with a letter addressed, in a strange hand‧write 书法, to Miss Fairlie?"

"Certainly."

"The letter is an anonymous 匿名 letter—a vile attempt to injure 损伤 Sir Percival Glyde in my sister's estimation 估计. It has so agitated 激荡 and alarmed 警告 her that I have had the greatest possible difficulty in composing her spirits sufficiently 充分地 to allow me to leave her room and come here. I know this is a family matter on which I ought not to consult 咨询；请教；查阅 you, and in which you can feel no concern or interest——"

"I beg your pardon 宽恕；说啥？, Miss Halcombe. I feel the strongest possible concern and interest in anything that affects 影响 Miss Fairlie's happiness 幸福 or yours."

"I am glad to hear you say so. You are the only person in the house, or out of it, who can advise me. Mr. Fairlie, in his state of health and with his horror 恐怖 of difficulties and mysteries of all kinds, is not to be thought of. The clergy‧man 牧师 is a good, weak man, who knows nothing out of the routine 惯例，常规；例行公事 of his duties; and our neighbours are just the sort of comfort‧able 舒服；自在, jog 慢跑-trot 小跑 acquaintances 熟人 whom one cannot disturb 打扰 in times of trouble and danger. What I want to know is this: ought I at once to take such steps as I can to discover the writer of the letter? or ought I to wait, and apply to Mr. Fairlie's legal 法律 adviser 顾问 to-morrow? It is a question—perhaps a very important one—of gaining or losing a day. Tell me what you think, Mr. Hartright. If necessity had not already obliged 责成 me to take you into my confidence under very delicate circumstances 环境, even my help‧less 无助 situation would, perhaps, be no excuse for me. But as things are I cannot surely be wrong, after all that has passed between us, in forgetting that you are a friend of only three months' standing."

She gave me the letter. It began abruptly 突然, without any preliminary 初步 form of address, as follows—

"Do you believe in dreams? I hope, for your own sake, that you do. See what Scripture says about dreams and their fulfilment (Genesis xl. 8, xli. 25; Daniel iv. 18-25), and take the warning I send you before it is too late.

"Last night I dreamed dream about you, Miss Fairlie. I dreamed that I was standing inside the communion 交往 rails 围栏；钢轨 of a church—I on one side of the altar 坛-table, and the clergy‧man 牧师, with his surplice and his prayer-book, on the other.

"After a time there walked towards us, down the aisle 走道 of the church, a man and a woman, coming to be married. You were the woman. You looked so pretty and innocent 无辜 in your beautiful 美丽 white silk 丝 dress, and your long white lace 花边 veil 面纱, that my heart felt for you, and the tears came into my eyes.

"They were tears of pity 怜悯, young lady, that heaven blesses 祝福 and instead of falling from my eyes like the every‧day 日常的 tears that we all of us shed, they turned into two rays of light which slanted 倾斜 nearer and nearer to the man standing at the altar 坛 with you, till they touched his breast 乳房. The two rays sprang ill arches 弓形 like two rain‧bow 彩虹 between me and him. I looked along them, and I saw down into his inmost heart.

"The outside of the man you were marrying was fair enough to see. He was neither tall nor short—he was a little below the middle size. A light, active, high-spirited man—about five-and-forty 四十 years old, to look at. He had a pale face, and was bald 秃 over the fore‧head 前额, but had dark hair on the rest of his head. His beard 胡须 was shaven on his chin 下巴, but was let to grow, of a fine rich brown, on his cheeks 脸颊 and his upper lip. His eyes were brown too, and very bright; his nose straight and hand‧some 英俊 and delicate enough to have done for a woman's. His hands the same. He was troubled from time to time with a dry hacking 劈 cough 咳嗽, and when he put up his white right hand to his mouth, he showed the red scar 瘢痕 of an old wound across the back of it. Have I dreamt dream of the right man? You know best, Miss Fairlie and you can say if I was deceived 欺诈 or not. Read next, what I saw beneath the outside—I entreat you, read, and profit.

"I looked along the two rays of light, and I saw down into his inmost heart. It was black as night, and on it were written, in the red flaming 火焰 letters which are the hand‧write 书法 of the fallen angel 天使, 'Without pity 3 and without remorse 悔恨. He has strewn with misery 痛苦 the paths of others, and he will live to strew 肸 with misery the path of this woman by his side.' I read that, and then the rays of light shifted 转移 and pointed over his shoulder; and there, behind him, stood a fiend laughing. And the rays of light shifted 转移 once more, and pointed over your shoulder; and there behind you, stood an angel 天使 weeping 哭泣. And the rays of light shifted 转移 for the third time, and pointed straight between you and that man. They widened 放宽 and widened, thrusting 推力 you both asunder, one from the other. And the clergy‧man 牧师 looked for the marriage-service in vain 徒劳的: it was gone out of the book, and he shut up the leaves, and put it from him in despair 3. And I woke 醒:wake with my eyes full of tears and my heart beating—for I believe in dreams.

"Believe too, Miss Fairlie—I beg of you, for your own sake, believe as I do. Joseph and Daniel, and others in Scripture, believed in dreams. Inquire 打听 into the past life of that man with the scar 瘢痕 on his hand, before you say the words that make you his miserable wife. I don't give you this warning on my account, but on yours. I have an interest in your well-being that will live as long as I draw breath. Your mother's daughter has a tender 纤弱的 place in my heart—for your mother was my first, my best, my only friend."

There the extraordinary letter ended, without signature 签名 of any sort.

The hand‧write 书法 afforded no prospect 展望 of a clue 线索. It was traced 跟踪 on ruled lines, in the cramped 抽筋, conventional 传统的；常规的；普通的, copy-book character technically 技术上 termed "small hand." It was feeble 微弱 and faint 微弱的, and defaced by blots 斑点, but had otherwise nothing to distinguish it.

"That is not an illiterate 文盲 letter," said Miss Halcombe, "and at the same time, it is surely too incoherent to be the letter of an educated person in the higher ranks 排列 of life. The reference to the bridal dress and veil 面纱, and other little expressions, seem to point to it as the production of some woman. What do you think, Mr. Hartright?"

"I think so too. It seems to me to be not only the letter of a woman, but of a woman whose mind must be——"

"Deranged?" suggested Miss Halcombe. "It struck me in that light too."

I did not answer. While I was speaking, my eyes rested on the last sentence of the letter: "Your mother's daughter has a tender 3 place in my heart—for your mother was my first, my best, my only friend." Those words and the doubt which had just escaped me as to the sanity 明智 of the writer of the letter, acting together on my mind, suggested an idea, which I was literally 按照字面 afraid to express openly, or even to encourage secretly. I began to doubt whether my own faculties 学院 were not in danger of losing their balance. It seemed almost like a monomania to be tracing 跟踪 back everything strange that happened, everything unexpected 意外 that was said, always to the same hidden hide source 资源 and the same sinister 险恶 influence. I resolved 解决, this time, in defence of my own courage and my own sense, to come to no decision that plain fact did not war‧rant 保证, and to turn my back resolutely on everything that tempted me in the shape of surmise.

"If we have any chance of tracing 跟踪 the person who has written this," I said, returning the letter to Miss Halcombe, "there can be no harm 损害 in seizing 抓住 our opportunity the moment it offers. I think we ought to speak to the gardener again about the elderly woman who gave him the letter, and then to continue our inquiries in the village. But first let me ask a question. You mentioned just now the alter‧native 替代 of consulting Mr. Fairlie's legal 法律 adviser 顾问 to-morrow. Is there no possibility 可能性 of communicating 通信 with him earlier? Why not to-day?"

"I can only explain," replied Miss Halcombe, "by entering into certain particulars, connected with my sister's marriage-engagement 订婚, which I did not think it necessary or desirable 合意 to mention to you this morning. One of Sir Percival Glyde's objects in coming here on Monday, is to fix the period of his marriage, which has hitherto 迄今 been left quite unsettled 搞糟. He is anxious 焦急的 that the event should take place before the end of the year."

"Does Miss Fairlie know of that wish?" I asked eagerly.

"She has no suspicion 3 of it, and after what has happened, I shall not take the responsibility 责任 upon myself 我 of enlightening 开导 her. Sir Percival has only mentioned his views to Mr. Fairlie, who has told me himself that he is ready and anxious 3, as Laura's guardian 监护人, to forward them. He has written to London, to the family solicitor 律师, Mr. Gilmore. Mr. Gilmore happens to be away in Glasgow on business, and he has replied by proposing to stop at Limmeridge House on his way back to town. He will arrive to-morrow, and will stay with us a few days, so as to allow Sir Percival time to plead 求情 his own cause. If he succeeds, Mr. Gilmore will then return to London, taking with him his instructions 指令 for my sister's marriage-settlement 沉降. You understand now, Mr. Hartright, why I speak of waiting to take legal 法律 advice until to-morrow? Mr. Gilmore is the old and tried friend of two generations 代 of Fairlies, and we can trust him, as we could trust no one else."

The marriage-settlement 沉降! The mere hearing of those two words stung 叮:sting me with a jealous 妒忌的 despair that was poison 毒药 to my higher and better instincts 直觉. I began to think—it is hard to confess 3 this, but I must sup‧press 压制 nothing from beginning to end of the terrible story that I now stand committed 承诺 to reveal 揭示—I began to think, with a hateful eagerness of hope, of the vague 模糊 charges against Sir Percival Glyde which the anonymous 匿名 letter contained. What if those wild accusations 指控 rested on a foundation 基础 of truth? What if their truth could be proved before the fatal 致命 words of consent 同意 were spoken, and the marriage-settlement 沉降 was drawn? I have tried to think since, that the feeling which then animated 活跃 me began and ended in pure devotion 忠诚 to Miss Fairlie's interests, but I have never succeeded in deceiving 欺诈 myself 我 into believing it, and I must not now attempt to deceive 欺诈 others. The feeling began and ended in reckless 鲁莽, vindictive, hope‧less 绝望 hatred 仇恨 of the man who was to marry her.

"If we are to find out anything," I said, speaking under the new influence which was now directing me, "we had better not let another minute slip by us unemployed 失业的. I can only suggest, once more, the propriety of questioning the gardener a second time, and of inquiring 打听 in the village immediately after‧ward 之后."

"I think I may be of help to you in both cases," said Miss Halcombe, rising. "Let us go, Mr. Hartright, at once, and do the best we can together."

I had the door in my hand to open it for her—but I stopped, on a sudden, to ask an important question before we set forth.

"One of the paragraphs 段 of the anonymous 匿名 letter," I said, "contains some sentences of minute personal 个人 description. Sir Percival Glyde's name is not mentioned, I know—but does that description at all resemble 类似 him?"

"Accurately—even in stating his age to be forty 四十-five——"

Forty-five; and she was not yet twenty 二十-one! Men of his age married wives of her age every day—and experience had shown those marriages to be often the happiest ones. I knew that—and yet even the mention of his age, when I contrasted 对比 it with hers, added to my blind hatred 仇恨 and distrust 怀疑 of him.

"Accurately," Miss Halcombe continued, "even to the scar 瘢痕 on his right hand, which is the scar 瘢痕 of a wound that he received years since when he was travelling in Italy. There can be no doubt that every peculiarity of his personal 个人 appearance is thoroughly well known to the writer of the letter."

"Even a cough 咳嗽 that he is troubled with is mentioned, if I remember right?"

"Yes, and mentioned correctly. He treats it lightly himself, though it sometimes makes his friends anxious about him."

"I suppose no whispers 低声说 have ever been heard against his character?"

"Mr. Hartright! I hope you are not unjust 不公 enough to let that infamous 臭名昭著 letter influence you?"

I felt the blood rush into my cheeks 脸颊, for I knew that it had influenced me.

"I hope not," I answered confusedly. "Perhaps I had no right to ask the question."

"I am not sorry you asked it," she said, "for it enables 启用 me to do justice to Sir Percival's reputation 名气. Not a whisper 低声说, Mr. Hartright, has ever reached me, or my family, against him. He has fought fight successfully 顺利 two contested 比赛 elections, and has come out of the ordeal 考验 unscathed. A man who can do that, in England, is a man whose character is established 建立."

I opened the door for her in silence, and followed her out. She had not convinced 说服 me. If the recording angel 天使 had come down from heaven to confirm 确认 her, and had opened his book to my mortal 凡人 eyes, the recording angel 天使 would not have convinced 说服 me.

We found the gardener at work as usual. No amount of questioning could extract 提取 a single answer of any importance from the lad 小伙子's impenetrable stupidity 糊涂事. The woman who had given him the letter was an elderly woman; she had not spoken a word to him, and she had gone away towards the south in a great hurry. That was all the gardener could tell us.

The village lay south‧ward 南方‧病房 of the house. So to the village we went next.