驼背男人05

“Mrs. Barclay was, it appears, a member of the Roman Catholic Church, and had interested herself very much in the establishment of the Guild¹ of St. George, which was formed in connection with the Watt² Street Chapel³ for the purpose of supplying the poor with cast-off clothing. A meeting of the Guild had been held that evening at eight, and Mrs. Barclay had hurried over her dinner in order to be present at it. When leaving the house she was heard by the coachman to make some commonplace remark to her husband, and to assure him that she would be back before very long. She then called for Miss Morrison, a young lady who lives in the next villa⁴, and the two went off together to their meeting. It lasted forty minutes, and at a quarter-past nine Mrs. Barclay returned home, having left Miss Morrison at her door as she passed.

“There is a room which is used as a morning-room at Lachine. This faces the road and opens by a large glass folding-door on to the lawn. The lawn is thirty yards across, and is only divided from the highway by a low wall with an iron rail above it. It was into this room that Mrs. Barclay went upon her return. The blinds were not down, for the room was seldom used in the evening, but Mrs. Barclay herself lit the lamp and then rang the bell, asking Jane Stewart, the house-maid, to bring her a cup of tea, which was quite contrary to her usual habits. The Colonel had been sitting in the dining-room, but hearing that his wife had returned he joined her in the morning-room. The coachman saw him cross the hall and enter it. He was never seen again alive.

“The tea which had been ordered was brought up at the end of ten minutes; but the maid, as she approached the door, was surprised to hear the voices of her master and mistress in furious altercation⁵. She knocked without receiving any answer, and even turned the handle, but only to find that the door was locked upon the inside. Naturally enough she ran down to tell the cook, and the two women with the coachman came up into the hall and listened to the dispute which was still raging. They all agreed that only two voices were to be heard, those of Barclay and of his wife. Barclay's remarks were subdued⁶ and abrupt⁷, so that none of them were audible to the listeners. The lady's, on the other hand, were most bitter, and when she raised her voice could be plainly heard. ‘You coward!’ she repeated over and over again. ‘What can be done now? What can be done now? Give me back my life. I will never so much as breathe the same air with you again! You coward! You Coward!’ Those were scraps⁸ of her conversation, ending in a sudden dreadful cry in the man's voice, with a crash, and a piercing scream from the woman. Convinced that some tragedy had occurred, the coachman rushed to the door and strove to force it, while scream after scream issued from within. He was unable, however, to make his way in, and the maids were too distracted with fear to be of any assistance to him. A sudden thought struck him, however, and he ran through the hall door and round to the lawn upon which the long French windows open. One side of the window was open, which I understand was quite usual in the summer-time, and he passed without difficulty into the room. His mistress had ceased to scream and was stretched insensible upon a couch, while with his feet tilted⁹ over the side of an arm-chair, and his head upon the ground near the corner of the fender, was lying the unfortunate soldier stone dead in a pool of his own blood.

“看来，巴克利夫人是一位罗马天主教徒，她对圣乔治慈善会很关心。慈善会是瓦特街小教堂举办的，专门给穷人施舍旧衣服。那天晚上八点钟，慈善会举行一次会议。巴克利夫人匆匆吃过饭，去参加会议。在她出门的时候，车夫听见她对丈夫说了几句家常话，告诉他不久就回来。随后她去邀请住在邻近别墅的年轻的莫里森小一姐两人一起去参加会。会开了四十分钟，九点十五分巴克利夫人回家，在经过莫里森小一姐家门时，两人方才分手。

“‘兰静’别墅有一间屋子用作清晨起居室，它面对着公路，有一扇大玻璃门通向草坪。草坪有三十码宽，只有一堵上面安有铁栏杆的矮墙与公路隔开。巴克利夫人回家的时候，就是进的这间屋子，那时窗帘还没有放下，因为这间屋子平常在晚上不怎么使用。可是巴克利夫人自己点上了灯，然后按了按铃，要女仆简-斯图尔德给她送去一杯茶，这是和她平常的一习一惯相反的。那时上校正坐在餐室中，听到妻子已经回来，便到清晨起居室去见她。车夫看到上校经过走廊，走进那间屋子。上校再也没能活着走出来。

“巴克利夫人要的茶，十分钟后才准备好，可是女仆走近门口时，非常惊奇，因为她听到主人夫妇正争吵得不可开一交一。

她敲了敲门，没有人回答，又转了转门钮，发现门已经从里面锁上了。很自然，她跑回去告诉了女厨师，这两个女仆便和车夫一起来到走廊，听到两人仍在激烈地争吵。他们一致证实说，只听到巴克利和她的妻子两个人的声音。巴克利的话声很低，又不连贯，因此他们三个人谁也听不出他说的是什么。反之，那女人的声音却非常沉痛，在她高声说话时，可以听得很清楚。‘你这个懦夫！’她翻来覆去地说着，‘现在怎么办呢？现在怎么办呢？把我的青春还给我。我不愿再和你一起生活了！你这个懦夫！你这个懦夫！’这就是她断断续续说的话。接着，仆人们听到那男人突然发出一声可怕的叫喊，同时又听到一个轰隆倒地的声音和那妇人发出的一声惊心动魄的尖一叫。尖一叫一声又一声地从里面传出，车夫知道已经发生了悲剧，便冲向门前，想破门而入。然而，他却无法进去，两个女仆已经吓得惊慌失措，一点也帮不上忙。不过，他突然想起一个主意，从前门跑出去，绕到对着一个法式长窗的草坪上。长窗的一扇窗户敞开着，我听说，在夏季这扇窗户总是开着的，于是车夫便毫不费力地从窗子爬进去了。这时他的女主人已经停止了尖一叫，失去了知觉，僵卧在长沙发上；那个不幸的军人则直一挺一挺地倒毙在自己的血泊中，双脚跷起，搁在单人沙发的一侧扶手上，头倒在地上，靠近火炉挡板的一角。

1 guild   

n.行会，同业公会，协会

参考例句：

• He used to be a member of the Writers' Guild of America.他曾是美国作家协会的一员。
• You had better incorporate the firm into your guild.你最好把这个公司并入你的行业协会。

2 watt   

n.瓦，瓦特

参考例句：

• The invention of the engine is creditable to Watt.发动机的发明归功于瓦特。
• The unit of power is watt.功率的单位是瓦特。

3 chapel   

n.小教堂，殡仪馆

参考例句：

• The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
• She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。

4 villa   

n.别墅，城郊小屋

参考例句：

• We rented a villa in France for the summer holidays.我们在法国租了一幢别墅消夏。
• We are quartered in a beautiful villa.我们住在一栋漂亮的别墅里。

5 altercation   

n.争吵，争论

参考例句：

• Throughout the entire altercation,not one sensible word was uttered.争了半天，没有一句话是切合实际的。
• The boys had an altercation over the umpire's decision.男孩子们对裁判的判决颇有争议。

6 subdued   

adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He seemed a bit subdued to me. 我觉得他当时有点闷闷不乐。
• I felt strangely subdued when it was all over. 一切都结束的时候，我却有一种奇怪的压抑感。

7 abrupt   

adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的

参考例句：

• The river takes an abrupt bend to the west.这河突然向西转弯。
• His abrupt reply hurt our feelings.他粗鲁的回答伤了我们的感情。

8 scraps   

油渣

参考例句：

• Don't litter up the floor with scraps of paper. 不要在地板上乱扔纸屑。
• A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. 做杂拼花布棉被是利用零碎布料的好办法。

9 tilted   

v. 倾斜的

参考例句：

• Suddenly the boat tilted to one side. 小船突然倾向一侧。
• She tilted her chin at him defiantly. 她向他翘起下巴表示挑衅。