前言

秘方简介

常用词列表

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

4. THE NARRATIVE OF THE TOMBSTONE

Sacred 神圣的 to the Memory of Laura, Lady Glyde, wife of Sir 先生 Percival Glyde, Bart., of Blackwater Park, Hampshire, and daughter of the late Philip Fairlie, Esq., of Limmeridge House, in this parish 教区. Born March 行军；三月 27th, 1829; married December 22nd, 1849; died July 25th, 1850.

5. THE NARRATIVE OF WALTER HARTRIGHT

Early in the summer of 1850 I and my surviving 生存 companions 同伴 left the wilds and forests of Central 中央 America for home. Arrived at the coast, we took ship there for England. The vessel 容器 was wrecked 破坏；使遇难 in the Gulf of Mexico—I was among the few saved from the sea. It was my third escape from peril 岌 of death. Death by disease, death by the Indians, death by drowning 淹死—all three had approached me; all three had passed me by.

The survivors 幸存者 of the wreck 破坏；使遇难 were rescued 营救 by an American vessel bound 必定；跳 for Liverpool. The ship reached her port 港口 on the thirteenth day of October 1850. We landed late in the afternoon, and I arrived in London the same night.

These pages are not the record of my wanderings 漫步 and my dangers away from home. The motives 动机 which led me from my country and my friends to a new world of adventure 冒险活动 and peril 岌 are known. From that self 自己-imposed 强加 exile 流亡 I came back, as I had hoped, prayed, believed I should come back—a changed man. In the waters of a new life I had tempered 性情 my nature afresh. In the stern 严肃 school of extremity and danger my will had learnt learn to be strong, my heart to be resolute, my mind to rely 依靠 on itself 本身. I had gone out to fly from my own future. I came back to face it, as a man should.

To face it with that inevitable 必然 suppression 抑制 of myself 我 which I knew it would demand from me. I had parted with the worst 生病:ill bitterness 苦味 of the past, but not with my heart's remembrance 纪念 of the sorrow 悲痛 and the tenderness 压痛 of that memorable 难忘 time. I had not ceased 停止 to feel the one irreparable disappointment 失望 of my life—I had only learnt to bear it. Laura Fairlie was in all my thoughts when the ship bore bear me away, and I looked my last at England. Laura Fairlie was in all my thoughts when the ship brought me back, and the morning light showed the friendly shore in view.

My pen 笔 traces 跟踪 the old letters as my heart goes back to the old love. I write of her as Laura Fairlie still. It is hard to think of her, it is hard to speak of her, by her husband's name.

There are no more words of explanation 说明 to add on my appearance for the second time in these pages. This narrative 叙述, if I have the strength and the courage 勇气 to write it, may now go on.

My first anxieties 焦虑 and first hopes when the morning came cent‧red 分‧红色的 in my mother and my sister 姐妹. I felt the necessity 必须 of preparing them for the joy 喜悦 and surprise of my return, after an absence 缺席 during which it had been impossible for them to receive any tidings 潮汐 of me for months past. Early in the morning I sent send a letter to the Hampstead Cottage 小屋, and followed it myself 我 in an hour's time.

When the first meeting was over, when our quiet and composure of other days began gradually 逐步地 to return to us, I saw something in my mother's face which told me that a secret oppression 压迫 lay lie heavy on her heart. There was more than love—there was sorrow 悲痛 in the anxious 焦急的 eyes that looked on me so tenderly 纤弱的—there was pity 怜悯 in the kind hand that slowly and fondly 喜欢的 strengthened 加强 its hold on mine. We had no concealments from each other. She knew how the hope of my life had been wrecked—she knew why I had left her. It was on my lips to ask as composedly as I could if any letter had come for me from Miss Halcombe, if there was any news of her sister 姐妹 that I might hear. But when I looked in my mother's face I lost courage 勇气 to put the question even in that guarded form. I could only say, doubtingly and restrainedly—

"You have something to tell me."

My sister, who had been sitting opposite to us, rose rise suddenly without a word of explanation 说明—rose and left the room.

My mother moved closer to me on the sofa 沙发 and put her arms round my neck. Those fond 喜欢的 arms trembled 发抖—the tears flowed fast over the faithful 可信 loving face.

"Walter!" she whispered 低声说, "my own darling 宠儿! my heart is heavy for you. Oh, my son! my son! try to remember that I am still left!"

My head sank 淹没:sink on her bosom. She had said all in saying those words.

---

It was the morning of the third day since my return—the morning of the sixteenth of October.

I had remained with them at the cottage 小屋—I had tried hard not to embitter the happiness 幸福 of my return to them as it was embittered to me. I had done all man could to rise after the shock, and accept my life resignedly—to let my great sorrow 悲痛 come in tenderness 压痛 to my heart, and not in despair 绝望. It was use‧less 无用 and hope‧less 绝望. No tears soothed 缓和 my aching 疼痛 eyes, no relief came to me from my sister's sympathy 同情 or my mother's love.

On that third morning I opened my heart to them. At last the words passed my lips which I had longed to speak on the day when my mother told me of her death.

"Let me go away alone for a little while," I said. "I shall bear it better when I have looked once more at the place where I first saw her—when I have knelt 跪:kneel and prayed by the grave 坟墓；严重的 where they have laid her to rest."

I departed 离开 on my journey 旅行—my journey to the grave of Laura Fairlie.

It was a quiet autumn 秋 afternoon when I stopped at the solitary 孤 station, and set forth alone on foot by the well-remembered road. The waning 没落 sun was shining 发光 faintly 微弱的 through thin white clouds—the air was warm and still—the peacefulness of the lonely 孤独的 country was over‧shadow 掩盖 and saddened 使悲哀 by the influence of the falling year.

I reached the moor 泊—I stood again on the brow 眉头 of the hill—I looked on along the path 小路—and there were the familiar garden trees in the distance, the clear sweeping semi‧circle 半‧圆 of the drive, the high white walls of Limmeridge House. The chances and changes, the wanderings and dangers of months and months past, all shrank and shrivelled to nothing in my mind. It was like yesterday since my feet had last trodden the fragrant heathy ground grind. I thought I should see her coming to meet me, with her little straw 稻草 hat shading 遮阳；阴 her face, her simple dress fluttering 扑 in the air, and her well-filled sketch 草图-book ready in her hand.

Oh death, thou 汝 hast thy 你的 sting 叮! oh, grave, thou 汝 hast thy 你的 victory!

I turned aside, and there below me in the glen was the lone‧some 孤单‧一些 grey 灰色:gray church, the porch 门廊 where I had waited for the coming of the woman in white, the hills encircling 包围 the quiet burial 葬礼-ground, the brook 溪 bubbling 泡沫 cold over its stony bed. There was the marble 大理石 cross, fair and white, at the head of the tomb 墓—the tomb 墓 that now rose over mother and daughter alike 同样的.

I approached the grave. I crossed once more the low stone stile, and bared 光秃秃的 my head as I touched the sacred 神圣的 ground. Sacred to gentleness and goodness 善良, sacred to reverence and grief 哀思.

I stopped before the pedestal from which the cross rose. On one side of it, on the side nearest to me, the newly 最近，新近-cut inscription 题词 met my eyes—the hard, clear, cruel 残酷的 black letters which told the story of her life and death. I tried to read them. I did read as far as the name. "Sacred to the Memory of Laura——" The kind blue eyes dim 暗淡 with tears—the fair head drooping wearily 厌倦—the innocent 无辜 parting words which implored me to leave her—oh, for a happier last memory of her than this; the memory I took away with me, the memory I bring back with me to her grave!

A second time I tried to read the inscription 题词. I saw at the end the date of her death, and above it——

Above it there were lines on the marble 大理石—there was a name among them which disturbed 打扰 my thoughts of her. I went round to the other side of the grave, where there was nothing to read, nothing of earthly vileness to force its way between her spirit and mine.

I knelt down by the tomb 墓. I laid my hands, I laid my head on the broad white stone, and closed my weary 厌倦 eyes on the earth around, on the light above. I let her come back to me. Oh, my love! my love! my heart may speak to you now! It is yesterday again since we parted—yesterday, since your dear hand lay in mine—yesterday, since my eyes looked their last on you. My love! my love!

---

Time had flowed on, and silence had fallen fall like thick night over its course.

The first sound that came after the heavenly 神圣的 peace rustled 沙沙 faintly like a passing breath of air over the grass 草 of the burial 葬礼-ground. I heard it nearing me slowly, until it came changed to my ear—came like foot‧step 脚步 moving onward 向前—then stopped.

I looked up.

The sunset 日落 was near at hand. The clouds had parted—the slanting 倾斜 light fell fall mellow 醇厚 over the hills. The last of the day was cold and clear and still in the quiet valley of the dead.

Beyond me, in the burial 葬礼-ground, standing together in the cold clearness of the lower light, I saw two women. They were looking towards the tomb 墓, looking towards me.

Two.

They came a little on, and stopped again. Their veils 面纱 were down, and hid hide their faces from me. When they stopped, one of them raised her veil 面纱. In the still evening light I saw the face of Marian Halcombe.

Changed, changed as if years had passed over it! The eyes large and wild, and looking at me with a strange terror 恐怖 in them. The face worn wear and wasted piteously. Pain and fear and grief 哀思 written on her as with a brand 牌.

I took one step towards her from the grave. She never moved—she never spoke speak. The veiled 面纱 woman with her cried out faintly. I stopped. The springs of my life fell low, and the shuddering 不寒而栗 of an unutterable dread 恐惧 crept 爬行:creep over me from head to foot.

The woman with the veiled face moved away from her companion 同伴, and came towards me slowly. Left by her‧self 她自己, standing by her‧self 她自己, Marian Halcombe spoke. It was the voice that I remembered—the voice not changed, like the frightened 使惊恐 eyes and the wasted face.

"My dream! my dream!" I heard her say those words softly in the awful 糟糕的 silence. She sank on her knees, and raised her clasped 钩 hands to heaven 天. "Father! strengthen 加强 him. Father! help him in his hour of need."

The woman came on, slowly and silently came on. I looked at her—at her, and at none other, from that moment.

The voice that was praying for me faltered 衰退 and sank low—then rose on a sudden, and called affrightedly, called despairingly to me to come away.

But the veiled woman had possession 所有物 of me, body and soul. She stopped on one side of the grave. We stood face to face with the tomb‧stone 墓‧石头 between us. She was close to the inscription 题词 on the side of the pedestal. Her gown 袍 touched the black letters.

The voice came nearer, and rose and rose more passionately 热情 still. "Hide your face! don't look at her! Oh, for God's sake 缘故, spare 节省；多余的；备用件 him——"

The woman lifted her veil 面纱.

"Sacred to the Memory of Laura, Lady Glyde——"

Laura, Lady Glyde, was standing by the inscription 题词, and was looking at me over the grave.

[The Second Epoch of the Story closes here.]

THE THIRD EPOCH

THE STORY CONTINUED BY WALTER HARTRIGHT.

I

I open a new page. I advance my narrative 叙述 by one week.

The history of the interval 间隔 which I thus pass over must remain unrecorded. My heart turns faint 微弱的, my mind sinks 淹没 in darkness 黑暗 and confusion 混乱 when I think of it. This must not be, if I who write am to guide, as I ought, you who read. This must not be, if the clue 线索 that leads through the windings of the story is to remain from end to end untangled in my hands.

A life suddenly changed—its whole purpose created afresh, its hopes and fears, its struggles, its interests, and its sacrifices 牺牲 all turned at once and for ever into a new direction—this is the prospect 展望 which now opens before me, like the burst 爆裂 of view from a mountain's top. I left my narrative 叙述 in the quiet shadow of Limmeridge church—I resume 恢复 it, one week later, in the stir 搅动 and turmoil 动荡 of a London street.

The street is in a populous and a poor neighbourhood. The ground floor of one of the houses in it is occupied 占据 by a small news‧vendor 新闻‧供应商's shop, and the first floor and the second are let as furnished lodgings 存放 of the humblest 谦逊的 kind.

I have taken those two floors in an assumed 承担 name. On the upper floor I live, with a room to work in, a room to sleep in. On the lower floor, under the same assumed 承担 name, two women live, who are described as my sisters 姐妹. I get my bread 面包 by drawing and engraving 雕刻 on wood for the cheap 便宜的 periodicals 期刊. My sisters are supposed to help me by taking in a little needle 针-work. Our poor place of abode, our humble 谦逊的 calling, our assumed 承担 relationship, and our assumed 承担 name, are all used alike 同样的 as a means of hiding us in the house-forest of London. We are numbered no longer with the people whose 谁的 lives are open and known. I am an obscure 朦胧, unnoticed 被忽视 man, without patron 顾客 or friend to help me. Marian Halcombe is nothing now but my eldest 最年长 sister, who provides for our house‧hold 家庭 wants by the toil 辛劳 of her own hands. We two, in the estimation 估计 of others, are at once the dupes and the agents of a daring 敢 imposture. We are supposed to be the accomplices of mad 疯狂的 Anne Catherick, who claims the name, the place, and the living personality 个性 of dead Lady Glyde.

That is our situation. That is the changed aspect 方面 in which we three must appear, hence‧forth 今后, in this narrative 叙述, for many and many a page to come.

In the eye of reason and of law, in the estimation 估计 of relatives and friends, according to every received formality 礼节 of civilised society, "Laura, Lady Glyde," lay buried 埋葬 with her mother in Limmeridge church‧yard 墓地. Torn in her own life‧time 一生 from the list of the living, the daughter of Philip Fairlie and the wife of Percival Glyde might still exist for her sister, might still exist for me, but to all the world besides she was dead. Dead to her uncle 叔叔, who had renounced 放弃 her; dead to the servants 仆人 of the house, who had failed to recognise her; dead to the persons in authority 权威, who had transmitted 发送 her for‧tune 命运 to her husband and her aunt 阿姨; dead to my mother and my sister, who believed me to be the dupe of an adventuress and the victim 受害者 of a fraud 舞弊; socially, morally, legally 法律上—dead.

And yet alive 活的；有生命的! Alive in poverty 贫穷 and in hiding. Alive, with the poor drawing-master to fight her battle, and to win the way back for her to her place in the world of living beings 蜜蜂.

Did no suspicion 怀疑, excited by my own knowledge of Anne Catherick's resemblance 相似 to her, cross my mind, when her face was first revealed 揭示 to me? Not the shadow of a suspicion, from the moment when she lifted her veil 面纱 by the side of the inscription 题词 which recorded her death.

Before the sun of that day had set, before the last glimpse 一瞥 of the home which was closed against her had passed from our view, the fare‧well 告别 words I spoke, when we parted at Limmeridge House, had been recalled 召回 by both of us—repeated by me, recognised by her. "If ever the time comes, when the devotion 忠诚 of my whole heart and soul and strength will give you a moment's happiness 幸福, or spare 节省；多余的；备用件 you a moment's sorrow 悲痛, will you try to remember the poor drawing-master who has taught teach you?" She, who now remembered so little of the trouble and terror 恐怖 of a later time, remembered those words, and laid her poor head innocently 无辜 and trustingly on the bosom of the man who had spoken speak them. In that moment, when she called me by my name, when she said, "They have tried to make me forget everything, Walter; but I remember Marian, and I remember you"—in that moment, I, who had long since given her my love, gave her my life, and thanked God that it was mine to bestow 赐给 on her. Yes! the time had come. From thou‧sand 千 on thou‧sand 千 of miles away—through forest and wilderness 荒野, where companions 同伴 stronger than I had fallen by my side, through peril 岌 of death thrice renewed 更新, and thrice escaped, the Hand that leads men on the dark road to the future had led me to meet that time. Forlorn and disowned, sorely 疼痛的 tried and sadly 悲哀的 changed—her beauty faded 褪去, her mind clouded— robbed 抢劫 of her station in the world, of her place among living creatures 动物；生物—the devotion 忠诚 I had promised, the devotion 忠诚 of my whole heart and soul and strength, might be laid blamelessly now at those dear feet. In the right of her calamity, in the right of her friendlessness, she was mine at last! Mine to support, to protect, to cherish 珍视, to restore 修复；使复位；使复职. Mine to love and honour as father and brother both. Mine to vindicate 表白 through all risks and all sacrifices—through the hope‧less 绝望 struggle against Rank 排列 and Power, through the long fight with armed deceit 欺骗 and fortified 强化 Success, through the waste of my reputation 名气, through the loss of my friends, through the hazard 冒险 of my life.

II

My position is defined 确定—my motives 动机 are acknowledged 确认. The story of Marian and the story of Laura must come next.

I shall relate both narratives 叙述, not in the words (often interrupted 打断, often inevitably 必将 confused 使困窘) of the speakers 扬声器 themselves, but in the words of the brief 简要, plain, studiously simple abstract 抽象 which I committed 承诺 to writing for my own guidance 指导, and for the guidance 指导 of my legal 法律 adviser 顾问. So the tangled 纠纷 web 网 will be most speedily 迅速 and most intelligibly unrolled.

The story of Marian begins where the narrative 叙述 of the house‧keep 管家 at Blackwater Park left off.

On Lady Glyde's departure 离开 from her husband's house, the fact of that departure 离开, and the necessary statement 声明 of the circumstances 环境 under which it had taken place, were communicated 通信 to Miss Halcombe by the house‧keep 管家. It was not till 到 some days after‧ward 之后 (how many days exactly, Mrs. Michelson, in the absence 缺席 of any written memorandum 备忘录 on the subject, could not under‧take 承担 to say) that a letter arrived from Madame Fosco announcing 宣布 Lady Glyde's sudden death in Count Fosco's house. The letter avoided mentioning dates, and left it to Mrs. Michelson's discretion 慎重 to break the news at once to Miss Halcombe, or to defer 延缓 doing so until that lady's health should be more firmly established 建立.

Having consulted 咨询；请教；查阅 Mr. Dawson (who had been himself delayed 延迟, by ill 生病 health, in resuming 恢复 his attendance 勤 at Blackwater Park), Mrs. Michelson, by the doctor's advice 劝告, and in the doctor's presence, communicated 通信 the news, either on the day when the letter was received, or on the day after. It is not necessary to dwell 住 here upon the effect which the intelligence 情报 of Lady Glyde's sudden death produced on her sister. It is only useful 有用 to the present purpose to say that she was not able to travel for more than three weeks after‧ward 之后. At the end of that time she proceeded 继续 to London accompanied 陪 by the house‧keep 管家. They parted there—Mrs. Michelson previously 先前 informing Miss Halcombe of her address, in case they might wish to communicate 通信 at a future period.

On parting with the house‧keep 管家 Miss Halcombe went at once to the office of Messrs. Gilmore & 功放; Kyrle to consult 咨询；请教；查阅 with the latter gentle‧man 先生 in Mr. Gilmore's absence. She mentioned to Mr. Kyrle what she had thought it desirable 合意 to conceal 隐藏 from every one else (Mrs. Michelson included)—her suspicion 怀疑 of the circumstances 环境 under which Lady Glyde was said to have met her death. Mr. Kyrle, who had previously 先前 given friendly proof 证明 of his anxiety 焦虑 to serve Miss Halcombe, at once undertook to make such inquiries 调查 as the delicate 微妙的；纤弱的 and dangerous 危险 nature of the investigation 调查 proposed to him would permit.

To exhaust 排气 this part of the subject before going farther, it may be mentioned that Count Fosco offered every facility 设施 to Mr. Kyrle, on that gentle‧man 先生's stating that he was sent by Miss Halcombe to collect such particulars as had not yet reached her of Lady Glyde's decease 死亡. Mr. Kyrle was placed in communication 通讯 with the medical man, Mr. Goodricke, and with the two servants. In the absence of any means of ascertaining 探明 the exact date of Lady Glyde's departure 离开 from Blackwater Park, the result of the doctor's and the servants' evidence 证据, and of the volunteered 志愿者 statements 声明 of Count Fosco and his wife, was conclusive 确凿 to the mind of Mr. Kyrle. He could only assume 承担 that the intensity 强度 of Miss Halcombe's suffering, under the loss of her sister, had misled her judgment 判断 in a most deplorable manner, and he wrote her word that the shocking suspicion 3 to which she had alluded 暗示 in his presence was, in his opinion, destitute of the smallest fragment 分段 of foundation 基础 in truth. Thus the investigation 调查 by Mr. Gilmore's partner 伙伴 began and ended.

Meanwhile 同时, Miss Halcombe had returned to Limmeridge House, and had there collected all the additional 额外 information which she was able to obtain 获得.

Mr. Fairlie had received his first intimation of his niece 外甥女's death from his sister, Madame Fosco, this letter also not containing any exact reference to dates. He had sanctioned 制裁 his sister's proposal that the deceased 死亡 lady should be laid in her mother's grave in Limmeridge church‧yard 墓地. Count Fosco had accompanied 陪 the remains to Cumberland, and had attended the funeral 葬礼 at Limmeridge, which took place on the 30th of July. It was followed, as a mark of respect, by all the inhabitants 居民 of the village and the neighbourhood. On the next day the inscription 题词 (originally 本来 drawn draw out, it was said, by the aunt 阿姨 of the deceased 死亡 lady, and submitted 给 for approval 批准；同意；赞成 to her brother, Mr. Fairlie) was engraved 雕刻 on one side of the monument 纪念碑 over the tomb 墓.

On the day of the funeral 葬礼, and for one day after it, Count Fosco had been received as a guest at Limmeridge House, but no interview 访问 had taken place between Mr. Fairlie and himself, by the former gentleman's desire. They had communicated 通信 by writing, and through this medium 中 Count Fosco had made Mr. Fairlie acquainted 认识 with the details of his niece 外甥女's last illness 疾病 and death. The letter presenting this information added no new facts to the facts already known, but one very remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 paragraph 段 was contained in the post‧script 邮件‧脚本. It referred to Anne Catherick.

The substance 物质 of the paragraph 段 in question was as follows—

It first informed Mr. Fairlie that Anne Catherick (of whom 谁 he might hear full particulars from Miss Halcombe when she reached Limmeridge) had been traced 跟踪 and recovered 恢复 in the neighbourhood of Blackwater Park, and had been for the second time placed under the charge of the medical man from whose 谁的 custody 保管 she had once escaped.

This was the first part of the post‧script 邮件‧脚本. The second part warned Mr. Fairlie that Anne Catherick's mental 心理 malady had been aggravated 加剧 by her long freedom from control, and that the insane 疯 hatred 仇恨 and distrust 怀疑 of Sir 先生 Percival Glyde, which had been one of her most marked delusions 妄想 in former times, still existed under a newly 最近，新近-acquired 获得 form. The unfortunate 不幸的 woman's last idea in connection with Sir Percival was the idea of annoying 打扰 and distressing 苦难 him, and of elevating 提升 her‧self 她自己, as she supposed, in the estimation 估计 of the patients and nurses 护士, by assuming 承担 the character of his deceased 死亡 wife, the scheme 方案 of this personation having evidently 明显地 occurred 发生 to her after a stolen interview 访问 which she had succeeded in obtaining 获得 with Lady Glyde, and at which she had observed the extra‧ordinary 非凡的 accidental 偶然 likeness 像 between the deceased 死亡 lady and her‧self 她自己. It was to the last degree improbable 难以置信 that she would succeed a second time in escaping from the Asylum, but it was just possible she might find some means of annoying the late Lady Glyde's relatives with letters, and in that case Mr. Fairlie was warned before‧hand 预先 how to receive them.

The post‧script 邮件‧脚本, expressed in these terms, was shown to Miss Halcombe when she arrived at Limmeridge. There were also placed in her possession 所有物 the clothes Lady Glyde had worn, and the other effects she had brought with her to her aunt 阿姨's house. They had been carefully 小心 collected and sent to Cumberland by Madame Fosco.

Such was the posture 姿势 of affairs when Miss Halcombe reached Limmeridge in the early part of September.

Shortly after‧ward 之后 she was con‧fine 局限 to her room by a relapse 复发, her weakened 柔弱的:weak physical 物理 energies 能源 giving way under the severe 严峻的 mental 心理 affliction from which she was now suffering. On getting stronger again, in a month's time, her suspicion of the circumstances 环境 described as attending her sister's death still remained unshaken. She had heard nothing in the interim 临时 of Sir 3 Percival Glyde, but letters had reached her from Madame Fosco, making the most affectionate 亲热 inquiries on the part of her husband and her‧self 她自己. Instead of answering these letters, Miss Halcombe caused the house in St. John's Wood, and the proceedings 继续 of its inmates 犯人, to be privately watched.

Nothing doubtful 疑 was discovered. The same result attended the next investigations 调查, which were secretly instituted 研究所 on the subject of Mrs. Rubelle. She had arrived in London about six months before with her husband. They had come from Lyons, and they had taken a house in the neighbourhood of Leicester Square, to be fitted up as a boarding-house for foreigners 外国人, who were expected to visit England in large numbers to see the Exhibition 展览 of 1851. Nothing was known against husband or wife in the neighbourhood. They were quiet people, and they had paid their way honestly 诚实的 up to the present time. The final 最后 inquiries related to Sir Percival Glyde. He was settled in Paris, and living there quietly in a small circle of English and French friends.

Foiled at all points, but still not able to rest, Miss Halcombe next determined to visit the Asylum in which she then supposed Anne Catherick to be for the second time con‧fine 局限. She had felt a strong curiosity 好奇心 about the woman in former days, and she was now doubly interested—first, in ascertaining 探明 whether the report of Anne Catherick's attempted personation of Lady Glyde was true, and secondly (if it proved to be true), in discovering for her‧self 她自己 what the poor creature 动物；生物's real motives 动机 were for attempting the deceit 欺骗.

Although Count Fosco's letter to Mr. Fairlie did not mention the address of the Asylum, that important omission 省略 cast 投 no difficulties in Miss Halcombe's way. When Mr. Hartright had met Anne Catherick at Limmeridge, she had informed him of the locality 局部性 in which the house was situated 位于, and Miss Halcombe had noted down the direction in her diary 日记, with all the other particulars of the interview 访问 exactly as she heard them from Mr. Hartright's own lips. Accordingly she looked back at the entry 条目 and extracted 提取 the address—furnished her‧self 她自己 with the Count's letter to Mr. Fairlie as a species 种类 of credential 凭据 which might be useful 有用 to her, and started by her‧self 她自己 for the Asylum on the eleventh of October.

She passed the night of the eleventh in London. It had been her intention to sleep at the house inhabited 居住于 by Lady Glyde's old governess, but Mrs. Vesey's agitation 搅动 at the sight of her lost pupil 学生's nearest and dearest friend was so distressing 苦难 that Miss Halcombe considerately ref‧rain 副歌 from remaining in her presence, and removed 去掉 to a respect‧able 可敬 boarding-house in the neighbourhood, recommended by Mrs. Vesey's married sister. The next day she proceeded 继续 to the Asylum, which was situated 位于 not far from London on the northern 北方的 side of the metropolis.

She was immediately admitted to see the proprietor 业主.

At first he appeared to be decidedly 果断地 unwilling 不甘 to let her communicate 通信 with his patient. But on her showing him the post‧script 邮件‧脚本 to Count Fosco's letter—on her reminding him that she was the "Miss Halcombe" there referred to—that she was a near relative of the deceased 死亡 Lady Glyde—and that she was therefore naturally 自然地 interested, for family reasons, in observing for her‧self 她自己 the extent of Anne Catherick's delusion 妄想 in relation to her late sister—the tone 音 and manner of the owner of the Asylum altered 改变, and he withdrew his objections 反对. He probably felt that a continued refusal 拒绝, under these circumstances 环境, would not only be an act of discourtesy in itself 本身, but would also imply 意味着 that the proceedings 继续 in his establishment 机构 were not of a nature to bear investigation 调查 by respect‧able 可敬 strangers 陌生人.

Miss Halcombe's own impression 印象 was that the owner of the Asylum had not been received into the confidence 信心 of Sir Percival and the Count. His consenting 同意 at all to let her visit his patient seemed to afford 买得起 one proof 证明 of this, and his readiness 准备就绪 in making admissions 准许进入 which could scarcely 缺乏的 have escaped the lips of an accomplice, certainly appeared to furnish another.

For example, in the course of the introductory 介绍 conversation which took place, he informed Miss Halcombe that Anne Catherick had been brought back to him with the necessary order and certificates 证书 by Count Fosco on the twenty 二十-seventh of July—the Count also producing a letter of explanations 说明 and instructions 指令 signed by Sir Percival Glyde. On receiving his inmate 犯人 again, the proprietor 业主 of the Asylum acknowledged 确认 that he had observed some curious personal 个人 changes in her. Such changes no doubt were not without precedent 先例 in his experience of persons mentally 精神上 afflicted 折磨. Insane people were often at one time, outwardly 向外的 as well as inwardly 向内的, unlike 不像 what they were at another—the change from better to worse, or from worse to better, in the madness 疯狂 having a necessary tendency 趋势 to produce alterations 改造 of appearance externally 外面的；外表的；来自外部的. He allowed for these, and he allowed also for the modification 修改 in the form of Anne Catherick's delusion 妄想, which was reflected no doubt in her manner and expression. But he was still perplexed 困扰 at times by certain differences between his patient before she had escaped and his patient since she had been brought back. Those differences were too minute to be described. He could not say of course that she was absolutely altered in height 高度 or shape or complex‧ion 肤色, or in the colour of her hair and eyes, or in the general form of her face—the change was something that he felt more than something that he saw. In short, the case had been a puzzle 使迷惑 from the first, and one more perplexity was added to it now.

It cannot be said that this conversation led to the result of even partially 部分 preparing Miss Halcombe's mind for what was to come. But it produced, nevertheless 虽然, a very serious effect upon her. She was so completely unnerved by it, that some little time elapsed 过去 before she could summon 召唤 composure enough to follow the proprietor 业主 of the Asylum to that part of the house in which the inmates 犯人 were con‧fine 局限.

On inquiry 调查, it turned out that the supposed Anne Catherick was then taking exercise in the grounds attached 连接 to the establishment 机构. One of the nurses volunteered 志愿者 to conduct 进行 Miss Halcombe to the place, the proprietor 业主 of the Asylum remaining in the house for a few minutes to attend to a case which required his services, and then engaging 从事 to join his visitor 访问者 in the grounds.

The nurse 护士 led Miss Halcombe to a distant 遥远的 part of the property, which was prettily laid out, and after looking about her a little, turned into a turf 草皮 walk, shaded 遮阳；阴 by a shrubbery on either side. About half-way down this walk two women were slowly approaching. The nurse pointed to them and said, "There is Anne Catherick, ma 嘛'am, with the attend‧ant 服务员 who waits on her. The attend‧ant 服务员 will answer any questions you wish to put." With those words the nurse left her to return to the duties of the house.

Miss Halcombe advanced on her side, and the women advanced on theirs. When they were within a dozen paces 步伐，速度 of each other, one of the women stopped for an instant 瞬间, looked eagerly 渴望的 at the strange lady, shook shake off the nurse's grasp 把握 on her, and the next moment rushed 仓促 into Miss Halcombe's arms. In that moment Miss Halcombe recognised her sister—recognised the dead-alive.

Fortunately for the success of the measures taken subsequently 随后的，接着的, no one was present at that moment but the nurse. She was a young woman, and she was so startled 惊吓 that she was at first quite incapable 无法 of interfering 干预. When she was able to do so her whole services were required by Miss Halcombe, who had for the moment sunk 淹没:sink altogether 全部地 in the effort to keep her own senses under the shock of the discovery 发现. After waiting a few minutes in the fresh air and the cool shade 遮阳；阴, her natural 自然 energy 能源 and courage 勇气 helped her a little, and she became sufficiently 充分地 mistress 情妇 of her‧self 她自己 to feel the necessity 必须 of recalling 召回 her presence of mind for her unfortunate 不幸的 sister's sake 缘故.

She obtained 获得 per‧mission 允许 to speak alone with the patient, on condition that they both remained well within the nurse's view. There was no time for questions—there was only time for Miss Halcombe to impress 给…留下深刻印象；使钦佩 on the unhappy 不快乐 lady the necessity of controlling her‧self 她自己, and to assure 向…保证；肯定地说 her of immediate help and rescue 营救 if she did so. The prospect 展望 of escaping from the Asylum by obedience 遵守 to her sister's directions was sufficient 足够 to quiet Lady Glyde, and to make her understand what was required of her. Miss Halcombe next returned to the nurse, placed all the gold 金 she then had in her pocket 口袋 (three sovereigns 君主) in the nurse's hands, and asked when and where she could speak to her alone.

The woman was at first surprised and distrustful. But on Miss Halcombe's declaring that she only wanted to put some questions which she was too much agitated 激荡 to ask at that moment, and that she had no intention of misleading 误导 the nurse into any dereliction of duty, the woman took the money, and proposed three o' clock 钟 on the next day as the time for the interview 访问. She might then slip out for half an hour, after the patients had dined 吃饭, and she would meet the lady in a retired place, outside the high north wall which screened the grounds of the house. Miss Halcombe had only time to assent 同意, and to whisper 低声说 to her sister that she should hear from her on the next day, when the proprietor 业主 of the Asylum joined them. He noticed his visitor 访问者's agitation 搅动, which Miss Halcombe accounted for by saying that her interview 访问 with Anne Catherick had a little startled 惊吓 her at first. She took her leave as soon after as possible—that is to say, as soon as she could summon 召唤 courage 3 to force her‧self 她自己 from the presence of her unfortunate 不幸的 sister.

A very little reflection 反映, when the capacity 容量 to reflect returned, convinced 说服 her that any attempt to identify 鉴定 Lady Glyde and to rescue 营救 her by legal 法律 means, would, even if successful 成功, involve a delay 延迟 that might be fatal 致命 to her sister's intellects 智力, which were shaken shake already by the horror 恐怖 of the situation to which she had been consigned. By the time Miss Halcombe had got back to London, she had determined to effect Lady Glyde's escape privately, by means of the nurse.

She went at once to her stock‧broker 股份‧经纪人, and sold sell out of the funds 基金 all the little property she possessed 拥有, amounting to rather less than seven 七 hundred 百 pounds. Determined, if necessary, to pay the price of her sister's liberty 自由 with every far‧thing 远‧东西；事件 she had in the world, she repaired 修理 the next day, having the whole sum 和 about her in bank-notes, to her appointment 约定 outside the Asylum wall.

The nurse was there. Miss Halcombe approached the subject cautiously 小心的 by many preliminary 初步 questions. She discovered, among other particulars, that the nurse who had in former times attended on the true Anne Catherick had been held responsible (although she was not to blame 指责 for it) for the patient's escape, and had lost her place in consequence 后果. The same penalty 罚款, it was added, would attach 连接 to the person then speaking to her, if the supposed Anne Catherick was missing a second time; and, moreover, the nurse in this case had an especial interest in keeping her place. She was engaged 从事 to be married, and she and her future husband were waiting till 到 they could save, together, between two and three hundred 百 pounds to start in business. The nurse's wages were good, and she might succeed, by strict 严格的 economy 经济, in contributing 有助于 her small share towards the sum 和 required in two years' time.

On this hint 暗示 Miss Halcombe spoke. She declared that the supposed Anne Catherick was nearly related to her, that she had been placed in the Asylum under a fatal 致命 mistake, and that the nurse would be doing a good and a Christian action in being the means of restoring 修复；使复位；使复职 them to one another. Before there was time to start a single objection 反对, Miss Halcombe took four bank-notes of a hundred 百 pounds each from her pocket 口袋-book, and offered them to the woman, as a compensation 赔偿金 for the risk she was to run, and for the loss of her place.

The nurse hesitated 犹豫, through sheer incredulity and surprise. Miss Halcombe pressed the point on her firmly.

"You will be doing a good action," she repeated; "you will be helping the most injured 损伤 and unhappy 不快乐 woman alive. There is your marriage portion 一部分；一份 for a reward 报酬. Bring her safely to me here, and I will put these four bank-notes into your hand before I claim her."

"Will you give me a letter saying those words, which I can show to my sweet‧heart 爱人 when he asks how I got the money?" inquired 打听 the woman.

"I will bring the letter with me, ready written and signed," answered Miss Halcombe.

"Then I'll risk it," said the nurse.

"When?"

"To-morrow."

It was hastily 草草 agreed between them that Miss Halcombe should return early the next morning and wait out of sight among the trees—always, however, keeping near the quiet spot of ground under the north wall. The nurse could fix no time for her appearance, caution 小心 requiring that she should wait and be guided by circumstances 环境. On that understanding they separated.

Miss Halcombe was at her place, with the promised letter and the promised bank-notes, before ten 十 the next morning. She waited more than an hour and a half. At the end of that time the nurse came quickly round the corner of the wall holding Lady Glyde by the arm. The moment they met Miss Halcombe put the bank-notes and the letter into her hand, and the sisters were united again.

The nurse had dressed Lady Glyde, with excellent forethought, in a bonnet 帽子, veil 3, and shawl of her own. Miss Halcombe only detained 扣留 her to suggest a means of turning the pursuit 追求 in a false 虚伪的 direction, when the escape was discovered at the Asylum. She was to go back to the house, to mention in the hearing of the other nurses that Anne Catherick had been inquiring 打听 latterly about the distance from London to Hampshire, to wait till the last moment, before discovery 发现 was inevitable 必然, and then to give the alarm 警告 that Anne was missing. The supposed inquiries about Hampshire, when communicated 通信 to the owner of the Asylum, would lead him to imagine that his patient had returned to Blackwater Park, under the influence of the delusion 妄想 which made her persist 坚持 in asserting 断言 her‧self 她自己 to be Lady Glyde, and the first pursuit 追求 would, in all probability 可能性, be turned in that direction.

The nurse consented 同意 to follow these suggestions 建议, the more readily as they offered her the means of securing 安全 her‧self 她自己 against any worse consequences 后果 than the loss of her place, by remaining in the Asylum, and so maintaining 保持 the appearance of innocence 无辜, at least. She at once returned to the house, and Miss Halcombe lost no time in taking her sister back with her to London. They caught catch the afternoon train to Carlisle the same afternoon, and arrived at Limmeridge, without accident 意外事件 or difficulty of any kind, that night.

During the latter part of their journey 旅行 they were alone in the carriage 运输, and Miss Halcombe was able to collect such remembrances 纪念 of the past as her sister's confused and weakened memory was able to recall 召回. The terrible story of the conspiracy 阴谋 so obtained 获得 was presented in fragments 分段, sadly incoherent in themselves, and widely detached 分离 from each other. Imperfect as the revelation 启示 was, it must nevertheless 虽然 be recorded here before this explanatory 解释性 narrative 叙述 closes with the events of the next day at Limmeridge House.

Lady Glyde's recollection 回忆 of the events which followed her departure 离开 from Blackwater Park began with her arrival 到达 at the London terminus of the South Western Railway. She had omitted 省略 to make a memorandum 备忘录 before‧hand 预先 of the day on which she took the journey 3. All hope of fixing that important date by any evidence 证据 of hers, or of Mrs. Michelson's, must be given up for lost.

On the arrival 到达 of the train at the platform 平台 Lady Glyde found Count Fosco waiting for her. He was at the carriage 运输 door as soon as the porter 搬运工 could open it. The train was unusually 异常 crowded, and there was great confusion 混乱 in getting the luggage 行李. Some person whom 谁 Count Fosco brought with him pro‧cure 促成 the luggage 行李 which belonged to Lady Glyde. It was marked with her name. She drove drive away alone with the Count in a vehicle 车辆 which she did not particularly notice at the time.

Her first question, on leaving the terminus, referred to Miss Halcombe. The Count informed her that Miss Halcombe had not yet gone to Cumberland, after-consideration 考虑 having caused him to doubt the prudence of her taking so long a journey without some days' previous 以前 rest.

Lady Glyde next inquired whether her sister was then staying in the Count's house. Her recollection 回忆 of the answer was confused, her only distinct 不同 impression 印象 in relation to it being that the Count declared he was then taking her to see Miss Halcombe. Lady Glyde's experience of London was so limited that she could not tell, at the time, through what streets they were driving. But they never left the streets, and they never passed any gardens or trees. When the carriage 运输 stopped, it stopped in a small street behind a square—a square in which there were shops, and public buildings, and many people. From these recollections 回忆 (of which Lady Glyde was certain) it seems quite clear that Count Fosco did not take her to his own residence 住宅 in the suburb 市郊 of St. John's Wood.

They entered the house, and went upstairs 楼上 to a back room, either on the first or second floor. The luggage 行李 was carefully 小心 brought in. A female servant 仆人 opened the door, and a man with a dark beard 胡须, apparently 据…所知；看来；据说；听说 a foreigner, met them in the hall, and with great politeness 礼貌 showed them the way upstairs 楼上. In answer to Lady Glyde's inquiries, the Count assured 向…保证；肯定地说 her that Miss Halcombe was in the house, and that she should be immediately informed of her sister's arrival 到达. He and the foreigner then went away and left her by her‧self 她自己 in the room. It was poorly furnished as a sitting-room, and it looked out on the backs of houses.

The place was remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 quiet—no foot‧step 脚步 went up or down the stairs 楼梯—she only heard in the room beneath 之下 her a dull 钝的；没兴趣, rumbling 隆隆 sound of men's voices talking. Before she had been long left alone the Count returned, to explain that Miss Halcombe was then taking rest, and could not be disturbed for a little while. He was accompanied 陪 into the room by a gentleman (an Englishman), whom 谁 he begged 乞讨 to present as a friend of his.

After this singular 单数 introduction 介绍—in the course of which no names, to the best of Lady Glyde's recollection 回忆, had been mentioned—she was left alone with the stranger. He was perfectly civil 国内, but he startled 惊吓 and confused her by some odd 奇 questions about her‧self 她自己, and by looking at her, while he asked them, in a strange manner. After remaining a short time he went out, and a minute or two after‧ward 之后 a second stranger—also an Englishman—came in. This person introduced himself as another friend of Count Fosco's, and he, in his turn, looked at her very oddly 奇怪, and asked some curious questions—never, as well as she could remember, addressing her by name, and going out again, after a little while, like the first man. By this time she was so frightened about her‧self 她自己, and so uneasy 不安 about her sister, that she had thoughts of venturing 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 downstairs 楼下 again, and claiming the protection and assistance 帮助 of the only woman she had seen in the house—the servant 仆人 who answered the door.

Just as she had risen rise from her chair, the Count came back into the room.

The moment he appeared she asked anxiously 焦急的 how long the meeting between her sister and her‧self 她自己 was to be still delayed. At first he returned an evasive answer, but on being pressed, he acknowledged 确认, with great apparent 清晰可见的；显而易见的；明白易懂的 reluctance 不情愿, that Miss Halcombe was by no means so well as he had hitherto 迄今 represented her to be. His tone 音 and manner, in making this reply, so alarmed 警告 Lady Glyde, or rather so painfully 痛苦 increased the uneasiness which she had felt in the company of the two strangers 陌生人, that a sudden faintness overcame her, and she was obliged 责成 to ask for a glass of water. The Count called from the door for water, and for a bottle of smelling-salts. Both were brought in by the foreign-looking man with the beard 胡须. The water, when Lady Glyde attempted to drink it, had so strange a taste that it increased her faintness, and she hastily 草草 took the bottle of salts from Count Fosco, and smelt smell at it. Her head became giddy on the instant 瞬间. The Count caught the bottle as it dropped out of her hand, and the last impression 印象 of which she was conscious was that he held it to her nostrils 鼻孔 again.

From this point her recollections 回忆 were found to be confused, fragmentary, and difficult to reconcile 调和 with any reasonable probability 可能性.

Her own impression 印象 was that she recovered 恢复 her senses later in the evening, that she then left the house, that she went (as she had previously 先前 arranged to go, at Blackwater Park) to Mrs. Vesey's—that she drank drink tea 茶水 there, and that she passed the night under Mrs. Vesey's roof. She was totally unable 无法 to say how, or when, or in what company she left the house to which Count Fosco had brought her. But she persisted 坚持 in asserting 断言 that she had been to Mrs. Vesey's, and still more extra‧ordinary 非凡的, that she had been helped to undress 脱衣服 and get to bed by Mrs. Rubelle! She could not remember what the conversation was at Mrs. Vesey's or whom 谁 she saw there besides that lady, or why Mrs. Rubelle should have been present in the house to help her.

Her recollection 回忆 of what happened to her the next morning was still more vague 模糊 and unreliable 靠不住.

She had some dim 暗淡 idea of driving out (at what hour she could not say) with Count Fosco, and with Mrs. Rubelle again for a female attend‧ant 服务员. But when, and why, she left Mrs. Vesey she could not tell; neither did she know what direction the carriage 3 drove in, or where it set her down, or whether the Count and Mrs. Rubelle did or did not remain with her all the time she was out. At this point in her sad 悲哀的 story there was a total blank 空白. She had no impressions 印象 of the faintest 微弱的 kind to communicate 通信—no idea whether one day, or more than one day, had passed—until she came to her‧self 她自己 suddenly in a strange place, surrounded by women who were all unknown 未知 to her.

This was the Asylum. Here she first heard her‧self 她自己 called by Anne Catherick's name, and here, as a last remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 circumstance 环境 in the story of the conspiracy 阴谋, her own eyes informed her that she had Anne Catherick's clothes on. The nurse, on the first night in the Asylum, had shown her the marks on each article of her under‧clothing 在…下面‧衣服；服装 as it was taken off, and had said, not at all irritably 急躁 or unkindly, "Look at your own name on your own clothes, and don't worry us all any more about being Lady Glyde. She's dead and buried, and you're alive and hearty 爽朗. Do look at your clothes now! There it is, in good marking ink 墨水, and there you will find it on all your old things, which we have kept in the house—Anne Catherick, as plain as print!" And there it was, when Miss Halcombe examined the linen 麻布 her sister wore wear, on the night of their arrival 到达 at Limmeridge House.

These were the only recollections 回忆—all of them uncertain 不确定, and some of them contradictory 矛盾—which could be extracted 提取 from Lady Glyde by careful 小心 questioning on the journey to Cumberland. Miss Halcombe abstained from pressing her with any inquiries relating to events in the Asylum—her mind being but too evidently 明显地 unfit 不适当 to bear the trial of reverting 还原 to them. It was known, by the voluntary 自主性 admission 准许进入 of the owner of the mad-house, that she was received there on the twenty 二十-seventh of July. From that date until the fifteenth of October (the day of her rescue 营救) she had been under restraint 克制, her identity 身分 with Anne Catherick systematically 系统 asserted 断言, and her sanity 明智, from first to last, practically denied 拒绝. Faculties less delicately 微妙的；纤弱的 balanced, constitutions 宪法 less tenderly organised, must have suffered under such an ordeal 考验 as this. No man could have gone through it and come out of it unchanged 不变.

Arriving at Limmeridge late on the evening of the fifteenth, Miss Halcombe wisely 明智的；聪明的 resolved 解决 not to attempt the assertion 断言 of Lady Glyde's identity 身分 until the next day.

The first thing in the morning she went to Mr. Fairlie's room, and using all possible cautions 小心 and preparations 制备 before‧hand 预先, at last told him in so many words what had happened. As soon as his first astonishment 惊愕 and alarm 警告 had sub‧side 塌陷, he angrily 生气的 declared that Miss Halcombe had allowed her‧self 她自己 to be duped by Anne Catherick. He referred her to Count Fosco's letter, and to what she had her‧self 她自己 told him of the personal 个人 resemblance 相似 between Anne and his deceased 死亡 niece 外甥女, and he positively 积极 declined 下降 to admit to his presence, even for one minute only, a mad‧woman 疯狂的‧女人, whom 4 it was an insult 侮辱 and an out‧rage 暴行 to have brought into his house at all.

Miss Halcombe left the room—waited till the first heat of her indignation 愤慨 had passed away—decided on reflection 反映 that Mr. Fairlie should see his niece in the interests of common humanity 人性 before he closed his doors on her as a stranger—and there‧upon 在那里‧在…上面, without a word of previous 以前 warning, took Lady Glyde with her to his room. The servant 仆人 was posted at the door to prevent their entrance 入口, but Miss Halcombe insisted 咬定 on passing him, and made her way into Mr. Fairlie's presence, leading her sister by the hand.

The scene that followed, though it only lasted for a few minutes, was too painful 痛苦 to be described—Miss Halcombe her‧self 她自己 shrank from referring to it. Let it be enough to say that Mr. Fairlie declared, in the most positive 正 terms, that he did not recognise the woman who had been brought into his room—that he saw nothing in her face and manner to make him doubt for a moment that his niece 4 lay buried in Limmeridge church‧yard 墓地, and that he would call on the law to protect him if before the day was over she was not removed 去掉 from the house.

Taking the very worst view of Mr. Fairlie's selfishness, indolence, and habitual 惯常的 want of feeling, it was manifestly 表现 impossible to suppose that he was cap‧able 能 of such infamy as secretly recognising and openly disowning his brother's child. Miss Halcombe humanely 人道 and sensibly 理智 allowed all due force to the influence of prejudice 成见 and alarm 警告 in preventing him from fairly exercising his perceptions 看法, and accounted for what had happened in that way. But when she next put the servants to the test, and found that they too were, in every case, uncertain 不确定, to say the least of it, whether the lady presented to them was their young mistress 情妇 or Anne Catherick, of whose 谁的 resemblance 相似 to her they had all heard, the sad 悲哀的 conclusion 结论 was inevitable 必然 that the change produced in Lady Glyde's face and manner by her imprisonment 徒刑 in the Asylum was far more serious than Miss Halcombe had at first supposed. The vile deception 骗局 which had asserted 断言 her death defied 违抗 exposure 经受 even in the house where she was born bear, and among the people with whom 5 she had lived.

In a less critical 危急 situation the effort need not have been given up as hope‧less 绝望 even yet.

For example, the maid 女佣, Fanny, who happened to be then absent 缺席的 from Limmeridge, was expected back in two days, and there would be a chance of gaining her recognition 认识 to start with, seeing that she had been in much more constant 不变 communication 通讯 with her mistress 情妇, and had been much more heartily 爽朗 attached 连接 to her than the other servants. Again, Lady Glyde might have been privately kept in the house or in the village to wait until her health was a little recovered 恢复 and her mind was a little steadied again. When her memory could be once more trusted to serve her, she would naturally 自然地 refer to persons and events in the past with a certainty 确定性 and a familiarity 熟悉 which no impostor could simulate 模拟, and so the fact of her identity 身分, which her own appearance had failed to establish 建立, might subsequently be proved, with time to help her, by the surer test of her own words.

But the circumstances 环境 under which she had regained 恢复 her freedom rendered 给予 all recourse 追索权 to such means as these simply impracticable. The pursuit 追求 from the Asylum, diverted 转移 to Hampshire for the time only, would infallibly next take the direction of Cumberland. The persons appointed to seek 寻求 the fugitive 逃亡 might arrive at Limmeridge House at a few hours' notice, and in Mr. Fairlie's present temper 性情 of mind they might count on the immediate exertion of his local influence and authority 权威 to assist 帮助；协助；援助 them. The commonest consideration 考虑 for Lady Glyde's safety 安全 forced on Miss Halcombe the necessity of resigning 辞职 the struggle to do her justice, and of removing 去掉 her at once from the place of all others that was now most dangerous 危险 to her—the neighbourhood of her own home.

An immediate return to London was the first and wisest 明智的；聪明的 measure of security 安全 which suggested itself 本身. In the great city all traces 跟踪 of them might be most speedily 迅速 and most surely effaced. There were no preparations 制备 to make—no fare‧well 告别 words of kindness 善良 to exchange with any one. On the afternoon of that memorable 难忘 day of the sixteenth Miss Halcombe roused 唤醒 her sister to a last exertion of courage, and without a living soul to wish them well at parting, the two took their way into the world alone, and turned their backs for ever on Limmeridge House.

They had passed the hill above the church‧yard 墓地, when Lady Glyde insisted 咬定 on turning back to look her last at her mother's grave. Miss Halcombe tried to shake her resolution 解析度, but, in this one instance 例, tried in vain 徒劳的. She was immovable. Her dim 暗淡 eyes lit with a sudden fire, and flashed 使闪光 through the veil that hung over them—her wasted fingers strengthened moment by moment round the friendly arm by which they had held so listlessly till this time. I believe in my soul that the hand of God was pointing their way back to them, and that the most innocent 无辜 and the most afflicted 折磨 of His creatures was chosen choose in that dread 恐惧 moment to see it.

They retraced their steps to the burial 葬礼-ground, and by that act sealed 封上，海豹 the future of our three lives.

III

This was the story of the past—the story so far as we knew it then.

Two obvious 明显 conclusions 结论 presented themselves to my mind after hearing it. In the first place, I saw darkly what the nature of the conspiracy 阴谋 had been, how chances had been watched, and how circumstances 环境 had been handled to ensure 确保 impunity to a daring and an intricate 错综复杂 crime 罪行. While all details were still a mystery to me, the vile manner in which the personal 个人 resemblance 相似 between the woman in white and Lady Glyde had been turned to account was clear beyond a doubt. It was plain that Anne Catherick had been introduced into Count Fosco's house as Lady Glyde—it was plain that Lady Glyde had taken the dead woman's place in the Asylum—the substitution 代换 having been so managed as to make innocent 无辜 people (the doctor and the two servants certainly, and the owner of the mad-house in all probability 可能性) accomplices in the crime 罪行.

The second conclusion 结论 came as the necessary consequence 后果 of the first. We three had no mercy 宽容 to expect from Count Fosco and Sir Percival Glyde. The success of the conspiracy 阴谋 had brought with it a clear gain to those two men of thirty 三十 thou‧sand 千 pounds—twenty 二十 thou‧sand 千 to one, ten 十 thou‧sand 千 to the other through his wife. They had that interest, as well as other interests, in ensuring 确保 their impunity from exposure 经受, and they would leave no stone unturned, no sacrifice 牺牲 unattempted, no treachery untried, to discover the place in which their victim 受害者 was concealed 隐藏, and to part her from the only friends she had in the world—Marian Halcombe and myself 我.

The sense of this serious peril 岌—a peril 岌 which every day and every hour might bring nearer and nearer to us—was the one influence that guided me in fixing the place of our retreat 撤退. I chose choose it in the far east of London, where there were fewest idle 无意义的 people to lounge 休息室 and look about them in the streets. I chose it in a poor and a populous neighbourhood—because the harder the struggle for existence among the men and women about us, the less the risk of their having the time or taking the pains to notice chance strangers 陌生人 who came among them. These were the great advantages I looked to, but our locality 局部性 was a gain to us also in another and a hardly less important respect. We could live cheaply 便宜的 by the daily work of my hands, and could save every far‧thing 远‧东西；事件 we possessed to forward the purpose, the righteous purpose, of redressing 纠正 an infamous 臭名昭著 wrong—which, from first to last, I now kept steadily in view.

In a week's time Marian Halcombe and I had settled how the course of our new lives should be directed.

There were no other lodgers in the house, and we had the means of going in and out without passing through the shop. I arranged, for the present at least, that neither Marian nor Laura should stir 搅动 outside the door without my being with them, and that in my absence from home they should let no one into their rooms on any pretence whatever. This rule established 建立, I went to a friend whom I had known in former days—a wood engraver 雕刻 in large practice—to seek 寻求 for employment 雇用, telling him, at the same time, that I had reasons for wishing to remain unknown 未知.

He at once concluded 得出结论 that I was in debt 债务, expressed his regret 后悔 in the usual forms, and then promised to do what he could to assist 帮助；协助；援助 me. I left his false 虚伪的 impression 印象 undisturbed, and accepted the work he had to give. He knew that he could trust my experience and my industry. I had what he wanted, steadiness and facility 设施, and though my earnings were but small, they sufficed 满足 for our necessities 必须. As soon as we could feel certain of this, Marian Halcombe and I put together what we possessed. She had between two and three hundred 百 pounds left of her own property, and I had nearly as much remaining from the purchase 采购-money obtained 获得 by the sale of my drawing-master's practice before I left England. Together we made up between us more than four hundred 百 pounds. I deposited 留下 this little for‧tune 命运 in a bank, to be kept for the expense of those secret inquiries and investigations 调查 which I was determined to set on foot, and to carry on by myself 我 if I could find no one to help me. We calculated 计算 our weekly expenditure 支出 to the last far‧thing 远‧东西；事件, and we never touched our little fund 基金；专款；资金 except in Laura's interests and for Laura's sake.

The house-work, which, if we had dared 敢 trust a stranger near us, would have been done by a servant 3, was taken on the first day, taken as her own right, by Marian Halcombe. "What a woman's hands are fit for," she said, "early and late, these hands of mine shall do." They trembled as she held them out. The wasted arms told their sad story of the past, as she turned up the sleeves 袖 of the poor plain dress that she wore for safety 安全's sake; but the unquenchable spirit of the woman burnt burn bright in her even yet. I saw the big tears rise thick in her eyes, and fall slowly over her cheeks 脸颊 as she looked at me. She dashed 短跑 them away with a touch of her old energy 能源, and smiled with a faint 微弱的 reflection 反映 of her old good spirits. "Don't doubt my courage, Walter," she pleaded 求情, "it's my weakness 弱点 that cries, not me. The house-work shall conquer 征服 it if I can't." And she kept her word—the victory was won win when we met in the evening, and she sat sit down to rest. Her large steady black eyes looked at me with a flash 使闪光 of their bright firmness of bygone days. "I am not quite broken break down yet," she said. "I am worth trusting with my share of the work." Before I could answer, she added in a whisper 低声说, "And worth trusting with my share in the risk and the danger too. Remember that, if the time comes!"

I did remember it when the time came.

As early as the end of October the daily course of our lives had assumed 承担 its settled direction, and we three were as completely isolated 隔离；孤立；分离 in our place of concealment as if the house we lived in had been a desert 沙漠；抛弃 island, and the great net‧work 网 of streets and the thou‧sand 千 of our fellow-creatures all round us the waters of an illimitable sea. I could now reckon 估计 on some leisure 闲暇 time for considering what my future plan of action should be, and how I might arm myself 我 most securely 安全 at the outset 开始 for the coming struggle with Sir Percival and the Count.

I gave up all hope of appealing 上诉 to my recognition 认识 of Laura, or to Marian's recognition of her, in proof 证明 of her identity 身分. If we had loved her less dearly, if the instinct 直觉 implanted 注入 in us by that love had not been far more certain than any exercise of reasoning, far keener 热切的 than any process of observation 意见, even we might have hesitated on first seeing her.

The outward 向外的 changes wrought 锻 by the suffering and the terror 恐怖 of the past had fearfully 可怕, almost hope‧less 绝望地, strengthened the fatal 致命 resemblance 相似 between Anne Catherick and her‧self 她自己. In my narrative 叙述 of events at the time of my residence 住宅 in Limmeridge House, I have recorded, from my own observation 意见 of the two, how the likeness 像, striking as it was when viewed generally, failed in many important points of similarity 相似 when tested in detail. In those former days, if they had both been seen together side by side, no person could for a moment have mistaken 错误 them one for the other—as has happened often in the instances 例 of twins 双胞胎之一. I could not say this now. The sorrow 4 and suffering which I had once blamed 指责 myself 我 for associating 关联 even by a passing thought with the future of Laura Fairlie, had set their profaning marks on the youth and beauty of her face; and the fatal 致命 resemblance 相似 which I had once seen and shuddered 不寒而栗 at seeing, in idea only, was now a real and living resemblance 相似 which asserted 断言 itself 本身 before my own eyes. Strangers, acquaintances 熟人, friends even who could not look at her as we looked, if she had been shown to them in the first days of her rescue 3 from the Asylum, might have doubted if she were the Laura Fairlie they had once seen, and doubted without blame 指责.

The one remaining chance, which I had at first thought might be trusted to serve us—the chance of appealing 上诉 to her recollection 回忆 of persons and events with which no impostor could be familiar, was proved, by the sad test of our later experience, to be hope‧less 绝望. Every little caution 小心 that Marian and I practised towards her—every little remedy 治疗法 we tried, to strengthen 加强 and steady slowly the weakened, shaken faculties 学院, was a fresh protest 抗议 in itself 本身 against the risk of turning her mind back on the troubled and the terrible past.

The only events of former days which we ventured 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 on encouraging her to recall 召回 were the little trivial 不重要的 domestic 国内 events of that happy time at Limmeridge, when I first went there and taught her to draw. The day when I roused 唤醒 those remembrances 纪念 by showing her the sketch 草图 of the summer-house which she had given me on the morning of our fare‧well 告别, and which had never been separated from me since, was the birth‧day 生日 of our first hope. Tenderly and gradually 逐步地, the memory of the old walks and drives dawned 黎明 upon her, and the poor weary 厌倦 pining 松树 eyes looked at Marian and at me with a new interest, with a faltering 衰退 thoughtfulness in them, which from that moment we cherished 珍视 and kept alive. I bought buy her a little box of colours, and a sketch 草图-book like the old sketch 草图-book which I had seen in her hands on the morning that we first met. Once again—oh me, once again!—at spare 节省；多余的；备用件 hours saved from my work, in the dull 钝的；没兴趣 London light, in the poor London room, I sat by her side to guide the faltering 衰退 touch, to help the feeble 微弱 hand. Day by day I raised and raised the new interest till its place in the blank 空白 of her existence was at last assured—till she could think of her drawing and talk of it, and patiently practise it by her‧self 她自己, with some faint 微弱的 reflection 3 of the innocent 无辜 pleasure in my encouragement 鼓励, the growing enjoyment 享受 in her own progress, which belonged to the lost life and the lost happiness 幸福 of past days.

We helped her mind slowly by this simple means, we took her out between us to walk on fine days, in a quiet old City square near at hand, where there was nothing to confuse 使困窘 or alarm 警告 her—we spared 节省；多余的；备用件 a few pounds from the fund at the banker's to get her wine, and the delicate 微妙的；纤弱的 strengthening 加强 food that she required—we amused 使人发笑 her in the evenings with children's games at cards, with scrap 废料-books full of prints which I borrowed 借 from the engraver 雕刻 who employed me—by these, and other trifling 琐事 attentions like them, we composed her and steadied her, and hoped all things, as cheerfully 乐意 as we could from time and care, and love that never neglected 疏忽 and never despaired 绝望 of her. But to take her mercilessly from seclusion and repose—to con‧front 面对 her with strangers 陌生人, or with acquaintances 熟人 who were little better than strangers 陌生人—to rouse 唤醒 the painful 痛苦 impressions 印象 of her past life which we had so carefully 小心 hushed 嘘 to rest—this, even in her own interests, we dared not do. Whatever sacrifices it cost, whatever long, weary 厌倦, heartbreaking delays 延迟 it involved, the wrong that had been inflicted 造成 on her, if mortal 凡人 means could grapple 抓钩 it, must be redressed 纠正 without her knowledge and without her help.

This resolution 解析度 settled, it was next necessary to decide how the first risk should be ventured, and what the first proceedings 继续 should be.

After consulting 咨询；请教；查阅 with Marian, I resolved 解决 to begin by gathering together as many facts as could be collected—then to ask the advice 劝告 of Mr. Kyrle (whom we knew we could trust), and to ascertain 探明 from him, in the first instance 例, if the legal 法律 remedy 治疗法 lay fairly within our reach. I owed 欠…债 it to Laura's interests not to stake 赌注 her whole future on my own unaided exertions, so long as there was the faintest prospect 展望 of strengthening our position by obtaining 获得 reliable 可靠 assistance 帮助 of any kind.

The first source 资源 of information to which I applied was the journal 日志 kept at Blackwater Park by Marian Halcombe. There were passages in this diary 日记 relating to myself 我 which she thought it best that I should not see. Accordingly, she read to me from the manuscript 手稿, and I took the notes I wanted as she went on. We could only find time to pursue 追求 this occupation 占用 by sitting up late at night. Three nights were devoted 奉献 to the purpose, and were enough to put me in possession 所有物 of all that Marian could tell.

My next proceeding 继续 was to gain as much additional 额外 evidence 证据 as I could pro‧cure 促成 from other people without exciting suspicion. I went myself 我 to Mrs. Vesey to ascertain 探明 if Laura's impression 印象 of having slept sleep there was correct or not. In this case, from consideration 考虑 for Mrs. Vesey's age and infirmity, and in all subsequent 随后的，接着的 cases of the same kind from considerations 考虑 of caution 小心, I kept our real position a secret, and was always careful 小心 to speak of Laura as "the late Lady Glyde."

Mrs. Vesey's answer to my inquiries only confirmed 确认 the apprehensions 顾虑 which I had previously 先前 felt. Laura had certainly written to say she would pass the night under the roof of her old friend—but she had never been near the house.

Her mind in this instance 例, and, as I feared, in other instances 例 besides, confusedly presented to her something which she had only intended to do in the false 虚伪的 light of something which she had really done. The unconscious 无意识 contradiction 矛盾 of her‧self 她自己 was easy to account for in this way—but it was likely to lead to serious results. It was a stumble 绊倒 on the threshold 阈 at starting—it was a flaw 缺陷 in the evidence 证据 which told fatally 致命 against us.

When I next asked for the letter which Laura had written to Mrs. Vesey from Blackwater Park, it was given to me without the envelope 信封, which had been thrown throw into the waste‧paper 浪费‧纸；报纸 basket 篮, and long since destroyed. In the letter itself 本身 no date was mentioned—not even the day of the week. It only contained these lines:—"Dearest Mrs. Vesey, I am in sad distress 苦难 and anxiety 焦虑, and I may come to your house to-morrow night, and ask for a bed. I can't tell you what is the matter in this letter—I write it in such fear of being found out that I can fix my mind on nothing. Pray be at home to see me. I will give you a thou‧sand 千 kisses 接吻, and tell you everything. Your affectionate 亲热 Laura." What help was there in those lines? None.

On returning from Mrs. Vesey's, I instructed 指导 Marian to write (observing the same caution 3 which I practised myself 我) to Mrs. Michelson. She was to express, if she pleased, some general suspicion of Count Fosco's conduct 进行, and she was to ask the house‧keep 管家 to supply us with a plain statement 声明 of events, in the interests of truth. While we were waiting for the answer, which reached us in a week's time, I went to the doctor in St. John's Wood, introducing myself 我 as sent by Miss Halcombe to collect, if possible, more particulars of her sister's last illness 疾病 than Mr. Kyrle had found the time to pro‧cure 促成. By Mr. Goodricke's assistance 帮助, I obtained 获得 a copy of the certificate 证书 of death, and an interview 访问 with the woman (Jane Gould) who had been employed to prepare the body for the grave. Through this person I also discovered a means of communicating 通信 with the servant, Hester Pinhorn. She had recently left her place in consequence 后果 of a disagreement 异议 with her mistress 情妇, and she was lodging 存放 with some people in the neighbourhood whom Mrs. Gould knew. In the manner here indicated 表明 I obtained 获得 the Narratives of the house‧keep 管家, of the doctor, of Jane Gould, and of Hester Pinhorn, exactly as they are presented in these pages.

Furnished with such additional 额外 evidence 证据 as these documents 文件 afforded 买得起, I considered myself 我 to be sufficiently 充分地 prepared for a consultation 会诊 with Mr. Kyrle, and Marian wrote accordingly 于是 to mention my name to him, and to specify 具体说明；明确指出 the day and hour at which I requested to see him on private business.

There was time enough in the morning for me to take Laura out for her walk as usual, and to see her quietly settled at her drawing after‧ward 之后. She looked up at me with a new anxiety in her face as I rose to leave the room, and her fingers began to toy 玩具 doubtfully 疑, in the old way, with the brushes and pencils 铅笔 on the table.

"You are not tired of me yet?" she said. "You are not going away because you are tired of me? I will try to do better—I will try to get well. Are you as fond 喜欢的 of me, Walter as you used to be, now I am so pale and thin, and so slow in learning to draw?"

She spoke as a child might have spoken, she showed me her thoughts as a child might have shown them. I waited a few minutes longer—waited to tell her that she was dearer to me now than she had ever been in the past times. "Try to get well again," I said, encouraging the new hope in the future which I saw dawning 黎明 in her mind, "try to get well again, for Marian's sake and for mine."

"Yes," she said to her‧self 她自己, returning to her drawing. "I must try, because they are both so fond 喜欢的 of me." She suddenly looked up again. "Don't be gone long! I can't get on with my drawing, Walter, when you are not here to help me."

"I shall soon be back, my darling 宠儿—soon be back to see how you are getting on."

My voice faltered 衰退 a little in spite 恶意 of me. I forced myself 我 from the room. It was no time, then, for parting with the self 自己-control which might yet serve me in my need before the day was out.

As I opened the door, I beckoned 招手 to Marian to follow me to the stairs. It was necessary to prepare her for a result which I felt might sooner or later follow my showing myself 我 openly in the streets.

"I shall, in all probability 可能性, be back in a few hours," I said, "and you will take care, as usual, to let no one inside the doors in my absence. But if anything happens——"

"What can happen?" she interposed quickly. "Tell me plainly, Walter, if there is any danger, and I shall know how to meet it."

"The only danger," I replied, "is that Sir Percival Glyde may have been recalled 召回 to London by the news of Laura's escape. You are aware 知道的 that he had me watched before I left England, and that he probably knows me by sight, although I don't know him?"

She laid her hand on my shoulder and looked at me in anxious 焦急的 silence. I saw she understood understand the serious risk that threatened us.

"It is not likely," I said, "that I shall be seen in London again so soon, either by Sir Percival himself or by the persons in his employ. But it is barely 光秃秃的 possible that an accident 意外事件 may happen. In that case, you will not be alarmed if I fail to return to-night, and you will satisfy any inquiry 调查 of Laura's with the best excuse 原谅 that you can make for me? If I find the least reason to suspect 怀疑；嫌疑犯 that I am watched, I will take good care that no spy 间谍 follows me back to this house. Don't doubt my return, Marian, however it may be delayed—and fear nothing."

"Nothing!" she answered firmly. "You shall not regret 后悔, Walter, that you have only a woman to help you." She paused 暂停, and detained 扣留 me for a moment longer. "Take care!" she said, pressing my hand anxiously—"take care!"

I left her, and set forth to pave 铺平 the way for discovery—the dark and doubtful 疑 way, which began at the lawyer's door.

IV

No circumstance 环境 of the slightest importance happened on my way to the offices of Messrs. Gilmore & 功放; Kyrle, in Chancery Lane.

While my card was being taken in to Mr. Kyrle, a consideration 考虑 occurred 发生 to me which I deeply regretted 后悔 not having thought of before. The information derived 派生 from Marian's diary 日记 made it a matter of certainty 确定性 that Count Fosco had opened her first letter from Blackwater Park to Mr. Kyrle, and had, by means of his wife, intercepted 截距 the second. He was therefore well aware 知道的 of the address of the office, and he would naturally 自然地 infer 推断 that if Marian wanted advice and assistance 帮助, after Laura's escape from the Asylum, she would apply once more to the experience of Mr. Kyrle. In this case the office in Chancery Lane was the very first place which he and Sir Percival would cause to be watched, and if the same persons were chosen for the purpose who had been employed to follow me, before my departure 离开 from England, the fact of my return would in all probability 可能性 be ascertained 探明 on that very day. I had thought, generally, of the chances of my being recognised in the streets, but the special risk connected 连接 with the office had never occurred 发生 to me until the present moment. It was too late now to repair 修理 this unfortunate 不幸的 error 错误 in judgment 判断—too late to wish that I had made arrangements 安排 for meeting the lawyer in some place privately appointed before‧hand 预先. I could only resolve 解决 to be cautious 小心的 on leaving Chancery Lane, and not to go straight home again under any circumstances 环境 whatever.

After waiting a few minutes I was shown into Mr. Kyrle's private room. He was a pale, thin, quiet, self-possessed man, with a very attentive 注意的 eye, a very low voice, and a very undemonstrative manner—not (as I judged) ready with his sympathy 同情 where strangers 陌生人 were concerned, and not at all easy to disturb 打扰 in his professional 专业的 composure. A better man for my purpose could hardly have been found. If he committed 承诺 himself to a decision at all, and if the decision was favourable, the strength of our case was as good as proved from that moment.

"Before I enter on the business which brings me here," I said, "I ought to warn you, Mr. Kyrle, that the shortest statement 声明 I can make of it may occupy 占据 some little time."

"My time is at Miss Halcombe's disposal 处置," he replied. "Where any interests of hers are concerned, I represent my partner 伙伴 personally 亲自, as well as professionally 专业. It was his request that I should do so, when he ceased 停止 to take an active part in business."

"May I inquire 打听 whether Mr. Gilmore is in England?"

"He is not, he is living with his relatives in Germany. His health has improved, but the period of his return is still uncertain 不确定."

While we were exchanging these few preliminary 初步 words, he had been searching among the papers before him, and he now produced from them a sealed letter. I thought he was about to hand the letter to me, but, apparently changing his mind, he placed it by itself 本身 on the table, settled himself in his chair, and silently waited to hear what I had to say.

Without wasting a moment in prefatory words of any sort, I entered on my narrative 叙述, and put him in full possession 3 of the events which have already been related in these pages.

Lawyer as he was to the very marrow 骨髓 of his bones 骨头, I startled 惊吓 him out of his professional 专业的 composure. Expressions of incredulity and surprise, which he could not repress 抑, interrupted me several times before I had done. I per‧severe 持之以恒, however, to the end, and as soon as I reached it, boldly 胆大的；醒目的 asked the one important question—

"What is your opinion, Mr. Kyrle?"

He was too cautious 小心的 to commit 承诺 himself to an answer without taking time to recover 恢复 his self-possession first.

"Before I give my opinion," he said, "I must beg 乞讨 per‧mission 允许 to clear the ground by a few questions."

He put the questions—sharp, suspicious 可疑的, unbelieving questions, which clearly showed me, as they proceeded 继续, that he thought I was the victim 受害者 of a delusion 妄想, and that he might even have doubted, but for my introduction 介绍 to him by Miss Halcombe, whether I was not attempting the perpetration of a cunningly 狡猾-designed fraud 舞弊.

"Do you believe that I have spoken the truth, Mr. Kyrle?" I asked, when he had done examining me.

"So far as your own convictions 定罪 are concerned, I am certain you have spoken the truth," he replied. "I have the highest esteem 尊重 for Miss Halcombe, and I have therefore every reason to respect a gentleman whose 谁的 mediation 调解 she trusts in a matter of this kind. I will even go farther, if you like, and admit, for courtesy 礼貌's sake and for argument 论据's sake, that the identity 身分 of Lady Glyde as a living person is a proved fact to Miss Halcombe and your‧self 你自己. But you come to me for a legal 法律 opinion. As a lawyer, and as a lawyer only, it is my duty to tell you, Mr. Hartright, that you have not the shadow of a case."

"You put it strongly, Mr. Kyrle."

"I will try to put it plainly as well. The evidence 证据 of Lady Glyde's death is, on the face of it, clear and satisfactory 满意. There is her aunt 3's testimony 见证 to prove that she came to Count Fosco's house, that she fell ill 生病, and that she died. There is the testimony 见证 of the medical certificate 证书 to prove the death, and to show that it took place under natural 自然 circumstances 环境. There is the fact of the funeral 葬礼 at Limmeridge, and there is the assertion 断言 of the inscription 题词 on the tomb 墓. That is the case you want to over‧throw 推翻. What evidence 证据 have you to support the declaration 宣言 on your side that the person who died and was buried was not Lady Glyde? Let us run through the main points of your statement 声明 and see what they are worth. Miss Halcombe goes to a certain private Asylum, and there sees a certain female patient. It is known that a woman named Anne Catherick, and bearing an extra‧ordinary 非凡的 personal 个人 resemblance 相似 to Lady Glyde, escaped from the Asylum; it is known that the person received there last July was received as Anne Catherick brought back; it is known that the gentleman who brought her back warned Mr. Fairlie that it was part of her insanity 疯狂 to be bent bend on personating his dead niece 5; and it is known that she did repeatedly 反复 declare her‧self 她自己 in the Asylum (where no one believed her) to be Lady Glyde. These are all facts. What have you to set against them? Miss Halcombe's recognition of the woman, which recognition after-events invalidate or contradict 顶撞. Does Miss Halcombe assert 断言 her supposed sister's identity 身分 to the owner of the Asylum, and take legal 法律 means for rescuing 营救 her? No, she secretly bribes 贿赂 a nurse to let her escape. When the patient has been released 发布 in this doubtful 疑 manner, and is taken to Mr. Fairlie, does he recognise her? Is he staggered 错开 for one instant in his belief of his niece's death? No. Do the servants recognise her? No. Is she kept in the neighbourhood to assert 断言 her own identity 身分, and to stand the test of further proceedings 继续? No, she is privately taken to London. In the mean‧time 其时 you have recognised her also, but you are not a relative—you are not even an old friend of the family. The servants contradict 顶撞 you, and Mr. Fairlie contradicts 顶撞 Miss Halcombe, and the supposed Lady Glyde contradicts 顶撞 her‧self 她自己. She declares she passed the night in London at a certain house. Your own evidence 证据 shows that she has never been near that house, and your own admission 准许进入 is that her condition of mind prevents you from producing her any‧where 任何地方 to submit 给 to investigation 调查, and to speak for her‧self 她自己. I pass over minor 次要 points of evidence 证据 on both sides to save time, and I ask you, if this case were to go now into a court of law—to go before a jury 陪审团, bound 必定；跳 to take facts as they reasonably appear—where are your proofs 证明?"

I was obliged 责成 to wait and collect myself 我 before I could answer him. It was the first time the story of Laura and the story of Marian had been presented to me from a stranger's point of view—the first time the terrible obstacles 障碍 that lay across our path 小路 had been made to show themselves in their true character.

"There can be no doubt," I said, "that the facts, as you have stated them, appear to tell against us, but——"

"But you think those facts can be explained away," interposed Mr. Kyrle. "Let me tell you the result of my experience on that point. When an English jury 陪审团 has to choose between a plain fact on the surface and a long explanation 说明 under the surface, it always takes the fact in preference 偏爱 to the explanation 说明. For example, Lady Glyde (I call the lady you represent by that name for argument 论据's sake) declares she has slept at a certain house, and it is proved that she has not slept at that house. You explain this circumstance 环境 by entering into the state of her mind, and deducing 推断 from it a metaphysical conclusion 结论. I don't say the conclusion 结论 is wrong—I only say that the jury 陪审团 will take the fact of her contradicting 顶撞 her‧self 她自己 in preference 偏爱 to any reason for the contradiction 矛盾 that you can offer."

"But is it not possible," I urged, "by dint of patience 耐心 and exertion, to discover additional 额外 evidence 证据? Miss Halcombe and I have a few hundred 百 pounds——"

He looked at me with a half-sup‧press 压制 pity 怜悯, and shook his head.

"Consider the subject, Mr. Hartright, from your own point of view," he said. "If you are right about Sir Percival Glyde and Count Fosco (which I don't admit, mind), every imaginable difficulty would be thrown in the way of your getting fresh evidence 证据. Every obstacle 障碍 of litigation 诉讼 would be raised—every point in the case would be systematically 系统 contested 比赛—and by the time we had spent spend our thou‧sand 千 instead of our hundreds 百, the final 最后 result would, in all probability 可能性, be against us. Questions of identity 身分, where instances 例 of personal 个人 resemblance 相似 are concerned, are, in themselves, the hardest of all questions to settle—the hardest, even when they are free from the complications 复杂化 which beset the case we are now discussing. I really see no prospect 展望 of throwing any light whatever on this extraordinary 3 affair. Even if the person buried in Limmeridge church‧yard 墓地 be not Lady Glyde, she was, in life, on your own showing, so like her, that we should gain nothing, if we applied for the necessary authority 权威 to have the body exhumed. In short, there is no case, Mr. Hartright—there is really no case."

I was determined to believe that there was a case, and in that determination 决心 shifted 转移 my ground, and appealed 上诉 to him once more.

"Are there not other proofs that we might produce besides the proof 3 of identity 身分?" I asked.

"Not as you are situated 位于," he replied. "The simplest and surest of all proofs, the proof by comparison 比较 of dates, is, as I understand, altogether 全部地 out of your reach. If you could show a discrepancy 差异 between the date of the doctor's certificate 证书 and the date of Lady Glyde's journey to London, the matter would wear a totally different aspect 方面, and I should be the first to say, Let us go on."

"That date may yet be recovered 恢复, Mr. Kyrle."

"On the day when it is recovered 恢复, Mr. Hartright, you will have a case. If you have any prospect 展望, at this moment, of getting at it—tell me, and we shall see if I can advise you."

I considered. The house‧keep 管家 could not help us—Laura could not help us—Marian could not help us. In all probability 可能性, the only persons in existence who knew the date were Sir Percival and the Count.

"I can think of no means of ascertaining 探明 the date at present," I said, "because I can think of no persons who are sure to know it, but Count Fosco and Sir Percival Glyde."

Mr. Kyrle's calmly 镇定的 attentive 注意的 face relaxed 放松, for the first time, into a smile.

"With your opinion of the conduct 进行 of those two gentlemen," he said, "you don't expect help in that quarter, I presume 假设? If they have combined to gain large sums 和 of money by a conspiracy 阴谋, they are not likely to confess 供认 it, at any rate."

"They may be forced to confess it, Mr. Kyrle."

"By whom?"

"By me."

We both rose. He looked me attentively 注意的 in the face with more appearance of interest than he had shown yet. I could see that I had perplexed 困扰 him a little.

"You are very determined," he said. "You have, no doubt, a personal 个人 motive 动机 for proceeding 继续, into which it is not my business to inquire 打听. If a case can be produced in the future, I can only say, my best assistance 帮助 is at your service. At the same time I must warn you, as the money question always enters into the law question, that I see little hope, even if you ultimately 最终 established 建立 the fact of Lady Glyde's being alive, of recovering 恢复 her for‧tune 命运. The foreigner would probably leave the country before proceedings 继续 were commenced 开始, and Sir Percival's embarrassments 困窘 are numerous 很多的 enough and pressing enough to transfer 转让 almost any sum 和 of money he may possess 拥有 from himself to his creditors 债权人. You are of course aware 知道的——"

I stopped him at that point.

"Let me beg that we may not discuss Lady Glyde's affairs," I said. "I have never known anything about them in former times, and I know nothing of them now—except that her fortune 3 is lost. You are right in assuming 承担 that I have personal 个人 motives 动机 for stirring 搅动 in this matter. I wish those motives 动机 to be always as disinterested as they are at the present moment——"

He tried to inter‧pose 间‧以…身份出现，造成 and explain. I was a little heated, I suppose, by feeling that he had doubted me, and I went on bluntly 直言, without waiting to hear him.

"There shall be no money motive 动机," I said, "no idea of personal 个人 advantage in the service I mean to render 给予 to Lady Glyde. She has been cast 投 out as a stranger from the house in which she was born—a lie which records her death has been written on her mother's tomb 墓—and there are two men, alive and unpunished, who are responsible for it. That house shall open again to receive her in the presence of every soul who followed the false 3 funeral 3 to the grave—that lie 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 those two men 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. I have given my life to that purpose, and, alone as I stand, if God spares 节省；多余的；备用件 me, I will accomplish 完成；实现；达到；做到 it."

He drew draw back towards his table, and said nothing. His face showed plainly that he thought my delusion 妄想 had got the better of my reason, and that he considered it totally use‧less 无用 to give me any more advice.

"We each keep our opinion, Mr. Kyrle," I said, "and we must wait till the events of the future decide between us. In the mean‧time 其时, I am much obliged 责成 to you for the attention you have given to my statement 声明. You have shown me that the legal 法律 remedy 治疗法 lies, in every sense of the word, beyond our means. We cannot produce the law proof, and we are not rich enough to pay the law expenses. It is something gained to know that."

I bowed 弓 and walked to the door. He called me back and gave me the letter which I had seen him place on the table by itself 本身 at the beginning of our interview 访问.

"This came by post a few days ago," he said. "Perhaps you will not mind delivering it? Pray tell Miss Halcombe, at the same time, that I sincerely 真诚的 regret 后悔 being, thus far, unable 无法 to help her, except by advice, which will not be more welcome, I am afraid, to her than to you."

I looked at the letter while he was speaking. It was addressed to "Miss Halcombe. Care of Messrs. Gilmore & 功放; Kyrle, Chancery Lane." The hand‧write 书法 was quite unknown 未知 to me.

On leaving the room I asked one last question.

"Do you happen to know," I said, "if Sir Percival Glyde is still in Paris?"

"He has returned to London," replied Mr. Kyrle. "At least I heard so from his solicitor 律师, whom I met yesterday."

After that answer I went out.

On leaving the office the first pre‧caution 预防 to be observed was to abstain from attracting 吸引 attention by stopping to look about me. I walked towards one of the quietest of the large squares on the north of Holborn, then suddenly stopped and turned round at a place where a long stretch of pavement 路面 was left behind me.

There were two men at the corner of the square who had stopped also, and who were standing talking together. After a moment's reflection I turned back so as to pass them. One moved as I came near, and turned the corner leading from the square into the street. The other remained stationary 静止的. I looked at him as I passed and instantly 瞬间 recognised one of the men who had watched me before I left England.

If I had been free to follow my own instincts 直觉, I should probably have begun by speaking to the man, and have ended by knocking 敲 him down. But I was bound 必定；跳 to consider consequences 后果. If I once placed myself 我 publicly in the wrong, I put the weapons at once into Sir Percival's hands. There was no choice but to oppose cunning 狡猾 by cunning 狡猾. I turned into the street down which the second man had disappeared 不见, and passed him, waiting in a door‧way 门口. He was a stranger to me, and I was glad 高兴的 to make sure of his personal 个人 appearance in case of future annoyance 恼怒. Having done this, I again walked north‧ward 北方 till I reached the New Road. There I turned aside to the west (having the men behind me all the time), and waited at a point where I knew myself 我 to be at some distance from a cab 出租车-stand, until a fast two-wheel cab 出租车, empty, should happen to pass me. One passed in a few minutes. I jumped in and told the man to drive rapidly towards Hyde Park. There was no second fast cab 出租车 for the spies 间谍 behind me. I saw them dart 镖 across to the other side of the road, to follow me by running, until a cab 出租车 or a cab 出租车-stand came in their way. But I had the start of them, and when I stopped the driver and got out, they were now‧here 无处 in sight. I crossed Hyde Park and made sure, on the open ground, that I was free. When I at last turned my steps homewards, it was not till many hours later—not till after dark.

I found Marian waiting for me alone in the little sitting-room. She had persuaded 说服 Laura to go to rest, after first promising to show me her drawing the moment I came in. The poor little dim 暗淡 faint 3 sketch 草图—so trifling 琐事 in itself 本身, so touching in its associations—was propped 支柱 up carefully 小心 on the table with two books, and was placed where the faint light of the one candle 蜡烛 we allowed ourselves 我们自己 might fall on it to the best advantage. I sat down to look at the drawing, and to tell Marian, in whispers 低声说, what had happened. The partition 划分 which divided us from the next room was so thin that we could almost hear Laura's breathing 呼吸, and we might have disturbed her if we had spoken aloud 高声.

Marian preserved her composure while I described my interview 访问 with Mr. Kyrle. But her face became troubled when I spoke next of the men who had followed me from the lawyer's office, and when I told her of the discovery of Sir Percival's return.

"Bad news, Walter," she said, "the worst news you could bring. Have you nothing more to tell me?"

"I have something to give you," I replied, handing her the note which Mr. Kyrle had confided 信任 to my care.

She looked at the address and recognised the hand‧write 书法 instantly.

"You know your correspondent 通信者?" I said.

"Too well," she answered. "My correspondent 通信者 is Count Fosco."

With that reply she opened the note. Her face flushed 红晕 deeply while she read it—her eyes brightened 变亮 with anger 生气 as she handed it to me to read in my turn.

The note contained these lines—

"Impelled by honourable admiration 钦佩—honourable to myself 我, honourable to you—I write, magnificent 华丽的 Marian, in the interests of your tranquillity, to say two consoling 安慰 words—

"Fear nothing!

"Exercise your fine natural 自然 sense and remain in retirement 退休. Dear and admirable 令人钦佩 woman, invite no dangerous 危险 publicity 公开. Resignation is sublime 升华—adopt it. The modest 谦虚的 repose of home is eternally 永恒 fresh—enjoy it. The storms 暴风雨 of life pass harm‧less 无害 over the valley of Seclusion—dwell 住, dear lady, in the valley.

"Do this and I authorise you to fear nothing. No new calamity shall lace‧rate 花边‧速度 your sensibilities 感性—sensibilities 感性 precious 宝贵的 to me as my own. You shall not be molested, the fair companion 同伴 of your retreat 撤退 shall not be pursued 追求. She has found a new asylum 避难所 in your heart. Priceless asylum 避难所!—I envy 嫉妒 her and leave her there.

"One last word of affectionate 亲热 warning, of paternal 父亲的 caution, and I tear myself 我 from the charm 魔力；使陶醉 of addressing you—I close these fervent lines.

"Advance no farther than you have gone already, compromise 妥协 no serious interests, threaten nobody. Do not, I implore you, force me into action—ME, the Man of Action—when it is the cherished 珍视 object of my ambition 抱负 to be passive 被动, to restrict 限制 the vast 广大 reach of my energies 能源 and my combinations 组合 for your sake. If you have rash 皮疹 friends, mode‧rate 有节制的 their deplorable ardour. If Mr. Hartright returns to England, hold no communication 通讯 with him. I walk on a path of my own, and Percival follows at my heels 脚跟. On the day when Mr. Hartright crosses that path, he is a lost man."

The only signature 签名 to these lines was the initial 初始 letter F, surrounded by a circle of intricate 错综复杂 flourishes 繁荣. I threw throw the letter on the table with all the con‧tempt 鄙视 that I felt for it.

"He is trying to frighten 使惊恐 you—a sure sign that he is frightened himself," I said.

She was too genuine 真正 a woman to treat the letter as I treated it. The insolent familiarity 熟悉 of the language was too much for her self-control. As she looked at me across the table, her hands clenched 咬紧 themselves in her lap 膝部, and the old quick fiery 火热 temper flamed 火焰 out again brightly in her cheeks 脸颊 and her eyes.

"Walter!" she said, "if ever those two men are at your mercy 宽容, and if you are obliged 责成 to spare 3 one of them, don't let it be the Count."

"I will keep this letter, Marian, to help my memory when the time comes."

She looked at me attentively as I put the letter away in my pocket-book.

"When the time comes?" she repeated. "Can you speak of the future as if you were certain of it?—certain after what you have heard in Mr. Kyrle's office, after what has happened to you to-day?"

"I don't count the time from to-day, Marian. All I have done to-day is to ask another man to act for me. I count from to-morrow——"

"Why from to-morrow?"

"Because to-morrow I mean to act for myself 我."

"How?"

"I shall go to Blackwater by the first train, and return, I hope, at night."

"To Blackwater!"

"Yes. I have had time to think since I left Mr. Kyrle. His opinion on one point confirms 确认 my own. We must persist 坚持 to the last in hunting down the date of Laura's journey. The one weak point in the conspiracy 阴谋, and probably the one chance of proving that she is a living woman, centre in the discovery of that date."

"You mean," said Marian, "the discovery that Laura did not leave Blackwater Park till after the date of her death on the doctor's certificate 证书?"

"Certainly."

"What makes you think it might have been after? Laura can tell us nothing of the time she was in London."

"But the owner of the Asylum told you that she was received there on the twenty 二十-seventh of July. I doubt Count Fosco's ability to keep her in London, and to keep her insensible to all that was passing around her, more than one night. In that case, she must have started on the twenty 二十-sixth, and must have come to London one day after the date of her own death on the doctor's certificate 证书. If we can prove that date, we prove our case against Sir Percival and the Count."

"Yes, yes—I see! But how is the proof to be obtained 获得?"

"Mrs. Michelson's narrative 叙述 has suggested to me two ways of trying to obtain 获得 it. One of them is to question the doctor, Mr. Dawson, who must know when he resumed 恢复 his attendance 勤 at Blackwater Park after Laura left the house. The other is to make inquiries at the inn 小旅馆 to which Sir Percival drove away by himself at night. We know that his departure 离开 followed Laura's after the lapse 失误 of a few hours, and we may get at the date in that way. The attempt is at least worth making, and to-morrow I am determined it shall be made."

"And suppose it fails—I look at the worst now, Walter; but I will look at the best if disappointments 失望 come to try us—suppose no one can help you at Blackwater?"

"There are two men who can help me, and shall help me in London—Sir Percival and the Count. Innocent people may well forget the date—but they are guilty 有罪的；内疚的, and they know it. If I fail every‧where 到处 else, I mean to force a confession 承认 out of one or both of them on my own terms."

All the woman flushed 红晕 up in Marian's face as I spoke.

"Begin with the Count," she whispered eagerly. "For my sake, begin with the Count."

"We must begin, for Laura's sake, where there is the best chance of success," I replied.

The colour faded from her face again, and she shook her head sadly.

"Yes," she said, "you are right—it was mean and miserable 悲惨的 of me to say that. I try to be patient, Walter, and succeed better now than I did in happier times. But I have a little of my old temper still left, and it will get the better of me when I think of the Count!"

"His turn will come," I said. "But, remember, there is no weak place in his life that we know of yet." I waited a little to let her recover 恢复 her self-possession, and then spoke the decisive 决定性的 words—

"Marian! There is a weak place we both know of in Sir Percival's life——"

"You mean the Secret!"

"Yes: the Secret. It is our only sure hold on him. I can force him from his position of security 安全, I can drag 拖拽 him and his villainy into the face of day, by no other means. Whatever the Count may have done, Sir Percival has consented 同意 to the conspiracy 阴谋 against Laura from another motive 动机 besides the motive 动机 of gain. You heard him tell the Count that he believed his wife knew enough to ruin 破坏 him? You heard him say that he was a lost man if the secret of Anne Catherick was known?"

"Yes! yes! I did."

"Well, Marian, when our other resources 资源 have failed us, I mean to know the Secret. My old superstition 迷信 clings 依偎 to me, even yet. I say again the woman in white is a living influence in our three lives. The End is appointed—the End is drawing us on—and Anne Catherick, dead in her grave, points the way to it still!"

V

The story of my first inquiries in Hampshire is soon told.

My early departure 离开 from London enabled 启用 me to reach Mr. Dawson's house in the fore‧noon 前面‧正午. Our interview 访问, so far as the object of my visit was concerned, led to no satisfactory 满意 result.

Mr. Dawson's books certainly showed when he had resumed 恢复 his attendance 勤 on Miss Halcombe at Blackwater Park, but it was not possible to calculate 计算 back from this date with any exactness, without such help from Mrs. Michelson as I knew she was unable 无法 to afford 买得起. She could not say from memory (who, in similar 类似 cases, ever can?) how many days had elapsed 过去 between the renewal 复兴 of the doctor's attendance 勤 on his patient and the previous 以前 departure 离开 of Lady Glyde. She was almost certain of having mentioned the circumstance 环境 of the departure 离开 to Miss Halcombe, on the day after it happened—but then she was no more able to fix the date of the day on which this disclosure 泄露 took place, than to fix the date of the day before, when Lady Glyde had left for London. Neither could she calculate 计算, with any nearer approach to exactness, the time that had passed from the departure 离开 of her mistress 情妇, to the period when the undated letter from Madame Fosco arrived. Lastly, as if to complete the series 系列 of difficulties, the doctor himself, having been ill at the time, had omitted to make his usual entry 条目 of the day of the week and month when the gardener from Blackwater Park had called on him to deliver Mrs. Michelson's message.

Hopeless of obtaining 获得 assistance 帮助 from Mr. Dawson, I resolved 解决 to try next if I could establish 建立 the date of Sir Percival's arrival 到达 at Knowlesbury.

It seemed like a fatality 病死率! When I reached Knowlesbury the inn 小旅馆 was shut 关闭 up, and bills were posted on the walls. The speculation 推测 had been a bad one, as I was informed, ever since the time of the rail‧way 铁路. The new hotel at the station had gradually 逐步地 absorbed 吸收 the business, and the old inn (which we knew to be the inn at which Sir Percival had put up), had been closed about two months since. The proprietor 业主 had left the town with all his goods and chattels, and where he had gone I could not positively 积极 ascertain 探明 from any one. The four people of whom I inquired gave me four different accounts of his plans and projects 项目 when he left Knowlesbury.

There were still some hours to spare before the last train left for London, and I drove back again in a fly from the Knowlesbury station to Blackwater Park, with the purpose of questioning the gardener and the person who kept the lodge 存放. If they, too, proved unable 无法 to assist 帮助；协助；援助 me, my resources 资源 for the present were at an end, and I might return to town.

I dismissed 解雇 the fly a mile distant 遥远的 from the park, and getting my directions from the driver, proceeded 继续 by myself 我 to the house.

As I turned into the lane 车道 from the high-road, I saw a man, with a carpet 地毯-bag 袋, walking before me rapidly on the way to the lodge 存放. He was a little man, dressed in shabby 破旧 black, and wearing a remarkably large hat. I set him down (as well as it was possible to judge) for a lawyer's clerk 店员, and stopped at once to widen 放宽 the distance between us. He had not heard me, and he walked on out of sight, without looking back. When I passed through the gates 门 myself 我, a little while after‧ward 之后, he was not visible 可以看见的；可视的—he had evidently 明显地 gone on to the house.

There were two women in the lodge 存放. One of them was old, the other I knew at once, by Marian's description of her, to be Margaret Porcher.

I asked first if Sir Percival was at the Park, and receiving a reply in the negative 负, inquired next when he had left it. Neither of the women could tell me more than that he had gone away in the summer. I could extract 提取 nothing from Margaret Porcher but vacant 空的 smiles and shakings of the head. The old woman was a little more intelligent 智能, and I managed to lead her into speaking of the manner of Sir Percival's departure 离开, and of the alarm 4 that it caused her. She remembered her master calling her out of bed, and remembered his frightening 使惊恐 her by swearing 发誓—but the date at which the occurrence 发生 happened was, as she honestly acknowledged 确认, "quite beyond her."

On leaving the lodge 3 I saw the gardener at work not far off. When I first addressed him, he looked at me rather distrust‧fully 怀疑‧完全地, but on my using Mrs. Michelson's name, with a civil 国内 reference to himself, he entered into conversation readily enough. There is no need to describe what passed between us—it ended, as all my other attempts to discover the date had ended. The gardener knew that his master had driven drive away, at night, "some time in July, the last fort‧night 两星期 or the last ten 十 days in the month"—and knew no more.

While we were speaking together I saw the man in black, with the large hat, come out from the house, and stand at some little distance observing us.

Certain suspicions 怀疑 of his errand 使命 at Blackwater Park had already crossed my mind. They were now increased by the gardener's inability 无力 (or unwillingness 不愿意) to tell me who the man was, and I determined to clear the way before me, if possible, by speaking to him. The plainest question I could put as a stranger would be to inquire 打听 if the house was allowed to be shown to visitors 访问者. I walked up to the man at once, and accosted him in those words.

His look and manner unmistakably 明白的 betrayed 背叛 that he knew who I was, and that he wanted to irritate 刺激 me into quarrelling 争吵 with him. His reply was insolent enough to have answered the purpose, if I had been less determined to control myself 我. As it was, I met him with the most resolute politeness 礼貌, apologised for my involuntary 非自愿 intrusion 侵扰 (which he called a "trespass,") and left the grounds. It was exactly as I suspected 怀疑；嫌疑犯. The recognition of me when I left Mr. Kyrle's office had been evidently 明显地 communicated 通信 to Sir Percival Glyde, and the man in black had been sent to the Park in anticipation 预期 of my making inquiries at the house or in the neighbourhood. If I had given him the least chance of lodging any sort of legal 法律 complaint 抱怨 against me, the interference 干涉 of the local magistrate 法官 would no doubt have been turned to account as a clog 阻塞 on my proceedings 继续, and a means of separating me from Marian and Laura for some days at least.

I was prepared to be watched on the way from Blackwater Park to the station, exactly as I had been watched in London the day before. But I could not discover at the time, whether I was really followed on this occasion or not. The man in black might have had means of tracking 小路 me at his disposal 处置 of which I was not aware 知道的, but I certainly saw nothing of him, in his own person, either on the way to the station, or after‧ward 之后 on my arrival 到达 at the London terminus in the evening. I reached home on foot, taking the pre‧caution 预防, before I approached our own door, of walking round by the loneliest street in the neighbourhood, and there stopping and looking back more than once over the open space behind me. I had first learnt to use this stratagem against suspected treachery in the wilds of Central 中央 America—and now I was practising it again, with the same purpose and with even greater caution, in the heart of civilised London!

Nothing had happened to alarm 5 Marian during my absence. She asked eagerly what success I had met with. When I told her she could not conceal 隐藏 her surprise at the indifference 漠不关心 with which I spoke of the failure of my investigations 调查 thus far.

The truth was, that the ill-success of my inquiries had in no sense daunted 吓住 me. I had pursued 追求 them as a matter of duty, and I had expected nothing from them. In the state of my mind at that time, it was almost a relief to me to know that the struggle was now narrowed to a trial of strength between myself 我 and Sir Percival Glyde. The vindictive motive 动机 had mingled 交融 itself 本身 all along with my other and better motives 动机, and I confess 供认 it was a satisfaction 满足 to me to feel that the surest way, the only way left, of serving Laura's cause, was to fasten 系牢 my hold firmly on the villain 恶棍 who had married her.

While I acknowledge 确认 that I was not strong enough to keep my motives 动机 above the reach of this instinct 直觉 of revenge 报仇, I can honestly say something in my own favour on the other side. No base speculation 推测 on the future relations of Laura and myself 我, and on the private and personal 个人 concessions 让步 which I might force from Sir Percival if I once had him at my mercy 宽容, ever entered my mind. I never said to myself 我, "If I do succeed, it shall be one result of my success that I put it out of her husband's power to take her from me again." I could not look at her and think of the future with such thoughts as those. The sad sight of the change in her from her former self, made the one interest of my love an interest of tenderness 压痛 and compassion 同情 which her father or her brother might have felt, and which I felt, God knows, in my inmost heart. All my hopes looked no farther on now than to the day of her recovery 失而复得. There, till she was strong again and happy again—there, till she could look at me as she had once looked, and speak to me as she had once spoken—the future of my happiest thoughts and my dearest wishes ended.

These words are written under no prompting 敏捷的 of idle 无意义的 self-contemplation. Passages in this narrative 叙述 are soon to come which will set the minds of others in judgment 判断 on my conduct 进行. It is right that the best and the worst of me should be fairly balanced before that time.

On the morning after my return from Hampshire I took Marian upstairs 楼上 into my working-room, and there laid before her the plan that I had matured 成熟的 thus far, for mastering the one assailable point in the life of Sir Percival Glyde.

The way to the Secret lay through the mystery, hitherto 迄今 impenetrable to all of us, of the woman in white. The approach to that in its turn might be gained by obtaining 获得 the assistance 帮助 of Anne Catherick's mother, and the only ascertain‧able 探明‧能够的 means of prevailing 战胜 on Mrs. Catherick to act or to speak in the matter depended on the chance of my discovering local particulars and family particulars first of all from Mrs. Clements. After thinking the subject over carefully 小心, I felt certain that I could only begin the new inquiries by placing myself 我 in communication 通讯 with the faithful 可信 friend and protectress of Anne Catherick.

The first difficulty then was to find Mrs. Clements.

I was indebted 感激的 to Marian's quick perception 看法 for meeting this necessity at once by the best and simplest means. She proposed to write to the farm near Limmeridge (Todd's Corner), to inquire 3 whether Mrs. Clements had communicated 通信 with Mrs. Todd during the past few months. How Mrs. Clements had been separated from Anne it was impossible for us to say, but that separation 分离 once effected, it would certainly occur 发生 to Mrs. Clements to inquire after the missing woman in the neighbourhood of all others to which she was known to be most attached 连接—the neighbourhood of Limmeridge. I saw directly that Marian's proposal offered us a prospect 展望 of success, and she wrote to Mrs. Todd accordingly 于是 by that day's post.

While we were waiting for the reply, I made myself 我 master of all the information Marian could afford on the subject of Sir Percival's family, and of his early life. She could only speak on these topics 话题 from hear‧say 听到‧说, but she was reasonably certain of the truth of what little she had to tell.

Sir Percival was an only child. His father, Sir Felix Glyde, had suffered from his birth under a painful 痛苦 and incur‧able 招致‧能够的 deformity, and had shunned 顺 all society from his earliest years. His sole 唯一 happiness 幸福 was in the enjoyment 享受 of music, and he had married a lady with tastes similar 类似 to his own, who was said to be a most accomplished 完成；实现；达到；做到 musician. He inherited 继承 the Blackwater property while still a young man. Neither he nor his wife after taking possession, made advances of any sort towards the society of the neighbourhood, and no one endeavoured to tempt 引诱 them into abandoning 放弃 their reserve, with the one disastrous 惨重 exception of the rector of the parish 教区.

The rector was the worst of all innocent 无辜 mischief 恶作剧-makers—an over-zealous man. He had heard that Sir Felix had left College with the character of being little better than a revolutionist in politics and an infidel in religion, and he arrived conscientiously 有良心 at the conclusion 结论 that it was his bounden duty to summon 召唤 the lord of the manor 庄园 to hear sound views enunciated in the parish 教区 church. Sir Felix fiercely 凶猛的 resented 愤恨 the clergy‧man 牧师's well-meant but ill-directed interference 干涉, insulting 侮辱 him so grossly 非常 and so publicly, that the families in the neighbourhood sent letters of indignant remonstrance to the Park, and even the tenants 承租人 of the Blackwater property expressed their opinion as strongly as they dared. The baronet, who had no country tastes of any kind, and no attachment 附件 to the estate 房地产 or to any one living on it, declared that society at Blackwater should never have a second chance of annoying him, and left the place from that moment.

After a short residence 住宅 in London he and his wife departed 离开 for the Continent, and never returned to England again. They lived part of the time in France and part in Germany—always keeping themselves in the strict 严格的 retirement 退休 which the morbid sense of his own personal 个人 deformity had made a necessity to Sir Felix. Their son, Percival, had been born abroad 到国外, and had been educated 教育 there by private tutors 导师. His mother was the first of his parents whom he lost. His father had died a few years after her, either in 1825 or 1826. Sir Percival had been in England, as a young man, once or twice 两次 before that period, but his acquaintance 熟人 with the late Mr. Fairlie did not begin till after the time of his father's death. They soon became very intimate 亲密, although Sir Percival was seldom 很少, or never, at Limmeridge House in those days. Mr. Frederick Fairlie might have met him once or twice 两次 in Mr. Philip Fairlie's company, but he could have known little of him at that or at any other time. Sir Percival's only intimate 亲密 friend in the Fairlie family had been Laura's father.

These were all the particulars that I could gain from Marian. They suggested nothing which was useful 有用 to my present purpose, but I noted them down carefully 小心, in the event of their proving to be of importance at any future period.

Mrs. Todd's reply (addressed, by our own wish, to a post-office at some distance from us) had arrived at its destination 目的地 when I went to apply for it. The chances, which had been all against us hitherto 迄今, turned from this moment in our favour. Mrs. Todd's letter contained the first item 项目 of information of which we were in search.

Mrs. Clements, it appeared, had (as we had conjectured 推测) written to Todd's Corner, asking pardon 宽恕；说啥？ in the first place for the abrupt 突兀 manner in which she and Anne had left their friends at the farm-house (on the morning after I had met the woman in white in Limmeridge church‧yard 墓地), and then informing Mrs. Todd of Anne's disappearance 消失, and entreating that she would cause inquiries to be made in the neighbourhood, on the chance that the lost woman might have strayed 流浪 back to Limmeridge. In making this request, Mrs. Clements had been careful 小心 to add to it the address at which she might always be heard of, and that address Mrs. Todd now transmitted 发送 to Marian. It was in London, and within half an hour's walk of our own lodging.

In the words of the pro‧verb 亲‧动词, I was resolved 解决 not to let the grass 草 grow under my feet. The next morning I set forth to seek 寻求 an interview 访问 with Mrs. Clements. This was my first step forward in the investigation 调查. The story of the desperate 殊死 attempt to which I now stood committed 承诺 begins here.

VI

The address communicated 通信 by Mrs. Todd took me to a lodging-house situated 位于 in a respect‧able 可敬 street near the Gray's Inn 4 Road.

When I knocked 敲 the door was opened by Mrs. Clements her‧self 她自己. She did not appear to remember me, and asked what my business was. I recalled 召回 to her our meeting in Limmeridge church‧yard 墓地 at the close of my interview 访问 there with the woman in white, taking special care to remind her that I was the person who assisted 帮助；协助；援助 Anne Catherick (as Anne had her‧self 她自己 declared) to escape the pursuit 追求 from the Asylum. This was my only claim to the confidence 信心 of Mrs. Clements. She remembered the circumstance 环境 the moment I spoke of it, and asked me into the parlour, in the greatest anxiety to know if I had brought her any news of Anne.

It was impossible for me to tell her the whole truth without, at the same time, entering into particulars on the subject of the conspiracy 阴谋, which it would have been dangerous 危险 to confide 信任 to a stranger. I could only abstain most carefully 小心 from raising any false hopes, and then explain that the object of my visit was to discover the persons who were really responsible for Anne's disappearance 消失. I even added, so as to exonerate myself 我 from any after-reproach 责备 of my own conscience 良心, that I entertained not the least hope of being able to trace 跟踪 her—that I believed we should never see her alive again—and that my main interest in the affair was to bring to punishment 惩罚 two men whom I suspected to be concerned in luring 饵 her away, and at whose 4 hands I and some dear friends of mine had suffered a grievous wrong. With this explanation 说明 I left it to Mrs. Clements to say whether our interest in the matter (whatever difference there might be in the motives 动机 which actuated us) was not the same, and whether she felt any reluctance 不情愿 to forward my object by giving me such information on the subject of my inquiries as she happened to possess 拥有.

The poor woman was at first too much confused and agitated 激荡 to understand thoroughly what I said to her. She could only reply that I was welcome to anything she could tell me in return for the kindness 善良 I had shown to Anne; but as she was not very quick and ready, at the best of times, in talking to strangers 陌生人, she would beg me to put her in the right way, and to say where I wished her to begin.

Knowing by experience that the plainest narrative 叙述 attain‧able 达到‧能够的 from persons who are not accustomed 使习惯 to arrange their ideas, is the narrative 叙述 which goes far enough back at the beginning to avoid all impediments 障碍 of retrospection in its course, I asked Mrs. Clements to tell me first what had happened after she had left Limmeridge, and so, by watchful questioning, carried her on from point to point, till we reached the period of Anne's disappearance 消失.

The substance 物质 of the information which I thus obtained 获得 was as follows:—

On leaving the farm at Todd's Corner, Mrs. Clements and Anne had travelled that day as far as Derby, and had remained there a week on Anne's account. They had then gone on to London, and had lived in the lodging occupied 占据 by Mrs. Clements at that time for a month or more, when circumstances 环境 connected with the house and the land‧lord 房东 had obliged 责成 them to change their quarters. Anne's terror 恐怖 of being discovered in London or its neighbourhood, when‧ever 随时 they ventured to walk out, had gradually 逐步地 communicated 通信 itself 本身 to Mrs. Clements, and she had determined on removing 去掉 to one of the most out-of-the-way places in England—to the town of Grimsby in Lincolnshire, where her deceased 死亡 husband had passed all his early life. His relatives were respect‧able 可敬 people settled in the town—they had always treated Mrs. Clements with great kindness 善良, and she thought it impossible to do better than go there and take the advice of her husband's friends. Anne would not hear of returning to her mother at Welmingham, because she had been removed 去掉 to the Asylum from that place, and because Sir Percival would be certain to go back there and find her again. There was serious weight in this objection 反对, and Mrs. Clements felt that it was not to be easily removed 去掉.

At Grimsby the first serious symptoms 症状 of illness 疾病 had shown themselves in Anne. They appeared soon after the news of Lady Glyde's marriage had been made public in the newspapers, and had reached her through that medium 中.

The medical man who was sent for to attend the sick woman discovered at once that she was suffering from a serious affect‧ion 感情 of the heart. The illness 疾病 lasted long, left her very weak, and returned at intervals 间隔, though with mitigated 减轻 severity 严重, again and again. They remained at Grimsby, in consequence 后果, during the first half of the new year, and there they might probably have stayed much longer, but for the sudden resolution 解析度 which Anne took at this time to venture 企业；投机活动；商业冒险 back to Hampshire, for the purpose of obtaining 获得 a private interview 访问 with Lady Glyde.

Mrs. Clements did all in her power to oppose the execution 执行 of this hazardous 危险 and unaccountable project 项目. No explanation 说明 of her motives 动机 was offered by Anne, except that she believed the day of her death was not far off, and that she had something on her mind which must be communicated 通信 to Lady Glyde, at any risk, in secret. Her resolution 解析度 to accomplish 完成；实现；达到；做到 this purpose was so firmly settled that she declared her intention of going to Hampshire by her‧self 她自己 if Mrs. Clements felt any unwillingness 不愿意 to go with her. The doctor, on being consulted, was of opinion that serious opposition 反对 to her wishes would, in all probability 可能性, produce another and perhaps a fatal 致命 fit of illness 疾病, and Mrs. Clements, under this advice, yielded to necessity, and once more, with sad forebodings of trouble and danger to come, allowed Anne Catherick to have her own way.

On the journey from London to Hampshire Mrs. Clements discovered that one of their fellow-passengers 乘客 was well acquainted 认识 with the neighbourhood of Blackwater, and could give her all the information she needed on the subject of localities 局部性. In this way she found out that the only place they could go to, which was not dangerously 危险 near to Sir Percival's residence 住宅, was a large village called Sandon. The distance here from Blackwater Park was between three and four miles—and that distance, and back again, Anne had walked on each occasion when she had appeared in the neighbourhood of the lake.

For the few days during which they were at Sandon without being discovered they had lived a little away from the village, in the cottage 小屋 of a decent 正经 widow 寡妇-woman who had a bed‧room 卧室 to let, and whose 5 discreet 慎重 silence Mrs. Clements had done her best to secure 安全, for the first week at least. She had also tried hard to induce 促使 Anne to be content with writing to Lady Glyde, in the first instance 例; but the failure of the warning contained in the anonymous 匿名 letter sent to Limmeridge had made Anne resolute to speak this time, and obstinate in the determination 决心 to go on her errand 使命 alone.

Mrs. Clements, nevertheless 虽然, followed her privately on each occasion when she went to the lake, without, however, venturing near enough to the boat-house to be witness of what took place there. When Anne returned for the last time from the dangerous 危险 neighbourhood, the fatigue 疲劳 of walking, day after day, distances which were far too great for her strength, added to the exhausting 排气 effect of the agitation 搅动 from which she had suffered, produced the result which Mrs. Clements had dreaded 恐惧 all along. The old pain over the heart and the other symptoms of the illness 疾病 at Grimsby returned, and Anne was con‧fine 局限 to her bed in the cottage 3.

In this emergency 急 the first necessity, as Mrs. Clements knew by experience, was to endeavour to quiet Anne's anxiety of mind, and for this purpose the good woman went her‧self 她自己 the next day to the lake, to try if she could find Lady Glyde (who would be sure, as Anne said, to take her daily walk to the boat-house), and prevail 战胜 on her to come back privately to the cottage near Sandon. On reaching the out‧skirt 郊区 of the plantation 种植园 Mrs. Clements encountered 遭遇, not Lady Glyde, but a tall, stout 肥硕, elderly 年老的；上了年纪的 gentleman, with a book in his hand—in other words, Count Fosco.

The Count, after looking at her very attentively for a moment, asked if she expected to see any one in that place, and added, before she could reply, that he was waiting there with a message from Lady Glyde, but that he was not quite certain whether the person then before him answered the description of the person with whom he was desired to communicate 通信.

Upon this Mrs. Clements at once confided 信任 her errand 使命 to him, and entreated that he would help to allay Anne's anxiety by trusting his message to her. The Count most readily and kindly complied 执行 with her request. The message, he said, was a very important one. Lady Glyde entreated Anne and her good friend to return immediately to London, as she felt certain that Sir Percival would discover them if they remained any longer in the neighbourhood of Blackwater. She was her‧self 她自己 going to London in a short time, and if Mrs. Clements and Anne would go there first, and would let her know what their address was, they should hear from her and see her in a fort‧night 两星期 or less. The Count added that he had already attempted to give a friendly warning to Anne her‧self 她自己, but that she had been too much startled 惊吓 by seeing that he was a stranger to let him approach and speak to her.

To this Mrs. Clements replied, in the greatest alarm and distress 苦难, that she asked nothing better than to take Anne safely to London, but that there was no present hope of removing 去掉 her from the dangerous 危险 neighbourhood, as she lay ill in her bed at that moment. The Count inquired if Mrs. Clements had sent for medical advice, and hearing that she had hitherto 迄今 hesitated to do so, from the fear of making their position publicly known in the village, informed her that he was himself a medical man, and that he would go back with her if she pleased, and see what could be done for Anne. Mrs. Clements (feeling a natural 自然 confidence in the Count, as a person trusted with a secret message from Lady Glyde) gratefully 感激的 accepted the offer, and they went back together to the cottage.

Anne was asleep 睡着的 when they got there. The Count started at the sight of her (evidently 明显地 from astonishment 惊愕 at her resemblance 相似 to Lady Glyde). Poor Mrs. Clements supposed that he was only shocked to see how ill she was. He would not allow her to be awakened 憬—he was contented with putting questions to Mrs. Clements about her symptoms, with looking at her, and with lightly touching her pulse 脉冲. Sandon was a large enough place to have a grocer's and druggist's shop in it, and thither the Count went to write his prescription 处方 and to get the medicine 医学 made up. He brought it back himself, and told Mrs. Clements that the medicine was a powerful 强大 stimulant, and that it would certainly give Anne strength to get up and bear the fatigue 疲劳 of a journey to London of only a few hours. The remedy 3 was to be administered 管理 at stated times on that day and on the day after. On the third day she would be well enough to travel, and he arranged to meet Mrs. Clements at the Blackwater station, and to see them off by the midday 正午 train. If they did not appear he would assume 承担 that Anne was worse, and would proceed 继续 at once to the cottage.

As events turned out, no such emergency 急 as this occurred 发生.

This medicine 医学 had an extraordinary effect on Anne, and the good results of it were helped by the assurance 保证 Mrs. Clements could now give her that she would soon see Lady Glyde in London. At the appointed day and time (when they had not been quite so long as a week in Hampshire altogether 全部地), they arrived at the station. The Count was waiting there for them, and was talking to an elderly lady, who appeared to be going to travel by the train to London also. He most kindly assisted them, and put them into the carriage himself, begging 乞讨 Mrs. Clements not to forget to send her address to Lady Glyde. The elderly lady did not travel in the same compartment 隔室, and they did not notice what became of her on reaching the London terminus. Mrs. Clements secured 安全 respect‧able 可敬 lodgings in a quiet neighbourhood, and then wrote, as she had engaged 从事 to do, to inform Lady Glyde of the address.

A little more than a fort‧night 两星期 passed, and no answer came.

At the end of that time a lady (the same elderly lady whom they had seen at the station) called in a cab 出租车, and said that she came from Lady Glyde, who was then at an hotel in London, and who wished to see Mrs. Clements, for the purpose of arranging a future interview 访问 with Anne. Mrs. Clements expressed her willingness 愿意 (Anne being present at the time, and entreating her to do so) to forward the object in view, especially as she was not required to be away from the house for more than half an hour at the most. She and the elderly lady (clearly Madame Fosco) then left in the cab 出租车. The lady stopped the cab 出租车, after it had driven some distance, at a shop before they got to the hotel, and begged Mrs. Clements to wait for her for a few minutes while she made a purchase 采购 that had been forgotten forget. She never appeared again.

After waiting some time Mrs. Clements became alarmed, and ordered the cabman to drive back to her lodgings. When she got there, after an absence of rather more than half an hour, Anne was gone.

The only information to be obtained 获得 from the people of the house was derived 派生 from the servant who waited on the lodgers. She had opened the door to a boy from the street, who had left a letter for "the young woman who lived on the second floor" (the part of the house which Mrs. Clements occupied 占据). The servant had delivered the letter, had then gone downstairs 楼下, and five minutes after‧ward 之后 had observed Anne open the front door and go out, dressed in her bonnet 帽子 and shawl. She had probably taken the letter with her, for it was not to be found, and it was therefore impossible to tell what inducement had been offered to make her leave the house. It must have been a strong one, for she would never stir 搅动 out alone in London of her own accord. If Mrs. Clements had not known this by experience nothing would have induced 促使 her to go away in the cab 出租车, even for so short a time as half an hour only.

As soon as she could collect her thoughts, the first idea that naturally 自然地 occurred 发生 to Mrs. Clements was to go and make inquiries at the Asylum, to which she dreaded 恐惧 that Anne had been taken back.

She went there the next day, having been informed of the locality 局部性 in which the house was situated 位于 by Anne her‧self 她自己. The answer she received (her application having in all probability 可能性 been made a day or two before the false Anne Catherick had really been consigned to safe keeping in the Asylum) was, that no such person had been brought back there. She had then written to Mrs. Catherick at Welmingham to know if she had seen or heard anything of her daughter, and had received an answer in the negative 负. After that reply had reached her, she was at the end of her resources 资源, and perfectly ignorant 愚昧 where else to inquire or what else to do. From that time to this she had remained in total ignorance 无知 of the cause of Anne's disappearance 消失 and of the end of Anne's story.