前言

秘方简介

常用词列表

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

VII

Thus far the information which I had received from Mrs. Clements—though it established 建立 facts of which I had not previously 先前 been aware 知道的—was of a preliminary 初步 character only.

It was clear that the series 系列 of deceptions 骗局 which had removed 去掉 Anne Catherick to London, and separated her from Mrs. Clements, had been accomplished 完成；实现；达到；做到 solely 独自 by Count Fosco and the Countess, and the question whether any part of the conduct 进行 of husband or wife had been of a kind to place either of them within reach of the law might be well worthy 值得 of future consideration 考虑. But the purpose I had now in view led me in another direction than this. The immediate object of my visit to Mrs. Clements was to make some approach at least to the discovery 发现 of Sir 先生 Percival's secret, and she had said nothing as yet which advanced me on my way to that important end. I felt the necessity 必须 of trying to awaken 憬 her recollections 回忆 of other times, persons, and events than those on which her memory had hitherto 迄今 been employed, and when I next spoke speak I spoke with that object indirectly 间接 in view.

"I wish I could be of any help to you in this sad 悲哀的 calamity," I said. "All I can do is to feel heartily 爽朗 for your distress 苦难. If Anne had been your own child, Mrs. Clements, you could have shown her no truer kindness 善良—you could have made no readier sacrifices 牺牲 for her sake 缘故."

"There's no great merit 值得 in that, sir 先生," said Mrs. Clements simply. "The poor thing was as good as my own child to me. I nursed 护士 her from a baby, sir, bringing her up by hand—and a hard job it was to rear 后 her. It wouldn't go to my heart so to lose her if I hadn't made her first short clothes and taught teach her to walk. I always said she was sent send to console 安慰 me for never having chick 小鸡 or child of my own. And now she's lost the old times keep coming back to my mind, and even at my age I can't help crying about her—I can't indeed, sir 3!"

I waited a little to give Mrs. Clements time to compose her‧self 她自己. Was the light that I had been looking for so long glimmering on me—far off, as yet—in the good woman's recollections 回忆 of Anne's early life?

"Did you know Mrs. Catherick before Anne was born bear?" I asked.

"Not very long, sir—not above four months. We saw a great deal of each other in that time, but we were never very friendly together."

Her voice was steadier as she made that reply. Painful as many of her recollections 回忆 might be, I observed that it was unconsciously 不知不觉 a relief to her mind to revert 还原 to the dimly 暗淡-seen troubles of the past, after dwelling 住 so long on the vivid 生动 sorrows 悲痛 of the present.

"Were you and Mrs. Catherick neighbours?" I inquired 打听, leading her memory on as encouragingly as I could.

"Yes, sir—neighbours at Old Welmingham."

"Old Welmingham? There are two places of that name, then, in Hampshire?"

"Well, sir, there used to be in those days—better than three-and-twenty 二十 years ago. They built a new town about two miles off, convenient 方便的 to the river—and Old Welmingham, which was never much more than a village, got in time to be deserted 沙漠；抛弃. The new town is the place they call Welmingham now—but the old parish 教区 church is the parish 教区 church still. It stands by itself 本身, with the houses pulled down or gone to ruin 破坏 all round it. I've lived to see sad 悲哀的 changes. It was a pleasant, pretty place in my time."

"Did you live there before your marriage, Mrs. Clements?"

"No, sir—I'm a Norfolk woman. It wasn't the place my husband belonged to either. He was from Grimsby, as I told you, and he served his apprentice‧ship 学徒 there. But having friends down south, and hearing of an opening, he got into business at Southampton. It was in a small way, but he made enough for a plain man to retire on, and settled at Old Welmingham. I went there with him when he married me. We were neither of us young, but we lived very happy together—happier than our neighbour, Mr. Catherick, lived along with his wife when they came to Old Welmingham a year or two after‧ward 之后."

"Was your husband acquainted 认识 with them before that?"

"With Catherick, sir—not with his wife. She was a stranger to both of us. Some gentlemen had made interest for Catherick, and he got the situation of clerk 店员 at Welmingham church, which was the reason of his coming to settle in our neighbourhood. He brought his newly 最近，新近-married wife along with him, and we heard in course of time she had been lady's-maid 女佣 in a family that lived at Varneck Hall, near Southampton. Catherick had found it a hard matter to get her to marry him, in consequence 后果 of her holding her‧self 她自己 uncommonly 罕见 high. He had asked and asked, and given the thing up at last, seeing she was so contrary 相反 about it. When he had given it up she turned contrary 相反 just the other way, and came to him of her own accord, without rhyme 韵 or reason seemingly 似乎. My poor husband always said that was the time to have given her a lesson 教训. But Catherick was too fond 喜欢的 of her to do anything of the sort—he never checked her either before they were married or after. He was a quick man in his feelings, letting them carry him a deal too far, now in one way and now in another, and he would have spoilt a better wife than Mrs. Catherick if a better had married him. I don't like to speak ill 生病 of any one, sir, but she was a heart‧less 心‧少 woman, with a terrible will of her own— fond 喜欢的 of foolish 傻 admiration 钦佩 and fine clothes, and not caring to show so much as decent 正经 outward 向外的 respect to Catherick, kindly as he always treated her. My husband said he thought things would turn out badly 很糟地 when they first came to live near us, and his words proved true. Before they had been quite four months in our neighbourhood there was a dreadful 可怕 scandal 丑闻 and a miserable 悲惨的 break-up in their house‧hold 家庭. Both of them were in fault 缺点—I am afraid both of them were equally in fault."

"You mean both husband and wife?"

"Oh, no, sir! I don't mean Catherick—he was only to be pitied 怜悯. I meant his wife and the person—"

"And the person who caused the scandal 丑闻?"

"Yes, sir. A gentle‧man 先生 born and brought up, who ought to have set a better example. You know him, sir—and my poor dear Anne knew him only too well."

"Sir Percival Glyde?"

"Yes, Sir Percival Glyde."

My heart beat fast—I thought I had my hand on the clue 线索. How little I knew then of the windings of the labyrinths which were still to mislead 误导 me!

"Did Sir Percival live in your neighbourhood at that time?" I asked.

"No, sir. He came among us as a stranger. His father had died not long before in foreign parts. I remember he was in mourning 悼. He put up at the little inn 小旅馆 on the river (they have pulled it down since that time), where gentlemen used to go to fish. He wasn't much noticed when he first came—it was a common thing enough for gentlemen to travel from all parts of England to fish in our river."

"Did he make his appearance in the village before Anne was born?"

"Yes, sir. Anne was born in the June month of eighteen 十八 hundred 百 and twenty 二十-seven 七—and I think he came at the end of April or the beginning of May."

"Came as a stranger to all of you? A stranger to Mrs. Catherick as well as to the rest of the neighbours?"

"So we thought at first, sir. But when the scandal 丑闻 broke break out, nobody believed they were strangers 陌生人. I remember how it happened as well as if it was yesterday. Catherick came into our garden one night, and woke 醒:wake us by throwing up a handful 少数 of gravel 碎石 from the walk at our window. I heard him beg 乞讨 my husband, for the Lord's sake 缘故, to come down and speak to him. They were a long time together talking in the porch 门廊. When my husband came back upstairs 楼上 he was all of a tremble 发抖. He sat sit down on the side of the bed and he says to me, 'Lizzie! I always told you that woman was a bad one—I always said she would end ill 生病, and I'm afraid in my own mind that the end has come already. Catherick has found a lot of lace 花边 handkerchiefs 手帕, and two fine rings, and a new gold 金 watch and chain, hid hide away in his wife's drawer 抽屉—things that nobody but a born lady ought ever to have—and his wife won win't say how she came by them.' 'Does he think she stole them?' says I. 'No,' says he, 'stealing 偷 would be bad enough. But it's worse than that, she's had no chance of stealing 偷 such things as those, and she's not a woman to take them if she had. They're gifts 赠品, Lizzie—there's her own initials 初始 engraved 雕刻 inside the watch—and Catherick has seen her talking privately, and carrying on as no married woman should, with that gentle‧man 先生 in mourning 悼, Sir Percival Glyde. Don't you say anything about it—I've quieted Catherick for to-night. I've told him to keep his tongue 舌头 to himself, and his eyes and his ears open, and to wait a day or two, till 到 he can be quite certain.' 'I believe you are both of you wrong,' says I. 'It's not in nature, comfort‧able 舒服；自在 and respect‧able 可敬 as she is here, that Mrs. Catherick should take up with a chance stranger like Sir Percival Glyde.' 'Ay, but is he a stranger to her?' says my husband. 'You forget how Catherick's wife came to marry him. She went to him of her own accord, after saying No over and over again when he asked her. There have been wicked 邪恶的 women before her time, Lizzie, who have used honest 诚实的 men who loved them as a means of saving their characters, and I'm sorely 疼痛的 afraid this Mrs. Catherick is as wicked as the worst 生病:ill of them. We shall see,' says my husband, 'we shall soon see.' And only two days after‧ward 之后 we did see."

Mrs. Clements waited for a moment before she went on. Even in that moment, I began to doubt whether the clue 线索 that I thought I had found was really leading me to the central 中央 mystery of the labyrinth after all. Was this common, too common, story of a man's treachery and a woman's frailty the key to a secret which had been the life‧long 终身 terror 恐怖 of Sir Percival Glyde?

"Well, sir, Catherick took my husband's advice 劝告 and waited," Mrs. Clements continued. "And as I told you, he hadn't long to wait. On the second day he found his wife and Sir Percival whispering 低声说 together quite familiar, close under the vestry of the church. I suppose they thought the neighbourhood of the vestry was the last place in the world where any‧body 任何人 would think of looking after them, but, however that may be, there they were. Sir Percival, being seemingly 似乎 surprised and confounded 混淆, defended himself in such a guilty 有罪的；内疚的 way that poor Catherick ( whose 谁的 quick temper 性情 I have told you of already) fell fall into a kind of frenzy 发狂 at his own disgrace 耻辱, and struck strike Sir Percival. He was no match (and I am sorry 对不起的 to say it) for the man who had wronged him, and he was beaten beat in the cruelest 残酷的 manner, before the neighbours, who had come to the place on hearing the disturbance 骚乱, could run in to part them. All this happened towards evening, and before night‧fall 夜‧落下, when my husband went to Catherick's house, he was gone, nobody knew where. No living soul in the village ever saw him again. He knew too well, by that time, what his wife's vile reason had been for marrying him, and he felt his misery 痛苦 and disgrace 耻辱, especially after what had happened to him with Sir Percival, too keenly 热切的. The clergy‧man 牧师 of the parish 教区 put an advertisement 广告 in the paper begging 乞讨 him to come back, and saying that he should not lose his situation or his friends. But Catherick had too much pride 自尊 and spirit, as some people said—too much feeling, as I think, sir—to face his neighbours again, and try to live down the memory of his disgrace 耻辱. My husband heard from him when he had left England, and heard a second time, when he was settled and doing well in America. He is alive 活的；有生命的 there now, as far as I know, but none of us in the old country—his wicked 邪恶的 wife least of all—are ever likely to set eyes on him again."

"What became of Sir Percival?" I inquired. "Did he stay in the neighbourhood?"

"Not he, sir. The place was too hot to hold him. He was heard at high words with Mrs. Catherick the same night when the scandal 丑闻 broke out, and the next morning he took himself off."

"And Mrs. Catherick? Surely she never remained in the village among the people who knew of her disgrace 耻辱?"

"She did, sir. She was hard enough and heart‧less 心‧少 enough to set the opinions of all her neighbours at flat defiance 蔑视. She declared to everybody, from the clergy‧man 牧师 down‧ward 向下, that she was the victim 受害者 of a dreadful 可怕 mistake, and that all the scandal 丑闻-mongers in the place should not drive her out of it, as if she was a guilty 有罪的；内疚的 woman. All through my time she lived at Old Welmingham, and after my time, when the new town was building, and the respect‧able 可敬 neighbours began moving to it, she moved too, as if she was determined to live among them and scandalise them to the very last. There she is now, and there she will stop, in defiance 蔑视 of the best of them, to her dying day."

"But how has she lived through all these years?" I asked. "Was her husband able and willing to help her?"

"Both able and willing, sir," said Mrs. Clements. "In the second letter he wrote to my good man, he said she had borne bear his name, and lived in his home, and, wicked 3 as she was, she must not starve 饿死 like a beggar 乞丐 in the street. He could afford 买得起 to make her some small allowance 津贴；补贴, and she might draw for it quarterly at a place in London."

"Did she accept the allowance?"

"Not a far‧thing 远‧东西；事件 of it, sir. She said she would never be beholden to Catherick for bit 一点 or drop, if she lived to be a hundred 百. And she has kept her word ever since. When my poor dear husband died, and left all to me, Catherick's letter was put in my possession 所有物 with the other things, and I told her to let me know if she was ever in want. 'I'll let all England know I'm in want,' she said, 'before I tell Catherick, or any friend of Catherick's. Take that for your answer, and give it to him for an answer, if he ever writes again.'"

"Do you suppose that she had money of her own?"

"Very little, if any, sir. It was said, and said truly 真, I am afraid, that her means of living came privately from Sir Percival Glyde."

After that last reply I waited a little, to reconsider 重新考虑 what I had heard. If I unreservedly accepted the story so far, it was now plain that no approach, direct or indirect 间接, to the Secret had yet been revealed 揭示 to me, and that the pursuit 追求 of my object had ended again in leaving me face to face with the most palpable and the most disheartening failure.

But there was one point in the narrative 叙述 which made me doubt the propriety of accepting it unreservedly, and which suggested the idea of something hidden hide below the surface.

I could not account to myself 我 for the circumstance 环境 of the clerk 店员's guilty 有罪的；内疚的 wife voluntarily 自行 living out all her after-existence on the scene of her disgrace 耻辱. The woman's own reported statement 声明 that she had taken this strange course as a practical assertion 断言 of her innocence 无辜 did not satisfy me. It seemed, to my mind, more natural 自然 and more probable to assume 承担 that she was not so completely a free agent in this matter as she had her‧self 她自己 asserted 断言. In that case, who was the likeliest person to possess 拥有 the power of compelling 迫使 her to remain at Welmingham? The person unquestionably from whom 谁 she derived 派生 the means of living. She had refused assistance 帮助 from her husband, she had no adequate 足够的；合格的；合乎需要的 resources 资源 of her own, she was a friend‧less 朋友‧少, degraded 降级 woman—from what source 资源 should she derive 派生 help but from the source 资源 at which report pointed—Sir Percival Glyde?

Reasoning on these assumptions 假设, and always bearing in mind the one certain fact to guide me, that Mrs. Catherick was in possession 所有物 of the Secret, I easily understood understand that it was Sir Percival's interest to keep her at Welmingham, because her character in that place was certain to isolate 隔离；孤立；分离 her from all communication 通讯 with female neighbours, and to allow her no opportunities of talking incautiously in moments of free inter‧course 交往 with inquisitive bosom friends. But what was the mystery to be concealed 隐藏? Not Sir Percival's infamous 臭名昭著 connection with Mrs. Catherick's disgrace 耻辱, for the neighbours were the very people who knew of it—not the suspicion 怀疑 that he was Anne's father, for Welmingham was the place in which that suspicion must inevitably 必将 exist. If I accepted the guilty 3 appearances described to me as unreservedly as others had accepted them, if I drew draw from them the same superficial 浅 conclusion 结论 which Mr. Catherick and all his neighbours had drawn draw, where was the suggestion 建议, in all that I had heard, of a dangerous 危险 secret between Sir Percival and Mrs. Catherick, which had been kept hidden hide from that time to this?

And yet, in those stolen meetings, in those familiar whisperings 低声说 between the clerk's wife and "the gentleman in mourning 悼," the clue 线索 to discovery 发现 existed beyond a doubt.

Was it possible that appearances in this case had pointed one way while the truth lay lie all the while unsuspected in another direction? Could Mrs. Catherick's assertion 断言, that she was the victim 受害者 of a dreadful 可怕 mistake, by any possibility 可能性 be true? Or, assuming 承担 it to be false 虚伪的, could the conclusion 结论 which associated 关联 Sir Percival with her guilt have been founded in some inconceivable error 错误? Had Sir Percival, by any chance, courted the suspicion 怀疑 that was wrong for the sake of diverting 转移 from himself some other suspicion 3 that was right? Here—if I could find it—here was the approach to the Secret, hidden hide deep under the surface of the apparently 据…所知；看来；据说；听说 unpromising story which I had just heard.

My next questions were now directed to the one object of ascertaining 探明 whether Mr. Catherick had or had not arrived truly 真 at the conviction 定罪 of his wife's misconduct 处理不当. The answers I received from Mrs. Clements left me in no doubt whatever on that point. Mrs. Catherick had, on the clearest evidence 证据, compromised 妥协 her reputation 名气, while a single woman, with some person unknown 未知, and had married to save her character. It had been positively 积极 ascertained 探明, by calculations 计算 of time and place into which I need not enter particularly, that the daughter who bore bear her husband's name was not her husband's child.

The next object of inquiry 调查, whether it was equally certain that Sir Percival must have been the father of Anne, was beset by far greater difficulties. I was in no position to try the probabilities 可能性 on one side or on the other in this instance 例 by any better test than the test of personal 个人 resemblance 相似.

"I suppose you often saw Sir Percival when he was in your village?" I said.

"Yes, sir, very often," replied Mrs. Clements.

"Did you ever observe that Anne was like him?"

"She was not at all like him, sir."

"Was she like her mother, then?"

"Not like her mother either, sir. Mrs. Catherick was dark, and full in the face."

Not like her mother and not like her (supposed) father. I knew that the test by personal 个人 resemblance 相似 was not to be implicitly 隐式 trusted, but, on the other hand, it was not to be altogether 全部地 rejected 拒绝 on that account. Was it possible to strengthen 加强 the evidence 证据 by discovering any conclusive 确凿 facts in relation to the lives of Mrs. Catherick and Sir Percival before they either of them appeared at Old Welmingham? When I asked my next questions I put them with this view.

"When Sir Percival first arrived in your neighbourhood," I said, "did you hear where he had come from last?"

"No, sir. Some said from Blackwater Park, and some said from Scotland—but nobody knew."

"Was Mrs. Catherick living in service at Varneck Hall immediately before her marriage?"

"Yes, sir."

"And had she been long in her place?"

"Three or four years, sir; I am not quite certain which."

"Did you ever hear the name of the gentleman to whom 谁 Varneck Hall belonged at that time?"

"Yes, sir. His name was Major Donthorne."

"Did Mr. Catherick, or did any one else you knew, ever hear that Sir Percival was a friend of Major Donthorne's, or ever see Sir Percival in the neighbourhood of Varneck Hall?"

"Catherick never did, sir, that I can remember—nor any one else either, that I know of."

I noted down Major Donthorne's name and address, on the chance that he might still be alive 活的；有生命的, and that it might be useful 有用 at some future time to apply to him. Meanwhile 同时, the impression 印象 on my mind was now decidedly 果断地 adverse 不利的 to the opinion that Sir Percival was Anne's father, and decidedly 果断地 favourable to the conclusion 结论 that the secret of his stolen interviews 访问 with Mrs. Catherick was entirely unconnected with the disgrace 耻辱 which the woman had inflicted 造成 on her husband's good name. I could think of no further inquiries 调查 which I might make to strengthen 加强 this impression 印象—I could only encourage Mrs. Clements to speak next of Anne's early days, and watch for any chance- suggestion 建议 which might in this way offer itself 本身 to me.

"I have not heard yet," I said, "how the poor child, born in all this sin 罪 and misery 痛苦, came to be trusted, Mrs. Clements, to your care."

"There was nobody else, sir, to take the little help‧less 无助 creature 动物；生物 in hand," replied Mrs. Clements. "The wicked mother seemed to hate it—as if the poor baby was in fault 缺点!—from the day it was born. My heart was heavy for the child, and I made the offer to bring it up as tenderly 纤弱的 as if it was my own."

"Did Anne remain entirely under your care from that time?"

"Not quite entirely, sir. Mrs. Catherick had her whims 怪念头 and fancies 想像 about it at times, and used now and then to lay claim to the child, as if she wanted to spite 恶意 me for bringing it up. But these fits of hers never lasted for long. Poor little Anne was always returned to me, and was always glad 高兴的 to get back—though she led but a gloomy 阴沉 life in my house, having no playmates, like other children, to brighten 变亮 her up. Our longest separation 分离 was when her mother took her to Limmeridge. Just at that time I lost my husband, and I felt it was as well, in that miserable 悲惨的 affliction, that Anne should not be in the house. She was between ten 十 and eleven 十一 years old then, slow at her lessons 教训, poor soul, and not so cheerful 快乐 as other children—but as pretty a little girl to look at as you would wish to see. I waited at home till 到 her mother brought her back, and then I made the offer to take her with me to London—the truth being, sir, that I could not find it in my heart to stop at Old Welmingham after my husband's death, the place was so changed and so dismal 惨淡 to me."

"And did Mrs. Catherick consent 同意 to your proposal?"

"No, sir. She came back from the north harder and bitterer than ever. Folks did say that she had been obliged 责成 to ask Sir Percival's leave to go, to begin with; and that she only went to nurse 护士 her dying sister 姐妹 at Limmeridge because the poor woman was reported to have saved money—the truth being that she hardly left enough to bury 埋葬 her. These things may have soured 有酸味的 Mrs. Catherick likely enough, but however that may be, she wouldn't hear of my taking the child away. She seemed to like distressing 苦难 us both by parting us. All I could do was to give Anne my direction, and to tell her privately, if she was ever in trouble, to come to me. But years passed before she was free to come. I never saw her again, poor soul, till the night she escaped from the mad 疯狂的-house."

"You know, Mrs. Clements, why Sir Percival Glyde shut 关闭 her up?"

"I only know what Anne her‧self 她自己 told me, sir. The poor thing used to ramble 漫谈 and wander 漫步 about it sadly 悲哀的. She said her mother had got some secret of Sir Percival's to keep, and had let it out to her long after I left Hampshire—and when Sir Percival found she knew it, he shut her up. But she never could say what it was when I asked her. All she could tell me was, that her mother might be the ruin 破坏 and destruction 破坏 of Sir Percival if she chose choose. Mrs. Catherick may have let out just as much as that, and no more. I'm next to certain I should have heard the whole truth from Anne, if she had really known it as she pretended 假装 to do, and as she very likely fancied 想像 she did, poor soul."

This idea had more than once occurred 发生 to my own mind. I had already told Marian that I doubted whether Laura was really on the point of making any important discovery when she and Anne Catherick were disturbed 打扰 by Count Fosco at the boat-house. It was perfectly in character with Anne's mental 心理 affliction that she should assume 承担 an absolute knowledge of the secret on no better grounds than vague 模糊 suspicion, derived 派生 from hints 暗示 which her mother had incautiously let drop in her presence. Sir Percival's guilty distrust 怀疑 would, in that case, infallibly inspire 激励，鼓舞 him with the false 虚伪的 idea that Anne knew all from her mother, just as it had after‧ward 之后 fixed in his mind the equally false suspicion that his wife knew all from Anne.

The time was passing, the morning was wearing away. It was doubtful 疑, if I stayed longer, whether I should hear anything more from Mrs. Clements that would be at all useful 有用 to my purpose. I had already discovered those local and family particulars, in relation to Mrs. Catherick, of which I had been in search, and I had arrived at certain conclusions 结论, entirely new to me, which might immensely 极大的 assist 帮助；协助；援助 in directing the course of my future proceedings 继续. I rose rise to take my leave, and to thank Mrs. Clements for the friendly readiness 准备就绪 she had shown in affording 买得起 me information.

"I am afraid you must have thought me very inquisitive," I said. "I have troubled you with more questions than many people would have cared to answer."

"You are heartily 爽朗 welcome, sir, to anything I can tell you," answered Mrs. Clements. She stopped and looked at me wistfully. "But I do wish," said the poor woman, "you could have told me a little more about Anne, sir. I thought I saw something in your face when you came in which looked as if you could. You can't think how hard it is not even to know whether she is living or dead. I could bear it better if I was only certain. You said you never expected we should see her alive again. Do you know, sir—do you know for truth—that it has pleased God to take her?"

I was not proof 证明 against this appeal 上诉, it would have been unspeakably mean and cruel 残酷的 of me if I had resisted 抵抗 it.

"I am afraid there is no doubt of the truth," I answered gently; "I have the certainty 确定性 in my own mind that her troubles in this world are over."

The poor woman dropped into her chair and hid hide her face from me. "Oh, sir," she said, "how do you know it? Who can have told you?"

"No one has told me, Mrs. Clements. But I have reasons for feeling sure of it—reasons which I promise you shall know as soon as I can safely explain them. I am certain she was not neglected 疏忽 in her last moments—I am certain the heart complaint 抱怨 from which she suffered so sadly was the true cause of her death. You shall feel as sure of this as I do, soon—you shall know, before long, that she is buried 埋葬 in a quiet country church‧yard 墓地—in a pretty, peaceful 平静的 place, which you might have chosen choose for her your‧self 你自己."

"Dead!" said Mrs. Clements, "dead so young, and I am left to hear it! I made her first short frocks. I taught her to walk. The first time she ever said Mother she said it to me—and now I am left and Anne is taken! Did you say, sir," said the poor woman, removing 去掉 the handkerchief 手帕 from her face, and looking up at me for the first time, "did you say that she had been nicely buried? Was it the sort of funeral 葬礼 she might have had if she had really been my own child?"

I assured 向…保证；肯定地说 her that it was. She seemed to take an inexplicable pride 自尊 in my answer—to find a comfort in it which no other and higher considerations 考虑 could afford 买得起. "It would have broken break my heart," she said simply, "if Anne had not been nicely buried—but how do you know it, sir? who told you?" I once more entreated her to wait until I could speak to her unreservedly. "You are sure to see me again," I said, "for I have a favour to ask when you are a little more composed—perhaps in a day or two."

"Don't keep it waiting, sir, on my account," said Mrs. Clements. "Never mind my crying if I can be of use. If you have anything on your mind to say to me, sir, please to say it now."

"I only wish to ask you one last question," I said. "I only want to know Mrs. Catherick's address at Welmingham."

My request so startled 惊吓 Mrs. Clements, that, for the moment, even the tidings 潮汐 of Anne's death seemed to be driven drive from her mind. Her tears suddenly ceased 停止 to flow, and she sat looking at me in blank 空白 amazement 惊愕.

"For the Lord's sake, sir!" she said, "what do you want with Mrs. Catherick!"

"I want this, Mrs. Clements," I replied, "I want to know the secret of those private meetings of hers with Sir Percival Glyde. There is something more in what you have told me of that woman's past conduct 进行, and of that man's past relations with her, than you or any of your neighbours ever suspected 怀疑；嫌疑犯. There is a secret we none of us know between those two, and I am going to Mrs. Catherick with the resolution 解析度 to find it out."

"Think twice 两次 about it, sir!" said Mrs. Clements, rising in her earnestness and laying her hand on my arm. "She's an awful 糟糕的 woman—you don't know her as I do. Think twice 两次 about it."

"I am sure your warning is kindly meant, Mrs. Clements. But I am determined to see the woman, whatever comes of it."

Mrs. Clements looked me anxiously 焦急的 in the face.

"I see your mind is made up, sir," she said. "I will give you the address."

I wrote it down in my pocket 口袋-book and then took her hand to say fare‧well 告别.

"You shall hear from me soon," I said; "you shall know all that I have promised to tell you."

Mrs. Clements sighed 叹 and shook shake her head doubtfully 疑.

"An old woman's advice 劝告 is sometimes worth taking, sir," she said. "Think twice 两次 before you go to Welmingham."

VIII

When I reached home again after my interview 访问 with Mrs. Clements, I was struck by the appearance of a change in Laura.

The unvarying gentleness and patience 耐心 which long misfortune 不幸 had tried so cruelly 残酷的 and had never conquered 征服 yet, seemed now to have suddenly failed her. Insensible to all Marian's attempts to soothe 缓和 and amuse 使人发笑 her, she sat, with her neglected drawing pushed away on the table, her eyes resolutely cast 投 down, her fingers twining 双胞胎之一 and untwining themselves rest‧less 不安 in her lap 膝部. Marian rose when I came in, with a silent distress 苦难 in her face, waited for a moment to see if Laura would look up at my approach, whispered 低声说 to me, "Try if you can rouse 唤醒 her," and left the room.

I sat down in the vacant 空的 chair—gently unclasped the poor, worn wear, rest‧less 不安 fingers, and took both her hands in mine.

"What are you thinking of, Laura? Tell me, my darling 宠儿—try and tell me what it is."

She struggled with her‧self 她自己, and raised her eyes to mine. "I can't feel happy," she said, "I can't help thinking——" She stopped, bent bend forward a little, and laid her head on my shoulder, with a terrible mute 静音 helplessness that struck me to the heart.

"Try to tell me," I repeated gently; "try to tell me why you are not happy."

"I am so use‧less 无用—I am such a burden 负荷，重负 on both of you," she answered, with a weary 厌倦, hope‧less 绝望 sigh 叹. "You work and get money, Walter, and Marian helps you. Why is there nothing I can do? You will end in liking Marian better than you like me—you will, because I am so help‧less 无助! Oh, don't, don't, don't treat me like a child!"

I raised her head, and smoothed away the tangled 纠纷 hair that fell over her face, and kissed 接吻 her—my poor, faded 褪去 flower! my lost, afflicted 折磨 sister 姐妹! "You shall help us, Laura," I said, "you shall begin, my darling 宠儿, to-day."

She looked at me with a feverish eagerness, with a breath‧less 咋舌 interest, that made me tremble 发抖 for the new life of hope which I had called into being by those few words.

I rose, and set her drawing materials in order, and placed them near her again.

"You know that I work and get money by drawing," I said. "Now you have taken such pains, now you are so much improved, you shall begin to work and get money too. Try to finish this little sketch 草图 as nicely and prettily as you can. When it is done I will take it away with me, and the same person will buy it who buys all that I do. You shall keep your own earnings in your own purse 钱包, and Marian shall come to you to help us, as often as she comes to me. Think how useful 有用 you are going to make your‧self 你自己 to both of us, and you will soon be as happy, Laura, as the day is long."

Her face grew grow eager 渴望的, and brightened 变亮 into a smile. In the moment while it lasted, in the moment when she again took up the pencils 铅笔 that had been laid aside, she almost looked like the Laura of past days.

I had rightly interpreted 翻译，弄清含义 the first signs of a new growth and strength in her mind, unconsciously 不知不觉 expressing themselves in the notice she had taken of the occupations 占用 which filled her sister's life and mine. Marian (when I told her what had passed) saw, as I saw, that she was longing to assume 承担 her own little position of importance, to raise her‧self 她自己 in her own estimation 估计 and in ours—and, from that day, we tenderly helped the new ambition 抱负 which gave promise of the hopeful 有希望, happier future, that might now not be far off. Her drawings, as she finished them, or tried to finish them, were placed in my hands. Marian took them from me and hid hide them carefully 小心, and I set aside a little weekly tribute 贡 from my earnings, to be offered to her as the price paid by strangers 陌生人 for the poor, faint 微弱的, value‧less 价值‧少 sketches 草图, of which I was the only purchaser 购买者. It was hard sometimes to maintain 保持 our innocent 无辜 deception 骗局, when she proudly brought out her purse 钱包 to contribute 有助于 her share towards the expenses, and wondered with serious interest, whether I or she had earned the most that week. I have all those hidden hide drawings in my possession 所有物 still—they are my treasures 金银财宝 beyond price—the dear remembrances 纪念 that I love to keep alive—the friends in past adversity 逆境 that my heart will never part from, my tenderness 压痛 never forget.

Am I trifling 琐事, here, with the necessities 必须 of my task 任务? am I looking forward to the happier time which my narrative 叙述 has not yet reached? Yes. Back again—back to the days of doubt and dread 恐惧, when the spirit within me struggled hard for its life, in the icy 冷冰冰 stillness of perpetual 永动的 suspense 悬念. I have paused 暂停 and rested for a while on my forward course. It is not, perhaps, time wasted, if the friends who read these pages have paused and rested too.

I took the first opportunity I could find of speaking to Marian in private, and of communicating 通信 to her the result of the inquiries which I had made that morning. She seemed to share the opinion on the subject of my proposed journey 旅行 to Welmingham, which Mrs. Clements had already expressed to me.

"Surely, Walter," she said, "you hardly know enough yet to give you any hope of claiming Mrs. Catherick's confidence 信心? Is it wise 明智的；聪明的 to proceed 继续 to these extremities, before you have really exhausted 排气 all safer and simpler means of attaining 达到 your object? When you told me that Sir Percival and the Count were the only two people in existence who knew the exact date of Laura's journey 旅行, you forgot forget, and I forgot, that there was a third person who must surely know it—I mean Mrs. Rubelle. Would it not be far easier, and far less dangerous 危险, to insist 咬定 on a confession 承认 from her, than to force it from Sir Percival?"

"It might be easier," I replied, "but we are not aware 知道的 of the full extent of Mrs. Rubelle's connivance and interest in the conspiracy 阴谋, and we are therefore not certain that the date has been impressed 给…留下深刻印象；使钦佩 on her mind, as it has been assuredly impressed on the minds of Sir Percival and the Count. It is too late, now, to waste the time on Mrs. Rubelle, which may be all-important to the discovery of the one assailable point in Sir Percival's life. Are you thinking a little too seriously, Marian, of the risk I may run in returning to Hampshire? Are you beginning to doubt whether Sir Percival Glyde may not in the end be more than a match for me?"

"He will not be more than your match," she replied decidedly 果断地, "because he will not be helped in resisting 抵抗 you by the impenetrable wickedness of the Count."

"What has led you to that conclusion 结论?" I replied, in some surprise.

"My own knowledge of Sir Percival's obstinacy and impatience 不耐烦 of the Count's control," she answered. "I believe he will insist 咬定 on meeting you single-handed—just as he insisted 咬定 at first on acting for himself at Blackwater Park. The time for suspecting 怀疑；嫌疑犯 the Count's interference 干涉 will be the time when you have Sir Percival at your mercy 宽容. His own interests will then be directly threatened, and he will act, Walter, to terrible purpose in his own defence."

"We may deprive 剥夺 him of his weapons before‧hand 预先," I said. "Some of the particulars I have heard from Mrs. Clements may yet be turned to account against him, and other means of strengthening 加强 the case may be at our disposal 处置. There are passages in Mrs. Michelson's narrative 叙述 which show that the Count found it necessary to place himself in communication 通讯 with Mr. Fairlie, and there may be circumstances 环境 which compromise 妥协 him in that proceeding 继续. While I am away, Marian, write to Mr. Fairlie and say that you want an answer describing exactly what passed between the Count and himself, and informing you also of any particulars that may have come to his knowledge at the same time in connection with his niece 外甥女. Tell him that the statement 声明 you request will, sooner or later, be insisted 咬定 on, if he shows any reluctance 不情愿 to furnish you with it of his own accord."

"The letter shall be written, Walter. But are you really determined to go to Welmingham?"

"Absolutely determined. I will devote 奉献 the next two days to earning what we want for the week to come, and on the third day I go to Hampshire."

When the third day came I was ready for my journey 旅行.

As it was possible that I might be absent 缺席的 for some little time, I arranged with Marian that we were to correspond 对应 every day—of course addressing each other by assumed 承担 names, for caution 小心's sake. As long as I heard from her regularly 经常, I should assume 承担 that nothing was wrong. But if the morning came and brought me no letter, my return to London would take place, as a matter of course, by the first train. I contrived 图谋 to reconcile 调和 Laura to my departure 离开 by telling her that I was going to the country to find new purchasers 购买者 for her drawings and for mine, and I left her occupied 占据 and happy. Marian followed me downstairs 楼下 to the street door.

"Remember what anxious 焦急的 hearts you leave here," she whispered, as we stood together in the passage. "Remember all the hopes that hang on your safe return. If strange things happen to you on this journey 3—if you and Sir Percival meet——"

"What makes you think we shall meet?" I asked.

"I don't know—I have fears and fancies that I cannot account for. Laugh at them, Walter, if you like—but, for God's sake, keep your temper if you come in contact 联系 with that man!"

"Never fear, Marian! I answer for my self 自己-control."

With those words we parted.

I walked briskly 轻快 to the station. There was a glow 辉光 of hope in me. There was a growing conviction 定罪 in my mind that my journey this time would not be taken in vain 徒劳的. It was a fine, clear, cold morning. My nerves 神经 were firmly strung, and I felt all the strength of my resolution 解析度 stirring 搅动 in me vigorously 大力 from head to foot.

As I crossed the rail‧way 铁路 platform 平台, and looked right and left among the people congregated on it, to search for any faces among them that I knew, the doubt occurred 发生 to me whether it might not have been to my advantage if I had adopted a disguise 伪装 before setting out for Hampshire. But there was something so repellent to me in the idea—something so meanly like the common herd 放牧 of spies 间谍 and informers in the mere act of adopting a disguise 伪装—that I dismissed 解雇 the question from consideration 考虑 almost as soon as it had risen rise in my mind. Even as a mere matter of expediency the proceeding 继续 was doubtful 疑 in the extreme. If I tried the experiment at home the land‧lord 房东 of the house would sooner or later discover me, and would have his suspicions 怀疑 aroused 引起 immediately. If I tried it away from home the same persons might see me, by the commonest accident 意外事件, with the disguise 伪装 and without it, and I should in that way be inviting the notice and distrust 怀疑 which it was my most pressing interest to avoid. In my own character I had acted thus far—and in my own character I was resolved 解决 to continue to the end.

The train left me at Welmingham early in the afternoon.

Is there any wilderness 荒野 of sand 沙 in the deserts 沙漠；抛弃 of Arabia, is there any prospect 展望 of desolation among the ruins 破坏 of Palestine, which can rival 对手 the repelling 击退 effect on the eye, and the depressing 压抑 influence on the mind, of an English country town in the first stage of its existence, and in the transition 转变；过渡 state of its prosperity 繁荣? I asked myself 我 that question as I passed through the clean desolation, the neat 整洁的 ugliness, the prim torpor of the streets of Welmingham. And the tradesmen who stared after me from their lonely 孤独的 shops—the trees that drooped help‧less 无助 in their arid exile 流亡 of unfinished 未完成 crescents and squares—the dead house-carcasses 胴体 that waited in vain 徒劳的 for the vivifying human element 元件 to animate 活跃 them with the breath of life—every creature 动物；生物 that I saw, every object that I passed, seemed to answer with one accord: The deserts of Arabia are innocent 无辜 of our civilised desolation—the ruins of Palestine are incapable 无法 of our modern gloom 愁云!

I inquired my way to the quarter of the town in which Mrs. Catherick lived, and on reaching it found myself 我 in a square of small houses, one story high. There was a bare 光秃秃的 little plot 情节 of grass 草 in the middle, protected by a cheap 便宜的 wire fence 栅栏. An elderly 年老的；上了年纪的 nurse‧maid 护士‧女佣 and two children were standing in a corner of the enclosure 圈占, looking at a lean goat 山羊 tethered to the grass 草. Two foot-passengers 乘客 were talking together on one side of the pavement 路面 before the houses, and an idle 无意义的 little boy was leading an idle little dog along by a string 绳子 on the other. I heard the dull 钝的；没兴趣 tinkling of a piano 钢琴 at a distance, accompanied 陪 by the intermittent 断断续续的 knocking 敲 of a hammer 铁锤 nearer at hand. These were all the sights and sounds of life that encountered 遭遇 me when I entered the square.

I walked at once to the door of Number Thirteen—the number of Mrs. Catherick's house—and knocked 敲, without waiting to consider before‧hand 预先 how I might best present myself 我 when I got in. The first necessity 必须 was to see Mrs. Catherick. I could then judge, from my own observation 意见, of the safest and easiest manner of approaching the object of my visit.

The door was opened by a melancholy 愁绪 middle-aged woman servant 仆人. I gave her my card, and asked if I could see Mrs. Catherick. The card was taken into the front parlour, and the servant returned with a message requesting me to mention what my business was.

"Say, if you please, that my business relates to Mrs. Catherick's daughter," I replied. This was the best pre‧text 预‧文字材料 I could think of, on the spur 骨刺 of the moment, to account for my visit.

The servant again retired to the parlour, again returned, and this time begged 乞讨 me, with a look of gloomy 阴沉 amazement 惊愕, to walk in.

I entered a little room, with a flaring 闪光 paper of the largest pattern on the walls. Chairs, tables, cheffonier, and sofa 沙发, all gleamed 闪光 with the glutinous brightness 亮度 of cheap 便宜的 upholstery. On the largest table, in the middle of the room, stood a smart 聪明 Bible, placed exactly in the centre on a red and yellow woollen mat 席子 and at the side of the table nearest to the window, with a little knitting 针织-basket 篮 on her lap 膝部, and a wheezing, blear-eyed old spaniel crouched 蹲伏 at her feet, there sat an elderly woman, wearing a black net 网 cap 盖 and a black silk 丝 gown 袍, and having slate 石板-coloured mittens on her hands. Her iron 铁器-grey 灰色:gray hair hung in heavy bands on either side of her face—her dark eyes looked straight forward, with a hard, defiant 目中无人, implacable stare. She had full square cheeks 脸颊, a long, firm chin 下巴, and thick, sensual, colourless lips. Her figure was stout 肥硕 and sturdy 粗壮, and her manner aggressively 积极 self 自己-possessed 拥有. This was Mrs. Catherick.

"You have come to speak to me about my daughter," she said, before I could utter 说出 a word on my side. "Be so good as to mention what you have to say."

The tone 音 of her voice was as hard, as defiant 目中无人, as implacable as the expression of her eyes. She pointed to a chair, and looked me all over attentively 注意的, from head to foot, as I sat down in it. I saw that my only chance with this woman was to speak to her in her own tone 音, and to meet her, at the outset 开始 of our interview 访问, on her own ground grind.

"You are aware 知道的," I said, "that your daughter has been lost?"

"I am perfectly aware 知道的 of it."

"Have you felt any apprehension 顾虑 that the misfortune 不幸 of her loss might be followed by the misfortune 不幸 of her death?"

"Yes. Have you come here to tell me she is dead?"

"I have."

"Why?"

She put that extra‧ordinary 非凡的 question without the slightest change in her voice, her face, or her manner. She could not have appeared more perfectly unconcerned if I had told her of the death of the goat 山羊 in the enclosure 圈占 outside.

"Why?" I repeated. "Do you ask why I come here to tell you of your daughter's death?"

"Yes. What interest have you in me, or in her? How do you come to know anything about my daughter?"

"In this way. I met her on the night when she escaped from the Asylum, and I assisted 帮助；协助；援助 her in reaching a place of safety 安全."

"You did very wrong."

"I am sorry 对不起的 to hear her mother say so."

"Her mother does say so. How do you know she is dead?"

"I am not at liberty 自由 to say how I know it—but I do know it."

"Are you at liberty to say how you found out my address?"

"Certainly. I got your address from Mrs. Clements."

"Mrs. Clements is a foolish 傻 woman. Did she tell you to come here?"

"She did not."

"Then, I ask you again, why did you come?"

As she was determined to have her answer, I gave it to her in the plainest possible form.

"I came," I said, "because I thought Anne Catherick's mother might have some natural 自然 interest in knowing whether she was alive or dead."

"Just so," said Mrs. Catherick, with additional 额外 self-possession 3. "Had you no other motive 动机?"

I hesitated 犹豫. The right answer to that question was not easy to find at a moment's notice.

"If you have no other motive 动机," she went on, deliberately 故意 taking off her slate 石板-coloured mittens, and rolling them up, "I have only to thank you for your visit, and to say that I will not detain 扣留 you here any longer. Your information would be more satisfactory 满意 if you were willing to explain how you became possessed of it. However, it justifies 为…辩护；证明…正当；是…的正当理由 me, I suppose, in going into mourning 悼. There is not much alteration 改造 necessary in my dress, as you see. When I have changed my mittens, I shall be all in black."

She searched in the pocket 口袋 of her gown 袍, drew out a pair of black lace 花边 mittens, put them on with the stoniest and steadiest composure, and then quietly crossed her hands in her lap 膝部.

"I wish you good morning," she said.

The cool con‧tempt 鄙视 of her manner irritated 刺激 me into directly avowing that the purpose of my visit had not been answered yet.

"I have another motive 动机 in coming here," I said.

"Ah! I thought so," remarked Mrs. Catherick.

"Your daughter's death——"

"What did she die of?"

"Of disease of the heart."

"Yes. Go on."

"Your daughter's death has been made the pre‧text 预‧文字材料 for inflicting 造成 serious injury 伤 on a person who is very dear to me. Two men have been concerned, to my certain knowledge, in doing that wrong. One of them is Sir Percival Glyde."

"Indeed!"

I looked attentively to see if she flinched at the sudden mention of that name. Not a muscle 肌肉，身体部份 of her stirred 搅动—the hard, defiant 目中无人, implacable stare in her eyes never wavered 动摇 for an instant 瞬间.

"You may wonder," I went on, "how the event of your daughter's death can have been made the means of inflicting 造成 injury 伤 on another person."

"No," said Mrs. Catherick; "I don't wonder at all. This appears to be your affair. You are interested in my affairs. I am not interested in yours."

"You may ask, then," I persisted 坚持, "why I mention the matter in your presence."

"Yes, I do ask that."

"I mention it because I am determined to bring Sir Percival Glyde to account for the wickedness he has committed 承诺."

"What have I to do with your determination 决心?"

"You shall hear. There are certain events in Sir Percival's past life which it is necessary for my purpose to be fully 充分 acquainted 认识 with. You know them—and for that reason I come to you."

"What events do you mean?"

"Events that occurred 发生 at Old Welmingham when your husband was parish 教区-clerk at that place, and before the time when your daughter was born."

I had reached the woman at last through the barrier 屏障 of impenetrable reserve that she had tried to set up between us. I saw her temper smouldering in her eyes—as plainly as I saw her hands grow rest‧less 不安, then unclasp themselves, and begin mechanically 机械 smoothing her dress over her knees.

"What do you know of those events?" she asked.

"All that Mrs. Clements could tell me," I answered.

There was a momentary 短暂的 flush 红晕 on her firm square face, a momentary stillness in her rest‧less 不安 hands, which seemed to betoken a coming out‧burst 突发 of anger 生气 that might throw her off her guard. But no—she mastered the rising irritation 刺激, leaned lean back in her chair, crossed her arms on her broad bosom, and with a smile of grim 严峻 sarcasm on her thick lips, looked at me as steadily as ever.

"Ah! I begin to understand it all now," she said, her tamed 驯服的 and disciplined 训练 anger only expressing itself 本身 in the elaborate 阐述 mockery of her tone 音 and manner. "You have got a grudge 怨恨 of your own against Sir Percival Glyde, and I must help you to wreak it. I must tell you this, that, and the other about Sir Percival and myself 我, must I? Yes, indeed? You have been prying 撬 into my private affairs. You think you have found a lost woman to deal with, who lives here on sufferance, and who will do anything you ask for fear you may injure 损伤 her in the opinions of the town's-people. I see through you and your precious 宝贵的 speculation 推测—I do! and it amuses 使人发笑 me. Ha! ha!"

She stopped for a moment, her arms tightened 收紧 over her bosom, and she laughed to her‧self 她自己—a hard, harsh 苛刻, angry 生气的 laugh.

"You don't know how I have lived in this place, and what I have done in this place, Mr. What's-your-name," she went on. "I'll tell you, before I ring the bell 钟 and have you shown out. I came here a wronged woman—I came here robbed 抢劫 of my character and determined to claim it back. I've been years and years about it—and I have claimed it back. I have matched the respect‧able 可敬 people fairly and openly on their own ground. If they say anything against me now they must say it in secret—they can't say it, they daren't say it, openly. I stand high enough in this town to be out of your reach. The clergy‧man 牧师 bows 弓 to me. Aha! you didn't bar‧gain 讨价还价；交易 for that when you came here. Go to the church and inquire 打听 about me—you will find Mrs. Catherick has her sitting like the rest of them, and pays the rent 租；租金 on the day it's due. Go to the town-hall. There's a petition 请愿 lying there—a petition 请愿 of the respect‧able 可敬 inhabitants 居民 against allowing a circus 马戏团 to come and perform here and corrupt 腐败 our morals—yes! OUR morals. I signed that petition 请愿 this morning. Go to the book‧seller 书商's shop. The clergy‧man 牧师's Wednesday evening Lectures on Justification by Faith are publishing 发布 there by subscription 订阅—I'm down on the list. The doctor's wife only put a shilling 一毛钱 in the plate 盘子 at our last charity 慈善 sermon 讲道—I put half-a-crown 王冠. Mr. Churchwarden Soward held the plate, and bowed 弓 to me. Ten 十 years ago he told Pigrum the chemist 化学家 I ought to be whipped 鞭打 out of the town at the cart 运货马车's tail 尾. Is your mother alive? Has she got a better Bible on her table than I have got on mine? Does she stand better with her trades-people than I do with mine? Has she always lived within her income 收入? I have always lived within mine. Ah! there is the clergy‧man 牧师 coming along the square. Look, Mr. What's-your-name—look, if you please!"

She started up with the activity of a young woman, went to the window, waited till the clergy‧man 牧师 passed, and bowed to him solemnly 庄严的. The clergy‧man 牧师 ceremoniously raised his hat, and walked on. Mrs. Catherick returned to her chair, and looked at me with a grimmer 严峻 sarcasm than ever.

"There!" she said. "What do you think of that for a woman with a lost character? How does your speculation 推测 look now?"

The singular 单数 manner in which she had chosen to assert 断言 her‧self 她自己, the extra‧ordinary 非凡的 practical vindication of her position in the town which she had just offered, had so perplexed 困扰 me that I listened to her in silent surprise. I was not the less resolved 解决, however, to make another effort to throw her off her guard. If the woman's fierce 凶猛的 temper once got beyond her control, and once flamed 火焰 out on me, she might yet say the words which would put the clue 线索 in my hands.

"How does your speculation 推测 look now?" she repeated.

"Exactly as it looked when I first came in," I answered. "I don't doubt the position you have gained in the town, and I don't wish to assail it even if I could. I came here because Sir Percival Glyde is, to my certain knowledge, your enemy, as well as mine. If I have a grudge 怨恨 against him, you have a grudge 怨恨 against him too. You may deny 拒绝 it if you like, you may distrust 怀疑 me as much as you please, you may be as angry 生气的 as you will—but, of all the women in England, you, if you have any sense of injury 伤, are the woman who ought to help me to crush 压破 that man."

" Crush him for your‧self 你自己," she said; "then come back here, and see what I say to you."

She spoke those words as she had not spoken speak yet, quickly, fiercely 凶猛的, vindictively. I had stirred in its lair the serpent-hatred 仇恨 of years, but only for a moment. Like a lurking 匿伏 reptile 爬虫 it leaped 飞跃 up at me as she eagerly 渴望的 bent forward towards the place in which I was sitting. Like a lurking 匿伏 reptile 爬虫 it dropped out of sight again as she instantly 瞬间 resumed 恢复 her former position in the chair.

"You won't trust me?" I said.

"No."

"You are afraid?"

"Do I look as if I was?"

"You are afraid of Sir Percival Glyde?"

"Am I?"

Her colour was rising, and her hands were at work again smoothing her gown 袍. I pressed the point farther and farther home, I went on without allowing her a moment of delay 延迟.

"Sir Percival has a high position in the world," I said; "it would be no wonder if you were afraid of him. Sir Percival is a powerful 强大 man, a baronet, the possessor 拥有者 of a fine estate 房地产, the descendant 后代 of a great family——"

She amazed 惊奇 me beyond expression by suddenly bursting 爆裂 out laughing.

"Yes," she repeated, in tones 音 of the bitterest, steadiest con‧tempt 鄙视. "A baronet, the possessor of a fine estate 房地产, the descendant of a great family. Yes, indeed! A great family—especially by the mother's side."

There was no time to reflect on the words that had just escaped her, there was only time to feel that they were well worth thinking over the moment I left the house.

"I am not here to dispute 争议 with you about family questions," I said. "I know nothing of Sir Percival's mother——"

"And you know as little of Sir Percival himself," she interposed sharply.

"I advise you not to be too sure of that," I rejoined 归队. "I know some things about him, and I suspect 怀疑；嫌疑犯 many more."

"What do you suspect?"

"I'll tell you what I don't suspect. I don't suspect him of being Anne's father."

She started to her feet, and came close up to me with a look of fury 愤怒.

"How dare 敢 you talk to me about Anne's father! How dare you say who was her father, or who wasn't!" she broke out, her face quivering 颤动, her voice trembling 发抖 with passion 激情，热情；强烈情感.

"The secret between you and Sir Percival is not that secret," I persisted 坚持. "The mystery which darkens 变暗 Sir Percival's life was not born with your daughter's birth, and has not died with your daughter's death."

She drew back a step. "Go!" she said, and pointed sternly 严肃 to the door.

"There was no thought of the child in your heart or in his," I went on, determined to press her back to her last defences. "There was no bond 键 of guilty love between you and him when you held those stolen meetings, when your husband found you whispering together under the vestry of the church."

Her pointing hand instantly dropped to her side, and the deep flush 红晕 of anger faded from her face while I spoke. I saw the change pass over her—I saw that hard, firm, fear‧less 害怕‧少, self-possessed woman quail under a terror 恐怖 which her utmost 极 resolution 解析度 was not strong enough to resist 抵抗 when I said those five last words, "the vestry of the church."

For a minute or more we stood looking at each other in silence. I spoke first.

"Do you still refuse to trust me?" I asked.

She could not call the colour that had left it back to her face, but she had steadied her voice, she had recovered 恢复 the defiant 目中无人 self-possession of her manner when she answered me.

"I do refuse," she said.

"Do you still tell me to go?"

"Yes. Go—and never come back."

I walked to the door, waited a moment before I opened it, and turned round to look at her again.

"I may have news to bring you of Sir Percival which you don't expect," I said, "and in that case I shall come back."

"There is no news of Sir Percival that I don't expect, except——"

She stopped, her pale face darkened 变暗, and she stole back with a quiet, steal‧thy 偷，拿‧你的, cat 猫-like step to her chair.

"Except the news of his death," she said, sitting down again, with the mockery of a smile just hovering 徘徊 on her cruel 残酷的 lips, and the furtive light ofhatred 仇恨 lurking 匿伏 deep in her steady eyes.

As I opened the door of the room to go out, she looked round at me quickly. The cruel smile slowly widened 放宽 her lips—she eyed me, with a strange steal‧thy 偷，拿‧你的 interest, from head to foot—an unutterable expectation 期望 showed itself 本身 wickedly 邪恶的 all over her face. Was she speculating 推测, in the secrecy 保密 of her own heart, on my youth and strength, on the force of my sense of injury 伤 and the limits of my self-control, and was she considering the lengths to which they might carry me, if Sir Percival and I ever chanced to meet? The bare 光秃秃的 doubt that it might be so drove drive me from her presence, and silenced even the common forms of fare‧well 告别 on my lips. Without a word more, on my side or on hers, I left the room.

As I opened the outer door, I saw the same clergy‧man 牧师 who had already passed the house once, about to pass it again, on his way back through the square. I waited on the door-step to let him go by, and looked round, as I did so, at the parlour window.

Mrs. Catherick had heard his foot‧step 脚步 approaching, in the silence of that lonely 孤独的 place, and she was on her feet at the window again, waiting for him. Not all the strength of all the terrible passions 激情，热情；强烈情感 I had roused 唤醒 in that woman's heart, could loosen 变松 her desperate 殊死 hold on the one fragment 分段 of social consideration 考虑 which years of resolute effort had just dragged 拖拽 within her grasp 把握. There she was again, not a minute after I had left her, placed purposely in a position which made it a matter of common courtesy 礼貌 on the part of the clergy‧man 牧师 to bow 弓 to her for a second time. He raised his hat once more. I saw the hard ghastly 阴森 face behind the window soften 软的:soft, and light up with gratified 取悦 pride—I saw the head with the grim 严峻 black cap bend ceremoniously in return. The clergy‧man 牧师 had bowed to her, and in my presence, twice 两次 in one day!

IX

I Left the house, feeling that Mrs. Catherick had helped me a step forward, in spite 恶意 of her‧self 她自己. Before I had reached the turning which led out of the square, my attention was suddenly aroused 引起 by the sound of a closing door behind me.

I looked round, and saw an undersized man in black on the door-step of a house, which, as well as I could judge, stood next to Mrs. Catherick's place of abode—next to it, on the side nearest to me. The man did not hesitate 犹豫 a moment about the direction he should take. He advanced rapidly towards the turning at which I had stopped. I recognised him as the lawyer's clerk, who had preceded 优于 me in my visit to Blackwater Park, and who had tried to pick a quarrel 争吵 with me, when I asked him if I could see the house.

I waited where I was, to ascertain 探明 whether his object was to come to close quarters and speak on this occasion. To my surprise he passed on rapidly, without saying a word, without even looking up in my face as he went by. This was such a complete inversion 逆温 of the course of proceeding 继续 which I had every reason to expect on his part, that my curiosity 好奇心, or rather my suspicion, was aroused 引起, and I determined on my side to keep him cautiously 小心的 in view, and to discover what the business might be in which he was now employed. Without caring whether he saw me or not, I walked after him. He never looked back, and he led me straight through the streets to the rail‧way 铁路 station.

The train was on the point of starting, and two or three passengers who were late were clustering 簇 round the small opening through which the tickets 票 were issued. I joined them, and distinctly 历历 heard the lawyer's clerk demand a ticket 票 for the Blackwater station. I satisfied myself 我 that he had actually left by the train before I came away.

There was only one interpretation 解释 that I could place on what I had just seen and heard. I had unquestionably observed the man leaving a house which closely adjoined 毗 Mrs. Catherick's residence 住宅. He had been probably placed there, by Sir Percival's directions, as a lodger 存放, in anticipation 预期 of my inquiries leading me, sooner or later, to communicate 通信 with Mrs. Catherick. He had doubt‧less 毫无疑问， seen me go in and come out, and he had hurried away by the first train to make his report at Blackwater Park, to which place Sir Percival would naturally 自然地 betake himself (knowing what he evidently 明显地 knew of my movements 运动), in order to be ready on the spot, if I returned to Hampshire. Before many days were over, there seemed every likelihood 可能性 now that he and I might meet.

Whatever result events might be destined 注定 to produce, I resolved 解决 to pursue 追求 my own course, straight to the end in view, without stopping or turning aside for Sir Percival or for any one. The great responsibility 责任 which weighed 称重 on me heavily 很大，沉重地 in London—the responsibility 责任 of so guiding my slightest actions as to prevent them from leading accidentally 偶然 to the discovery of Laura's place of refuge 避难所—was removed 去掉, now that I was in Hampshire. I could go and come as I pleased at Welmingham, and if I chanced to fail in observing any necessary pre‧caution 预防, the immediate results, at least, would affect 影响 no one but myself 我.

When I left the station the winter evening was beginning to close in. There was little hope of continuing my inquiries after dark to any useful 有用 purpose in a neighbourhood that was strange to me. Accordingly, I made my way to the nearest hotel, and ordered my dinner and my bed. This done, I wrote to Marian, to tell her that I was safe and well, and that I had fair prospects 展望 of success. I had directed her, on leaving home, to address the first letter she wrote to me (the letter I expected to receive the next morning) to "The Post-Office, Welmingham," and I now begged her to send her second day's letter to the same address.

I could easily receive it by writing to the post‧master 邮件‧主人；硕士 if I happened to be away from the town when it arrived.

The coffee-room of the hotel, as it grew late in the evening, became a perfect solitude 孤独. I was left to reflect on what I had accomplished that afternoon as uninterruptedly as if the house had been my own. Before I retired to rest I had attentively thought over my extra‧ordinary 非凡的 interview 访问 with Mrs. Catherick from beginning to end, and had verified 校验 at my leisure 闲暇 the conclusions 结论 which I had hastily 草草 drawn in the earlier part of the day.

The vestry of Old Welmingham church was the starting-point from which my mind slowly worked its way back through all that I had heard Mrs. Catherick say, and through all I had seen Mrs. Catherick do.

At the time when the neighbourhood of the vestry was first referred to in my presence by Mrs. Clements, I had thought it the strangest and most unaccountable of all places for Sir Percival to select 选择 for a clandestine meeting with the clerk's wife. Influenced by this impression 印象, and by no other, I had mentioned "the vestry of the church" before Mrs. Catherick on pure speculation 推测—it represented one of the minor 次要 peculiarities of the story which occurred 发生 to me while I was speaking. I was prepared for her answering me confusedly or angrily 生气的, but the blank 空白 terror 恐怖 that seized 抓住 her when I said the words took me completely by surprise. I had long before associated 关联 Sir Percival's Secret with the concealment of a serious crime 罪行 which Mrs. Catherick knew of, but I had gone no further than this. Now the woman's paroxysm of terror 恐怖 associated 关联 the crime, either directly or indirectly 间接, with the vestry, and convinced 说服 me that she had been more than the mere witness of it—she was also the accomplice, beyond a doubt.

What had been the nature of the crime? Surely there was a contemptible side to it, as well as a dangerous 危险 side, or Mrs. Catherick would not have repeated my own words, referring to Sir Percival's rank 排列 and power, with such marked disdain 蔑视 as she had certainly displayed 显示. It was a contemptible crime then and a dangerous 危险 crime, and she had shared in it, and it was associated 关联 with the vestry of the church.

The next consideration 考虑 to be disposed 部署 of led me a step farther from this point.

Mrs. Catherick's undisguised con‧tempt 鄙视 for Sir Percival plainly extended to his mother as well. She had referred with the bitterest sarcasm to the great family he had descended 下来 from—"especially by the mother's side." What did this mean?

There appeared to be only two explanations 说明 of it. Either his mother's birth had been low, or his mother's reputation 名气 was damaged 损害 by some hidden hide flaw 缺陷 with which Mrs. Catherick and Sir Percival were both privately acquainted 认识? I could only put the first explanation 说明 to the test by looking at the register 寄存器 of her marriage, and so ascertaining 探明 her maiden 少女 name and her parent‧age 父母‧年龄 as a preliminary 初步 to further inquiries.

On the other hand, if the second case supposed were the true one, what had been the flaw 缺陷 in her reputation 名气? Remembering the account which Marian had given me of Sir Percival's father and mother, and of the suspiciously 可疑的 unsocial secluded 隔离 life they had both led, I now asked myself 我 whether it might not be possible that his mother had never been married at all. Here again the register 寄存器 might, by offering written evidence 证据 of the marriage, prove to me, at any rate, that this doubt had no foundation 基础 in truth. But where was the register 寄存器 to be found? At this point I took up the conclusions 结论 which I had previously 先前 formed, and the same mental 心理 process which had discovered the locality 局部性 of the concealed 隐藏 crime, now lodged 存放 the register 寄存器 also in the vestry of Old Welmingham church.

These were the results of my interview 访问 with Mrs. Catherick—these were the various considerations 考虑, all steadily converging 汇集 to one point, which decided the course of my proceedings 继续 on the next day.

The morning was cloudy 多云的 and lowering, but no rain fell. I left my bag 袋 at the hotel to wait there till I called for it, and, after inquiring 打听 the way, set forth on foot for Old Welmingham church.

It was a walk of rather more than two miles, the ground rising slowly all the way.

On the highest point stood the church—an ancient, weather-beaten building, with heavy buttresses at its sides, and a clumsy 笨拙 square tower 塔 in front. The vestry at the back was built out from the church, and seemed to be of the same age. Round the building at intervals 间隔 appeared the remains of the village which Mrs. Clements had described to me as her husband's place of abode in former years, and which the principal 主要 inhabitants 居民 had long since deserted for the new town. Some of the empty houses had been dismantled 拆除 to their outer walls, some had been left to decay 腐烂 with time, and some were still inhabited 居住于 by persons evidently 明显地 of the poorest class. It was a dreary 凄凉 scene, and yet, in the worst aspect 方面 of its ruin 破坏, not so dreary 凄凉 as the modern town that I had just left. Here there was the brown, breezy sweep of surrounding fields for the eye to repose on—here the trees, leaf‧less 叶子‧少 as they were, still varied 变化 the monotony of the prospect 展望, and helped the mind to look forward to summer-time and shade 遮阳；阴.

As I moved away from the back of the church, and passed some of the dismantled 拆除 cottages 小屋 in search of a person who might direct me to the clerk, I saw two men saunter out after me from behind a wall. The tallest of the two—a stout 肥硕 muscular 肌肉发达 man in the dress of a game‧keeper 游戏‧管理人—was a stranger to me. The other was one of the men who had followed me in London on the day when I left Mr. Kyrle's office. I had taken particular notice of him at the time; and I felt sure that I was not mistaken 错误 in identifying 鉴定 the fellow on this occasion.

Neither he nor his companion 同伴 attempted to speak to me, and both kept themselves at a respectful 尊敬的 distance, but the motive 动机 of their presence in the neighbourhood of the church was plainly apparent 清晰可见的；显而易见的；明白易懂的. It was exactly as I had supposed—Sir Percival was already prepared for me. My visit to Mrs. Catherick had been reported to him the evening before, and those two men had been placed on the look-out near the church in anticipation 预期 of my appearance at Old Welmingham. If I had wanted any further proof 证明 that my investigations 调查 had taken the right direction at last, the plan now adopted for watching me would have supplied it.

I walked on away from the church till I reached one of the inhabited 居住于 houses, with a patch 补丁 of kitchen garden attached 连接 to it on which a labourer was at work. He directed me to the clerk's abode, a cottage 小屋 at some little distance off, standing by itself 本身 on the out‧skirt 郊区 of the forsaken village. The clerk was indoors 室内的, and was just putting on his great‧coat 巨大的‧上衣. He was a cheerful 快乐, familiar, loudly 响亮的-talkative old man, with a very poor opinion (as I soon discovered) of the place in which he lived, and a happy sense of superiority 优势 to his neighbours in virtue 美德 of the great personal 个人 distinction 区别 of having once been in London.

"It's well you came so early, sir," said the old man, when I had mentioned the object of my visit. "I should have been away in ten 十 minutes more. Parish business, sir, and a goodish long trot 小跑 before it's all done for a man at my age. But, bless 祝福 you, I'm strong on my legs still! As long as a man don't give at his legs, there's a deal of work left in him. Don't you think so your‧self 你自己, sir?"

He took his keys down while he was talking from a hook 钩 behind the fire‧place 壁炉, and locked his cottage 小屋 door behind us.

"Nobody at home to keep house for me," said the clerk, with a cheerful 快乐 sense of perfect freedom from all family encumbrances. "My wife's in the church‧yard 墓地 there, and my children are all married. A wretched 不幸的人 place this, isn't it, sir? But the parish 教区 is a large one—every man couldn't get through the business as I do. It's learning does it, and I've had my share, and a little more. I can talk the Queen 女王's English (God bless 祝福 the Queen!), and that's more than most of the people about here can do. You're from London, I suppose, sir? I've been in London a matter of five-and-twenty 二十 year ago. What's the news there now, if you please?"

Chattering on in this way, he led me back to the vestry. I looked about to see if the two spies 间谍 were still in sight. They were not visible 可以看见的；可视的 any‧where 任何地方. After having discovered my application to the clerk, they had probably concealed 隐藏 themselves where they could watch my next proceedings 继续 in perfect freedom.

The vestry door was of stout 肥硕 old oak 橡木, studded 螺柱 with strong nails 钉子, and the clerk put his large heavy key into the lock with the air of a man who knew that he had a difficulty to encounter 遭遇, and who was not quite certain of creditably conquering 征服 it.

"I'm obliged 责成 to bring you this way, sir," he said, "because the door from the vestry to the church is bolted 螺栓 on the vestry side. We might have got in through the church otherwise. This is a per‧verse 悖 lock, if ever there was one yet. It's big enough for a prison-door—it's been hampered 阻碍 over and over again, and it ought to be changed for a new one. I've mentioned that to the church‧warden 教堂‧看守 fifty 五十 times over at least—he's always saying, 'I'll see about it'—and he never does see. Ah, It's a sort of lost corner, this place. Not like London—is it, sir? Bless 祝福 you, we are all asleep 睡着的 here! We don't march 行军；三月 with the times."

After some twisting 扭成一束 and turning of the key, the heavy lock yielded, and he opened the door.

The vestry was larger than I should have supposed it to be, judging from the outside only. It was a dim 暗淡, mouldy, melancholy 愁绪 old room, with a low, raftered ceiling 天花板. Round two sides of it, the sides nearest to the interior 室内 of the church, ran heavy wooden 木制的 presses, worm 虫-eaten and gaping 盱；目瞪口呆 with age. Hooked to the inner 里面的 corner of one of these presses hung several surplices, all bulging 凸 out at their lower ends in an irreverent-looking bundle 捆 of limp 跛行 drapery. Below the surplices, on the floor, stood three packing-cases, with the lids 盖子 half off, half on, and the straw 稻草 profusely bursting out of their cracks 破裂 and crevices in every direction. Behind them, in a corner, was a litter 窝 of dusty 尘土飞扬 papers, some large and rolled up like architects 建筑师' plans, some loosely strung together on files 文件 like bills or letters. The room had once been lighted by a small side window, but this had been bricked 砖 up, and a lantern 灯笼 sky‧light 天（空）‧光；灯 was now substituted 替代 for it. The atmosphere 大气层 of the place was heavy and mouldy, being rendered 给予 additionally 另外 oppressive 压抑 by the closing of the door which led into the church. This door also was composed of solid oak 橡木, and was bolted 螺栓 at the top and bottom on the vestry side.

"We might be tidier 整洁的, mightn't we, sir?" said the cheerful 快乐 clerk; "but when you're in a lost corner of a place like this, what are you to do? Why, look here now, just look at these packing-cases. There they've been, for a year or more, ready to go down to London—there they are, littering 窝 the place, and there they'll stop as long as the nails hold them together. I'll tell you what, sir, as I said before, this is not London. We are all asleep 睡着的 here. Bless 3 you, we don't march 行军；三月 with the times!"

"What is there in the packing-cases?" I asked.

"Bits of old wood carvings 雕刻 from the pulpit 讲坛, and panels 面板 from the chancel, and images 图片 from the organ 器官；机构-loft 阁楼," said the clerk. "Portraits of the twelve 十二 apostles 使徒 in wood, and not a whole nose among 'em. All broken, and worm 虫-eaten, and crumbling 崩溃 to dust at the edges. As brittle 脆 as crockery, sir, and as old as the church, if not older."

"And why were they going to London? To be repaired 修理?"

"That's it, sir, to be repaired, and where they were past repair 修理, to be copied in sound wood. But, bless you, the money fell short, and there they are, waiting for new subscriptions 订阅, and nobody to subscribe 订阅. It was all done a year ago, sir. Six gentlemen dined 吃饭 together about it, at the hotel in the new town. They made speeches, and passed resolutions 解析度, and put their names down, and printed off thou‧sand 千 of prospectuses 招股说明书. Beautiful 美丽 prospectuses 招股说明书, sir, all flourished 繁荣 over with Gothic devices 设备 in red ink 墨水, saying it was a disgrace 耻辱 not to restore 修复；使复位；使复职 the church and repair 修理 the famous 著名 carvings 雕刻, and so on. There are the prospectuses 招股说明书 that couldn't be distributed 分发, and the architect 建筑师's plans and estimates 估计, and the whole correspondence 对应 which set everybody at loggerheads and ended in a dispute 争议, all down together in that corner, behind the packing-cases. The money dribbled 运球 in a little at first—but what can you expect out of London? There was just enough, you know, to pack the broken carvings 雕刻, and get the estimates 估计, and pay the printer's bill, and after that there wasn't a half‧penny 一半的‧便士 left. There the things are, as I said before. We have now‧here 无处 else to put them—nobody in the new town cares about accommodating 容纳 us—we're in a lost corner—and this is an untidy 襶 vestry—and who's to help it?—that's what I want to know."

My anxiety 焦虑 to examine the register 寄存器 did not dispose 部署 me to offer much encouragement 鼓励 to the old man's talkativeness. I agreed with him that nobody could help the untidiness of the vestry, and then suggested that we should proceed 继续 to our business without more delay 延迟.

"Ay, ay, the marriage-register 寄存器, to be sure," said the clerk, taking a little bunch 束 of keys from his pocket. "How far do you want to look back, sir?"

Marian had informed me of Sir Percival's age at the time when we had spoken together of his marriage engagement 订婚 with Laura. She had then described him as being forty 四十-five years old. Calculating back from this, and making due allowance 津贴；补贴 for the year that had passed since I had gained my information, I found that he must have been born in eighteen 十八 hundred 百 and four, and that I might safely start on my search through the register 寄存器 from that date.

"I want to begin with the year eighteen 十八 hundred 百 and four," I said.

"Which way after that, sir?" asked the clerk. "Forwards to our time or backwards 向后的 away from us?"

"Backwards from eighteen 十八 hundred 百 and four."

He opened the door of one of the presses—the press from the side of which the surplices were hanging—and produced a large volume 卷 bound 必定；跳 in greasy 腻 brown leather 皮. I was struck by the insecurity 不安全 of the place in which the register 寄存器 was kept. The door of the press was warped 经 and cracked 破裂 with age, and the lock was of the smallest and commonest kind. I could have forced it easily with the walking-stick I carried in my hand.

"Is that considered a sufficiently 充分地 secure 安全 place for the register 寄存器?" I inquired. "Surely a book of such importance as this ought to be protected by a better lock, and kept carefully 小心 in an iron 铁器 safe?"

"Well, now, that's curious!" said the clerk, shutting 关闭 up the book again, just after he had opened it, and smacking 拍击 his hand cheerfully 乐意 on the cover. "Those were the very words my old master was always saying years and years ago, when I was a lad 小伙子. 'Why isn't the register 寄存器' (meaning this register 寄存器 here, under my hand)—'why isn't it kept in an iron safe?' If I've heard him say that once, I've heard him say it a hundred 百 times. He was the solicitor 律师 in those days, sir, who had the appointment 约定 of vestry-clerk to this church. A fine hearty 爽朗 old gentleman, and the most particular man breathing 呼吸. As long as he lived he kept a copy of this book in his office at Knowlesbury, and had it posted up regular, from time to time, to correspond 对应 with the fresh entries 条目 here. You would hardly think it, but he had his own appointed days, once or twice 两次 in every quarter, for riding over to this church on his old white pony 小马, to check the copy, by the register 寄存器, with his own eyes and hands. 'How do I know?' (he used to say) 'how do I know that the register 寄存器 in this vestry may not be stolen or destroyed? Why isn't it kept in an iron safe? Why can't I make other people as careful 小心 as I am myself 我? Some of these days there will be an accident 意外事件 happen, and when the register 寄存器's lost, then the parish 教区 will find out the value of my copy.' He used to take his pinch 捏 of snuff after that, and look about him as bold 胆大的；醒目的 as a lord. Ah! the like of him for doing business isn't easy to find now. You may go to London and not match him, even there. Which year did you say, sir? Eighteen hundred 百 and what?"

"Eighteen hundred 百 and four," I replied, mentally 精神上 resolving 解决 to give the old man no more opportunities of talking, until my examination 检查 of the register 寄存器 was over.

The clerk put on his spectacles 场面；眼镜, and turned over the leaves of the register 寄存器, carefully 小心 wetting 湿的 his finger and thumb 拇指 at every third page. "There it is, sir," said he, with another cheerful 快乐 smack 拍击 on the open volume 卷. "There's the year you want."

As I was ignorant 愚昧 of the month in which Sir Percival was born, I began my backward 向后的 search with the early part of the year. The register 寄存器-book was of the old-fashioned kind, the entries 条目 being all made on blank 空白 pages in manuscript 手稿, and the divisions which separated them being indicated 表明 by ink 墨水 lines drawn across the page at the close of each entry 条目.

I reached the beginning of the year eighteen 十八 hundred 百 and four without encountering 遭遇 the marriage, and then travelled back through December eighteen 十八 hundred 百 and three—through November and October—through——

No! not through September also. Under the heading of that month in the year I found the marriage.

I looked carefully 小心 at the entry 条目. It was at the bottom of a page, and was for want of room compressed 压缩 into a smaller space than that occupied 占据 by the marriages above. The marriage immediately before it was impressed on my attention by the circumstance 环境 of the bridegroom's Christian name being the same as my own. The entry 条目 immediately following it (on the top of the next page) was notice‧able 显 in another way from the large space it occupied 占据, the record in this case registering 寄存器 the marriages of two brothers at the same time. The register 寄存器 of the marriage of Sir Felix Glyde was in no respect remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 except for the narrowness of the space into which it was compressed 压缩 at the bottom of the page. The information about his wife was the usual information given in such cases. She was described as "Cecilia Jane Elster, of Park-View Cottages, Knowlesbury, only daughter of the late Patrick Elster, Esq., formerly of Bath 沐浴."

I noted down these particulars in my pocket-book, feeling as I did so both doubtful 疑 and disheartened about my next proceedings 继续. The Secret which I had believed until this moment to be within my grasp 把握 seemed now farther from my reach than ever.

What suggestions 建议 of any mystery unexplained had arisen arise out of my visit to the vestry? I saw no suggestions any‧where 任何地方. What progress had I made towards discovering the suspected stain on the reputation 3 of Sir Percival's mother? The one fact I had ascertained 探明 vindicated 表白 her reputation. Fresh doubts, fresh difficulties, fresh delays 延迟 began to open before me in interminable prospect 展望. What was I to do next? The one immediate resource 资源 left to me appeared to be this. I might institute 研究所 inquiries about "Miss Elster of Knowlesbury," on the chance of advancing towards the main object of my investigation 调查, by first discovering the secret of Mrs. Catherick's con‧tempt 鄙视 for Sir Percival's mother.

"Have you found what you wanted, sir?" said the clerk, as I closed the register 寄存器-book.

"Yes," I replied, "but I have some inquiries still to make. I suppose the clergy‧man 牧师 who officiated here in the year eighteen 十八 hundred 百 and three is no longer alive?"

"No, no, sir, he was dead three or four years before I came here, and that was as long ago as the year twenty 二十-seven 七. I got this place, sir," persisted 坚持 my talkative old friend, "through the clerk before me leaving it. They say he was driven out of house and home by his wife—and she's living still down in the new town there. I don't know the rights of the story myself 我—all I know is I got the place. Mr. Wansborough got it for me—the son of my old master that I was tell you of. He's a free, pleasant gentleman as ever lived—rides to the hounds 猎犬, keeps his pointers 指针 and all that. He's vestry-clerk here now as his father was before him."

"Did you not tell me your former master lived at Knowlesbury?" I asked, calling to mind the long story about the precise 精确 gentleman of the old school with which my talkative friend had wearied 厌倦 me before he opened the register 寄存器-book.

"Yes, to be sure, sir," replied the clerk. "Old Mr. Wansborough lived at Knowlesbury, and young Mr. Wansborough lives there too."

"You said just now he was vestry-clerk, like his father before him. I am not quite sure that I know what a vestry-clerk is."

"Don't you indeed, sir?—and you come from London too! Every parish 教区 church, you know, has a vestry-clerk and a parish 教区-clerk. The parish 教区-clerk is a man like me (except that I've got a deal more learning than most of them—though I don't boast 自夸 of it). The vestry-clerk is a sort of an appointment 约定 that the lawyers get, and if there's any business to be done for the vestry, why there they are to do it. It's just the same in London. Every parish 教区 church there has got its vestry-clerk—and you may take my word for it he's sure to be a lawyer."

"Then young Mr. Wansborough is a lawyer, I suppose?"

"Of course he is, sir! A lawyer in High Street, Knowlesbury—the old offices that his father had before him. The number of times I've swept sweep those offices out, and seen the old gentleman come trotting 小跑 in to business on his white pony 小马, looking right and left all down the street and nodding 点头 to everybody! Bless you, he was a popular character!—he'd have done in London!"

"How far is it to Knowlesbury from this place?"

"A long stretch, sir," said the clerk, with that exaggerated 夸大 idea of distances, and that vivid 生动 perception 看法 of difficulties in getting from place to place, which is peculiar 奇怪的 to all country people. "Nigh on five mile, I can tell you!"

It was still early in the fore‧noon 前面‧正午. There was plenty of time for a walk to Knowlesbury and back again to Welmingham; and there was no person probably in the town who was fitter to assist 帮助；协助；援助 my inquiries about the character and position of Sir Percival's mother before her marriage than the local solicitor 律师. Resolving to go at once to Knowlesbury on foot, I led the way out of the vestry.

"Thank you kindly, sir," said the clerk, as I slipped my little present into his hand. "Are you really going to walk all the way to Knowlesbury and back? Well! you're strong on your legs, too—and what a blessing 祝福 that is, isn't it? There's the road, you can't miss it. I wish I was going your way—it's pleasant to meet with gentlemen from London in a lost corner like this. One hears the news. Wish you good-morning, sir, and thank you kindly once more."

We parted. As I left the church behind me I looked back, and there were the two men again on the road below, with a third in their company, that third person being the short man in black whom 谁 I had traced 跟踪 to the rail‧way 铁路 the evening before.

The three stood talking together for a little while, then separated. The man in black went away by himself towards Welmingham—the other two remained together, evidently 明显地 waiting to follow me as soon as I walked on.

I proceeded 继续 on my way without letting the fellows see that I took any special notice of them. They caused me no conscious irritation 刺激 of feeling at that moment—on the contrary 相反, they rather revived 复活 my sinking 淹没 hopes. In the surprise of discovering the evidence 证据 of the marriage, I had forgotten forget the inference 推理 I had drawn on first perceiving 认为 the men in the neighbourhood of the vestry. Their reappearance reminded me that Sir Percival had anticipated 预期 my visit to Old Welmingham church as the next result of my interview 访问 with Mrs. Catherick—otherwise he would never have placed his spies 间谍 there to wait for me. Smoothly and fairly as appearances looked in the vestry, there was something wrong beneath 之下 them—there was something in the register 寄存器-book, for aught I knew, that I had not discovered yet.

X

Once out of sight of the church, I pressed forward briskly 轻快 on my way to Knowlesbury.

The road was, for the most part, straight and level. Whenever 随时 I looked back over it I saw the two spies 间谍 steadily following me. For the greater part of the way they kept at a safe distance behind. But once or twice 两次 they quickened 加速 their pace 步伐，速度, as if with the purpose of over‧take 超过 me, then stopped, consulted 咨询；请教；查阅 together, and fell back again to their former position. They had some special object evidently 明显地 in view, and they seemed to be hesitating 犹豫 or differing 不同 about the best means of accomplishing 完成；实现；达到；做到 it. I could not guess exactly what their design might be, but I felt serious doubts of reaching Knowlesbury without some mischance happening to me on the way. These doubts were realised.

I had just entered on a lonely 孤独的 part of the road, with a sharp turn at some distance ahead, and had just concluded 得出结论 ( calculating 计算 by time) that I must be getting near to the town, when I suddenly heard the steps of the men close behind me.

Before I could look round, one of them (the man by whom 谁 I had been followed in London) passed rapidly on my left side and hustled 喧嚣 me with his shoulder. I had been more irritated 刺激 by the manner in which he and his companion 同伴 had dogged my steps all the way from Old Welmingham than I was myself 我 aware 知道的 of, and I unfortunately 不幸 pushed the fellow away smartly 聪明 with my open hand. He instantly shouted for help. His companion, the tall man in the game‧keeper 游戏‧管理人's clothes, sprang to my right side, and the next moment the two scoundrels held me pinioned between them in the middle of the road.

The conviction 定罪 that a trap 陷阱；诱骗 had been laid for me, and the vexation of knowing that I had fallen fall into it, fortunately 侥幸的 rest‧rain 抑制 me from making my position still worse by an unavailing struggle with two men, one of whom 4 would, in all probability 可能性, have been more than a match for me single-handed. I repressed 抑 the first natural 自然 movement 运动 by which I had attempted to shake them off, and looked about to see if there was any person near to whom 5 I could appeal 上诉.

A labourer was at work in an adjoining 毗 field who must have witnessed all that had passed. I called to him to follow us to the town. He shook his head with stolid obstinacy, and walked away in the direction of a cottage 小屋 which stood back from the high-road. At the same time the men who held me between them declared their intention of charging me with an assault 突击. I was cool enough and wise 明智的；聪明的 enough now to make no opposition 反对. "Drop your hold of my arms," I said, "and I will go with you to the town." The man in the game‧keeper 游戏‧管理人's dress roughly refused. But the shorter man was sharp enough to look to consequences 后果, and not to let his companion 3 commit 承诺 himself by unnecessary 不必要 violence 暴力. He made a sign to the other, and I walked on between them with my arms free.

We reached the turning in the road, and there, close before us, were the suburbs 市郊 of Knowlesbury. One of the local policemen was walking along the path 小路 by the road‧side 路边. The men at once appealed 上诉 to him. He replied that the magistrate 法官 was then sitting at the town-hall, and recommended that we should appear before him immediately.

We went on to the town-hall. The clerk made out a formal summons 召唤, and the charge was preferred against me, with the customary 习惯的 exaggeration 夸张 and the customary per‧version 每个；依照‧版本；说法 of the truth on such occasions. The magistrate 法官 (an ill-tempered 性情 man, with a sour 有酸味的 enjoyment 享受 in the exercise of his own power) inquired if any one on or near the road had witnessed the assault 突击, and, greatly to my surprise, the complain‧ant 抱怨‧蚂蚁 admitted the presence of the labourer in the field. I was enlightened 开导, however, as to the object of the admission 准许进入 by the magistrate 法官's next words. He remanded me at once for the production of the witness, expressing, at the same time, his willingness 愿意 to take bail 保释 for my reappearance if I could produce one responsible surety to offer it. If I had been known in the town he would have liberated 解放 me on my own recognisances, but as I was a total stranger it was necessary that I should find responsible bail 保释.

The whole object of the stratagem was now disclosed 透露 to me. It had been so managed as to make a remand necessary in a town where I was a perfect stranger, and where I could not hope to get my liberty on bail 保释. The remand merely extended over three days, until the next sitting of the magistrate 法官. But in that time, while I was in confinement 坐月子, Sir Percival might use any means he pleased to embarrass 阻碍 my future proceedings 继续—perhaps to screen himself from detect‧ion 发现 altogether 全部地—without the slightest fear of any hindrance 妨害 on my part. At the end of the three days the charge would, no doubt, be withdrawn, and the attendance 勤 of the witness would be perfectly use‧less 无用.

My indignation 愤慨, I may almost say, my despair 绝望, at this mischievous check to all further progress—so base and trifling 琐事 in itself 本身, and yet so disheartening and so serious in its probable results—quite unfitted 不适当 me at first to reflect on the best means of extricating myself 我 from the dilemma 困境 in which I now stood. I had the folly 蠢事 to call for writing materials, and to think of privately communicating 通信 my real position to the magistrate 法官. The hopelessness and the imprudence of this proceeding 继续 failed to strike me before I had actually written the opening lines of the letter. It was not till I had pushed the paper away—not till, I am ashamed 惭愧的 to say, I had almost allowed the vexation of my help‧less 无助 position to conquer 征服 me—that a course of action suddenly occurred 发生 to my mind, which Sir Percival had probably not anticipated, and which might set me free again in a few hours. I determined to communicate 通信 the situation in which I was placed to Mr. Dawson, of Oak Lodge 存放.

I had visited this gentleman's house, it may be remembered, at the time of my first inquiries in the Blackwater Park neighbourhood, and I had presented to him a letter of introduction 介绍 from Miss Halcombe, in which she recommended me to his friendly attention in the strongest terms. I now wrote, referring to this letter, and to what I had previously 先前 told Mr. Dawson of the delicate 微妙的；纤弱的 and dangerous 危险 nature of my inquiries. I had not revealed 揭示 to him the truth about Laura, having merely described my errand 使命 as being of the utmost 极 importance to private family interests with which Miss Halcombe was concerned. Using the same caution 小心 still, I now accounted for my presence at Knowlesbury in the same manner, and I put it to the doctor to say whether the trust reposed in me by a lady whom he well knew, and the hospitality 待客 I had myself 我 received in his house, justified 为…辩护；证明…正当；是…的正当理由 me or not in asking him to come to my assistance 帮助 in a place where I was quite friend‧less 朋友‧少.

I obtained 获得 per‧mission 允许 to hire 聘用 a messenger 信使 to drive away at once with my letter in a conveyance which might be used to bring the doctor back immediately. Oak Lodge 存放 was on the Knowlesbury side of Blackwater. The man declared he could drive there in forty 四十 minutes, and could bring Mr. Dawson back in forty 四十 more. I directed him to follow the doctor wherever 随地 he might happen to be, if he was not at home, and then sat down to wait for the result with all the patience 耐心 and all the hope that I could summon 召唤 to help me.

It was not quite half-past one when the messenger 信使 departed 离开. Before half-past three he returned, and brought the doctor with him. Mr. Dawson's kindness 善良, and the delicacy 美味 with which he treated his prompt 敏捷的 assistance 帮助 quite as a matter of course, almost over‧power 压倒 me. The bail 保释 required was offered, and accepted immediately. Before four o' clock 钟, on that afternoon, I was shaking hands warmly with the good old doctor—a free man again—in the streets of Knowlesbury.

Mr. Dawson hospitably invited me to go back with him to Oak Lodge 存放, and take up my quarters there for the night. I could only reply that my time was not my own, and I could only ask him to let me pay my visit in a few days, when I might repeat my thanks, and offer to him all the explanations 说明 which I felt to be only his due, but which I was not then in a position to make. We parted with friendly assurances 保证 on both sides, and I turned my steps at once to Mr. Wansborough's office in the High Street.

Time was now of the last importance.

The news of my being free on bail 保释 would reach Sir Percival, to an absolute certainty 确定性, before night. If the next few hours did not put me in a position to justify 为…辩护；证明…正当；是…的正当理由 his worst fears, and to hold him help‧less 无助 at my mercy 宽容, I might lose every inch of the ground I had gained, never to recover 恢复 it again. The unscrupulous nature of the man, the local influence he possessed, the desperate 殊死 peril 岌 of exposure 经受 with which my blind‧fold 失明的‧折叠 inquiries threatened him—all warned me to press on to positive 正 discovery, without the use‧less 无用 waste of a single minute. I had found time to think while I was waiting for Mr. Dawson's arrival 到达, and I had well employed it. Certain portions 一部分；一份 of the conversation of the talkative old clerk, which had wearied 厌倦 me at the time, now recurred 复发 to my memory with a new significance 重要性, and a suspicion crossed my mind darkly which had not occurred 发生 to me while I was in the vestry. On my way to Knowlesbury, I had only proposed to apply to Mr. Wansborough for information on the subject of Sir Percival's mother. My object now was to examine the duplicate 重复 register 寄存器 of Old Welmingham Church.

Mr. Wansborough was in his office when I inquired for him.

He was a jovial, red-faced, easy-looking man—more like a country squire than a lawyer—and he seemed to be both surprised and amused 使人发笑 by my application. He had heard of his father's copy of the register 寄存器, but had not even seen it himself. It had never been inquired after, and it was no doubt in the strong room among other papers that had not been disturbed since his father's death. It was a pity 怜悯 (Mr. Wansborough said) that the old gentleman was not alive to hear his precious 宝贵的 copy asked for at last. He would have ridden ride his favourite hobby 爱好 harder than ever now. How had I come to hear of the copy? was it through any‧body 任何人 in the town?

I parried the question as well as I could. It was impossible at this stage of the investigation 调查 to be too cautious 小心的, and it was just as well not to let Mr. Wansborough know pre‧mature 过早 that I had already examined the original 原版的 register 寄存器. I described myself 我, therefore, as pursuing 追求 a family inquiry 调查, to the object of which every possible saving of time was of great importance. I was anxious 焦急的 to send certain particulars to London by that day's post, and one look at the duplicate 重复 register 寄存器 (paying, of course, the necessary fees 费用) might supply what I required, and save me a further journey to Old Welmingham. I added that, in the event of my subsequently 随后的，接着的 requiring a copy of the original 原版的 register 寄存器, I should make application to Mr. Wansborough's office to furnish me with the document 文件.

After this explanation 说明 no objection 反对 was made to producing the copy. A clerk was sent to the strong room, and after some delay returned with the volume 卷. It was of exactly the same size as the volume 卷 in the vestry, the only difference being that the copy was more smartly 聪明 bound 必定；跳. I took it with me to an unoccupied desk. My hands were trembling—my head was burning hot—I felt the necessity of concealing 隐藏 my agitation 搅动 as well as I could from the persons about me in the room, before I ventured 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 on opening the book.

On the blank 空白 page at the beginning, to which I first turned, were traced 跟踪 some lines in faded ink 墨水. They contained these words—

"Copy of the Marriage Register 寄存器 of Welmingham Parish Church. Executed under my orders, and after‧ward 之后 compared, entry 条目 by entry 条目, with the original 原版的, by myself 我. (Signed) Robert Wansborough, vestry-clerk." Below this note there was a line added, in another hand‧write 书法, as follows: "Extending from the first of January, 1800, to the thirtieth of June, 1815."

I turned to the month of September, eighteen 十八 hundred 百 and three. I found the marriage of the man whose 谁的 Christian name was the same as my own. I found the double register 寄存器 of the marriages of the two brothers. And between these entries 条目, at the bottom of the page?

Nothing! Not a vestige of the entry 条目 which recorded the marriage of Sir Felix Glyde and Cecilia Jane Elster in the register 寄存器 of the church!

My heart gave a great bound 必定；跳, and throbbed 搏动 as if it would stifle 窒息 me. I looked again—I was afraid to believe the evidence 证据 of my own eyes. No! not a doubt. The marriage was not there. The entries 条目 on the copy occupied 占据 exactly the same places on the page as the entries 条目 in the original 原版的. The last entry 条目 on one page recorded the marriage of the man with my Christian name. Below it there was a blank 空白 space—a space evidently 明显地 left because it was too narrow to contain the entry 条目 of the marriages of the two brothers, which in the copy, as in the original 原版的, occupied 占据 the top of the next page. That space told the whole story! There it must have remained in the church register 寄存器 from eighteen 十八 hundred 百 and three (when the marriages had been solemnised and the copy had been made) to eighteen 十八 hundred 百 and twenty 二十-seven 七, when Sir Percival appeared at Old Welmingham. Here, at Knowlesbury, was the chance of committing 承诺 the forgery shown to me in the copy, and there, at Old Welmingham, was the forgery committed 承诺 in the register 寄存器 of the church.

My head turned giddy—I held by the desk to keep myself 我 from falling. Of all the suspicions which had struck me in relation to that desperate 殊死 man, not one had been near the truth.

The idea that he was not Sir Percival Glyde at all, that he had no more claim to the baronetcy and to Blackwater Park than the poorest labourer who worked on the estate 房地产, had never once occurred 发生 to my mind. At one time I had thought he might be Anne Catherick's father—at another time I had thought he might have been Anne Catherick's husband—the offence of which he was really guilty had been, from first to last, beyond the widest reach of my imagination 想像力.

The paltry means by which the fraud 舞弊 had been effected, the magnitude 大小 and daring 敢 of the crime that it represented, the horror 恐怖 of the consequences 后果 involved in its discovery, overwhelmed 压倒 me. Who could wonder now at the brute 畜生-restlessness of the wretch 不幸的人's life—at his desperate 殊死 alternations between abject duplicity and reckless 鲁莽 violence 暴力—at the madness 疯狂 of guilty distrust 怀疑 which had made him imprison 监禁 Anne Catherick in the Asylum, and had given him over to the vile conspiracy 阴谋 against his wife, on the bare 光秃秃的 suspicion that the one and the other knew his terrible secret? The disclosure 泄露 of that secret might, in past years, have hanged him—might now transport 运输 him for life. The disclosure 泄露 of that secret, even if the sufferers 患者 by his deception 骗局 spared 节省；多余的；备用件 him the penalties 罚款 of the law, would deprive 剥夺 him at one blow of the name, the rank 排列, the estate 房地产, the whole social existence that he had usurped. This was the Secret, and it was mine! A word from me, and house, lands, baronetcy, were gone from him for ever—a word from me, and he was driven out into the world, a name‧less 名字‧少, penniless, friend‧less 朋友‧少 out‧cast 出‧演员! The man's whole future hung on my lips—and he knew it by this time as certainly as I did!

That last thought steadied me. Interests far more precious 宝贵的 than my own depended on the caution 小心 which must now guide my slightest actions. There was no possible treachery which Sir Percival might not attempt against me. In the danger and desperation 绝望 of his position he would be staggered 错开 by no risks, he would recoil at no crime—he would literally 按照字面 hesitate 犹豫 at nothing to save himself.

I considered for a minute. My first necessity was to secure 安全 positive 正 evidence 证据 in writing of the discovery that I had just made, and in the event of any personal 个人 misadventure happening to me, to place that evidence 证据 beyond Sir Percival's reach. The copy of the register 寄存器 was sure to be safe in Mr. Wansborough's strong room. But the position of the original 原版的 in the vestry was, as I had seen with my own eyes, anything but secure 安全.

In this emergency 急 I resolved 解决 to return to the church, to apply again to the clerk, and to take the necessary extract 提取 from the register 寄存器 before I slept sleep that night. I was not then aware 知道的 that a legally 法律上-certified 证明 copy was necessary, and that no document 文件 merely drawn out by myself 我 could claim the proper importance as a proof 证明. I was not aware 知道的 of this, and my determination 决心 to keep my present proceedings 继续 a secret prevented me from asking any questions which might have pro‧cure 促成 the necessary information. My one anxiety 焦虑 was the anxiety to get back to Old Welmingham. I made the best excuses 原谅 I could for the discomposure in my face and manner which Mr. Wansborough had already noticed, laid the necessary fee 费用 on his table, arranged that I should write to him in a day or two, and left the office, with my head in a whirl 旋转 and my blood throbbing 搏动 through my veins 静脉 at fever 发热 heat.

It was just getting dark. The idea occurred 发生 to me that I might be followed again and attacked on the high-road.

My walking-stick was a light one, of little or no use for purposes of defence. I stopped before leaving Knowlesbury and bought buy a stout 肥硕 country cudgel, short, and heavy at the head. With this homely weapon, if any one man tried to stop me I was a match for him. If more than one attacked me I could trust to my heels 脚跟. In my school-days I had been a noted runner, and I had not wanted for practice since in the later time of my experience in Central 中央 America.

I started from the town at a brisk 轻快 pace 步伐，速度, and kept the middle of the road.

A small misty rain was falling, and it was impossible for the first half of the way to make sure whether I was followed or not. But at the last half of my journey, when I supposed myself 我 to be about two miles from the church, I saw a man run by me in the rain, and then heard the gate 门 of a field by the road‧side 路边 shut to sharply. I kept straight on, with my cudgel ready in my hand, my ears on the alert 警报, and my eyes straining 压力 to see through the mist 薄雾 and the darkness 黑暗. Before I had advanced a hundred 百 yards there was a rustling 沙沙 in the hedge 树篱 on my right, and three men sprang out into the road.

I drew aside on the instant 瞬间 to the foot‧path 蹊. The two fore‧most 最重要的是 men were carried beyond me before they could check themselves. The third was as quick as lightning 闪电. He stopped, half turned, and struck at me with his stick. The blow was aimed at hazard 冒险, and was not a severe 严峻的 one. It fell on my left shoulder. I returned it heavily 很大，沉重地 on his head. He staggered 错开 back and jostled his two companions 同伴 just as they were both rushing 仓促 at me. This circumstance 环境 gave me a moment's start. I slipped by them, and took to the middle of the road again at the top of my speed.

The two unhurt men pursued 追求 me. They were both good runners 跑步者—the road was smooth and level, and for the first five minutes or more I was conscious that I did not gain on them. It was perilous work to run for long in the darkness 黑暗. I could barely 光秃秃的 see the dim 暗淡 black line of the hedges 树篱 on either side, and any chance obstacle 障碍 in the road would have thrown throw me down to a certainty. Ere long I felt the ground changing—it descended from the level at a turn, and then rose again beyond. Downhill the men rather gained on me, but uphill 上坡 I began to distance them. The rapid, regular thump 扑通 of their feet grew fainter 微弱的 on my ear, and I calculated 计算 by the sound that I was far enough in advance to take to the fields with a good chance of their passing me in the darkness 黑暗. Diverging to the foot‧path 蹊, I made for the first break that I could guess at, rather than see, in the hedge 树篱. It proved to be a closed gate 门. I vaulted 拱顶 over, and finding myself 我 in a field, kept across it steadily with my back to the road. I heard the men pass the gate, still running, then in a minute more heard one of them call to the other to come back. It was no matter what they did now, I was out of their sight and out of their hearing. I kept straight across the field, and when I had reached the farther extremity of it, waited there for a minute to recover 恢复 my breath.

It was impossible to venture 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 back to the road, but I was determined nevertheless 虽然 to get to Old Welmingham that evening.

Neither moon nor stars appeared to guide me. I only knew that I had kept the wind and rain at my back on leaving Knowlesbury, and if I now kept them at my back still, I might at least be certain of not advancing altogether 全部地 in the wrong direction.

Proceeding on this plan, I crossed the country—meeting with no worse obstacles 障碍 than hedges 树篱, ditches 沟渠, and thickets, which every now and then obliged 责成 me to alter 改变 my course for a little while—until I found myself 我 on a hill-side, with the ground sloping 斜坡 away steeply 陡峭的 before me. I descended to the bottom of the hollow 空的, squeezed 挤 my way through a hedge 树篱, and got out into a lane 车道. Having turned to the right on leaving the road, I now turned to the left, on the chance of regaining 恢复 the line from which I had wandered 漫步. After following the muddy 浑 windings of the lane 车道 for ten 十 minutes or more, I saw a cottage 3 with a light in one of the windows. The garden gate was open to the lane 车道, and I went in at once to inquire 打听 my way.

Before I could knock 敲 at the door it was suddenly opened, and a man came running out with a lighted lantern 灯笼 in his hand. He stopped and held it up at the sight of me. We both started as we saw each other. My wanderings 漫步 had led me round the out‧skirt 郊区 of the village, and had brought me out at the lower end of it. I was back at Old Welmingham, and the man with the lantern 灯笼 was no other than my acquaintance 熟人 of the morning, the parish 教区 clerk.

His manner appeared to have altered 改变 strangely in the interval 间隔 since I had last seen him. He looked suspicious 可疑的 and confused 使困窘—his ruddy cheeks 脸颊 were deeply flushed 红晕—and his first words, when he spoke, were quite unintelligible 不知所云 to me.

"Where are the keys?" he asked. "Have you taken them?"

"What keys?" I repeated. "I have this moment come from Knowlesbury. What keys do you mean?"

"The keys of the vestry. Lord save us and help us! what shall I do? The keys are gone! Do you hear?" cried the old man, shaking the lantern 灯笼 at me in his agitation 搅动, "the keys are gone!"

"How? When? Who can have taken them?"

"I don't know," said the clerk, staring about him wildly in the darkness 黑暗. "I've only just got back. I told you I had a long day's work this morning—I locked the door and shut the window down—it's open now, the window's open. Look! somebody has got in there and taken the keys."

He turned to the casement window to show me that it was wide open. The door of the lantern 灯笼 came loose from its fastening 系牢 as he swayed 摇摆 it round, and the wind blew blow the candle 蜡烛 out instantly.

"Get another light," I said, "and let us both go to the vestry together. Quick! quick!"

I hurried him into the house. The treachery that I had every reason to expect, the treachery that might deprive 剥夺 me of every advantage I had gained, was at that moment, perhaps, in process of accomplishment 成就. My impatience 不耐烦 to reach the church was so great that I could not remain inactive 待用 in the cottage while the clerk lit the lantern 灯笼 again. I walked out, down the garden path 小路, into the lane 车道.

Before I had advanced ten 十 paces 步伐，速度 a man approached me from the direction leading to the church. He spoke respectfully 尊敬 as we met. I could not see his face, but judging by his voice only, he was a perfect stranger to me.

"I beg your pardon 宽恕；说啥？, Sir Percival——" he began.

I stopped him before he could say more.

"The darkness 黑暗 misleads 误导 you," I said. "I am not Sir Percival."

The man drew back directly.

"I thought it was my master," he muttered 咕哝, in a confused, doubtful 疑 way.

"You expected to meet your master here?"

"I was told to wait in the lane 车道."

With that answer he retraced his steps. I looked back at the cottage and saw the clerk coming out, with the lantern 灯笼 lighted once more. I took the old man's arm to help him on the more quickly. We hastened 加速 along the lane 车道, and passed the person who had accosted me. As well as I could see by the light of the lantern 灯笼, he was a servant 3 out of livery.

"Who's that?" whispered the clerk. "Does he know anything about the keys?"

"We won't wait to ask him," I replied. "We will go on to the vestry first."

The church was not visible 可以看见的；可视的, even by day‧time 白天, until the end of the lane 车道 was reached. As we mounted 增加 the rising ground which led to the building from that point, one of the village children—a boy—came close up to us, attracted 吸引 by the light we carried, and recognised the clerk.

"I say, measter," said the boy, pulling officiously at the clerk's coat, "there be summun up yander in the church. I heerd un lock the door on hisself—I heerd un strike a loight wi' a match."

The clerk trembled 发抖 and leaned against me heavily 很大，沉重地.

"Come! come!" I said encouragingly. "We are not too late. We will catch the man, who‧ever 无论谁 he is. Keep the lantern 灯笼, and follow me as fast as you can."

I mounted the hill rapidly. The dark mass of the church- tower 塔 was the first object I discerned 辨别 dimly 暗淡 against the night sky. As I turned aside to get round to the vestry, I heard heavy foot‧step 脚步 close to me. The servant had ascended 登 to the church after us. "I don't mean any harm 损害," he said, when I turned round on him, "I'm only looking for my master." The tones 音 in which he spoke betrayed 背叛 unmistakable 明白的 fear. I took no notice of him and went on.

The instant I turned the corner and came in view of the vestry, I saw the lantern 灯笼-sky‧light 天（空）‧光；灯 on the roof brilliantly 出色的 lit up from within. It shone 发光:shine out with dazzling 炫 brightness 亮度 against the murky 模糊, star‧less 星‧少 sky.

I hurried through the church‧yard 墓地 to the door.

As I got near there was a strange smell stealing 偷 out on the damp 微湿的 night air. I heard a snapping 卡 noise 噪音 inside—I saw the light above grow brighter and brighter—a pane 窗格 of the glass cracked—I ran to the door and put my hand on it. The vestry was on fire!

Before I could move, before I could draw my breath after that discovery, I was horror 恐怖-struck by a heavy thump 扑通 against the door from the inside. I heard the key worked violently 猛烈 in the lock—I heard a man's voice behind the door, raised to a dreadful 可怕 shrillness, screaming 叫喊 for help.

The servant who had followed me staggered 错开 back shuddering 不寒而栗, and dropped to his knees. "Oh, my God!" he said, "it's Sir Percival!"

As the words passed his lips the clerk joined us, and at the same moment there was another and a last grating 炉排 turn of the key in the lock.

"The Lord have mercy 宽容 on his soul!" said the old man. "He is doomed 厄运 and dead. He has hampered 阻碍 the lock."

I rushed 仓促 to the door. The one absorbing 吸收 purpose that had filled all my thoughts, that had controlled all my actions, for weeks and weeks past, vanished 消失 in an instant from my mind. All remembrance 纪念 of the heart‧less 心‧少 injury 伤 the man's crimes 罪行 had inflicted 造成—of the love, the innocence 无辜, the happiness 幸福 he had pitilessly laid waste—of the oath 誓言 I had sworn 发誓:swear in my own heart to summon 召唤 him to the terrible reckoning 估计 that he deserved 应受—passed from my memory like a dream. I remembered nothing but the horror 恐怖 of his situation. I felt nothing but the natural 自然 human impulse 冲动 to save him from a frightful death.

"Try the other door!" I shouted. "Try the door into the church! The lock's hampered 阻碍. You're a dead man if you waste another moment on it."

There had been no renewed 更新 cry for help when the key was turned for the last time. There was no sound now of any kind, to give token 代币 that he was still alive. I heard nothing but the quickening 加速 crackle 裂纹 of the flames 火焰, and the sharp snap 卡 of the glass in the sky‧light 天（空）‧光；灯 above.

I looked round at my two companions 同伴. The servant had risen to his feet—he had taken the lantern 灯笼, and was holding it up vacantly 空的 at the door. Terror seemed to have struck him with down‧right 彻头彻尾 idiocy—he waited at my heels 脚跟, he followed me about when I moved like a dog. The clerk sat crouched 蹲伏 up on one of the tombstones, shivering 发抖, and moaning 呻吟 to himself. The one moment in which I looked at them was enough to show me that they were both help‧less 无助.

Hardly knowing what I did, acting desperately 拼命 on the first impulse 冲动 that occurred 发生 to me, I seized the servant and pushed him against the vestry wall. "Stoop!" I said, "and hold by the stones. I am going to climb over you to the roof—I am going to break the sky‧light 天（空）‧光；灯, and give him some air!"

The man trembled from head to foot, but he held firm. I got on his back, with my cudgel in my mouth, seized the parapet with both hands, and was instantly on the roof. In the frantic 疯狂的 hurry and agitation 搅动 of the moment, it never struck me that I might let out the flame 火焰 instead of letting in the air. I struck at the sky‧light 天（空）‧光；灯, and battered 面糊 in the cracked, loosened 变松 glass at a blow. The fire leaped 飞跃 out like a wild beast 野兽 from its lair. If the wind had not chanced, in the position I occupied 占据, to set it away from me, my exertions might have ended then and there. I crouched 蹲伏 on the roof as the smoke poured 淋；倒 out above me with the flame 火焰. The gleams 闪光 and flashes 使闪光 of the light showed me the servant's face staring up vacantly 空的 under the wall—the clerk risen to his feet on the tomb‧stone 墓‧石头, wringing 拧 his hands in despair 绝望—and the scanty population of the village, haggard men and terrified 惊吓 women, clustered 簇 beyond in the church‧yard 墓地—all appearing and disappearing 不见, in the red of the dreadful 可怕 glare 强光, in the black of the choking 呛 smoke. And the man beneath 之下 my feet!—the man, suffocating 窒息, burning, dying so near us all, so utterly 完全 beyond our reach!

The thought half maddened me. I lowered myself 我 from the roof, by my hands, and dropped to the ground.

"The key of the church!" I shouted to the clerk. "We must try it that way—we may save him yet if we can burst 爆裂 open the inner 里面的 door."

"No, no, no!" cried the old man. "No hope! the church key and the vestry key are on the same ring—both inside there! Oh, sir, he's past saving—he's dust and ashes 灰 by this time!"

"They'll see the fire from the town," said a voice from among the men behind me. "There's a ingine in the town. They'll save the church."

I called to that man—he had his wits 风趣 about him—I called to him to come and speak to me. It would be a quarter of an hour at least before the town engine could reach us. The horror 恐怖 of remaining inactive 待用 all that time was more than I could face. In defiance 蔑视 of my own reason I persuaded 说服 myself 我 that the doomed 厄运 and lost wretch 不幸的人 in the vestry might still be lying sense‧less 感觉‧少 on the floor, might not be dead yet. If we broke open the door, might we save him? I knew the strength of the heavy lock—I knew the thickness 厚度 of the nailed 钉子 oak 橡木—I knew the hopelessness of assailing the one and the other by ordinary means. But surely there were beams 梁 still left in the dismantled 拆除 cottages near the church? What if we got one, and used it as a battering 面糊-ram 随机存取存储器 against the door?

The thought leaped 飞跃 through me like the fire leaping 飞跃 out of the shattered 打碎 sky‧light 天（空）‧光；灯. I appealed 上诉 to the man who had spoken first of the fire-engine in the town. "Have you got your pickaxes handy 便利?" Yes, they had. "And a hatchet, and a saw, and a bit 一点 of rope 粗绳?" Yes! yes! yes! I ran down among the villagers 村民, with the lantern 灯笼 in my hand. "Five shillings 一毛钱 apiece to every man who helps me!" They started into life at the words. That ravenous second hunger 饿 of poverty 贫穷—the hunger for money—roused 唤醒 them into tumult and activity in a moment. "Two of you for more lanterns 灯笼, if you have them! Two of you for the pickaxes and the tools! The rest after me to find the beam 梁!" They cheered 欢呼—with shrill starveling voices they cheered. The women and the children fled back on either side. We rushed in a body down the church‧yard 墓地 path to the first empty cottage. Not a man was left behind but the clerk—the poor old clerk standing on the flat tomb‧stone 墓‧石头 sobbing 哭泣 and wailing 哀号 over the church. The servant was still at my heels 脚跟—his white, help‧less 无助, panic 恐慌-stricken face was close over my shoulder as we pushed into the cottage. There were rafters from the torn tear-down floor above, lying loose on the ground—but they were too light. A beam 梁 ran across over our heads, but not out of reach of our arms and our pickaxes—a beam fast at each end in the ruined 破坏 wall, with ceiling 天花板 and flooring all ripped 安息 away, and a great gap 缺口 in the roof above, open to the sky. We attacked the beam 3 at both ends at once. God! how it held—how the brick 砖 and mortar 砂浆 of the wall resisted us! We struck, and tugged 拖船, and tore tear. The beam gave at one end—it came down with a lump 块 of brick‧work 砖‧工作 after it. There was a scream 叫喊 from the women all huddled 乱堆 in the door‧way 门口 to look at us—a shout from the men—two of them down but not hurt 损害. Another tug 拖船 all together—and the beam was loose at both ends. We raised it, and gave the word to clear the door‧way 门口. Now for the work! now for the rush 仓促 at the door! There is the fire streaming into the sky, streaming brighter than ever to light us! Steady along the church‧yard 墓地 path—steady with the beam for a rush at the door. One, two, three—and off. Out rings the cheering 欢呼 again, irrepressibly. We have shaken shake it already, the hinges 合页 must give if the lock won't. Another run with the beam! One, two, three—and off. It's loose! the steal‧thy 偷，拿‧你的 fire darts 镖 at us through the crevice all round it. Another, and a last rush! The door falls in with a crash 碰撞. A great hush 嘘 of awe 威严, a stillness of breath‧less 咋舌 expectation 期望, possesses 拥有 every living soul of us. We look for the body. The scorching 烧焦 heat on our faces drives us back: we see nothing—above, below, all through the room, we see nothing but a sheet of living fire.

"Where is he?" whispered the servant, staring vacantly 空的 at the flames.

"He's dust and ashes," said the clerk. "And the books are dust and ashes—and oh, sirs 先生! the church will be dust and ashes soon."

Those were the only two who spoke. When they were silent again, nothing stirred in the stillness but the bubble 泡沫 and the crackle 裂纹 of the flames.

Hark!

A harsh 苛刻 rattling 霸王鞭 sound in the distance—then the hollow 空的 beat of horses' hoofs 蹄 at full gallop 驰骋—then the low roar 咆哮, the all-predominant 优越的 tumult of hundreds 百 of human voices clamouring and shouting together. The engine at last.

The people about me all turned from the fire, and ran eagerly to the brow 眉头 of the hill. The old clerk tried to go with the rest, but his strength was exhausted 排气. I saw him holding by one of the tombstones. "Save the church!" he cried out faintly 微弱的, as if the firemen could hear him already.

Save the church!

The only man who never moved was the servant. There he stood, his eyes still fastened 系牢 on the flames in a change‧less 改变‧少, vacant 空的 stare. I spoke to him, I shook him by the arm. He was past rousing 唤醒. He only whispered once more, "Where is he?"

In ten 十 minutes the engine was in position, the well at the back of the church was feeding it, and the hose 软管 was carried to the door‧way 门口 of the vestry. If help had been wanted from me I could not have afforded 买得起 it now. My energy 能源 of will was gone—my strength was exhausted 排气—the turmoil 动荡 of my thoughts was fearfully 可怕 and suddenly stilled, now I knew that he was dead.

I stood use‧less 无用 and help‧less 无助—looking, looking, looking into the burning room.

I saw the fire slowly conquered. The brightness 亮度 of the glare 强光 faded—the steam 蒸汽 rose in white clouds, and the smouldering heaps 堆 of embers showed red and black through it on the floor. There was a pause 暂停—then an advance all together of the firemen and the police which blocked up the door‧way 门口—then a consultation 会诊 in low voices—and then two men were detached 分离 from the rest, and sent out of the church‧yard 墓地 through the crowd. The crowd drew back on either side in dead silence to let them pass.

After a while a great shudder 不寒而栗 ran through the people, and the living lane 车道 widened slowly. The men came back along it with a door from one of the empty houses. They carried it to the vestry and went in. The police closed again round the door‧way 门口, and men stole out from among the crowd by twos and threes and stood behind them to be the first to see. Others waited near to be the first to hear. Women and children were among these last.

The tidings from the vestry began to flow out among the crowd—they dropped slowly from mouth to mouth till they reached the place where I was standing. I heard the questions and answers repeated again and again in low, eager 渴望的 tones 音 all round me.

"Have they found him?" "Yes."—"Where?" "Against the door, on his face."—"Which door?" "The door that goes into the church. His head was against it—he was down on his face."—"Is his face burnt burn?" "No." "Yes, it is." "No, scorched 烧焦, not burnt—he lay on his face, I tell you."—"Who was he? A lord, they say." "No, not a lord. Sir Something; Sir means Knight." "And Baronight, too." "No." "Yes, it does."—"What did he want in there?" "No good, you may depend on it."—"Did he do it on purpose?"—"Burn himself on purpose!"—"I don't mean himself, I mean the vestry."—"Is he dreadful 可怕 to look at?" "Dreadful!"—"Not about the face, though?" "No, no, not so much about the face. Don't anybody know him?" "There's a man says he does."—"Who?" "A servant, they say. But he's struck stupid 愚蠢的-like, and the police don't believe him."—"Don't anybody else know who it is?" "Hush——!"

The loud 响亮的, clear voice of a man in authority 权威 silenced the low hum 哼 of talking all round me in an instant.

"Where is the gentleman who tried to save him?" said the voice.

"Here, sir—here he is!" Dozens of eager faces pressed about me—dozens of eager arms parted the crowd. The man in authority 权威 came up to me with a lantern 灯笼 in his hand.

"This way, sir, if you please," he said quietly.

I was unable 无法 to speak to him, I was unable 无法 to resist 抵抗 him when he took my arm. I tried to say that I had never seen the dead man in his life‧time 一生—that there was no hope of identifying 鉴定 him by means of a stranger like me. But the words failed on my lips. I was faint 微弱的, and silent, and help‧less 无助.

"Do you know him, sir?"

I was standing inside a circle of men. Three of them opposite to me were holding lanterns 灯笼 low down to the ground. Their eyes, and the eyes of all the rest, were fixed silently and expectantly on my face. I knew what was at my feet—I knew why they were holding the lanterns 灯笼 so low to the ground.

"Can you identify 鉴定 him, sir?"

My eyes dropped slowly. At first I saw nothing under them but a coarse 粗鄙的 canvas 帆布 cloth 布. The dripping 滴 of the rain on it was audible 听得见 in the dreadful 可怕 silence. I looked up, along the cloth, and there at the end, stark 与之形成鲜明 and grim 严峻 and black, in the yellow light—there was his dead face.

So, for the first and last time, I saw him. So the Visitation of God ruled it that he and I should meet.

XI

The inquest was hurried for certain local reasons which weighed with the coroner 验尸官 and the town authorities 权威. It was held on the afternoon of the next day. I was necessarily one among the witnesses summoned 召唤 to assist 帮助；协助；援助 the objects of the investigation 调查.

My first proceeding 继续 in the morning was to go to the post-office, and inquire 打听 for the letter which I expected from Marian. No change of circumstances 环境, however extraordinary 3, could affect 影响 the one great anxiety which weighed on my mind while I was away from London. The morning's letter, which was the only assurance 保证 I could receive that no misfortune 不幸 had happened in my absence 缺席, was still the absorbing 吸收 interest with which my day began.

To my relief, the letter from Marian was at the office waiting for me.

Nothing had happened—they were both as safe and as well as when I had left them. Laura sent her love, and begged that I would let her know of my return a day before‧hand 预先. Her sister added, in explanation 说明 of this message, that she had saved "nearly a sovereign 君主" out of her own private purse 钱包, and that she had claimed the privilege 特权 of ordering the dinner and giving the dinner which was to celebrate 庆祝 the day of my return. I read these little domestic 国内 confidences 信心 in the bright morning with the terrible recollection 回忆 of what had happened the evening before vivid 生动 in my memory. The necessity of sparing 节省；多余的；备用件 Laura any sudden knowledge of the truth was the first consideration 考虑 which the letter suggested to me. I wrote at once to Marian to tell her what I have told in these pages—presenting the tidings as gradually 逐步地 and gently as I could, and warning her not to let any such thing as a newspaper fall in Laura's way while I was absent 缺席的. In the case of any other woman, less courageous 勇敢 and less reliable 可靠, I might have hesitated before I ventured on unreservedly disclosing 透露 the whole truth. But I owed 欠…债 it to Marian to be faithful 可信 to my past experience of her, and to trust her as I trusted her‧self 她自己.

My letter was necessarily a long one. It occupied 占据 me until the time came for proceeding 继续 to the inquest.

The objects of the legal 法律 inquiry 调查 were necessarily beset by peculiar 奇怪的 complications 复杂化 and difficulties. Besides the investigation 调查 into the manner in which the deceased 死亡 had met his death, there were serious questions to be settled relating to the cause of the fire, to the abstraction 抽象化 of the keys, and to the presence of a stranger in the vestry at the time when the flames broke out. Even the identification 鉴定 of the dead man had not yet been accomplished. The help‧less 无助 condition of the servant had made the police distrustful of his asserted 断言 recognition 认识 of his master. They had sent to Knowlesbury over‧night 过夜 to secure 安全 the attendance 勤 of witnesses who were well acquainted 认识 with the personal 个人 appearance of Sir Percival Glyde, and they had communicated 通信, the first thing in the morning, with Blackwater Park. These pre‧caution 预防 enabled 启用 the coroner 验尸官 and jury 陪审团 to settle the question of identity 身分, and to confirm 确认 the correctness 正确性 of the servant's assertion 断言; the evidence 证据 offered by competent 胜任 witnesses, and by the discovery of certain facts, being subsequently strengthened 加强 by an examination 检查 of the dead man's watch. The crest 波峰 and the name of Sir Percival Glyde were engraved 雕刻 inside it.

The next inquiries related to the fire.

The servant and I, and the boy who had heard the light struck in the vestry, were the first witnesses called. The boy gave his evidence 证据 clearly enough, but the servant's mind had not yet recovered 恢复 the shock inflicted 造成 on it—he was plainly incapable 无法 of assisting 帮助；协助；援助 the objects of the inquiry 3, and he was desired to stand down.

To my own relief, my examination 检查 was not a long one. I had not known the deceased 死亡—I had never seen him—I was not aware 知道的 of his presence at Old Welmingham—and I had not been in the vestry at the finding of the body. All I could prove was that I had stopped at the clerk's cottage to ask my way—that I had heard from him of the loss of the keys—that I had accompanied 陪 him to the church to render 给予 what help I could—that I had seen the fire—that I had heard some person unknown 未知, inside the vestry, trying vainly 徒劳的 to unlock 开锁 the door—and that I had done what I could, from motives 动机 of humanity 人性, to save the man. Other witnesses, who had been acquainted 认识 with the deceased 死亡, were asked if they could explain the mystery of his presumed 假设 abstraction 抽象化 of the keys, and his presence in the burning room. But the coroner 验尸官 seemed to take it for granted 发放, naturally 自然地 enough, that I, as a total stranger in the neighbourhood, and a total stranger to Sir Percival Glyde, could not be in a position to offer any evidence 证据 on these two points.

The course that I was myself 我 bound 3 to take, when my formal examination 检查 had closed, seemed clear to me. I did not feel called on to volunteer 志愿者 any statement 声明 of my own private convictions 定罪; in the first place, because my doing so could serve no practical purpose, now that all proof 3 in support of any surmises of mine was burnt with the burnt register 寄存器; in the second place, because I could not have intelligibly stated my opinion—my unsupported opinion—without disclosing 透露 the whole story of the conspiracy 阴谋, and producing beyond a doubt the same unsatisfactory 不满意 effect an the minds of the coroner 验尸官 and the jury 陪审团, which I had already produced on the mind of Mr. Kyrle.

In these pages, however, and after the time that has now elapsed 过去, no such cautions 小心 and restraints 克制 as are here described need fetter the free expression of my opinion. I will state briefly 短时间地, before my pen 笔 occupies 占据 itself 本身 with other events, how my own convictions 定罪 lead me to account for the abstraction 抽象化 of the keys, for the out‧break 暴发 of the fire, and for the death of the man.

The news of my being free on bail 保释 drove Sir Percival, as I believe, to his last resources 资源. The attempted attack on the road was one of those resources 资源, and the suppression 抑制 of all practical proof of his crime, by destroying the page of the register 寄存器 on which the forgery had been committed 承诺, was the other, and the surest of the two. If I could produce no extract 提取 from the original 原版的 book to compare with the certified 证明 copy at Knowlesbury, I could produce no positive 正 evidence 证据, and could threaten him with no fatal 致命 exposure 经受. All that was necessary to the attainment 素养 of his end was, that he should get into the vestry unperceived, that he should tear out the page in the register 寄存器, and that he should leave the vestry again as privately as he had entered it.

On this sup‧position SUP‧位置, it is easy to understand why he waited until night‧fall 夜‧落下 before he made the attempt, and why he took advantage of the clerk's absence 缺席 to possess 拥有 himself of the keys. Necessity would oblige 责成 him to strike a light to find his way to the right register 寄存器, and common caution 3 would suggest his locking the door on the inside in case of intrusion 侵扰 on the part of any inquisitive stranger, or on my part, if I happened to be in the neighbourhood at the time.

I cannot believe that it was any part of his intention to make the destruction 破坏 of the register 寄存器 appear to be the result of accident, by purposely setting the vestry on fire. The bare 3 chance that prompt 敏捷的 assistance 帮助 might arrive, and that the books might, by the remotest 远程 possibility 可能性, be saved, would have been enough, on a moment's consideration 考虑, to dismiss 解雇 any idea of this sort from his mind. Remembering the quantity 量 of combustible objects in the vestry—the straw 稻草, the papers, the packing-cases, the dry wood, the old worm 虫-eaten presses—all the probabilities 可能性, in my estimation 估计, point to the fire as the result of an accident with his matches or his light.

His first impulse 冲动, under these circumstances 环境, was doubt‧less 毫无疑问， to try to extinguish 扑灭 the flames, and failing in that, his second impulse 冲动 (ignorant 愚昧 as he was of the state of the lock) had been to attempt to escape by the door which had given him entrance 入口. When I had called to him, the flames must have reached across the door leading into the church, on either side of which the presses extended, and close to which the other combustible objects were placed. In all probability 可能性, the smoke and flame 火焰 (con‧fine 局限 as they were to the room) had been too much for him when he tried to escape by the inner 里面的 door. He must have dropped in his death-swoon—he must have sunk 淹没:sink in the place where he was found—just as I got on the roof to break the sky‧light 天（空）‧光；灯 window. Even if we had been able, after‧ward 之后, to get into the church, and to burst 爆裂 open the door from that side, the delay must have been fatal 致命. He would have been past saving, long past saving, by that time. We should only have given the flames free ingress into the church—the church, which was now preserved, but which, in that event, would have shared the fate 命运 of the vestry. There is no doubt in my mind, there can be no doubt in the mind of any one, that he was a dead man before ever we got to the empty cottage, and worked with might and main to tear down the beam.

This is the nearest approach that any theory 理论 of mine can make towards accounting for a result which was visible 可以看见的；可视的 matter of fact. As I have described them, so events passed to us outside. As I have related it, so his body was found.

The inquest was adjourned 休会 over one day—no explanation 说明 that the eye of the law could recognise having been discovered thus far to account for the mysterious 神秘 circumstances 环境 of the case.

It was arranged that more witnesses should be summoned 召唤, and that the London solicitor 律师 of the deceased 死亡 should be invited to attend. A medical man was also charged with the duty of reporting on the mental 心理 condition of the servant, which appeared at present to debar him from giving any evidence 证据 of the least importance. He could only declare, in a dazed 迷乱 way, that he had been ordered, on the night of the fire, to wait in the lane 车道, and that he knew nothing else, except that the deceased 死亡 was certainly his master.

My own impression 印象 was, that he had been first used (without any guilty knowledge on his own part) to ascertain 探明 the fact of the clerk's absence from home on the previous 以前 day, and that he had been after‧ward 之后 ordered to wait near the church (but out of sight of the vestry) to assist 帮助；协助；援助 his master, in the event of my escaping the attack on the road, and of a collision 碰撞 occurring 发生 between Sir Percival and myself 我. It is necessary to add, that the man's own testimony 见证 was never obtained 获得 to confirm 确认 this view. The medical report of him declared that what little mental 心理 faculty 学院 he possessed was seriously shaken; nothing satisfactory 满意 was extracted 提取 from him at the adjourned 休会 inquest, and for aught I know to the contrary 相反, he may never have recovered 恢复 to this day.

I returned to the hotel at Welmingham so jaded 玉 in body and mind, so weakened 柔弱的:weak and depressed 压抑 by all that I had gone through, as to be quite unfit 不适当 to endure 忍受 the local gossip 八卦 about the inquest, and to answer the trivial 不重要的 questions that the talkers addressed to me in the coffee-room. I withdrew from my scanty dinner to my cheap 便宜的 garret-chamber 室 to secure 安全 myself 我 a little quiet, and to think undisturbed of Laura and Marian.

If I had been a richer man I would have gone back to London, and would have comforted myself 我 with a sight of the two dear faces again that night. But I was bound to appear, if called on, at the adjourned 休会 inquest, and doubly bound to answer my bail 保释 before the magistrate 法官 at Knowlesbury. Our slender 苗条 resources 资源 had suffered already, and the doubtful 疑 future—more doubtful 疑 than ever now—made me dread 恐惧 decreasing 减少 our means unnecessarily 不必要的 by allowing myself 我 an indulgence 放纵 even at the small cost of a double rail‧way 铁路 journey in the carriages 运输 of the second class.

The next day—the day immediately following the inquest—was left at my own disposal 处置. I began the morning by again applying at the post-office for my regular report from Marian. It was waiting for me as before, and it was written through‧out 始终 in good spirits. I read the letter thankfully 感激地, and then set forth with my mind at ease 轻松 for the day to go to Old Welmingham, and to view the scene of the fire by the morning light.

What changes met me when I got there!

Through all the ways of our unintelligible 不知所云 world the trivial 不重要的 and the terrible walk hand in hand together. The irony 讽刺 of circumstances 环境 holds no mortal 凡人 catastrophe 灾难 in respect. When I reached the church, the trampled 践踏 condition of the burial 葬礼-ground was the only serious trace 跟踪 left to tell of the fire and the death. A rough hoarding 囤 of boards had been knocked up before the vestry door‧way 门口. Rude 粗鲁的 caricatures 漫画 were scrawled on it already, and the village children were fighting and shouting for the possession of the best peep 窥视-hole to see through. On the spot where I had heard the cry for help from the burning room, on the spot where the panic 恐慌-stricken servant had dropped on his knees, a fussy flock 群 of poultry 家禽 was now scrambling 争夺 for the first choice of worms 虫 after the rain; and on the ground at my feet, where the door and its dreadful 可怕 burden 负荷，重负 had been laid, a work‧man 工人's dinner was waiting for him, tied up in a yellow basin 盆, and his faithful 可信 cur in charge was yelping at me for coming near the food. The old clerk, looking idly ID at the slow commencement 开始 of the repairs 修理, had only one interest that he could talk about now—the interest of escaping all blame 指责 for his own part on account of the accident that had happened. One of the village women, whose 谁的 white wild face I remembered the picture of terror 恐怖 when we pulled down the beam, was giggling 傻笑 with another woman, the picture of inanity, over an old washing-tub 桶. There is nothing serious in mortality 死亡! Solomon in all his glory 光荣 was Solomon with the elements 元件 of the contemptible lurking 匿伏 in every fold 折叠 of his robes 长袍 and in every corner of his palace 宫.

As I left the place, my thoughts turned, not for the first time, to the complete over‧throw 推翻 that all present hope of establishing 建立 Laura's identity 身分 had now suffered through Sir Percival's death. He was gone—and with him the chance was gone which had been the one object of all my labours and all my hopes.

Could I look at my failure from no truer point of view than this?

Suppose he had lived, would that change of circumstance 环境 have altered the result? Could I have made my discovery a market‧able 交易‧能够的 commodity 商品, even for Laura's sake, after I had found out that robbery 抢劫案 of the rights of others was the essence 本质 of Sir Percival's crime? Could I have offered the price of my silence for his confession 承认 of the conspiracy 阴谋, when the effect of that silence must have been to keep the right heir 继承者 from the estates 房地产, and the right owner from the name? Impossible! If Sir Percival had lived, the discovery, from which (In my ignorance 无知 of the true nature of the Secret) I had hoped so much, could not have been mine to sup‧press 压制 or to make public, as I thought best, for the vindication of Laura's rights. In common honesty 诚实 and common honour I must have gone at once to the stranger whose 谁的 birth‧right 出生‧右边；正确；权利 had been usurped—I must have renounced 放弃 the victory at the moment when it was mine by placing my discovery unreservedly in that stranger's hands—and I must have faced afresh all the difficulties which stood between me and the one object of my life, exactly as I was resolved 解决 in my heart of hearts to face them now!

I returned to Welmingham with my mind composed, feeling more sure of myself 我 and my resolution 解析度 than I had felt yet.

On my way to the hotel I passed the end of the square in which Mrs. Catherick lived. Should I go back to the house, and make another attempt to see her. No. That news of Sir Percival's death, which was the last news she ever expected to hear, must have reached her hours since. All the proceedings 继续 at the inquest had been reported in the local paper that morning—there was nothing I could tell her which she did not know already. My interest in making her speak had slackened. I remembered the furtivehatred 仇恨 in her face when she said, "There is no news of Sir Percival that I don't expect—except the news of his death." I remembered the steal‧thy 偷，拿‧你的 interest in her eyes when they settled on me at parting, after she had spoken those words. Some instinct 直觉, deep in my heart, which I felt to be a true one, made the prospect 展望 of again entering her presence repulsive to me—I turned away from the square, and went straight back to the hotel.

Some hours later, while I was resting in the coffee-room, a letter was placed in my hands by the waiter 侍者. It was addressed to me by name, and I found on inquiry that it had been left at the bar by a woman just as it was near dusk 黄昏, and just before the gas was lighted. She had said nothing, and she had gone away again before there was time to speak to her, or even to notice who she was.

I opened the letter. It was neither dated nor signed, and the hand‧write 书法 was palpably disguised 伪装. Before I had read the first sentence 句子, however, I knew who my correspondent 通信者 was—Mrs. Catherick.

The letter ran as follows—I copy it exactly, word for word:—

THE STORY CONTINUED BY MRS. CATHERICK

SIR,—You have not come back, as you said you would. No matter—I know the news, and I write to tell you so. Did you see anything particular in my face when you left me? I was wondering, in my own mind, whether the day of his down‧fall 倒台 had come at last, and whether you were the chosen instrument for working it. You were, and you have worked it.

You were weak enough, as I have heard, to try and save his life. If you had succeeded, I should have looked upon you as my enemy. Now you have failed, I hold you as my friend. Your inquiries frightened 使惊恐 him into the vestry by night—your inquiries, without your privity and against your will, have served the hatred 3 and wreaked the vengeance 复仇 of three-and-twenty 二十 years. Thank you, sir, in spite of your‧self 你自己.

I owe 欠…债 something to the man who has done this. How can I pay my debt 债务? If I was a young woman still I might say, "Come, put your arm round my waist 腰, and kiss 接吻 me, if you like." I should have been fond 喜欢的 enough of you even to go that length, and you would have accepted my invitation 邀请—you would, sir, twenty 二十 years ago! But I am an old woman now. Well! I can satisfy your curiosity 好奇心, and pay my debt 债务 in that way. You had a great curiosity 好奇心 to know certain private affairs of mine when you came to see me—private affairs which all your sharpness could not look into without my help—private affairs which you have not discovered, even now. You shall discover them—your curiosity 好奇心 shall be satisfied. I will take any trouble to please you, my estimable young friend!

You were a little boy, I suppose, in the year twenty 二十-seven 七? I was a hand‧some 英俊 young woman at that time, living at Old Welmingham. I had a contemptible fool for a husband. I had also the honour of being acquainted 认识 (never mind how) with a certain gentleman (never mind whom). I shall not call him by his name. Why should I? It was not his own. He never had a name: you know that, by this time, as well as I do.

It will be more to the purpose to tell you how he worked himself into my good graces 优雅；惠赐. I was born with the tastes of a lady, and he gratified 取悦 them—in other words, he admired me, and he made me presents. No woman can resist admiration 钦佩 and presents—especially presents, provided they happen to be just the thing she wants. He was sharp enough to know that—most men are. Naturally 自然地 he wanted something in return—all men do. And what do you think was the something? The merest trifle 琐事. Nothing but the key of the vestry, and the key of the press inside it, when my husband's back was turned. Of course he lied lie when I asked him why he wished me to get him the keys in that private way. He might have saved himself the trouble—I didn't believe him. But I liked my presents, and I wanted more. So I got him the keys, without my husband's knowledge, and I watched him, without his own knowledge. Once, twice 两次, four times I watched him, and the fourth time I found him out.

I was never over-scrupulous where other people's affairs were concerned, and I was not over-scrupulous about his adding one to the marriages in the register 寄存器 on his own account.

Of course I knew it was wrong, but it did no harm 损害 to me, which was one good reason for not making a fuss 小题大作 about it. And I had not got a gold 金 watch and chain, which was another, still better—and he had promised me one from London only the day before, which was a third, best of all. If I had known what the law considered the crime to be, and how the law punished 处罚 it, I should have taken proper care of myself 我, and have exposed 暴露 him then and there. But I knew nothing, and I longed for the gold watch. All the conditions I insisted 咬定 on were that he should take me into his confidence 信心 and tell me everything. I was as curious about his affairs then as you are about mine now. He granted 发放 my conditions—why, you will see presently.

This, put in short, is what I heard from him. He did not willingly 甘心 tell me all that I tell you here. I drew some of it from him by persuasion 劝说 and some of it by questions. I was determined to have all the truth, and I believe I got it.

He knew no more than any one else of what the state of things really was between his father and mother till after his mother's death. Then his father confessed 供认 it, and promised to do what he could for his son. He died having done nothing—not having even made a will. The son (who can blame 指责 him?) wisely 明智的；聪明的 provided for himself. He came to England at once, and took possession of the property. There was no one to suspect him, and no one to say him nay. His father and mother had always lived as man and wife—none of the few people who were acquainted 认识 with them ever supposed them to be anything else. The right person to claim the property (if the truth had been known) was a distant 遥远的 relation, who had no idea of ever getting it, and who was away at sea when his father died. He had no difficulty so far—he took possession, as a matter of course. But he could not borrow 借 money on the property as a matter of course. There were two things wanted of him before he could do this. One was a certificate 证书 of his birth, and the other was a certificate 证书 of his parents' marriage. The certificate 证书 of his birth was easily got—he was born abroad 到国外, and the certificate 证书 was there in due form. The other matter was a difficulty, and that difficulty brought him to Old Welmingham.

But for one consideration 考虑 he might have gone to Knowlesbury instead.

His mother had been living there just before she met with his father—living under her maiden 少女 name, the truth being that she was really a married woman, married in Ireland, where her husband had ill-used her, and had after‧ward 之后 gone off with some other person. I give you this fact on good authority 权威—Sir Felix mentioned it to his son as the reason why he had not married. You may wonder why the son, knowing that his parents had met each other at Knowlesbury, did not play his first tricks 哄骗；诀窍 with the register 寄存器 of that church, where it might have been fairly presumed 假设 his father and mother were married. The reason was that the clergy‧man 牧师 who did duty at Knowlesbury church, in the year eighteen 十八 hundred 百 and three (when, according to his birth certificate 证书, his father and mother ought to have been married), was alive still when he took possession of the property in the New Year of eighteen 十八 hundred 百 and twenty 二十-seven 七. This awkward 难堪 circumstance 环境 forced him to extend his inquiries to our neighbourhood. There no such danger existed, the former clergy‧man 牧师 at our church having been dead for some years.

Old Welmingham suited 套房 his purpose as well as Knowlesbury. His father had removed 去掉 his mother from Knowlesbury, and had lived with her at a cottage on the river, a little distance from our village. People who had known his solitary 孤 ways when he was single did not wonder at his solitary 孤 ways when he was supposed to be married. If he had not been a hideous 可怕 creature 动物；生物 to look at, his retired life with the lady might have raised suspicions; but, as things were, his hiding his ugliness and his deformity in the strictest 严格的 privacy 隐私 surprised nobody. He lived in our neighbourhood till he came in possession of the Park. After three or four and twenty 二十 years had passed, who was to say (the clergy‧man 牧师 being dead) that his marriage had not been as private as the rest of his life, and that it had not taken place at Old Welmingham church?

So, as I told you, the son found our neighbourhood the surest place he could choose to set things right secretly in his own interests. It may surprise you to hear that what he really did to the marriage register 寄存器 was done on the spur 骨刺 of the moment—done on second thoughts.

His first notion 概念 was only to tear the leaf 叶子 out (in the right year and month), to destroy it privately, to go back to London, and to tell the lawyers to get him the necessary certificate 证书 of his father's marriage, innocently 无辜 referring them of course to the date on the leaf that was gone. Nobody could say his father and mother had not been married after that, and whether, under the circumstances 环境, they would stretch a point or not about lending 把…借给 him the money (he thought they would), he had his answer ready at all events, if a question was ever raised about his right to the name and the estate 房地产.

But when he came to look privately at the register 寄存器 for himself, he found at the bottom of one of the pages for the year eighteen 十八 hundred 百 and three a blank 空白 space left, seemingly 似乎 through there being no room to make a long entry 条目 there, which was made instead at the top of the next page. The sight of this chance altered all his plans. It was an opportunity he had never hoped for, or thought of—and he took it—you know how. The blank 空白 space, to have exactly tallied 相符 with his birth certificate 证书, ought to have occurred 发生 in the July part of the register 寄存器. It occurred 发生 in the September part instead. However, in this case, if suspicious 可疑的 questions were asked, the answer was not hard to find. He had only to describe himself as a seven 七 months' child.

I was fool enough, when he told me his story, to feel some interest and some pity 怜悯 for him—which was just what he calculated on, as you will see. I thought him hardly used. It was not his fault 3 that his father and mother were not married, and it was not his father's and mother's fault either. A more scrupulous woman than I was—a woman who had not set her heart on a gold watch and chain—would have found some excuses for him. At all events, I held my tongue 舌头, and helped to screen what he was about.

He was some time getting the ink 墨水 the right colour (mixing it over and over again in pots 罐 and bottles of mine), and some time after‧ward 之后 in practising the hand‧write 书法. But he succeeded in the end, and made an honest 诚实的 woman of his mother after she was dead in her grave 坟墓；严重的! So far, I don't deny 拒绝 that he behaved 表现 honourably enough to myself 我. He gave me my watch and chain, and spared no expense in buying them; both were of superior 优越 workman‧ship 工人‧船, and very expensive 昂贵的. I have got them still—the watch goes beautifully 精美.

You said the other day that Mrs. Clements had told you everything she knew. In that case there is no need for me to write about the trumpery scandal 丑闻 by which I was the sufferer—the innocent 无辜 sufferer, I positively 积极 assert 断言. You must know as well as I do what the notion 概念 was which my husband took into his head when he found me and my fine-gentleman acquaintance 熟人 meeting each other privately and talking secrets together. But what you don't know is how it ended between that same gentleman and myself 我. You shall read and see how he behaved to me.

The first words I said to him, when I saw the turn things had taken, were, "Do me justice—clear my character of a stain on it which you know I don't deserve 应受. I don't want you to make a clean breast 乳房 of it to my husband—only tell him, on your word of honour as a gentleman, that he is wrong, and that I am not to blame in the way he thinks I am. Do me that justice, at least, after all I have done for you." He flatly refused, in so many words. He told me plainly that it was his interest to let my husband and all my neighbours believe the false‧hood 虚伪的‧引擎罩—because, as long as they did so they were quite certain never to suspect the truth. I had a spirit of my own, and I told him they should know the truth from my lips. His reply was short, and to the point. If I spoke, I was a lost woman, as certainly as he was a lost man.

Yes! it had come to that. He had deceived 欺诈 me about the risk I ran in helping him. He had practised on my ignorance 无知, he had tempted 引诱 me with his gifts, he had interested me with his story—and the result of it was that he made me his accomplice. He owned this coolly, and he ended by telling me, for the first time, what the frightful punishment 惩罚 really was for his offence, and for any one who helped him to commit 承诺 it. In those days the law was not so tender 纤弱的-hearted as I hear it is now. Murderers were not the only people liable 容易 to be hanged, and women convicts 定罪 were not treated like ladies in undeserved distress 苦难. I confess 供认 he frightened me—the mean impostor! the cowardly black‧guard 黑色‧警卫! Do you understand now how I hated him? Do you understand why I am taking all this trouble—thankfully 感激地 taking it—to gratify 取悦 the curiosity 好奇心 of the meritorious young gentleman who hunted him down?

Well, to go on. He was hardly fool enough to drive me to down‧right 彻头彻尾 desperation 绝望. I was not the sort of woman whom it was quite safe to hunt into a corner—he knew that, and wisely quieted me with proposals for the future.

I deserved some reward 报酬 (he was kind enough to say) for the service I had done him, and some compensation 赔偿金 (he was so obliging 责成 as to add) for what I had suffered. He was quite willing— generous 慷慨的 scoundrel!—to make me a hand‧some 英俊 yearly allowance 3, pay‧able 应付 quarterly, on two conditions. First, I was to hold my tongue 舌头—in my own interests as well as in his. Secondly, I was not to stir 搅动 away from Welmingham without first letting him know, and waiting till I had obtained 获得 his per‧mission 允许. In my own neighbourhood, no virtuous 贤 female friends would tempt 引诱 me into dangerous 危险 gossiping 八卦 at the tea 茶水-table. In my own neighbourhood, he would always know where to find me. A hard condition, that second one—but I accepted it.

What else was I to do? I was left help‧less 无助, with the prospect 展望 of a coming incumbrance in the shape of a child. What else was I to do? Cast 投 myself 我 on the mercy 3 of my run‧away 逃跑 idiot 白痴 of a husband who had raised the scandal 丑闻 against me? I would have died first. Besides, the allowance was a hand‧some 英俊 one. I had a better income 收入, a better house over my head, better carpets 地毯 on my floors, than half the women who turned up the whites of their eyes at the sight of me. The dress of Virtue 美德, in our parts, was cotton 棉 print. I had silk 丝.

So I accepted the conditions he offered me, and made the best of them, and fought fight my battle with my respect‧able 可敬 neighbours on their own ground, and won it in course of time—as you saw your‧self 你自己. How I kept his Secret (and mine) through all the years that have passed from that time to this, and whether my late daughter, Anne, ever really crept 爬行:creep into my confidence, and got the keeping of the Secret too—are questions, I dare say, to which you are curious to find an answer. Well! my gratitude 感谢 refuses you nothing. I will turn to a fresh page and give you the answer immediately. But you must excuse 原谅 one thing—you must excuse my beginning, Mr. Hartright, with an expression of surprise at the interest which you appear to have felt in my late daughter. It is quite unaccountable to me. If that interest makes you anxious 焦急的 for any particulars of her early life, I must refer you to Mrs. Clements, who knows more of the subject than I do. Pray understand that I do not profess 宣称 to have been at all over‧fond 之上‧喜欢的 of my late daughter. She was a worry to me from first to last, with the additional 额外 disadvantage 坏处 of being always weak in the head. You like candour, and I hope this satisfies you.

There is no need to trouble you with many personal 个人 particulars relating to those past times. It will be enough to say that I observed the terms of the bar‧gain 讨价还价；交易 on my side, and that I enjoyed my comfort‧able 舒服；自在 income 收入 in return, paid quarterly.

Now and then I got away and changed the scene for a short time, always asking leave of my lord and master first, and generally getting it. He was not, as I have already told you, fool enough to drive me too hard, and he could reasonably rely 依靠 on my holding my tongue 3 for my own sake, if not for his. One of my longest trips away from home was the trip I took to Limmeridge to nurse 护士 a half-sister there, who was dying. She was reported to have saved money, and I thought it as well (in case any accident happened to stop my allowance) to look after my own interests in that direction. As things turned out, however, my pains were all thrown away, and I got nothing, because nothing was to be had.

I had taken Anne to the north with me, having my whims 怪念头 and fancies, occasionally 偶尔，间或；有时, about my child, and getting, at such times, jealous 妒忌的 of Mrs. Clements' influence over her. I never liked Mrs. Clements. She was a poor, empty-headed, spirit‧less 精神‧少 woman—what you call a born drudge—and I was now and then not averse to plaguing 鼠疫 her by taking Anne away. Not knowing what else to do with my girl while I was nursing 护士 in Cumberland, I put her to school at Limmeridge. The lady of the manor 庄园, Mrs. Fairlie (a remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 plain-looking woman, who had entrapped one of the hand‧some 英俊 men in England into marrying her), amused me wonderfully 奇妙 by taking a violent 猛烈 fancy 想像 to my girl. The consequence 后果 was, she learnt learn nothing at school, and was petted 宠物 and spoilt at Limmeridge House. Among other whims 怪念头 and fancies which they taught her there, they put some non‧sense 废话 into her head about always wearing white. Hating white and liking colours myself 我, I determined to take the non‧sense 废话 out of her head as soon as we got home again.

Strange to say, my daughter resolutely resisted me. When she had got a notion 概念 once fixed in her mind she was, like other half-witted 风趣 people, as obstinate as a mule 马骡 in keeping it. We quarrelled 争吵 finely, and Mrs. Clements, not liking to see it, I suppose, offered to take Anne away to live in London with her. I should have said Yes, if Mrs. Clements had not sided with my daughter about her dressing her‧self 她自己 in white. But being determined she should not dress her‧self 她自己 in white, and disliking 反感 Mrs. Clements more than ever for taking part against me, I said No, and meant No, and stuck stick to No. The consequence 后果 was, my daughter remained with me, and the consequence 后果 of that, in its turn, was the first serious quarrel 争吵 that happened about the Secret.

The circumstance 环境 took place long after the time I have just been writing of. I had been settled for years in the new town, and was steadily living down my bad character and slowly gaining ground among the respect‧able 可敬 inhabitants 居民. It helped me forward greatly towards this object to have my daughter with me. Her harmlessness and her fancy 想像 for dressing in white excited a certain amount of sympathy 同情. I left off opposing her favourite whim 怪念头 on that account, because some of the sympathy was sure, in course of time, to fall to my share. Some of it did fall. I date my getting a choice of the two best sittings to let in the church from that time, and I date the clergy‧man 牧师's first bow 弓 from my getting the sittings.

Well, being settled in this way, I received a letter one morning from that highly born gentleman (now deceased 死亡) in answer to one of mine, warning him, according to agreement 协议, of my wishing to leave the town for a little change of air and scene.

The ruffianly side of him must have been upper‧most 最高的, I suppose, when he got my letter, for he wrote back, refusing me in such abominably insolent language, that I lost all command over myself 我, and abused 滥用 him, in my daughter's presence, as "a low impostor whom I could ruin 3 for life if I chose to open my lips and let out his Secret." I said no more about him than that, being brought to my senses as soon as those words had escaped me by the sight of my daughter's face looking eagerly and curiously at mine. I instantly ordered her out of the room until I had composed myself 我 again.

My sensations 感觉 were not pleasant, I can tell you, when I came to reflect on my own folly 蠢事. Anne had been more than usually crazy 荒唐的 and queer 奇怪 that year, and when I thought of the chance there might be of her repeating my words in the town, and mentioning his name in connection with them, if inquisitive people got hold of her, I was finely terrified 惊吓 at the possible consequences 后果. My worst fears for myself 我, my worst dread 恐惧 of what he might do, led me no farther than this. I was quite unprepared for what really did happen only the next day.

On that next day, without any warning to me to expect him, he came to the house.

His first words, and the tone 音 in which he spoke them, surly as it was, showed me plainly enough that he had repented already of his insolent answer to my application, and that he had come in a mighty 威武 bad temper to try and set matters right again before it was too late. Seeing my daughter in the room with me (I had been afraid to let her out of my sight after what had happened the day before) he ordered her away. They neither of them liked each other, and he vented 发泄 the ill-temper on her which he was afraid to show to me.

"Leave us," he said, looking at her over his shoulder. She looked back over her shoulder and waited as if she didn't care to go. "Do you hear?" he roared 咆哮 out, "leave the room." "Speak to me civilly 国内," says she, getting red in the face. "Turn the idiot 白痴 out," says he, looking my way. She had always had crazy 荒唐的 notions 概念 of her own about her dignity 尊严, and that word "idiot 白痴" upset 打翻 her in a moment. Before I could interfere 干预 she stepped up to him in a fine passion 激情，热情；强烈情感. "Beg my pardon 宽恕；说啥？, directly," says she, "or I'll make it the worse for you. I'll let out your Secret. I can ruin you for life if I choose to open my lips." My own words!—repeated exactly from what I had said the day before—repeated, in his presence, as if they had come from her‧self 她自己. He sat speech‧less 演说‧少, as white as the paper I am writing on, while I pushed her out of the room. When he recovered 恢复 himself——

No! I am too respect‧able 可敬 a woman to mention what he said when he recovered 恢复 himself. My pen 笔 is the pen of a member of the rector's congregation 集合, and a subscriber 订户 to the "Wednesday Lectures on Justification by Faith"—how can you expect me to employ it in writing bad language? Suppose, for your‧self 你自己, the raging 愤怒, swearing 发誓 frenzy 发狂 of the lowest ruffian in England, and let us get on together, as fast as may be, to the way in which it all ended.

It ended, as you probably guess by this time, in his insisting 咬定 on securing 安全 his own safety 安全 by shutting her up.

I tried to set things right. I told him that she had merely repeated, like a parrot 鹦鹉, the words she had heard me say and that she knew no particulars whatever, because I had mentioned none. I explained that she had affected 影响, out of crazy 荒唐的 spite against him, to know what she really did not know—that she only wanted to threaten him and aggravate 加剧 him for speaking to her as he had just spoken—and that my unlucky 不幸的 words gave her just the chance of doing mischief 恶作剧 of which she was in search. I referred him to other queer 奇怪 ways of hers, and to his own experience of the vagaries of half-witted 风趣 people—it was all to no purpose—he would not believe me on my oath 誓言—he was absolutely certain I had betrayed 背叛 the whole Secret. In short, he would hear of nothing but shutting her up.

Under these circumstances 环境, I did my duty as a mother. "No pauper Asylum," I said, "I won't have her put in a pauper Asylum. A Private Establishment 机构, if you please. I have my feelings as a mother, and my character to preserve in the town, and I will submit 给 to nothing but a Private Establishment, of the sort which my genteel neighbours would choose for afflicted 折磨 relatives of their own." Those were my words. It is gratifying 取悦 to me to reflect that I did my duty. Though never over‧fond 之上‧喜欢的 of my late daughter, I had a proper pride about her. No pauper stain—thanks to my firmness and resolution 解析度—ever rested on MY child.

Having carried my point (which I did the more easily, in consequence 后果 of the facilities 设施 offered by private Asylums), I could not refuse to admit that there were certain advantages gained by shutting her up. In the first place, she was taken excellent care of—being treated (as I took care to mention in the town) on the footing of a lady. In the second place, she was kept away from Welmingham, where she might have set people suspecting and inquiring, by repeating my own incautious words.

The only draw‧back 退税 of putting her under restraint 克制 was a very slight one. We merely turned her empty boast 自夸 about knowing the Secret into a fixed delusion 妄想. Having first spoken in sheer crazy 3 spitefulness against the man who had offended 触怒 her, she was cunning 狡猾 enough to see that she had seriously frightened him, and sharp enough after‧ward 之后 to discover that he was concerned in shutting her up. The consequence 后果 was she flamed out into a perfect frenzy 发狂 of passion 激情，热情；强烈情感 against him, going to the Asylum, and the first words she said to the nurses 护士, after they had quieted her, were, that she was put in confinement 坐月子 for knowing his Secret, and that she meant to open her lips and ruin him, when the right time came.

She may have said the same thing to you, when you thoughtlessly assisted her escape. She certainly said it (as I heard last summer) to the unfortunate 不幸的 woman who married our sweet-tempered, name‧less 名字‧少 gentleman lately 近来 deceased 死亡. If either you, or that unlucky 不幸的 lady, had questioned my daughter closely, and had insisted 咬定 on her explaining what she really meant, you would have found her lose all her self-importance suddenly, and get vacant 空的, and rest‧less 不安, and confused—you would have discovered that I am writing nothing here but the plain truth. She knew that there was a Secret—she knew who was connected 连接 with it—she knew who would suffer by its being known—and beyond that, whatever airs of importance she may have given her‧self 她自己, whatever crazy boasting 自夸 she may have indulged 放纵 in with strangers 陌生人, she never to her dying day knew more.

Have I satisfied your curiosity 好奇心? I have taken pains enough to satisfy it at any rate. There is really nothing else I have to tell you about myself 我 or my daughter. My worst responsibilities 责任, so far as she was concerned, were all over when she was secured 安全 in the Asylum. I had a form of letter relating to the circumstances 环境 under which she was shut up, given me to write, in answer to one Miss Halcombe, who was curious in the matter, and who must have heard plenty of lies about me from a certain tongue well accustomed 使习惯 to the telling of the same. And I did what I could after‧ward 之后 to trace 跟踪 my run‧away 逃跑 daughter, and prevent her from doing mischief 恶作剧 by making inquiries myself 我 in the neighbourhood where she was falsely 虚伪的 reported to have been seen. But these, and other trifles 琐事 like them, are of little or no interest to you after what you have heard already.

So far, I have written in the friendliest possible spirit. But I cannot close this letter without adding a word here of serious remonstrance and rep‧roof 代表‧屋顶, addressed to your‧self 你自己.

In the course of your personal 个人 interview 访问 with me, you audaciously referred to my late daughter's parent‧age 父母‧年龄 on the father's side, as if that parent‧age 父母‧年龄 was a matter of doubt. This was highly improper 不当 and very ungentlemanlike on your part! If we see each other again, remember, if you please, that I will allow no liberties 自由 to be taken with my reputation, and that the moral atmosphere 大气层 of Welmingham (to use a favourite expression of my friend the rector's) must not be tainted 污点 by loose conversation of any kind. If you allow your‧self 你自己 to doubt that my husband was Anne's father, you personally 亲自 insult 侮辱 me in the grossest 毛 manner. If you have felt, and if you still continue to feel, an unhallowed curiosity 好奇心 on this subject, I recommend you, in your own interests, to check it at once, and for ever. On this side of the grave 坟墓；严重的, Mr. Hartright, whatever may happen on the other, that curiosity 好奇心 will never be gratified 取悦.

Perhaps, after what I have just said, you will see the necessity of writing me an apology 道歉认错. Do so, and I will willingly 甘心 receive it. I will, after‧ward 之后, if your wishes point to a second interview 访问 with me, go a step farther, and receive you. My circumstances 环境 only enable 启用 me to invite you to tea—not that they are at all altered for the worse by what has happened. I have always lived, as I think I told you, well within my income 收入, and I have saved enough, in the last twenty 二十 years, to make me quite comfort‧able 舒服；自在 for the rest of my life. It is not my intention to leave Welmingham. There are one or two little advantages which I have still to gain in the town. The clergy‧man 牧师 bows to me—as you saw. He is married, and his wife is not quite so civil 国内. I propose to join the Dorcas Society, and I mean to make the clergy‧man 牧师's wife bow 弓 to me next.

If you favour me with your company, pray understand that the conversation must be entirely on general subjects. Any attempted reference to this letter will be quite use‧less 无用—I am determined not to acknowledge 确认 having written it. The evidence 证据 has been destroyed in the fire, I know, but I think it desirable 合意 to err 呃 on the side of caution, nevertheless 虽然.

On this account no names are mentioned here, nor is any signature 签名 attached 连接 to these lines: the hand‧write 书法 is disguised 伪装 through‧out 始终, and I mean to deliver the letter myself 我, under circumstances 环境 which will prevent all fear of its being traced 跟踪 to my house. You can have no possible cause to complain 抱怨 of these pre‧caution 预防, seeing that they do not affect 影响 the information I here communicate 通信, in consideration 考虑 of the special indulgence 放纵 which you have deserved at my hands. My hour for tea is half-past five, and my buttered 黄油 toast 烤面包 waits for nobody.

THE STORY CONTINUED BY WALTER HARTRIGHT

I

My first impulse 冲动, after reading Mrs. Catherick's extraordinary narrative 叙述, was to destroy it. The hardened 使硬化 shame‧less 羞愧‧少 depravity of the whole composition 作文；构图, from beginning to end—the atrocious perversity of mind which persistently 一贯 associated 关联 me with a calamity for which I was in no sense answer‧able 答复‧能够的, and with a death which I had risked my life in trying to avert 避免—so disgusted 反感 me, that I was on the point of tearing the letter, when a consideration 考虑 suggested itself 本身 which warned me to wait a little before I destroyed it.

This consideration 考虑 was entirely unconnected with Sir Percival. The information communicated 通信 to me, so far as it concerned him, did little more than confirm 确认 the conclusions 结论 at which I had already arrived.

He had committed 承诺 his offence, as I had supposed him to have committed 承诺 it, and the absence of all reference, on Mrs. Catherick's part, to the duplicate 重复 register 寄存器 at Knowlesbury, strengthened my previous 以前 conviction 定罪 that the existence of the book, and the risk of detect‧ion 发现 which it implied 意味着, must have been necessarily unknown 未知 to Sir Percival. My interest in the question of the forgery was now at an end, and my only object in keeping the letter was to make it of some future service in clearing up the last mystery that still remained to baffle 障 me—the parent‧age 父母‧年龄 of Anne Catherick on the father's side. There were one or two sentences 句子 dropped in her mother's narrative 叙述, which it might be useful 有用 to refer to again, when matters of more immediate importance allowed me leisure 闲暇 to search for the missing evidence 证据. I did not despair 绝望 of still finding that evidence 证据, and I had lost none of my anxiety to discover it, for I had lost none of my interest in tracing 跟踪 the father of the poor creature 3 who now lay at rest in Mrs. Fairlie's grave.

Accordingly, I sealed 封上，海豹 up the letter and put it away carefully 小心 in my pocket-book, to be referred to again when the time came.

The next day was my last in Hampshire. When I had appeared again before the magistrate 法官 at Knowlesbury, and when I had attended at the adjourned 休会 inquest, I should be free to return to London by the afternoon or the evening train.

My first errand 使命 in the morning was, as usual, to the post-office. The letter from Marian was there, but I thought when it was handed to me that it felt unusually 异常 light. I anxiously opened the envelope 信封. There was nothing inside but a small strip of paper folded 折叠 in two. The few blotted 斑点 hurriedly-written lines which were traced 跟踪 on it contained these words:

"Come back as soon as you can. I have been obliged 责成 to move. Come to Gower's Walk, Fulham (number five). I will be on the look-out for you. Don't be alarmed 警告 about us, we are both safe and well. But come back.—Marian."

The news which those lines contained—news which I instantly associated 关联 with some attempted treachery on the part of Count Fosco—fairly overwhelmed 压倒 me. I stood breath‧less 咋舌 with the paper crumpled 弄皱 up in my hand. What had happened? What subtle 微妙 wickedness had the Count planned and executed 执行 in my absence? A night had passed since Marian's note was written—hours must elapse 过去 still before I could get back to them—some new disaster 灾难，大祸 might have happened already of which I was ignorant 愚昧. And here, miles and miles away from them, here I must remain—held, doubly held, at the disposal 处置 of the law!

I hardly know to what forgetfulness of my obligations 义务；责任；职责 anxiety and alarm 警告 might not have tempted me, but for the quieting influence of my faith in Marian. My absolute reliance 依赖 on her was the one earthly consideration 考虑 which helped me to rest‧rain 抑制 myself 我, and gave me courage 勇气 to wait. The inquest was the first of the impediments 障碍 in the way of my freedom of action. I attended it at the appointed time, the legal 法律 formalities 礼节 requiring my presence in the room, but as it turned out, not calling on me to repeat my evidence 证据. This use‧less 无用 delay was a hard trial, although I did my best to quiet my impatience 不耐烦 by following the course of the proceedings 继续 as closely as I could.

The London solicitor 律师 of the deceased 死亡 (Mr. Merriman) was among the persons present. But he was quite unable 无法 to assist 4 the objects of the inquiry. He could only say that he was inexpressibly shocked and astonished 使惊讶, and that he could throw no light whatever on the mysterious 神秘 circumstances 环境 of the case. At intervals 间隔 during the adjourned 休会 investigation 调查, he suggested questions which the Coroner put, but which led to no results. After a patient inquiry, which lasted nearly three hours, and which exhausted 排气 every available source 资源 of information, the jury 陪审团 pronounced 发音 the customary 习惯的 verdict 判决书 in cases of sudden death by accident. They added to the formal decision a statement 声明, that there had been no evidence 证据 to show how the keys had been abstracted 抽象, how the fire had been caused, or what the purpose was for which the deceased 死亡 had entered the vestry. This act closed the proceedings 继续. The legal 法律 representative of the dead man was left to provide for the necessities of the interment, and the witnesses were free to retire.

Resolved not to lose a minute in getting to Knowlesbury, I paid my bill at the hotel, and hired 聘用 a fly to take me to the town. A gentleman who heard me give the order, and who saw that I was going alone, informed me that he lived in the neighbourhood of Knowlesbury, and asked if I would have any objection 反对 to his getting home by sharing the fly with me. I accepted his proposal as a matter of course.

Our conversation during the drive was naturally 自然地 occupied 占据 by the one absorbing 吸收 subject of local interest.

My new acquaintance 熟人 had some knowledge of the late Sir Percival's solicitor 律师, and he and Mr. Merriman had been discussing the state of the deceased 死亡 gentleman's affairs and the success‧ion 演替 to the property. Sir Percival's embarrassments 困窘 were so well known all over the county 县 that his solicitor 律师 could only make a virtue of necessity and plainly acknowledge 确认 them. He had died without leaving a will, and he had no personal 个人 property to bequeath, even if he had made one, the whole for‧tune 命运 which he had derived 派生 from his wife having been swallowed 吞 up by his creditors 债权人. The heir 继承者 to the estate 房地产 (Sir Percival having left no issue) was a son of Sir Felix Glyde's first cousin, an officer in command of an East Indiaman. He would find his unexpected 意外 inheritance 遗产 sadly encumbered, but the property would recover 恢复 with time, and, if "the captain" was careful 小心, he might be a rich man yet before he died.

Absorbed as I was in the one idea of getting to London, this information (which events proved to be perfectly correct) had an interest of its own to attract 吸引 my attention. I thought it justified me in keeping secret my discovery of Sir Percival's fraud 舞弊. The heir 继承者, whose 4 rights he had usurped, was the heir 继承者 who would now have the estate 房地产. The income 收入 from it, for the last three-and-twenty 二十 years, which should properly have been his, and which the dead man had squandered to the last far‧thing 远‧东西；事件, was gone beyond recall 召回. If I spoke, my speaking would confer 授予 advantage on no one. If I kept the secret, my silence concealed 隐藏 the character of the man who had cheated 欺骗 Laura into marrying him. For her sake, I wished to conceal 隐藏 it—for her sake, still, I tell this story under feigned names.

I parted with my chance companion at Knowlesbury, and went at once to the town-hall. As I had anticipated, no one was present to prosecute 起诉 the case against me—the necessary formalities 礼节 were observed, and I was discharged 卸货. On leaving the court a letter from Mr. Dawson was put into my hand. It informed me that he was absent 缺席的 on professional 专业的 duty, and it reiterated 重申 the offer I had already received from him of any assistance 帮助 which I might require at his hands. I wrote back, warmly acknowledging 确认 my obligations to his kindness 善良, and apologising for not expressing my thanks personally 亲自, in consequence 后果 of my immediate recall 召回 on pressing business to town.

Half an hour later I was speeding back to London by the express train.

II

It was between nine 九 and ten 十 o' clock 钟 before I reached Fulham, and found my way to Gower's Walk.

Both Laura and Marian came to the door to let me in. I think we had hardly known how close the tie was which bound us three together, until the evening came which united us again. We met as if we had been parted for months instead of for a few days only. Marian's face was sadly worn and anxious 3. I saw who had known all the danger and borne all the trouble in my absence the moment I looked at her. Laura's brighter looks and better spirits told me how carefully 小心 she had been spared all knowledge of the dreadful 可怕 death at Welmingham, and of the true reason of our change of abode.

The stir 搅动 of the removal 切除 seemed to have cheered and interested her. She only spoke of it as a happy thought of Marian's to surprise me on my return with a change from the close, noisy 嘈杂 street to the pleasant neighbourhood of trees and fields and the river. She was full of projects 项目 for the future—of the drawings she was to finish—of the purchasers 购买者 I had found in the country who were to buy them—of the shillings and sixpences she had saved, till her purse 钱包 was so heavy that she proudly asked me to weigh 称重 it in my own hand. The change for the better which had been wrought 锻 in her during the few days of my absence was a surprise to me for which I was quite unprepared—and for all the unspeakable happiness 幸福 of seeing it, I was indebted 感激的 to Marian's courage 勇气 and to Marian's love.

When Laura had left us, and when we could speak to one another without restraint 克制, I tried to give some expression to the gratitude 感谢 and the admiration 钦佩 which filled my heart. But the generous 慷慨的 creature would not wait to hear me. That sublime 升华 self-forgetfulness of women, which yields so much and asks so little, turned all her thoughts from her‧self 她自己 to me.

"I had only a moment left before post-time," she said, "or I should have written less abruptly 突然. You look worn and weary 厌倦, Walter. I am afraid my letter must have seriously alarmed you?"

"Only at first," I replied. "My mind was quieted, Marian, by my trust in you. Was I right in attributing 特性；特质；属性 this sudden change of place to some threatened annoyance 恼怒 on the part of Count Fosco?"

"Perfectly right," she said. "I saw him yesterday, and worse than that, Walter—I spoke to him."

"Spoke to him? Did he know where we lived? Did he come to the house?"

"He did. To the house—but not upstairs 楼上. Laura never saw him—Laura suspects 怀疑；嫌疑犯 nothing. I will tell you how it happened: the danger, I believe and hope, is over now. Yesterday, I was in the sitting-room, at our old lodgings 存放. Laura was drawing at the table, and I was walking about and setting things to rights. I passed the window, and as I passed it, looked out into the street. There, on the opposite side of the way, I saw the Count, with a man talking to him——"

"Did he notice you at the window?"

"No—at least, I thought not. I was too violently startled 惊吓 to be quite sure."

"Who was the other man? A stranger?"

"Not a stranger, Walter. As soon as I could draw my breath again, I recognised him. He was the owner of the Lunatic Asylum."

"Was the Count pointing out the house to him?"

"No, they were talking together as if they had accidentally 偶然 met in the street. I remained at the window looking at them from behind the curtain 窗帘. If I had turned round, and if Laura had seen my face at that moment——Thank God, she was absorbed 吸收 over her drawing! They soon parted. The man from the Asylum went one way, and the Count the other. I began to hope they were in the street by chance, till I saw the Count come back, stop opposite to us again, take out his card-case and pencil 铅笔, write something, and then cross the road to the shop below us. I ran past Laura before she could see me, and said I had forgotten something upstairs 楼上. As soon as I was out of the room I went down to the first landing and waited—I was determined to stop him if he tried to come upstairs 楼上. He made no such attempt. The girl from the shop came through the door into the passage, with his card in her hand—a large gilt 镀金 card with his name, and a coronet above it, and these lines underneath 在...之下 in pencil 铅笔: 'Dear lady' (yes! the villain 恶棍 could address me in that way still)—'dear lady, one word, I implore you, on a matter serious to us both.' If one can think at all, in serious difficulties, one thinks quick. I felt directly that it might be a fatal 致命 mistake to leave myself 我 and to leave you in the dark, where such a man as the Count was concerned. I felt that the doubt of what he might do, in your absence, would be ten 十 times more trying to me if I declined 下降 to see him than if I consented 同意. 'Ask the gentleman to wait in the shop,' I said. 'I will be with him in a moment.' I ran upstairs 楼上 for my bonnet 帽子, being determined not to let him speak to me indoors. I knew his deep ringing voice, and I was afraid Laura might hear it, even in the shop. In less than a minute I was down again in the passage, and had opened the door into the street. He came round to meet me from the shop. There he was in deep mourning 悼, with his smooth bow 3 and his deadly smile, and some idle 无意义的 boys and women near him, staring at his great size, his fine black clothes, and his large cane 甘蔗 with the gold knob 把手 to it. All the horrible 可怕 time at Blackwater came back to me the moment I set eyes on him. All the old loathing 厌恶 crept and crawled 爬行 through me, when he took off his hat with a flourish 繁荣 and spoke to me, as if we had parted on the friendliest terms hardly a day since."

"You remember what he said?"

"I can't repeat it, Walter. You shall know directly what he said about you—-but I can't repeat what he said to me. It was worse than the polite 有礼貌的 insolence of his letter. My hands tingled to strike him, as if I had been a man! I only kept them quiet by tearing his card to pieces under my shawl. Without saying a word on my side, I walked away from the house (for fear of Laura seeing us), and he followed, protesting 抗议 softly all the way. In the first by-street I turned, and asked him what he wanted with me. He wanted two things. First, if I had no objection 反对, to express his sentiments 情绪. I declined 下降 to hear them. Secondly, to repeat the warning in his letter. I asked, what occasion there was for repeating it. He bowed and smiled, and said he would explain. The explanation 说明 exactly confirmed 确认 the fears I expressed before you left us. I told you, if you remember, that Sir Percival would be too head‧strong 头；上端‧强的 to take his friend's advice where you were concerned, and that there was no danger to be dreaded 恐惧 from the Count till his own interests were threatened, and he was roused 唤醒 into acting for himself?"

"I recollect, Marian."

"Well, so it has really turned out. The Count offered his advice, but it was refused. Sir Percival would only take counsel 法律顾问 of his own violence, his own obstinacy, and his own hatred of you. The Count let him have his way, first privately ascertaining 探明, in case of his own interests being threatened next, where we lived. You were followed, Walter, on returning here, after your first journey to Hampshire, by the lawyer's men for some distance from the rail‧way 铁路, and by the Count himself to the door of the house. How he contrived 图谋 to escape being seen by you he did not tell me, but he found us out on that occasion, and in that way. Having made the discovery, he took no advantage of it till the news reached him of Sir Percival's death, and then, as I told you, he acted for himself, because he believed you would next proceed 继续 against the dead man's partner 伙伴 in the conspiracy 阴谋. He at once made his arrangements 安排 to meet the owner of the Asylum in London, and to take him to the place where his run‧away 逃跑 patient was hidden hide, believing that the results, which‧ever 任何一个 way they ended, would be to involve you in interminable legal 法律 disputes 争议 and difficulties, and to tie your hands for all purposes of offence, so far as he was concerned. That was his purpose, on his own confession 承认 to me. The only consideration 考虑 which made him hesitate 犹豫, at the last moment——"

"Yes?"

"It is hard to acknowledge 确认 it, Walter, and yet I must. I was the only consideration 考虑. No words can say how degraded 降级 I feel in my own estimation 估计 when I think of it, but the one weak point in that man's iron character is the horrible 可怕 admiration 钦佩 he feels for me. I have tried, for the sake of my own self-respect, to disbelieve it as long as I could; but his looks, his actions, force on me the shameful 可耻 conviction 定罪 of the truth. The eyes of that monster 怪物 of wickedness moistened while he was speaking to me—they did, Walter! He declared that at the moment of pointing out the house to the doctor, he thought of my misery 痛苦 if I was separated from Laura, of my responsibility 责任 if I was called on to answer for effecting her escape, and he risked the worst that you could do to him, the second time, for my sake. All he asked was that I would remember the sacrifice 牺牲, and rest‧rain 抑制 your rashness, in my own interests—interests which he might never be able to consult 咨询；请教；查阅 again. I made no such bar‧gain 讨价还价；交易 with him—I would have died first. But believe him or not, whether it is true or false 3 that he sent the doctor away with an excuse 原谅, one thing is certain, I saw the man leave him without so much as a glance 一瞥 at our window, or even at our side of the way."

"I believe it, Marian. The best men are not consistent 一贯 in good—why should the worst men be consistent 一贯 in evil? At the same time, I suspect him of merely attempting to frighten 使惊恐 you, by threatening what he cannot really do. I doubt his power of annoying 打扰 us, by means of the owner of the Asylum, now that Sir Percival is dead, and Mrs. Catherick is free from all control. But let me hear more. What did the Count say of me?"

"He spoke last of you. His eyes brightened and hardened, and his manner changed to what I remember it in past times—to that mixture 混合 of pitiless resolution 解析度 and mountebank mockery which makes it so impossible to fathom him. 'Warn Mr. Hartright!' he said in his loftiest manner. 'He has a man of brains to deal with, a man who snaps 卡 his big fingers at the laws and conventions 惯例 of society, when he measures himself with ME. If my lamented 哀叹 friend had taken my advice, the business of the inquest would have been with the body of Mr. Hartright. But my lamented 哀叹 friend was obstinate. See! I mourn 悼 his loss— inwardly 向内的 in my soul, outwardly 向外的 on my hat. This trivial 不重要的 crape expresses sensibilities 感性 which I summon 召唤 Mr. Hartright to respect. They may be transformed 使彻底改观；使大变样 to immeasurable enmities if he ventures 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 to disturb 打扰 them. Let him be content with what he has got—with what I leave unmolested, for your sake, to him and to you. Say to him (with my compliments 赞扬), if he stirs 搅动 me, he has Fosco to deal with. In the English of the Popular Tongue, I inform him—Fosco sticks at nothing. Dear lady, good morning.' His cold grey 灰色:gray eyes settled on my face—he took off his hat solemnly—bowed, bare-headed—and left me."

"Without returning? without saying more last words?"

"He turned at the corner of the street, and waved his hand, and then struck it theatrically 戏剧的 on his breast 乳房. I lost sight of him after that. He disappeared 不见 in the opposite direction to our house, and I ran back to Laura. Before I was indoors again, I had made up my mind that we must go. The house (especially in your absence) was a place of danger instead of a place of safety, now that the Count had discovered it. If I could have felt certain of your return, I should have risked waiting till you came back. But I was certain of nothing, and I acted at once on my own impulse 冲动. You had spoken, before leaving us, of moving into a quieter neighbourhood and purer air, for the sake of Laura's health. I had only to remind her of that, and to suggest surprising you and saving you trouble by managing the move in your absence, to make her quite as anxious for the change as I was. She helped me to pack up your things, and she has arranged them all for you in your new working-room here."

"What made you think of coming to this place?"

"My ignorance 无知 of other localities 局部性 in the neighbourhood of London. I felt the necessity of getting as far away as possible from our old lodgings, and I knew something of Fulham, because I had once been at school there. I despatched a messenger 信使 with a note, on the chance that the school might still be in existence. It was in existence—the daughters of my old mistress 情妇 were carrying it on for her, and they engaged 从事 this place from the instructions 指令 I had sent. It was just post-time when the messenger returned to me with the address of the house. We moved after dark—we came here quite unobserved. Have I done right, Walter? Have I justified your trust in me?"

I answered her warmly and gratefully 感激的, as I really felt. But the anxious look still remained on her face while I was speaking, and the first question she asked, when I had done, related to Count Fosco.

I saw that she was thinking of him now with a changed mind. No fresh out‧break 暴发 of anger against him, no new appeal 上诉 to me to hasten 加速 the day of reckoning 估计 escaped her. Her conviction 定罪 that the man's hateful admiration 钦佩 of her‧self 她自己 was really sincere 真诚的, seemed to have increased a hundred‧fold 百‧折叠 her distrust 怀疑 of his unfathomable cunning 狡猾, her inborn dread 恐惧 of the wicked energy 能源 and vigilance of all his faculties 学院. Her voice fell low, her manner was hesitating, her eyes searched into mine with an eager fear when she asked me what I thought of his message, and what I meant to do next after hearing it.

"Not many weeks have passed, Marian," I answered, "since my interview 访问 with Mr. Kyrle. When he and I parted, the last words I said to him about Laura were these: 'Her uncle 叔叔's house shall open to receive her, in the presence of every soul who followed the false funeral 葬礼 to the grave; the lie that records her death shall be publicly erased 抹去 from the tomb‧stone 墓‧石头 by the authority 权威 of the head of the family, and the two men who have wronged her shall answer for their crime to ME, though the justice that sits in tribunals 法庭 is power‧less 无力 to pursue 追求 them.' One of those men is beyond mortal 凡人 reach. The other remains, and my resolution 解析度 remains."

Her eyes lit up—her colour rose. She said nothing, but I saw all her sympathies 同情 gathering to mine in her face.

"I don't disguise 伪装 from myself 我, or from you," I went on, "that the prospect 展望 before us is more than doubtful 疑. The risks we have run already are, it may be, trifles 琐事 compared with the risks that threaten us in the future, but the venture 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 shall be tried, Marian, for all that. I am not rash 皮疹 enough to measure myself 我 against such a man as the Count before I am well prepared for him. I have learnt patience 耐心—I can wait my time. Let him believe that his message has produced its effect—let him know nothing of us, and hear nothing of us—let us give him full time to feel secure 安全—his own boastful nature, unless I seriously mistake him, will hasten 加速 that result. This is one reason for waiting, but there is another more important still. My position, Marian, towards you and towards Laura ought to be a stronger one than it is now before I try our last chance."

She leaned near to me, with a look of surprise.

"How can it be stronger?" she asked.

"I will tell you," I replied, "when the time comes. It has not come yet—it may never come at all. I may be silent about it to Laura for ever—I must be silent now, even to you, till I see for myself 我 that I can harm‧less 无害 and honourably speak. Let us leave that subject. There is another which has more pressing claims on our attention. You have kept Laura, mercifully kept her, in ignorance 无知 of her husband's death——"

"Oh, Walter, surely it must be long yet before we tell her of it?"

"No, Marian. Better that you should reveal 揭示 it to her now, than that accident, which no one can guard against, should reveal 揭示 it to her at some future time. Spare 节省；多余的；备用件 her all the details—break it to her very tenderly, but tell her that he is dead."

"You have a reason, Walter, for wishing her to know of her husband's death besides the reason you have just mentioned?"

"I have."

"A reason connected with that subject which must not be mentioned between us yet?—which may never be mentioned to Laura at all?"

She dwelt on the last words meaningly. When I answered her in the affirmative 肯定, I dwelt on them too.

Her face grew pale. For a while she looked at me with a sad, hesitating interest. An unaccustomed tenderness 压痛 trembled in her dark eyes and softened 软的:soft her firm lips, as she glanced 一瞥 aside at the empty chair in which the dear companion of all our joys 喜悦 and sorrows had been sitting.

"I think I understand," she said. "I think I owe 欠…债 it to her and to you, Walter, to tell her of her husband's death."

She sighed 叹, and held my hand fast for a moment—then dropped it abruptly 突然, and left the room. On the next day Laura knew that his death had released 发布 her, and that the error 错误 and the calamity of her life lay buried in his tomb 墓.

His name was mentioned among us no more. Thenceforward, we shrank from the slightest approach to the subject of his death, and in the same scrupulous manner, Marian and I avoided all further reference to that other subject, which, by her consent 同意 and mine, was not to be mentioned between us yet. It was not the less present in our minds—it was rather kept alive in them by the restraint 克制 which we had imposed 强加 on ourselves 我们自己. We both watched Laura more anxiously than ever, sometimes waiting and hoping, sometimes waiting and fearing, till the time came.

By degrees we returned to our accustomed way of life. I resumed 恢复 the daily work, which had been suspended 暂停 during my absence in Hampshire. Our new lodgings cost us more than the smaller and less convenient 方便的 rooms which we had left, and the claim thus implied 意味着 on my increased exertions was strengthened by the doubtfulness of our future prospects 展望. Emergencies might yet happen which would exhaust 排气 our little fund 基金；专款；资金 at the banker's, and the work of my hands might be, ultimately 最终, all we had to look to for support. More permanent 永久 and more lucrative 有利可图 employment 雇用 than had yet been offered to me was a necessity of our position—a necessity for which I now diligently set myself 我 to provide.

It must not be supposed that the interval 间隔 of rest and seclusion of which I am now writing, entirely suspended 暂停, on my part, all pursuit 追求 of the one absorbing 吸收 purpose with which my thoughts and actions are associated 关联 in these pages. That purpose was, for months and months yet, never to relax 放松 its claims on me. The slow ripening of it still left me a measure of pre‧caution 预防 to take, an obligation 义务；责任；职责 of gratitude 感谢 to perform, and a doubtful 疑 question to solve 解决.

The measure of pre‧caution 预防 related, necessarily, to the Count. It was of the last importance to ascertain 探明, if possible, whether his plans committed 承诺 him to remaining in England—or, in other words, to remaining within my reach. I contrived 图谋 to set this doubt at rest by very simple means. His address in St. John's Wood being known to me, I inquired in the neighbourhood, and having found out the agent who had the disposal 处置 of the furnished house in which he lived, I asked if number five, Forest Road, was likely to be let within a reasonable time. The reply was in the negative 负. I was informed that the foreign gentleman then residing 居住 in the house had renewed 更新 his term of occupation 占用 for another six months, and would remain in possession until the end of June in the following year. We were then at the beginning of December only. I left the agent with my mind relieved 解除 from all present fear of the Count's escaping me.

The obligation 义务；责任；职责 I had to perform took me once more into the presence of Mrs. Clements. I had promised to return, and to confide 信任 to her those particulars relating to the death and burial 葬礼 of Anne Catherick which I had been obliged 责成 to with‧hold 扣压 at our first interview 访问. Changed as circumstances 环境 now were, there was no hindrance 妨害 to my trusting the good woman with as much of the story of the conspiracy 阴谋 as it was necessary to tell. I had every reason that sympathy and friendly feeling could suggest to urge on me the speedy 迅速 performance of my promise, and I did conscientiously 有良心 and carefully 小心 perform it. There is no need to burden 负荷，重负 these pages with any statement 声明 of what passed at the interview 访问. It will be more to the purpose to say, that the interview 访问 itself 本身 necessarily brought to my mind the one doubtful 疑 question still remaining to be solved 解决—the question of Anne Catherick's parent‧age 父母‧年龄 on the father's side.

A multitude 苠 of small considerations 考虑 in connection with this subject—trifling 琐事 enough in themselves, but strikingly 惊人 important when massed together—had latterly led my mind to a conclusion 结论 which I resolved 解决 to verify 校验. I obtained 获得 Marian's per‧mission 允许 to write to Major Donthorne, of Varneck Hall (where Mrs. Catherick had lived in service for some years previous 以前 to her marriage), to ask him certain questions. I made the inquiries in Marian's name, and described them as relating to matters of personal 个人 history in her family, which might explain and excuse 3 my application. When I wrote the letter I had no certain knowledge that Major Donthorne was still alive—I despatched it on the chance that he might be living, and able and willing to reply.

After a lapse 失误 of two days proof came, in the shape of a letter, that the Major was living, and that he was ready to help us.

The idea in my mind when I wrote to him, and the nature of my inquiries will be easily inferred 推断 from his reply. His letter answered my questions by communicating 通信 these important facts—

In the first place, "the late Sir Percival Glyde, of Blackwater Park," had never set foot in Varneck Hall. The deceased 死亡 gentleman was a total stranger to Major Donthorne, and to all his family.

In the second place, "the late Mr. Philip Fairlie, of Limmeridge House," had been, in his younger days, the intimate 亲密 friend and constant 不变 guest of Major Donthorne. Having refreshed 使恢复 his memory by looking back to old letters and other papers, the Major was in a position to say positively 积极 that Mr. Philip Fairlie was staying at Varneck Hall in the month of August, eighteen 十八 hundred 百 and twenty 二十-six, and that he remained there for the shooting during the month of September and part of October following. He then left, to the best of the Major's belief, for Scotland, and did not return to Varneck Hall till after a lapse 失误 of time, when he reappeared 再现 in the character of a newly 最近，新近-married man.

Taken by itself 本身, this statement 声明 was, perhaps, of little positive 正 value, but taken in connection with certain facts, every one of which either Marian or I knew to be true, it suggested one plain conclusion 结论 that was, to our minds, irresistible 不可抗拒.

Knowing, now, that Mr. Philip Fairlie had been at Varneck Hall in the autumn 秋 of eighteen 十八 hundred 百 and twenty 二十-six, and that Mrs. Catherick had been living there in service at the same time, we knew also—first, that Anne had been born in June, eighteen 十八 hundred 百 and twenty 二十-seven 七; secondly, that she had always presented an extraordinary personal 个人 resemblance 相似 to Laura; and, thirdly 第三, that Laura her‧self 她自己 was strikingly 惊人 like her father. Mr. Philip Fairlie had been one of the notoriously 臭名昭著 hand‧some 英俊 men of his time. In disposition 性格 entirely unlike 不像 his brother Frederick, he was the spoilt darling 宠儿 of society, especially of the women—an easy, light-hearted, impulsive 浮躁, affectionate 亲热 man— generous 慷慨的 to a fault—constitutionally 构成 lax in his principles 原理, and notoriously 臭名昭著 thoughtless of moral obligations where women were concerned. Such were the facts we knew—such was the character of the man. Surely the plain inference 推理 that follows needs no pointing out?

Read by the new light which had now broken upon me, even Mrs. Catherick's letter, in despite 尽管 of her‧self 她自己, rendered 给予 its mite of assistance 帮助 towards strengthening the conclusion 结论 at which I had arrived. She had described Mrs. Fairlie (in writing to me) as "plain-looking," and as having "entrapped the hand‧some 英俊 man in England into marrying her." Both assertions 断言 were gratuitously made, and both were false. Jealous 妒忌的 dislike 反感 (which, in such a woman as Mrs. Catherick, would express itself 本身 in petty 小气 malice rather than not express itself 本身 at all) appeared to me to be the only assign‧able 委派，选择‧能够的 cause for the peculiar insolence of her reference to Mrs. Fairlie, under circumstances 环境 which did not necessitate 必要 any reference at all.

The mention here of Mrs. Fairlie's name naturally 4 suggests one other question. Did she ever suspect whose 5 child the little girl brought to her at Limmeridge might be?

Marian's testimony 见证 was positive 正 on this point. Mrs. Fairlie's letter to her husband, which had been read to me in former days—the letter describing Anne's resemblance 相似 to Laura, and acknowledging 确认 her affectionate 亲热 interest in the little stranger—had been written, beyond all question, in perfect innocence 无辜 of heart. It even seemed doubtful 疑, on consideration 考虑, whether Mr. Philip Fairlie himself had been nearer than his wife to any suspicion of the truth. The disgrace‧fully 耻辱‧完全地 deceitful circumstances 环境 under which Mrs. Catherick had married, the purpose of concealment which the marriage was intended to answer, might well keep her silent for caution's sake, perhaps for her own pride's sake also, even assuming 承担 that she had the means, in his absence, of communicating 通信 with the father of her unborn child.

As this surmise floated 漂浮 through my mind, there rose on my memory the remembrance 纪念 of the Scripture denunciation which we have all thought of in our time with wonder and with awe 威严: "The sins 罪 of the fathers shall be visited on the children." But for the fatal 致命 resemblance 相似 between the two daughters of one father, the conspiracy 阴谋 of which Anne had been the innocent 无辜 instrument and Laura the innocent 无辜 victim 受害者 could never have been planned. With what unerring and terrible directness the long chain of circumstances 环境 led down from the thoughtless wrong committed 承诺 by the father to the heart‧less 心‧少 injury 伤 inflicted 造成 on the child!

These thoughts came to me, and others with them, which drew my mind away to the little Cumberland church‧yard 墓地 where Anne Catherick now lay buried. I thought of the bygone days when I had met her by Mrs. Fairlie's grave, and met her for the last time. I thought of her poor help‧less 无助 hands beating on the tomb‧stone 墓‧石头, and her weary 厌倦, yearning 向往 words, murmured 私语 to the dead remains of her protectress and her friend: "Oh, if I could die, and be hidden hide and at rest with you!" Little more than a year had passed since she breathed 呼吸 that wish; and how inscrutably, how awfully 糟糕的, it had been fulfilled 履行! The words she had spoken to Laura by the shores of the lake, the very words had now come true. "Oh, if I could only be buried with your mother! If I could only wake 醒 at her side when the angel 天使's trumpet 喇叭 sounds and the graves 坟墓；严重的 give up their dead at the resurrection 复活!" Through what mortal 凡人 crime and horror 恐怖, through what darkest windings of the way down to death—the lost creature had wandered in God's leading to the last home that, living, she never hoped to reach! In that sacred 神圣的 rest I leave her—in that dread 恐惧 companion‧ship 伙伴关系 let her remain undisturbed.

So the ghostly 鬼 figure which has haunted 出没 these pages, as it haunted 出没 my life, goes down into the impenetrable gloom 愁云. Like a shadow she first came to me in the loneliness 孤单 of the night. Like a shadow she passes away in the loneliness 孤单 of the dead.

III

Four months elapsed 过去. April came—the month of spring—the month of change.

The course of time had flowed through the interval 间隔 since the winter peacefully 安然 and happily in our new home. I had turned my long leisure 闲暇 to good account, had largely increased my sources 资源 of employment 雇用, and had placed our means of subsistence 生活 on surer grounds. Freed from the suspense 悬念 and the anxiety which had tried her so sorely and hung over her so long, Marian's spirits rallied 团结, and her natural 自然 energy 能源 of character began to assert 断言 itself 本身 again, with something, if not all, of the freedom and the vigour of former times.

More pliable under change than her sister, Laura showed more plainly the progress made by the healing 治愈 influences of her new life. The worn and wasted look which had pre‧mature 过早 aged her face was fast leaving it, and the expression which had been the first of its charms 魔力；使陶醉 in past days was the first of its beauties that now returned. My closest observations 意见 of her detected 发现，察觉，看出 but one serious result of the conspiracy 阴谋 which had once threatened her reason and her life. Her memory of events, from the period of her leaving Blackwater Park to the period of our meeting in the burial 葬礼-ground of Limmeridge Church, was lost beyond all hope of recovery 失而复得. At the slightest reference to that time she changed and trembled still, her words became confused, her memory wandered and lost itself 本身 as help‧less 无助 as ever. Here, and here only, the traces 跟踪 of the past lay deep—too deep to be effaced.

In all else she was now so far on the way to recovery that, on her best and brightest days, she sometimes looked and spoke like the Laura of old times. The happy change wrought 锻 its natural 自然 result in us both. From their long slumber, on her side and on mine, those imperishable memories of our past life in Cumberland now awoke 醒着的:awake, which were one and all alike 同样的, the memories of our love.

Gradually 逐步地 and insensibly our daily relations towards each other became con‧strain 压抑. The fond 3 words which I had spoken to her so naturally 5, in the days of her sorrow 悲痛 and her suffering, faltered 衰退 strangely on my lips. In the time when my dread 恐惧 of losing her was most present to my mind, I had always kissed her when she left me at night and when she met me in the morning. The kiss 接吻 seemed now to have dropped between us—to be lost out of our lives. Our hands began to tremble again when they met. We hardly ever looked long at one another out of Marian's presence. The talk often flagged 旗；石地板 between us when we were alone. When I touched her by accident I felt my heart beating fast, as it used to beat at Limmeridge House—I saw the lovely 可爱的 answering flush 红晕 glowing 辉光 again in her cheeks 脸颊, as if we were back among the Cumberland Hills in our past characters of master and pupil 学生 once more. She had long intervals 间隔 of silence and thoughtfulness, and denied 拒绝 she had been thinking when Marian asked her the question. I surprised myself 我 one day neglecting 疏忽 my work to dream over the little water-colour portrait 肖像 of her which I had taken in the summer-house where we first met—just as I used to neglect 疏忽 Mr. Fairlie's drawings to dream over the same likeness 像 when it was newly 最近，新近 finished in the bygone time. Changed as all the circumstances 环境 now were, our position towards each other in the golden 金色的 days of our first companion‧ship 伙伴关系 seemed to be revived 复活 with the revival 复兴 of our love. It was as if Time had drifted 漂移 us back on the wreck 破坏；使遇难 of our early hopes to the old familiar shore!

To any other woman I could have spoken the decisive 决定性的 words which I still hesitated to speak to her. The utter 说出 helplessness of her position—her friend‧less 朋友‧少 dependence on all the forbearing gentleness that I could show her—my fear of touching too soon some secret sensitiveness in her which my instinct 直觉 as a man might not have been fine enough to discover—these considerations 考虑, and others like them, kept me self-distrust‧fully 怀疑‧完全地 silent. And yet I knew that the restraint 克制 on both sides must be ended, that the relations in which we stood towards one another must be altered in some settled manner for the future, and that it rested with me, in the first instance 例, to recognise the necessity for a change.

The more I thought of our position, the harder the attempt to alter 改变 it appeared, while the domestic 国内 conditions on which we three had been living together since the winter remained undisturbed. I cannot account for the capricious state of mind in which this feeling originated 起源, but the idea nevertheless 虽然 possessed me that some previous 以前 change of place and circumstances 环境, some sudden break in the quiet monotony of our lives, so managed as to vary 变化 the home aspect 方面 under which we had been accustomed to see each other, might prepare the way for me to speak, and might make it easier and less embarrassing 阻碍 for Laura and Marian to hear.

With this purpose in view, I said, one morning, that I thought we had all earned a little holiday 假日 and a change of scene. After some consideration 考虑, it was decided that we should go for a fort‧night 两星期 to the sea-side.

On the next day we left Fulham for a quiet town on the south coast. At that early season of the year we were the only visitors 访问者 in the place. The cliffs 悬崖, the beach 海滩, and the walks inland 内陆 were all in the solitary 孤 condition which was most welcome to us. The air was mild 温柔的—the prospects 展望 over hill and wood and down were beautifully 精美 varied 变化 by the shifting 转移 April light and shade 遮阳；阴, and the rest‧less 不安 sea leapt under our windows, as if it felt, like the land, the glow 辉光 and freshness of spring.

I owed it to Marian to consult 咨询；请教；查阅 her before I spoke to Laura, and to be guided after‧ward 之后 by her advice.

On the third day from our arrival 到达 I found a fit opportunity of speaking to her alone. The moment we looked at one another, her quick instinct 直觉 detected the thought in my mind before I could give it expression. With her customary 3 energy 能源 and directness she spoke at once, and spoke first.

"You are thinking of that subject which was mentioned between us on the evening of your return from Hampshire," she said. "I have been expecting you to allude 暗示 to it for some time past. There must be a change in our little house‧hold 家庭, Walter, we cannot go on much longer as we are now. I see it as plainly as you do—as plainly as Laura sees it, though she says nothing. How strangely the old times in Cumberland seem to have come back! You and I are together again, and the one subject of interest between us is Laura once more. I could almost fancy 想像 that this room is the summer-house at Limmeridge, and that those waves beyond us are beating on our sea-shore."

"I was guided by your advice in those past days," I said, "and now, Marian, with reliance 依赖 ten‧fold 10‧折叠 greater I will be guided by it again."

She answered by pressing my hand. I saw that she was deeply touched by my reference to the past. We sat together near the window, and while I spoke and she listened, we looked at the glory 光荣 of the sun‧light 阳光 shining 发光 on the majesty 威严 of the sea.

"Whatever comes of this confidence between us," I said, "whether it ends happily or sorrow‧fully 悲痛‧完全地 for me, Laura's interests will still be the interests of my life. When we leave this place, on whatever terms we leave it, my determination 决心 to wrest from Count Fosco the confession 3 which I failed to obtain 获得 from his accomplice, goes back with me to London, as certainly as I go back myself 我. Neither you nor I can tell how that man may turn on me, if I bring him to bay; we only know, by his own words and actions, that he is cap‧able 能 of striking at me through Laura, without a moment's hesitation 犹豫, or a moment's remorse 悔恨. In our present position I have no claim on her which society sanctions 制裁, which the law allows, to strengthen 加强 me in resisting him, and in protecting her. This places me at a serious disadvantage 坏处. If I am to fight our cause with the Count, strong in the consciousness 意识 of Laura's safety, I must fight it for my Wife. Do you agree to that, Marian, so far?"

"To every word of it," she answered.

"I will not plead 求情 out of my own heart," I went on; "I will not appeal 上诉 to the love which has survived 生存 all changes and all shocks—I will rest my only vindication of myself 我 for thinking of her, and speaking of her as my wife, on what I have just said. If the chance of forcing a confession from the Count is, as I believe it to be, the last chance left of publicly establishing 建立 the fact of Laura's existence, the least selfish 自私的 reason that I can advance for our marriage is recognised by us both. But I may be wrong in my conviction 定罪—other means of achieving 实现 our purpose may be in our power, which are less uncertain 不确定 and less dangerous 危险. I have searched anxiously, in my own mind, for those means, and I have not found them. Have you?"

"No. I have thought about it too, and thought in vain 徒劳的."

"In all likelihood 可能性," I continued, "the same questions have occurred 发生 to you, in considering this difficult subject, which have occurred 发生 to me. Ought we to return with her to Limmeridge, now that she is like her‧self 她自己 again, and trust to the recognition 认识 of her by the people of the village, or by the children at the school? Ought we to appeal 上诉 to the practical test of her handwriting 4? Suppose we did so. Suppose the recognition of her obtained 获得, and the identity 身分 of the handwriting 5 established 建立. Would success in both those cases do more than supply an excellent foundation 基础 for a trial in a court of law? Would the recognition and the handwriting prove her identity 身分 to Mr. Fairlie and take her back to Limmeridge House, against the evidence 证据 of her aunt 阿姨, against the evidence 证据 of the medical certificate 证书, against the fact of the funeral 葬礼 and the fact of the inscription 题词 on the tomb 墓? No! We could only hope to succeed in throwing a serious doubt on the assertion 断言 of her death, a doubt which nothing short of a legal 法律 inquiry can settle. I will assume 承担 that we possess (what we have certainly not got) money enough to carry this inquiry on through all its stages. I will assume 承担 that Mr. Fairlie's prejudices 成见 might be reasoned away—that the false testimony 见证 of the Count and his wife, and all the rest of the false testimony 见证, might be confuted—that the recognition could not possibly be ascribed 归咎于 to a mistake between Laura and Anne Catherick, or the handwriting be declared by our enemies to be a clever 聪明的 fraud 舞弊—all these are assumptions 假设 which, more or less, set plain probabilities 可能性 at defiance 蔑视; but let them pass—and let us ask ourselves 我们自己 what would be the first consequence 后果 or the first questions put to Laura her‧self 她自己 on the subject of the conspiracy 阴谋. We know only too well what the consequence 后果 would be, for we know that she has never recovered 恢复 her memory of what happened to her in London. Examine her privately, or examine her publicly, she is utterly 完全 incapable 无法 of assisting the assertion 断言 of her own case. If you don't see this, Marian, as plainly as I see it, we will go to Limmeridge and try the experiment to-morrow."

"I do see it, Walter. Even if we had the means of paying all the law expenses, even if we succeeded in the end, the delays would be unendurable, the perpetual 永动的 suspense 悬念, after what we have suffered already, would be heartbreaking. You are right about the hopelessness of going to Limmeridge. I wish I could feel sure that you are right also in determining to try that last chance with the Count. Is it a chance at all?"

"Beyond a doubt, Yes. It is the chance of recovering 恢复 the lost date of Laura's journey to London. Without returning to the reasons I gave you some time since, I am still as firmly persuaded as ever that there is a discrepancy 差异 between the date of that journey and the date on the certificate 证书 of death. There lies the weak point of the whole conspiracy 阴谋—it crumbles 崩溃 to pieces if we attack it in that way, and the means of attacking it are in possession of the Count. If I succeed in wresting them from him, the object of your life and mine is fulfilled 履行. If I fail, the wrong that Laura has suffered will, in this world, never be redressed 纠正."

"Do you fear failure your‧self 你自己, Walter?"

"I dare not anticipate 预期 success, and for that very reason, Marian, I speak openly and plainly as I have spoken now. In my heart and my conscience 良心 I can say it, Laura's hopes for the future are at their lowest ebb 落潮. I know that her for‧tune 命运 is gone—I know that the last chance of restoring 修复；使复位；使复职 her to her place in the world lies at the mercy of her worst enemy, of a man who is now absolutely unassailable, and who may remain unassailable to the end. With every worldly advantage gone from her, with all prospect 展望 of recovering 恢复 her rank and station more than doubtful 疑, with no clearer future before her than the future which her husband can provide, the poor drawing-master may harm‧less 无害 open his heart at last. In the days of her prosperity 繁荣, Marian, I was only the teacher who guided her hand—I ask for it, in her adversity 逆境, as the hand of my wife!"

Marian's eyes met mine affectionately 亲热—I could say no more. My heart was full, my lips were trembling. In spite of myself 我 I was in danger of appealing 上诉 to her pity 怜悯. I got up to leave the room. She rose at the same moment, laid her hand gently on my shoulder, and stopped me.

"Walter!" she said, "I once parted you both, for your good and for hers. Wait here, my brother!—wait, my dearest, best friend, till Laura comes, and tells you what I have done now!"

For the first time since the fare‧well 告别 morning at Limmeridge she touched my fore‧head 前额 with her lips. A tear dropped on my face as she kissed me. She turned quickly, pointed to the chair from which I had risen, and left the room.

I sat down alone at the window to wait through the crisis 危机 of my life. My mind in that breath‧less 咋舌 interval 间隔 felt like a total blank 空白. I was conscious of nothing but a painful 痛苦 intensity 强度 of all familiar perceptions 看法. The sun grew blinding bright, the white sea birds chasing 追 each other far beyond me seemed to be flitting before my face, the mellow 醇厚 murmur 私语 of the waves on the beach 海滩 was like thunder 雷声 in my ears.

The door opened, and Laura came in alone. So she had entered the break‧fast 早餐-room at Limmeridge House on the morning when we parted. Slowly and falteringly, in sorrow 悲痛 and in hesitation 犹豫, she had once approached me. Now she came with the haste 匆忙 of happiness 幸福 in her feet, with the light of happiness 幸福 radiant 辐射的 in her face. Of their own accord those dear arms clasped 钩 themselves round me, of their own accord the sweet lips came to meet mine. "My darling 宠儿!" she whispered, "we may own we love each other now?" Her head nestled 贴近 with a tender 纤弱的 contentedness on my bosom. "Oh," she said innocently 无辜, "I am so happy at last!"

Ten 十 days later we were happier still. We were married.