前言

秘方简介

常用词列表

Chapter 61

Chapter 62

Chapter 63

Chapter 64

Chapter 65

Chapter 66

Chapter 67

Chapter 68

Chapter 69

Chapter 70

IV

The course of this narrative 叙述, steadily flowing on, bears me away from the morning-time of our married life, and carries me forward to the end.

In a fort‧night 两星期 more we three were back in London, and the shadow was stealing 偷 over us of the struggle to come.

Marian and I were careful 小心 to keep Laura in ignorance 无知 of the cause that had hurried us back—the necessity 必须 of making sure of the Count. It was now the beginning of May, and his term of occupation 占用 at the house in Forest Road expired 到期 in June. If he renewed 更新 it (and I had reasons, shortly to be mentioned, for anticipating 预期 that he would), I might be certain of his not escaping me. But if by any chance he disappointed 使失望 my expectations 期望 and left the country, then I had no time to lose in arming myself 我 to meet him as I best might.

In the first fulness of my new happiness 幸福, there had been moments when my resolution 解析度 faltered 衰退—moments when I was tempted 引诱 to be safely content, now that the dearest aspiration 心愿 of my life was fulfilled 履行 in the possession 所有物 of Laura's love. For the first time I thought faint 微弱的-heartedly of the greatness 伟大 of the risk, of the adverse 不利的 chances arrayed 排列 against me, of the fair promise of our new life, and of the peril 岌 in which I might place the happiness 幸福 which we had so hardly earned. Yes! let me own it honestly 诚实的. For a brief 简要 time I wandered 漫步, in the sweet guiding of love, far from the purpose to which I had been true under sterner 严肃 discipline 训练 and in darker days. Innocently Laura had tempted me aside from the hard path 小路—innocently 无辜 she was destined 注定 to lead me back again.

At times, dreams of the terrible past still disconnectedly recalled 召回 to her, in the mystery of sleep, the events of which her waking 醒 memory had lost all trace 跟踪. One night ( barely 光秃秃的 two weeks after our marriage), when I was watching her at rest, I saw the tears come slowly through her closed eyelids 眼皮, I heard the faint 微弱的 murmuring 私语 words escape her which told me that her spirit was back again on the fatal 致命 journey 旅行 from Blackwater Park. That unconscious 无意识 appeal 上诉, so touching and so awful 糟糕的 in the sacredness of her sleep, ran through me like fire. The next day was the day we came back to London—the day when my resolution 解析度 returned to me with ten‧fold 10‧折叠 strength.

The first necessity 必须 was to know something of the man. Thus far, the true story of his life was an impenetrable mystery to me.

I began with such scanty sources 资源 of information as were at my own disposal 处置. The important narrative 叙述 written by Mr. Frederick Fairlie (which Marian had obtained 获得 by following the directions I had given to her in the winter) proved to be of no service to the special object with which I now looked at it. While reading it I reconsidered 重新考虑 the disclosure 泄露 revealed 揭示 to me by Mrs. Clements of the series 系列 of deceptions 骗局 which had brought Anne Catherick to London, and which had there devoted 奉献 her to the interests of the conspiracy 阴谋. Here, again, the Count had not openly committed 承诺 himself—here, again, he was, to all practical purpose, out of my reach.

I next returned to Marian's journal 日志 at Blackwater Park. At my request she read to me again a passage which referred to her past curiosity 好奇心 about the Count, and to the few particulars which she had discovered relating to him.

The passage to which I allude 暗示 occurs 发生 in that part of her journal 日志 which delineates 勾画 his character and his personal 个人 appearance. She describes him as "not having crossed the frontiers 边境 of his native 本土的 country for years past"—as " anxious 焦急的 to know if any Italian gentlemen were settled in the nearest town to Blackwater Park"—as "receiving letters with all sorts of odd 奇 stamps 邮票 on them, and one with a large official-looking seal 封上，海豹 on it." She is inclined 倾斜 to consider that his long absence 缺席 from his native country may be accounted for by assuming 承担 that he is a political exile 流亡. But she is, on the other hand, unable 无法 to reconcile 调和 this idea with the reception 招待会 of the letter from abroad 到国外 bearing "the large official-looking seal"—letters from the Continent addressed to political exiles 流亡 being usually the last to court attention from foreign post-offices in that way.

The considerations 考虑 thus presented to me in the diary 日记, joined to certain surmises of my own that grew grow out of them, suggested a conclusion 结论 which I wondered I had not arrived at before. I now said to myself 我—what Laura had once said to Marian at Blackwater Park, what Madame Fosco had over‧hear 偷听 by listening at the door—the Count is a spy 间谍!

Laura had applied the word to him at hazard 冒险, in natural 自然 anger 生气 at his proceedings 继续 towards her‧self 她自己. I applied it to him with the deliberate 商榷 conviction 定罪 that his vocation 职业 in life was the vocation 职业 of a spy 间谍. On this assumption 假设, the reason for his extra‧ordinary 非凡的 stay in England so long after the objects of the conspiracy 阴谋 had been gained, became, to my mind, quite intelligible.

The year of which I am now writing was the year of the famous 著名 Crystal Palace Exhibition 展览 in Hyde Park. Foreigners in unusually 异常 large numbers had arrived already, and were still arriving in England. Men were among us by hundreds 百 whom 谁 the cease‧less 停止‧少 distrustfulness of their governments had followed privately, by means of appointed agents, to our shores. My surmises did not for a moment class a man of the Count's abilities and social position with the ordinary rank 排列 and file 文件 of foreign spies 间谍. I suspected 怀疑；嫌疑犯 him of holding a position of authority 权威, of being entrusted 委托 by the government which he secretly served with the organisation and management 管理 of agents specially employed in this country, both men and women, and I believed Mrs. Rubelle, who had been so opportunely found to act as nurse 护士 at Blackwater Park, to be, in all probability 可能性, one of the number.

Assuming that this idea of mine had a foundation 基础 in truth, the position of the Count might prove to be more assailable than I had hitherto 迄今 ventured 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 to hope. To whom 谁 could I apply to know something more of the man's history and of the man himself than I knew now?

In this emergency 急 it naturally 自然地 occurred 发生 to my mind that a country‧man 农村人 of his own, on whom I could rely 依靠, might be the fittest person to help me. The first man whom I thought of under these circumstances 环境 was also the only Italian with whom 4 I was intimately 密切 acquainted 认识—my quaint 精巧 little friend, Professor 教授 Pesca.

The professor 教授 has been so long absent 缺席的 from these pages that he has run some risk of being forgotten forget altogether 全部地.

It is the necessary law of such a story as mine that the persons concerned in it only appear when the course of events takes them up—they come and go, not by favour of my personal 个人 partiality, but by right of their direct connection with the circumstances 环境 to be detailed. For this reason, not Pesca alone, but my mother and sister 姐妹 as well, have been left far in the back‧ground 背景 of the narrative 叙述. My visits to the Hampstead cottage 小屋, my mother's belief in the denial 否认 of Laura's identity 身分 which the conspiracy 阴谋 had accomplished 完成；实现；达到；做到, my vain 徒劳的 efforts to over‧come 战胜 the prejudice 成见 on her part and on my sister 姐妹's to which, in their jealous 妒忌的 affect‧ion 感情 for me, they both continued to adhere 附着, the painful 痛苦 necessity which that prejudice imposed 强加 on me of concealing 隐藏 my marriage from them till 到 they had learnt learn to do justice to my wife—all these little domestic 国内 occurrences 发生 have been left unrecorded because they were not essential to the main interest of the story. It is nothing that they added to my anxieties 焦虑 and embittered my disappointments 失望—the steady march 行军；三月 of events has inexorably passed them by.

For the same reason I have said nothing here of the consolation 安慰 that I found in Pesca's brotherly affect‧ion 感情 for me, when I saw him again after the sudden cessation 戒烟 of my residence 住宅 at Limmeridge House. I have not recorded the fidelity 保真度 with which my warm-hearted little friend followed me to the place of embarkation when I sailed 航行；帆 for Central 中央 America, or the noisy 嘈杂 transport 运输 of joy 喜悦 with which he received me when we next met in London. If I had felt justified 为…辩护；证明…正当；是…的正当理由 in accepting the offers of service which he made to me on my return, he would have appeared again long ere this. But, though I knew that his honour and his courage 勇气 were to be implicitly 隐式 relied 依靠 on, I was not so sure that his discretion 慎重 was to be trusted, and, for that reason only, I followed the course of all my inquiries 调查 alone. It will now be sufficiently 充分地 understood understand that Pesca was not separated from all connection with me and my interests, although he has hitherto 迄今 been separated from all connection with the progress of this narrative 叙述. He was as true and as ready a friend of mine still as ever he had been in his life.

Before I summoned 召唤 Pesca to my assistance 帮助 it was necessary to see for myself 我 what sort of man I had to deal with. Up to this time I had never once set eyes on Count Fosco.

Three days after my return with Laura and Marian to London, I set forth alone for Forest Road, St. John's Wood, between ten 十 and eleven 十一 o' clock 钟 in the morning. It was a fine day—I had some hours to spare 节省；多余的；备用件—and I thought it likely, if I waited a little for him, that the Count might be tempted out. I had no great reason to fear the chance of his recognising me in the day‧time 白天, for the only occasion when I had been seen by him was the occasion on which he had followed me home at night.

No one appeared at the windows in the front of the house. I walked down a turning which ran past the side of it, and looked over the low garden wall. One of the back windows on the lower floor was thrown throw up and a net 网 was stretched across the opening. I saw nobody, but I heard, in the room, first a shrill whistling 吹口哨 and singing of birds, then the deep ringing voice which Marian's description had made familiar to me. "Come out on my little finger, my pret-pret-pretties!" cried the voice. "Come out and hop 跳 upstairs 楼上! One, two, three—and up! Three, two, one—and down! One, two, three—twit-twit-twit-tweet!" The Count was exercising his canaries as he used to exercise them in Marian's time at Blackwater Park.

I waited a little while, and the singing and the whistling ceased 停止. "Come, kiss 接吻 me, my pretties!" said the deep voice. There was a responsive 响应 twittering and chirping—a low, oily laugh—a silence of a minute or so, and then I heard the opening of the house door. I turned and retraced my steps. The magnificent 华丽的 melody 旋律 of the Prayer in Rossini's Moses, sung sing in a sonorous bass 低音 voice, rose rise grandly 宏大的 through the sub‧urban 郊区的 silence of the place. The front garden gate 门 opened and closed. The Count had come out.

He crossed the road and walked towards the western boundary 分界线 of the Regent's Park. I kept on my own side of the way, a little behind him, and walked in that direction also.

Marian had prepared me for his high stature 身材, his monstrous 滔天 corpulence, and his ostentatious mourning 悼 garments 服装, but not for the horrible 可怕 freshness and cheerfulness and vitality 活力 of the man. He carried his sixty 六十 years as if they had been fewer than forty 四十. He sauntered along, wearing his hat a little on one side, with a light jaunty step, swinging his big stick, humming 哼 to himself, looking up from time to time at the houses and gardens on either side of him with superb 高超, smiling patron‧age 赞助. If a stranger had been told that the whole neighbourhood belonged to him, that stranger would not have been surprised to hear it. He never looked back, he paid no apparent 清晰可见的；显而易见的；明白易懂的 attention to me, no apparent attention to any one who passed him on his own side of the road, except now and then, when he smiled and smirked, with an easy paternal 父亲的 good humour, at the nursery 婴儿室；苗圃-maids 女佣 and the children whom 5 he met. In this way he led me on, till 到 we reached a colony of shops outside the western terraces 阳台 of the Park.

Here he stopped at a pastry‧cook 糕点‧烹调's, went in (probably to give an order), and came out again immediately with a tart 酸 in his hand. An Italian was grinding 磨碎 an organ 器官；机构 before the shop, and a miserable 悲惨的 little shrivelled monkey 猴 was sitting on the instrument. The Count stopped, bit 一点 a piece for himself out of the tart 酸, and gravely 坟墓；严重的 handed the rest to the monkey. "My poor little man!" he said, with grotesque 奇怪的 tenderness 压痛, "you look hungry 饥饿. In the sacred 神圣的 name of humanity 人性, I offer you some lunch 午餐!" The organ-grinder 磨碎 piteously put in his claim to a penny 便士 from the benevolent stranger. The Count shrugged 耸 his shoulders contemptuously, and passed on.

We reached the streets and the better class of shops between the New Road and Oxford Street. The Count stopped again and entered a small optician's shop, with an inscription 题词 in the window announcing 宣布 that repairs 修理 were neatly 整洁的 executed 执行 inside. He came out again with an opera 歌剧-glass in his hand, walked a few paces 步伐，速度 on, and stopped to look at a bill of the opera 歌剧 placed outside a music-seller's shop. He read the bill attentively 注意的, considered a moment, and then hailed 冰雹 an empty cab 出租车 as it passed him. "Opera 歌剧 Box-office," he said to the man, and was driven drive away.

I crossed the road, and looked at the bill in my turn. The performance announced 宣布 was Lucrezia Borgia, and it was to take place that evening. The opera 歌剧-glass in the Count's hand, his careful 小心 reading of the bill, and his direction to the cabman, all suggested that he proposed making one of the audience. I had the means of getting an admission 准许进入 for myself 我 and a friend to the pit 坑 by applying to one of the scene-painters 画家 attached 连接 to the theatre, with whom I had been well acquainted 认识 in past times. There was a chance at least that the Count might be easily visible 可以看见的；可视的 among the audience to me and to any one with me, and in this case I had the means of ascertaining 探明 whether Pesca knew his country‧man 农村人 or not that very night.

This consideration 考虑 at once decided the disposal 处置 of my evening. I pro‧cure 促成 the tickets 票, leaving a note at the Professor 教授's lodgings 存放 on the way. At a quarter to eight 八 I called to take him with me to the theatre. My little friend was in a state of the highest excitement 激动, with a festive 欢乐的 flower in his button 按钮-hole, and the largest opera 歌剧-glass I ever saw hugged 拥抱 up under his arm.

"Are you ready?" I asked.

"Right-all-right," said Pesca.

We started for the theatre.

V

The last notes of the introduction 介绍 to the opera 歌剧 were being played, and the seats in the pit 坑 were all filled, when Pesca and I reached the theatre.

There was plenty of room, however, in the passage that ran round the pit 坑— precisely 精确地 the position best calculated 计算 to answer the purpose for which I was attending the performance. I went first to the barrier 屏障 separating us from the stalls 摊子, and looked for the Count in that part of the theatre. He was not there. Returning along the passage, on the left-hand side from the stage, and looking about me attentively, I discovered him in the pit 坑. He occupied 占据 an excellent place, some twelve 十二 or four‧teen 十四 seats from the end of a bench 长凳, within three rows 行 of the stalls 摊子. I placed myself 我 exactly on a line with him. Pesca standing by my side. The Professor 教授 was not yet aware 知道的 of the purpose for which I had brought him to the theatre, and he was rather surprised that we did not move nearer to the stage.

The curtain 窗帘 rose, and the opera 歌剧 began.

Through‧out 始终 the whole of the first act we remained in our position—the Count, absorbed 吸收 by the orchestra 乐队 and the stage, never casting 种姓 so much as a chance glance 一瞥 at us. Not a note of Donizetti's delicious 美味的 music was lost on him. There he sat sit, high above his neighbours, smiling, and nodding 点头 his great head enjoyingly from time to time. When the people near him applauded 鼓掌欢迎 the close of an air (as an English audience in such circumstances 环境 always will applaud 鼓掌欢迎), without the least consideration 考虑 for the orchestral 管弦乐的 movement 运动 which immediately followed it, he looked round at them with an expression of compassionate 富于同情心的 remonstrance, and held up one hand with a gesture 手势 of polite 有礼貌的 entreaty. At the more refined 提炼 passages of the singing, at the more delicate 微妙的；纤弱的 phases 相 of the music, which passed unapplauded by others, his fat hands, adorned 装饰 with perfectly-fitting black kid 孩子 gloves 手套, softly patted 拍 each other, in token 代币 of the cultivated 耕作 appreciation 升值 of a musical 音乐 man. At such times, his oily murmur 私语 of approval 批准；同意；赞成, "Bravo! Bra-a-a-a!" hummed 哼 through the silence, like the purring of a great cat 猫. His immediate neighbours on either side—hearty 爽朗, ruddy-faced people from the country, basking amazedly in the sun‧shine 阳光 of fashion‧able 时髦 London—seeing and hearing him, began to follow his lead. Many a burst 爆裂 of applause 热烈鼓掌 from the pit 坑 that night started from the soft, comfort‧able 舒服；自在 patting 拍 of the black-gloved 手套 hands. The man's voracious vanity 虚荣 devoured 吞食 this implied 意味着 tribute 贡 to his local and critical 危急 supremacy 霸权 with an appearance of the highest relish 滋味. Smiles rippled 波纹 continuously 一直 over his fat face. He looked about him, at the pauses 暂停 in the music, serenely 安详 satisfied with himself and his fellow-creatures 动物；生物. "Yes! yes! these barbarous English people are learning something from ME. Here, there, and every‧where 到处, I—Fosco—am an influence that is felt, a man who sits supreme 最高!" If ever face spoke speak, his face spoke then, and that was its language.

The curtain 窗帘 fell fall on the first act, and the audience rose to look about them. This was the time I had waited for—the time to try if Pesca knew him.

He rose with the rest, and surveyed 调查 the occupants 占有者 of the boxes grandly with his opera 歌剧-glass. At first his back was towards us, but he turned round in time, to our side of the theatre, and looked at the boxes above us, using his glass for a few minutes—then removing 去掉 it, but still continuing to look up. This was the moment I chose choose, when his full face was in view, for directing Pesca's attention to him.

"Do you know that man?" I asked.

"Which man, my friend?"

"The tall, fat man, standing there, with his face towards us."

Pesca raised himself on tiptoe, and looked at the Count.

"No," said the Professor 教授. "The big fat man is a stranger to me. Is he famous 著名? Why do you point him out?"

"Because I have particular reasons for wishing to know something of him. He is a country‧man 农村人 of yours—his name is Count Fosco. Do you know that name?"

"Not I, Walter. Neither the name nor the man is known to me."

"Are you quite sure you don't recognise him? Look again—look carefully 小心. I will tell you why I am so anxious 焦急的 about it when we leave the theatre. Stop! let me help you up here, where you can see him better."

I helped the little man to perch 栖息 himself on the edge of the raised dais upon which the pit 坑-seats were all placed. His small stature 身材 was no hindrance 妨害 to him—here he could see over the heads of the ladies who were seated near the outer‧most 外‧最 part of the bench 长凳.

A slim 瘦, light-haired man standing by us, whom I had not noticed before—a man with a scar 瘢痕 on his left cheek 脸颊—looked attentively at Pesca as I helped him up, and then looked still more attentively, following the direction of Pesca's eyes, at the Count. Our conversation might have reached his ears, and might, as it struck strike me, have roused 唤醒 his curiosity 好奇心.

Meanwhile 同时, Pesca fixed his eyes ear‧nest 热心的 on the broad, full, smiling face turned a little upward 向上, exactly opposite to him.

"No," he said, "I have never set my two eyes on that big fat man before in all my life."

As he spoke the Count looked down‧ward 向下 towards the boxes behind us on the pit 坑 tier.

The eyes of the two Italians met.

The instant 瞬间 before I had been perfectly satisfied, from his own reiterated 重申 assertion 断言, that Pesca did not know the Count. The instant after‧ward 之后 I was equally certain that the Count knew Pesca!

Knew him, and—more surprising still—feared him as well! There was no mistaking the change that passed over the villain 恶棍's face. The leaden hue 色调 that altered 改变 his yellow complex‧ion 肤色 in a moment, the sudden rigidity of all his features 特征, the furtive scrutiny 审查 of his cold grey 灰色:gray eyes, the motion‧less 运动‧少 stillness of him from head to foot told their own tale 故事，不实之词. A mortal 凡人 dread 恐惧 had mastered him body and soul—and his own recognition 认识 of Pesca was the cause of it!

The slim 瘦 man with the scar 瘢痕 on his cheek 脸颊 was still close by us. He had apparently 据…所知；看来；据说；听说 drawn draw his inference 推理 from the effect produced on the Count by the sight of Pesca as I had drawn mine. He was a mild 温柔的, gentleman‧like 先生‧喜欢；象 man, looking like a foreigner, and his interest in our proceedings 继续 was not expressed in anything approaching to an offensive 进攻 manner.

For my own part I was so startled 惊吓 by the change in the Count's face, so astounded 惊奇 at the entirely unexpected 意外 turn which events had taken, that I knew neither what to say or do next. Pesca roused 唤醒 me by stepping back to his former place at my side and speaking first.

"How the fat man stares!" he exclaimed 喊叫. "Is it at me? Am I famous 著名? How can he know me when I don't know him?"

I kept my eye still on the Count. I saw him move for the first time when Pesca moved, so as not to lose sight of the little man in the lower position in which he now stood. I was curious to see what would happen if Pesca's attention under these circumstances 环境 was withdrawn from him, and I accordingly 于是 asked the Professor 教授 if he recognised any of his pupils 学生 that evening among the ladies in the boxes. Pesca immediately raised the large opera 歌剧-glass to his eyes, and moved it slowly all round the upper part of the theatre, searching for his pupils with the most conscientious 有良心 scrutiny 审查.

The moment he showed himself to be thus engaged 从事 the Count turned round, slipped past the persons who occupied 占据 seats on the farther side of him from where we stood, and disappeared 不见 in the middle passage down the centre of the pit 坑. I caught catch Pesca by the arm, and to his inexpressible astonishment 惊愕, hurried him round with me to the back of the pit 坑 to intercept 截距 the Count before he could get to the door. Some‧what 有些 to my surprise, the slim 瘦 man hastened 加速 out before us, avoiding a stop‧page 停止‧页 caused by some people on our side of the pit 坑 leaving their places, by which Pesca and myself 我 were delayed 延迟. When we reached the lobby 前厅 the Count had disappeared, and the foreigner with the scar 瘢痕 was gone too.

"Come home," I said; "come home, Pesca to your lodgings. I must speak to you in private—I must speak directly."

"My-soul-bless 祝福-my-soul!" cried the Professor 教授, in a state of the extremest bewilderment. "What on earth is the matter?"

I walked on rapidly without answering. The circumstances 环境 under which the Count had left the theatre suggested to me that his extra‧ordinary 非凡的 anxiety 焦虑 to escape Pesca might carry him to further extremities still. He might escape me, too, by leaving London. I doubted the future if I allowed him so much as a day's freedom to act as he pleased. And I doubted that foreign stranger, who had got the start of us, and whom I suspected of intentionally 故意地 following him out.

With this double distrust 怀疑 in my mind, I was not long in making Pesca understand what I wanted. As soon as we two were alone in his room, I increased his confusion 混乱 and amazement 惊愕 a hundred‧fold 百‧折叠 by telling him what my purpose was as plainly and unreservedly as I have acknowledged 确认 it here.

"My friend, what can I do?" cried the Professor 教授, piteously appealing 上诉 to me with both hands. "Deuce-what-the-deuce! how can I help you, Walter, when I don't know the man?"

"He knows you—he is afraid of you—he has left the theatre to escape you. Pesca! there must be a reason for this. Look back into your own life before you came to England. You left Italy, as you have told me your‧self 你自己, for political reasons. You have never mentioned those reasons to me, and I don't inquire 打听 into them now. I only ask you to consult 咨询；请教；查阅 your own recollections 回忆, and to say if they suggest no past cause for the terror 恐怖 which the first sight of you produced in that man."

To my unutterable surprise, these words, harm‧less 无害 as they appeared to me, produced the same astounding 惊奇 effect on Pesca which the sight of Pesca had produced on the Count. The rosy 红润 face of my little friend whitened in an instant, and he drew draw back from me slowly, trembling 发抖 from head to foot.

"Walter!" he said. "You don't know what you ask."

He spoke in a whisper 低声说—he looked at me as if I had suddenly revealed 揭示 to him some hidden hide danger to both of us. In less than one minute of time he was so altered from the easy, lively, quaint 精巧 little man of all my past experience, that if I had met him in the street, changed as I saw him now, I should most certainly not have known him again.

" Forgive 原谅 me, if I have unintentionally pained and shocked you," I replied. "Remember the cruel 残酷的 wrong my wife has suffered at Count Fosco's hands. Remember that the wrong can never be redressed 纠正, unless the means are in my power of forcing him to do her justice. I spoke in her interests, Pesca—I ask you again to forgive me—I can say no more."

I rose to go. He stopped me before I reached the door.

"Wait," he said. "You have shaken shake me from head to foot. You don't know how I left my country, and why I left my country. Let me compose myself 我, let me think, if I can."

I returned to my chair. He walked up and down the room, talking to himself incoherently in his own language. After several turns backwards 向后的 and forwards, he suddenly came up to me, and laid his little hands with a strange tenderness 压痛 and solemnity on my breast 乳房.

"On your heart and soul, Walter," he said, "is there no other way to get to that man but the chance-way through me?"

"There is no other way," I answered.

He left me again, opened the door of the room and looked out cautiously 小心的 into the passage, closed it once more, and came back.

"You won win your right over me, Walter," he said, "on the day when you saved my life. It was yours from that moment, when you pleased to take it. Take it now. Yes! I mean what I say. My next words, as true as the good God is above us, will put my life into your hands."

The trembling earnestness with which he uttered 说出 this extra‧ordinary 非凡的 warning, carried with it, to my mind, the conviction 定罪 that he spoke the truth.

"Mind this!" he went on, shaking his hands at me in the vehemence of his agitation 搅动. "I hold no thread 线, in my own mind, between that man Fosco, and the past time which I call back to me for your sake 缘故. If you find the thread, keep it to your‧self 你自己—tell me nothing—on my knees I beg 乞讨 and pray, let me be ignorant 愚昧, let me be innocent 无辜, let me be blind to all the future as I am now!"

He said a few words more, hesitatingly and disconnectedly, then stopped again.

I saw that the effort of expressing himself in English, on an occasion too serious to permit him the use of the quaint 精巧 turns and phrases 短语 of his ordinary vocabulary 词汇, was painfully 痛苦 increasing 增加 the difficulty he had felt from the first in speaking to me at all. Having learnt to read and understand his native language (though not to speak it), in the earlier days of our intimate 亲密 companion‧ship 伙伴关系, I now suggested to him that he should express himself in Italian, while I used English in putting any questions which might be necessary to my enlightenment 启示. He accepted the proposal. In his smooth-flowing language, spoken speak with a vehement agitation 搅动 which betrayed 背叛 itself 本身 in the perpetual 永动的 working of his features 特征, in the wildness and the suddenness of his foreign gesticulations, but never in the raising of his voice, I now heard the words which armed me to meet the last struggle, that is left for this story to record.[3]

[3] It is only right to mention here, that I repeat Pesco's statement 声明 to me with the careful 小心 suppressions 抑制 and alterations 改造 which the serious nature of the subject and my own sense of duty to my friend demand. My first and last concealments from the reader are those which caution 小心 renders 给予 absolutely necessary in this portion 一部分；一份 of the narrative 叙述.

"You know nothing of my motive 动机 for leaving Italy," he began, "except that it was for political reasons. If I had been driven to this country by the persecution 迫害 of my government, I should not have kept those reasons a secret from you or from any one. I have concealed 隐藏 them because no government authority 权威 has pronounced 发音 the sentence 句子 of my exile 流亡. You have heard, Walter, of the political societies that are hidden hide in every great city on the continent 大陆 of Europe? To one of those societies I belonged in Italy—and belong still in England. When I came to this country, I came by the direction of my chief. I was over-zealous in my younger time—I ran the risk of compromising 妥协 myself 我 and others. For those reasons I was ordered to emigrate 移民 to England and to wait. I emigrated 移民—I have waited—I wait still. To-morrow I may be called away—ten 十 years hence 因此 I may be called away. It is all one to me—I am here, I support myself 我 by teaching, and I wait. I violate 违反 no oath 誓言 (you shall hear why presently) in making my confidence 信心 complete by telling you the name of the society to which I belong. All I do is to put my life in your hands. If what I say to you now is ever known by others to have passed my lips, as certainly as we two sit here, I am a dead man."

He whispered 低声说 the next words in my ear. I keep the secret which he thus communicated 通信. The society to which he belonged will be sufficiently 充分地 individualised for the purpose of these pages, if I call it "The Brotherhood," on the few occasions when any reference to the subject will be needed in this place.

"The object of the Brotherhood," Pesca went on, "is, briefly 短时间地, the object of other political societies of the same sort—the destruction 破坏 of tyranny 暴政 and the assertion 断言 of the rights of the people. The principles 原理 of the Brotherhood are two. So long as a man's life is useful 有用, or even harm‧less 无害 only, he has the right to enjoy it. But, if his life inflicts 造成 injury 伤 on the well-being of his fellow-men, from that moment he forfeits 丧失 the right, and it is not only no crime 罪行, but a positive 正 merit 值得, to deprive 剥夺 him of it. It is not for me to say in what frightful circumstances 环境 of oppression 压迫 and suffering this society took its rise. It is not for you to say—you Englishmen, who have conquered 征服 your freedom so long ago, that you have conveniently 方便的 forgotten what blood you shed, and what extremities you proceeded 继续 to in the conquering 征服—it is not for you to say how far the worst 生病:ill of all exasperations may, or may not, carry the maddened men of an enslaved nation. The iron 铁器 that has entered into our souls has gone too deep for you to find it. Leave the refugee 难民 alone! Laugh at him, distrust 怀疑 him, open your eyes in wonder at that secret self 自己 which smoulders in him, sometimes under the every‧day 日常的 respect‧ability 尊重‧能力 and tranquillity of a man like me—sometimes under the grinding poverty 贫穷, the fierce 凶猛的 squalor, of men less lucky 幸运, less pliable, less patient than I am—but judge us not! In the time of your first Charles you might have done us justice—the long luxury 豪华 of your own freedom has made you incapable 无法 of doing us justice now."

All the deepest feelings of his nature seemed to force themselves to the surface in those words—all his heart was poured 淋；倒 out to me for the first time in our lives—but still his voice never rose, still his dread 恐惧 of the terrible revelation 启示 he was making to me never left him.

"So far," he resumed 恢复, "you think the society like other societies. Its object (in your English opinion) is anarchy 无政府状态 and revolution 革命. It takes the life of a bad king or a bad minister, as if the one and the other were dangerous 危险 wild beasts 野兽 to be shot shoot at the first opportunity. I grant 发放 you this. But the laws of the Brotherhood are the laws of no other political society on the face of the earth. The members are not known to one another. There is a president in Italy; there are presidents abroad 到国外. Each of these has his secretary. The presidents and the secretaries know the members, but the members, among themselves, are all strangers 陌生人, until their chiefs see fit, in the political necessity of the time, or in the private necessity of the society, to make them known to each other. With such a safe‧guard 保障 as this there is no oath 誓言 among us on admittance. We are identified 鉴定 with the Brotherhood by a secret mark, which we all bear, which lasts while our lives last. We are told to go about our ordinary business, and to report ourselves 我们自己 to the president, or the secretary, four times a year, in the event of our services being required. We are warned, if we betray 背叛 the Brotherhood, or if we injure 损伤 it by serving other interests, that we die by the principles 原理 of the Brotherhood—die by the hand of a stranger who may be sent send from the other end of the world to strike the blow—or by the hand of our own bosom-friend, who may have been a member unknown 未知 to us through all the years of our intimacy 亲密关系. Sometimes the death is delayed—sometimes it follows close on the treachery. It is our first business to know how to wait—our second business to know how to obey 服从 when the word is spoken. Some of us may wait our lives through, and may not be wanted. Some of us may be called to the work, or to the preparation 制备 for the work, the very day of our admission 准许进入. I myself 我—the little, easy, cheerful 快乐 man you know, who, of his own accord, would hardly lift up his handkerchief 手帕 to strike down the fly that buzzes 蜂鸣器 about his face—I, in my younger time, under provocation 挑衅 so dreadful 可怕 that I will not tell you of it, entered the Brotherhood by an impulse 冲动, as I might have killed myself 我 by an impulse 冲动. I must remain in it now—it has got me, whatever I may think of it in my better circumstances 环境 and my cooler man‧hood 男人‧引擎罩, to my dying day. While I was still in Italy I was chosen choose secretary, and all the members of that time, who were brought face to face with my president, were brought face to face also with me."

I began to understand him—I saw the end towards which his extraordinary 3 disclosure 泄露 was now tending. He waited a moment, watching me earnestly—watching till he had evidently 明显地 guessed what was passing in my mind before he resumed 恢复.

"You have drawn your own conclusion 结论 already," he said. "I see it in your face. Tell me nothing—keep me out of the secret of your thoughts. Let me make my one last sacrifice 牺牲 of myself 我, for your sake 缘故, and then have done with this subject, never to return to it again."

He signed to me not to answer him—rose—removed 去掉 his coat—and rolled up the shirt 衬衫-sleeve 袖 on his left arm.

"I promised you that this confidence 信心 should be complete," he whispered, speaking close at my ear, with his eyes looking watch‧fully 钟表；注视‧完全地 at the door. "Whatever comes of it you shall not reproach 责备 me with having hidden hide anything from you which it was necessary to your interests to know. I have said that the Brotherhood identifies 鉴定 its members by a mark that lasts for life. See the place, and the mark on it for your‧self 你自己."

He raised his bare 光秃秃的 arm, and showed me, high on the upper part of it and in the inner 里面的 side, a brand 牌 deeply burnt burn in the flesh 肉 and stained of a bright blood-red colour. I abstain from describing the device 设备 which the brand 牌 represented. It will be sufficient 足够 to say that it was circular 圆形的 in form, and so small that it would have been completely covered by a shilling 一毛钱 coin 硬币.

"A man who has this mark, branded 牌 in this place," he said, covering his arm again, "is a member of the Brotherhood. A man who has been false 虚伪的 to the Brotherhood is discovered sooner or later by the chiefs who know him—presidents or secretaries, as the case may be. And a man discovered by the chiefs is dead. No human laws can protect him. Remember what you have seen and heard—draw what conclusions 结论 you like—act as you please. But, in the name of God, whatever you discover, whatever you do, tell me nothing! Let me remain free from a responsibility 责任 which it horrifies 惊吓 me to think of—which I know, in my conscience 良心, is not my responsibility 责任 now. For the last time I say it—on my honour as a gentle‧man 先生, on my oath 誓言 as a Christian, if the man you pointed out at the Opera 歌剧 knows me, he is so altered, or so disguised 伪装, that I do not know him. I am ignorant 愚昧 of his proceedings 继续 or his purposes in England. I never saw him, I never heard the name he goes by, to my knowledge, before to-night. I say no more. Leave me a little, Walter. I am over‧power 压倒 by what has happened—I am shaken by what I have said. Let me try to be like myself 我 again when we meet next."

He dropped into a chair, and turning away from me, hid hide his face in his hands. I gently opened the door so as not to disturb 打扰 him, and spoke my few parting words in low tones 音, which he might hear or not, as he pleased.

"I will keep the memory of to-night in my heart of hearts," I said. "You shall never repent the trust you have reposed in me. May I come to you to-morrow? May I come as early as nine 九 o' clock 钟?"

"Yes, Walter," he replied, looking up at me kindly, and speaking in English once more, as if his one anxiety 焦虑 now was to get back to our former relations towards each other. "Come to my little bit 一点 of break‧fast 早餐 before I go my ways among the pupils that I teach."

"Good-night, Pesca."

"Good-night, my friend."

VI

MY first conviction 定罪 as soon as I found myself 我 outside the house, was that no alter‧native 替代 was left me but to act at once on the information I had received—to make sure of the Count that night, or to risk the loss, if I only delayed till the morning, of Laura's last chance. I looked at my watch—it was ten 十 o' clock 钟.

Not the shadow of a doubt crossed my mind of the purpose for which the Count had left the theatre. His escape from us, that evening, was beyond all question the preliminary 初步 only to his escape from London. The mark of the Brotherhood was on his arm—I felt as certain of it as if he had shown me the brand 牌; and the betrayal 辜负 of the Brotherhood was on his conscience 良心—I had seen it in his recognition 认识 of Pesca.

It was easy to understand why that recognition had not been mutual 相互. A man of the Count's character would never risk the terrible consequences 后果 of turning spy 间谍 without looking to his personal 个人 security 安全 quite as carefully 小心 as he looked to his golden 金色的 reward 报酬. The shaven face, which I had pointed out at the Opera 歌剧, might have been covered by a beard 胡须 in Pesca's time—his dark brown hair might be a wig 假发—his name was evidently 明显地 a false 虚伪的 one. The accident 意外事件 of time might have helped him as well—his immense 极大的 corpulence might have come with his later years. There was every reason why Pesca should not have known him again—every reason also why he should have known Pesca, whose 谁的 singular 单数 personal 个人 appearance made a marked man of him, go where he might.

I have said that I felt certain of the purpose in the Count's mind when he escaped us at the theatre. How could I doubt it, when I saw, with my own eyes, that he believed himself, in spite 恶意 of the change in his appearance, to have been recognised by Pesca, and to be therefore in danger of his life? If I could get speech of him that night, if I could show him that I, too knew of the mortal 凡人 peril 岌 in which he stood, what result would follow? Plainly this. One of us must be master of the situation—one of us must inevitably 必将 be at the mercy 宽容 of the other.

I owed 欠…债 it to myself 我 to consider the chances against me before I con‧front 面对 them. I owed it to my wife to do all that lay lie in my power to lessen 变少；减轻 the risk.

The chances against me wanted no reckoning 估计 up—they were all merged 合并 in one. If the Count discovered, by my own avowal, that the direct way to his safety 安全 lay through my life, he was probably the last man in existence who would shrink from throwing me off my guard and taking that way, when he had me alone within his reach. The only means of defence against him on which I could at all rely 依靠 to lessen 变少；减轻 the risk, presented themselves, after a little careful 小心 thinking, clearly enough. Before I made any personal 个人 acknowledgment 承认 of my discovery 发现 in his presence, I must place the discovery itself 本身 where it would be ready for instant use against him, and safe from any attempt at suppression 抑制 on his part. If I laid the mine under his feet before I approached him, and if I left instructions 指令 with a third person to fire it on the expiration of a certain time, unless directions to the contrary 相反 were previously 先前 received under my own hand, or from my own lips—in that event the Count's security 安全 was absolutely dependent upon mine, and I might hold the vantage 华帝 ground grind over him securely 安全, even in his own house.

This idea occurred 发生 to me when I was close to the new lodgings which we had taken on returning from the sea-side. I went in without disturbing 打扰 any one, by the help of my key. A light was in the hall, and I stole up with it to my work‧room 工作‧房间 to make my preparations 制备, and absolutely to commit 承诺 myself 我 to an interview 访问 with the Count, before either Laura or Marian could have the slightest suspicion 怀疑 of what I intended to do.

A letter addressed to Pesca represented the surest measure of pre‧caution 预防 which it was now possible for me to take. I wrote as follows—

"The man whom I pointed out to you at the Opera 歌剧 is a member of the Brotherhood, and has been false 虚伪的 to his trust. Put both these assertions 断言 to the test instantly 瞬间. You know the name he goes by in England. His address is No. 5 Forest Road, St. John's Wood. On the love you once bore bear me, use the power entrusted 委托 to you without mercy 宽容 and without delay 延迟 against that man. I have risked all and lost all—and the forfeit 丧失 of my failure has been paid with my life."

I signed and dated these lines, enclosed 围起来 them in an envelope 信封, and sealed 封上，海豹 it up. On the outside I wrote this direction: "Keep the enclosure 圈占 unopened until nine 九 o'clock 3 to-morrow morning. If you do not hear from me, or see me, before that time, break the seal 封上，海豹 when the clock strikes, and read the contents." I added my initials 初始, and protected the whole by enclosing 围起来 it in a second sealed envelope 信封, addressed to Pesca at his lodgings.

Nothing remained to be done after this but to find the means of sending my letter to its destination 目的地 immediately. I should then have accomplished all that lay in my power. If anything happened to me in the Count's house, I had now provided for his answering it with his life.

That the means of preventing his escape, under any circumstances 环境 whatever, were at Pesca's disposal 处置, if he chose to exert 发挥 them, I did not for an instant doubt. The extraordinary anxiety which he had expressed to remain unenlightened as to the Count's identity 身分—or, in other words, to be left uncertain 不确定 enough about facts to justify 为…辩护；证明…正当；是…的正当理由 him to his own conscience 良心 in remaining passive 被动—betrayed 背叛 plainly that the means of exercising the terrible justice of the Brotherhood were ready to his hand, although, as a naturally 自然地 humane 人道 man, he had shrunk from plainly saying as much in my presence. The deadly certainty 确定性 with which the vengeance 复仇 of foreign political societies can hunt down a traitor 叛徒 to the cause, hide himself where he may, had been too often exemplified 例证, even in my superficial 浅 experience, to allow of any doubt. Considering the subject only as a reader of newspapers, cases recurred 复发 to my memory, both in London and in Paris, of foreigners 外国人 found stabbed 刺 in the streets, whose 谁的 assassins 刺客 could never be traced 跟踪—of bodies and parts of bodies thrown into the Thames and the Seine, by hands that could never be discovered—of deaths by secret violence 暴力 which could only be accounted for in one way. I have disguised 伪装 nothing relating to myself 我 in these pages, and I do not disguise 伪装 here that I believed I had written Count Fosco's death-war‧rant 保证, if the fatal 致命 emergency 急 happened which authorised Pesca to open my enclosure 圈占.

I left my room to go down to the ground floor of the house, and speak to the land‧lord 房东 about finding me a messenger 信使. He happened to be ascending 登 the stairs 楼梯 at the time, and we met on the landing. His son, a quick lad 小伙子, was the messenger he proposed to me on hearing what I wanted. We had the boy upstairs 楼上, and I gave him his directions. He was to take the letter in a cab 出租车, to put it into Professor 教授 Pesca's own hands, and to bring me back a line of acknowledgment 承认 from that gentle‧man 先生—returning in the cab 出租车, and keeping it at the door for my use. It was then nearly half-past ten 十. I calculated that the boy might be back in twenty 二十 minutes, and that I might drive to St. John's Wood, on his return, in twenty 二十 minutes more.

When the lad 小伙子 had departed 离开 on his errand 使命 I returned to my own room for a little while, to put certain papers in order, so that they might be easily found in case of the worst. The key of the old-fashioned bureau 局 in which the papers were kept I sealed up, and left it on my table, with Marian's name written on the outside of the little packet 包. This done, I went downstairs 楼下 to the sitting-room, in which I expected to find Laura and Marian awaiting 等待 my return from the Opera 歌剧. I felt my hand trembling for the first time when I laid it on the lock of the door.

No one was in the room but Marian. She was reading, and she looked at her watch, in surprise, when I came in.

"How early you are back!" she said. "You must have come away before the Opera 歌剧 was over."

"Yes," I replied, "neither Pesca nor I waited for the end. Where is Laura?"

"She had one of her bad head‧ache 头痛 this evening, and I advised her to go to bed when we had done tea 茶水."

I left the room again on the pre‧text 预‧文字材料 of wishing to see whether Laura was asleep 睡着的. Marian's quick eyes were beginning to look inquiringly at my face—Marian's quick instinct 直觉 was beginning to discover that I had something weighing 称重 on my mind.

When I entered the bed‧chamber 床‧房间, and softly approached the bed‧side 床头 by the dim 暗淡 flicker 闪烁 of the night-lamp 灯, my wife was asleep.

We had not been married quite a month yet. If my heart was heavy, if my resolution 解析度 for a moment faltered 衰退 again, when I looked at her face turned faithfully 忠实 to my pillow 枕头 in her sleep—when I saw her hand resting open on the cover‧lid 覆盖‧盖子, as if it was waiting unconsciously 不知不觉 for mine—surely there was some excuse 原谅 for me? I only allowed myself 我 a few minutes to kneel 跪 down at the bed‧side 床头, and to look close at her—so close that her breath, as it came and went, fluttered 扑 on my face. I only touched her hand and her cheek 脸颊 with my lips at parting. She stirred 搅动 in her sleep and murmured 私语 my name, but without waking. I lingered 萦绕 for an instant at the door to look at her again. "Godbless 祝福 and keep you, my darling 宠儿!" I whispered, and left her.

Marian was at the stair‧head 楼梯‧头；上端 waiting for me. She had a folded 折叠 slip of paper in her hand.

"The land‧lord 房东's son has brought this for you," she said. "He has got a cab 出租车 at the door—he says you ordered him to keep it at your disposal 处置."

"Quite right, Marian. I want the cab 出租车—I am going out again."

I descended 下来 the stairs as I spoke, and looked into the sitting-room to read the slip of paper by the light on the table. It contained these two sentences 句子 in Pesca's hand‧write 书法—

"Your letter is received. If I don't see you before the time you mention, I will break the seal 封上，海豹 when the clock strikes."

I placed the paper in my pocket 口袋-book, and made for the door. Marian met me on the threshold 阈, and pushed me back into the room, where the candle 蜡烛-light fell full on my face. She held me by both hands, and her eyes fastened 系牢 searchingly on mine.

"I see!" she said, in a low eager 渴望的 whisper 低声说. "You are trying the last chance to-night."

"Yes, the last chance and the best," I whispered back.

"Not alone! Oh, Walter, for God's sake, not alone! Let me go with you. Don't refuse me because I'm only a woman. I must go! I will go! I'll wait outside in the cab 出租车!"

It was my turn now to hold her. She tried to break away from me and get down first to the door.

"If you want to help me," I said, "stop here and sleep in my wife's room to-night. Only let me go away with my mind easy about Laura, and I answer for everything else. Come, Marian, give me a kiss 接吻, and show that you have the courage 勇气 to wait till I come back."

I dared 敢 not allow her time to say a word more. She tried to hold me again. I unclasped her hands, and was out of the room in a moment. The boy below heard me on the stairs, and opened the hall-door. I jumped into the cab 出租车 before the driver could get off the box. "Forest Road, St. John's Wood," I called to him through the front window. "Double fare 票价 if you get there in a quarter of an hour." "I'll do it, sir 先生." I looked at my watch. Eleven o'clock. Not a minute to lose.

The rapid motion of the cab 出租车, the sense that every instant now was bringing me nearer to the Count, the conviction 定罪 that I was embarked 从事 at last, without let or hindrance 妨害, on my hazardous 危险 enterprise 企业, heated me into such a fever 发热 of excitement 激动 that I shouted to the man to go faster and faster. As we left the streets, and crossed St. John's Wood Road, my impatience 不耐烦 so completely over‧power 压倒 me that I stood up in the cab 出租车 and stretched my head out of the window, to see the end of the journey 旅行 before we reached it. Just as a church clock in the distance struck the quarter past, we turned into the Forest Road. I stopped the driver a little away from the Count's house, paid and dismissed 解雇 him, and walked on to the door.

As I approached the garden gate 门, I saw another person advancing towards it also from the direction opposite to mine. We met under the gaslamp 灯 in the road, and looked at each other. I instantly recognised the light-haired foreigner with the scar 瘢痕 on his cheek 脸颊, and I thought he recognised me. He said nothing, and instead of stopping at the house, as I did, he slowly walked on. Was he in the Forest Road by accident 意外事件? Or had he followed the Count home from the Opera 歌剧?

I did not pursue 追求 those questions. After waiting a little till the foreigner had slowly passed out of sight, I rang the gate bell 钟. It was then twenty 二十 minutes past eleven 十一—late enough to make it quite easy for the Count to get rid 使摆脱 of me by the excuse 原谅 that he was in bed.

The only way of providing against this contingency 偶然性 was to send in my name without asking any preliminary 初步 questions, and to let him know, at the same time, that I had a serious motive 动机 for wishing to see him at that late hour. Accordingly, while I was waiting, I took out my card and wrote under my name "On important business." The maid 女佣-servant 仆人 answered the door while I was writing the last word in pencil 铅笔, and asked me distrust‧fully 怀疑‧完全地 what I "pleased to want."

"Be so good as to take that to your master," I replied, giving her the card.

I saw, by the girl's hesitation 犹豫 of manner, that if I had asked for the Count in the first instance 例 she would only have followed her instructions 指令 by telling me he was not at home. She was staggered 错开 by the confidence with which I gave her the card. After staring at me, in great perturbation, she went back into the house with my message, closing the door, and leaving me to wait in the garden.

In a minute or so she reappeared 再现. "Her master's compliments 赞扬, and would I be so obliging 责成 as to say what my business was?" "Take my compliments 赞扬 back," I replied, "and say that the business cannot be mentioned to any one but your master." She left me again, again returned, and this time asked me to walk in.

I followed her at once. In another moment I was inside the Count's house.

VII

There was nolamp 灯 in the hall, but by the dim 暗淡 light of the kitchen candle 蜡烛, which the girl had brought upstairs 楼上 with her, I saw an elderly 年老的；上了年纪的 lady steal noiselessly out of a back room on the ground floor. She cast 投 one viperish look at me as I entered the hall, but said nothing, and went slowly upstairs 楼上 without returning my bow 弓. My familiarity 熟悉 with Marian's journal 日志 sufficiently 充分地 assured 向…保证；肯定地说 me that the elderly lady was Madame Fosco.

Theservant 仆人 led me to the room which the Countess had just left. I entered it, and found myself 我 face to face with the Count.

He was still in his evening dress, except his coat, which he had thrown across a chair. His shirt 衬衫-sleeves 袖 were turned up at the wrists 腕, but no higher. A carpet 地毯-bag 袋 was on one side of him, and a box on the other. Books, papers, and articles of wearing apparel 服饰 were scattered 散落 about the room. On a table, at one side of the door, stood the cage 笼子, so well known to me by description, which contained his white mice. The canaries and the cockatoo were probably in some other room. He was seated before the box, packing it, when I went in, and rose with some papers in his hand to receive me. His face still betrayed 背叛 plain traces 跟踪 of the shock that had overwhelmed 压倒 him at the Opera 歌剧. His fat cheeks 脸颊 hung loose, his cold grey 灰色:gray eyes were furtively vigilant, his voice, look, and manner were all sharply suspicious 可疑的 alike 同样的, as he advanced a step to meet me, and requested, with distant 遥远的 civility, that I would take a chair.

"You come here on business, sir 先生?" he said. "I am at a loss to know what that business can possibly be."

The unconcealed curiosity 好奇心, with which he looked hard in my face while he spoke, convinced 说服 me that I had passed unnoticed 被忽视 by him at the Opera 歌剧. He had seen Pesca first, and from that moment till he left the theatre he had evidently 明显地 seen nothing else. My name would necessarily suggest to him that I had not come into his house with other than a hostile 敌对 purpose towards himself, but he appeared to be utterly 完全 ignorant 愚昧 thus far of the real nature of my errand 使命.

"I am fortunate 侥幸的 in finding you here to-night," I said. "You seem to be on the point of taking a journey 旅行?"

"Is your business connected 连接 with my journey 3?"

"In some degree."

"In what degree? Do you know where I am going to?"

"No. I only know why you are leaving London."

He slipped by me with the quickness of thought, locked the door, and put the key in his pocket 口袋.

"You and I, Mr. Hartright, are excellently well acquainted 认识 with one another by reputation 名气," he said. "Did it, by any chance, occur 发生 to you when you came to this house that I was not the sort of man you could trifle 琐事 with?"

"It did occur 发生 to me," I replied. "And I have not come to trifle 琐事 with you. I am here on a matter of life and death, and if that door which you have locked was open at this moment, nothing you could say or do would induce 促使 me to pass through it."

I walked farther into the room, and stood opposite to him on the rug 小块地毯 before the fire‧place 壁炉. He drew a chair in front of the door, and sat down on it, with his left arm resting on the table. The cage 笼子 with the white mice was close to him, and the little creatures scampered out of their sleeping-place as his heavy arm shook shake the table, and peered 窥视 at him through the gaps 缺口 in the smartly 聪明 painted wires.

"On a matter of life and death," he repeated to himself. "Those words are more serious, perhaps, than you think. What do you mean?"

"What I say."

The perspiration broke break out thickly on his broad fore‧head 前额. His left hand stole over the edge of the table. There was a drawer 抽屉 in it, with a lock, and the key was in the lock. His finger and thumb 拇指 closed over the key, but did not turn it.

"So you know why I am leaving London?" he went on. "Tell me the reason, if you please." He turned the key, and unlocked 开锁 the drawer as he spoke.

"I can do better than that," I replied. "I can show you the reason, if you like."

"How can you show it?"

"You have got your coat off," I said. "Roll up the shirt 衬衫-sleeve 袖 on your left arm, and you will see it there."

The same livid leaden change passed over his face which I had seen pass over it at the theatre. The deadly glitter 闪光 in his eyes shone 发光:shine steady and straight into mine. He said nothing. But his left hand slowly opened the table- drawer 抽屉, and softly slipped into it. The harsh 苛刻 grating 炉排 noise 噪音 of something heavy that he was moving unseen 看不见 to me sounded for a moment, then ceased 停止. The silence that followed was so intense 强烈的，极度的 that the faint 微弱的 ticking 蜱 nibble of the white mice at their wires was distinctly 历历 audible 听得见 where I stood.

My life hung by a thread 线, and I knew it. At that final 最后 moment I thought with his mind, I felt with his fingers—I was as certain as if I had seen it of what he kept hidden hide from me in the drawer 抽屉.

"Wait a little," I said. "You have got the door locked—you see I don't move—you see my hands are empty. Wait a little. I have something more to say."

"You have said enough," he replied, with a sudden composure so unnatural 不自然 and so ghastly 阴森 that it tried my nerves 神经 as no out‧break 暴发 of violence 暴力 could have tried them. "I want one moment for my own thoughts, if you please. Do you guess what I am thinking about?"

"Perhaps I do."

"I am thinking," he remarked quietly, "whether I shall add to the disorder 混乱 in this room by scattering 散落 your brains about the fire‧place 壁炉."

If I had moved at that moment, I saw in his face that he would have done it.

"I advise you to read two lines of writing which I have about me," I rejoined 归队, "before you finally decide that question."

The proposal appeared to excite his curiosity 好奇心. He nodded 点头 his head. I took Pesca's acknowledgment 承认 of the receipt 收据 of my letter out of my pocket-book, handed it to him at arm's length, and returned to my former position in front of the fire‧place 壁炉.

He read the lines aloud 高声: "Your letter is received. If I don't hear from you before the time you mention, I will break the seal 4 when the clock strikes."

Another man in his position would have needed some explanation 说明 of those words—the Count felt no such necessity. One reading of the note showed him the pre‧caution 预防 that I had taken as plainly as if he had been present at the time when I adopted it. The expression of his face changed on the instant, and his hand came out of the drawer 4 empty.

"I don't lock up my drawer 5, Mr. Hartright," he said, "and I don't say that I may not scatter 散落 your brains about the fire‧place 壁炉 yet. But I am a just man even to my enemy, and I will acknowledge 确认 before‧hand 预先 that they are cleverer 聪明的 brains than I thought them. Come to the point, sir 先生! You want something of me?"

"I do, and I mean to have it."

"On conditions?"

"On no conditions."

His hand dropped into the drawer again.

"Bah! we are travelling in a circle," he said, "and those clever 聪明的 brains of yours are in danger again. Your tone 音 is deplorably imprudent, sir 3— mode‧rate 有节制的 it on the spot! The risk of shooting you on the place where you stand is less to me than the risk of letting you out of this house, except on conditions that I dictate 听写 and approve. You have not got my lamented 哀叹 friend to deal with now—you are face to face with Fosco! If the lives of twenty 二十 Mr. Hartrights were the stepping-stones to my safety 安全, over all those stones I would go, sustained 维持；遭受 by my sublime 升华 indifference 漠不关心, self 自己-balanced by my impenetrable calm 镇定的. Respect me, if you love your own life! I summon 召唤 you to answer three questions before you open your lips again. Hear them—they are necessary to this interview 访问. Answer them—they are necessary to ME." He held up one finger of his right hand. "First question!" he said. "You come here possessed 拥有 of information which may be true or may be false 3—where did you get it?"

"I decline 下降 to tell you."

"No matter—I shall find out. If that information is true—mind I say, with the whole force of my resolution 解析度, if—you are making your market of it here by treachery of your own or by treachery of some other man. I note that circumstance 环境 for future use in my memory, which forgets nothing, and proceed 继续." He held up another finger. "Second question! Those lines you invited me to read are without signature 签名. Who wrote them?"

"A man whom I have every reason to depend on, and whom you have every reason to fear."

My answer reached him to some purpose. His left hand trembled 发抖 audibly 听得见 in the drawer.

"How long do you give me," he asked, putting his third question in a quieter tone 音, "before the clock strikes and the seal 5 is broken break?"

"Time enough for you to come to my terms," I replied.

"Give me a plainer answer, Mr. Hartright. What hour is the clock to strike?"

"Nine 九, to-morrow morning."

"Nine 九, to-morrow morning? Yes, yes—your trap 陷阱；诱骗 is laid for me before I can get my pass‧port 护照 regulated 调节 and leave London. It is not earlier, I suppose? We will see about that presently—I can keep you host‧age 人质 here, and bar‧gain 讨价还价；交易 with you to send for your letter before I let you go. In the mean‧time 其时, be so good next as to mention your terms."

"You shall hear them. They are simple, and soon stated. You know whose 谁的 interests I represent in coming here?"

He smiled with the most supreme 最高 composure, and care‧less 粗心 waved his right hand.

"I consent 同意 to hazard 冒险 a guess," he said jeeringly. "A lady's interests, of course!"

"My Wife's interests."

He looked at me with the first honest 诚实的 expression that had crossed his face in my presence—an expression of blank 空白 amazement 惊愕. I could see that I sank 淹没:sink in his estimation 估计 as a dangerous 危险 man from that moment. He shut 关闭 up the drawer at once, folded his arms over his breast 乳房, and listened to me with a smile of satirical attention.

"You are well enough aware 知道的," I went on, "of the course which my inquiries have taken for many months past, to know that any attempted denial 否认 of plain facts will be quite use‧less 无用 in my presence. You are guilty 有罪的；内疚的 of an infamous 臭名昭著 conspiracy 阴谋! And the gain of a for‧tune 命运 of ten 十 thou‧sand 千 pounds was your motive 动机 for it."

He said nothing. But his face became overclouded suddenly by a lowering anxiety.

"Keep your gain," I said. (His face lightened 变轻 again immediately, and his eyes opened on me in wider and wider astonishment 惊愕.) "I am not here to disgrace 耻辱 myself 我 by bar‧gain 讨价还价；交易 for money which has passed through your hands, and which has been the price of a vile crime 罪行.

"Gently, Mr. Hartright. Your moral clap 拍-traps 陷阱；诱骗 have an excellent effect in England—keep them for your‧self 你自己 and your own countrymen, if you please. The ten 十 thou‧sand 千 pounds was a legacy 遗产 left to my excellent wife by the late Mr. Fairlie. Place the affair on those grounds, and I will discuss it if you like. To a man of my sentiments 情绪, however, the subject is deplorably sordid. I prefer to pass it over. I invite you to resume 恢复 the discussion of your terms. What do you demand?"

"In the first place, I demand a full confession 承认 of the conspiracy 阴谋, written and signed in my presence by your‧self 你自己."

He raised his finger again. "One!" he said, checking me off with the steady attention of a practical man.

"In the second place, I demand a plain proof 证明, which does not depend on your personal 个人 asseveration, of the date at which my wife left Blackwater Park and travelled to London."

"So! so! you can lay your finger, I see, on the weak place," he remarked composedly. "Any more?"

"At present, no more."

"Good! you have mentioned your terms, now listen to mine. The responsibility 责任 to myself 我 of admitting what you are pleased to call the 'conspiracy 阴谋' is less, perhaps, upon the whole, than the responsibility 责任 of laying you dead on that hearth‧rug 炉‧小块地毯. Let us say that I meet your proposal—on my own conditions. The statement 声明 you demand of me shall be written, and the plain proof 证明 shall be produced. You call a letter from my late lamented 哀叹 friend informing me of the day and hour of his wife's arrival 到达 in London, written, signed, and dated by himself, a proof, I suppose? I can give you this. I can also send you to the man of whom I hired 聘用 the carriage 运输 to fetch 取 my visitor 访问者 from the rail‧way 铁路, on the day when she arrived—his order-book may help you to your date, even if his coach‧man 教师‧男人 who drove drive me proves to be of no use. These things I can do, and will do, on conditions. I recite 背诵 them. First condition! Madame Fosco and I leave this house when and how we please, without interference 干涉 of any kind on your part. Second condition! You wait here, in company with me, to see my agent, who is coming at seven 七 o'clock in the morning to regulate 调节 my affairs. You give my agent a written order to the man who has got your sealed letter to resign 辞职 his possession 所有物 of it. You wait here till my agent places that letter unopened in my hands, and you then allow me one clear half-hour to leave the house—after which you resume 恢复 your own freedom of action and go where you please. Third condition! You give me the satisfaction 满足 of a gentleman for your intrusion 侵扰 into my private affairs, and for the language you have allowed your‧self 你自己 to use to me at this conference 会议. The time and place, abroad, to be fixed in a letter from my hand when I am safe on the Continent, and that letter to contain a strip of paper measuring accurately 准确的；精确的；正确的 the length of my sword 剑. Those are my terms. Inform me if you accept them—Yes or No."

The extraordinary mixture 混合 of prompt 敏捷的 decision, far-sighted cunning 狡猾, and mountebank bravado in this speech, staggered 错开 me for a moment—and only for a moment. The one question to consider was, whether I was justified or not in possessing 拥有 myself 我 of the means of establishing 建立 Laura's identity 身分 at the cost of allowing the scoundrel who had robbed 抢劫 her of it to escape me with impunity. I knew that the motive 动机 of securing 安全 the just recognition of my wife in the birth‧place 出生地 from which she had been driven out as an impostor, and of publicly erasing 抹去 the lie that still profaned her mother's tomb‧stone 墓‧石头, was far purer, in its freedom from all taint 污点 of evil passion 激情，热情；强烈情感, than the vindictive motive 动机 which had mingled 交融 itself 本身 with my purpose from the first. And yet I cannot honestly say that my own moral convictions 定罪 were strong enough to decide the struggle in me by themselves. They were helped by my remembrance 纪念 of Sir Percival's death. How awfully 糟糕的, at the last moment, had the working of the retribution 报应 there been snatched 抢夺 from my feeble 微弱 hands! What right had I to decide, in my poor mortal 凡人 ignorance 无知 of the future, that this man, too, must escape with impunity because he escaped me? I thought of these things—perhaps with the superstition 迷信 inherent 固有 in my nature, perhaps with a sense worthier 值得 of me than superstition 迷信. It was hard, when I had fastened my hold on him at last, to loosen 变松 it again of my own accord—but I forced myself 我 to make the sacrifice 牺牲. In plainer words, I determined to be guided by the one higher motive 动机 of which I was certain, the motive 动机 of serving the cause of Laura and the cause of Truth.

"I accept your conditions," I said. "With one reservation 保留 on my part."

"What reservation 保留 may that be?" he asked.

"It refers to the sealed letter," I answered. "I require you to destroy it unopened in my presence as soon as it is placed in your hands."

My object in making this stipulation was simply to prevent him from carrying away written evidence 证据 of the nature of my communication 通讯 with Pesca. The fact of my communication 通讯 he would necessarily discover, when I gave the address to his agent in the morning. But he could make no use of it on his own unsupported testimony 见证—even if he really ventured to try the experiment—which need excite in me the slightest apprehension 顾虑 on Pesca's account.

"I grant 发放 your reservation 保留," he replied, after considering the question gravely for a minute or two. "It is not worth dispute 争议—the letter shall be destroyed when it comes into my hands."

He rose, as he spoke, from the chair in which he had been sitting opposite to me up to this time. With one effort he appeared to free his mind from the whole pressure on it of the interview 访问 between us thus far. "Ouf!" he cried, stretching his arms luxuriously 豪华, "the skirmish was hot while it lasted. Take a seat, Mr. Hartright. We meet as mortal 凡人 enemies here‧after 此后—let us, like gallant gentlemen, exchange polite 有礼貌的 attentions in the mean‧time 其时. Permit me to take the liberty 自由 of calling for my wife."

He unlocked 开锁 and opened the door. "Eleanor!" he called out in his deep voice. The lady of the viperish face came in "Madame Fosco—Mr. Hartright," said the Count, introducing us with easy dignity 尊严. "My angel 天使," he went on, addressing his wife, "will your labours of packing up allow you time to make me some nice strong coffee? I have writing business to trans‧act 反式‧行动；起作用 with Mr. Hartright—and I require the full possession 所有物 of my intelligence 情报 to do justice to myself 我."

Madame Fosco bowed 弓 her head twice 两次—once sternly 严肃 to me, once submissively to her husband, and glided 滑行 out of the room.

The Count walked to a writing-table near the window, opened his desk, and took from it several quires of paper and a bundle 捆 of quill pens 笔. He scattered the pens about the table, so that they might lie ready in all directions to be taken up when wanted, and then cut the paper into a heap 堆 of narrow slips, of the form used by professional 专业的 writers 作家 for the press. "I shall make this a remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 document 文件," he said, looking at me over his shoulder. "Habits of literary composition 作文；构图 are perfectly familiar to me. One of the rarest of all the intellectual 知识分子 accomplishments 成就 that a man can possess 拥有 is the grand 宏大的 faculty 学院 of arranging his ideas. Immense 极大的 privilege 特权! I possess it. Do you?"

He marched 行军；三月 backwards and forwards in the room, until the coffee appeared, humming 哼 to himself, and marking the places at which obstacles 障碍 occurred 发生 in the arrangement 安排 of his ideas, by striking his fore‧head 前额 from time to time with the palm 棕榈 of his hand. The enormous 巨大 audacity with which he seized 抓住 on the situation in which I placed him, and made it the pedestal on which his vanity 虚荣 mounted 增加 for the one cherished 珍视 purpose of self-display 显示, mastered my astonishment 惊愕 by main force. Sincerely as I loathed 厌恶 the man, the prodigious strength of his character, even in its most trivial 不重要的 aspects 方面, impressed 给…留下深刻印象；使钦佩 me in spite 恶意 of myself 我.

The coffee was brought in by Madame Fosco. He kissed 接吻 her hand in grateful 感激的 acknowledgment 承认, and escorted 护送 her to the door; returned, poured out a cup of coffee for himself, and took it to the writing-table.

"May I offer you some coffee, Mr. Hartright?" he said, before he sat down.

I declined 下降.

"What! you think I shall poison 毒药 you?" he said gaily 快乐的. "The English intellect 智力 is sound, so far as it goes," he continued, seating himself at the table; "but it has one grave 坟墓；严重的 defect 缺陷—it is always cautious 小心的 in the wrong place."

He dipped 浸 his pen 笔 in the ink 墨水, placed the first slip of paper before him with a thump 扑通 of his hand on the desk, cleared his throat, and began. He wrote with great noise 噪音 and rapidity, in so large and bold 胆大的；醒目的 a hand, and with such wide spaces between the lines, that he reached the bottom of the slip in not more than two minutes certainly from the time when he started at the top. Each slip as he finished it was paged, and tossed 折腾 over his shoulder out of his way on the floor. When his first pen 笔 was worn wear out, that went over his shoulder too, and he pounced on a second from the supply scattered about the table. Slip after slip, by dozens, by fifties 五十, by hundreds 百, flew fly over his shoulders on either side of him till he had snowed himself up in paper all round his chair. Hour after hour passed—and there I sat watching, there he sat writing. He never stopped, except to sip 啜 his coffee, and when that was exhausted 排气, to smack 拍击 his fore‧head 前额 from time to time. One o'clock struck, two, three, four—and still the slips flew about all round him; still the untiring pen 笔 scraped 擦 its way ceaselessly from top to bottom of the page, still the white chaos 混沌 of paper rose higher and higher all round his chair. At four o'clock I heard a sudden splutter of the pen 3, indicative 指示 of the flourish 繁荣 with which he signed his name. "Bravo!" he cried, springing to his feet with the activity of a young man, and looking me straight in the face with a smile of superb 高超 triumph 胜利.

"Done, Mr. Hartright!" he announced 宣布 with a self-renovating 修复 thump 扑通 of his fist 拳头 on his broad breast 乳房. "Done, to my own profound 深刻 satisfaction 满足—to your profound 深刻 astonishment 惊愕, when you read what I have written. The subject is exhausted 排气: the man—Fosco—is not. I proceed 继续 to the arrangement 安排 of my slips—to the revision 调整 of my slips—to the reading of my slips—addressed emphatically 重点 to your private ear. Four o'clock has just struck. Good! Arrangement 安排, revision 调整, reading, from four to five. Short snooze of restoration 恢复 for myself 我 from five to six. Final 最后 preparations 制备 from six to seven 七. Affair of agent and sealed letter from seven 七 to eight 八. At eight 八, en 恩 route 路线. Behold the programme!"

He sat down cross-legged on the floor among his papers, strung them together with a bodkin and a piece of string 绳子—revised 修改 them, wrote all the titles and honours by which he was personally 亲自 distinguished at the head of the first page, and then read the manuscript 手稿 to me with loud 响亮的 theatrical 戏剧的 emphasis 重点 and profuse theatrical gesticulation. The reader will have an opportunity, ere long, of forming his own opinion of the document 文件. It will be sufficient 足够 to mention here that it answered my purpose.

He next wrote me the address of the person from whom he had hired the fly, and handed me Sir Percival's letter. It was dated from Hampshire on the 25th of July, and it announced 宣布 the journey of "Lady Glyde" to London on the 26th. Thus, on the very day (the 25th) when the doctor's certificate 证书 declared that she had died in St. John's Wood, she was alive 活的；有生命的, by Sir Percival's own showing, at Blackwater—and, on the day after, she was to take a journey! When the proof 3 of that journey was obtained 获得 from the flyman, the evidence 证据 would be complete.

"A quarter-past five," said the Count, looking at his watch. "Time for my restorative snooze. I personally 亲自 resemble 类似 Napoleon the Great, as you may have remarked, Mr. Hartright—I also resemble 类似 that immortal 不朽 man in my power of commanding sleep at will. Excuse 原谅 me one moment. I will summon 召唤 Madame Fosco, to keep you from feeling dull 钝的；没兴趣."

Knowing as well as he did, that he was summoning 召唤 Madame Fosco to ensure 确保 my not leaving the house while he was asleep 睡着的, I made no reply, and occupied 占据 myself 我 in tying up the papers which he had placed in my possession 3.

The lady came in, cool, pale, and venomous as ever. " Amuse 使人发笑 Mr. Hartright, my angel 天使," said the Count. He placed a chair for her, kissed her hand for the second time, withdrew to a sofa 沙发, and, in three minutes, was as peacefully 安然 and happily asleep 3 as the most virtuous 贤 man in existence.

Madame Fosco took a book from the table, sat down, and looked at me, with the steady vindictive malice of a woman who never forgot forget and never forgave 原谅:forgive.

"I have been listening to your conversation with my husband," she said. "If I had been in his place—I would have laid you dead on the hearth‧rug 炉‧小块地毯."

With those words she opened her book, and never looked at me or spoke to me from that time till the time when her husband woke 醒:wake.

He opened his eyes and rose from the sofa 沙发, accurately to an hour from the time when he had gone to sleep.

"I feel infinitely 无限地 refreshed 使恢复," he remarked. "Eleanor, my good wife, are you all ready upstairs 楼上? That is well. My little packing here can be completed in ten 十 minutes—my travelling-dress assumed 承担 in ten 十 minutes more. What remains before the agent comes?" He looked about the room, and noticed the cage 笼子 with his white mice in it. "Ah!" he cried piteously, "a last laceration of my sympathies 同情 still remains. My innocent 无辜 pets 宠物! my little cherished 珍视 children! what am I to do with them? For the present we are settled now‧here 无处; for the present we travel incessantly—the less baggage 行李 we carry the better for ourselves 我们自己. My cockatoo, my canaries, and my little mice—who will cherish 珍视 them when their good Papa is gone?"

He walked about the room deep in thought. He had not been at all troubled about writing his confession 承认, but he was visibly 可以看见的；可视的 perplexed 困扰 and distressed 苦难 about the far more important question of the disposal 处置 of his pets. After long consideration 考虑 he suddenly sat down again at the writing-table.

"An idea!" he exclaimed 喊叫. "I will offer my canaries and my cockatoo to this vast 广大 Metropolis—my agent shall present them in my name to the Zoological Gardens of London. The Document 文件 that describes them shall be drawn out on the spot."

He began to write, repeating the words as they flowed from his pen.

"Number one. Cockatoo of transcendent plum‧age 李子‧年龄: attraction 吸引, of himself, to all visitors 访问者 of taste. Number two. Canaries of unrivalled vivacity and intelligence 情报: worthy 值得 of the garden of Eden, worthy 值得 also of the garden in the Regent's Park. Homage to British Zoology. Offered by Fosco."

The pen spluttered again, and the flourish 繁荣 was attached 连接 to his signature 签名.

"Count! you have not included the mice," said Madame Fosco

He left the table, took her hand, and placed it on his heart.

"All human resolution 解析度, Eleanor," he said solemnly 庄严的, "has its limits. My limits are inscribed 题 on that Document 文件. I cannot part with my white mice. Bear with me, my angel 天使, and remove 去掉 them to their travelling cage 笼子 upstairs 楼上."

"Admirable tenderness 压痛!" said Madame Fosco, admiring her husband, with a last viperish look in my direction. She took up the cage 4 carefully 小心, and left the room.

The Count looked at his watch. In spite of his resolute assumption 假设 of composure, he was getting anxious 焦急的 for the agent's arrival 到达. The candles 蜡烛 had long since been extinguished 扑灭, and the sun‧light 阳光 of the new morning poured into the room. It was not till five minutes past seven 七 that the gate bell 钟 rang, and the agent made his appearance. He was a foreigner with a dark beard 胡须.

"Mr. Hartright—Monsieur Rubelle," said the Count, introducing us. He took the agent (a foreign spy 间谍, in every line of his face, if ever there was one yet) into a corner of the room, whispered some directions to him, and then left us together. "Monsieur Rubelle," as soon as we were alone, suggested with great politeness 礼貌 that I should favour him with his instructions 指令. I wrote two lines to Pesca, authorising him to deliver my sealed letter "to the bearer," directed the note, and handed it to Monsieur Rubelle.

The agent waited with me till his employer returned, equipped 装备 in travelling costume 服装. The Count examined the address of my letter before he dismissed the agent. "I thought so!" he said, turning on me with a dark look, and altering 改变 again in his manner from that moment.

He completed his packing, and then sat consulting 咨询；请教；查阅 a travelling map 地图, making entries 条目 in his pocket-book, and looking every now and then impatiently 不耐烦 at his watch. Not another word, addressed to myself 我, passed his lips. The near approach of the hour for his departure 离开, and the proof he had seen of the communication 通讯 established 建立 between Pesca and myself 我, had plainly recalled 召回 his whole attention to the measures that were necessary for securing 安全 his escape.

A little before eight 八 o'clock, Monsieur Rubelle came back with my unopened letter in his hand. The Count looked carefully 小心 at the superscription and the seal, lit a candle 蜡烛, and burnt the letter. "I perform my promise," he said, "but this matter, Mr. Hartright, shall not end here."

The agent had kept at the door the cab 出租车 in which he had returned. He and the maid 女佣-servant 仆人 now busied themselves in removing 去掉 the luggage 行李. Madame Fosco came downstairs 楼下, thickly veiled 面纱, with the travelling cage 5 of the white mice in her hand. She neither spoke to me nor looked towards me. Her husband escorted 护送 her to the cab 出租车. "Follow me as far as the passage," he whispered in my ear; "I may want to speak to you at the last moment."

I went out to the door, the agent standing below me in the front garden. The Count came back alone, and drew me a few steps inside the passage.

"Remember the Third condition!" he whispered. "You shall hear from me, Mr. Hartright—I may claim from you the satisfaction 满足 of a gentleman sooner than you think for." He caught my hand before I was aware 知道的 of him, and wrung it hard—then turned to the door, stopped, and came back to me again.

"One word more," he said confidentially 秘密的. "When I last saw Miss Halcombe, she looked thin and ill 生病. I am anxious 3 about that admirable 令人钦佩 woman. Take care of her, sir! With my hand on my heart, I solemnly implore you, take care of Miss Halcombe!"

Those were the last words he said to me before he squeezed 挤 his huge 巨大 body into the cab 出租车 and drove off.

The agent and I waited at the door a few moments looking after him. While we were standing together, a second cab 出租车 appeared from a turning a little way down the road. It followed the direction previously 先前 taken by the Count's cab 出租车, and as it passed the house and the open garden gate, a person inside looked at us out of the window. The stranger at the Opera 歌剧 again!—the foreigner with a scar 瘢痕 on his left cheek 脸颊.

"You wait here with me, sir, for half an hour more!" said Monsieur Rubelle.

"I do."

We returned to the sitting-room. I was in no humour to speak to the agent, or to allow him to speak to me. I took out the papers which the Count had placed in my hands, and read the terrible story of the conspiracy 阴谋 told by the man who had planned and perpetrated it.

THE STORY CONTINUED BY ISIDOR, OTTAVIO, BALDASSARE FOSCO

(Count of the Holy 神圣的 Roman Empire 帝国, Knight Grand 宏大的 Cross of the Order of the Brazen Crown 王冠, Perpetual Arch 弓形-Master of the Rosicrucian Masons of Mesopotamia; Attached (in Honorary Capacities) to Societies Musical 音乐, Societies Medical, Societies Philosophical, and Societies General Benevolent, through‧out 始终 Europe; etc. etc. etc.)

THE COUNT'S NARRATIVE

In the summer of eighteen 十八 hundred 百 and fifty 五十 I arrived in England, charged with a delicate 微妙的；纤弱的 political mission 任务 from abroad. Confidential 秘密的 persons were semi 半-officially connected with me, whose 谁的 exertions I was authorised to direct, Monsieur and Madame Rubelle being among the number. Some weeks of spare 节省；多余的；备用件 time were at my disposal 处置, before I entered on my functions 功能 by establishing 建立 myself 我 in the suburbs 市郊 of London. Curiosity may stop here to ask for some explanation 说明 of those functions 功能 on my part. I entirely sympathise with the request. I also regret 后悔 that diplomatic 外交 reserve forbids 禁止 me to comply 执行 with it.

I arranged to pass the preliminary 初步 period of repose, to which I have just referred, in the superb 高超 mansion 大厦 of my late lamented 哀叹 friend, Sir Percival Glyde. He arrived from the Continent with his wife. I arrived from the Continent with mine. England is the land of domestic 国内 happiness 幸福—how appropriately 适当 we entered it under these domestic 国内 circumstances 环境!

The bond 键 of friend‧ship 友情 which united Percival and myself 我 was strengthened 加强, on this occasion, by a touching similarity 相似 in the pecuniary position on his side and on mine. We both wanted money. Immense 极大的 necessity! Universal 普遍的 want! Is there a civilised human being who does not feel for us? How insensible must that man be! Or how rich!

I enter into no sordid particulars, in discussing this part of the subject. My mind recoils from them. With a Roman austerity, I show my empty purse 钱包 and Percival's to the shrinking 收缩 public gaze 凝视. Let us allow the deplorable fact to assert 断言 itself 本身, once for all, in that manner, and pass on.

We were received at the mansion 大厦 by the magnificent 华丽的 creature 动物；生物 who is inscribed 题 on my heart as "Marian," who is known in the colder atmosphere 大气层 of society as "Miss Halcombe."

Just Heaven 天! with what inconceivable rapidity I learnt to adore 崇拜 that woman. At sixty 六十, I worshipped 崇拜 her with the volcanic 火山 ardour of eighteen 十八. All the gold 金 of my rich nature was poured hope‧less 绝望地 at her feet. My wife—poor angel 天使!—my wife, who adores 崇拜 me, got nothing but the shillings 一毛钱 and the pennies 便士. Such is the World, such Man, such Love. What are we (I ask) but puppets 木偶 in a show-box? Oh, omnipotent Destiny, pull our strings 绳子 gently! Dance us mercifully off our miserable 悲惨的 little stage!

The preceding 优于 lines, rightly understood, express an entire system of philosophy 哲学. It is mine.

I resume 恢复.

The domestic 国内 position at the commencement 开始 of our residence 住宅 at Blackwater Park has been drawn with amazing 使大为惊奇，使惊愕 accuracy 准确性, with profound 深刻 mental 心理 insight 眼光, by the hand of Marian her‧self 她自己. (Pass me the intoxicating familiarity 熟悉 of mentioning this sublime 升华 creature 动物；生物 by her Christian name.) Accurate 准确的；精确的；正确的 knowledge of the contents of her journal 日志—to which I obtained 获得 access 访问 by clandestine means, unspeakably precious 宝贵的 to me in the remembrance 纪念—warns my eager 渴望的 pen from topics 话题 which this essentially 基本的 exhaustive 详细 woman has already made her own.

The interests—interests, breath‧less 咋舌 and immense 3!—with which I am here concerned, begin with the deplorable calamity of Marian's illness 疾病.

The situation at this period was emphatically 重点 a serious one. Large sums 和 of money, due at a certain time, were wanted by Percival (I say nothing of the modicum equally necessary to myself 我), and the one source 资源 to look to for supplying them was the for‧tune 命运 of his wife, of which not one far‧thing 远‧东西；事件 was at his disposal 处置 until her death. Bad so far, and worse still farther on. My lamented 哀叹 friend had private troubles of his own, into which the delicacy 美味 of my disinterested attachment 附件 to him forbade 禁止:forbid me from inquiring 打听 too curiously. I knew nothing but that a woman, named Anne Catherick, was hidden hide in the neighbourhood, that she was in communication 通讯 with Lady Glyde, and that the disclosure 泄露 of a secret, which would be the certain ruin 破坏 of Percival, might be the result. He had told me himself that he was a lost man, unless his wife was silenced, and unless Anne Catherick was found. If he was a lost man, what would become of our pecuniary interests? Courageous as I am by nature, I absolutely trembled at the idea!

The whole force of my intelligence 情报 was now directed to the finding of Anne Catherick. Our money affairs, important as they were, admitted of delay 延迟—but the necessity of discovering the woman admitted of none. I only knew her by description, as presenting an extraordinary personal 个人 resemblance 相似 to Lady Glyde. The statement 声明 of this curious fact—intended merely to assist 帮助；协助；援助 me in identifying 鉴定 the person of whom we were in search—when coupled with the additional 额外 information that Anne Catherick had escaped from a mad 疯狂的-house, started the first immense concept‧ion 概念 in my mind, which subsequently 随后的，接着的 led to such amazing 使大为惊奇，使惊愕 results. That concept‧ion 概念 involved nothing less than the complete trans‧formation 转型 of two separate identities 身分. Lady Glyde and Anne Catherick were to change names, places, and destinies 命运, the one with the other—the prodigious consequences 后果 contemplated 沉思 by the change being the gain of thirty 三十 thou‧sand 千 pounds, and the eternal 永恒 preservation 保存 of Sir Percival's secret.

My instincts 直觉 (which seldom 很少 err 呃) suggested to me, on reviewing the circumstances 环境, that our invisible 无形 Anne would, sooner or later, return to the boat-house at the Blackwater lake. There I posted myself 我, previously 先前 mentioning to Mrs. Michelson, the house‧keep 管家, that I might be found when wanted, immersed 沉浸 in study, in that solitary 孤 place. It is my rule never to make unnecessary 不必要 mysteries, and never to set people suspecting 怀疑；嫌疑犯 me for want of a little season‧able 季节‧能够的 candour on my part. Mrs. Michelson believed in me from first to last. This lady‧like 女士‧喜欢；象 person ( widow 寡妇 of a Protestant priest 神父) over‧flow 溢出 with faith. Touched by such superfluity of simple confidence in a woman of her mature 成熟的 years, I opened the ample 充足 reservoirs 池 of my nature and absorbed 吸收 it all.

I was rewarded 报酬 for posting myself 我 sentinel at the lake by the appearance—not of Anne Catherick her‧self 她自己, but of the person in charge of her. This individual also overflowed with simple faith, which I absorbed 吸收 in myself 我, as in the case already mentioned. I leave her to describe the circumstances 环境 (if she has not done so already) under which she introduced me to the object of her maternal 母系 care. When I first saw Anne Catherick she was asleep. I was electrified by the likeness 像 between this unhappy 不快乐 woman and Lady Glyde. The details of the grand scheme 方案 which had suggested themselves in out‧line 概述；轮廓线 only, up to that period, occurred 发生 to me, in all their masterly combination 组合, at the sight of the sleeping face. At the same time, my heart, always accessible 无障碍 to tender 纤弱的 influences, dissolved 溶解 in tears at the spectacle 场面；眼镜 of suffering before me. I instantly set myself 我 to impart 传授 relief. In other words, I provided the necessary stimulant for strengthening 加强 Anne Catherick to perform the journey to London.

The best years of my life have been passed in the ardent 热心 study of medical and chemical 化学 science. Chemistry especially has always had irresistible 不可抗拒 attractions 吸引 for me from the enormous 巨大, the illimitable power which the knowledge of it confers 授予. Chemists—I assert 断言 it emphatically 重点—might sway 摇摆, if they pleased, the destinies 命运 of humanity 人性. Let me explain this before I go further.

Mind, they say, rules the world. But what rules the mind? The body (follow me closely here) lies at the mercy 宽容 of the most omnipotent of all potentates—the Chemist. Give me—Fosco—chemistry 化学; and when Shakespeare has conceived 构想 Hamlet, and sits down to execute 执行 the concept‧ion 概念—with a few grains 谷物 of powder 粉 dropped into his daily food, I will reduce his mind, by the action of his body, till his pen pours 淋；倒 out the most abject drivel that has ever degraded 降级 paper. Under similar 类似 circumstances 环境, revive 复活 me the illustrious Newton. I guarantee 保证 that when he sees the apple 苹果 fall he shall eat it, instead of discovering the principle 原理 of gravitation. Nero's dinner shall transform 使彻底改观；使大变样 Nero into the mildest 温柔的 of men before he has done digesting 消化 it, and the morning draught of Alexander the Great shall make Alexander run for his life at the first sight of the enemy the same afternoon. On my sacred 神圣的 word of honour it is lucky 幸运 for Society that modern chemists 化学家 are, by incomprehensible 费解的 good for‧tune 命运, the most harm‧less 无害 of man‧kind 人类. The mass are worthy 值得 fathers of families, who keep shops. The few are philosophers 哲学家 besotted with admiration 钦佩 for the sound of their own lecturing 讲座，课 voices, visionaries 空想家 who waste their lives on fantastic 奇妙 impossibilities 不可能的事, or quacks whose 4 ambition 抱负 soars 翱翔 no higher than our corns 玉米. Thus Society escapes, and the illimitable power of Chemistry remains the slave of the most superficial 浅 and the most insignificant 微不足道 ends.

Why this out‧burst 突发? Why this withering 枯萎 eloquence?

Because my conduct 进行 has been misrepresented, because my motives 动机 have been misunderstood. It has been assumed 承担 that I used my vast 广大 chemical 化学 resources 资源 against Anne Catherick, and that I would have used them if I could against the magnificent 华丽的 Marian her‧self 她自己. Odious insinuations both! All my interests were concerned (as will be seen presently) in the preservation 保存 of Anne Catherick's life. All my anxieties were concentrated 集中 on Marian's rescue 营救 from the hands of the licensed 执照 imbecile who attended her, and who found my advice 劝告 confirmed 确认 from first to last by the physician 医师 from London. On two occasions only—both equally harm‧less 无害 to the individual on whom I practised—did I summon 召唤 to myself 我 the assistance 帮助 of chemical 化学 knowledge. On the first of the two, after following Marian to the inn 小旅馆 at Blackwater (studying, behind a convenient 方便的 waggon which hid hide me from her, the poetry 诗歌 of motion, as embodied 体现 in her walk), I availed 果 myself 我 of the services of my invaluable 无价 wife, to copy one and to intercept 截距 the other of two letters which my adored 崇拜 enemy had entrusted 委托 to a discarded 丢弃 maid 女佣. In this case, the letters being in the bosom of the girl's dress, Madame Fosco could only open them, read them, perform her instructions 指令, seal them, and put them back again by scientific assistance 帮助—which assistance 帮助 I rendered 给予 in a half-ounce 盎司 bottle. The second occasion, when the same means were employed, was the occasion (to which I shall soon refer) of Lady Glyde's arrival 到达 in London. Never at any other time was I indebted 感激的 to my Art as distinguished from myself 我. To all other emergencies 急 and complications 复杂化 my natural 自然 capacity 容量 for grappling 抓钩, single-handed, with circumstances 环境, was invariably 不变地 equal. I affirm 确认 the all-pervading 弥漫 intelligence 情报 of that capacity 容量. At the expense of the Chemist I vindicate 表白 the Man.

Respect this out‧burst 突发 of generous 慷慨的 indignation 愤慨. It has inexpressibly relieved 解除 me. En route 路线! Let us proceed 继续.

Having suggested to Mrs. Clement (or Clements, I am not sure which) that the best method 方法 of keeping Anne out of Percival's reach was to remove 去掉 her to London—having found that my proposal was eagerly 渴望的 received, and having appointed a day to meet the travellers at the station and to see them leave it, I was at liberty 自由 to return to the house and to con‧front 面对 the difficulties which still remained to be met.

My first proceeding 继续 was to avail 果 myself 我 of the sublime 升华 devotion 忠诚 of my wife. I had arranged with Mrs. Clements that she should communicate 通信 her London address, in Anne's interests, to Lady Glyde. But this was not enough. Designing persons in my absence 缺席 might shake the simple confidence of Mrs. Clements, and she might not write after all. Who could I find cap‧able 能 of travelling to London by the train she travelled by, and of privately seeing her home? I asked myself 我 this question. The conjugal part of me immediately answered—Madame Fosco.

After deciding on my wife's mission 任务 to London, I arranged that the journey should serve a double purpose. A nurse 护士 for the suffering Marian, equally devoted to the patient and to myself 我, was a necessity of my position. One of the most eminently 杰出 confidential 秘密的 and cap‧able 能 women in existence was by good fortune 3 at my disposal 处置. I refer to that respect‧able 可敬 matron, Madame Rubelle, to whom I addressed a letter, at her residence 住宅 in London, by the hands of my wife.

On the appointed day Mrs. Clements and Anne Catherick met me at the station. I politely 有礼貌的 saw them off, I politely saw Madame Fosco off by the same train. The last thing at night my wife returned to Blackwater, having followed her instructions 指令 with the most unimpeachable accuracy 准确性. She was accompanied 陪 by Madame Rubelle, and she brought me the London address of Mrs. Clements. After-events proved this last pre‧caution 预防 to have been unnecessary 不必要. Mrs. Clements punctually informed Lady Glyde of her place of abode. With a wary 警惕 eye on future emergencies 急, I kept the letter.

The same day I had a brief 简要 interview 访问 with the doctor, at which I protested 抗议, in the sacred interests of humanity 人性, against his treatment 治疗 of Marian's case. He was insolent, as all ignorant 愚昧 people are. I showed no resentment 怨恨, I deferred 延缓 quarrelling 争吵 with him till it was necessary to quarrel 争吵 to some purpose. My next proceeding 继续 was to leave Blackwater myself 我. I had my London residence 住宅 to take in anticipation 预期 of coming events. I had also a little business of the domestic 国内 sort to trans‧act 反式‧行动；起作用 with Mr. Frederick Fairlie. I found the house I wanted in St. John's Wood. I found Mr. Fairlie at Limmeridge, Cumberland.

My own private familiarity 熟悉 with the nature of Marian's correspondence 对应 had previously 先前 informed me that she had written to Mr. Fairlie, proposing, as a relief to Lady Glyde's matrimonial embarrassments 困窘, to take her on a visit to her uncle 叔叔 in Cumberland. This letter I had wisely 明智的；聪明的 allowed to reach its destination 目的地, feeling at the time that it could do no harm 损害, and might do good. I now presented myself 我 before Mr. Fairlie to support Marian's own proposal—with certain modifications 修改 which, happily for the success of my plans, were rendered 给予 really inevitable 必然 by her illness 疾病. It was necessary that Lady Glyde should leave Blackwater alone, by her uncle 叔叔's invitation 邀请, and that she should rest a night on the journey at her aunt 阿姨's house (the house I had in St. John's Wood) by her uncle's express advice 劝告. To achieve 实现 these results, and to secure 安全 a note of invitation which could be shown to Lady Glyde, were the objects of my visit to Mr. Fairlie. When I have mentioned that this gentleman was equally feeble 微弱 in mind and body, and that I let loose the whole force of my character on him, I have said enough. I came, saw, and conquered Fairlie.

On my return to Blackwater Park (with the letter of invitation 邀请) I found that the doctor's imbecile treatment 治疗 of Marian's case had led to the most alarming 警告 results. The fever 发热 had turned to typhus. Lady Glyde, on the day of my return, tried to force her‧self 她自己 into the room to nurse her sister. She and I had no affinities 亲和力 of sympathy 同情—she had committed 承诺 the unpardonable out‧rage 暴行 on my sensibilities 感性 of calling me a spy 间谍—she was a stumbling 绊倒-block in my way and in Percival's—but, for all that, my magnanimity forbade me to put her in danger of infection 感染 with my own hand. At the same time I offered no hindrance 妨害 to her putting her‧self 她自己 in danger. If she had succeeded in doing so, the intricate 错综复杂 knot 结 which I was slowly and patiently operating on might perhaps have been cut by circumstances 环境. As it was, the doctor interfered 干预 and she was kept out of the room.

I had myself 我 previously 先前 recommended sending for advice to London. This course had been now taken. The physician 医师, on his arrival 到达, confirmed 确认 my view of the case. The crisis 危机 was serious. But we had hope of our charming 魔力；使陶醉 patient on the fifth day from the appearance of the typhus. I was only once absent 缺席的 from Blackwater at this time—when I went to London by the morning train to make the final 最后 arrangements 安排 at my house in St. John's Wood, to assure 向…保证；肯定地说 myself 我 by private inquiry 调查 that Mrs. Clements had not moved, and to settle one or two little preliminary 初步 matters with the husband of Madame Rubelle. I returned at night. Five days after‧ward 之后 the physician 医师 pronounced our interesting Marian to be out of all danger, and to be in need of nothing but careful 小心 nursing 护士. This was the time I had waited for. Now that medical attendance 勤 was no longer indispensable 不可缺少, I played the first move in the game by asserting 断言 myself 我 against the doctor. He was one among many witnesses in my way whom it was necessary to remove 去掉. A lively altercation between us (in which Percival, previously 先前 instructed 指导 by me, refused to interfere 干预) served the purpose in view. I descended on the miserable 悲惨的 man in an irresistible 不可抗拒 avalanche 雪崩 of indignation 愤慨, and swept sweep him from the house.

The servants 仆人 were the next encumbrances to get rid of. Again I instructed 指导 Percival (whose 5 moral courage 勇气 required perpetual 永动的 stimulants), and Mrs. Michelson was amazed 惊奇, one day, by hearing from her master that the establishment 机构 was to be broken up. We cleared the house of all the servants but one, who was kept for domestic 国内 purposes, and whose lumpish stupidity 糊涂事 we could trust to make no embarrassing 阻碍 discoveries 发现. When they were gone, nothing remained but to relieve 解除 ourselves 我们自己 of Mrs. Michelson—a result which was easily achieved 实现 by sending this amiable 可亲 lady to find lodgings for her mistress 情妇 at the sea-side.

The circumstances 环境 were now exactly what they were required to be. Lady Glyde was con‧fine 局限 to her room by nervous 担心的 illness 疾病, and the lumpish house‧maid 房屋‧女佣 (I forget her name) was shut 关闭 up there at night in attendance 勤 on her mistress 情妇. Marian, though fast recovering 恢复, still kept her bed, with Mrs. Rubelle for nurse. No other living creatures but my wife, myself 我, and Percival were in the house. With all the chances thus in our favour I con‧front 面对 the next emergency 急, and played the second move in the game.

The object of the second move was to induce 促使 Lady Glyde to leave Blackwater unaccompanied by her sister. Unless we could persuade 说服 her that Marian had gone on to Cumberland first, there was no chance of removing 去掉 her, of her own free will, from the house. To produce this necessary operation in her mind, we concealed 隐藏 our interesting invalid 无效 in one of the uninhabited bed‧room 卧室 at Blackwater. At the dead of night Madame Fosco, Madame Rubelle, and myself 我 (Percival not being cool enough to be trusted) accomplished the concealment. The scene was picturesque 如画, mysterious 神秘, dramatic 戏剧性 in the highest degree. By my directions the bed had been made, in the morning, on a strong movable frame‧work 构架 of wood. We had only to lift the framework gently at the head and foot, and to transport 运输 our patient where we pleased, without disturbing her‧self 她自己 or her bed. No chemical 化学 assistance 帮助 was needed or used in this case. Our interesting Marian lay in the deep repose of convalescence. We placed the candles 蜡烛 and opened the doors before‧hand 预先. I, in right of my great personal 个人 strength, took the head of the framework—my wife and Madame Rubelle took the foot. I bore my share of that inestimably precious 宝贵的 burden 负荷，重负 with a manly tenderness 压痛, with a fatherly care. Where is the modern Rembrandt who could depict 描绘 our mid‧night 午夜 procession 队伍? Alas for the Arts! alas 唉 for this most pictorial of subjects! The modern Rembrandt is now‧here 无处 to be found.

The next morning my wife and I started for London, leaving Marian secluded 隔离, in the uninhabited middle of the house, under care of Madame Rubelle, who kindly consented 同意 to imprison 监禁 her‧self 她自己 with her patient for two or three days. Before taking our departure 离开 I gave Percival Mr. Fairlie's letter of invitation 邀请 to his niece 外甥女 (instructing 指导 her to sleep on the journey to Cumberland at her aunt 阿姨's house), with directions to show it to Lady Glyde on hearing from me. I also obtained 获得 from him the address of the Asylum in which Anne Catherick had been con‧fine 局限, and a letter to the proprietor 业主, announcing 宣布 to that gentleman the return of his run‧away 逃跑 patient to medical care.

I had arranged, at my last visit to the metropolis, to have our modest 谦虚的 domestic 国内 establishment 机构 ready to receive us when we arrived in London by the early train. In consequence 后果 of this wise 明智的；聪明的 pre‧caution 预防, we were enabled 启用 that same day to play the third move in the game—the getting possession of Anne Catherick.

Dates are of importance here. I combine in myself 我 the opposite characteristics 特性 of a Man of Sentiment and a Man of Business. I have all the dates at my fingers' ends.

On Wednesday, the 24th of July 1850, I sent my wife in a cab 出租车 to clear Mrs. Clements out of the way, in the first place. A supposed message from Lady Glyde in London was sufficient 足够 to obtain 获得 this result. Mrs. Clements was taken away in the cab 出租车, and was left in the cab 出租车, while my wife (on pretence of purchasing 采购 something at a shop) gave her the slip, and returned to receive her expected visitor 访问者 at our house in St. John's Wood. It is hardly necessary to add that the visitor had been described to the servants as "Lady Glyde."

In the mean‧while 同时 I had followed in another cab 出租车, with a note for Anne Catherick, merely mentioning that Lady Glyde intended to keep Mrs. Clements to spend the day with her, and that she was to join them under care of the good gentleman waiting outside, who had already saved her from discovery in Hampshire by Sir Percival. The "good gentleman" sent in this note by a street boy, and paused 暂停 for results a door or two farther on. At the moment when Anne appeared at the house door and closed it this excellent man had the cab 出租车 door open ready for her, absorbed 吸收 her into the vehicle 车辆, and drove off.

(Pass me, here, one exclamation in parenthesis 插入语. How interesting this is!)

On the way to Forest Road my companion 同伴 showed no fear. I can be paternal 父亲的—no man more so—when I please, and I was intensely 强烈的，极度的 paternal 父亲的 on this occasion. What titles I had to her confidence! I had compounded 组合 the medicine 医学 which had done her good—I had warned her of her danger from Sir Percival. Perhaps I trusted too implicitly 隐式 to these titles—perhaps I underrated the keenness of the lower instincts 直觉 in persons of weak intellect 智力—it is certain that I neglected 疏忽 to prepare her sufficiently 充分地 for a disappointment 失望 on entering my house. When I took her into the drawing-room—when she saw no one present but Madame Fosco, who was a stranger to her—she exhibited 展示 the most violent 猛烈 agitation 搅动; if she had scented 香味 danger in the air, as a dog scents 香味 the presence of some creature 动物；生物 unseen 看不见, her alarm 警告 could not have displayed 显示 itself 本身 more suddenly and more causelessly. I interposed in vain 徒劳的. The fear from which she was suffering I might have soothed 缓和, but the serious heart-disease, under which she laboured, was beyond the reach of all moral palliatives. To my unspeakable horror 恐怖 she was seized with convulsions—a shock to the system, in her condition, which might have laid her dead at any moment at our feet.

The nearest doctor was sent for, and was told that "Lady Glyde" required his immediate services. To my infinite 无穷 relief, he was a cap‧able 能 man. I represented my visitor to him as a person of weak intellect 智力, and subject to delusions 妄想, and I arranged that no nurse but my wife should watch in the sick-room. The unhappy 不快乐 woman was too ill 生病, however, to cause any anxiety about what she might say. The one dread 恐惧 which now oppressed 压迫 me was the dread 恐惧 that the false Lady Glyde might die before the true Lady Glyde arrived in London.

I had written a note in the morning to Madame Rubelle, telling her to join me at her husband's house on the evening of Friday the 26th, with another note to Percival, warning him to show his wife her uncle's letter of invitation 4, to assert 断言 that Marian had gone on before her, and to despatch her to town by the midday 正午 train, on the 26th, also. On reflection 反映 I had felt the necessity, in Anne Catherick's state of health, of precipitating 沉淀 events, and of having Lady Glyde at my disposal 处置 earlier than I had originally 本来 contemplated 沉思. What fresh directions, in the terrible uncertainty 不确定 of my position, could I now issue? I could do nothing but trust to chance and the doctor. My emotions 情感 expressed themselves in pathetic 可怜 apostrophes, which I was just self-possessed enough to couple, in the hearing of other people, with the name of "Lady Glyde." In all other respects Fosco, on that memorable 难忘 day, was Fosco shrouded 裹尸布 in total eclipse 蚀.

She passed a bad night, she awoke 醒着的:awake worn out, but later in the day she revived 复活 amazingly 令人惊讶. My elastic 有弹力的 spirits revived 复活 with her. I could receive no answers from Percival and Madame Rubelle till the morning of the next day, the 26th. In anticipation 预期 of their following my directions, which, accident apart 相隔, I knew they would do, I went to secure 安全 a fly to fetch 取 Lady Glyde from the rail‧way 铁路, directing it to be at my house on the 26th, at two o'clock. After seeing the order entered in the book, I went on to arrange matters with Monsieur Rubelle. I also pro‧cure 促成 the services of two gentlemen who could furnish me with the necessary certificates 证书 of lunacy. One of them I knew personally 亲自—the other was known to Monsieur Rubelle. Both were men whose vigorous 蓬勃 minds soared 翱翔 superior 优越 to narrow scruples—both were labouring under temporary 临时 embarrassments 困窘—both believed in ME.

It was past five o'clock in the afternoon before I returned from the performance of these duties. When I got back Anne Catherick was dead. Dead on the 25th, and Lady Glyde was not to arrive in London till the 26th!

I was stunned 击晕. Meditate on that. Fosco stunned 击晕!

It was too late to retrace our steps. Before my return the doctor had officiously undertaken to save me all trouble by registering 寄存器 the death, on the date when it happened, with his own hand. My grand scheme 方案, unassailable hitherto 迄今, had its weak place now—no efforts on my part could alter 改变 the fatal 致命 event of the 25th. I turned man‧fully 男人‧完全地 to the future. Percival's interests and mine being still at stake 赌注, nothing was left but to play the game through to the end. I recalled 召回 my impenetrable calm 镇定的—and played it.

On the morning of the 26th Percival's letter reached me, announcing 宣布 his wife's arrival 到达 by the midday 正午 train. Madame Rubelle also wrote to say she would follow in the evening. I started in the fly, leaving the false Lady Glyde dead in the house, to receive the true Lady Glyde on her arrival 到达 by the rail‧way 铁路 at three o'clock. Hidden hide under the seat of the carriage 运输, I carried with me all the clothes Anne Catherick had worn on coming into my house—they were destined 注定 to assist 帮助；协助；援助 the resurrection 复活 of the woman who was dead in the person of the woman who was living. What a situation! I suggest it to the rising romance 浪漫 writers 作家 of England. I offer it, as totally new, to the worn-out dramatists of France.

Lady Glyde was at the station. There was great crowding and confusion 混乱, and more delay than I liked (in case any of her friends had happened to be on the spot), in reclaiming 回收 her luggage 行李. Her first questions, as we drove off, implored me to tell her news of her sister. I invented 发明 news of the most pacifying kind, assuring 向…保证；肯定地说 her that she was about to see her sister at my house. My house, on this occasion only, was in the neighbourhood of Leicester Square, and was in the occupation 占用 of Monsieur Rubelle, who received us in the hall.

I took my visitor upstairs 楼上 into a back room, the two medical gentlemen being there in waiting on the floor beneath 之下 to see the patient, and to give me their certificates 证书. After quieting Lady Glyde by the necessary assurances 保证 about her sister, I introduced my friends separately to her presence. They performed the formalities 礼节 of the occasion briefly 短时间地, intelligently 智能, conscientiously 有良心. I entered the room again as soon as they had left it, and at once precipitated 沉淀 events by a reference of the alarming kind to "Miss Halcombe's" state of health.

Results followed as I had anticipated 预期. Lady Glyde became frightened 使惊恐, and turned faint 3. For the second time, and the last, I called Science to my assistance 帮助. A medicated glass of water and a medicated bottle of smelling-salts relieved her of all further embarrassment 困窘 and alarm 警告. Additional 额外 applications later in the evening pro‧cure 促成 her the inestimable blessing 祝福 of a good night's rest. Madame Rubelle arrived in time to pre‧side 主持 at Lady Glyde's toilet 厕所. Her own clothes were taken away from her at night, and Anne Catherick's were put on her in the morning, with the strictest 严格的 regard to propriety, by the matronly hands of the good Rubelle. Through‧out 始终 the day I kept our patient in a state of partially 部分-suspended 暂停 consciousness 意识, until the dexterous assistance 帮助 of my medical friends enabled 启用 me to pro‧cure 促成 the necessary order rather earlier than I had ventured to hope. That evening (the evening of the 27th) Madame Rubelle and I took our revived 复活 "Anne Catherick" to the Asylum. She was received with great surprise, but without suspicion 怀疑, thanks to the order and certificates 证书, to Percival's letter, to the likeness 像, to the clothes, and to the patient's own confused 使困窘 mental 心理 condition at the time. I returned at once to assist 帮助；协助；援助 Madame Fosco in the preparations 制备 for the burial 葬礼 of the False "Lady Glyde," having the clothes and luggage 行李 of the true "Lady Glyde" in my possession. They were after‧ward 之后 sent to Cumberland by the conveyance which was used for the funeral 葬礼. I attended the funeral, with becoming dignity 尊严, attired 服装 in the deepest mourning 悼.

My narrative 叙述 of these remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 events, written under equally remarkable circumstances 环境, closes here. The minor 次要 pre‧caution 预防 which I observed in communicating 通信 with Limmeridge House are already known, so is the magnificent 华丽的 success of my enterprise 企业, so are the solid pecuniary results which followed it. I have to assert 断言, with the whole force of my conviction 定罪, that the one weak place in my scheme 方案 would never have been found out if the one weak place in my heart had not been discovered first. Nothing but my fatal 致命 admiration 钦佩 for Marian rest‧rain 抑制 me from stepping in to my own rescue 营救 when she effected her sister's escape. I ran the risk, and trusted in the complete destruction 破坏 of Lady Glyde's identity 身分. If either Marian or Mr. Hartright attempted to assert 断言 that identity 身分, they would publicly expose 暴露 themselves to the imputation of sustaining 维持；遭受 a rank 排列 deception 骗局, they would be distrusted 怀疑 and discredited 怀疑 accordingly 于是, and they would therefore be power‧less 无力 to place my interests or Percival's secret in jeopardy 危险. I committed 承诺 one error 错误 in trusting myself 我 to such a blind‧fold 失明的‧折叠 calculation 计算 of chances as this. I committed 承诺 another when Percival had paid the penalty 罚款 of his own obstinacy and violence, by granting 发放 Lady Glyde a second reprieve from the mad-house, and allowing Mr. Hartright a second chance of escaping me. In brief 简要, Fosco, at this serious crisis 危机, was untrue 不确实 to himself. Deplorable and uncharacteristic fault 缺点! Behold the cause, in my heart—behold 不料, in the image 图片 of Marian Halcombe, the first and last weakness 弱点 of Fosco's life!

At the ripe 成熟的 age of sixty 六十, I make this unparalleled confession 承认. Youths! I invoke 调用 your sympathy 同情. Maidens! I claim your tears.

A word more, and the attention of the reader (concentrated 集中 breath‧less 咋舌 on myself 我) shall be released 发布.

My own mental 心理 insight 眼光 informs me that three inevitable 必然 questions will be asked here by persons of inquiring minds. They shall be stated—they shall be answered.

First question. What is the secret of Madame Fosco's unhesitating devotion 忠诚 of her‧self 她自己 to the fulfilment of my boldest 胆大的；醒目的 wishes, to the furtherance of my deepest plans? I might answer this by simply referring to my own character, and by asking, in my turn, Where, in the history of the world, has a man of my order ever been found without a woman in the back‧ground 背景 self-immolated on the altar 坛 of his life? But I remember that I am writing in England, I remember that I was married in England, and I ask if a woman's marriage obligations 义务；责任；职责 in this country provide for her private opinion of her husband's principles 原理? No! They charge her unreservedly to love, honour, and obey 服从 him. That is exactly what my wife has done. I stand here on a supreme 最高 moral elevation 海拔, and I loftily 高远 assert 断言 her accurate 准确的；精确的；正确的 performance of her conjugal duties. Silence, Calumny! Your sympathy, Wives of England, for Madame Fosco!

Second question. If Anne Catherick had not died when she did, what should I have done? I should, in that case, have assisted 帮助；协助；援助 worn-out Nature in finding permanent 永久 repose. I should have opened the doors of the Prison of Life, and have extended to the captive 俘虏 (incurably afflicted 折磨 in mind and body both) a happy release 发布.

Third question. On a calm revision 调整 of all the circumstances 环境—Is my conduct 进行 worthy 值得 of any serious blame 指责? Most emphatically 重点, No! Have I not carefully 小心 avoided exposing 暴露 myself 我 to the odium of committing 承诺 unnecessary 不必要 crime? With my vast 广大 resources 资源 in chemistry 化学, I might have taken Lady Glyde's life. At immense personal 个人 sacrifice I followed the dictates 听写 of my own ingenuity 创造力, my own humanity 人性, my own caution 小心, and took her identity 身分 instead. Judge me by what I might have done. How comparatively 比较 innocent 无辜! how indirectly 间接 virtuous 贤 I appear in what I really did!

I announced 宣布 on beginning it that this narrative 叙述 would be a remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 document 文件. It has entirely answered my expectations 期望. Receive these fervid lines—my last legacy 遗产 to the country I leave for ever. They are worthy 值得 of the occasion, and worthy 值得 of

FOSCO.

THE STORY CONCLUDED BY WALTER HARTRIGHT

I

When I closed the last leaf 叶子 of the Count's manuscript 手稿 the half-hour during which I had engaged 从事 to remain at Forest Road had expired 到期. Monsieur Rubelle looked at his watch and bowed. I rose immediately, and left the agent in possession of the empty house. I never saw him again—I never heard more of him or of his wife. Out of the dark byways of villainy and deceit 欺骗 they had crawled 爬行 across our path 小路—into the same byways they crawled 爬行 back secretly and were lost.

In a quarter of an hour after leaving Forest Road I was at home again.

But few words sufficed 满足 to tell Laura and Marian how my desperate 殊死 venture 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 had ended, and what the next event in our lives was likely to be. I left all details to be described later in the day, and hastened back to St. John's Wood, to see the person of whom Count Fosco had ordered the fly, when he went to meet Laura at the station.

The address in my possession led me to some "livery stables 稳定," about a quarter of a mile distant 遥远的 from Forest Road. The proprietor 业主 proved to be a civil 国内 and respect‧able 可敬 man. When I explained that an important family matter obliged 责成 me to ask him to refer to his books for the purpose of ascertaining 探明 a date with which the record of his business trans‧action 交易 might supply me, he offered no objection 反对 to granting 发放 my request. The book was produced, and there, under the date of "July 26th, 1850," the order was entered in these words—

"Brougham to Count Fosco, 5 Forest Road. Two o'clock. (John Owen)."

I found on inquiry 调查 that the name of "John Owen," attached 连接 to the entry 条目, referred to the man who had been employed to drive the fly. He was then at work in the stable 稳定-yard, and was sent for to see me at my request.

"Do you remember driving a gentleman, in the month of July last, from Number Five Forest Road to the Waterloo Bridge station?" I asked.

"Well, sir," said the man, "I can't exactly say I do."

"Perhaps you remember the gentleman himself? Can you call to mind driving a foreigner last summer—a tall gentleman and remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 fat?" The man's face brightened 变亮 directly.

"I remember him, sir! The fattest gentleman as ever I see, and the heaviest customer as ever I drove. Yes, yes—I call him to mind, sir! We did go to the station, and it was from Forest Road. There was a parrot 鹦鹉, or summat summat:summat like it, screeching 尖叫 in the window. The gentleman was in a mortal 凡人 hurry about the lady's luggage 行李, and he gave me a hand‧some 英俊 present for looking sharp and getting the boxes."

Getting the boxes! I recollected immediately that Laura's own account of her‧self 她自己 on her arrival 到达 in London described her luggage 行李 as being collected for her by some person whom Count Fosco brought with him to the station. This was the man.

"Did you see the lady?" I asked. "What did she look like? Was she young or old?"

"Well, sir, what with the hurry and the crowd of people pushing about, I can't rightly say what the lady looked like. I can't call nothing to mind about her that I know of excepting her name."

"You remember her name?"

"Yes, sir. Her name was Lady Glyde."

"How do you come to remember that, when you have forgotten what she looked like?"

The man smiled, and shifted 转移 his feet in some little embarrassment 困窘.

"Why, to tell you the truth, sir," he said, "I hadn't been long married at that time, and my wife's name, before she changed it for mine, was the same as the lady's—meaning the name of Glyde, sir. The lady mentioned it her‧self 她自己. 'Is your name on your boxes, ma 嘛'am?' says I. 'Yes,' says she, 'my name is on my luggage 行李—it is Lady Glyde.' 'Come!' I says to myself 我, 'I've a bad head for gentlefolks' names in general—but this one comes like an old friend, at any rate.' I can't say nothing about the time, sir, it might be nigh on a year ago, or it mightn't. But I can swear 发誓 to the stout 肥硕 gentleman, and swear to the lady's name."

There was no need that he should remember the time—the date was positively 积极 established 建立 by his master's order-book. I felt at once that the means were now in my power of striking down the whole conspiracy 阴谋 at a blow with the irresistible 不可抗拒 weapon of plain fact. Without a moment's hesitation 犹豫, I took the proprietor 业主 of the livery stables 稳定 aside and told him what the real importance was of the evidence 证据 of his order-book and the evidence 证据 of his driver. An arrangement 安排 to compensate 补偿 him for the temporary 临时 loss of the man's services was easily made, and a copy of the entry 条目 in the book was taken by myself 我, and certified 证明 as true by the master's own signature 签名. I left the livery stables 稳定, having settled that John Owen was to hold himself at my disposal 处置 for the next three days, or for a longer period if necessity required it.

I now had in my possession all the papers that I wanted—the district registrar's own copy of the certificate 证书 of death, and Sir Percival's dated letter to the Count, being safe in my pocket-book.

With this written evidence 证据 about me, and with the coach‧man 教师‧男人's answers fresh in my memory, I next turned my steps, for the first time since the beginning of all my inquiries, in the direction of Mr. Kyrle's office. One of my objects in paying him this second visit was, necessarily, to tell him what I had done. The other was to warn him of my resolution 解析度 to take my wife to Limmeridge the next morning, and to have her publicly received and recognised in her uncle's house. I left it to Mr. Kyrle to decide under these circumstances 环境, and in Mr. Gilmore's absence, whether he was or was not bound 必定；跳, as the family solicitor 律师, to be present on that occasion in the family interests.

I will say nothing of Mr. Kyrle's amazement 惊愕, or of the terms in which he expressed his opinion of my conduct 进行 from the first stage of the investigation 调查 to the last. It is only necessary to mention that he at once decided on accompanying 陪 us to Cumberland.

We started the next morning by the early train. Laura, Marian, Mr. Kyrle, and myself 我 in one carriage 运输, and John Owen, with a clerk 店员 from Mr. Kyrle's office, occupying 占据 places in another. On reaching the Limmeridge station we went first to the farm‧house 农家 at Todd's Corner. It was my firm determination 决心 that Laura should not enter her uncle's house till she appeared there publicly recognised as his niece 外甥女. I left Marian to settle the question of accommodation 住所 with Mrs. Todd, as soon as the good woman had recovered 恢复 from the bewilderment of hearing what our errand 使命 was in Cumberland, and I arranged with her husband that John Owen was to be committed 承诺 to the ready hospitality 待客 of the farm-servants. These preliminaries 初步 completed, Mr. Kyrle and I set forth together for Limmeridge House.

I cannot write at any length of our interview 访问 with Mr. Fairlie, for I cannot recall 召回 it to mind without feelings of impatience 不耐烦 and con‧tempt 鄙视, which make the scene, even in remembrance 纪念 only, utterly 完全 repulsive to me. I prefer to record simply that I carried my point. Mr. Fairlie attempted to treat us on his customary 习惯的 plan. We passed without notice his polite 有礼貌的 insolence at the outset 开始 of the interview 访问. We heard without sympathy the protestations with which he tried next to persuade 说服 us that the disclosure 泄露 of the conspiracy 阴谋 had overwhelmed 压倒 him. He absolutely whined 抱怨 and whimpered at last like a fretful child. "How was he to know that his niece 外甥女 was alive 活的；有生命的 when he was told that she was dead? He would welcome dear Laura with pleasure, if we would only allow him time to recover 恢复. Did we think he looked as if he wanted hurrying into his grave 坟墓；严重的? No. Then, why hurry him?" He reiterated 重申 these remonstrances at every available opportunity, until I checked them once for all, by placing him firmly between two inevitable 必然 alter‧native 替代. I gave him his choice between doing his niece 外甥女 justice on my terms, or facing the consequence 后果 of a public assertion 断言 of her existence in a court of law. Mr. Kyrle, to whom he turned for help, told him plainly that he must decide the question then and there. Characteristically choosing the alter‧native 替代 which promised soonest to release 发布 him from all personal 个人 anxiety, he announced 宣布 with a sudden out‧burst 突发 of energy 能源, that he was not strong enough to bear any more bullying 欺负, and that we might do as we pleased.

Mr. Kyrle and I at once went downstairs 楼下, and agreed upon a form of letter which was to be sent round to the tenants 承租人 who had attended the false funeral 葬礼, summoning 召唤 them, in Mr. Fairlie's name, to assemble 集合 in Limmeridge House on the next day but one. An order referring to the same date was also written, directing a statuary in Carlisle to send a man to Limmeridge church‧yard 墓地 for the purpose of erasing 抹去 an inscription 题词—Mr. Kyrle, who had arranged to sleep in the house, under‧take 承担 that Mr. Fairlie should hear these letters read to him, and should sign them with his own hand.

I occupied 占据 the interval 间隔 day at the farm in writing a plain narrative 叙述 of the conspiracy 阴谋, and in adding to it a statement 声明 of the practical contradiction 矛盾 which facts offered to the assertion 断言 of Laura's death. This I submitted 给 to Mr. Kyrle before I read it the next day to the assembled 集合 tenants 承租人. We also arranged the form in which the evidence 证据 should be presented at the close of the reading. After these matters were settled, Mr. Kyrle endeavoured to turn the conversation next to Laura's affairs. Knowing, and desiring to know nothing of those affairs, and doubting whether he would approve, as a man of business, of my conduct 进行 in relation to my wife's life-interest in the legacy 遗产 left to Madame Fosco, I begged 乞讨 Mr. Kyrle to excuse 3 me if I abstained from discussing the subject. It was connected, as I could truly 真 tell him, with those sorrows 悲痛 and troubles of the past which we never referred to among ourselves 我们自己, and which we instinctively 本能 shrank from discussing with others.

My last labour, as the evening approached, was to obtain 获得 "The Narrative of the Tombstone," by taking a copy of the false inscription 题词 on the grave before it was erased 抹去.

The day came—the day when Laura once more entered the familiar break‧fast 早餐-room at Limmeridge House. All the persons assembled 集合 rose from their seats as Marian and I led her in. A perceptible shock of surprise, an audible 听得见 murmur 私语 of interest ran through them, at the sight of her face. Mr. Fairlie was present (by my express stipulation), with Mr. Kyrle by his side. His valet stood behind him with a smelling-bottle ready in one hand, and a white handkerchief 手帕, saturated 饱和 with eau-de-Cologne, in the other.

I opened the proceedings 继续 by publicly appealing 上诉 to Mr. Fairlie to say whether I appeared there with his authority 权威 and under his express sanction 制裁. He extended an arm, on either side, to Mr. Kyrle and to his valet—was by them assisted to stand on his legs, and then expressed himself in these terms: "Allow me to present Mr. Hartright. I am as great an invalid 无效 as ever, and he is so very obliging 责成 as to speak for me. The subject is dreadfully 可怕 embarrassing 阻碍. Please hear him, and don't make a noise!" With those words he slowly sank back again into the chair, and took refuge 避难所 in his scented pocket- handkerchief 手帕.

The disclosure 泄露 of the conspiracy 阴谋 followed, after I had offered my preliminary 初步 explanation 说明, first of all, in the fewest and the plainest words. I was there present (I informed my hearers) to declare, first, that my wife, then sitting by me, was the daughter of the late Mr. Philip Fairlie; secondly, to prove by positive 正 facts, that the funeral 3 which they had attended in Limmeridge church‧yard 墓地 was the funeral of another woman; thirdly 第三, to give them a plain account of how it had all happened. Without further pre‧face 前言, I at once read the narrative 叙述 of the conspiracy 阴谋, describing it in clear out‧line 概述；轮廓线, and dwelling 住 only upon the pecuniary motive 动机 for it, in order to avoid complicating 使复杂化 my statement 声明 by unnecessary 不必要 reference to Sir Percival's secret. This done, I reminded my audience of the date on the inscription 题词 in the church‧yard 墓地 (the 25th), and confirmed 确认 its correctness 正确性 by producing the certificate 证书 of death. I then read them Sir Percival's letter of the 25th, announcing 宣布 his wife's intended journey from Hampshire to London on the 26th. I next showed that she had taken that journey, by the personal 个人 testimony 见证 of the driver of the fly, and I proved that she had performed it on the appointed day, by the order-book at the livery stables 稳定. Marian then added her own statement 声明 of the meeting between Laura and her‧self 她自己 at the mad-house, and of her sister's escape. After which I closed the proceedings 继续 by informing the persons present of Sir Percival's death and of my marriage.

Mr. Kyrle rose when I resumed 恢复 my seat, and declared, as the legal 法律 adviser 顾问 of the family, that my case was proved by the plainest evidence 证据 he had ever heard in his life. As he spoke those words, I put my arm round Laura, and raised her so that she was plainly visible 可以看见的；可视的 to every one in the room. "Are you all of the same opinion?" I asked, advancing towards them a few steps, and pointing to my wife.

The effect of the question was electrical 电动. Far down at the lower end of the room one of the oldest tenants 承租人 on the estate 房地产 started to his feet, and led the rest with him in an instant. I see the man now, with his honest 诚实的 brown face and his iron 铁器-grey 灰色:gray hair, mounted on the window-seat, waving his heavy riding-whip 鞭打 over his head, and leading the cheers 欢呼. "There she is, alive and hearty 爽朗—Godbless 祝福 her! Gi' it tongue 舌头, lads 小伙子! Gi' it tongue!" The shout that answered him, reiterated 重申 again and again, was the sweetest music I ever heard. The labourers in the village and the boys from the school, assembled 集合 on the lawn 草坪, caught up the cheering 欢呼 and echoed 回声 it back on us. The farmers' wives clustered 簇 round Laura, and struggled which should be first to shake hands with her, and to implore her, with the tears pouring 淋；倒 over their own cheeks 脸颊, to bear up bravely 勇敢的 and not to cry. She was so completely overwhelmed 压倒, that I was obliged 责成 to take her from them, and carry her to the door. There I gave her into Marian's care—Marian, who had never failed us yet, whose courageous 勇敢 self-control did not fail us now. Left by myself 我 at the door, I invited all the persons present (after thanking them in Laura's name and mine) to follow me to the church‧yard 墓地, and see the false inscription 题词 struck off the tomb‧stone 墓‧石头 with their own eyes.

They all left the house, and all joined the throng 人群 of villagers 村民 collected round the grave, where the statuary's man was waiting for us. In a breath‧less 咋舌 silence, the first sharp stroke 一击;轻抚 of the steel 钢 sounded on the marble 大理石. Not a voice was heard—not a soul moved, till those three words, "Laura, Lady Glyde," had vanished 消失 from sight. Then there was a great heave 举起 of relief among the crowd, as if they felt that the last fetters of the conspiracy 阴谋 had been struck off Laura her‧self 她自己, and the assembly 部件 slowly withdrew. It was late in the day before the whole inscription 题词 was erased 抹去. One line only was after‧ward 之后 engraved 雕刻 in its place: "Anne Catherick, July 25th, 1850."

I returned to Limmeridge House early enough in the evening to take leave of Mr. Kyrle. He and his clerk 店员, and the driver of the fly, went back to London by the night train. On their departure 离开 an insolent message was delivered to me from Mr. Fairlie—who had been carried from the room in a shattered 打碎 condition, when the first out‧break 暴发 of cheering answered my appeal 上诉 to the tenantry. The message conveyed 传达 to us "Mr. Fairlie's best congratulations 祝贺," and requested to know whether "we contemplated 沉思 stopping in the house." I sent back word that the only object for which we had entered his doors was accomplished—that I contemplated 沉思 stopping in no man's house but my own—and that Mr. Fairlie need not entertain the slightest apprehension 顾虑 of ever seeing us or hearing from us again. We went back to our friends at the farm to rest that night, and the next morning—escorted 护送 to the station, with the heartiest enthusiasm 热情 and good will, by the whole village and by all the farmers in the neighbourhood—we returned to London.

As our view of the Cumberland hills faded 褪去 in the distance, I thought of the first disheartening circumstances 环境 under which the long struggle that was now past and over had been pursued 追求. It was strange to look back and to see, now, that the poverty 贫穷 which had denied 拒绝 us all hope of assistance 帮助 had been the indirect 间接 means of our success, by forcing me to act for myself 我. If we had been rich enough to find legal 法律 help, what would have been the result? The gain (on Mr. Kyrle's own showing) would have been more than doubtful 疑—the loss, judging by the plain test of events as they had really happened, certain. The law would never have obtained 获得 me my interview 访问 with Mrs. Catherick. The law would never have made Pesca the means of forcing a confession 3 from the Count.

II

Two more events remain to be added to the chain before it reaches fairly from the outset 开始 of the story to the close.

While our new sense of freedom from the long oppression 压迫 of the past was still strange to us, I was sent for by the friend who had given me my first employment 雇用 in wood engraving 雕刻, to receive from him a fresh testimony 见证 of his regard for my welfare 津贴，福利. He had been commissioned 佣金 by his employers 雇主 to go to Paris, and to examine for them a fresh discovery in the practical application of his Art, the merits 值得 of which they were anxious to ascertain 探明. His own engagements 订婚 had not allowed him leisure 闲暇 time to under‧take 承担 the errand 使命, and he had most kindly suggested that it should be transferred 转让 to me. I could have no hesitation 犹豫 in thankfully 感激地 accepting the offer, for if I acquitted 开释 myself 我 of my commission 佣金 as I hoped I should, the result would be a permanent 永久 engagement 订婚 on the illustrated 说明 newspaper, to which I was now only occasionally 偶尔，间或；有时 attached 连接.

I received my instructions 指令 and packed up for the journey the next day. On leaving Laura once more (under what changed circumstances 环境!) in her sister's care, a serious consideration 考虑 recurred 复发 to me, which had more than once crossed my wife's mind, as well as my own, already—I mean the consideration 考虑 of Marian's future. Had we any right to let our selfish 自私的 affect‧ion 感情 accept the devotion 忠诚 of all that generous 慷慨的 life? Was it not our duty, our best expression of gratitude 感谢, to forget ourselves 我们自己, and to think only of her? I tried to say this when we were alone for a moment, before I went away. She took my hand, and silenced me at the first words.

"After all that we three have suffered together," she said "there can be no parting between us till the last parting of all. My heart and my happiness 幸福, Walter, are with Laura and you. Wait a little till there are children's voices at your fire‧side 火‧边；面. I will teach them to speak for me in their language, and the first lesson 教训 they say to their father and mother shall be—We can't spare 节省；多余的；备用件 our aunt 阿姨!"

My journey to Paris was not undertaken alone. At the eleventh hour Pesca decided that he would accompany 陪 me. He had not recovered 恢复 his customary 习惯的 cheerfulness since the night at the Opera 歌剧, and he determined to try what a week's holiday 假日 would do to raise his spirits.

I performed the errand 使命 entrusted 委托 to me, and drew out the necessary report, on the fourth day from our arrival 到达 in Paris. The fifth day I arranged to devote 奉献 to sight-seeing and amusements 娱乐 in Pesca's company.

Our hotel had been too full to accommodate 容纳 us both on the same floor. My room was on the second story, and Pesca's was above me, on the third. On the morning of the fifth day I went upstairs 楼上 to see if the Professor 教授 was ready to go out. Just before I reached the landing I saw his door opened from the inside—a long, delicate 微妙的；纤弱的, nervous 担心的 hand (not my friend's hand certainly) held it ajar. At the same time I heard Pesca's voice saying eagerly, in low tones 音, and in his own language—"I remember the name, but I don't know the man. You saw at the Opera 歌剧 he was so changed that I could not recognise him. I will forward the report—I can do no more." "No more need be done," answered the second voice. The door opened wide, and the light-haired man with the scar 瘢痕 on his cheek 脸颊—the man I had seen following Count Fosco's cab 出租车 a week before—came out. He bowed as I drew aside to let him pass—his face was fearfully 可怕 pale—and he held fast by the banisters as he descended the stairs.

I pushed open the door and entered Pesca's room. He was crouched 蹲伏 up, in the strangest manner, in a corner of the sofa 沙发. He seemed to shrink from me when I approached him.

"Am I disturbing you?" I asked. "I did not know you had a friend with you till I saw him come out."

"No friend," said Pesca eagerly. "I see him to-day for the first time and the last."

"I am afraid he has brought you bad news?"

"Horrible news, Walter! Let us go back to London—I don't want to stop here—I am sorry 对不起的 I ever came. The misfortunes 不幸 of my youth are very hard upon me," he said, turning his face to the wall, "very hard upon me in my later time. I try to forget them—and they will not forget me!"

"We can't return, I am afraid, before the afternoon," I replied. "Would you like to come out with me in the mean‧time 其时?"

"No, my friend, I will wait here. But let us go back to-day—pray let us go back."

I left him with the assurance 保证 that he should leave Paris that afternoon. We had arranged the evening before to ascend 登 the Cathedral of Notre Dame, with Victor Hugo's noble 高尚的 romance 浪漫 for our guide. There was nothing in the French capital that I was more anxious to see, and I departed 离开 by myself 我 for the church.

Approaching Notre Dame by the river-side, I passed on my way the terrible dead-house of Paris—the Morgue. A great crowd clamoured and heaved 举起 round the door. There was evidently 明显地 something inside which excited the popular curiosity 好奇心, and fed feed the popular appetite 食欲 for horror 恐怖.

I should have walked on to the church if the conversation of two men and a woman on the out‧skirt 郊区 of the crowd had not caught my ear. They had just come out from seeing the sight in the Morgue, and the account they were giving of the dead body to their neighbours described it as the corpse 尸体 of a man—a man of immense size, with a strange mark on his left arm.

The moment those words reached me I stopped and took my place with the crowd going in. Some dim 暗淡 foreshadowing of the truth had crossed my mind when I heard Pesca's voice through the open door, and when I saw the stranger's face as he passed me on the stairs of the hotel. Now the truth itself 本身 was revealed 揭示 to me—revealed 揭示 in the chance words that had just reached my ears. Other vengeance 复仇 than mine had followed that fated 命运 man from the theatre to his own door—from his own door to his refuge 避难所 in Paris. Other vengeance 复仇 than mine had called him to the day of reckoning 估计, and had exacted from him the penalty 罚款 of his life. The moment when I had pointed him out to Pesca at the theatre in the hearing of that stranger by our side, who was looking for him too—was the moment that sealed his doom 厄运. I remembered the struggle in my own heart, when he and I stood face to face—the struggle before I could let him escape me—and shuddered 不寒而栗 as I recalled 召回 it.

Slowly, inch by inch, I pressed in with the crowd, moving nearer and nearer to the great glass screen that parts the dead from the living at the Morgue—nearer and nearer, till I was close behind the front row 行 of spectators 观众, and could look in.

There he lay, unowned, unknown 未知, exposed 暴露 to the flippant curiosity 好奇心 of a French mob 暴民! There was the dreadful 可怕 end of that long life of degraded 降级 ability and heart‧less 心‧少 crime! Hushed in the sublime 升华 repose of death, the broad, firm, massive 大规模的 face and head fronted us so grandly that the chattering 喋喋不休 Frenchwomen about me lifted their hands in admiration 钦佩, and cried in shrill chorus 合唱, "Ah, what a hand‧some 英俊 man!" The wound 创伤 that had killed him had been struck with a knife or dagger exactly over his heart. No other traces 跟踪 of violence appeared about the body except on the left arm, and there, exactly in the place where I had seen the brand 牌 on Pesca's arm, were two deep cuts in the shape of the letter T, which entirely obliterated 泯 the mark of the Brotherhood. His clothes, hung above him, showed that he had been himself conscious of his danger—they were clothes that had disguised 伪装 him as a French artisan 工匠. For a few moments, but not for longer, I forced myself 我 to see these things through the glass screen. I can write of them at no greater length, for I saw no more.

The few facts in connection with his death which I subsequently ascertained 探明 (partly from Pesca and partly from other sources 资源), may be stated here before the subject is dismissed from these pages.

His body was taken out of the Seine in the disguise 伪装 which I have described, nothing being found on him which revealed 揭示 his name, his rank, or his place of abode. The hand that struck him was never traced 跟踪, and the circumstances 环境 under which he was killed were never discovered. I leave others to draw their own conclusions 结论 in reference to the secret of the assassination 暗杀 as I have drawn mine. When I have intimated 亲密 that the foreigner with the scar 瘢痕 was a member of the Brotherhood (admitted in Italy after Pesca's departure 离开 from his native country), and when I have further added that the two cuts, in the form of a T, on the left arm of the dead man, signified 表示 the Italian word "Traditore," and showed that justice had been done by the Brotherhood on a traitor 叛徒, I have contributed 有助于 all that I know towards elucidating the mystery of Count Fosco's death.

The body was identified 鉴定 the day after I had seen it by means of an anonymous 匿名 letter addressed to his wife. He was buried 埋葬 by Madame Fosco in the cemetery 公墓 of Pere la Chaise. Fresh funeral wreaths continue to this day to be hung on the ornamental 装饰 bronze 青铜 railings 围栏；钢轨 round the tomb 墓 by the Countess's own hand. She lives in the strictest retirement 退休 at Versailles. Not long since she published 发布 a biography 传 of her deceased 死亡 husband. The work throws no light whatever on the name that was really his own or on the secret history of his life—it is almost entirely devoted to the praise 赞扬 of his domestic 国内 virtues 美德, the assertion 断言 of his rare abilities, and the enumeration of the honours conferred 授予 on him. The circumstances 环境 attending his death are very briefly 短时间地 noticed, and are summed 和 up on the last page in this sentence 句子—"His life was one long assertion 断言 of the rights of the aristocracy 贵族 and the sacred principles 原理 of Order, and he died a martyr 烈士 to his cause."

III

The summer and autumn 秋 passed after my return from Paris, and brought no changes with them which need be noticed here. We lived so simply and quietly that the income 收入 which I was now steadily earning sufficed 满足 for all our wants.

In the February of the new year our first child was born bear—a son. My mother and sister and Mrs. Vesey were our guests at the little christening party, and Mrs. Clements was present to assist 帮助；协助；援助 my wife on the same occasion. Marian was our boy's god‧mother 上帝‧母亲, and Pesca and Mr. Gilmore (the latter acting by proxy 代理) were his godfathers. I may add here that when Mr. Gilmore returned to us a year later he assisted the design of these pages, at my request, by writing the Narrative which appears early in the story under his name, and which, though first in order of precedence 优先权, was thus, in order of time, the last that I received.

The only event in our lives which now remains to be recorded, occurred 发生 when our little Walter was six months old.

At that time I was sent to Ireland to make sketches 草图 for certain forthcoming 即将到来 illustrations 插图 in the newspaper to which I was attached 连接. I was away for nearly a fort‧night 两星期, corresponding 对应 regularly 经常 with my wife and Marian, except during the last three days of my absence, when my movements 运动 were too uncertain 不确定 to enable 启用 me to receive letters. I performed the latter part of my journey back at night, and when I reached home in the morning, to my utter 说出 astonishment 惊愕 there was no one to receive me. Laura and Marian and the child had left the house on the day before my return.

A note from my wife, which was given to me by the servant 3, only increased my surprise, by informing me that they had gone to Limmeridge House. Marian had prohibited 禁止 any attempt at written explanations 说明—I was entreated to follow them the moment I came back—complete enlightenment 启示 awaited 等待 me on my arrival 到达 in Cumberland—and I was forbidden 禁止:forbid to feel the slightest anxiety in the mean‧time 其时. There the note ended. It was still early enough to catch the morning train. I reached Limmeridge House the same afternoon.

My wife and Marian were both upstairs 楼上. They had established 建立 themselves (by way of completing my amazement 惊愕) in the little room which had been once assigned 分配 to me for a studio 工作室, when I was employed on Mr. Fairlie's drawings. On the very chair which I used to occupy 占据 when I was at work Marian was sitting now, with the child industriously sucking 吮吸 his coral 珊瑚 upon her lap 膝部—while Laura was standing by the well-remembered drawing-table which I had so often used, with the little album 相册;唱片 that I had filled for her in past times open under her hand.

"What in the name of heaven 天 has brought you here?" I asked. "Does Mr. Fairlie know——?"

Marian suspended 暂停 the question on my lips by telling me that Mr. Fairlie was dead. He had been struck by paralysis 麻痹, and had never rallied 团结 after the shock. Mr. Kyrle had informed them of his death, and had advised them to proceed 继续 immediately to Limmeridge House.

Some dim 暗淡 perception 看法 of a great change dawned 黎明 on my mind. Laura spoke before I had quite realised it. She stole close to me to enjoy the surprise which was still expressed in my face.

"My darling 宠儿 Walter," she said, "must we really account for our boldness in coming here? I am afraid, love, I can only explain it by breaking through our rule, and referring to the past."

"There is not the least necessity for doing anything of the kind," said Marian. "We can be just as explicit 明确的, and much more interesting, by referring to the future." She rose and held up the child kicking 踢 and crowing 乌鸦 in her arms. "Do you know who this is, Walter?" she asked, with bright tears of happiness 幸福 gathering in her eyes.

"Even my bewilderment has its limits," I replied. "I think I can still answer for knowing my own child."

"Child!" she exclaimed 喊叫, with all her easy gaiety 快乐 of old times. "Do you talk in that familiar manner of one of the landed gentry 绅 of England? Are you aware 知道的, when I present this illustrious baby to your notice, in whose presence you stand? Evidently not! Let me make two eminent 杰出 personages known to one another: Mr. Walter Hartright—the Heir of Limmeridge."

So she spoke. In writing those last words, I have written all. The pen falters 衰退 in my hand. The long, happy labour of many months is over. Marian was the good angel 天使 of our lives—let Marian end our Story.