The Nebuly Coat
A book by John Meade Falkner.
[ More ParallelTexts | Source language: Japanese | Target language: English ]
The verbs of this paralleltext are marked as links.
プロローグ ~~~
PROLOGUE.
Sir George Farquhar, Baronet, builder of railway-stations, and institutes, and churches, author, antiquarian, and senior partner of Farquhar and Farquhar, leant back in his office chair and turned it sideways to give more point to his remarks. Before him stood an understudy, whom he was sending to superintend the restoration work at Cullerne Minster.
"Well, good-bye, Westray; keep your eyes open, and don't forget that you have an important job before you. The church is too big to hide its light under a bushel, and this Society-for-the-Conservation-of-National-Inheritances has made up its mind to advertise itself at our expense. Ignoramuses who don't know an aumbry from an abacus, charlatans, amateur faddists, they _will_ abuse our work. Good, bad, or indifferent, it's all one to them; they are pledged to abuse it."
His voice rang with a fine professional contempt, but he sobered himself and came back to business.
"The south transept roof and the choir vaulting will want careful watching. There is some old trouble, too, in the central tower; and I should like later on to underpin the main crossing piers, but there is no money. For the moment I have said nothing about the tower; it is no use raising doubts that one can't set at rest; and I don't know how we are going to make ends meet, even with the little that it is proposed to do now. If funds come in, we must tackle the tower; but transept and choir-vaults are more pressing, and there is no risk from the bells, because the cage is so rotten that they haven't been rung for years.
"You must do your best. It isn't a very profitable stewardship, so try to give as good an account of it as you can. We shan't make a penny out of it, but the church is too well known to play fast-and-loose with. I have written to the parson--a foolish old fellow, who is no more fit than a lady's-maid to be trusted with such a church as Cullerne--to say you are coming to-morrow, and will put in an appearance at the church in the afternoon, in case he wishes to see you. The man is an ass, but he is legal guardian of the place, and has not done badly in collecting money for the restoration; so we must bear with him."
第一章 ~~~
CHAPTER ONE.
英国陸地測量部制作の地図ではカラン・ウォーフ、地元の人には単にカランと呼ばれている場所は、今でこそ海岸線から二マイルほど内陸部にあるが、かつてはもっと海寄りで、無敵艦隊との戦いに六隻の船を送り、その一世紀後にはオランダの攻撃を迎え撃つため四隻の船を送り出した由緒ある港として歴史に輝かしい名を残している。ところがやがてカル川の河口域は沈泥でふさがって港口には砂州ができ、海上貿易の船は他に港を探さざるを得なくなった。その後、カル川の流れはやせ細り、それまでのようにあちらこちらへ縦横に伸びるかわりに身を縮めておとなしい河川に変貌し、しかも河川としても決して大きいほうの部類ではなかった。市民たちは港で生計が立てられないことを見て取ると、塩沢を埋め立てることでなにがしかの代償が得られるかも知れないと考え、海水を防ぐために石の堤防を築き、その真ん中にカル川の流れを海に放出する水路を造った。こうしてカラン・フラットと呼ばれる低地の牧草地ができあがり、自由市民はここで羊を放牧する権利を持ち、海峡のむこう、フランスのプレサレ羊にも負けない美味なマトンを生産するようになった。しかし海は無抵抗にその権利を明け渡したわけではない。南東風や大潮と共に波はときどき堤防を乗り越え、またときにはカル川がお行儀よく振る舞うことを忘れ、内陸部に大雨があったあとなど、昔日のごとく、あらゆる拘束を断ち切って暴れた。そんなとき、上の階の窓からカランの町を眺めた人々は、誰もがこの小さな場所が再び海岸線の方に移動したのではないかと考えた。牧草地は水浸しで、堤防は内陸の湖とそのむこうの海との境界線として、目につくほど幅が広くなかったのである。
Cullerne Wharf of the Ordnance maps, or plain Cullerne as known to the countryside, lies two miles from the coast to-day; but it was once much nearer, and figures in history as a seaport of repute, having sent six ships to fight the Armada, and four to withstand the Dutch a century later. But in fulness of time the estuary of the Cull silted up, and a bar formed at the harbour mouth; so that sea-borne commerce was driven to seek other havens. Then the Cull narrowed its channel, and instead of spreading itself out prodigally as heretofore on this side or on that, shrunk to the limits of a well-ordered stream, and this none of the greatest. The burghers, seeing that their livelihood in the port was gone, reflected that they might yet save something by reclaiming the salt-marshes, and built a stone dyke to keep the sea from getting in, with a sluice in the midst of it to let the Cull out. Thus were formed the low-lying meadows called Cullerne Flat, where the Freemen have a right to pasture sheep, and where as good-tasting mutton is bred as on any _pre-sale_ on the other side of the Channel. But the sea has not given up its rights without a struggle, for with a south-east wind and spring-tide the waves beat sometimes over the top of the dyke; and sometimes the Cull forgets its good behaviour, and after heavy rainfalls inland breaks all bonds, as in the days of yore. Then anyone looking out from upper windows in Cullerne town would think the little place had moved back once more to the seaboard; for the meadows are under water, and the line of the dyke is scarcely broad enough to make a division in the view, between the inland lake and the open sea beyond.
The main line of the Great Southern Railway passes seven miles to the north of this derelict port, and converse with the outer world was kept up for many years by carriers' carts, which journeyed to and fro between the town and the wayside station of Cullerne Road. But by-and-by deputations of the Corporation of Cullerne, properly introduced by Sir Joseph Carew, the talented and widely-respected member for that ancient borough, persuaded the railway company that better communication was needed, and a branch-line was made, on which the service was scarcely less primitive than that of the carriers in the past.
The novelty of the railway had not altogether worn off at the time when the restorations of the church were entrusted to Messrs. Farquhar and Farquhar; and the arrival of the trains was still attended by Cullerne loungers as a daily ceremonial. But the afternoon on which Westray came, was so very wet that there were no spectators. He had taken a third-class ticket from London to Cullerne Road to spare his pocket, and a first-class ticket from the junction to Cullerne to support the dignity of his firm. But this forethought was wasted, for, except certain broken-down railway officials, who were drafted to Cullerne as to an asylum, there were no witnesses of his advent.
He was glad to learn that the enterprise of the Blandamer Arms led that family and commercial hotel to send an omnibus to meet all trains, and he availed himself the more willingly of this conveyance because he found that it would set him down at the very door of the church itself. So he put himself and his modest luggage inside--and there was ample room to do this, for he was the only passenger--plunged his feet into the straw which covered the floor, and endured for ten minutes such a shaking and rattling as only an omnibus moving over cobble-stones can produce.
With the plans of Cullerne Minster Mr Westray was thoroughly familiar, but the reality was as yet unknown to him; and when the omnibus lumbered into the market-place, he could not suppress an exclamation as he first caught sight of the great church of Saint Sepulchre shutting in the whole south side of the square. The drenching rain had cleared the streets of passengers, and save for some peeping-Toms who looked over the low green blinds as the omnibus passed, the place might indeed have been waiting for Lady Godiva's progress, all was so deserted.
The heavy sheets of rain in the air, the misty water-dust raised by the drops as they struck the roofs, and the vapour steaming from the earth, drew over everything a veil invisible yet visible, which softened outlines like the gauze curtain in a theatre. Through it loomed the Minster, larger and far more mysteriously impressive than Westray had in any moods imagined. A moment later the omnibus drew up before an iron gate, from which a flagged pathway led through the churchyard to the north porch.
The conductor opened the carriage-door.
"This is the church, sir," he said, somewhat superfluously. "If you get out here, I will drive your bag to the hotel."
Westray fixed his hat firmly on his head, turned up the collar of his coat, and made a dash through the rain for the door. Deep puddles had formed in the worn places of the gravestones that paved the alley, and he splashed himself in his hurry before he reached the shelter of the porch. He pulled aside the hanging leather mattress that covered a wicket in the great door, and found himself inside the church.
ウエストレイは同意を示すように頷き、聖職者は話しつづけた。「自己紹介しますと、わたしは参事会員パーキンと申します。わたしのことはきっとサー・ジョージからお聞きでしょうが、この聖堂の主任司祭として格別のお付き合いをいただいております。あるときなどサー・ジョージはわたしの家にお泊まりになりましてな。若い方があのように有能な建築家のもとで修業できるというのはまことに誇りに思うべきことですよ。あとで今回の修復工事についてサー・ジョージがお考えになっていることを大まかに、ごく手短に説明しますが、その前に尊敬すべき教区民にしてわたしの――友人である方々を紹介しましょう」その口調には、どこから見ても格下なのに、そんな相手を友人扱いするのは、自分を貶めすぎではないかという疑問がいくらかこめられていた。
It was not yet four o'clock, but the day was so overcast that dusk was already falling in the building. A little group of men who had been talking in the choir turned round at the sound of the opening door, and made towards the architect. The protagonist was a clergyman past middle age, who wore a stock, and stepped forward to greet the young architect.
"Sir George Farquhar's assistant, I presume. One of Sir George Farquhar's assistants I should perhaps say, for no doubt Sir George has more than one assistant in carrying out his many and varied professional duties."
Westray made a motion of assent, and the clergyman went on: "Let me introduce myself as Canon Parkyn. You will no doubt have heard of me from Sir George, with whom I, as rector of this church, have had exceptional opportunities of associating. On one occasion, indeed, Sir George spent the night under my own roof, and I must say that I think any young man should be proud of studying under an architect of such distinguished ability. I shall be able to explain to you very briefly the main views which Sir George has conceived with regard to the restoration; but in the meantime let me make you known to my worthy parishioners--and friends," he added in a tone which implied some doubt as to whether condescension was not being stretched too far, in qualifying as friends persons so manifestly inferior.
医者とオルガン奏者は紹介を受けて、頷くような、肩をすくめるような仕草をした。それは主任司祭のうぬぼれて尊大ぶった態度に対する侮蔑をあらわし、万が一にも彼らがミスタ・ウエストレイと友達になることがあったとしても、それは決して参事会員パーキンの紹介のおかげではないだろうということを暗に示していた。それとは逆にミスタ・ジョウリフは、自分が主任司祭の友人に数え入れられたことの重みを充分に認識したらしく、恭しく一揖しながら丁寧に「何かあればわたしにおっしゃってください」と言い、謙虚に振る舞うすべをわきまえていて、これから世に出ようとしている若い建築家にいつでも惜しみなく保護の手を差し伸べる用意のあることを明らかにした。
"This is Mr Sharnall, the organist, who under my direction presides over the musical portion of our services; and this is Dr Ennefer, our excellent local practitioner; and this is Mr Joliffe, who, though engaged in trade, finds time as churchwarden to assist me in the supervision of the sacred edifice."
The doctor and the organist gave effect to the presentation by a nod, and something like a shrug of the shoulders, which deprecated the Rector's conceited pomposity, and implied that if such an exceedingly unlikely contingency as their making friends with Mr Westray should ever happen, it would certainly not be due to any introduction of Canon Parkyn. Mr Joliffe, on the other hand, seemed fully to recognise the dignity to which he was called by being numbered among the Rector's friends, and with a gracious bow, and a polite "Your servant, sir," made it plain that he understood how to condescend in his turn, and was prepared to extend his full protection to a young and struggling architect.
Beside these leading actors, there were present the clerk, and a handful of walking-gentlemen in the shape of idlers who had strolled in from the street, and who were glad enough to find shelter from the rain, and an afternoon's entertainment gratuitously provided.
"I thought you would like to meet me here," said the Rector, "so that I might point out to you at once the more salient features of the building. Sir George Farquhar, on the occasion of his last visit, was pleased to compliment me on the lucidity of the explanations which I ventured to offer."
There seemed to be no immediate way of escape, so Westray resigned himself to the inevitable, and the little group moved up the nave, enveloped in an atmosphere of its own, of which wet overcoats and umbrellas were resolvable constituents. The air in the church was raw and cold, and a smell of sodden matting drew Westray's attention to the fact that the roofs were not water-tight, and that there were pools of rain-water on the floor in many places.
"The nave is the oldest part," said the cicerone, "built about 1135 by Walter Le Bec."
"I am very much afraid our friend is too young and inexperienced for the work here. What do _you_ think?" he put in as a rapid aside to the doctor.
"Oh, I dare say if you take him in hand and coach him a little he will do all right," replied the doctor, raising his eyebrows for the organist's delectation.
"Yes, this is all Le Bec's work," the Rector went on, turning back to Westray. "So sublime the simplicity of the Norman style, is it not? The nave arcades will repay your close attention; and look at these wonderful arches in the crossing. Norman, of course, but how light; and yet strong as a rock to bear the enormous weight of the tower which later builders reared on them. Wonderful, wonderful!"
Westray recalled his Chief's doubts about the tower, and looking up into the lantern saw on the north side a seam of old brick filling; and on the south a thin jagged fissure, that ran down from the sill of the lantern-window like the impress of a lightning-flash. There came into his head an old architectural saw, "The arch never sleeps"; and as he looked up at the four wide and finely-drawn semicircles they seemed to say:
"The arch never sleeps, never sleeps. They have bound on us a burden too heavy to be borne. We are shifting it. The arch never sleeps."
"Wonderful, wonderful!" the Rector still murmured. "Daring fellows, these Norman builders."
"Yes, yes," Westray was constrained to say; "but they never reckoned that the present tower would be piled upon their arches."
"What, _you_ think them a little shaky?" put in the organist. "Well, I have fancied so, many a time, myself."
"Oh, I don't know. I dare say they will last our time," Westray answered in a nonchalant and reassuring tone; for he remembered that, as regards the tower, he had been specially cautioned to let sleeping dogs lie, but he thought of the Ossa heaped on Pelion above their heads, and conceived a mistrust of the wide crossing-arches which he never was able entirely to shake off.
「そんなことはありませんよ、あなた」主任司祭はこのとんでもない誤解に寛大な笑みを浮かべて言った。「このアーチなら心配には及びません。ここではじめてお会いしたときにサー・ジョージがこうおっしゃったんですよ。『主任司祭さん、カランには四十年お住まいとのことですが、塔が動いたような形跡はありませんでしたか』わたしはこう言い返したんです。『サー・ジョージ、費用の支払いを塔が倒れるまで待っていただけますかな？』はっ、はっ、はっ！冗談がお分かりになったようで、それ以後塔の話は出たことがありません。サー・ジョージはきっとあなたに周到な指示をお与えになったのでしょうな。さて、サー・ジョージに聖堂の中を直々に案内して差し上げた栄誉に免じて、どうか南袖廊のほうへお進みいただけませんか。サー・ジョージがどこよりも緊急に修復すべきとお考えになったところをご覧にいれましょう」
"No, no, my young friend," said the Rector with a smile of forbearance for so mistaken an idea, "do not alarm yourself about these arches. `Mr Rector,' said Sir George to me the very first time we were here together, `you have been at Cullerne forty years; have you ever observed any signs of movement in the tower?' `Sir George,' I said, `will you wait for your fees until my tower tumbles down?' Ha, ha, ha! He saw the joke, and we never heard anything more about the tower. Sir George has, no doubt, given you all proper instructions; but as I had the privilege of personally showing him the church, you must forgive me if I ask you to step into the south transept for a moment, while I point out to you what Sir George considered the most pressing matter."
They moved into the transept, but the doctor managed to buttonhole Westray for a moment _en route_.
"You will be bored to death," he said, "with this man's ignorance and conceit. Don't pay the least attention to him, but there _is_ one thing I want to take the first opportunity of pressing on you. Whatever is done or not done, however limited the funds may be, let us at least have a sanitary floor. You must have all these stones up, and put a foot or two of concrete under them. Can anything be more monstrous than that the dead should be allowed to poison the living? There must be hundreds of burials close under the floor, and look at the pools of water standing about. Can anything, I say, be more insanitary?"
They were in the south transept, and the Rector had duly pointed out the dilapidations of the roof, which, in truth, wanted but little showing.
"Some call this the Blandamer aisle," he said, "from a noble family of that name who have for many years been buried here."
「彼らの地下納骨所はきっと恐ろしく非衛生的な状態ですよ」医者が口をはさんだ。
"_Their_ vaults are, no doubt, in a most insanitary condition," interpolated the doctor.
"These Blandamers ought to restore the whole place," the organist said bitterly. "They would, if they had any sense of decency. They are as rich as Croesus, and would miss pounds less than most people would miss pennies. Not that I believe in any of this sanitary talk--things have gone on well enough as they are; and if you go digging up the floors you will only dig up pestilences. Keep the fabric together, make the roofs water-tight, and spend a hundred or two on the organ. That is all we want, and these Blandamers would do it, if they weren't curmudgeons and skinflints."
「失礼だがね、ミスタ・シャーノール」と主任司祭が言った。「世襲貴族というのは大切な制度だから、そういう方々の批判はごく慎重にしなければならないと思うね。でも同時に」彼は弁明するようにウエストレイのほうを振りむいて言った。「友人の意見には一抹の真実があるかも知れません。ブランダマー卿が気前よく修復費用を出してくれはしないかと期待していたのですが、今までのところ音沙汰なしです。もっともお返事が遅れているのはずっと外国にいらっしゃるせいだと思いますがね。卿は昨年おじい様から地位をお継ぎになりました。お亡くなりになった先代はこの聖堂にあまり関心をお持ちではありませんでしたし、実はいろいろな面でひどく変わった性格の持ち主でした。しかしこんなことを蒸し返しても仕方がありませんな。ご老体はお亡くなりになったのですから、お若い御当主からよい知らせがあることを祈るしかありません」
"You will forgive me, Mr Sharnall," said the Rector, "if I remark that an hereditary peerage is so important an institution, that we should be very careful how we criticise any members of it. At the same time," he went on, turning apologetically to Westray, "there is perhaps a modicum of reason in our friend's remarks. I had hoped that Lord Blandamer would have contributed handsomely to the restoration fund, but he has not hitherto done so, though I dare say that his continued absence abroad accounts for some delay. He only succeeded his grandfather last year, and the late lord never showed much interest in this place, and was indeed in many ways a very strange character. But it's no use raking up these stories; the old man is gone, and we must hope for better things from the young one."
"I don't know why you call him young," said the doctor. "He's young, maybe, compared to his grandfather, who died at eighty-five; but he must be forty, if he's a day."
"Oh, impossible; and yet I don't know. It was in my first year at Cullerne that his father and mother were drowned. You remember that, Mr Sharnall--when the _Corisande_ upset in Pallion Bay?"
「ああ、よく覚えてますわい」と教会事務員が割りこんできた。「結婚なすったときのことも。わしらが鐘を鳴らしておったら石工の爺さんのパーミターが聖堂に飛びこんできて『おまえら、やめんか。鐘を打つな。この古い塔が倒れるぞ。ぐらぐら揺れて、ひび割れたところから埃が雨のように降っている』と言うんでさ。それで聖堂を出ました。中止になったのは好都合でしたがね。なんたってロンドン・ロードの牧草地では飲めや歌えやの祝宴が開かれとって、わしらも行きたくてしょうがなかったですから。今度お告げの日（註 処女マリアの受胎告知を祝う三月二十五日）が来りゃ、あれから四十二年経つことになります。感心しねえって頭を振るやつもいましたよ。ピールを中断するのは命や幸せの中断につながるってね。でも、しょうがねえじゃねえですか」
"Ay, I mind that well enough," struck in the clerk; "and I mind their being married, becos' we wor ringing of the bells, when old Mason Parmiter run into the church, and says: `Do'ant-'ee, boys--do'ant-'ee ring 'em any more. These yere old tower'll never stand it. I see him rock,' he says, `and the dust a-running out of the cracks like rain.' So out we come, and glad enough to stop it, too, because there wos a feast down in the meadows by the London Road, and drinks and dancing, and we wanted to be there. That were two-and-forty years ago come Lady Day, and there was some shook their heads, and said we never ought to have stopped the ring, for a broken peal broke life or happiness. But what was we to do?"
"Did they strengthen the tower afterwards?" Westray asked. "Do you find any excessive motion when the peal is rung now?"
「とんでもねえ、旦那。あの前も三十年間鳴らされねえままだったんで。あのときだって鳴らすつもりはなかったんだが、トム・リーチが『鐘紐があるじゃねえか。いっちょう鳴らしてやろうぜ。三十年鳴っていねえんだ。最後に鳴ったのがいつかも思い出せねえ。そのとき弱っていたとしても、たっぷり時間があったからもう回復しているさ。ピールを鳴らしたやつには半クラウン出すぜ』って言うものでね。それでパーミターの爺さんに止められるまで鳴らしたってわけで。それからというものあの鐘は一度も鳴らされちゃおりません。間違いないですよ。あそこに紐がありますがね」そう言って彼ははるか頭上のランタンから垂れ下がり、壁にくくりつけられている鐘紐を指さした。「ありゃあ、礼拝用の鐘を鳴らすためのものですが、それだって大きい鐘じゃねえですからな」
"Lor' bless you, sir; them bells was never rung for thirty years afore that, and wouldn't a been rung then, only Tom Leech, he says: `The ropes is there, boys; let's have a ring out of these yere tower. He ain't been rung for thirty year. None on us don't recollect the last time he _was_ rung, and if 'er were weak then, 'ers had plenty of time to get strong again, and there'll be half a crown a man for ringing of a peal.' So up we got to it, till old Parmiter come in to stop us. And you take my word for it, they never have been rung since. There's only that rope there"--and he pointed to a bell-rope that came down from the lantern far above, and was fastened back against the wall--"wot we tolls the bell with for service, and that ain't the big bell neither."
"Did Sir George Farquhar know all this?" Westray asked the Rector.
「いいえ、ご存じじゃなかったでしょう」主任司祭は幾分いらいらした口調で言った。「お話しなければならないほど重要なことではありませんし、こちらにいるあいだはもっと緊急な問題に時間を取られていらっしゃいましたから。今の昔話など、わたし自身もはじめて聞きましたよ。鐘を鳴らしていないのは事実ですが、それは揺れを支える鐘枠が弱っているようだからで、塔自体とは何の関係もありません。わたしの言うことのほうが間違いありませんよ。サー・ジョージがお尋ねになったとき、申しあげたのです。『サー・ジョージ、わたしはここに四十年住んでいますが、この塔が倒れるまでお支払いを延ばしてくださるなら、こんなに嬉しいことはありません』とね。はっ、はっ、はっ！サー・ジョージもこの冗談を聞いて大笑いでしたよ！はっ、はっ、はっ！」
"No, sir; Sir George did not know it," said the Rector, with some tartness in his voice, "because it was not material that he should know it; and Sir George's time, when he was here, was taken up with more pressing matters. I never heard this old wife's tale myself till the present moment, and although it is true that we do not ring the bells, this is on account of the supposed weakness of the cage in which they swing, and has nothing whatever to do with the tower itself. You may take my word for that. `Sir George,' I said, when Sir George asked me--`Sir George, I have been here forty years, and if you will agree not to ask for your fees till my tower tumbles down, why, I shall be very glad.' Ha, ha, ha! how Sir George enjoyed that joke! Ha, ha, ha!"
Westray turned away with a firm resolve to report to headquarters the story of the interrupted peal, and to make an early examination of the tower on his own behalf.
The clerk was nettled that the Rector should treat his story with such scant respect, but he saw that the others were listening with interest, and he went on:
「そりゃ、この古い塔が倒れるかどうかなんて、わたしにゃ分かりませんし、この先サー・ジョージがお困りになるような事態も望んじゃいませんや。しかし鐘を途中で止めていいことのあったためしがねえんで。先代のブランダマー卿の場合がそうでした。まずご子息とご子息の奥様をカラン湾でお亡くしになりました。昨日のことのように思い出しますな、わしらは夜通し引っ掛け鉤でお二人を捜したんですが、朝になって潮が差してきたとき、三尋の深さのところに寄り添うように二人の死体を見つけました。それから今度は奥様と仲違いなさり、奥様は二度と口をきこうとしませんでした――ええ、死ぬ日までね。ご夫婦はフォーディングに住んどったんですよ――あそこにでっかい屋敷を構えとりましてね」彼は親指で東のほうをさしながらウエストレイに言った。「二十年間、別々の棟に、まるで自分の家みてえにして住んどったんで。それから孫のミスタ・ファインズと喧嘩なさって、家からも土地からも追い出しておしまいになった。もっともお亡くなりになったときゃ、家も土地もお孫さんに残すしかなかったんですがね。このミスタ・ファインズというのがお若い御当主なんでして。外国を渡り歩いて人生の半分を過ごし、まだお戻りじゃないんですよ。もしかしたら戻らないかも知れませんな。殺されたってことも充分ありえます。さもなきゃ、きっと司祭さんの手紙に返事を書いているでしょうから。そう思いませんか、ミスタ・シャーノール」彼は不意にオルガン奏者のほうを振りむき、片目をつぶって見せた。主任司祭が彼の話を鼻であしらったことへの仕返しのつもりだった。
"Well, 'taint for I to say the old tower's a-going to fall, and I hope Sir Jarge won't ever live to larf the wrong side o' his mouth; but stopping of a ring never brought luck with it yet, and it brought no luck to my lord. First he lost his dear son and his son's wife in Cullerne Bay, and I remember as if 'twas yesterday how we grappled for 'em all night, and found their bodies lying close together on the sand in three fathoms, when the tide set inshore in the morning. And then he fell out wi' my lady, and she never spoke to him again--no, not to the day of her death. They lived at Fording--that's the great hall over there," he said to Westray, jerking his thumb towards the east--"for twenty years in separate wings, like you mi'd say each in a house to themselves. And then he fell out wi' Mr Fynes, his grandson, and turned him out of house and lands, though he couldn't leave them anywhere else when he died. 'Tis Mr Fynes as is the young lord now, and half his life he's bin a wandrer in foreign parts, and isn't come home yet. Maybe he never will come back. It's like enough he's got killed out there, or he'd be tied to answer parson's letters. Wouldn't he, Mr Sharnall?" he said, turning abruptly to the organist with a wink, which was meant to retaliate for the slight that the Rector had put on his stories.
"Come, come; we've had enough of these tales," said the Rector. "Your listeners are getting tired."
"The man's in love with his own voice," he added in a lower tone, as he took Westray by the arm; "when he's once set off there's no stopping him. There are still a good many points which Sir George and I discussed, and on which I shall hope to give you our conclusions; but we shall have to finish our inspection to-morrow, for this talkative fellow has sadly interrupted us. It is a great pity the light is failing so fast just now; there is some good painted glass in this end window of the transept."
ウエストレイが上を見ると、袖廊の端の大きな窓が鈍く光っていた。光っているといっても聖堂の内部に垂れこめる夕闇に比べれば明るいといった程度である。それは垂直様式の時代に造られた大きなもので、幅は壁一杯に広がり、高さもほぼ床から天井まであった。十一の小さな窓に仕切られ、上部に果てしなく細かい石細工を施したこの巨大な窓は、想像力を揺さぶった。縦仕切りと狭間飾りが外に残っている陽の光を受けて黒く浮かび上がり、建築家は補助アーチや狭間飾りの構造を、見取り図を前にしているかのように、楽々と見て取ることができた。日没は日暮れ時の陰鬱な帳を吹き払う夕陽のきらめきをもたらしはしなかったが、単調な灰色の空はまだ充分に明るく、熟練した目には窓の上部にいろいろな形の古いガラスがびっしり填めこまれているのが見えた。半透明の青や黄や赤が古いパッチワークのキルトのように、彩りよく混じり合っているのだ。窓の下の方、両脇の小窓は着色されておらず、幽霊のように白いままだった。しかし中間部の三つの小窓は十七世紀の鮮やかな茶色と紫色に満たされていた。この豊かな色のあちらこちらにメダイヨンが挿入されていて、どうやらそれぞれ聖書の一場面をあらわしているようだった。それぞれの小窓の上部、茨の下には紋章が描かれている。中間部分の上部が全体の構成の中心をなしていて、どうやら銀色の楯の表面を、海緑色の波形線が何本か横切っている図像が描かれているようだった。ウエストレイは変わった色使いとガラスの透明感に注意を奪われた。すべてものが薄ぼんやりと見える中で、そのガラスだけはまるで内側から光を放射しているようだった。彼はほとんど無意識のうちに、これは誰の紋章なのかと尋ねようとして振り返った。しかし主任司祭はちょっと前から彼のそばを離れ、ややへだたった身廊のほうから癇に障る「はっ、はっ、はっ！」が聞こえてきたので、彼はサー・ジョージ・ファークワーと支払い延期の話がまたもや夕闇の中で新たな犠牲者に語られたのだと確信した。
Westray looked up and saw the great window at the end of the transept shimmering with a dull lustre; light only in comparison with the shadows that were falling inside the church. It was an insertion of Perpendicular date, reaching from wall to wall, and almost from floor to roof. Its vast breadth, parcelled out into eleven lights, and the infinite division of the stonework in the head, impressed the imagination; while mullions and tracery stood out in such inky contrast against the daylight yet lingering outside, that the architect read the scheme of subarcuation and the tracery as easily as if he had been studying a plan. Sundown had brought no gleam to lift the pall of the dying day, but the monotonous grey of the sky was still sufficiently light to enable a practised eye to make out that the head of the window was filled with a broken medley of ancient glass, where translucent blues and yellows and reds mingled like the harmony of an old patchwork quilt. Of the lower divisions of the window, those at the sides had no colour to clothe their nakedness, and remained in ghostly whiteness; but the three middle lights were filled with strong browns and purples of the seventeenth century. Here and there in the rich colour were introduced medallions, representing apparently scriptural scenes, and at the top of each light, under the cusping, was a coat of arms. The head of the middle division formed the centre of the whole scheme, and seemed to represent a shield of silver-white crossed by waving sea-green bars. Westray's attention was attracted by the unusual colouring, and by the transparency of the glass, which shone as with some innate radiance where all was dim. He turned almost unconsciously to ask whose arms were thus represented, but the Rector had left him for a minute, and he heard an irritating "Ha, ha, ha!" at some distance down the nave, that convinced him that the story of Sir George Farquhar and the postponed fees was being retold in the dusk to a new victim.
Someone, however, had evidently read the architect's thoughts, for a sharp voice said:
「それはブランダマー家の紋章だよ。――｜雲形線が楯を六つに等分割し《バーリイ・ネビュリー・オブ・シックス》、銀色《アージェント》と緑色《ヴァート》が交互に重なっている」ますます濃くなる夕闇の中、彼のそばに立っていたのはオルガン奏者だった。「こりゃうっかりした。そんな専門用語を使ったってお分かりにならないだろうね。それにわたし自身、紋章なんてこの一つしか知らないんだ。ときどき思うんだよ」彼はため息をついた。「この紋章のことも知らなければよかったってね。あの楯についてはおかしな逸話が幾つかある。たぶんそれ以上に奇妙な話もまだあるんじゃないだろうか。いいにつけ、悪いにつけ、あれはこの聖堂や、この町に何世紀にもわたって刻みこまれてきた。居酒屋にたむろする連中ならみんな『雲形紋章』のことを自分が着ている服みたいにしゃべってくれるよ。カランに一週間もいたら、あんたもあれとはお馴染みになるだろう」
"That is the coat of the Blandamers--barry nebuly of six, argent and vert." It was the organist who stood near him in the deepening shadows. "I forgot that such jargon probably conveys no meaning to you, and, indeed, I know no heraldry myself excepting only this one coat of arms, and sometimes wish," he said with a sigh, "that I knew nothing of that either. There have been queer tales told of that shield, and maybe there are queerer yet to be told. It has been stamped for good or evil on this church, and on this town, for centuries, and every tavern loafer will talk to you about the `nebuly coat' as if it was a thing he wore. You will be familiar enough with it before you have been a week at Cullerne."
There was in the voice something of melancholy, and an earnestness that the occasion scarcely warranted. It produced a curious effect on Westray, and led him to look closely at the organist; but it was too dark to read any emotion in his companion's face, and at this moment the Rector rejoined them.
"Eh, what? Ah, yes; the nebuly coat. Nebuly, you know, from the Latin _nebulum, nebulus_ I should say, a cloud, referring to the wavy outline of the bars, which are supposed to represent cumulus clouds. Well, well, it is too dark to pursue our studies further this evening, but to-morrow I can accompany you the whole day, and shall be able to tell you much that will interest you."
Westray was not sorry that the darkness had put a stop to further investigations. The air in the church grew every moment more clammy and chill, and he was tired, hungry, and very cold. He was anxious, if possible, to find lodgings at once, and so avoid the expense of an hotel, for his salary was modest, and Farquhar and Farquhar were not more liberal than other firms in the travelling allowances which they granted their subordinates.
彼は適当な下宿部屋はないだろうかと尋ねた。
He asked if anyone could tell him of suitable rooms.
"I am sorry," the Rector said, "not to be able to offer you the hospitality of my own house, but the indisposition of my wife unfortunately makes that impossible. I have naturally but a very slight acquaintance with lodging-houses or lodging-house keepers; but Mr Sharnall, I dare say, may be able to give you some advice. Perhaps there may be a spare room in the house where Mr Sharnall lodges. I think your landlady is a relation of our worthy friend Joliffe, is she not, Mr Sharnall? And no doubt herself a most worthy woman."
"Pardon, Mr Rector," said the churchwarden, in as offended a tone as he dared to employ in addressing so superior a dignitary--"pardon, no relation at all, I assure you. A namesake, or, at the nearest, a very distant connection of whom--I speak with all Christian forbearance--my branch of the family have no cause to be proud."
The organist had scowled when the Rector was proposing Westray as a fellow-lodger, but Joliffe's disclaimer of the landlady seemed to pique him.
"If no branch of your family brings you more discredit than my landlady, you may hold your head high enough. And if all the pork you sell is as good as her lodgings, your business will thrive. Come along," he said, taking Westray by the arm; "I have no wife to be indisposed, so I can offer you the hospitality of my house; and we will stop at Mr Joliffe's shop on our way, and buy a pound of sausages for tea."
第二章 ~~~
CHAPTER TWO.
There was a rush of outer air into the building as they opened the door. The rain still fell heavily, but the wind was rising, and had in it a clean salt smell, that contrasted with the close and mouldering atmosphere of the church.
オルガン奏者は深呼吸した。
The organist drew a deep breath.
「ああ、外に出るとせいせいするな――連中の小うるさい文句から解放されて。もったいぶったろくでなしの主任司祭や、偽善者のジョウリフや、知ったかぶりのお医者様から解放されて！地下納骨所をセメントで固めるなんて、どうして無駄なことに金を使いたがるのだ？病原菌をほじくり返すだけのことじゃないか。おまけにパイプオルガンには一銭も使おうとしない。ファーザー・スミス（註 十七世紀のオルガン制作者）のオルガンには一ペニーも金をかけようとしない。渓流のように清らかで美しい音を出すというのに。まったくひどすぎる！白鍵は痛々しいほどすり減っているし、鍵盤のあいだに溝ができて木肌が見えているんだ。足鍵盤は短すぎてぼろぼろ。いやはや、あのパイプオルガンはわたしにそっくりさ。年老いて、無視され、くたびれきっている。死んだほうがましだよ」彼は半ば独り言のようにしゃべっていたが、ふとウエストレイのほうを振りむいて言った。「不平を並べて悪かったね。あんたもわたしの歳になれば不平を鳴らすようになる。少なくとも、その歳になってわたしくらい貧乏で、ひとりぼっちで、未来に希望がなければ。さあ、こっちだ」
"Ah," he said, "what a blessed thing to be in the open air again--to be quit of all their niggling and naggling, to be quit of that pompous old fool the Rector, and of that hypocrite Joliffe, and of that pedant of a doctor! Why does he want to waste money on cementing the vaults? It's only digging up pestilences; and they won't spend a farthing on the organ. Not a penny on the _Father Smith_, clear and sweet-voiced as a mountain brook. Oh," he cried, "it's too bad! The naturals are worn down to the quick, you can see the wood in the gutters of the keys, and the pedal-board's too short and all to pieces. Ah well! the organ's like me--old, neglected, worn-out. I wish I was dead." He had been talking half to himself, but he turned to Westray and said: "Forgive me for being peevish; you'll be peevish, too, when you come to my age--at least, if you're as poor then as I am, and as lonely, and have nothing to look forward to. Come along."
They stepped out into the dark--for night had fallen--and plashed along the flagged path which glimmered like a white streamlet between the dark turves.
"I will take you a short-cut, if you don't mind some badly-lighted lanes," said the organist, as they left the churchyard; "it's quicker, and we shall get more shelter." He turned sharply to the left, and plunged into an alley so narrow and dark that Westray could not keep up with him, and fumbled anxiously in the obscurity. The little man reached up, and took him by the arm. "Let me pilot you," he said; "I know the way. You can walk straight on; there are no steps."
There was no sign of life, nor any light in the houses, but it was not till they reached a corner where an isolated lamp cast a wan and uncertain light that Westray saw that there was no glass in the windows, and that the houses were deserted.
"It's the old part of the town," said the organist; "there isn't one house in ten with anyone in it now. All we fashionables have moved further up. Airs from the river are damp, you know, and wharves so very vulgar."
They left the narrow street, and came on to what Westray made out to be a long wharf skirting the river. On the right stood abandoned warehouses, square-fronted, and huddled together like a row of gigantic packing-cases; on the left they could hear the gurgle of the current among the mooring-posts, and the flapping of the water against the quay wall, where the east wind drove the wavelets up the river. The lines of what had once been a horse-tramway still ran along the quay, and the pair had some ado to thread their way without tripping, till a low building on the right broke the line of lofty warehouses. It seemed to be a church or chapel, having mullioned windows with stone tracery, and a bell-turret at the west end; but its most marked feature was a row of heavy buttresses which shored up the side facing the road. They were built of brick, and formed triangles with the ground and the wall which they supported. The shadows hung heavy under the building, but where all else was black the recesses between the buttresses were blackest. Westray felt his companion's hand tighten on his arm.
彼らは狭い路地を離れ、川沿いに長く延びた波止場らしき場所に出た。右側には使われていない倉庫が四角い正面をむけて、巨大な荷箱のように一列に並んでいる。左側からは係船柱のあいだを流れる川水の音や、岸壁を舐める波の音が聞こえ、東風が川面にさざ波を立てていた。昔の馬車鉄道の線路が今も波止場を貫くように残っていて、二人はつまずかないよう注意して歩きながら、とうとう右側の大倉庫の列が一軒の低い建物によって途切れるところまでやってきた。それは教会か礼拝堂らしく、石の狭間飾りに、縦仕切りで仕切られた窓があり、西の端には鐘塔が建っていた。しかし何よりも目をひいたのは、道路に面した壁面を支える重量感あふれる控え壁だった。煉瓦造りで、地面とそれが支える壁とで三角形を形成している。建物の下には濃い影が落ちていたが、控え壁のあいだのくぼみが他のどこよりも黒々としていた。ウエストレイは同伴者の手が腕を強く握りしめるのを感じた。
"You will think me as great a coward as I am," said the organist, "if I tell you that I never come this way after dark, and should not have come here to-night if I had not had you with me. I was always frightened as a boy at the very darkness in the spaces between the buttresses, and I have never got over it. I used to think that devils and hobgoblins lurked in those cavernous depths, and now I fancy evil men may be hiding in the blackness, all ready to spring out and strangle one. It is a lonely place, this old wharf, and after nightfall--" He broke off, and clutched Westray's arm. "Look," he said; "do you see nothing in the last recess?"
His abruptness made Westray shiver involuntarily, and for a moment the architect fancied that he discerned the figure of a man standing in the shadow of the end buttress. But, as he took a few steps nearer, he saw that he had been deceived by a shadow, and that the space was empty.
"Your nerves are sadly overstrung," he said to the organist. "There is no one there; it is only some trick of light and shade. What is the building?"
"It was once a chantry of the Grey Friars," Mr Sharnall answered, "and afterwards was used for excise purposes when Cullerne was a real port. It is still called the Bonding-House, but it has been shut up as long as I remember it. Do you believe in certain things or places being bound up with certain men's destinies? because I have a presentiment that this broken-down old chapel will be connected somehow or other with a crisis of my life."
Westray remembered the organist's manner in the church, and began to suspect that his mind was turned. The other read his thoughts, and said rather reproachfully:
"Oh no, I am not mad--only weak and foolish and very cowardly."
They had reached the end of the wharf, and were evidently returning to civilisation, for a sound of music reached them. It came from a little beer-house, and as they passed they heard a woman singing inside. It was a rich contralto, and the organist stopped for a moment to listen.
"She has a fine voice," he said, "and would sing well if she had been taught. I wonder how she comes here."
The blind was pulled down, but did not quite reach the bottom of the window, and they looked in. The rain blurred the pains on the outside, and the moisture had condensed within, so that it was not easy to see clearly; but they made out that a Creole woman was singing to a group of topers who sat by the fire in a corner of the room. She was middle-aged, but sang sweetly, and was accompanied on the harp by an old man:
"Oh, take me back to those I love! Or bring them here to me! I have no heart to rove, to rove Across the rolling sea."
"Poor thing!" said the organist; "she has fallen on bad days to have so scurvy a company to sing to. Let us move on."
右に曲がって数分歩くと大きな通りに出た。二人の目の前に建っていたのは、かつては立派なたたずまいを見せていただろうと思われる家であった。柱に支えられたポーチがあり、その下には半円形の階段が両開きの戸口までつづいている。正面には街灯が立っていて、雨にきれいに洗われて異常なくらい輝かしい光りを放ち、夜でもその家の落魄した姿を浮かび上がらせていた。廃屋というわけではないが、ペンキのはげた窓枠や、何カ所か漆喰のはげたあら塗り仕上げの正面には「栄光は去れり」（註 サムエル記から）の文字が書き記されていた。ポーチの柱は大理石に似せてペンキが塗られていたのだが、化粧漆喰がはげて薄汚れたまだら模様をつくり、そこから煉瓦の芯が覗いていた。
They turned to the right, and came in a few minutes to the highroad. Facing them stood a house which had once been of some pretensions, for it had a porch carried on pillars, under which a semicircular flight of steps led up to the double door. A street-lamp which stood before it had been washed so clean in the rain that the light was shed with unusual brilliance, and showed even at night that the house was fallen from its high estate. It was not ruinous, but _Ichabod_ was written on the paintless window-frames and on the rough-cast front, from which the plaster had fallen away in more than one place. The pillars of the porch had been painted to imitate marble, but they were marked with scabrous patches, where the brick core showed through the broken stucco.
The organist opened the door, and they found themselves in a stone-floored hall, out of which dingy doors opened on both sides. A broad stone staircase, with shallow steps and iron balustrades, led from the hall to the next story, and there was a little pathway of worn matting that threaded its way across the flags, and finally ascended the stairs.
"Here is my town house," said Mr Sharnall. "It used to be a coaching inn called The Hand of God, but you must never breathe a word of that, because it is now a private mansion, and Miss Joliffe has christened it Bellevue Lodge."
A door opened while he was speaking, and a girl stepped into the hall. She was about nineteen, and had a tall and graceful figure. Her warm brown hair was parted in the middle, and its profusion was gathered loosely up behind in the half-formal, half-natural style of a preceding generation. Her face had lost neither the rounded outline nor the delicate bloom of girlhood, but there was something in it that negatived any impression of inexperience, and suggested that her life had not been free from trouble. She wore a close-fitting dress of black, and had a string of pale corals round her neck.
"Good-evening, Mr Sharnall," she said. "I hope you are not very wet"-- and gave a quick glance of inquiry at Westray.
The organist did not appear pleased at seeing her. He grunted testily, and, saying "Where is your aunt? Tell her I want to speak to her," led Westray into one of the rooms opening out of the hall.
It was a large room, with an upright piano in one corner, and a great litter of books and manuscript music. A table in the middle was set for tea; a bright fire was burning in the grate, and on either side of it stood a rush-bottomed armchair.
"Sit down," he said to Westray; "this is my reception-room, and we will see in a minute what Miss Joliffe can do for _you_." He glanced at his companion, and added, "That was her niece we met in the passage," in so unconcerned a tone as to produce an effect opposite to that intended, and to lead Westray to wonder whether there was any reason for his wishing to keep the girl in the background.
In a few moments the landlady appeared. She was a woman of sixty, tall and spare, with a sweet and even distinguished face. She, too, was dressed in black, well-worn and shabby, but her appearance suggested that her thinness might be attributed to privation or self-denial, rather than to natural habit.
Preliminaries were easily arranged; indeed, the only point of discussion was raised by Westray, who was disturbed by scruples lest the terms which Miss Joliffe offered were too low to be fair to herself. He said so openly, and suggested a slight increase, which, after some demur, was gratefully accepted.
"You are too poor to have so fine a conscience," said the organist snappishly. "If you are so scrupulous now, you will be quite unbearable when you get rich with battening and fattening on this restoration." But he was evidently pleased with Westray's consideration for Miss Joliffe, and added with more cordiality: "You had better come down and share my meal; your rooms will be like an ice-house such a night as this. Don't be long, or the turtle will be cold, and the ortolans baked to a cinder. I will excuse evening dress, unless you happen to have your court suit with you."
Westray accepted the invitation with some willingness, and an hour later he and the organist were sitting in the rush-bottomed armchairs at either side of the fireplace. Miss Joliffe had herself cleared the table, and brought two tumblers, wine-glasses, sugar, and a jug of water, as if they were natural properties of the organist's sitting-room.
"I did Churchwarden Joliffe an injustice," said Mr Sharnall, with the reflective mood that succeeds a hearty meal; "his sausages are good. Put on some more coal, Mr Westray; it is a sinful luxury, a fire in September, and coal at twenty-five shillings a ton; but we must have _some_ festivity to inaugurate the restoration and your advent. Fill a pipe yourself, and then pass me the tobacco."
"Thank you, I do not smoke," Westray said; and, indeed, he did not look like a smoker. He had something of the thin, unsympathetic traits of the professional water-drinker in his face, and spoke as if he regarded smoking as a crime for himself, and an offence for those of less lofty principles than his own.
The organist lighted his pipe, and went on:
「ここは風通しのいい家だよ――衛生的でわれらが友人のお医者様も満足なさるだろう。どの窓にもひび割れ、隙間があって、換気には細心の注意を払っている。昔は古い宿屋だったんだよ、このあたりにもっと人がいた頃はね。正面が雨に濡れると今でもペンキを透かして『神の手』という字が読める。この外で市が開かれていたんだ。百年以上前だが、リンゴ売りの女がちょうどこの家のドアの前で青リンゴを客に売っていた。客は金を払ったと言うんだが、女は受け取っていないと言う。それで喧嘩になって、女は嘘をついていないことを証明するため天にむかって呼びかけたのさ。『神様、もしもわたしが客の金に手を触れていたら、どうぞ打ち殺してくだされ』とね。そのことば通り、彼女は絶命して小石の上に倒れた。手には銅貨が二枚握られていたよ。そんなもののために魂を失うとはね。人々は神の正義が示されたことをちゃんと後生に伝えるためには、宿を建てるのがいちばんだと、さっそくそう考えた。それで『神の手』が建てられ、カランが栄えていたときは栄え、カランがうらぶれるのと一緒にうらぶれたのだ。わたしが物心のつく頃からずっと空き家だったのだが、十五年前にミス・ジョウリフが買い取った。彼女がここを高級下宿屋ベルヴュー・ロッジに変え、あのけちんぼ地主のブランダマー老人が修繕費用として寄こしたなけなしの金をつぎこんで正面の『神の手』という文字をペンキで消したのだ。ここはカランに来たアメリカ人の保養施設になるはずだった。旅行案内を見るとピルグリム・ファーザーズの父親が何人かカランに埋葬されているということで、アメリカ人がカラン大聖堂までやって来るらしい。しかしアメリカ人なんて見たことがない。わたしの目につかないところにいるんだろう。子供のときから六十年ここに住んでいるが一ペニーだってアメリカ人がカラン大聖堂に寄付したり、ミス・ジョウリフのために使ってくれたって話は聞いたことがない。連中は誰もベルヴュー・ロッジにやって来ないし、高級下宿屋は高級すぎて下宿人がきみとわたしだけというありさまだ」彼は一息ついてから話をつづけた。「アメリカ人か。感心しないね、アメリカ人というのは。わたしから見るとずいぶん図々しい連中だよ。自分の楽しみのためには大金をつぎこみ、ときには大口の寄付をして格好いいところを見せるが、ちゃんとそのことが喧伝されるということを見越した上でやっているのさ。彼らには温かい心ってものがない。アメリカ人なんて気に入らないね。でもきみ、アメリカ人に知り合いがいるのなら、わたしは金次第でころっと意見を変える人間だからね。誰かわたしのオルガンを直してくれたら、アメリカ人みんなを褒め称えるよ。ついでに送風器として小さいウオーター・エンジンもつけてくれなければいけないよ。カリスベリ大聖堂でオルガンを弾いているシャターは最近ウオーター・エンジンを取りつけてもらってね。カランにも新しい水道ができたんだから、われわれだって使えるはずなんだ」
"This is an airy house--sanitary enough to suit our friend the doctor; every window carefully ventilated on the crack-and-crevice principle. It was an old inn once, when there were more people hereabouts; and if the rain beats on the front, you can still read the name through the colouring--the Hand of God. There used to be a market held outside, and a century or more ago an apple-woman sold some pippins to a customer just before this very door. He said he had paid for them, and she said he had not; they came to wrangling, and she called Heaven to justify her. `God strike me dead if I have ever touched your money!' She was taken at her word, and fell dead on the cobbles. They found clenched in her hand the two coppers for which she had lost her soul, and it was recognised at once that nothing less than an inn could properly commemorate such an exhibition of Divine justice. So the Hand of God was built, and flourished while Cullerne flourished, and fell when Cullerne fell. It stood empty ever since I can remember it, till Miss Joliffe took it fifteen years ago. She elevated it into Bellevue Lodge, a select boarding-house, and spent what little money that niggardly landlord old Blandamer would give for repairs, in painting out the Hand of God on the front. It was to be a house of resort for Americans who came to Cullerne. They say in our guide-book that Americans come to see Cullerne Church because some of the Pilgrim Fathers' fathers are buried in it; but I've never seen any Americans about. They never come to me; I have been here boy and man for sixty years, and never knew an American do a pennyworth of good to Cullerne Church; and they never did a pennyworth of good for Miss Joliffe, for none of them ever came to Bellevue Lodge, and the select boarding-house is so select that you and I are the only boarders." He paused for a minute and went on: "Americans--no, I don't think much of Americans; they're too hard for me--spend a lot of money on their own pleasure, and sometimes cut a dash with a big donation, where they think it will be properly trumpeted. But they haven't got warm hearts. I don't care for Americans. Still, if you know any about, you can say I am quite venal; and if any one of them restores my organ, I am prepared to admire the whole lot. Only they must give a little water-engine for blowing it into the bargain. Shutter, the organist of Carisbury Cathedral, has just had a water-engine put in, and, now we've got our own new waterworks at Cullerne, we could manage it very well here too."
ウエストレイは興味がなかったので、話題を戻した。
The subject did not interest Westray, and he flung back:
「ミス・ジョウリフは生活が苦しいんですか。昔は裕福だった感じですが」
"Is Miss Joliffe very badly off?" he asked; "she looks like one of those people who have seen better days."
"She is worse than badly off--I believe she is half starved. I don't know how she lives at all. I wish I could help her, but I haven't a copper myself to jingle on a tombstone, and she is too proud to take it if I had."
He went to a cupboard in a recess at the back of the room, and took out a squat black bottle.
"Poverty's a chilly theme," he said; "let's take something to warm us before we go on with the variations."
He pushed the bottle towards his friend, but, though Westray felt inclined to give way, the principles of severe moderation which he had recently adopted restrained him, and he courteously waved away the temptation.
"You're hopeless," said the organist. "What are we to do for you, who neither smoke nor drink, and yet want to talk about poverty? This is some _eau-de-vie_ old Martelet the solicitor gave me for playing the Wedding March at his daughter's marriage. `The Wedding March was magnificently rendered by the organist, Mr John Sharnall,' you know, as if it was the Fourth Organ-Sonata. I misdoubt this ever having paid duty; he's not the man to give away six bottles of anything he'd paid the excise upon."
He poured out a portion of spirit far larger than Westray had expected, and then, becoming intuitively aware of his companion's surprise, said rather sharply: "If you despise good stuff, I must do duty for us both. Up to the top of the church windows is a good maxim." And he poured in yet more, till the spirit rose to the top of the cuts, which ran higher than half-way up the sides of the tumbler. There was silence for a few minutes, while the organist puffed testily at his pipe; but a copious draught from the tumbler melted his chagrin, and he spoke again:
「わたしはかけがいのない生活苦を味わってきたが、ミス・ジョウリフの苦労はもっと深刻だ。それにわたしの場合は運の悪さに感謝すればいいだけだが、彼女の苦労は他人のせいだからね。まずお父さんが死んだ。お父さんはウィドコウムに農場を持っていて、裕福な暮らしをしていると思われていたが、資産を整理すると、債権者に金を払ったらきれいになくなる程度でしかなかった。それでミス・ユーフィミアは家を手放し、カランに来たのだ。こんなやたらとあちこちに張り出した家を選んだのは、賃貸料が年に二十ポンドと安かったからだよ。姪には（さっき見た娘だ）実を与えて自分は皮を食べるといったその日暮らし、いやかつかつの生活をしていた。そうしたら一年前、兄のマーチンが無一文のうえに、身体に麻痺を抱えて戻ってきた。ずぼらな糞ったれさ。おいおい、予言者のうちなるサウル（註 サムエル記から。本章末尾註も参照）を見るみたいな、そんな顔はしないでくれ。あいつはわたしと違って酒を飲まなかったよ。飲んでいればもっとましな人間になっていたかも知れんがね」オルガン奏者はまたずんぐりした瓶に手を伸ばした。「酒を飲んでいたら彼女に迷惑をかけることも減っていただろう。ところがいつも借金してトラブルに巻きこまれ、避難場所に帰るように妹のところへ帰ってくる。彼女に愛されていることを知っていたのだな。彼は頭がよかった。今風にいえば切れる男だった。しかし水みたいに落ち着きがなく、辛抱がきかないのだ。彼は妹にたかるつもりはなかったと思う。たかっていることに気がついてもいなかっただろう。しかしやっていることはそういうことだったのさ。彼は何度も旅に出た。どこに行くのか誰も知らない。もっとも何を探しているのかはよく知っていたがね。あるときは二ヶ月、あるときは二年間いなくなった。そのあいだ、ずっとミス・ジョウリフがアナスタシア――つまり姪――を養い、夏のあいだだけでも下宿人ができたりして、ようやく苦労から抜け出せそうだと思ったら、マーチンが舞い戻り、借金返済のために金をせびったり彼女の貯えを食いつぶすのだ。わたしは何回もその光景を見たし、彼らのことを思って何度も胸を痛めた。しかしわたしに何ができるというのだ？こっちも素寒貧だというのに。一年前、最後に彼が戻ってきたとき、顔に死相が浮かんでいたよ。それを見てわたしは喜び、彼らに心配をかけるのもこれで終わりだと思った。けれどもそれは麻痺だったのだ。それに彼は丈夫な男で、馬鹿のエニファーが彼を殺すのにえらく手間取った。彼が死んだのはほんの二ヶ月前さ。あの世ではもっと幸せに暮らしていることを願って乾杯しよう」
"I've had a precious hard life, but Miss Joliffe's had a harder; and I've got myself to thank for my bad luck, while hers is due to other people. First, her father died. He had a farm at Wydcombe, and people thought he was well off; but when they came to reckon up, he only left just enough to go round among his creditors; so Miss Euphemia gave up the house, and came into Cullerne. She took this rambling great place because it was cheap at twenty pounds a year, and lived, or half lived, from hand to mouth, giving her niece (the girl you saw) all the grains, and keeping the husks for herself. Then a year ago turned up her brother Martin, penniless and broken, with paralysis upon him. He was a harum-scarum ne'er-do-well. Don't stare at me with that Saul-among-the-prophets look; _he_ never drank; he would have been a better man if he had." And the organist made a further call on the squat bottle. "He would have given her less bother if he had drunk, but he was always getting into debt and trouble, and then used to come back to his sister, as to a refuge, because he knew she loved him. He was clever enough--brilliant they call it now--but unstable as water, with no lasting power. I don't believe he meant to sponge on his sister; I don't think he knew he did sponge, only he sponged. He would go off on his travels, no one knew where, though they knew well what he was seeking. Sometimes he was away two months, and sometimes he was away two years; and then, when Miss Joliffe had kept Anastasia--I mean her niece--all the time, and perhaps got a summer lodger, and seemed to be turning the corner, back would come Martin again to beg money for debts, and eat them out of house and home. I've seen that many a time, and many a time my heart has ached for them; but what could I do to help? I haven't a farthing. Last he came back a year ago, with death written on his face. I was glad enough to read it there, and think he was come for the last time to worry them; but it was paralysis, and he a strong man, so that it took that fool Ennefer a long time to kill him. He only died two months ago; here's better luck to him where he's gone."
The organist drank as deeply as the occasion warranted.
"Don't look so glum, man," he said; "I'm not always as bad as this, because I haven't always the means. Old Martelet doesn't give me brandy every day."
Westray smoothed away the deprecating expression with which he had felt constrained to discountenance such excesses, and set Mr Sharnall's tongue going again with a question:
「ジョウリフは何のために旅に出たんですか」
"What did you say Joliffe used to go away for?"
"Oh, it's a long story; it's the nebuly coat again. I spoke of it in the church--the silver and sea-green that turned his head. He would have it he wasn't a Joliffe at all, but a Blandamer, and rightful heir to Fording. As a boy, he went to Cullerne Grammar School, and did well, and got a scholarship at Oxford. He did still better there, and just when he seemed starting strong in the race of life, this nebuly coat craze seized him and crept over his mind, like the paralysis that crept over his body later on."
"I don't quite follow you," Westray said. "Why did he think he was a Blandamer? Did he not know who his father was?"
「彼は十五年前に死んだ小地主、マイケル・ジョウリフの倅として育てられた。だがね、マイケルの結婚相手は自称未亡人で、三歳になる男の連れ子がいたんだな。その子がマーチンなんだ。マイケルは彼を自分の子供として引き取り、彼の頭のよさを自慢にし、大学にやり、遺産をすべて彼に残した。オックスフォードでうぬぼれ出すまで、ジョウリフ家の人間じゃないんだ、などという話はしていなかったのだが、突然この気まぐれな考えに取り憑かれ、残りの人生を父親探しについやしたというわけだ。荒野をさまようこと四十年。あれやこれやの手がかりを見つけ、ついにピスガ山に登り約束の地を眺め見ることができると思ったのだが、しかし彼はその景色を、いや、その蜃気楼だな、それを見るだけで満足しなければならなかった。そして乳と蜜を味わう前に死んでしまったのさ」
"He was brought up as a son of old Michael Joliffe, a yeoman who died fifteen years ago. But Michael married a woman who called herself a widow, and brought a three-year-old son ready-made to his wedding; and that son was Martin. Old Michael made the boy his own, was proud of his cleverness, would have him go to college, and left him all he had. There was no talk of Martin being anything but a Joliffe till Oxford puffed him up, and then he got this crank, and spent the rest of his life trying to find out who his father was. It was a forty-years' wandering in the wilderness; he found this clue and that, and thought at last he had climbed Pisgah and could see the promised land. But he had to be content with the sight, or mirage I suppose it was, and died before he tasted the milk and honey."
「彼は雲形紋章とどういう関係があったんです？どうしてブランダマー家の一員だと思いこんだのですか」
"What was his connection with the nebuly coat? What made him think he was a Blandamer?"
「ああ、今はその話はしたくないよ」オルガン奏者は言った。「もしかしたら、わたしはとっくにしゃべりすぎているのかも知れない。わたしが何か言ったなどと、ミス・ジョウリフに悟られないようにしてくれよ。彼女はマイケル・ジョウリフの実の子供だ――唯一の子供だ――しかし彼女は腹違いの兄をとても愛していて、彼のいかれた振る舞いを人にからかわれるのがいやなのさ。もちろんカランの口さがない連中は彼のことでいろいろな噂話をする。その都度、ますます髪が白くなり、狂気じみた表情になって彼が戻ってくると、連中は『雲形じいさん』と彼のことを呼び、ガキどもは道で彼に会うとお辞儀をし『お早うございます、ブランダマー卿』とやるんだ。彼の話はたっぷり聞く機会があるだろう。可哀想な妹にとっちゃあ、耐えられないくらいつらいことなんだよ、兄さんがからかわれ、笑いものにされているのを見るのは。そのあいだも兄貴は妹の貯金を食いつぶしているんだがね。しかしそんなことはみんな終わった。マーチンは雲形紋章なんか誰もつけないところへ行ってしまった」
"Oh, I can't go into that now," the organist said; "I have told you too much, perhaps, already. You won't let Miss Joliffe guess I have said anything, will you? She is Michael Joliffe's own child--his only child--but she loved her half-brother dearly, and doesn't like his cranks being talked about. Of course, the Cullerne wags had many a tale to tell of him, and when he came back, greyer each time and wilder-looking, from his wanderings, they called him `Old Nebuly,' and the boys would make their bow in the streets, and say `Good-morning, Lord Blandamer.' You'll hear stories enough about him, and it was a bitter thing for his poor sister to bear, to see her brother a butt and laughing-stock, all the time that he was frittering away her savings. But it's all over now, and Martin's gone where they don't wear nebuly coats."
「彼の妄想に根拠はなかったのですね」ウエストレイは訊いた。
"There was nothing in his fancies, I suppose?" Westray asked.
「それはわたしより賢い人間に訊きたまえ」オルガン奏者は無関心そうに言った。「主任司祭か、医者か、誰か本当に利口な人にね」
"You must put that to wiser folk than me," said the organist lightly; "ask the Rector, or the doctor, or some really clever man."
He had fallen back into his sneering tone, but there was something in his words that recalled a previous doubt, and led Westray to wonder whether Mr Sharnall had not lived so long with the Joliffes as to have become himself infected with Martin's delusions.
His companion was pouring out more brandy, and the architect wished him good-night.
Mr Westray's apartment was on the floor above, and he went at once to his bedroom; for he was very tired with his journey, and with standing so long in the church during the afternoon. He was pleased to find that his portmanteau had been unpacked, and that his clothes were carefully arranged in the drawers. This was a luxury to which he was little accustomed; there was, moreover, a fire to fling cheerful flickerings on spotlessly white curtains and bedlinen.
Miss Joliffe and Anastasia had between them carried the portmanteau up the great well-staircase of stone, which ran from top to bottom of the house. It was a task of some difficulty, and there were frequent pauses to take breath, and settings-down of the portmanteau to rest aching arms. But they got it up at last, and when the straps were undone Miss Euphemia dismissed her niece.
"No, my dear," she said; "let _me_ set the things in order. It is not seemly that a young girl should arrange men's clothes. There was a time when I should not have liked to do so myself, but now I am so old it does not very much matter."
彼女は話をしながら鏡を見て、キャップからはみ出した白髪を軽くかき上げ、蝶結びにした首飾りのリボンを直して、できるだけすり切れた部分が隠れるようにした。アナスタシア・ジョウリフは部屋を出るとき、年老いた顔のしわがいつもより少なく、しかも華やいだ表情を浮かべていると思い、叔母が結婚しなかったことを不思議に思った。若者は年老いた未婚女性を見ると、彼女が結婚しなかったのは男性から見むきもされなかったからだと考える。六十の衰えた容色の中に十六の美しさを読み取ることは難しい――はるか昔に熱烈な求愛を受け、それが涙によってかき消された記憶が老いの穏やかな表情の下に埋もれ、いまだに忘れ去られず残っているとはなかなか想像できないものだ。
She gave a glance at the mirror as she spoke, adjusted a little bit of grizzled hair which had strayed from under her cap, and tried to arrange the bow of ribbon round her neck so that the frayed part should be as far as possible concealed. Anastasia Joliffe thought, as she left the room, that there were fewer wrinkles and a sweeter look than usual in the old face, and wondered that her aunt had never married. Youth looking at an old maid traces spinsterhood to man's neglect. It is so hard to read in sixty's plainness the beauty of sixteen--to think that underneath the placidity of advancing years may lie buried, yet unforgotten, the memory of suits urged ardently, and quenched long ago in tears.
Miss Euphemia put everything carefully away. The architect's wardrobe was of the most modest proportions, but to her it seemed well furnished, and even costly. She noted, however, with the eye of a sportsman marking down a covey, sundry holes, rents, and missing buttons, and resolved to devote her first leisure to their rectification. Such mending, in anticipation and accomplishment, forms, indeed, a well-defined and important pleasure of all properly constituted women above a certain age.
"Poor young man!" she said to herself. "I am afraid he has had no one to look after his clothes for a long time." And in her pity she rushed into the extravagance of lighting the bedroom fire.
After things were arranged upstairs, she went down to see that all was in order in Mr Westray's sitting-room, and, as she moved about there, she heard the organist talking to the architect in the room below. His voice was so deep and raucous that it seemed to jar the soles of her feet. She dusted lightly a certain structure which, resting in tiers above the chimney-piece, served to surround a looking-glass with meaningless little shelves and niches. Miss Joliffe had purchased this piece-of-resistance when Mrs Cazel, the widow of the ironmonger, had sold her household effects preparatory to leaving Cullerne.
"It is an overmantel, my dear," she had said to dubious Anastasia, when it was brought home. "I did not really mean to buy it, but I had not bought anything the whole morning, and the auctioneer looked so fiercely at me that I felt I must make a bid. Then no one else said anything, so here it is; but I dare say it will serve to smarten the room a little, and perhaps attract lodgers."
Since then it had been brightened with a coat of blue enamel paint, and a strip of Brusa silk which Martin had brought back from one of his wanderings was festooned at the side, so as to hide a patch where the quicksilver showed signs of peeling off. Miss Joliffe pulled the festoon a little forward, and adjusted in one of the side niches a present-for-a-good-girl cup and saucer which had been bought for herself at Beacon Hill Fair half a century ago. She wiped the glass dome that covered the basket of artificial fruit, she screwed up the "banner-screen" that projected from the mantelpiece, she straightened out the bead mat on which the stereoscope stood, and at last surveyed the room with an expression of complete satisfaction on her kindly face.
An hour later Westray was asleep, and Miss Joliffe was saying her prayers. She added a special thanksgiving for the providential direction to her house of so suitable and gentlemanly a lodger, and a special request that he might be happy whilst he should be under her roof. But her devotions were disturbed by the sound of Mr Sharnall's piano.
"He plays most beautifully," she said to her niece, as she put out the candle; "but I wish he would not play so late. I am afraid I have not thought so earnestly as I should at my prayers."
Anastasia Joliffe said nothing. She was grieved because the organist was thumping out old waltzes, and she knew by his playing that he had been drinking.
第三章 ~~~
CHAPTER THREE.
The Hand of God stood on the highest point in all the borough, and Mr Westray's apartments were in the third story. From the window of his sitting-room he could look out over the houses on to Cullerne Flat, the great tract of salt-meadows that separated the town from the sea. In the foreground was a broad expanse of red-tiled roofs; in the middle distance Saint Sepulchre's Church, with its tower and soaring ridges, stood out so enormous that it seemed as if every house in the place could have been packed within its walls; in the background was the blue sea.
夏になると紫色のもやが河口にかかり、湿地から立ちのぼる熱気のきらめきを通して、カル川が銀色にうねって海に流れるさまや、雪のように白い雁の群れや、あちこちに輝く遊覧船を見ることができる。しかし秋になると、ウエストレイがはじめて見たように、繁茂する草はいっそう緑を濃くし、塩水性の牧草地は表面に不規則な粘土色の水路をはわせた。それは満潮時は老人の目尻のしわのように見えるのだが、干潮時はねっとりした土手にはさまれ、虹色の水を底にたたえた小さな溝へと縮こまった。もぐらが柔らかい茶色の壌土でうねり道のような小型の土饅頭を盛り上げるのはこの秋である。そして泥炭採掘場では切り出し人夫がより大きな、より黒々とした泥炭のかたまりを積み上げるのだ。
In summer the purple haze hangs over the mouth of the estuary, and through the shimmer of the heat off the marsh, can be seen the silver windings of the Cull as it makes its way out to sea, and snow-white flocks of geese, and here and there the gleaming sail of a pleasure-boat. But in autumn, as Westray saw it for the first time, the rank grass is of a deeper green, and the face of the salt-meadows is seamed with irregular clay-brown channels, which at high-tide show out like crows'-feet on an ancient countenance, but at the ebb dwindle to little gullies with greasy-looking banks and a dribble of iridescent water in the bottom. It is in the autumn that the moles heap up meanders of miniature barrows, built of the softest brown loam; and in the turbaries the turf-cutters pile larger and darker stacks of peat.
Once upon a time there was another feature in the view, for there could have been seen the masts and yards of many stately ships, of timber vessels in the Baltic trade, of tea-clippers, and Indiamen, and emigrant ships, and now and then the raking spars of a privateer owned by Cullerne adventurers. All these had long since sailed for their last port, and of ships nothing more imposing met the eye than the mast of Dr Ennefer's centre-board laid up for the winter in a backwater. Yet the scene was striking enough, and those who knew best said that nowhere in the town was there so fine an outlook as from the upper windows of the Hand of God.
Many had looked out from those windows upon that scene: the skipper's wife as her eyes followed her husband's barque warping down the river for the voyage from which he never came back; honeymoon couples who broke the posting journey from the West at Cullerne, and sat hand in hand in summer twilight, gazing seaward till the white mists rose over the meadows and Venus hung brightening in the violet sky; old Captain Frobisher, who raised the Cullerne Yeomanry, and watched with his spy-glass for the French vanguard to appear; and, lastly, Martin Joliffe, as he sat dying day by day in his easy-chair, and scheming how he would spend the money when he should come into the inheritance of all the Blandamers.
ウエストレイは朝食を終えてしばらくのあいだ、開け放った窓の前に立っていた。その日の朝は穏やかな快晴で、秋の大雨の後はしばしばそうなるように、大気に輝くような透明感があった。しかし彼は窓の前の障害物のせいで心から風景を楽しむことができなかった。邪魔なのは羊歯を入れたガラスのケースで、水槽をひっくり返した形のものが質素な木のテーブルの上に載っていたのだ。ウエストレイはじめじめした植物と、ガラスの内側に張り付く露の玉が気にくわず、この羊歯を部屋から取り払うことに決意した。彼はミス・ジョウリフに片づけてもらえるかどうか、尋ねてみようと思い、さらにこの決意は不必要な家具が他にもないだろうかと、彼に検討を促すことになった。
Westray had finished breakfast, and stood for a time at the open window. The morning was soft and fine, and there was that brilliant clearness in the air that so often follows heavy autumn rain. His full enjoyment of the scene was, however, marred by an obstruction which impeded free access to the window. It was a case of ferns, which seemed to be formed of an aquarium turned upside down, and supported by a plain wooden table. Westray took a dislike to the dank-looking plants, and to the moisture beaded on the glass inside, and made up his mind that the ferns must be banished. He would ask Miss Joliffe if she could take them away, and this determination prompted him to consider whether there were any other articles of furniture with which it would be advisable to dispense.
He made a mental inventory of his surroundings. There were several pieces of good mahogany furniture, including some open-backed chairs, and a glass-fronted book-case, which were survivals from the yeoman's equipment at Wydcombe Farm. They had been put up for auction with the rest of Michael Joliffe's effects, but Cullerne taste considered them old-fashioned, and no bidders were found for them. Many things, on the other hand, such as bead mats, and wool-work mats, and fluff mats, a case of wax fruit, a basket of shell flowers, chairs with worsted-work backs, sofa-cushions with worsted-work fronts, two cheap vases full of pampas-grass, and two candlesticks with dangling prisms, grated sadly on Westray's taste, which he had long since been convinced was of all tastes the most impeccable. There were a few pictures on the walls--a coloured representation of young Martin Joliffe in Black Forest costume, a faded photograph of a boating crew, and another of a group in front of some ruins, which was taken when the Carisbury Field Club made an expedition to Wydcombe Abbey. Besides these, there were conventional copies in oils of a shipwreck, and an avalanche, and a painting of still-life representing a bowl full of flowers.
彼は心のなかで周囲の家具の目録を作った。質のいいマホガニー製の家具が幾つかあった。背板のない椅子や、正面がガラス張りの本棚などがそれで、これらはウィドコウム農場にあった自由農民《ヨーマン》の家具の生き残りである。マイケル・ジョウリフの他の所有物と一緒にオークションに出されたのだが、カランの人の趣味からは古すぎるとみなされ、入札者がなかったのだ。他方、ビーズマットとか毛糸刺繍マット、綿毛マット、ケースに入った蝋細工の果物、貝殻サルビアのかご、背中に梳毛《そもう》織物を張った椅子、おもてが梳毛織物のソファ用クッション、白銀葦をいっぱい生けた安物の花瓶二つ、プリズム状の飾りを付けた蝋燭立て二脚、これらはひどくウエストレイの趣味に合わなかった。昔から彼は自分の趣味こそは非の打ち所のない最高の趣味であると信じこんでいた。壁には数葉の写真がかかっていた――ブラック・フォレストの衣装を着た若きマーチン・ジョウリフのカラー写真、ボートチームの色あせた写真、何かの廃墟の前に立つ別のグループの写真。これはカリスベリ博物学同好会がウィドコウム修道院へ見学旅行したときのものである。その他には難破船とか雪崩を描いた、よく見かける油絵や、花瓶いっぱいの花を描いた静物画も一点あった。
This last picture weighed on Westray's mind by reason of its size, its faulty drawing, and vulgar, flashy colours. It hung full in front of him while he sat at breakfast, and though its details amused him for the time, he felt it would become an eyesore if he should continue to occupy the room. In it was represented the polished top of a mahogany table on which stood a blue and white china bowl filled with impossible flowers. The bowl occupied one side of the picture, and the other side was given up to a meaningless expanse of table-top. The artist had perceived, but apparently too late, the bad balance of the composition, and had endeavoured to redress this by a few more flowers thrown loose upon the table. Towards these flowers a bulbous green caterpillar was wriggling, at the very edge of the table, and of the picture.
この最後の絵はその大きさといい、稚拙さといい、俗悪でけばけばしい色といい、ウエストレイの気分を滅入らせた。朝食の席につくとその絵が真正面に見え、しばらくは細部の面白さに興をそそられたが、引きつづきこの部屋に住むとなれば目障りでしかなくなるだろうと彼は感じた。白と青に塗られた陶磁の花瓶が、磨き上げられたマホガニーのテーブルの上に置かれ、およそ珍妙な花が生けられた絵である。花瓶が絵の半分を占め、もう半分にはテーブルの上板が意味もなく広がっていた。画家は構成のバランスの悪さに気がついたのだが、そのときはもう明らかに手遅れの段階に達していて、テーブルの上に花を数本ばらまくことで修正を施そうとしたようだった。この花を目指してぶよぶよした緑色の芋虫がテーブルの端、つまり絵の端で身をくねらせていた。
The result of Westray's meditations was that the fern-case and the flower-picture stood entirely condemned. He would approach Miss Joliffe at the earliest opportunity about their removal. He anticipated little trouble in modifying by degrees many other smaller details, but previous experience in lodgings had taught him that the removal of pictures is sometimes a difficult and delicate problem.
ウエストレイは熟慮の末、羊歯のケースと花の絵は部屋に置くにはまったくふさわしくないと判断した。できるだけ早い機会にミス・ジョウリフと相談して取り払ってもらおう。他の細々した点は、さほど面倒もなく、少しずつ変えていってもらえるだろうと思ったが、それまでの下宿の経験から、絵をはずすのは、ときに困難で、細心の注意を要する問題であることを知っていた。 ~~~ 彼は丸めた設計図を開いて必要なものを選び、聖堂に行く準備をした。足場を作るために大工と打ち合わせをしなければならなかった。下宿を出る前に昼食の注文をしておこうと思い、女主人を呼ぶために梳毛糸でできた太い呼び鈴の紐を引いた。しばらく前からバイオリンの音が聞こえていて、呼び鈴の返事を待ちながら耳を澄ませていた彼は、音楽が途切れたり繰り返されたりするのを聞いてオルガン奏者がバイオリンの稽古をつけているのだと思った。最初の呼び出しに応答がなく、二回目の試みも同様に失敗すると、彼はいらいらと立てつづけに何度も紐を引いた。すると音楽が止み、彼は憤慨をこめて鳴らした呼び鈴がきっと音楽家たちの注意を引き、オルガン奏者がミス・ジョウリフを呼びに行ったのだろうと考えた。
He opened his rolls of plans, and selecting those which he required, prepared to start for the church, where he had to arrange with the builder for the erection of scaffolding. He wished to order dinner before he left, and pulled a broad worsted-work bell-pull to summon his landlady. For some little time he had been aware of the sound of a fiddle, and as he listened, waiting for the bell to be answered, the intermittance and reiteration of the music convinced him that the organist was giving a violin lesson. His first summons remained unanswered, and when a second attempt met with no better success, he gave several testy pulls in quick succession. This time he heard the music cease, and made no doubt that his indignant ringing had attracted the notice of the musicians, and that the organist had gone to tell Miss Joliffe that she was wanted.
He was ruffled by such want of attention, and when there came at last a knock at his door, was quite prepared to expostulate with his landlady on her remissness. As she entered the room, he began, without turning from his drawings:
"Never knock, please, when you answer the bell; but I do wish you--"
Here he broke off, for on looking up he found he was speaking, not to the elder Miss Joliffe, but to her niece Anastasia. The girl was graceful, as he had seen the evening before, and again he noticed the peculiar fineness of her waving brown hair. His annoyance had instantaneously vanished, and he experienced to the full the embarrassment natural to a sensitive mind on finding a servant's role played by a lady, for that Anastasia Joliffe was a lady he had no doubt at all. Instead of blaming her, he seemed to be himself in fault for having somehow brought about an anomalous position.
She stood with downcast eyes, but his chiding tone had brought a slight flush to her cheeks, and this flush began a discomfiture for Westray, that was turned into a rout when she spoke.
"I am very sorry, I am afraid I have kept you waiting. I did not hear your bell at first, because I was busy in another part of the house, and then I thought my aunt had answered it. I did not know she was out."
低い、美しい声だったが、そこには恥ずかしさよりも疲れがこもっていた。彼が叱りつけるつもりなら、彼女はそれを甘んじて受ける覚悟だった。ところが今やおろおろと詫びを述べているのはウエストレイのほうだった。ミス・ジョウリフに伝えてもらえませんか、午後一時に昼食を食べに帰ると。料理は何でも構いませんから。うろたえ気味ではあったけれど親切なことばが返ってきて娘はややほっとした様子だった。彼女が部屋を出ていって、ようやくウエストレイはカランがヒメジで有名だと聞いていたことを思い出した。彼は昼食にヒメジを注文するつもりでいたのだ。水しか飲まない禁欲生活をしていたので、その分、食欲を満足させようと食べ物にはうるさかった。しかし魚を忘れてしまったことを後悔はしなかった。悲惨にも賤しい立場に身を落とした若い貴婦人とヒメジの特性及びその調理について議論するなど、崇高を滑稽に転落させる愚かな振る舞いでしかなかった。
It was a low, sweet voice, with more of weariness in it than of humility. If he chose to blame her, she was ready to take the blame; but it was Westray who now stammered some incoherent apologies. Would she kindly tell Miss Joliffe that he would be in for dinner at one o'clock, and that he was quite indifferent as to what was provided for him. The girl showed some relief at his blundering courtesy, and it was not till she had left the room that Westray recollected that he had heard that Cullerne was celebrated for its red mullet; he had meant to order red mullet for dinner. Now that he was mortifying the flesh by drinking only water, he was proportionately particular to please his appetite in eating. Yet he was not sorry that he had forgotten the fish; it would surely have been a bathos to discuss the properties and application of red mullet with a young lady who found herself in so tragically lowly a position.
After Westray had set out for the church, Anastasia Joliffe went back to Mr Sharnall's room, for it was she who had been playing the violin. The organist sat at the piano, drumming chords in an impatient and irritated way.
"Well," he said, without looking at her as she came in--"well, what does my lord want with my lady? What has he made you run up to the top of the house for now? I wish I could wring his neck for him. Here we are out of breath, as usual, and our hands shaking; we shan't be able to play even as well as we did before, and that isn't saying much. Why," he cried, as he looked at her, "you're as red as a turkey-cock. I believe he's been making love to you."
"Mr Sharnall," she retorted quickly, "if you say those things I will never come to your room again. I hate you when you speak like that, and fancy you are not yourself."
She took her violin, and putting it under her arm, plucked arpeggi sharply.
"There," he said, "don't take all I say so seriously; it is only because I am out of health and out of temper. Forgive me, child; I know well enough that there'll be no lovemaking with you till the right man comes, and I hope he never will come, Anastasia--I hope he never will."
She did not accept or refuse his excuses, but tuned a string that had gone down.
"Good heavens!" he said, as she walked to the music-stand to play; "can't you hear the A's as flat as a pancake?"
She tightened the string again without speaking, and began the movement in which they had been interrupted. But her thoughts were not with the music, and mistake followed mistake.
"What _are_ you doing?" said the organist. "You're worse than you were when we began five years ago. It's mere waste of time for you to go on, and for me, too."
Then he saw that she was crying in the bitterness of vexation, and swung round on his music-stool without getting up.
"Anstice, I didn't mean it, dear. I didn't mean to be such a brute. You are getting on well--well; and as for wasting my time, why, I haven't got anything to do, nor anyone to teach except you, and you know I would slave all day and all night, too, if I could give you any pleasure by it. Don't cry. Why are you crying?"
She laid the violin on the table, and sitting down in that rush-bottomed chair in which Westray had sat the night before, put her head between her hands and burst into tears.
「ああ」彼女は啜り泣きの合間に、奇妙な震える声でいった。「ああ、なんてみじめなんでしょう――何もかも情けなくてたまらない。お父さんの借金は残っているし、お葬式のお金も葬儀屋に払っていない。何をするにも先立つものがないわ。可哀想なユーフィミア叔母さんは死ぬほど働いている。叔母さんは家のなかの小物を売らなければならないって言っているのよ。それにせっかく品のいい下宿人、おとなしくて紳士的な人が来てくれたというのに、呼び鈴を鳴らしただけで、あなたは彼のことをののしり、わたしにひどいことを言うんですもの。どうしてあの人に叔母が外出中だと分かるんです？叔母が家にいるときは、呼び鈴が鳴ってもわたしに応対をさせようとしないなんて、どうしてあの人に分かるんです。もちろん、うちに使用人がいると思っているのでしょうね。それにあなたはわたしをとっても悲しい気持ちにさせるわ。昨日の晩は眠れなかった。あなたがお酒を飲んでいることを知っていたから。床に就いたとき、あなたが安っぽい曲を弾いているのが聞こえたわ。酔っているとき以外は大嫌いな曲を。何年も一緒に住んでいて、わたしにずっと優しくしてくれていたのに、今になってこんなことになるなんて。どうかお酒は止めて。わたしたちはみんな充分にみじめなんです、あなたにこれ以上みじめな思いをさせられなくたって」
"Oh," she said between her sobs in a strange and uncontrolled voice--"oh, I am so miserable--_everything_ is so miserable. There are father's debts not paid, not even the undertaker's bill paid for his funeral, and no money for anything, and poor Aunt Euphemia working herself to death. And now she says she will have to sell the little things we have in the house, and then when there is a chance of a decent lodger, a quiet, gentlemanly man, you go and abuse him, and say these rude things to me, because he rings the bell. How does he know aunt is out? how does he know she won't let me answer the bell when she's in? Of course, he thinks we have a servant, and then _you_ make me so sad. I couldn't sleep last night, because I knew you were drinking. I heard you when we went to bed playing trashy things that you hate except when you are not yourself. It makes me ill to think that you have been with us all these years, and been so kind to me, and now are come to this. Oh, do not do it! Surely we all are wretched enough, without your adding this to our wretchedness."
He got up from the stool and took her hand.
"Don't, Anstice--don't! I broke myself of it before, and I will break myself again. It was a woman drove me to it then, and sent me down the hill, and now I didn't know there was a living soul would care whether old Sharnall drank himself to death or not. If I could only think there was someone who cared; if I could only think you cared."
"Of course I care"--and as she felt his hand tighten she drew her own lightly away--"of course we care--poor aunt and I--or she would care, if she knew, only she is so good she doesn't guess. I hate to see those horrid glasses taken in after your supper. It used to be so different, and I loved to hear the `Pastoral' and `Les Adieux' going when the house was still."
不幸が人間から自然な笑顔を隠してしまうとしたら、それは悲しいことだ。早朝の空模様は期待を裏切らず、空は青く澄み、綿のように白く輝く雲が、島やら大陸の形をなして浮かんでいた。柔らかな温かい西風が吹き、どの庭の茂みでも鳥が秋の訪れを忘れて楽しげにさえずっていた。カランは庭の町であり、人々はそれぞれの葡萄の木の下、無花果《いちじく》の木の下に安らうことができた（註 列王記Ⅰから）。蜜蜂は巣を飛び出し、いっせいにぶんぶんと陽気な羽音を立てながら、壁の上を濃紫色《こむらさきいろ》に覆う木蔦《きづた》の実にむらがっていた。聖セパルカ大聖堂の塔は角に小尖塔を備えていたが、その上の古い風見鶏がめっきし直したように光り、千鳥の大群がカラン湿地の上空を旋回しては、不意にむきを変えて銀色のきらめきを放った。オルガン奏者の部屋の開け放った窓からも黄金色の陽が射しこみ、色あせて擦り切れた絨毯の、シャクヤクの模様を照らし出していた。
It is sad when man's unhappiness veils from him the smiling face of nature. The promise of the early morning was maintained. The sky was of a translucent blue, broken with islands and continents of clouds, dazzling white like cotton-wool. A soft, warm breeze blew from the west, the birds sang merrily in every garden bush, and Cullerne was a town of gardens, where men could sit each under his own vine and fig-tree. The bees issued forth from their hives, and hummed with cheery droning chorus in the ivy-berries that covered the wall-tops with deep purple. The old vanes on the corner pinnacles of Saint Sepulchre's tower shone as if they had been regilt. Great flocks of plovers flew wheeling over Cullerne marsh, and flashed with a blinking silver gleam as they changed their course suddenly. Even through the open window of the organist's room fell a shaft of golden sunlight that lit up the peonies of the faded, threadbare carpet.
But inside beat two poor human hearts, one unhappy and one hopeless, and saw nothing of the gold vanes, or the purple ivy-berries, or the plovers, or the sunlight, and heard nothing of the birds or the bees.
"Yes, I will give it up," said the organist, though not quite so enthusiastically as before; and as he moved closer to Anastasia Joliffe, she got up and left the room, laughing as she went out.
"I must get the potatoes peeled, or you will have none for dinner."
Mr Westray, being afflicted neither with poverty nor age, but having a good digestion and entire confidence both in himself and in his prospects, could fully enjoy the beauty of the day. He walked this morning as a child of the light, forsaking the devious back-ways through which the organist had led him on the previous night, and choosing the main streets on his road to the church. He received this time a different impression of the town. The heavy rain had washed the pavements and roadway, and as he entered the Market Square he was struck with the cheerfulness of the prospect, and with the air of quiet prosperity which pervaded the place.
広場の二辺に並ぶ家々は、建物の上部が舗道に張り出していて、ずんぐりした木の柱に支えられるアーケードを形造っていた。ここにはその所有者が「最高の店舗」と自負する店が並んでいた。カスタンスは雑貨屋、ローズ・アンド・ストーリーは服地屋で、その正面は三軒分の広さを持ち、おまけに角には「仕立て専門」の「部署」まで持っていた。ルーシーは本屋で、カラン・エグザミナー紙を印刷し、最近発生したコレラ根絶のためカランで取られた対策に関するドクタ・エニファーの論文や、さらには参事会員パーキンの説教集をも何冊か出版していた。カルビンは馬具商、ミス・アドカットは玩具店を経営し、プライアは薬剤師と郵便局長を兼任している。広場の三つ目の辺の中心にはブランダマー・アームズが建っていて、淡黄褐色の広い正面を見せ、緑のブランインドが下り、窓の建具はオークの木目模様に塗装されていた。ホテル前の舗道の縁から石の階段がのび、その横に立つ白くて背の高い棒のてっぺんには緑色と銀色の雲形紋章そのものがはためいていた。ブランダマー・アームズの両脇には数軒、当世風の店がかたまっていたが、アーケードがないため、赤い筋の入った茶色い日覆いで満足しなければならなかった。この商店の一つが豚肉を売るミスタ・ジョウリフの店だった。彼は開いた窓からウエストレイに挨拶した。
On two sides of the square the houses overhung the pavement, and formed an arcade supported on squat pillars of wood. Here were situated some of the best "establishments," as their owners delighted to call them. Custance, the grocer; Rose and Storey, the drapers, who occupied the fronts of no less than three houses, and had besides a "department" round the corner "exclusively devoted to tailoring"; Lucy, the bookseller, who printed the _Cullerne Examiner_, and had published several of Canon Parkyn's sermons, as well as a tractate by Dr Ennefer on the means adopted in Cullerne for the suppression of cholera during the recent outbreak; Calvin, the saddler; Miss Adcutt, of the toy-shop; and Prior, the chemist, who was also postmaster. In the middle of the third side stood the Blandamer Arms, with a long front of buff, low green blinds, and window-sashes grained to imitate oak. At the edge of the pavement before the inn were some stone mounting steps, and by them stood a tall white pole, on which swung the green and silver of the nebuly coat itself. On either side of the Blandamer Arms clustered a few more modern shops, which, possessing no arcade, had to be content with awnings of brown stuff with red stripes. One of these places of business was occupied by Mr Joliffe, the pork-butcher. He greeted Westray through the open window.
"Good-morning. About your work betimes, I see," pointing to the roll of drawings which the architect carried under his arm. "It is a great privilege, this restoration to which you are called," and here he shifted a chop into a more attractive position on the show-board--"and I trust blessing will attend your efforts. I often manage to snatch a few minutes from the whirl of business about mid-day myself, and seek a little quiet meditation in the church. If you are there then, I shall be glad to give you any help in my power. Meanwhile, we must both be busy with our own duties."
He began to turn the handle of a sausage-machine, and Westray was glad to be quit of his pious words, and still more of his insufferable patronage.
第四章 ~~~
CHAPTER FOUR.
The north side of Cullerne Church, which faced the square, was still in shadow, but, as Westray stepped inside, he found the sunshine pouring through the south windows, and the whole building bathed in a flood of most mellow light. There are in England many churches larger than that of Saint Sepulchre, and fault has been found with its proportions, because the roof is lower than in some other conventual buildings of its size. Yet, for all this, it is doubtful whether architecture has ever produced a composition more truly dignified and imposing.
身廊は千百三十五年、ウオルター・ル・ベックによって起工され、両側に低い、半円アーチのアーケードを備えている。アーチを一つ一つ区切っている円柱には、ダラムやウォルサムやリンディスファーンの聖堂に見られるような紋様の彫刻はなく、またウインチェスター大聖堂の身廊やグロスター大修道院の聖歌隊席に見られるような垂直様式の柱が巻きついてもおらず、ひたすらその無装飾とすさまじい直径によって見る人を圧倒した。その上には暗い洞窟のような奥行きを持つトリフォリウムがあり、さらにその上には小さな、まばらな開口部を持つクリアストーリーがある。これらすべての上にかぶさっているのが石造穹窿で、刳形装飾を施された重たい交差リブがアーチのあいだを横断し、かつ対角線状に伸びていた。
The nave was begun by Walter Le Bec in 1135, and has on either side an arcade of low, round-headed arches. These arches are divided from one another by cylindrical pillars, which have no incised ornamentation, as at Durham or Waltham or Lindisfarne, nor are masked with Perpendicular work, as in the nave of Winchester or in the choir of Gloucester, but rely for effect on severe plainness and great diameter. Above them is seen the dark and cavernous depth of the triforium, and higher yet the clerestory with minute and infrequent openings. Over all broods a stone vault, divided across and diagonally by the chevron-mouldings of heavy vaulting-ribs.
Westray sat down near the door, and was so engrossed in the study of the building and in the strange play of the shafts of sunlight across the massive stonework, that half an hour passed before he rose to walk up the church.
A solid stone screen separates the choir from the nave, making, as it were, two churches out of one; but as Westray opened the doors between them, he heard four voices calling to him, and, looking up, saw above his head the four tower arches. "The arch never sleeps," cried one. "They have bound on us a burden too heavy to be borne," answered another. "We never sleep," said the third; and the fourth returned to the old refrain, "The arch never sleeps, never sleeps."
As he considered them in the daylight, he wondered still more at their breadth and slenderness, and was still more surprised that his Chief had made so light of the settlement and of the ominous crack in the south wall.
The choir is a hundred and forty years later than the nave, ornate Early English, with a multiplication of lancet-windows which rich hood-mouldings group into twos and threes, and at the east end into seven. Here are innumerable shafts of dark-grey purbeck marble, elaborate capitals, deeply undercut foliage, and broad-winged angels bearing up the vaulting shafts on which rests the sharply-pointed roof.
聖堂のこの部分だけでもカランの宗教的必要を満たすには充分で、堅礼式かミシリア・サンディ（註 在郷軍のメンバーをくじ引きで選ぶ日）のときでもないかぎり、会衆が身廊まであふれることはなかった。聖堂に来た人は誰もがゆったりと座ることができ、快適に礼拝することができた。というのも、千五百三十年、ヴィニコウム修道院長によって造られた天蓋付き聖職者席の前には信者席が長々と列をなして並び、緑色のベーズが張られ、真鍮の釘が打たれ、クッションや膝布団、祈祷書を収める箱が占有者の祈りのために備え付けられていたからである。カランで一角の人物たろうとする者は、誰もが金を払ってこの信者席を一つ借りていた。しかし宗教に対してさほどの贅沢ができない同じくらい多くの人々には樅板作りの別の席が与えられた。もちろんベーズは張られていないし、膝布団もなく、開き戸には番号もついていないけれど、それでもなんら不足はなく、ゆったりと座ることができた。
The spiritual needs of Cullerne were amply served by this portion of the church alone, and, except at confirmations or on Militia Sunday, the congregation never overflowed into the nave. All who came to the minster found there full accommodation, and could indeed worship in much comfort; for in front of the canopied stalls erected by Abbot Vinnicomb in 1530 were ranged long rows of pews, in which green baize and brass nails, cushions and hassocks, and Prayer-Book boxes ministered to the devotion of the occupants. Anybody who aspired to social status in Cullerne rented one of these pews, but for as many as could not afford such luxury in their religion there were provided other seats of deal, which had, indeed, no baize or hassocks, nor any numbers on the doors, but were, for all that, exceedingly appropriate and commodious.
The clerk was dusting the stalls as the architect entered the choir, and made for him at once as the hawk swoops on its quarry. Westray did not attempt to escape his fate, and hoped, indeed, that from the old man's garrulity he might glean some facts of interest about the building, which was to be the scene of his work for many months to come. But the clerk preferred to talk of people rather than of things, and the conversation drifted by easy stages to the family with whom Westray had taken up his abode.
The doubt as to the Joliffe ancestry, in the discussion of which Mr Sharnall had shown such commendable reticence, was not so sacred to the clerk. He rushed in where the organist had feared to tread, nor did Westray feel constrained to check him, but rather led the talk to Martin Joliffe and his imaginary claims.
「いやはや」と事務員はいった。「わたしが小さい子供の頃でした、マーチンのおっ母さんが兵士と駆け落ちしたのは。でもみんなの噂話はようく覚えとります。ただカランの人間は新しもの好きでね。あのときのことも今となっちゃあ昔語り、わたしと主任司祭をのぞいたら、あの話ができるのは一人もおらんでしょう。農場主のジョウリフさんと結婚したとき、彼女はソフィア・フラネリイと名乗ってました。どこで見つけてきたんだか誰も知りません。彼は親父の代からヴィドコウム農場に住んでいたんですよ、マイケル・ジョウリフは。陽気な男で、いつも黄色いズボンに青いベストを着とりました。それである日、彼は結婚するといってカランに来たんです。ソフィアはブランダマー・アームズで待っとって、二人はこの聖堂で結婚しました。そのとき彼女には三歳になる男の子がおりましてな、自分は未亡人だと言いふらしておったんですが、結婚証明書を見せろといわれても見せることはできないだろうと大勢の連中は考えとりました。しかしたぶん農場主のジョウリフさんは見せろなんて言わなかったんでしょう。さもなきゃ、何もかも承知の上だったんでしょう。すらりとした別嬪さんでしたよ、彼女は。分けへだてなくみんなに声をかけ笑っていたと、親父から何度も聞かされました。それに小金を持っとりましてなあ。三ヶ月おきにロンドンに出むいて家賃を集めるんだと彼女は言っとりました。戻るたびに目を見張るような新品の服を着とるんです。身なりは立派だし、風格みたいなものがただよっとるもんだから、みんなウィドコウムの女王様と呼んどりました。どこから来たのか知りませんが、あの人は寄宿学校を出とって、楽器も弾きこなせるし歌も見事でした。夏の夜なんか、わたしら若いもんはウィドコウムまで歩いていって農場近くの柵に腰かけ、開いた窓から聞こえてくるソフィの歌声を何度も聞きました。ピアノも持っとって、船長と水夫と失恋にまつわる、じんとくるような長い歌をよく歌っていて、みんな泣きそうになりましたよ。歌を歌ってないときは絵を描いてました。女房のやつは彼女が描いた花の絵を持っとりましてね。農場をあきらめんとならんくなったとき、たくさん売りに出されたんですよ。でもミス・ジョウリフはいちばん大きいのを手放そうとはなさらんかった。買いたいって連中は多かったんですが、あれはとっておくことにしたらしく、今でもあの人の手元にありまさあ。看板みたいにばかでかい絵で、そりゃきれいな花で埋めつくされているんですがね」
"Lor' bless you!" said the clerk, "I was a little boy myself when Martin's mother runned away with the soldier, yet mind well how it was in everybody's mouth. But folks in Cullerne like novelties; it's all old-world talk now, and there ain't one perhaps, beside me and Rector, could tell you _that_ tale. Sophia Flannery her name was when Farmer Joliffe married her, and where he found her no one knew. He lived up at Wydcombe Farm, did Michael Joliffe, where his father lived afore him, and a gay one he was, and dressed in yellow breeches and a blue waistcoat all his time. Well, one day he gave out he was to be married, and came into Cullerne, and there was Sophia waiting for him at the Blandamer Arms, and they were married in this very church. She had a three-year-old boy with her then, and put about she was a widow, though there were many who thought she couldn't show her marriage lines if she'd been asked for them. But p'raps Farmer Joliffe never asked to see 'em, or p'raps he knew all about it. A fine upstanding woman she was, with a word and a laugh for everyone, as my father told me many a time; and she had a bit of money beside. Every quarter, up she'd go to London town to collect her rents, so she said, and every time she'd come back with terrible grand new clothes. She dressed that fine, and had such a way with her, the people called her Queen of Wydcombe. Wherever she come from, she had a boarding-school education, and could play and sing beautiful. Many a time of a summer evening we lads would walk up to Wydcombe, and sit on the fence near the farm, to hear Sophy a-singing through the open window. She'd a pianoforty, too, and would sing powerful long songs about captains and moustachers and broken hearts, till people was nearly fit to cry over it. And when she wasn't singing she was painting. My old missis had a picture of flowers what she painted, and there was a lot more sold when they had to give up the farm. But Miss Joliffe wouldn't part with the biggest of 'em, though there was many would ha' liked to buy it. No, she kep' that one, and has it by her to this day--a picture so big as a signboard, all covered with flowers most beautiful."
"Yes, I've seen that," Westray put in; "it's in my room at Miss Joliffe's."
He said nothing about its ugliness, or that he meant to banish it, not wishing to wound the narrator's artistic susceptibilities, or to interrupt a story which began to interest him in spite of himself.
"Well, to be sure!" said the clerk, "it used to hang in the best parlour at Wydcombe over the sideboard; I seed'n there when I was a boy, and my mother was helping spring-clean up at the farm. `Look, Tom,' my mother said to me, `did 'ee ever see such flowers? and such a pritty caterpillar a-going to eat them!' You mind, a green caterpillar down in the corner."
Westray nodded, and the clerk went on:
"`Well, Mrs Joliffe,' says my mother to Sophia, `I never want for to see a more beautiful picture than that.' And Sophia laughed, and said my mother know'd a good picture when she saw one. Some folks 'ud stand her out, she said, that 'tweren't worth much, but she knew she could get fifty or a hundred pound or more for't any day she liked to sell, if she took it to the right people. _Then_ she'd soon have the laugh of those that said it were only a daub; and with that she laughed herself, for she were always laughing and always jolly.
"Michael were well pleased with his strapping wife, and used to like to see the people stare when he drove her into Cullerne Market in the high cart, and hear her crack jokes with the farmers what they passed on the way. Very proud he was of her, and prouder still when one Saturday he stood all comers glasses round at the Blandamer, and bid 'em drink to a pritty little lass what his wife had given him. Now he'd got a brace of 'em, he said; for he'd kep' that other little boy what Sophia brought when she married him, and treated the child for all the world as if he was his very son.
それから一年か二年すると、ウィドコウム・ダウンの丘陵で軍事演習のキャンプが張られましてね。あの夏のことは、ようく覚えとります。ひどく暑い夏で、ジョウイ・ガーランドとわたしはメイヨーズ・ミードの洗羊場で泳ぎの練習をしましたから。丘陵にはずらっと白いテントが並び、士官用の食堂テントの前じゃ、夕方ブラスバンドが音楽を演奏するんで。たまに日曜の午後も演奏してました。司祭さんはとんでもねえ迷惑だと大佐に手紙を書きましてね、楽隊のせいで人々が教会に来ない、『民坐して飲食《のみくい》し起《た》ちて戯る』（註 出エジプト記から）さまは、金の子牛を崇拝するにも等しいと、こう言ったのです。ところが大佐はそんなものに鼻も引っかけやしませんや。で、天気のいい夕方になると、大勢の人が丘陵に出ておりました。娘っ子のなかには、あのクラリネットとバスーンみたいな素敵な音楽は、ウィドコウム大聖堂の階上廊じゃ聞いたことないって、あとで言ってるやつがおりました。
"So 'twas for a year or two, till the practice-camp was put up on Wydcombe Down. I mind that summer well, for 'twere a fearful hot one, and Joey Garland and me taught ourselves to swim in the sheep-wash down in Mayo's Meads. And there was the white tents all up the hillside, and the brass band a-playing in the evenings before the officers' dinner-tent. And sometimes they would play Sunday afternoons too; and Parson were terrible put about, and wrote to the Colonel to say as how the music took the folk away from church, and likened it to the worship of the golden calf, when `the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up again to play.' But Colonel never took no notice of it, and when 'twas a fine evening there was a mort of people trapesing over the Downs, and some poor lasses wished afterwards they'd never heard no music sweeter than the clar'net and bassoon up in the gallery of Wydcombe Church.
ソフィアも何度もあそこに出かけてました。最初は旦那の腕につかまって歩いとりましたが、それから他の人と腕を組んで歩くようになりました。ビャクシンの茂みの陰で兵士と腰を下ろしとったという噂もありました。あいつらが移動したのは聖ミカエル祭前夜のことですよ。聖ミカエル祭（註 九月二十九日）の前日にウィドコウム農場で食ったガチョウはさぞかしまずかったでしょうな。というのは兵士がいなくなったとき、ソフィアもいなくなったからなんで。マイケルも農場も子供たちも捨てて、誰にもさよならを言わなかったんです。子供ベッドに寝ている赤ん坊にさえね。軍曹と駆け落ちしたんだって言われてますが、本当のところは分かりゃしません。農場主のジョウリフさんは彼女を捜して、ひょっとしたら居場所を突き止めたのかも知れませんが、そんなことは一言も言いませんでした。彼女はウィドコウムに戻りませんでしたよ」
"Sophia was there, too, a good few times, walking round first on her husband's arm, and afterwards on other people's; and some of the boys said they had seen her sitting with a redcoat up among the juniper-bushes. 'Twas Michaelmas Eve before they moved the camp, and 'twas a sorry goose was eat that Michaelmas Day at Wydcombe Farm; for when the soldiers went, Sophia went too, and left Michael and the farm and the children, and never said good-bye to anyone, not even to the baby in the cot. 'Twas said she ran off with a sergeant, but no one rightly knew; and if Farmer Joliffe made any search and found out, he never told a soul; and she never come back to Wydcombe.
「彼女はウィドコウムに戻りませんでしたよ」彼はため息のようなものをつきながら声をひそめてそう言った。長らく忘れていた農場主ジョウリフ一家の崩壊に心を動かされたのだろう。いや、次のようにつづけたところを見ると、自分が被った損害のことしか考えていなかったのかも知れない。「そうそう、あの人は貧乏な人に煙草を一オンス分け与えたり、労働者の小屋にお茶を一ポンド送ったりしとりました。きれいな服を買ったら、お古は人にあげなさるんで。女房のやつは、あいつのおっ母さんがソフィ・ジョウリフからもらった毛皮の襟巻きをいまだに持っとります。他の点はともかく、まあ、気前よく人に金をやる人でしたな。農場で働いている連中の中に、彼女の悪口を言うやつは一人もいませんでした。出て行かれて喜んだ人間は一人もいませんでしたよ。
"She never come back to Wydcombe," he said under his breath, with something that sounded like a sigh. Perhaps the long-forgotten break-up of Farmer Joliffe's home had touched him, but perhaps he was only thinking of his own loss, for he went on: "Ay, many's the time she would give a poor fellow an ounce of baccy, and many's the pound of tea she sent to a labourer's cottage. If she bought herself fine clothes, she'd give away the old ones; my missis has a fur tippet yet that her mother got from Sophy Joliffe. She was free with her money, whatever else she mid have been. There wasn't a labourer on the farm but what had a good word for her; there wasn't one was glad to see her back turned.
"Poor Michael took on dreadful at the first, though he wasn't the man to say much. He wore his yellow breeches and blue waistcoat just the same, but lost heart for business, and didn't go to market so reg'lar as he should. Only he seemed to stick closer by the children--by Martin that never know'd his father, and little Phemie that never know'd her mother. Sophy never come back to visit 'em by what I could learn; but once I seed her myself twenty years later, when I took the hosses over to sell at Beacon Hill Fair.
"That was a black day, too, for 'twas the first time Michael had to raise the wind by selling aught of his'n. He'd got powerful thin then, had poor master, and couldn't fill the blue waistcoat and yellow breeches like he used to, and _they_ weren't nothing so gay by then themselves neither.
"`Tom,' he said--that's me, you know--`take these here hosses over to Beacon Hill, and sell 'em for as much as 'ee can get, for I want the money.'
"`What, sell the best team, dad!' says Miss Phemie--for she was standing by--`you'll never sell the best team with White-face and old Strike-a-light!' And the hosses looked up, for they know'd their names very well when she said 'em.
"`Don't 'ee take on, lass,' he said; `we'll buy 'em back again come Lady Day.'
わたしは馬を連れて行きました。旦那さんがなぜ金を必要としたのか、ようく知っとりました。マーチンが借金をしこたま首にぶらさげてオックスフォードから戻ってきたんです。農場の仕事に手も貸さないで、自分はブランダマー家の人間なんだとか、フォーディングの屋敷も土地も本来なら自分のものになるはずなんだと言いふらしとったんでさあ。今調査をしてるとか言って、あちこちをほっつき歩き、時間と金をさんざんつぎこんでましたよ、益体《やくたい》もない調査とやらに。ありゃあ陰気な日でした。ビーコン・ヒルに行くと、大降りの雨だし、芝生はぐちゃぐちゃでした。馬どもはずぶ濡れで、しょげた顔つきなんですわ。売られることが分かってたんでしょう。そんなこんなで午後になりましたが、どっちの馬にも買い手はつきません。『お気の毒な旦那さんだ』わたしは馬どもに言いましたよ、『このまま帰るにしても、なんて言い訳したらいいのかねえ』って。でもね、馬どもと別れ別れにならんでいいんだと思うと、わたしはうれしかったですよ。
"And so I took 'em over, and knew very well why he wanted the money; for Mr Martin had come back from Oxford, wi' a nice bit of debt about his neck, and couldn't turn his hand to the farm, but went about saying he was a Blandamer, and Fording and all the lands belonged to he by right. 'Quiries he was making, he said, and gadded about here and there, spending a mort of time and money in making 'quiries that never came to nothing. 'Twas a black day, that day, and a thick rain falling at Beacon Hill, and all the turf cut up terrible. The poor beasts was wet through, too, and couldn't look their best, because they knowed they was going to be sold; and so the afternoon came, and never a bid for one of 'em. `Poor old master!' says I to the horses, `what'll 'ee say when we get back again?' And yet I was glad-like to think me and they weren't going to part.
わたしらは雨の中に突っ立っとりました。農夫や商人はわたしらをちらと見て、なにも言わずに通り過ぎていきました。そのときですよ、誰かがこっちにやってくると思ったら、ソフィア・ジョウリフじゃねえですか。最後に見たときから一歳だって歳なんか取っちゃいないような様子でしたな。あの日の午後、わたしらが目にした中で、朗らかだったものといったら、あの人の顔だけでした。生き生きして陽気なのはちっとも変わっちゃいません。大きなボタンの付いた黄色い雨外套を着て、彼女が通るとみんな振り返ってじろじろ見るんです。彼女といっしょに馬喰《ばくろう》が歩いてましてね、人々が目を見張るたびに、彼女のほうを誇らしそうに見てました。ちょうどマイケルが馬車で彼女をカラン市場に連れて行ったときと同じように。彼女は馬には目もくれませんでしたが、わたしの顔をまじまじと見ましてね。通り過ぎてから頭をめぐらしてもう一度見るんですよ。それから戻ってきました。
"Well, there we was a-standing in the rain, and the farmers and the dealers just give us a glimpse, and passed by without a word, till I see someone come along, and that was Sophia Joliffe. She didn't look a year older nor when I met her last, and her face was the only cheerful thing we saw that afternoon, as fresh and jolly as ever. She wore a yellow mackintosh with big buttons, and everybody turned to measure her up as she passed. There was a horse-dealer walking with her, and when the people stared, he looked at her just so proud as Michael used to look when he drove her in to Cullerne Market. She didn't take any heed of the hosses, but she looked hard at me, and when she was passed turned her head to have another look, and then she come back.
"`Bain't you Tom Janaway,' says she, `what used to work up to Wydcombe Farm?'
"`Ay, that I be,' says I, but stiff-like, for it galled me to think what she'd a-done for master, and yet could look so jolly with it all.
"She took no note that I were glum, but `Whose hosses is these?' she asked.
"`Your husband's, mum,' I made bold to say, thinking to take her down a peg. But, lor'! she didn't care a rush for that, but `Which o' my husbands?' says she, and laughed fit to bust, and poked the horse-dealer in the side. He looked as if he'd like to throttle her, but she didn't mind that neither. `What for does Michael want to sell his hosses?'
"And then I lost my pluck, and didn't think to humble her any more, but just told her how things was, and how I'd stood the blessed day, and never got a bid. She never asked no questions, but I see her eyes twinkle when I spoke of Master Martin and Miss Phemie; and then she turned sharp to the horse-dealer and said:
"`John, these is fine horses; you buy these cheap-like, and we can sell 'em again to-morrow.'
"Then he cursed and swore, and said the hosses was old scraws, and he'd be damned afore he'd buy such hounds'-meat.
"`John,' says she, quite quiet, `'tain't polite to swear afore ladies. These here is good hosses, and I want you to buy 'em.'
"Then he swore again, but she'd got his measure, and there was a mighty firm look in her face, for all she laughed so; and by degrees he quieted down and let her talk.
"`How much do you want for the four of 'em, young man?' she says; and I had a mind to say eighty pounds, thinking maybe she'd rise to that for old times' sake, but didn't like to say so much for fear of spoiling the bargain. `Come,' she says, `how much? Art thou dumb? Well, if thou won't fix the price, I'll do it for 'ee. Here, John, you bid a hundred for this lot.'
"He stared stupid-like, but didn't speak.
そうしたら彼女がきつく睨み付けて、
"Then she look at him hard.
"`You've got to do it,' she says, speaking low, but very firm; and out he comes with, `Here, I'll give 'ee a hundred.' But before I had time to say `Done,' she went on: `No--this young man says no; I can see it in his face; he don't think 'tis enough; you try him with a hundred and twenty.'
"'Twas as if he were overlooked, for he says quite mild, `Well, I'll give 'ee a hundred and twenty.'
『ああ、そのほうがいいわ』と彼女が言いました。『そのほうがいいって彼は言っているよ』彼女は胸元から小さい革の財布を取り出して、雨が入らねえように雨外套のすその下に隠しながら、二十枚ほど新札を数えて、わたしの手に握らせました。それが入ってたところにはもっとたくさんの札束がありました。財布にお札がびっしり詰まっているのが見えたんでさあ。わたしがそれを見ているのに気づくと、彼女はもう一枚取り出してわたしに寄こすんで。『こりゃおまえさんにやるよ。おまえさんに幸運が訪れますように。それで好い人のために土産でも買ってやるんだね、トム・ジャナウエイ。それから、ソフィ・フラネリイは昔の友達を忘れるような女だなんて言いふらしじゃないよ』
"`Ay, that's better,' says she; `he says that's better.' And she takes out a little leather wallet from her bosom, holding it under the flap of her waterproof so that the rain shouldn't get in, and counts out two dozen clean banknotes, and puts 'em into my hand. There was many more where they come from, for I could see the book was full of 'em; and when she saw my eyes on them, she takes out another, and gives it me, with, `There's one for thee, and good luck to 'ee; take that, and buy a fairing for thy sweetheart, Tom Janaway, and never say Sophy Flannery forgot an old friend.'
"`Thank 'ee kindly, mum,' says I; `thank 'ee kindly, and may you never miss it! I hope your rents do still come in reg'lar, mum.'
"She laughed out loud, and said there was no fear of that; and then she called a lad, and he led off White-face and Strike-a-light and Jenny and the Cutler, and they was all gone, and the horse-dealer and Sophia, afore I had time to say good-night. She never come into these parts again--at least, I never seed her; but I heard tell she lived a score of years more after that, and died of a broken blood-vessel at Beriton Races."
He moved a little further down the choir, and went on with his dusting; but Westray followed, and started him again.
"What happened when you got back? You haven't told me what Farmer Joliffe said, nor how you came to leave farming and turn clerk."
老人は額をぬぐった。
The old man wiped his forehead.
「そのことは話すつもりがなかったんですがなあ」と彼は言った。「思い出すと今でも冷や汗が出ますわい。しかしお聞きになりたいというならお聞かせしましょう。みんながいなくなったとき、わたしはあまりの幸運にほとんど目まいがしましたよ。で、夢じゃないことを確かめるために主の祈りを唱えました。しかし夢じゃありませんでした。それでチョッキの裏地に切れこみを入れ、札束を中に落としたんです。彼女がわたしにくれた一枚を除いて。そいつだけはズボンの時計入れポケットにつっこみました。日が暮れてきて、寒いし濡れてるし、感覚がなくなってきましてな。なにしろ雨の中にずっと立ちっぱなしで、一日じゅう飲み食いしてなかったんですから。
"I wasn't going to tell 'ee that," he said, "for it do fair make I sweat still to think o' it; but you can have it if you like. Well, when they was gone, I was nigh dazed with such a stroke o' luck, and said the Lord's Prayer to see I wasn't dreaming. But 'twas no such thing, and so I cut a slit in the lining of my waistcoat, and dropped the notes in, all except the one she give me for myself, and that I put in my fob-pocket. 'Twas getting dark, and I felt numb with cold and wet, what with standing so long in the rain and not having bite nor sup all day.
"'Tis a bleak place, Beacon Hill, and 'twas so soft underfoot that day the water'd got inside my boots, till they fair bubbled if I took a step. The rain was falling steady, and sputtered in the naphtha-lamps that they was beginning to light up outside the booths. There was one powerful flare outside a long tent, and from inside there come a smell of fried onions that made my belly cry `Please, master, please!'
『ようし』とわたしは腹の虫に言ってやりました。『ちゃんと満腹にさせてやるからな。おまえをからっぽのままウィドコウムには帰らんぞ』それでテントに入ったんですが、いや、中はあったかいし、明るいし、男は煙草を吹かし、女は笑い、料理の匂いがたまんねえんで。架台の上に板をのっけたテーブルがテントの中に並べられておりましてね。その脇には長いベンチがあって、みんなが食べたり飲んだりしとりました。部屋の一方の端には売り台が横に延びとって、その上で錫の皿が湯気を立てているんでさあ。豚足、ソーセージ、胃袋、ベーコン、牛肉、カリフラワー、キャベツ、玉葱、ブラッドソーセージ、それに干し葡萄入りプディング。お札を小銭に換えるにはちょうどいい機会だと思いました。ポケットの中で木の葉になっちまう妖精の金じゃなくて、本物かどうか確かめることもできるってんでね。それでわたしは近づいて牛肉とジャック・プディング（註 ブラッドソーセージのことか）の皿を注文し、お札を差し出しました。娘さんが――カウンターの後ろにいたのは娘さんでした――それを手に取ってじっと見つめ、それからわたしをじっと見るんですよ。なにせずぶ濡れで泥だらけでしたからな。娘さんはお札を店のおやじのところに持って行って、おやじはそいつを女房に見せました。女房はそれを光りに透かし、みんなで議論を始めました。それから樽に印を付けていた物品税の收税吏に見せたんです。
"`Yes, my lad,' I said to un, `I'm darned if I don't humour 'ee; thou shan't go back to Wydcombe empty.' So in I step, and found the tent mighty warm and well lit, with men smoking and women laughing, and a great smell of cooking. There were long tables set on trestles down the tent, and long benches beside 'em, and folks eating and drinking, and a counter cross the head of the room, and great tin dishes simmering a-top of it--trotters and sausages and tripe, bacon and beef and colliflowers, cabbage and onions, blood-puddings and plum-duff. It seemed like a chance to change my banknote, and see whether 'twere good and not elf-money that folks have found turn to leaves in their pocket. So up I walks, and bids 'em gie me a plate of beef and jack-pudding, and holds out my note for't. The maid--for 'twas a maid behind the counter--took it, and then she looks at it and then at me, for I were very wet and muddy; and then she carries it to the gaffer, and he shows it to his wife, who holds it up to the light, and then they all fall to talking, and showed it to a 'cise-man what was there marking down the casks.
"The people sitting nigh saw what was up, and fell to staring at me till I felt hot enough, and lief to leave my note where 'twas, and get out and back to Wydcombe. But the 'cise-man must have said 'twere all right, for the gaffer comes back with four gold sovereigns and nineteen shillings, and makes a bow and says:
"`Your servant, sir; can I give you summat to drink?'
"I looked round to see what liquor there was, being main glad all the while to find the note were good; and he says:
"`Rum and milk is very helping, sir; try the rum and milk hot.'
"So I took a pint of rum and milk, and sat down at the nighest table, and the people as were waiting to see me took up, made room now, and stared as if I'd been a lord. I had another plate o' beef, and another rum-and-milk, and then smoked a pipe, knowing they wouldn't make no bother of my being late that night at Wydcombe, when I brought back two dozen banknotes.
"The meat and drink heartened me, and the pipe and the warmth of the tent seemed to dry my clothes and take away the damp, and I didn't feel the water any longer in my boots. The company was pleasant, too, and some very genteel dealers sitting near.
"`My respec's to you, sir,' says one, holding up his glass to me--`best respec's. These pore folk isn't used to the flimsies, and was a bit surprised at your paper-money; but directly I see you, I says to my friends, "Mates, that gentleman's one of us; that's a monied man, if ever I see one." I knew you for a gentleman the minute you come in.'
そんな具合におだてられちゃいまして、お札一枚でこんなに騒ぐんなら、ポケットいっぱいの札束を持っていることを知ったら何て言うだろうと思いましたよ。しかし何も言いませんでした。ただその気になりゃあ、このテントの半分を買い占めることができるんだと思ってくすっと笑いましたがね。そのあとでわたしは連中に酒をおごり、おごり返され、ひどくいい気分で一晩を過ごしたってわけで――しかもわたしら、親密な仲になって、相手が名誉を重んじる立派な人たちだって分かると、わたしも札束を持っていて、いっしょにお付き合いさせていただく資格がちゃんとあるってところを見せてやったんだから、なおさらいい気分でした。連中は敬意を表してさらに乾杯してくれたんですが、そのうちの一人が、今飲んでる酒はわたしみたいな紳士にふるまうにゃ、ふさわしくないって言って、自分のポケットから小瓶を取り出し、わたしのグラスをいっぱいにしてくれたんですよ。その人の親父がウオータールーの戦いがあった年に買った銘酒なんだそうで。いや、これが強いの何のって、飲んだら目から火が出るようなしろもんでした。でもわたしは平気な顔で飲みましたよ。古酒の味が分からねえなんて思われたくなかったですからな。
"So I was flattered like, and thought if they made so much o' one banknote, what'd they say to know I'd got a pocket full of them? But didn't speak nothing, only chuckled a bit to think I could buy up half the tent if I had a mind to. After that I stood 'em drinks, and they stood me, and we passed a very pleasant evening--the more so because when we got confidential, and I knew they were men of honour, I proved that I was worthy to mix with such by showing 'em I had a packet of banknotes handy. They drank more respec's, and one of them said as how the liquor we were swallowing weren't fit for such a gentleman as me; so he took a flask out o' his pocket, and filled me a glass of his own tap, what his father 'ud bought in the same year as Waterloo. 'Twas powerful strong stuff that, and made me blink to get it down; but I took it with a good face, not liking to show I didn't know old liquor when it come my way.
わたしらはテントの中がむっとしてナフサランプの光りが煙草の煙でぼやけちまうまで座っとりました。外はまだ雨が降っとって、屋根を激しくたたく音が聞こえました。屋根の粗布のへこんだところからは水が染みてきてぽたぽたしたたり落ちてきました。酔っぱらったやつらのなかには、声を荒げて言い争う者もありましたな。わたしも声が他人みたいになっちまうし、頭がふらふらしてしゃべることもままならねえありさまで、こりゃあ限界まで飲んだかなと思いました。そうしたら鐘が鳴って、收税吏が『閉店だ』と叫び、売り台のうしろのおやじが『さあ、今日はこれでおしめえですぜ。ぐっすりお休みくだせえよ。女王様万歳、明日も楽しくお会いできますように』それでみんな立ち上がって、外套の襟を耳まで立てて、外に出ました。五人ほどへべれけになっちまって、架台の下の芝生に一晩寝かされましたがね。
"So we sat till the tent was very close, and them hissing naphtha-lamps burnt dim with tobacco-smoke. 'Twas still raining outside, for you could hear the patter heavy on the roof; and where there was a belly in the canvas, the water began to come through and drip inside. There was some rough talking and wrangling among folk who had been drinking; and I knew I'd had as much as I could carry myself, 'cause my voice sounded like someone's else, and I had to think a good bit before I could get out the words. 'Twas then a bell rang, and the 'size-man called out, `Closing time,' and the gaffer behind the counter said, `Now, my lads, good-night to 'ee; hope the fleas won't bite 'ee. God save the Queen, and give us a merry meeting to-morrow.' So all got up, and pulled their coats over their ears to go out, except half a dozen what was too heavy, and was let lie for the night on the grass under the trestles.
わたしは足もとがふらついたんですが、友達が両側から腕を取って支えてくれました。とっても親切な連中でしてな。わたしは眠いし、外に出ると目まいがしちまいました。わたしがどこに住んでいるか告げると、連中は心配するな、送ってってやる、畑をつっきればウィドコウムまで近道できるって言うんでさあ。出発してからちっと暗いところに入りこみましてね。で、次の瞬間何かに顔をぶん殴られたんですよ。気がついて起きたら、若い雌牛がわたしの臭いを嗅いどりました。真昼間になっとって、わたしは生け垣の根本で、アルムの花に囲まれて寝っ転がっとりました。びしょびしょに濡れて泥まみれですわ。（粘土質の土だったんですな）おまけに頭はまだ少しだけぼうっとしてるし、恥ずかしいかぎりでしたわい。ですが旦那さんのために取引を成立させたことや、チョッキに隠した金のことを思い出して気を取り直しました。で、札束に手を伸ばして、濡れてだめになっていないか確かめようとしたんです。
"I couldn't walk very firm myself, but my friends took me one under each arm; and very kind of them it was, for when we got into the open air, I turned sleepy and giddy-like. I told 'em where I lived to, and they said never fear, they'd see me home, and knew a cut through the fields what'd take us to Wydcombe much shorter. We started off, and went a bit into the dark; and then the very next thing I know'd was something blowing in my face, and woke up and found a white heifer snuffing at me. 'Twas broad daylight, and me lying under a hedge in among the cuckoo-pints. I was wet through, and muddy (for 'twas a loamy ditch), and a bit dazed still, and sore ashamed; but when I thought of the bargain I'd made for master, and of the money I'd got in my waistcoat, I took heart, and reached in my hand to take out the notes, and see they weren't wasted with the wet.
ところがそこに札束がねえんで――いや、一枚もねえんですよ。チョッキをひっくり返して裏地を破いて調べたんですがね。わたしが寝ていたところはビーコン・ヒルから半マイルしか離れていませんでした。それでさっそく市のあったところへ引き返したんですが、前の晩の友達は見つからないし、酒屋のテントの親父に訊いても、そんなやつら見たことねえと、こう言うんですわい。わたしは一日中あっちこっちを探し回って、ついにはみんなに笑われちまいました。何しろ前の晩は酒をかっくらって野宿はするし、一銭残らず盗まれたせいで何も食ってねえし、えらく取り乱した様子をしてましたからな。お巡りさんに報告したら記録にゃつけてくれましたが、そのあいだもわたしの顔や、チョッキの下から垂れ下がっている破れた裏地を見つめるんですよ。それを見て、お巡りさんが、こりゃあただの与太話だ、こいつまだ酔いが残ってるな、と思ってることが分かりました。あきらめて家に帰ろうとしたときにはもう暗くなっとりました。
"But there was no notes there--no, not a bit of paper, for all I turned my waistcoat inside out, and ripped up the lining. 'Twas only half a mile from Beacon Hill that I was lying, and I soon made my way back to the fair-ground, but couldn't find my friends of the evening before, and the gaffer in the drinking-tent said he couldn't remember as he'd ever seen any such. I spent the livelong day searching here and there, till the folks laughed at me, because I looked so wild with drinking the night before, and with sleeping out, and with having nothing to eat; for every penny was took from me. I told the constable, and he took it all down, but I see him looking at me the while, and at the torn lining hanging out under my waistcoat, and knew he thought 'twas only a light tale, and that I had the drink still in me. 'Twas dark afore I give it up, and turned to go back.
ビーコン・ヒルからウィドコウムまで近道してもたっぷり七マイルあります。わたしはくたくたに疲れたのと、腹が減ったのと、恥ずかしいのとで、プラウドさんの水車小屋を見下ろす橋の上で半時間ほど足を止めていました。あそこに飛びこんで死んじまおうかなと思いながらね。でもふんぎりがつかねえで、結局ウィドコウムに帰ったんで。みなさん寝ようとするところでしたな。事情を話してるあいだ、農場主のマイケルもマーチン坊ちゃんもフェミー嬢ちゃんも幽霊を見るみたいにわたしを見てましたよ。でも馬を買ったのがソフィー・ジョウリフだということは言いませんでした。マイケルは何も言わず、ただもう呆然としてました。フェミー嬢ちゃんは泣いとりました。しかしマーチン坊ちゃんは、そんなの作り話だ、わたしが金を盗んだんだ、お巡りさんを呼ぶべきだと、こう怒鳴るんで。
"'Tis seven mile good by the nigh way from Beacon Hill to Wydcombe; and I was dog-tired, and hungry, and that shamed I stopped a half-hour on the bridge over Proud's mill-head, wishing to throw myself in and ha' done with it, but couldn't bring my mind to that, and so went on, and got to Wydcombe just as they was going to bed. They stared at me, Farmer Michael, and Master Martin, and Miss Phemie, as if I was a spirit, while I told my tale; but I never said as how 'twas Sophia Joliffe as had bought the horses. Old Michael, he said nothing, but had a very blank look on his face, and Miss Phemie was crying; but Master Martin broke out saying 'twas all make-up, and I'd stole the money, and they must send for a constable.
"`'Tis lies,' he said. `This fellow's a rogue, and too great a fool even to make up a tale that'll hang together. Who's going to believe a woman 'ud buy the team, and give a hundred and twenty pounds in notes for hosses that 'ud be dear at seventy pounds? Who was the woman? Did 'ee know her? There must be many in the fair 'ud know such a woman. They ain't so common as go about with their pockets full of banknotes, and pay double price for hosses what they buy.'
"I knew well enough who'd bought 'em, but didn't want to give her name for fear of grieving Farmer Joliffe more nor he was grieved already, so said nothing, but held my peace.
"Then the farmer says: `Tom, I believe 'ee; I've know'd 'ee thirty year, and never know'd 'ee tell a lie, and I believe 'ee now. But if thou knows her name, tell it us, and if thou doesn't know, tell us what she looked like, and maybe some of us 'll guess her.'
"But still I didn't say aught till Master Martin goes on:
"`Out with her name. He must know her name right enough, if there ever was a woman as did buy the hosses; and don't you be so soft, father, as to trust such fool's tales. We'll get a constable for 'ee. Out with her name, I say.'
"Then I was nettled like, at his speaking so rough, when the man that suffered had forgiven me, and said:
"`Yes, I know her name right enough, if 'ee will have it. 'Twas the missis.'
『奥様だと？』坊ちゃんは言いました。『どこの奥様だ？』
"`Missis?' he says; `what missis?'
"`Your mother,' says I. `She was with a man, but he weren't the man she runned away from here with, and she made he buy the team.'
"Master Martin didn't say any more, and Miss Phemie went on crying; but there was a blanker look come on old master's face, and he said very quiet:
"`There, that'll do, lad. I believe 'ee, and forgive thee. Don't matter much to I now if I have lost a hundred pound. 'Tis only my luck, and if 'tweren't lost there, 'twould just as like be lost somewhere else. Go in and wash thyself, and get summat to eat; and if I forgive 'ee this time, don't 'ee ever touch the drink again.'
"`Master,' I says, `I thank 'ee, and if I ever get a bit o' money I'll pay thee back what I can; and there's my sacred word I'll never touch the drink again.'
"I held him out my hand, and he took it, for all 'twas so dirty.
"`That's right, lad; and to-morrow we'll put the p'leece on to trace them fellows down.'
わたしは約束を守りましたよ、ミスタ――ミスタ――ミスタ――」
"I kep' my promise, Mr--Mr--Mr--"
「ウエストレイ」と建築家は教えた。
"Westray," the architect suggested.
「お名前を伺ってなかったんですよ。ほら、主任司祭はわたしを紹介してくれませんでしたからね。わたしは約束を守りました、ミスタ・ウエストレイ。それからはずっと禁酒してるんで。でも旦那さんは警察にやつらの跡を追わせることはなかったんです。というのは次の日の朝早くに卒中を起こして、二週間後にゃお亡くなりになってしまったんです。ウィドコウムには緑の柵をめぐらしたお父さんとお祖父さんの墓があるんですが、その近くに埋めてさし上げましたよ。黄色いズボンと青いチョッキは羊飼いのティモシー・フォードに形見分けしてやったんですが、あいつはそのあと何年も日曜日になるとそれを着とりました。わたしは旦那さんが埋葬された日に農場を離れてカランに来ました。片手間仕事をやっとったんですが、寺男が病気になってからは墓堀の手伝いをしとりました。で、彼が死んだときに代わりの寺男にされたんで。つぎの精霊降臨祭（註 復活祭後の第七日曜日）であれから四十年になりますわい」
"I didn't know your name, you see, because Rector never introduced _me_ yesterday. I kep' my promise, Mr Westray, and bin teetotal ever since; but he never put the p'leece on the track, for he was took with a stroke next morning early, and died a fortnight later. They laid him up to Wydcombe nigh his father and his grandfather, what have green rails round their graves; and give his yellow breeches and blue waistcoat to Timothy Foord the shepherd, and he wore them o' Sundays for many a year after that. I left farming the same day as old master was put underground, and come into Cullerne, and took odd jobs till the sexton fell sick, and then I helped dig graves; and when he died they made I sexton, and that were forty years ago come Whitsun."
"Did Martin Joliffe keep on the farm after his father's death?" Westray asked, after an interval of silence.
彼らは話をしながら信者席の列のあいだをぶらぶら歩き、大聖堂を二つに区切る石の障壁を通り抜けた。カラン大聖堂の聖歌隊席は他の部分よりも床が数フィート高くなっており、身廊に降りる階段の上に立つと左右に交差廊が広々とひろがっているのが見えた。北袖廊の端の壁――かつてその外にチャプターハウスと修道院の宿坊が建っていた――には高いところに小さなランセット窓が三つあるだけだった。しかし交差部分の南端には壁がまったくなくて、二つの欄間窓と無限に入り組んだ狭間飾りを持つヴィニコウム修道院長の窓がその全面を占めていた。その結果、奇妙な対照が生み出された。教会の他の部分は、窓が小さいために寂しいくらい光りが抑えられており、北袖廊は建物の中でもっとも薄暗い部分となっているのだが、南袖廊、つまりブランダマー側廊は常に澄みきった陽の光を浴びていたのである。さらに、身廊はノルマン様式で、袖廊と聖歌隊席は初期イギリス様式であるのに、この窓は複雑な構成と、ごてごてと手のこんだ細部を持つ後期垂直様式なのだ。その相違はあまりにも顕著で、建築をまったく知らない素人も思わず注意をむけるくらいだった。まして専門家の目ともなれば、なおさらひきつけられて当然だろう。ウエストレイは一瞬、質問を繰り返しながら階段の上に立ち止まった。
They had wandered along the length of the stalls as they talked, and were passing through the stone screen which divides the minster into two parts. The floor of the choir at Cullerne is higher by some feet than that of the rest of the church, and when they stood on the steps which led down into the nave, the great length of the transepts opened before them on either side. The end of the north transept, on the outside of which once stood the chapter-house and dormitories of the monastery, has only three small lancet-windows high up in the wall, but at the south end of the cross-piece there is no wall at all, for the whole space is occupied by Abbot Vinnicomb's window, with its double transoms and infinite subdivisions of tracery. Thus is produced a curious contrast, for, while the light in the rest of the church is subdued to sadness by the smallness of the windows, and while the north transept is the most sombre part of all the building, the south transept, or Blandamer aisle, is constantly in clear daylight. Moreover, while the nave is of the Norman style, and the transepts and choir of the Early English, this window is of the latest Perpendicular, complicated in its scheme, and meretricious in the elaboration of its detail. The difference is so great as to force itself upon the attention even of those entirely unacquainted with architecture, and it has naturally more significance for the professional eye. Westray stood a moment on the steps as he repeated his question:
「マーチンは農場の経営を引き継いだのですか」
"Did Martin keep on the farm?"
「ああ、引き継ぎましたが、真剣にやらんかったんですな。もっぱらフェミー嬢ちゃんが仕事をなさりました。マーチンの邪魔がなければお父さんよりいい農場主になっとったでしょう。ところがマーチンは彼女が半ペニー稼いぐあいだに一ペニー使っちまい、とうとう何もかも競売に付されちまいました。オックスフォードでうぬぼれて、誰もいさめる人がいなかったんです。紳士にならにゃならねえとさんざん気取りまくって、しまいに『紳士ジョウリフ』とか、もっとあとになっておつむがいかれてきた頃は『雲形じいさん』とか呼ばれとりました。頭が変になったのはあれのせいですよ」そう言って寺男は巨大な窓を指さした。「あの銀色と緑のしわざでさあ」
"Ay, he kep' it on, but he never had his heart in it. Miss Phemie did the work, and would have been a better farmer than her father, if Martin had let her be; but he spent a penny for every ha'penny she made, till all came to the hammer. Oxford puffed him up, and there was no one to check him; so he must needs be a gentleman, and give himself all kinds of airs, till people called him `Gentleman Joliffe,' and later on `Old Neb'ly' when his mind was weaker. 'Twas that turned his brain," said the sexton, pointing to the great window; "'twas the silver and green what done it."
Westray looked up, and in the head of the centre light saw the nebuly coat shining among the darker painted glass with a luminosity which was even more striking in daylight than in the dusk of the previous evening.
第五章 ~~~
CHAPTER FIVE.
After a week's trial, Westray made up his mind that Miss Joliffe's lodgings would suit him. It was true that the Hand of God was somewhat distant from the church, but, then, it stood higher than the rest of the town, and the architect's fads were not confined to matters of eating and drinking, but attached exaggerated importance to bracing air and the avoidance of low-lying situations. He was pleased also by the scrupulous cleanliness pervading the place, and by Miss Joliffe's cooking, which a long experience had brought to some perfection, so far as plain dishes were concerned.
He found that no servant was kept, and that Miss Joliffe never allowed her niece to wait at table, so long as she herself was in the house. This occasioned him some little inconvenience, for his naturally considerate disposition made him careful of overtaxing a landlady no longer young. He rang his bell with reluctance, and when he did so, often went out on to the landing and shouted directions down the well-staircase, in the hopes of sparing any unnecessary climbing of the great nights of stone steps. This consideration was not lost upon Miss Joliffe, and Westray was flattered by an evident anxiety which she displayed to retain him as a lodger.
It was, then, with a proper appreciation of the favour which he was conferring, that he summoned her one evening near teatime, to communicate to her his intention of remaining at Bellevue Lodge. As an outward and visible sign of more permanent tenure, he decided to ask for the removal of some of those articles which did not meet his taste, and especially of the great flower-picture that hung over the sideboard.
ミス・ジョウリフは書斎と彼女が呼んでいる部屋に座っていた。これは家の裏手にある小さな部屋で（かつては宿の食品室だった）、彼女はいかなる家計の問題に取り組まなければならないときも、ここに引きこもるのだった。家計の問題はもう何年にもわたって嫌になるほど頻繁に起きていたが、今や兄の長期にわたる病いと死が、この二と二を足して五にしなければならない難儀な戦いに危機的な状況をもたらしていた。彼女は病気という口実のもとに求められるものはどんな贅沢も惜しみなく兄に与え、マーチンもそれをいちいち気にするようなこまかい男ではなかった。寝室の暖房、牛肉スープ、シャンペン、金持ちにとってはどうということのないものながら、貧乏人の献身的な愛にとっては重い負担となってのしかかる千と一つのことどもが、すべて借金として勘定書に記録されていた。こうした出費が家計のなかで突出することは、ミス・ジョウリフにとって、倹約の規則をあまりにも大きく逸脱することであり、贅沢の罪――七つの大罪の先陣をつとめるルクスリア、つまり奢侈の罪――から良心の目をそらすには、事態の緊急性という言い訳がどうしても必要になった。（註 ルクスリアは色欲の罪。作者の勘違いと思われる）
Miss Joliffe was sitting in what she called her study. It was a little apartment at the back of the house (once the still-room of the old inn), to which she retreated when any financial problem had to be grappled. Such problems had presented themselves with unpleasant frequency for many years past, and now her brother's long illness and death brought about something like a crisis in the weary struggle to make two and two into five. She had spared him no luxury that illness is supposed to justify, nor was Martin himself a man to be over-scrupulous in such matters. Bedroom fires, beef-tea, champagne, the thousand and one little matters which scarcely come within the cognisance of the rich, but tax so heavily the devotion of the poor, had all left their mark on the score. That such items should figure in her domestic accounts, seemed to Miss Joliffe so great a violation of the rules which govern prudent housekeeping, that all the urgency of the situation was needed to free her conscience from the guilt of extravagance--from that _luxuria_ or wantonness, which leads the van among the seven deadly sins.
肉屋のフィルポッツはミス・ジョウリフ用の帳簿にスイートブレッド（註 子羊の膵臓）という記載があるのを見て半ば笑みをもらし、半ばため息をついた。実をいえば、彼はこれに類する幾つもの購入品をわざと記録につけ忘れた。優しい思いやりからこっそりそうしたのだが、にもかかわらず好意の受け手はそのことに気がついていて、まさにそのさりげなさのゆえにこうした人助けはいっそうありがたく感じられるものだ。雑貨屋のカスタンスも痩せ衰えた老婦人にシャンペンを注文されたときは、びくびくしながら応じた。ワインのような高級品に対して請求しなければならない料金を少しでも取り返させてやろうと、お茶や砂糖の注文があったときは、きっちり料金分の量目を入れたうえ、さらにそれをぐっと押しこみ、入れ物からあふれるくらいサービスしてやった。しかしどんなに倹約を心がけても全体としての出費はかさみ、ミス・ジョウリフはそのとき、世界中で珍重されているドゥック・ドゥ・ベントヴォリオの金の薄紙を巻き付けた三本の瓶が、頭上の棚から今も首を突き出しているのを眺めながら、借金の重みをずしりと感じていたのである。ドクタ・エニファーに借りている分のことは考えようともしなかったし、恐らくほかの借金より心配する必要がなかっただろう。医者は、金があるなら払ってくれるだろうし、まったく払えないというなら全額免除してやろう、と腹を決めて、請求書を送ってこなかったからである。
Philpotts the butcher had half smiled, half sighed to see sweetbreads entered in Miss Joliffe's book, and had, indeed, forgotten to keep record of many a similar purchase; using that kindly, quiet charity which the recipient is none the less aware of, and values the more from its very unostentation. So, too, did Custance the grocer tremble in executing champagne orders for the thin and wayworn old lady, and gave her full measure pressed down and running over in teas and sugars, to make up for the price which he was compelled to charge for such refinements in the way of wine. Yet the total had mounted up in spite of all forbearance, and Miss Joliffe was at this moment reminded of its gravity by the gold-foil necks of three bottles of the universally-appreciated Duc de Bentivoglio brand, which still projected from a shelf above her head. Of Dr Ennefer's account she scarcely dared even to think; and there was perhaps less need of her doing so, for he never sent it in, knowing very well that she would pay it as she could, and being quite prepared to remit it entirely if she could never pay it at all.
彼女は医者の配慮に感謝し、彼がいつも犯す、とりわけいまいましい不作法を、まれに見る寛容の心で見逃した。この不作法というのは薬を送る宛先を、そこがいまでも宿屋であるかのように書き記すことだった。ミス・ジョウリフは「神の手」に引っ越す前に、修繕費用として支給されたなけなしの金のほとんどを、正面に書かれた宿屋の名前を塗り消すことに費やした。ところが大雨のあとは、あの大きな黒い文字が天の邪鬼にも皮膜を透かしてじろりとこちらを見、オルガン奏者は「神の手」の裏をかくのは容易じゃないな、などと軽口をたたいた。ミス・ジョウリフはそんな冗談をくだらないし、無礼だと言い、ドアの上の明かり取り窓に「ベルヴュー・ハウス」と金文字を入れることにしたのだった。ところがカランのペンキ屋は「ベルヴュー」を小さく書きすぎ、残りの空間を埋めるために「ハウス」をあまりにも大きく書いたものだから、オルガン奏者はこの不釣り合いを見てまたしても皮肉を言った。ここが「ハウス」であるのは誰でも知っているが、「ベルヴュー」であることは誰も知らないのだから、あれは逆に書くべきだ、と。
She appreciated his consideration, and overlooked with rare tolerance a peculiarly irritating breach of propriety of which he was constantly guilty. This was nothing less than addressing medicines to her house as if it were still an inn. Before Miss Joliffe moved into the Hand of God, she had spent much of the little allowed her for repairs, in covering up the name of the inn painted on the front. But after heavy rains the great black letters stared perversely through their veil, and the organist made small jokes about it being a difficult thing to thwart the Hand of God. Silly and indecorous, Miss Joliffe termed such witticisms, and had Bellevue House painted in gold upon the fanlight over the door. But the Cullerne painter wrote Bellevue too small, and had to fill up the space by writing House too large; and the organist sneered again at the disproportion, saying it should have been the other way, for everyone knew it was a house, but none knew it was Bellevue.
And then Dr Ennefer addressed his medicine to "Mr Joliffe, The Hand"-- not even to The Hand of God, but simply The Hand; and Miss Joliffe eyed the bottles askance as they lay on the table in the dreary hall, and tore the wrappers off them quickly, holding her breath the while that no exclamation of impatience might escape her. Thus, the kindly doctor, in the hurry of his workaday life, vexed, without knowing it, the heart of the kindly lady, till she was constrained to retire to her study, and read the precepts about turning the other cheek to the smiters, before she could quite recover her serenity.
ミス・ジョウリフは書斎に座ってマーチンの借金をどう返済しようと考えていた。彼の兄はその無秩序で非能率的な人生を通して、おのれの秩序だった能率的な習慣を誇りにしていた。それは几帳面で組織的な請求書のまとめ方にあらわれているにすぎなかったが、しかしその点だけは確かに秀でていたといえる。彼は借金の支払いをしたことがなかった。支払いをしようと思ったことすらなかっただろう。ただ手袋を入れる古い箱の蓋を物差しがわりに使って、請求書を一枚一枚同じ幅に折り、実にこぎれいな字で日付、貸し主の名前、借りた額を記し、それをまとめてゴムバンドで丸くとめていたのである。ミス・ジョウリフは彼の死後、引き出しの中にそんなため息をつきたくなるような束がごっそり溜めこまれているのを知った。彼にはいろいろな商人をひいきにし、広くあまねく借金の木を植え、しだいにそれをウパス（註 毒がとれる木）の森へと育て上げる才能があった。
Miss Joliffe sat in her study considering how Martin's accounts were to be met. Her brother, throughout his disorderly and unbusinesslike life, had prided himself on orderly and business habits. It was true that these were only manifested in the neat and methodical arrangement of his bills, but there he certainly excelled. He never paid a bill; it was believed it never occurred to him to pay one; but he folded each account to exactly the same breadth, using the cover of an old glove-box as a gauge, wrote very neatly on the outside the date, the name of the creditor, and the amount of the debt, and with an indiarubber band enrolled it in a company of its fellows. Miss Joliffe found drawers full of such disheartening packets after his death, for Martin had a talent for distributing his favours, and of planting small debts far and wide, which by-and-by grew up into a very upas forest.
Miss Joliffe's difficulties were increased a thousandfold by a letter which had reached her some days before, and which raised a case of conscience. It lay open on the little table before her:
ニュー・ボンド・ストリート百三十九番地
"139, New Bond Street.
~~~ 奥様
"Madam,
"We are entrusted with a commission to purchase several pictures of still-life, and believe that you have a large painting of flowers for the acquiring of which we should be glad to treat. The picture to which we refer was formerly in the possession of the late Michael Joliffe, Esquire, and consists of a basket of flowers on a mahogany table, with a caterpillar in the left-hand corner. We are so sure of our client's taste and of the excellence of the painting that we are prepared to offer for it a sum of fifty pounds, and to dispense with any previous inspection. ~~~ "We shall be glad to receive a reply at your early convenience, and in the meantime
"We remain, madam,
~~~ あなたの従順なるしもべ
"Your most obedient servants,
ボーントン・アンド・ラターワース商会 ~~~
"Baunton and Lutterworth."
ミス・ジョウリフがこの手紙を読むのはこれが百回目だった。彼女は「故マーチン・ジョウリフ殿《エスクワイア》が以前ご所蔵になっていた」という部分をつきることのない喜びとともに繰り返し読んだ。その言い回しには祖先の威厳と貫禄を感じさせる何かがあり、彼女の気持ちを浮き立たせ、周囲に対するみじめな苦々しい思いを和らげた。「故マーチン・ジョウリフ殿《エスクワイア》」――まるで銀行家の遺言みたい。彼女は再びユーフィミア・ジョウリフになった。夏の日曜日の朝、ウィドコウム大聖堂に座っている夢見がちな少女、小枝模様の新しいモスリン服を自慢し、まわりの壁にいくつも飾られたジョウリフ家の先祖の銘板を誇らしく思う少女に。サウスエイヴォンシャの中産農民《ヨーマン》には公爵と同じように家系というものがあるのだ。
Miss Joliffe read this letter for the hundredth time, and dwelt with unabated complacency on the "formerly in the possession of the late Michael Joliffe, Esquire." There was about the phrase something of ancestral dignity and importance that gratified her, and dulled the sordid bitterness of her surroundings. "The late Michael Joliffe, Esquire"--it read like a banker's will; and she was once more Euphemia Joliffe, a romantic girl sitting in Wydcombe church of a summer Sunday morning, proud of a new sprigged muslin, and proud of many tablets to older Joliffes on the walls about her; for yeomen in Southavonshire have pedigrees as well as Dukes.
はじめのうちこの手紙は苦境を脱するための天佑のように思われたが、あとになると良心のとがめがその脱出路をふさぐようにたちあらわれてきた。「花の大作」――それは彼女の父の自慢だった――恥さらしな妻の作品だったが、自慢のタネだったのだ。彼女がまだ幼い頃、父はよく彼女を両腕に抱きかかえ、輝くテーブルの上板を見せたり、毛虫に手を触れさせたりしたものだ。妻が与えた傷はきっとまだうずいていただろう。なにしろソフィアが彼と子供たちを捨ててからたった一年しか過ぎていなかったのだから。それにもかかわらず彼は妻の才能を自慢し、彼女が戻ってくるという希望を捨ててはいなかったらしい。死んだとき彼は、中年という暗い峡谷の半ばにあったユーフィミアに古い書き物机を残した。その中にはささやかな母の形見がぎっしり詰まっていた――結婚式に着用した手袋、派手なブローチ、けばけばしいイヤリング、その他多くの取るに足りない小物であったけれど、父はそれらを大切に保存していたのだ。その他にもソフィアの細長い木製の絵の具箱と、絵の具を混ぜ合わすための色付き顔料の小瓶と、そしてこの「マホガニーのテーブルの上に花かごがあり、左手に毛虫が描かれて」いる絵を彼女に残した。
At first sight it seemed as if Providence had offered her in this letter a special solution of her difficulties, but afterwards scruples had arisen that barred the way of escape. "A large painting of flowers"-- her father had been proud of it--proud of his worthless wife's work; and when she herself was a little child, had often held her up in his arms to see the shining table-top and touch the caterpillar. The wound his wife had given him must still have been raw, for that was only a year after Sophia had left him and the children; yet he was proud of her cleverness, and perhaps not without hope of her coming back. And when he died he left to poor Euphemia, then half-way through the dark gorge of middle age, an old writing-desk full of little tokens of her mother-- the pair of gloves she wore at her wedding, a flashy brooch, a pair of flashy earrings, and many other unconsidered trifles that he had cherished. He left her, too, Sophia's long wood paint-box, with its little bottles of coloured powders for mixing oil-paints, and this same "basket of flowers on a mahogany table, with a caterpillar in the left-hand corner."
この絵の価値についてはいつも言われていることがあった。父は子供たちに妻の話をほとんどせず、ミス・ユーフィミアは大人になるまでのあいだに、いろいろなほのめかしやごまかし半分の話を切れ切れに聞き、ようやく母の恥について知るようになったのだった。しかしマイケル・ジョウリフはこの絵を妻の傑作とみなしていたと言われ、年老いたミセス・ジャナウエイによると、ソフィアはこの絵には百ポンドの値打ちがあると何度も言っていたそうだ。ミス・ユーフィミア自身もその価値に少しも疑問をさしはさんだことはなかったので、今度の手紙にあるような申し出は彼女にとってなんら驚きではなかった。実のところ、提示された金額は市場価値よりずっと低いと思われたくらいなのである。しかし絵を売ることはどうしてもできなかった。それは神聖な委託物であり、（Ｊの字を彫りこまれた銀のスプーンをのぞいて）むさ苦しい現在を裕福な過去につなぐ最後の輪だった。それは家の宝であって、手放す気にはとうていなれなかった。
There had always been a tradition as to the value of this picture. Her father had spoken little of his wife to the children, and it was only piecemeal, as she grew into womanhood, that Miss Euphemia learnt from hints and half-told truths the story of her mother's shame. But Michael Joliffe was known to have considered this painting his wife's masterpiece, and old Mrs Janaway reported that Sophia had told her many a time it would fetch a hundred pounds. Miss Euphemia herself never had any doubt as to its worth, and so the offer in this letter occasioned her no surprise. She thought, in fact, that the sum named was considerably less than its market value, but sell it she could not. It was a sacred trust, and the last link (except the silver spoons marked "J.") that bound the squalid present to the comfortable past. It was an heirloom, and she could never bring herself to part with it.
そのとき呼び鈴が鳴り、彼女は手紙をポケットに滑りこませ、ドレスの前のしわを伸ばすと、ミスタ・ウエストレイの用を聞きに石の階段を登った。建築家はカラン滞在中はここに下宿しつづけたいと彼女に告げ、その知らせがミス・ジョウリフに大きな喜びを与えたのを見て、自分の寛大さに満足した。彼女は大いに安堵して、羊歯やらマットやら貝殻サルビアやら蝋細工の果物を取り除き、彼の望み通り調度品にさまざまな小さな変更を加えることに快く同意した。建築家であるにもかかわらず、ミスタ・ウエストレイはひどく趣味が悪いように思われたが、その優しい態度や彼女の下宿に残りたいという気持ちに免じて可能なかぎりの寛容を彼に示した。それから建築家は花の絵の取りはずしに話を持っていった。彼は遠回しに、絵がこの部屋には大きすぎるのではないか、とか、絶えずカラン大聖堂の見取り図を参照しなければならないので、それを貼る場所があるとうれしい、とか言った。ちょうど沈む太陽の光がまともに絵に当たって、下品なけばけばしさを照らし出し、何としてもこの絵を取りはずそうという彼の決意をさらに固いものにした。しかしミス・ジョウリフの顔に広がる動揺の色は攻めかからんとする勇気をいささか萎えさせた。
Then the bell rang, and she slipped the letter into her pocket, smoothed the front of her dress, and climbed the stone stairs to see what Mr Westray wanted. The architect told her that he hoped to remain as her lodger during his stay in Cullerne, and he was pleased at his own magnanimity when he saw what pleasure the announcement gave Miss Joliffe. She felt it as a great relief, and consented readily enough to take away the ferns, and the mats, and the shell flowers, and the wax fruit, and to make sundry small alterations of the furniture which he desired. It seemed to her, indeed, that, considering he was an architect, Mr Westray's taste was strangely at fault; but she extended to him all possible forbearance, in view of his kindly manner and of his intention to remain with her. Then the architect approached the removal of the flower-painting. He hinted delicately that it was perhaps rather too large for the room, and that he should be glad of the space to hang a plan of Cullerne Church, to which he would have constantly to refer. The rays of the setting sun fell full on the picture at the time, and, lighting up its vulgar showiness, strengthened him in his resolution to be free of it at any cost. But the courage of his attack flagged a little, as he saw the look of dismay which overspread Miss Joliffe's face.
"I think, you know, it is a little too bright and distracting for this room, which will really be my workshop."
Miss Joliffe was now convinced that her lodger was devoid of all appreciation, and she could not altogether conceal her surprise and sadness in replying:
「おっしゃる通りにして、便宜をお図りしたいのはやまやまですわ。家柄のよい方に下宿して欲しいといつも思っているんですもの。紳士じゃない方にお貸しして評判を落とすような真似はできません。でもこの絵をはずせ、なんておっしゃらないでください。この家に来てからずっとここにかかっていたのです。わたしの兄、亡くなったマーチン・ジョウリフは」――無意識のうちにポケットの手紙に影響されていた彼女は、あやうくマーチン・ジョウリフ殿《エスクワイア》と言うところだった――「とても価値のあるものと考えて、死ぬ前、病気に冒されながらも、何時間もここに座ってこれを見つめていたものです。絵をはずせなんておっしゃらないでください。もしかしたらお分かりじゃないかも知れませんが、わたしの母が描いた絵というだけじゃなくて、絵としてみても、とても価値のある芸術作品なんですのよ」
"I am sure I want to oblige you in every way, sir, and to make you comfortable, for I always hope to have gentlefolk for my lodgers, and could never bring myself to letting the rooms down by taking anyone who was not a gentleman; but I hope you will not ask me to move the picture. It has hung here ever since I took the house, and my brother, `the late Martin Joliffe'"--she was unconsciously influenced by the letter which she had in her pocket, and almost said "the late Martin Joliffe, Esquire"--"thought very highly of it, and used to sit here for hours in his last illness studying it. I hope you will not ask me to move the picture. You may not be aware, perhaps, that, besides being painted by my mother, it is in itself a very valuable work of art."
There was a suggestion, however faint, in her words, of condescension for her lodger's bad taste, and a desire to enlighten his ignorance which nettled Westray; and he contrived in his turn to throw a tone of superciliousness into his reply.
"Oh, of course, if you wish it to remain from sentimental reasons, I have nothing more to say, and I must not criticise your mother's work; but--" And he broke off, seeing that the old lady took the matter so much to heart, and being sorry that he had been ruffled at a trifle.
Miss Joliffe gulped down her chagrin. It was the first time she had heard the picture openly disparaged, though she had thought that on more than one occasion it had not been appreciated so much as it deserved. But she carried a guarantee of its value in her pocket, and could afford to be magnanimous.
"It has always been considered very valuable," she went on, "though I daresay I do not myself understand all its beauties, because I have not been sufficiently trained in art. But I am quite sure that it could be sold for a great deal of money, if I could only bring myself to part with it."
Westray was irritated by the hint that he knew little of art, and his sympathy for his landlady in her family attachment to the picture was much discounted by what he knew must be wilful exaggeration as to its selling value.
Miss Joliffe read his thoughts, and took a piece of paper from her pocket.
"I have here," she said, "an offer of fifty pounds for the picture from some gentlemen in London. Please read it, that you may see it is not I who am mistaken."
She held him out the dealers' letter, and Westray took it to humour her. He read it carefully, and wondered more and more as he went on. What could be the explanation? Could the offer refer to some other picture? for he knew Baunton and Lutterworth as being most reputable among London picture-dealers; and the idea of the letter being a hoax was precluded by the headed paper and general style of the communication. He glanced at the picture. The sunlight was still on it, and it stood out more hideous than ever; but his tone was altered as he spoke again to Miss Joliffe.
"Do you think," he said, "that this is the picture mentioned? Have you no other pictures?"
"No, nothing of this sort. It is certainly this one; you see, they speak of the caterpillar in the corner." And she pointed to the bulbous green animal that wriggled on the table-top.
"So they do," he said; "but how did they know anything about it?"--quite forgetting the question of its removal in the new problem that was presented.
"Oh, I fancy that most really good paintings are well-known to dealers. This is not the first inquiry we have had, for the very day of my dear brother's death a gentleman called here about it. None of us were at home except my brother, so I did not see him; but I believe he wanted to buy it, only my dear brother would never have consented to its being sold."
"It seems to me a handsome offer," Westray said; "I should think very seriously before I refused it."
"Yes, it is very serious to me in my position," answered Miss Joliffe; "for I am not rich; but I could not sell this picture. You see, I have known it ever since I was a little girl, and my father set such store by it. I hope, Mr Westray, you will not want it moved. I think, if you let it stop a little, you will get to like it very much yourself."
Westray did not press the matter further; he saw it was a sore point with his landlady, and reflected that he might hang a plan in front of the painting, if need be, as a temporary measure. So a concordat was established, and Miss Joliffe put Baunton and Lutterworth's letter back into her pocket, and returned to her accounts with equanimity at least partially restored.
After she had left the room, Westray examined the picture once more, and more than ever was he convinced of its worthlessness. It had all the crude colouring and hard outlines of the worst amateur work, and gave the impression of being painted with no other object than to cover a given space. This view was, moreover, supported by the fact that the gilt frame was exceptionally elaborate and well made, and he came to the conclusion that Sophia must somehow have come into possession of the frame, and had painted the flower-piece to fill it.
The sun was a red ball on the horizon as he flung up the window and looked out over the roofs towards the sea. The evening was very still, and the town lay steeped in deep repose. The smoke hung blue above it in long, level strata, and there was perceptible in the air a faint smell of burning weeds. The belfry story of the centre tower glowed with a pink flush in the sunset, and a cloud of jackdaws wheeled round the golden vanes, chattering and fluttering before they went to bed.
"It is a striking scene, is it not?" said a voice at his elbow; "there is a curious aromatic scent in this autumn air that makes one catch one's breath." It was the organist who had slipped in unawares. "I feel down on my luck," he said. "Take your supper in my room to-night, and let us have a talk."
Westray had not seen much of him for the last few days, and agreed gladly enough that they should spend the evening together; only the venue was changed, and supper taken in the architect's room. They talked over many things that night, and Westray let his companion ramble on to his heart's content about Cullerne men and manners; for he was of a receptive mind, and anxious to learn what he could about those among whom he had taken up his abode.
He told Mr Sharnall of his conversation with Miss Joliffe, and of the unsuccessful attempt to get the picture removed. The organist knew all about Baunton and Lutterworth's letter.
「可哀想にあの人はこの二週間というもの、あれに良心を悩まされているんだよ。悶々と絵のことについて思いわずらい、幾晩も眠れぬ夜を過ごしている。『売るべきだろうか、売るべきではないのだろうか』『売れ』と貧乏は言う。『売って債権者どもに胸を張ってみせてやれ』。マーチンの借金も『売れ』と言う。ムク鳥の雛みたいに大きな口を開けて彼女のまわりに群がり、『売って俺たちを満足させてくれ』と言うのさ。『いけない』と自尊心は言う。『売ってはいけない。家のなかに油絵があることは、立派な社会的地位を示すしるしなのだから』。『いけないわ』と家族への愛着が言い、彼女が子供だった頃の妙に甲高い小さな声が『売らないで。可哀想なお父さんがどんなに絵を愛していたか、愛しいマーチンがどんなに大切にしていたか、覚えてないの』と言う。『愛しいマーチン』か――ふん！マーチンは六十年間、彼女にとって疫病神でしかなかった。しかし女は身内のものが死ぬと聖者の列に加えてしまうんだよ。きみは信心深いと言われている女が悪人をこっぴどくののしるのを聞いたことがないかい。ところが彼女の夫や兄弟が死ぬと、生前どんなにろくでもない人生を送ったとしても、彼女は非難しないのさ。愛は彼女の刑法典をも無効にする。自分の家族には抜け道が作ってあって、愛しいディックや愛しいトムのことはまるでバクスター（註 十七世紀英国ピューリタンの指導者）描くところの聖人より二倍も偉かったかのように語るのさ。いやはや、血は水よりも濃い。家族に地獄の劫罰はくだらないんだ。愛は地獄の火よりも強く、ディックやトムに奇跡を示す。その代わり彼女は釣り合いを保つために、他人に対しては余計に硫黄の火を燃やさなきゃならん。
"The poor thing has made the question a matter of conscience for the last fortnight," he said, "and worried herself into many a sleepless night over that picture. `Shall I sell it, or shall I not?' `Yes,' says poverty--`sell it, and show a brave front to your creditors.' `Yes,' say Martin's debts, clamouring about her with open mouths, like a nest of young starlings, `sell it, and satisfy us.' `No,' says pride, `don't sell it; it is a patent of respectability to have an oil-painting in the house.' `No,' says family affection, and the queer little piping voice of her own childhood--`don't sell it. Don't you remember how fond poor daddy was of it, and how dear Martin treasured it?' `Dear Martin'--psh! Martin never did her anything but evil turns all his threescore years, but women canonise their own folk when they die. Haven't you seen what they call a religious woman damn the whole world for evil-doers? and then her husband or her brother dies, and may have lived as ill a life as any other upon earth, but she don't damn him. Love bids her penal code halt; she makes a way of escape for her own, and speaks of dear Dick and dear Tom for all the world as if they had been double Baxter-saints. No, blood is thicker than water; damnation doesn't hold good for her own. Love is stronger than hell-fire, and works a miracle for Dick and Tom; only _she_ has to make up the balance by giving other folks an extra dose of brimstone.
最後に世俗的な知恵、というか、ミス・ジョウリフが知恵と考えるものがこう言う。『いや、売るな。あれだけの逸品なら五十ポンド以上の値をつけさせるべきだ』こんな具合に彼女は翻弄されているんだ。カラン大聖堂に修道士がいた時代なら、彼女は聴罪師に尋ねていただろうね。聴罪師は『スンマ・アンゲリカ』（註 道徳神学の辞書と呼ばれる著作）を手に取り、Ｖの項目――『売るべきか《ウェンデトゥル》？売るべきか 売らざるべきか』――をのぞき、彼女を安心させてやっただろう。わたしがラテン語でその道の最高の学者とだって話ができるとは知らなかっただろう？ああ、しかしできるんだよ。主任司祭はネビュルスとかネビュルムとか言っておったが、彼の相手だってすることができる。ただわたしはあまり知識をひけらかさないようにしているだけだ。今度わたしの部屋に来たら『スンマ』を見せてあげよう。けれども今は聴罪師なんていないし、親愛なるプロテスタントのパーキンは『スンマ』を持っていたとしても読めやしない。だから彼女の悩みを解決できる人は誰もいないんだよ」
"Lastly, worldly wisdom, or what Miss Joliffe thinks wisdom, says, `No, don't sell it; you should get more than fifty pounds for such a gem.' So she is tossed about, and if she'd lived when there were monks in Cullerne Church, she would have asked her father confessor, and he would have taken down his `Summa Angelica,' and looked it out under V.--`_Vendetur? utrum vendetur an non_?'--and set her mind at rest. You didn't know I could chaffer Latin with the best of 'em, did you? Ah, but I can, even with the Rector, for all the _nebulus_ and _nebulum_; only I don't trot it out too often. I'll show you a copy of the `Summa' when you come down to my room; but there aren't any confessors now, and dear Protestant Parkyn couldn't read the `Summa' if he had it; so there is no one to settle the case for her."
The little man had worked himself into a state of exaltation, and his eyes twinkled as he spoke of his scholastic attainments. "Latin," he said--"damn it! I can talk Latin against anyone--yes, with Beza himself--and could tell you tales in it which would make you stop your ears. Ah, well, more fool I--more fool I. `_Contentus esto, Paule mi, lasciva, Paule, pagina_,'" he muttered to himself, and drummed nervously with his fingers on the table.
Westray was apprehensive of these fits of excitement, and led the conversation back to the old theme.
"It baffles me to understand how _anyone_ with eyes at all could think a daub like this was valuable--that is strange enough; but how come these London people to have made an offer for it? I know the firm quite well; they are first-rate dealers."
「『ポップ・ゴーズ・ザ・ウィーゼル』と『ハレルヤ・コーラス』の違いが分からない人間がいるように、絵を理解しない人間もいるのさ。わたしもそんな人間の一人だ。もちろんきみの言うことは全面的に正しいよ。この絵はまともな人間にとっちゃ目障りでしかない。しかしわたしは長いこと見てきたせいか、これが好きになってきたよ。売られたら残念に思うだろう。それからロンドンのバイヤーたちだが、たぶんどこぞの無知蒙昧の輩がこの絵を気に入って買いたがっているんじゃないか。たまに一晩か二晩、この部屋に泊まっていく不時の客があったからね――もしかしたら、さんざんけなしたにもかかわらず、それはアメリカ人かも知れないよ――あの連中が何をやらかすか分かったものではない。マーチン・ジョウリフが死んだ日にも、彼からこの絵を買いあげようとして誰かが来たそうだ。あの日の午後は、わたしは聖堂にいて、ミス・ジョウリフはドルカス会に行き、アナスタシアは薬剤師のところに行っていた。家に戻ってからわたしはマーチンの顔を見よう思って、今われわれがいるこの部屋まで上がってきたんだが、彼は話をしたくてうずうずしていた。彼によると玄関のベルが鳴ったかと思うと、誰かが家の中に入ってくる音が聞こえ、ついにはドアが開いて、見知らぬ男が彼の部屋に上がりこんできたのだそうだ。マーチンはわたしが今座っているこの椅子に座っていた。あの頃は身体が弱っていて、ここから動くことができなかったんだ。それで男が部屋の中に入ってくるまでじっとしていなければなかったんだよ。見知らぬ男は丁寧な口調で花の絵を買いたい、といったそうだ。なんと二十ポンドも出すというのさ。マーチンはその頼みを聞こうとせず、その十倍払うと言われても手放すつもりはないと言うと、男は帰っていったそうだ。そういう話なんだが、あのときはただのでまかせで、マーチンは幻覚でも見ていたんだろうと思った。ひどくふらふらしていて、夢から覚めたばかりみたいに顔が紅潮しているようだったから。でもしゃべっているとき、彼の目はずるそうな色を浮かべていた。そして、あと一週間すれば、おれはブランダマー卿になるんだ、そうなりゃ絵を売りたいなんて思いもしないだろう、と言うんだ。彼は妹が戻ってきたときもそう言っていたよ。しかし男の人相については、髪の毛がアナスタシアに似ているということ以外、何も言えなかった。
"There are some people," said the organist, "who can't tell `Pop goes the weasel' from the `Hallelujah Chorus,' and others are as bad with pictures. I'm very much that way myself. No doubt all you say is right, and this picture an eyesore to any respectable person, but I've been used to it so long I've got to like it, and should be sorry to see her sell it. And as for these London buyers, I suppose some other ignoramus has taken a fancy to it, and wants to buy. You see, there _have_ been chance visitors staying in this room a night or two between whiles--perhaps even Americans, for all I said about them--and you can never reckon what _they'll_ do. The very day Martin Joliffe died there was a story of someone coming to buy the picture of him. I was at church in the afternoon, and Miss Joliffe at the Dorcas meeting, and Anastasia gone out to the chemist. When I got back, I came up to see Martin in this same room, and found him full of a tale that he had heard the bell ring, and after that someone walking in the house, and last his door opened, and in walked a stranger. Martin was sitting in the chair I'm using now, and was too weak then to move out of it; so he was forced to sit until this man came in. The stranger talked kindly to him, so he said, and wanted to buy the picture of the flowers, bidding as high as twenty pounds for it; but Martin wouldn't hear him, and said he wouldn't let him have it for ten times that, and then the man went away. That was the story, and I thought at the time 'twas all a cock-and-bull tale, and that Martin's mind was wandering; for he was very weak, and seemed flushed too, like one just waken from a dream. But he had a cunning look in his eye when he told me, and said if he lived another week he would be Lord Blandamer himself, and wouldn't want then to sell any pictures. He spoke of it again when his sister came back, but couldn't say what the man was like, except that his hair reminded him of Anastasia's.
マーチンは命数つきて、ちょうどその日の晩に死んだ。ミス・ジョウリフは恐ろしく気を落としていたよ。というのは彼女は睡眠薬を与えすぎたのじゃないかと思ったからだ。エニファーは彼が睡眠薬を飲みすぎたのだと彼女に言い、彼女は自分が間違って渡したのでないかぎり、彼が薬を手に入れるはずがないと考えたのだ。エニファーが死亡証明書を書いたので死因審問はなかった。しかしそのおかげでわれわれは見知らぬ男のことを忘れてしまい、思い出したときは、もう捜そうにも手遅れになっていた。もちろん男が病人の頭から生まれた幻じゃないとすれば、なんだけれど。他には誰も見ていないし、手がかりはウエーブした髪の毛だけだ。男はマーチンにアナスタシアを思い起こさせたということだからね。しかしそれが本当だとすると、この絵に入れこんだ人間が他にもいたっていうことになる。可哀想なマイケルには大事な絵だったんだろう、こんなに立派な額に入れたんだから」
"But Martin's time was come; he died that very night, and Miss Joliffe was terribly cast down, because she feared she had given him an overdose of sleeping-draught; for Ennefer told her he had taken too much, and she didn't see where he had got it from unless she gave it him by mistake. Ennefer wrote the death certificate, and so there was no inquest; but that put the stranger out of our thoughts until it was too late to find him, if, indeed, he ever was anything more than the phantom of a sick man's brain. No one beside had seen him, and all we had to ask for was a man with wavy hair, because he reminded Martin of Anastasia. But if 'twas true, then there was someone else who had a fancy for the painting, and poor old Michael must have thought a lot of it to frame it in such handsome style."
"I don't know," Westray said; "it looks to me as if the picture was painted to fill the frame."
"Perhaps so, perhaps so," answered the organist dryly. "What made Martin Joliffe think he was so near success?"
"Ah, that I can't tell you. He was always thinking he had squared the circle, or found the missing bit to fit into the puzzle; but he kept his schemes very dark. He left boxes full of papers behind him when he died, and Miss Joliffe handed them to me to look over, instead of burning them. I shall go through them some day; but no doubt the whole thing is moonshine, and if he ever had a clue it died with him."
There was a little pause; the chimes of Saint Sepulchre's played "Mount Ephraim," and the great bell tolled out midnight over Cullerne Flat.
"It's time to be turning in. You haven't a drop of whisky, I suppose?" he said, with a glance at the kettle which stood on a trivet in front of the fire; "I have talked myself thirsty."
There was a pathos in his appeal that would have melted many a stony heart, but Westray's principles were unassailable, and he remained obdurate.
"No, I am afraid I have not," he said; "you see, I never take spirits myself. Will you not join me in a cup of cocoa? The kettle boils."
ミスタ・シャーノールはがっかりした。
Mr Sharnall's face fell.
"You ought to have been an old woman," he said; "only old women drink cocoa. Well, I don't mind if I do; any port in a storm."
The organist went to bed that night in a state of exemplary sobriety, for when he got down to his own room he could find no spirit in the cupboard, and remembered that he had finished the last bottle of old Martelet's _eau-de-vie_ at his tea, and that he had no money to buy another.
第六章 ~~~
CHAPTER SIX.
A month later the restoration work at Saint Sepulchre's was fairly begun, and in the south transept a wooden platform had been raised on scaffold-poles to such a height as allowed the masons to work at the vault from the inside. This roof was no doubt the portion of the fabric that called most urgently for repair, but Westray could not disguise from himself that delay might prove dangerous in other directions, and he drew Sir George Farquhar's attention to more than one weak spot which had escaped the great architect's cursory inspection.
しかしウエストレイの不安のいちばん底にひそんでいたのは、塔を支えるアーチへのほの暗い懸念だった。彼は中央塔のとてつもない重量が夢魔のように建物全体に覆いかぶさっているさまを思い描いた。サー・ジョージ・ファークワーは代理人の説明に充分耳を傾け、特に塔を検査する目的でカランを訪れることにした。彼はある秋の一日を測定や計算に費やし、中断されたピールの話を聞き、壁の割れ目を細かく調べたが、以前の判断を改めたり、塔の安定性に疑いをさしはさむいかなる理由も見いださなかった。彼はやんわりとウエストレイの神経質をからかい、他のところも確かに修理が必要だと同意しつつも、不運にも資金が足りないのだから、今のところ工事の規模と進捗は、いずれも限られたものにならざるを得ないと言った。
But behind all Westray's anxieties lurked that dark misgiving as to the tower arches, and in his fancy the enormous weight of the central tower brooded like the incubus over the whole building. Sir George Farquhar paid sufficient attention to his deputy's representations to visit Cullerne with a special view to examining the tower. He spent an autumn day in making measurements and calculations, he listened to the story of the interrupted peal, and probed the cracks in the walls, but saw no reason to reconsider his former verdict or to impugn the stability of the tower. He gently rallied Westray on his nervousness, and, whilst he agreed that in other places repair was certainly needed, he pointed out that lack of funds must unfortunately limit for the present both the scope of operations and the rate of progress.
カラン大聖堂は他のより大きな修道院とともに千五百三十九年に解体された。この年、最後の修道院長であったニコラス・ヴィニコウムは王に反抗して修道院の明け渡しを拒否したために西の大門楼の前で反逆者として絞首刑にされた。修道院の一般財源は王室収入増加庁の手に移り、すぐそのまわりの修道院領有地は王室のお抱え医師シャーマンに与えられた。スペルマンは冒涜を主題にしたその著作のなかで、修道院の土地がその新たな所有者一族に没落をもたらした例としてカランを挙げている。というのも、シャーマンには放蕩者の息子があって、彼は家督を食いつぶし、その後エリザベス女王の時代にスペインの陰謀家と策動して斬首刑になったのである。 ~~~ ~~~ 悪徳領主にわざわいを ~~~ もたらす僧院領有地 ~~~ 教会堂を盗む者 ~~~ 必ず天の罰を受く ~~~
Cullerne Abbey was dissolved with the larger religious houses in 1539, when Nicholas Vinnicomb, the last abbot, being recalcitrant, and refusing to surrender his house, was hanged as a traitor in front of the great West Gate-house. The general revenues were impropriated by the King's Court of Augmentations, and the abbey lands in the immediate vicinity were given to Shearman, the King's Physician. Spellman, in his book on sacrilege, cites Cullerne as an instance where church lands brought ruin to their new owner's family; for Shearman had a spendthrift son who squandered his patrimony, and then, caballing with Spanish intriguants, came to the block in Queen Elizabeth's days.
"For evil hands have abbey lands, Such evil fate in store; Such is the heritage that waits Church-robbers evermore."
修道院が正式に解体される前日、僧たちは聖堂で最後の祈りのことばを歌った。夜遅く行われたのは、ひとつにはそのほうがこうした別れにふさわしいし、またひとつには一般の注意を引くことがより少ないだろうと思われたからである。王の役人たちはこれ以上儀式を執り行うことを許さないのではないかという心配があったのだ。六本の大きな蝋燭が祭壇の上で燃やされ、壁の蝋燭受けは聖歌隊席の修道士たちが目の前に置いている祈祷書をいつも通りに照らした。寂しい礼拝だった。慣れ親しんだよき習わしがこれを最後に消えてしまうというときはいつも寂しいように。修道士たち、とりわけ年のいった僧たちは明日どこへ行けばよいのか分からず、心を引き裂かれる思いだった。副修道院長は悲嘆のあまり声が途切れ、朗読を中断するありさまだった。
Thus, in the next generation the name of Shearman was clean put away; but Sir John Fynes, purchasing the property, founded the Grammar School and almshouses as a sin-offering for the misdoings of his predecessors. This measure of atonement succeeded admirably, for Horatio Fynes was ennobled by James the First, and his family, with the title of Blandamer, endures to this present.
On the day before the formal dissolution of their house the monks sung the last service in the abbey church. It was held late in the evening, partly because this time seemed to befit such a farewell, and partly that less public attention might be attracted; for there was a doubt whether the King's servants would permit any further ceremonies. Six tall candles burnt upon the altar, and the usual sconces lit the service-books that lay before the brothers in the choir-stalls. It was a sad service, as every good and amiable thing is sad when done for the last time. There were agonising hearts among the brothers, especially among the older monks, who knew not whither to go on the morrow; and the voice of the sub-prior was broken with grief, and failed him as he read the lesson.
The nave was in darkness except for the warming-braziers, which here and there cast a ruddy glow on the vast Norman pillars. In the obscurity were gathered little groups of townsmen. The nave had always been open for their devotions in happier days, and at the altars of its various chapels they were accustomed to seek the means of grace. That night they met for the last time--some few as curious spectators, but most in bitterness of heart and profound sorrow, that the great church with its splendid services was lost to them for ever. They clustered between the pillars of the arcades; and, the doors that separated the nave from the choir being open, they could look through the stone screen, and see the serges twinking far away on the high altar.
身廊は暗闇に包まれ、ところどころに置かれた火鉢が巨大なノルマン様式の柱を赤く照らしているだけだった。その暗がりに町の人々が小さな集団を作ってたたずんでいた。今より幸せだった頃の身廊はいつも町の人に開放されていて、彼らはいくつもある礼拝堂の祭壇で恵みの手段にあずかろうとしたものだ。その晩彼らは、修道院の最後を見届けに集まってきた――好奇心から見に来た者も数名はいたけれど、ほとんどは偉大な聖堂が素晴らしい礼拝とともに永遠に失われるのだというつらい思いと、深い悲しみを抱いてやってきたのだった。彼らはアーケードの柱のあいだにたむろした。身廊と聖歌隊席をへだてるドアが開いていたので、石の障壁のむこう、遠く主祭壇の上にあや織りの毛織物が輝いているのが見えた。
Among all the sad hearts in the abbey church, there was none sadder than that of Richard Vinnicomb, merchant and wool-stapler. He was the abbot's elder brother, and to all the bitterness naturally incident to the occasion was added in his case the grief that his brother was a prisoner in London, and would certainly be tried for his life.
He stood in the deep shadow of the pier that supported the north-west corner of the tower, weighed down with sorrow for the abbot and for the fall of the abbey, and uncertain whether his brother's condemnation would not involve his own ruin. It was December 6, Saint Nicholas' Day, the day of the abbot's patron saint. He was near enough to the choir to hear the collect being read on the other side of the screen:
"_Deus qui beatum Nicolaum pontificem innumeris decorasti miraculis: tribue quaesumus ut ejus mentis, et precibus, a gehennae incendiis liberemur, per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum. Amen_."
"Amen," he said in the shadow of his pillar. "Blessed Nicholas, save me; blessed Nicholas, save us all; blessed Nicholas, save my brother, and, if he must lose this temporal life, pray to our Lord Christ that He will shortly accomplish the number of His elect, and reunite us in His eternal Paradise."
He clenched his hands in his distress, and, as a flicker from the brazier fell upon him, those standing near saw the tears run down his cheeks.
"_Nicholas qui omnem terram doctrina replevisti, intercede pro peccatis nostris_," said the officiant; and the monks gave the antiphon:
"_Iste est qui contempsit vitam mundi et pervenit ad coelestia regna_."
修道院長は門楼の前で縛り首にされたが、リチャード・ヴィニコウムの財産は没収を免れた。大聖堂がそのまま建築資材として売りに出されたとき、彼はそれを三百ポンドで買い取り教区に寄贈した。彼の祈りの一部はかなえられた。というのは一年もたたずして死が彼を弟と再会させたからである。彼はその敬虔な遺言書の中にこう書いている。「わが魂を、作り主にして救い主たる全能の神にささげ、御心のままに神と聖母と聖人のもとにゆかん。また聖セパルカ大聖堂をその備品を含めてカラン教区に遺贈す。上記教区民は上記聖堂、備品、あるいはそのいかなる一部をも永劫に売却、変更、譲渡すべからず」ウエストレイが修復しなければならない聖堂はこのようにして歴史的危機を脱したのだった。
One by one a server put out the altar-lights, and as the last was extinguished the monks rose in their places, and walked out in procession, while the organ played a dirge as sad as the wind in a ruined window.
リチャード・ヴィニコウムの寛大さは単に聖堂の買い取りだけにとどまらず、日々の礼拝の威厳を保つために多額の金を残し、礼拝堂付き司祭を二名、オルガン奏者を一名、聖歌隊員を十名、少年聖歌隊員を十六名増やした。しかし管財人の怠慢と、信仰の深さでは迷信深いリチャード老人をしのぐ人々の情熱が、この基金を大幅にすり減らした。カランの歴代主任司祭は、自分たちの勤労に対する報酬を増やし、毎日の聖歌歌唱という口先だけの信心につぎこむ金を減らしたほうが、この町の信仰にとって有益であると確信した。こういうわけで主任司祭の俸給はしだいにふくれあがり、参事会員パーキンは就任してすぐにオルガン奏者への支払いという贅沢を切りつめ、その年収を二百ポンドから八十ポンドに減額することで、自分の生活費をきっかり二千ポンドに増やす機会を得た。
The abbot was hanged before his abbey gate, but Richard Vinnicomb's goods escaped confiscation; and when the great church was sold, as it stood, for building material, he bought it for three hundred pounds, and gave it to the parish. One part of his prayer was granted, for within a year death reunited him to his brother; and in his pious will he bequeathed his "sowle to Allmyhtie God his Maker and Redemer, to have the fruition of the Deitie with Our Blessed Ladie and all Saints and the Abbey Churche of Saint Sepulchre with the implements thereof, to the Paryshe of Cullerne, so that the said Parishioners shall not sell, alter, or alienate the said Churche, or Implements or anye part or parcell thereof for ever." Thus it was that the church which Westray had to restore was preserved at a critical period of its history.
この節減計画により平日の朝の礼拝は廃止となったが、夕べの祈りはいまでも午後三時にカラン大聖堂で執り行われた。それは修道院時代からつづく礼拝の、消えゆく薄い影であり、参事会員パーキンは、それがだんだんと小さくなり、いつか雲散霧消することを願っていた。そうした形式主義は必ずや真の信仰を窒息させるに違いないし、彼自身の美声と個人的魅力が聴衆に感動を与えるべき多くの祈りが、意味のない詠唱によって絶えず邪魔されるのを遺憾に思っていたのである。彼はおのれの高潔な信条を曲げて、哀れなリチャード・ヴィニコウムが聖歌隊学校に与えた手当をしぶしぶ認めていた。そして平日の礼拝を几帳面に欠席することで、そうした無意味に対する非難をぬかりなく表明していた。こうした事情からこの儀式は白髪のミスタ・ヌート、主イエス・キリストの大義に熱情を注ぐあまり、みずからの利益を求める機会を失い、六十五才になった今もカランの片田舎で不当に安い給料をもらいながら牧師補の地位に留まっているミスタ・ヌートに任されていた。
Richard Vinnicomb's generosity extended beyond the mere purchase of the building, for he left in addition a sum to support the dignity of a daily service, with a complement of three chaplains, an organist, ten singing-men, and sixteen choristers. But the negligence of trustees and the zeal of more religious-minded men than poor superstitious Richard had sadly diminished these funds. Successive rectors of Cullerne became convinced that the spiritual interests of the town would be better served by placing a larger income at their own disposal for good works, and by devoting less to the mere lip-service of much daily singing. Thus, the stipend of the Rector was gradually augmented, and Canon Parkyn found an opportunity soon after his installation to increase the income of the living to a round two thousand by curtailing extravagance in the payment of an organist, and by reducing the emoluments of that office from two hundred to eighty pounds a year.
それゆえ、平日の午後四時に聖セパルカ大聖堂に居合わせた人は誰でも白い法衣の短い行列が南袖廊の聖具室からあらわれ、曲がりくねるように歩きながら聖歌隊席へと進むのを目にするだろう。教会事務員ジャナウエイが銀色の頭部を持つ職杖をたずさえて先頭に立ち、そのあとを八人の少年聖歌隊員がつづく。（リチャード・ヴィニコウムによって定められた人数は半分に減らされていた）さらにそのあとにつづいたのが、いちばん若い者でも五十才という五人の聖歌隊員で、しんがりを勤めたのはミスタ・ヌートだった。行列が聖歌隊席に入ると、事務員は後ろの障壁のドアを閉めて、司宰者たちの心から外の世界の思惑を断ち切り、身廊から俗人が侵入して礼拝の妨げとならないようにした。もっともこの外部の俗人というのは現実的というよりは理論上の存在で、夏の盛りをのぞいて、訪問者の姿は身廊にも聖堂の他のどこにもめったに見られはしなかった。カランは主だった都市のいずれからも遠く離れていたし、考古学的興味はこの当時すっかり下火で、専門的な古物研究家以外、この大修道院の壮麗さを知る者はほとんどなかったのだ。よその人間がカランのことなどいささかも気にかけなかったとすれば、平日の礼拝に対する住人たちの態度はそれに輪をかけた無関心ぶりで、天蓋付き聖職者席の前にある信者席はいつもがらんとしていた。
It was true that this scheme of economy included the abolition of the week-day morning-service, but at three o'clock in the afternoon evensong was still rehearsed in Cullerne Church. It was the thin and vanishing shadow of a cathedral service, and Canon Parkyn hoped that it might gradually dwindle away until it was dispersed to nought. Such formalism must certainly throttle any real devotion, and it was regrettable that many of the prayers in which his own fine voice and personal magnetism must have had a moving effect upon his hearers should be constantly obscured by vain intonations. It was only by doing violence to his own high principles that he constrained himself to accept the emoluments which poor Richard Vinnicomb had provided for a singing foundation, and he was scrupulous in showing his disapproval of such vanities by punctilious absence from the week-day service. This ceremony was therefore entrusted to white-haired Mr Noot, whose zeal in his Master's cause had left him so little opportunity for pushing his own interests that at sixty he was stranded as an underpaid curate in the backwater of Cullerne.
At four o'clock, therefore, on a week-day afternoon, anyone who happened to be in Saint Sepulchre's Church might see a little surpliced procession issue from the vestries in the south transept, and wind its way towards the choir. It was headed by clerk Janaway, who carried a silver-headed mace; then followed eight choristers (for the number fixed by Richard Vinnicomb had been diminished by half); then five singing-men, of whom the youngest was fifty, and the rear was brought up by Mr Noot. The procession having once entered the choir, the clerk shut the doors of the screen behind it, that the minds of the officiants might be properly removed from contemplation of the outer world, and that devotion might not be interrupted by any intrusion of profane persons from the nave. These outside Profane existed rather in theory than fact, for, except in the height of summer, visitors were rarely seen in the nave or any other part of the building. Cullerne lay remote from large centres, and archaeologic interest was at this time in so languishing a condition that few, except professed antiquaries, were aware of the grandeur of the abbey church. If strangers troubled little about Cullerne, the interest of the inhabitants in the week-day service was still more lukewarm, and the pews in front of the canopied stalls remained constantly empty.
こういうわけで日々ミスタ・ヌートが朗読し、オルガン奏者のミスタ・シャーノールがオルガンを演奏し、聖歌隊員と少年聖歌隊員が歌を歌うのはひとえに教会事務員ジャナウエイのためだった。他にそれを聴く者は一人もいなかったのである。しかし音楽を愛好する訪問者がそんな折りに聖堂に入ってきたなら、彼は礼拝に深い感銘を受けただろう。ホメロスの詩の妻がありあわせの品を使って客にできるかぎりのもてなしをしたように、ミスタ・シャーノールは欠陥のあるオルガンと不出来な聖歌隊を最大限に活用していたのだ。彼は洗練された趣味とすぐれた資質の持ち主だった。歌声が穹窿天井におごそかに響き渡るのを聴けば、心の広い批評家ならかすれた声や空気漏れのする送風器やがたがたと鳴るトラッカーなど少しも気にせず、陽光と色ガラスと十八世紀音楽がむつまじく融け合った記憶を胸に抱いて帰るだろう。もしかしたら澄んだソプラノの声も彼の印象に残るかも知れない。ミスタ・シャーノールは少年聖歌隊の育成と歌の才能の発掘に定評があった。
Thus, Mr Noot read, and Mr Sharnall the organist played, and the choir-men and choristers sang, day by day, entirely for clerk Janaway's benefit, because there was no one else to listen to them. Yet, if a stranger given to music ever entered the church at such times, he was struck with the service; for, like the Homeric housewife who did the best with what she had by her, Mr Sharnall made the most of his defective organ and inadequate choir. He was a man if much taste and resource, and, as the echoes of the singing rolled round the vaulted roofs, a generous critic thought little of cracked voices and leaky bellows and rattling trackers, but took away with him an harmonious memory of sunlight and coloured glass and eighteenth-century music; and perhaps of some clear treble voice, for Mr Sharnall was famed for training boys and discovering the gift of song.
Saint Luke's little summer, in the October that followed the commencement of the restoration, amply justified its name. In the middle of the month there were several days of such unusual beauty as to recall the real summer, and the air was so still and the sunshine so warm that anyone looking at the soft haze on Cullerne Flat might well have thought that August had returned.
カラン大聖堂は夏の暑さの中でも概してすがすがしいほど涼気に満ちているのだが、この季節はずれの秋の暑気つづきには、さすがに外のいきれとけだるさが幾分か聖堂の中にもしみこんできたようだった。ある土曜日など普段以上の眠気が午後の礼拝を襲った。聖歌隊は詩篇を歌い終えると、どっかと椅子に腰を下ろし、ミスタ・ヌートが第一日課を朗読しはじめるや、人目をはばからず睡魔に身をゆだねた。もちろん全員が眠気に朦朧としたわけではなく、賞賛に値する例外もあった。北側聖歌隊席ではかすれ声のアルトがしゃがれ声のテノールと活発な議論を戦わせていた。彼らは机の下でとりわけ見事に育ったネギを比べあっていた。二人はどちらも園芸家で、秋のネギ品評会が迫っていたのである。南側聖歌隊席ではソプラノを歌う赤毛の小男パトリック・オブンズがオールドリッチ作曲「マニフィカト」ト長調の楽譜に手を加え、タイトルを「マグニファイド・キャット（拡大された猫）」に変えてやろうと眠る暇もなかった。
Cullerne Minster was, as a rule, refreshingly cool in the warmth of summer, but something of the heat and oppressiveness of the outside air seemed to have filtered into the church on these unseasonably warm autumn days. On a certain Saturday a more than usual drowsiness marked the afternoon service. The choir plumped down into their places when the Psalms were finished, and abandoned themselves to slumber with little attempt at concealment, as Mr Noot began the first lesson. There were, indeed, honourable exceptions to the general somnolence. On the cantoris side the worn-out alto held an animated conversation with the cracked tenor. They were comparing some specially fine onions under the desk, for both were gardeners and the autumn leek-show was near at hand. On the decani side Patrick Ovens, a red-haired little treble, was kept awake by the necessity for altering _Magnificat_ into _Magnified Cat_ in his copy of Aldrich in G.
第一日課は長々とつづいた。ミスタ・ヌートはきわめて穏やかな情け深い人物だったが、朗読では、聖書の中でも糾弾激しい一節を読むのを得意としていた。確かに英国国教会祈祷書は午後の日課に「ソロモンの知恵」の一部を読むよう指定しているが、ミスタ・ヌートは権威を軽んじ、代わりにイザヤ書からの一節を読んだ。このようなやり方に疑問を突きつけられたなら、彼は聖書外典は行為についての教訓としても、とても容認できないから、と釈明しただろう（註 英国聖公会では聖書外典を生活の模範および行為についての教訓のために読むとしている）。（それにカランにはこの個人的判断の権利に異議を申し立てそうな人間はひとりもなかった）しかし自分でも気がついていなかっただろうけれど、本当は熱弁をふるう適当な一節を探したかったから、そうしていたのである。天罰を下す雷鳴の如きその声には、彼の信じるところ、至高の正義を恐れる気持ちと、あやまてる、しかし忘れ去られて久しい民の盲目さに対する無限の哀れみがこめられているはずであった。実際彼はいわゆるバイブル・ボイスと言われるものを持っていて、朗読の際、普段の生活ではけっして使われないような声音を用い、聖書にいっそうの重々しさを与えることができた。駆け出しの牧師補が「死の時にして裁きの日」とささやいて、嘆願《リタニー》に厳粛さを付け加えるようなものである。
The lesson was a long one. Mr Noot, mildest and most beneficent of men, believed that he was at his best in denunciatory passages of Scripture. The Prayer-Book, it was true, had appointed a portion of the Book of Wisdom for the afternoon lesson, but Mr Noot made light of authorities, and read instead a chapter from Isaiah. If he had been questioned as to this proceeding, he would have excused himself by saying that he disapproved of the Apocrypha, even for instruction of manners (and there was no one at Cullerne at all likely to question this right of private judgment), but his real, though perhaps unconscious, motive was to find a suitable passage for declamation. He thundered forth judgments in a manner which combined, he believed, the terrors of supreme justice with an infinite commiseration for the blindness of errant, but long-forgotten peoples. He had, in fact, that "Bible voice" which seeks to communicate additional solemnity to the Scriptures by reciting them in a tone never employed in ordinary life, as the fledgling curate adds gravity to the Litany by whispering "the hour of death and Day of Judgment."
ミスタ・ヌートは近視のためにいにしえの民への天罰がうたた寝する聴衆の頭の上を素通りしていくのが分からなかった。そして彼が長い日課をそれにふさわしい劇的な締めくくりで終えようとしたとき、思わぬ珍事が起きた。障壁のドアが開いて、見知らぬ男が入ってきたのだ。カール大帝の臣将が角笛を吹き鳴らし、百年の安らぎを破って、魔法にかかった王女とその廷臣たちを蘇らせたように、うつらうつらとしていた聖職者たちは闖入者によってはっと夢から目覚めさせられた。少年聖歌隊員はくすくす笑い、聖歌隊員は目を見開き、教会事務員ジャナウエイはこの無分別な飛び入りの頭を打ち砕かんと職杖を握り締めた。みんながざわついたのでミスタ・シャーノールは落ちつかなげに音栓をみやった。彼は寝過ごして聖歌隊がマニフィカトを歌うために立ち上がったものと思ったのだ。
Mr Noot, being short-sighted, did not see how lightly the punishments of these ancient races passed over the heads of his dozing audience, and was bringing the long lesson to a properly dramatic close when the unexpected happened: the screen-door opened and a stranger entered. As the blowing of a horn by the paladin broke the repose of a century, and called back to life the spellbound princess and her court, so these slumbering churchmen were startled from their dreams by the intruder. The choir-boys fell to giggling, the choir-men stared, clerk Janaway grasped his mace as if he would brain so rash an adventurer, and the general movement made Mr Sharnall glance nervously at his stops; for he thought that he had overslept himself, and that the choir had stood up for the _Magnificat_.
The stranger seemed unconscious of the attention which his appearance provoked. He was no doubt some casual sightseer, and had possibly been unaware that any service was in progress until he opened the screen-door. But once there, he made up his mind to join in the devotions, and was walking to the steps which led up to the stalls when clerk Janaway popped out of his place and accosted him, quoting the official regulations in something louder than a stage whisper:
"Ye cannot enter the choir during the hours of Divine service. Ye cannot come in."
The stranger was amused at the old man's officiousness.
"I am in," he whispered back, "and, being in, will take a seat, if you please, until the service is over."
The clerk looked at him doubtfully for a moment, but if there was amusement to be read in the other's countenance, there was also a decision that did not encourage opposition. So he thought better of the matter, and opened the door of one of the pews that run below the stalls in Cullerne Church.
But the stranger did not appear to notice that a place was being shown him, and walked past the pew and up the little steps that led to the stalls on the cantoris side. Directly behind the singing-men were five stalls, which had canopies richer and more elaborate than those of the others, with heraldic escutcheons painted on the backs. From these seats the vulgar herd was excluded by a faded crimson cord, but the stranger lifted the cord from its hook, and sat down in the first reserved seat, as if the place belonged to him.
Clerk Janaway was outraged, and bustled up the steps after him like an angry turkey-cock.
"Come, come!" he said, touching the intruder on the shoulder; "you cannot sit here; these are the Fording seats, and kep' for Lord Blandamer's family."
"I will make room if Lord Blandamer brings his family," the stranger said; and, seeing that the old man was returning to the attack, added, "Hush! that is enough."
The clerk looked at him again, and then turned back to his own place, routed.
"_And in that day they shall roar against thee like the roaring of the sea, and if one look unto the land behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof_," said Mr Noot, and shut the book, with a glance of general fulmination through his great round spectacles.
The choir, who had been interested spectators of this conflict of lawlessness as personified in the intruder, and authority as in the clerk, rose to their feet as the organ began the _Magnificat_.
The singing-men exchanged glances of amusement, for they were not altogether averse to seeing the clerk worsted. He was an autocrat in his own church, and ruffled them now and again with what they called his bumptiousness. Perhaps he did assume a little as he led the procession, for he forgot at times that he was a peaceable servant of the sanctuary, and fancied, as he marched mace in hand to the music of the organ, that he was a daring officer leading a forlorn hope. That very afternoon he had had a heated discussion in the vestry with Mr Milligan, the bass, on a question of gardening, and the singer, who still smarted under the clerk's overbearing tongue, was glad to emphasise his adversary's defeat by paying attention to the intruder.
歌い手たちが顔を見合わせ、にやにやしていたのは、教会事務員がへこまされるのを見て悪い気がしなかったからである。彼は聖堂の中をわが物顔に歩く専制君主で、みんなから「思い上がっている」と言われる態度で、ときどき彼らの腹を立てさせていた。もしかすると彼は行列の先頭に立って少々いい気になっていたのかも知れない。オルガンの音楽に合わせて職杖を手に行進していると、聖なる場所の、平和の使徒であることを忘れて、たった一つの希望を率いる勇敢な士官になったような気分になることが、たまにあったからである。ちょうどその日の午後は聖具室でバスのミスタ・ミリガンと園芸の問題をめぐって激しく口論した。教会事務員の高圧的な喋り方にいまだ機嫌を損ねていた歌い手は嬉しそうに侵入者に注意をむけ、敵にその敗北を思い知らせた。
The tenor on the cantoris side was taking holiday that day, and Mr Milligan availed himself of the opportunity to offer the absentee's copy of the service to the intruder, who was sitting immediately behind him. He turned round, and placed the book, open at the _Magnificat_, before the stranger with much deference, casting as he faced round again a look of misprision at Janaway, of which the latter was quick to appreciate, the meaning.
This by-play was lost upon the stranger, who nodded his acknowledgment of the civility, and turned to the study of the score which had been offered him.
見知らぬ男はこの脇役たちの演技には気づかず、好意に感謝してうなずくと、差し出された楽譜を真剣に読みはじめた。 ~~~ 男声が極端に不足していたため、ミスタ・シャーノールは南側ないし北側の声部に穴が空くことには慣れっこになっていた。詩篇を歌う際は、欠けた声部を左手で補い、必死になって不完全を取り繕おうとしたのだが、しかしマニフィカトの演奏を始めると、豊かな、実に力強いテノールが情感をこめ、正確に歌唱に加わるのを聞いてびっくりした。穴を埋めたのは見知らぬ男で、最初の驚きが過ぎ去ると、聖歌隊は彼を自分たちの技術に精通する者として歓迎し、教会事務員ジャナウエイは彼が入ってきたときの無礼や、ミスタ・ミリガンの反抗的な態度すらも忘れてしまった。大人も少年たちも新しい生命を得て歌った。実際彼らはこれほどの心得の持ち主には是非とも好い印象を与えたいと思い、その聖歌はカラン大聖堂ではひさしぶりに聴く出色のでき映えとなった。ただ見知らぬ男だけはまったくの冷静だった。彼は今までずっと聖歌助手であったかのように歌った。マニフィカトが終わり、ミスタ・シャーノールがオルガンのある二階の張り出しからカーテンの隙間を通してのぞくと、彼が聖書を手にミスタ・ヌートの第二日課を熱心に聞いている姿が見えた。
Mr Sharnall's resources in the way of men's voices were so limited that he was by no means unused to finding himself short of a voice-part on the one side or the other. He had done his best to remedy the deficiency in the Psalms by supplying the missing part with his left hand, but as he began the _Magnificat_ he was amazed to hear a mellow and fairly strong tenor taking part in the service with feeling and precision. It was the stranger who stood in the gap, and when the first surprise was past, the choir welcomed him as being versed in their own arts, and Clerk Janaway forgot the presumption of his entrance and even the rebellious conduct of Mr Milligan. The men and boys sang with new life; they wished, in fact, that so knowledgeable a person should be favourably impressed, and the service was rendered in a more creditable way than Cullerne Church had known for many a long day. Only the stranger was perfectly unmoved. He sang as if he had been a lay-vicar all his life, and when the _Magnificat_ was ended, and Mr Sharnall could look through the curtains of the organ-loft, the organist saw him with a Bible devoutly following Mr Noot in the second lesson.
年の頃は四十、中背というよりもやや背が高く、黒い眉毛に黒い髪、ただし白いものもちらほら見えはじめていた。特に髪の毛はふさふさと豊かで、自然に波打つ巻き毛がすぐさま見る人の注意を奪った。髭はきれいに剃られ、顔の輪郭は鋭いが痩せているわけではなく、引き締まった口元には何か蔑むような表情が浮かんでいた。鼻筋が通り、力強い顔は他人を服従させることに慣れていることを感じさせる。聖歌隊席の反対側から彼を見ると、その姿は素晴らしい一幅の絵になっていた。黒いオークでできた修道院長ヴィニコウムの席がちょうどその額縁の役割を果たしていた。頭上には天蓋があり、その先端は葉飾りや頂華に飾られ、座席の木の背板には楯が描かれていた。よく見るとそれは緑色と銀色の雲形線を持つブランダマー家の紋章だった。恐らくそのあまりにも堂々とした風采のためなのだろう、赤毛のパトリック・オブンズはちょうどその日手に入れたオーストラリアの切手を取り出し、王冠をかぶってゴシック風の椅子に座るヴィクトリア女王の肖像を隣の少年に指し示した。
He was a man of forty, rather above the middle height, with dark eyebrows and dark hair, that was beginning to turn grey. His hair, indeed, at once attracted the observer's attention by its thick profusion and natural wavy curl. He was clean-shaven, his features were sharply cut without being thin, and there was something contemptuous about the firm mouth. His nose was straight, and a powerful face gave the impression of a man who was accustomed to be obeyed. To anyone looking at him from the other side of the choir, he presented a remarkable picture, for which the black oak of Abbot Vinnicomb's stalls supplied a frame. Above his head the canopy went soaring up into crockets and finials, and on the woodwork at the back was painted a shield which nearer inspection would have shown to be the Blandamer cognisance, with its nebuly bars of green and silver. It was, perhaps, so commanding an appearance that made red-haired Patrick Ovens take out an Australian postage-stamp which he had acquired that very day, and point out to the boy next to him the effigy of Queen Victoria sitting crowned in a gothic chair.
見知らぬ男はすっかり合唱にのめりこんでいるようだった。彼はおじることなく歌唱に加わり、もう一冊楽譜を与えられると、アンセムでも補欠としてめざましい活躍を見せた。祝福が終わって、聖歌隊が列をなして退出するときは礼儀正しく起立し、礼拝後のボランタリーを聴くために再び席についた。ミスタ・シャーノールは見知らぬテノールに対する敬意のしるしとして名曲を演奏しようと決め、「聖アンのフーガ」をオルガンの状態が許すかぎり見事に弾いて見せたのだった。確かにトラッカーがひどくがたつき、自鳴が第二主題を台無しにしてしまった。しかし張り出しから下に延びる螺旋階段を降りきったとき、見知らぬ男が彼を待っていて賞賛のことばをかけてきた。
The stranger seemed to enter thoroughly into the spirit of the performance; he bore his part in the service bravely, and, being furnished with another book, lent effective aid with the anthem. He stood up decorously as the choir filed out after the Grace, and then sat down again in his seat to listen to the voluntary. Mr Sharnall determined to play something of quality as a tribute to the unknown tenor, and gave as good a rendering of the Saint Anne's fugue as the state of the organ would permit. It was true that the trackers rattled terribly, and that a cipher marred the effect of the second subject; but when he got to the bottom of the little winding stairs that led down from the loft, he found the stranger waiting with a compliment.
"Thank you very much," he said; "it is very kind of you to give us so fine a fugue. It is many years since I was last in this church, and I am fortunate to have chosen so sunny an afternoon, and to have been in time for your service."
"Not at all, not at all," said the organist; "it is we who are fortunate in having you to help us. You read well, and have a useful voice, though I caught you tripping a little in the lead of the _Nunc Dimittis_ Gloria." And he sung it over by way of reminder. "You understand church music, and have sung many a service before, I am sure, though you don't look much given that way," he added, scanning him up and down.
The stranger was amused rather than offended at these blunt criticisms, and the catechising went on.
"Are you stopping in Cullerne?"
"No," the other replied courteously; "I am only here for the day, but I hope I may find other occasions to visit the place and to hear your service. You will have your full complement of voices next time I come, no doubt, and I shall be able to listen more at my ease than to-day?"
"Oh no, you won't. It's ten to one you will find us still worse off. We are a poverty-stricken lot, and no one to come over into Macedonia to help us. These cursed priests eat up our substance like canker-worms, and grow sleek on the money that was left to keep the music going. I don't mean the old woman that read this afternoon; he's got _his_ nose on the grindstone like the rest of us--poor Noot! He has to put brown paper in his boots because he can't afford to have them resoled. No, it's the Barabbas in the rectory-house, that buys his stocks and shares, and starves the service."
This tirade fell lightly on the stranger's ears. He looked as if his thoughts were a thousand miles away, and the organist broke off:
"Do you play the organ? Do you understand an organ?" he asked quickly.
"Alas! I do not play," the stranger said, bringing his mind back with a jerk for the answer, "and understand little about the instrument."
"Well, next time you are here come up into the loft, and I will show you what a chest of rattletraps I have to work with. We are lucky to get through a service without a breakdown; the pedal-board is too short and past its work, and now the bellows are worn-out."
"Surely you can get that altered," the stranger said; "the bellows shouldn't cost so much to mend."
"They are patched already past mending. Those who would like to pay for new ones haven't got the money, and those who have the money won't pay. Why, that very stall you sat in belongs to a man who could give us new bellows, and a new organ, and a new church, if we wanted it. Blandamer, that's his name--Lord Blandamer. If you had looked, you could have seen his great coat of arms on the back of the seat; and he won't spend a halfpenny to keep the roofs from falling on our heads."
"Ah," said the stranger, "it seems a very sad case." They had reached the north door, and, as they stepped out, he repeated meditatively: "It seems a very sad case; you must tell me more about it next time we meet."
The organist took the hint, and wished his companion good-afternoon, turning down towards the wharves for a constitutional on the riverside. The stranger raised his hat with something of foreign courtesy, and walked back into the town.
第七章 ~~~
CHAPTER SEVEN.
ミス・ユーフィミア・ジョウリフは土曜の午後を聖セパルカ大聖堂のドルカス会の活動に充てていた。会合は国民女学校の教室で開かれ、献身的な女たちが毎週集まって貧しい人々のために服を作った。カランには少数ながらもぼろ服をまとった紳士諸君がおり、また大勢の中流階級が生活《たつき》にあえいでいたけれど、幸いなことに大都市におけるような正真正銘の極貧はほとんど見られなかった。だから貧しい人々は、ドルカス会の服が最終的に配られてきたとき、ときどき品物を点検して、せっかくの生地がこんな裁ち縫いじゃもったいないと嘆いたりした。「ドルカス会が作った外套や服を見て、連中は泣いていたよ、あんまりひどい仕立てなんでね」とオルガン奏者は言ったが、しかしこれはいわれのない非難である。会には優秀なお針子が大勢いたからで、その中でもとりわけ腕のいい一人がミス・ユーフィミア・ジョウリフだった。
Miss Euphemia Joliffe devoted Saturday afternoons to Saint Sepulchre's Dorcas Society. The meetings were held in a class-room of the Girls' National School, and there a band of devoted females gathered week by week to make garments for the poor. If there was in Cullerne some threadbare gentility, and a great deal of middle-class struggling, there was happily little actual poverty, as it is understood in great towns. Thus the poor, to whom the clothes made by the Dorcas Society were ultimately distributed, could sometimes afford to look the gift-horse in the mouth, and to lament that good material had been marred in the making. "They wept," the organist said, "when they showed the coats and garments that Dorcas made, because they were so badly cut;" but this was a libel, for there were many excellent needlewomen in the society, and among the very best was Miss Euphemia Joliffe.
She was a staunch supporter of the church, and, had her circumstances permitted, would have been a Scripture-reader or at least a district visitor. But the world was so much with her, in the shape of domestic necessities at Bellevue Lodge, as to render parish work impossible, and so the Dorcas meeting was the only systematic philanthropy in which she could venture to indulge. But in the discharge of this duty she was regularity personified; neither wind nor rain, snow nor heat, sickness nor amusement, stopped her, and she was to be found each and every Saturday afternoon, from three to five, in the National School.
If the Dorcas Society was a duty for the little old lady, it was also a pleasure--one of her few pleasures, and perhaps the greatest. She liked the meetings, because on such occasions she felt herself to be the equal of her more prosperous neighbours. It is the same feeling that makes the half-witted attend funerals and church services. At such times they feel themselves to be for once on an equal footing with their fellow-men: all are reduced to the same level; there are no speeches to be made, no accounts to be added up, no counsels to be given, no decisions to be taken; all are as fools in the sight of God.
ミス・ジョウリフはドルカス会の会合にいちばんいい服を着て出席したが、帽子だけは別だった。とっておきのボンネットをかぶるのは安息日だけに限られた最高のおしゃれだったのだ。彼女の衣装箪笥は中身があまりにも切り詰められ、移り変わる季節に合わせて「晴れ着」を着変える余裕はなかった。冬の晴れ着は夏の晴れ着として用いられねばならないこともあり、それゆえ彼女はときどき十二月にアルパカを着ることもあれば、この日のようにモスリンの季節だというのに、毛皮の襟巻きをしなければならないこともあった。しかし「晴れ着」を着ていれば、いつも「誰に見られても大丈夫」という気分になった。それにこと裁縫にかけては彼女の右に出る者はなかった。
At the Dorcas meeting Miss Joliffe wore her "best things" with the exception only of head-gear, for the wearing of her best bonnet was a crowning grace reserved exclusively for the Sabbath. Her wardrobe was too straightened to allow her "best" to follow the shifting seasons closely. If it was bought as best for winter, it might have to play the same role also in summer, and thus it fell sometimes to her lot to wear alpaca in December, or, as on this day, to be adorned with a fur necklet when the weather asked for muslin. Yet "in her best" she always felt "fit to be seen"; and when it came to cutting out, or sewing, there were none that excelled her.
会員たちのほとんどは彼女に優しいことばをかけて挨拶した。嫉妬や憎しみや悪意が日の出から日の入りまで町中を腕組みして歩いているような場所だったが、それでもミス・ユーフィミアには敵がほとんどなかった。小さな町は大概そうだが、嘘や誹謗や悪口はカランの女たちにとっていちばん大切な活動だった。悪人はいないと思っている、世間知らずで時代遅れのミス・ジョウリフは、最初のうち、そうした歯に衣を着せない噂話で持ちきりという点が、この喜ばしい会合のただ一つの欠点であると思った。しかし昔からずっとつづいてきたこの悪弊もその後取り除かれることになる。醸造業者の奥さんで、ロンドン仕立てのドレスを着、カランで最も流行に敏感なミセス・ブルティールが、ドルカス会の午後は集まったお針子たちのために何かためになる本を読んで聞かせることにしようと提案したのである。ミセス・フリントは、そんな提案をするなんて自分が美声の持ち主だと思っているからよ、と言ったが、しかし理由はどうあれ、彼女はそういう提案をし、誰もそれに反対するものはなかった。そういうわけでミセス・ブルティールはまことに信心深い内容の本を読んだのだが、それがまたずいぶんほろりとさせる話で、彼女が涙にかきくれることなく、また彼女のご機嫌取りたちから同情のすすり泣きを誘発することなく、午後が過ぎることはめったになかった。ミス・ジョウリフ自身は、想像上の悲しみにそれほどたやすく感動できないことがあったが、しかしそれは自分の性格に哀れみ深さがかけているからだと思い、心の中で自分よりも感じやすい他の人々を慶賀した。
Most of the members greeted her with a kind word, for even in a place where envy, hatred and malice walked the streets arm in arm from sunrise to sunset, Miss Euphemia had few enemies. Lying and slandering, and speaking evil of their fellows, formed a staple occupation of the ladies of Cullerne, as of many another small town; and to Miss Joliffe, who was foolish and old-fashioned enough to think evil of no one, it had seemed at first the only drawback of these delightful meetings that a great deal of such highly-spiced talk was to be heard at them. But even this fly was afterwards removed from the amber; for Mrs Bulteel--the brewer's lady--who wore London dresses, and was much the most fashionable person in Cullerne, proposed that some edifying book should be read aloud on Dorcas afternoons to the assembled workers. It was true that Mrs Flint said she only did so because she thought she had a fine voice; but however that might be, she proposed it, and no one cared to run counter to her. So Mrs Bulteel read properly religious stories, of so touching a nature that an afternoon seldom passed without her being herself dissolved in tears, and evoking sympathetic sniffs and sobs from such as wished to stand in her good books. If Miss Joliffe was not herself so easily moved by imaginary sorrow, she set it down to some lack of loving-kindness in her own disposition, and mentally congratulated the others on their superior sensitiveness.
ミス・ジョウリフはドルカス会に出席、ミスタ・シャーノールは川沿いを散歩、ミスタ・ウエストレイは石工たちと袖廊の屋根の上、というわけで、正面玄関のベルが鳴ったとき、ベルヴュー・ロッジにいたのはアナスタシア・ジョウリフただ一人だった。叔母が家にいるときは、アナスタシアは「殿方の給仕」をすることも、ベルに応えることも許されなかったが、叔母は不在だし、家のなかには誰もいない。しようがなく彼女は観音開きになった大きな玄関ドアの一方を開け、半円形の外の階段に一人の紳士が立っているのを見いだした。その男が紳士であることは彼女には一目で分かった。彼女にはそんな役に立たない違いを識別する「才能」があったのだ。もっともカランにはその手の人間が多くはないので、家の近所で彼女の才能を鍛えるというわけにはいかなかったけれど。実は彼はテノールを歌ったあの見知らぬ男だった。彼女は女性の持つ鋭い観察眼で、男の外見についてオルガン奏者や聖歌隊や教会事務員が一時間かけて知ったことを一瞬のうちに見て取った。いや、それだけではない。彼女は男の服装が上物であることも見逃さなかった。男は装飾品をまったく身につけていなかった。指輪もネクタイピンもつけず、懐中時計の鎖さえも革製でしかなかった。服の色はほとんど黒といってもいいくらい濃い灰色だったが、生地は上等で、仕立ても最高のものだとミス・アナスタシア・ジョウリフは思った。ベルに応えて出ていくとき、彼女は「ノーサンガー・アベイ」（註 ジェイン・オースチンの小説）にしおり代わりの鉛筆をはさんだのだが、見知らぬ男が彼女の前に立ったとき、彼女はヒロインの恋人役、ヘンリー・ティルニーがあらわれたのではないかと思った。そして彼が唇を開こうとするとき、彼女はキャサリン・モーランドのように身構えて、重大な知らせが発せられるのを待ち受けたのである。しかしそこから発せられたのは少しも重大なことではなかった。空き部屋の有無という、彼女が半ば期待していた質問ですらなかった。
Miss Joliffe was at the Dorcas meeting, Mr Sharnall was walking by the riverside, Mr Westray was with the masons on the roof of the transept; only Anastasia Joliffe was at Bellevue Lodge when the front-door-bell rang. When her aunt was at home, Anastasia was not allowed to "wait on the gentlemen," nor to answer the bell; but her aunt being absent, and there being no one else in the house, she duly opened one leaf of the great front-door, and found a gentleman standing on the semicircular flight of steps outside. That he was a gentleman she knew at a glance, for she had a _flair_ for such useless distinctions, though the genus was not sufficiently common at Cullerne to allow her much practice in its identification near home. It was, in fact, the stranger of the tenor voice, and such is the quickness of woman's wit, that she learnt in a moment as much concerning his outward appearance as the organist and the choir-men and the clerk had learnt in an hour; and more besides, for she saw that he was well dressed. There was about him a complete absence of personal adornment. He wore no rings and no scarf-pin, even his watch-chain was only of leather. His clothes were of so dark a grey as to be almost black, but Miss Anastasia Joliffe knew that the cloth was good, and the cut of the best. She had thrust a pencil into the pages of "Northanger Abbey" to keep the place while she answered the bell, and as the stranger stood before her, it seemed to her he might be a Henry Tilney, and she was prepared, like a Catherine Morland, for some momentous announcement when he opened his lips. Yet there came nothing very weighty from them; he did not even inquire for lodgings, as she half hoped that he would.
"Does the architect in charge of the works at the church lodge here? Is Mr Westray at home?" was all he said.
"He does live here," she answered, "but is out just now, and we do not expect him back till six. I think you will probably find him at the church if you desire to see him."
"I have just come from the minster, but could see nothing of him there."
It served the stranger right that he should have missed the architect, and been put to the trouble of walking as far as Bellevue Lodge, for his inquiries must have been very perfunctory. If he had taken the trouble to ask either organist or clerk, he would have learnt at once where Mr Westray was.
"I wonder if you would allow me to write a note. If you could give me a sheet of paper I should be glad to leave a message for him."
アナスタシアは頭のてっぺんからつま先まで、早撮り写真のようにすばやく相手を一瞥した。「乞食」はカランのご婦人たちにとって常に嫌悪すべき対象で、そうした怪しい男に対して持つべき恐れは、叔母によってアナスタシア・ジョウリフにも植え付けられていた。さらに男の下宿人が家にいて、もしものことがあった場合、取っ組み合ってもらえるというときでなければ、相手がどんな口実を設けようと、決して見知らぬ人間を家に入れてはならないというのが、昔からこの家にずっとつづく規則だった。しかしちらりと見ただけで、最初の判断を確認するには充分だった――この方は間違いなく紳士だわ。紳士乞食なんてものはあり得ない。そこで彼女は「ええ、もちろん」と答えて、彼をミスタ・シャーノールの部屋に案内した。そこが一階にあったからである。
Anastasia gave him a glance from head to foot, rapid as an instantaneous exposure. "Tramps" were a permanent bugbear to the ladies of Cullerne, and a proper dread of such miscreants had been instilled into Anastasia Joliffe by her aunt. It was, moreover, a standing rule of the house that no strange men were to be admitted on any pretence, unless there was some man-lodger at home, to grapple with them if occasion arose. But the glance was sufficient to confirm her first verdict--he _was_ a gentleman; there surely could not be such things as gentlemen-tramps. So she answered "Oh, certainly," and showed him into Mr Sharnall's room, because that was on the ground-floor.
The visitor gave a quick look round the room. If he had ever been in the house before, Anastasia would have thought he was trying to identify something that he remembered; but there was little to be seen except an open piano, and the usual litter of music-books and manuscript paper.
"Thank you," he said; "can I write here? Is this Mr Westray's room?"
"No, another gentleman lodges here, but you can use this room to write in. He is out, and would not mind in any case; he is a friend of Mr Westray."
"I had rather write in Mr Westray's room if I may. You see I have nothing to do with this other gentleman, and it might be awkward if he came in and found me in his apartment."
It seemed to Anastasia that the information that the room in which they stood was not Mr Westray's had in some way or other removed an anxiety from the stranger's mind. There was a faint and indefinable indication of relief in his manner, however much he professed to be embarrassed at the discovery. It might have been, she thought, that he was a great friend of Mr Westray, and had been sorry to think that his room should be littered and untidy as Mr Sharnall's certainly was, and so was glad when he found out his mistake.
"Mr Westray's room is at the top of the house," she said deprecatingly.
"It is no trouble to me, I assure you, to go up," he answered.
アナスタシアはまたもや一瞬戸惑った。紳士乞食はいないとしても、紳士強盗はいるかも知れない。彼女は慌ててミスタ・ウエストレイの所持品リストを頭に思い浮かべたが、犯罪を誘発しそうなものは何もなかった。それでも彼女は、自分一人しか家にいないときに、いちばん上の階へ見知らぬ男を案内するのは気が引けた。そんなことを頼むなんて作法をはずれているわ。やっぱり紳士じゃないのかも知れない。さもなきゃ自分の要求がどんなに礼を失しているか、分かるはずだもの。それとも何か特別な理由があって、ミスタ・ウエストレイの部屋を見たいのかしら。 ~~~ 見知らぬ男は相手の戸惑いに気がつき、彼女が考えていることを容易に読み取った。
Anastasia hesitated again for an instant. If there were no gentlemen-tramps, perhaps there were gentlemen-burglars, and she hastily made a mental inventory of Mr Westray's belongings, but could think of nothing among them likely to act as an incentive to crime. Still she would not venture to show a strange man to the top of the house, when there was no one at home but herself. The stranger ought not to have asked her. He could not be a gentleman after all, or he would have seen how irregular was such a request, unless he had indeed some particular motive for wishing to see Mr Westray's room.
The stranger perceived her hesitation, and read her thoughts easily enough.
"I beg your pardon," he said. "I ought, of course, to have explained who it is who has the honour of speaking to you. I am Lord Blandamer, and wish to write a few words to Mr Westray on questions connected with the restoration of the church. Here is my card."
話によると、彼は若いとき祖父と原因不明の喧嘩をし、家を追い出された。父も母も彼が赤ん坊のときに水死していたため、誰も彼の肩を持つ者はなかったのだ。四分の一世紀のあいだ、彼は外国を放浪した。フランスとドイツ、ロシアとギリシャ、イタリアとスペイン。彼は東洋を訪ね、エジプトで戦い、南アメリカで封鎖をくぐり、南アフリカで値のつけられないようなダイヤを発見したと信じられている。ヒンドゥー教の行者の恐るべき苦行を経験し、アトス山（註 ギリシャ正教会の根拠地）の僧侶とともに断食をした。トラップ大修道院の無言の行に耐え、噂によるとイスラム教主教がみずからブランダマー卿の頭に緑のターバンを巻いたという。射撃、狩猟、釣り、拳闘、歌ができ、楽器は何でもこなした。どこの国のことばも母国語のように操った。彼こそはいまだかつてこの世に生まれた人間の中で最高の学識と美貌――そしてある人がほのめかすには――最も邪悪な心を持つということであったのだが、誰も彼を見たことはなかった。謎めいた、見知らぬ貴人と同じ屋根の下で顔をつきあわせるというのは、当然ながらアナスタシアにとってロマンスの絶好のきっかけであったはずである。しかし、彼女はそういう状況にふさわしいためらいも、おののきも感じず、気が遠くなることもなかった。
There was probably no lady in the town that would have received this information with as great composure as did Anastasia Joliffe. Since the death of his grandfather, the new Lord Blandamer had been a constant theme of local gossip and surmise. He was a territorial magnate, he owned the whole of the town, and the whole of the surrounding country. His stately house of Fording could be seen on a clear day from the minster tower. He was reputed to be a man of great talents and distinguished appearance; he was not more than forty, and he was unmarried. Yet no one had seen him since he came to man's estate; it was said he had not been in Cullerne for twenty years.
There was a tale of some mysterious quarrel with his grandfather, which had banished the young man from his home, and there had been no one to take his part, for both his father and mother were drowned when he was a baby. For a quarter of a century he had been a wanderer abroad: in France and Germany, in Russia and Greece, in Italy and Spain. He was believed to have visited the East, to have fought in Egypt, to have run blockades in South America, to have found priceless diamonds in South Africa. He had suffered the awful penances of the Fakirs, he had fasted with the monks of Mount Athos; he had endured the silence of La Trappe; men said that the Sheik-ul-Islam had himself bound the green turban round Lord Blandamer's head. He could shoot, he could hunt, he could fish, he could fight, he could sing, he could play all instruments; he could speak all languages as fluently as his own; he was the very wisest and the very handsomest, and--some hinted--the very wickedest man that ever lived, yet no one had ever seen him. Here was indeed a conjunction of romance for Anastasia, to find so mysterious and distinguished a stranger face to face with her alone under the same roof; yet she showed none of those hesitations, tremblings, or faintings that the situation certainly demanded.
彼女の父親マーチン・ジョウリフは死ぬまでその美貌を保ち、自分でもそのことをよく知っていた。若いときは整った目鼻立ちを誇りにし、歳を取ってからは身だしなみに注意を払った。暮らしぶりがどん底に落ちこんだときでさえ、彼は仕立てのいい服を手に入れようとした。いつも最新流行の服というわけにはいかなかったが、それらは背の高い、姿勢のしゃんとした彼にはよく似合った。人は彼のことを「紳士ジョウリフ」と呼んで笑ったが、カランでしばしば聞かれる悪口と違って、そこにはそれほど嫌味がこめられていなかったようだ。むしろ農夫の息子がどこであんな物腰を身につけたのかと不思議がられた。マーチン自身にとっては貴族的な態度は気取りというより義務だった。彼の立場がそれを要求するのだ。なぜなら彼は自分のことを、権利を剥奪されたブランダマー家の人間と思いこんでいたからである。
Martin Joliffe, her father, had been a handsome man all his life, and had known it. In youth he prided himself on his good looks, and in old age he was careful of his personal appearance. Even when his circumstances were at their worst he had managed to obtain well-cut clothes. They were not always of the newest, but they sat well on his tall and upright figure; "Gentleman Joliffe" people called him, and laughed, though perhaps something less ill-naturedly than was often the case in Cullerne, and wondered whence a farmer's son had gotten such manners. To Martin himself an aristocratic bearing was less an affectation than a duty; his position demanded it, for he was in his own eyes a Blandamer kept out of his rights.
グローヴ家のミス・ハンターが、父親のハンター大佐から、身分違いもはなはだしい、あんな男と結婚したら勘当だ、と固く言い渡されていたにもかかわらず、彼と駆け落ちしたのは、四十五才になっても彼の男っぷりがよかったからである。実は彼女は父親の不興に長く耐えることなく、最初の子供を産んだときに亡くなってしまった。この悲しい結末さえ大佐の心を和らげることはできなかった。小説に見られる前例をことごとく覆し、大佐は幼い孫娘に少しも関心を示さず、あまりの世間体の悪さにカランから引っ越してしまったのである。マーチンもまた親としての義務を真剣に受け止めるような男ではなく、子供の養育はミス・ジョウリフに任された。彼女の苦労が一つ増えたわけだが、しかしそれ以上に彼女は喜びを感じた。マーチンは娘をアナスタシアと名付けたことで充分に自分の責任を果たしたと考えていた。この名前はディブレット貴族名鑑によると、ブランダマー家の女性によって代々引き継がれてきた名前なのだそうだ。このひときわ輝かしい愛の証拠を与えたあと、彼はまた家系調査のため断続的につづく放浪の旅に出かけ、五年間カランに戻ってこなかった。
It was his good appearance, even at five-and-forty, which induced Miss Hunter of the Grove to run away with him, though Colonel Hunter had promised to disown her if she ever married so far beneath her. She did not, it is true, live long to endure her father's displeasure, but died in giving birth to her first child. Even this sad result had failed to melt the Colonel's heart. Contrary to all precedents of fiction, he would have nothing to do with his little granddaughter, and sought refuge from so untenable a position in removing from Cullerne. Nor was Martin himself a man to feel a parent's obligations too acutely; so the child was left to be brought up by Miss Joliffe, and to become an addition to her cares, but much more to her joys. Martin Joliffe considered that he had amply fulfilled his responsibilities in christening his daughter Anastasia, a name which Debrett shows to have been borne for generations by ladies of the Blandamer family; and, having given so striking a proof of affection, he started off on one of those periodic wanderings which were connected with his genealogical researches, and was not seen again in Cullerne for a lustre.
その後何年もマーチンは娘をほったらかしにし、ときどきカランに戻っては来たものの、いつも雲形紋章に対する自分の権利を確立することに熱中し、アナスタシアの教育と扶養はすっかり妹にまかせて満足していた。彼がはじめて親としての権威を振りかざしたのは、娘が十五になったときだった。その頃久しぶりに家に戻った彼は、妹のミス・ジョウリフにむかって、姪の教育がけしからぬほどなおざりにされていると指摘し、このような嘆かわしい状態はすぐさま改められなければならないと言った。ミス・ジョウリフは悲しそうに自分の至らなさを認め、自分の怠慢を許して欲しいとマーチンに嘆願した。彼女は、下宿の管理や、自分とアナスタシアの生計を立てる必要が、教育に宛てるべき時間を甚だしく減らしているとか、手元不如意のために教師を雇って自分のあまりにも限られた教育を補うことができないのだ、などと言い訳しようとは夢にも思わなかった。実際、彼女がアナスタシアに教えられることといったら、読み書き、算数、地理を少々、「マグノール先生の質問集」から得た微々たる知識、見事な針使い、詩と小説に対するつきることのない愛、カランでは奇特というべき隣人への思いやり、そしてブランダマー家最上のしきたりとは残念ながら相容れぬ神への畏れ、せいぜいがこの程度であったのである。
For many years afterwards Martin showed but little interest in the child. He came back to Cullerne at intervals; but was always absorbed in his efforts to establish a right to the nebuly coat, and content to leave the education and support of Anastasia entirely to his sister. It was not till his daughter was fifteen that he exercised any paternal authority; but, on his return from a long absence about that period, he pointed out to Miss Joliffe, senior, that she had shamefully neglected her niece's education, and that so lamentable a state of affairs must be remedied at once. Miss Joliffe most sorrowfully admitted her shortcomings, and asked Martin's forgiveness for her remissness. Nor did it ever occur to her to plead in excuse that the duties of a lodging-house, and the necessity of providing sustenance for herself and Anastasia, made serious inroads on the time that ought, no doubt, to have been devoted to education; or that the lack of means prevented her from engaging teachers to supplement her own too limited instruction. She had, in fact, been able to impart to Anastasia little except reading, writing and arithmetic, some geography, a slight knowledge of Miss Magnall's questions, a wonderful proficiency with the needle, an unquenchable love of poetry and fiction, a charity for her neighbours which was rare enough in Cullerne, and a fear of God which was sadly inconsistent with the best Blandamer traditions.
ブランダマー家にふさわしい育て方をしていない、とマーチンは言った。令嬢アナスタシアとなったときに、どうしてその任に耐えることができるというのか。フランス語を勉強させなければならない。ミス・ジョウリフが教えたような初歩ではなくて。彼は妹の真似をして「ドゥ、デラ、デラポトロフ、デイ」と言って笑い、彼女のしなびた頬を真赤にさせ、テーブルの下で叔母の手を握っていたアナスタシアを泣かせた。そんなフランス語じゃなくて、上流階級で通用するようなちゃんとしたやつだ。それから音楽、これは必須科目だ。ミス・ジョウリフは、家事と痛風が共謀して節くれ立った指からしなやかさを奪うまで、自分が低音部を受け持ってアナスタシアとやさしいピアノの二重奏をしたことを恥ずかしさとともに思い出し、また顔を赤らめた。姪と二重奏するのは大きな喜びだったが、しかしもちろんおよそ下手くそなものでしかなかったろうし、自分が子供のときに弾いた曲だからおそろしく流行遅れだったに違いない。しかもピアノもウィドコウムの客間にあった、あの同じピアノだった。
The girl was not being brought up as became a Blandamer, Martin had said; how was she to fill her position when she became the Honourable Anastasia? She must learn French, not such rudiments as Miss Joliffe had taught her, and he travestied his sister's "Doo, dellah, derlapostrof, day" with a laugh that flushed her withered cheeks with crimson, and made Anastasia cry as she held her aunt's hand under the table; not _that_ kind of French, but something that would really pass muster in society. And music, she _must_ study that; and Miss Joliffe blushed again as she thought very humbly of some elementary duets in which she had played a bass for Anastasia till household work and gout conspired to rob her knotty fingers of all pliancy. It had been a great pleasure to her, the playing of these duets with her niece; but they must, of course, be very poor things, and quite out of date now, for she had played them when she was a child herself, and on the very same piano in the parlour at Wydcombe.
そういうわけで彼女はマーチンが改善計画を提示するあいだ熱心に耳を傾けた。この計画とはアナスタシアを州都カリスベリにあるミセス・ハワードの寄宿学校に送ることに他ならなかった。この目論見を聞いて妹は息をのんだ。ミセス・ハワードの学校といえば、名門の教養学校であり、カランのご婦人方の中で娘をそこに送っているのはミセス・ブルティールだけだったのだ。しかしマーチンの高潔な寛容は留まるところを知らなかった。「そうと決まれば善は急げだ。やるべきことはさっさとやってしまおう」彼はポケットから粗布の袋を取り出し、テーブルの上にソヴリン金貨の小山を築いて議論に決着をつけた。兄がどうやってそんな富を得たのかというミス・ジョウリフの驚きは、彼の度量の大きさに対する感嘆の念によってかき消された。この富のほんの一部でベルヴュー・ロッジの逼迫した財政状態が緩和されるのに、と束の間彼女が思ったとしても、彼女はそんなぼやきを圧し殺し、天が与えたアナスタシアの教育費用に熱烈な感謝を捧げた。マーチンはテーブルのソヴリン金貨を数えた。前払いしてアナスタシアの印象をよくしたほうがいいと言われて、ミス・ジョウリフは賛成し、大いに胸をなで下ろした。彼女は学期終了前にマーチンがまた旅に出て、支払いを彼女に押しつけるのではないかとびくびくしていたのだ。
So she listened with attention while Martin revealed his scheme of reform, and this was nothing less than the sending of Anastasia to Mrs Howard's boarding-school at the county town of Carisbury. The project took away his sister's breath, for Mrs Howard's was a finishing school of repute, to which only Mrs Bulteel among Cullerne ladies could afford to send her daughters. But Martin's high-minded generosity knew no limits. "It was no use making two bites at a cherry; what had to be done had better be done quickly." And he clinched the argument by taking a canvas bag from his pocket, and pouring out a little heap of sovereigns on to the table. Miss Joliffe's wonder as to how her brother had become possessed of such wealth was lost in admiration of his magnanimity, and if for an instant she thought wistfully of the relief that a small portion of these riches would bring to the poverty-stricken menage at Bellevue Lodge, she silenced such murmurings in a burst of gratitude for the means of improvement that Providence had vouchsafed to Anastasia. Martin counted out the sovereigns on the table; it was better to pay in advance, and so make an impression in Anastasia's favour, and to this Miss Joliffe agreed with much relief, for she had feared that before the end of the term Martin would be off on his travels again, and that she herself would be left to pay.
こうしてアナスタシアはカリスベリに行った。ミス・ジョウリフはみずからに課した規則を破って、幾つもの小さな借金を背負いこんだ。というのは当時持っていたような貧相な支度で姪を学校にやりたくはなかったし、かといってよりよい支度を買うには、手持ちの金がなかったのだ。アナスタシアはカリスベリで半期を二回過ごした。音楽の腕前は大いに上がり、退屈で気のない練習をさんざん積んだあげく、タールベルクの「埴生の宿」による変奏曲をつっかえながら弾くことができるようになった。しかしフランス語は本格的なパリのアクセントを習得できず、ときには習いはじめの頃の「ドゥ、デラ、デラポトロフ、デイ」に逆戻りすることもあった。もっともそうした欠点が後に深刻な不都合を招いたことはなかったようだけれど。教養を身につける以外にも、彼女は中流上層に属する三十人の子女と交わる特権を楽しみ、善悪を知る木から、それまでは気づきもしなかった果実を食べた。しかし第二学期の終わりに彼女はこれらの恵まれた機会を放棄せざるを得なかった。マーチンが娘の授業料を永続的に準備することなくカランを離れ、ミセス・ハワードの学校案内には重力の法則のごとき厳然たる規則があったのだ。すなわち、前学期の学費を納めていない場合は、いかなる生徒も学校に戻ることを許可せずという規則が。
So Anastasia went to Carisbury, and Miss Joliffe broke her own rules, and herself incurred a number of small debts because she could not bear to think of her niece going to school with so meagre an equipment as she then possessed, and yet had no ready money to buy better. Anastasia remained for two half-years at Carisbury. She made such progress with her music that after much wearisome and lifeless practising she could stumble through Thalberg's variations on the air of "Home, Sweet Home"; but in French she never acquired the true Parisian accent, and would revert at times to the "Doo, dellah, derlapostrof, day," of her earlier teaching, though there is no record that these shortcomings were ever a serious drawback to her in after-life. Besides such opportunities of improvement, she enjoyed the privilege of association with thirty girls of the upper middle-classes, and ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the fruits of which had hitherto escaped her notice. At the end of her second term, however, she was forced to forego these advantages, for Martin had left Cullerne without making any permanent provision for his daughter's schooling; and there was in Mrs Howard's prospectus a law, inexorable as that of gravity, that no pupil shall be permitted to return to the academy whose account for the previous term remains unsettled.
アナスタシアの学校生活はこれをもって終了した。カリスベリの空気は彼女の健康によくないなどといった説明がなされたが、彼女がその本当の理由を知ったのは、それからほぼ二年後のことで、そのころにはミス・ジョウリフの勤勉と禁欲が、ミセス・ハワードへのマーチンの負債をほぼ払い終えていた。娘のほうはカランにいられることが嬉しかった。彼女はミス・ジョウリフを深く慕っていたからだ。しかし経験という点では彼女はずっと大人びて戻ってきた。視野は広がり、人生をいっそう深く見通すことができるようになりはじめていた。こうした広がりを持った考え方は好ましい実も結んだが、好ましくない実も結んだ。父親の性格をより公正に評価するようになったからである。父親がまた戻ってきたとき、彼女はそのわがままや、妹の愛情につけこむやり方に我慢がならなかった。
Thus Anastasia's schooling came to an end. There was some excuse put forward that the air of Carisbury did not agree with her; and she never knew the real reason till nearly two years later, by which time Miss Joliffe's industry and self-denial had discharged the greater part of Martin's obligation to Mrs Howard. The girl was glad to remain at Cullerne, for she was deeply attached to Miss Joliffe; but she came back much older in experience; her horizon had widened, and she was beginning to take a more perspective view of life. These enlarged ideas bore fruit both pleasant and unpleasant, for she was led to form a juster estimate of her father's character, and when he next returned she found it difficult to tolerate his selfishness and abuse of his sister's devotion.
このような事態はミス・ジョウリフを大いに悲しませた。彼女は姪を愛し、崇拝にも似た気持ちすら持っていたのだが、同時に彼女は非常に良心的で、子供は何よりもまず親を敬うべきだということを忘れなかった。そういうわけで彼女は、アナスタシアがマーチンより自分に愛着を覚えていることを悲しまなければならないと考えたのだ。姪が誰よりも自分を愛しているということに、しかるべき不満を抱けないことがあったとしても、そんな自分の心の弱さを償うために彼女は姪といっしょにいる機会を犠牲にし、チャンスがあれば彼女を父親と二人きりで過ごさせようと努力した。真の基盤がないところに愛情を生じさせようとする努力が永遠に不毛であるように、それは無駄な努力に終わった。マーチンは娘と一緒にいることにうんざりした。彼は一人でいることを好み、彼女を料理と掃除と繕いをする機械としかみなしていなかったのだ。アナスタシアはそんな態度に憤慨し、おまけに父親の聖書たるぼろぼろに破れた貴族名鑑とか、口を開けばいつも飛び出す家系調査だの、雲形紋章にまつわる専門用語だのには何の関心も持てなかった。その後、彼が最後の帰還を遂げたとき、彼女は義務感から模範的な辛抱強さで身の回りの世話や看護をし、親への敬愛がすることをうながす、ありとあらゆる親孝行をやってのけた。父の死は安堵ではなく悲しみをもたらしたのだと信じこもうとし、それがうまくいって叔母はその点についてはなんらの疑いも持たなかった。
That this should be so was a cause of great grief to Miss Joliffe. Though she herself felt for her niece a love which had in it something of adoration, she was at the same time conscientious enough to remember that a child's first duty should be towards its parents. Thus she forced herself to lament that Anastasia should be more closely attached to her than to Martin, and if there were times when she could not feel properly dissatisfied that she possessed the first place in her niece's affections, she tried to atone for this frailty by sacrificing opportunities of being with the girl herself, and using every opportunity of bringing her into her father's company. It was a fruitless endeavour, as every endeavour to cultivate affection where no real basis for it exists, must eternally remain fruitless. Martin was wearied by his daughter's society, for he preferred to be alone, and set no store by her except as a cooking, house-cleaning, and clothes-mending machine; and Anastasia resented this attitude, and could find, moreover, no interest in the torn peerage which was her father's Bible, or in the genealogical research and jargon about the nebuly coat which formed the staple of his conversation. Later on, when he came back for the last time, her sense of duty enabled her to tend and nurse him with exemplary patience, and to fulfil all those offices of affection which even the most tender filial devotion could have suggested. She tried to believe that his death brought her sorrow and not relief, and succeeded so well that her aunt had no doubts at all upon the subject.
Martin Joliffe's illness and death had added to Anastasia's experience of life by bringing her into contact with doctors and clergymen; and it was no doubt this training, and the association with the superior classes afforded by Mrs Howard's academy, that enabled her to stand the shock of Lord Blandamer's announcement without giving any more perceptible token of embarrassment than a very slight blush.
"Oh, of course there is no objection," she said, "to your writing in Mr Westray's room. I will show you the way to it."
She accompanied him to the room, and having provided writing materials, left him comfortably ensconced in Mr Westray's chair. As she pulled the door to behind her in going out, something prompted her to look round--perhaps it was merely a girl's light fancy, perhaps it was that indefinite fascination which the consciousness that we are being looked at sometimes exercises over us; but as she looked back her eyes met those of Lord Blandamer, and she shut the door sharply, being annoyed at her own foolishness.
She went back to the kitchen, for the kitchen of the Hand of God was so large that Miss Joliffe and Anastasia used part of it for their sitting-room, took the pencil out of "Northanger Abbey," and tried to transport herself to Bath. Five minutes ago she had been in the Grand Pump Room herself, and knew exactly where Mrs Allen and Isabella Thorpe and Edward Morland were sitting; where Catherine was standing, and what John Thorpe was saying to her when Tilney walked up. But alas! Anastasia found no re-admission; the lights were put out, the Pump Room was in darkness. A sad change to have happened in five minutes; but no doubt the charmed circle had dispersed in a huff on finding that they no longer occupied the first place in Miss Anastasia Joliffe's interest. And, indeed, she missed them the less because she had discovered that she herself possessed a wonderful talent for romance, and had already begun the first chapter of a thrilling story.
彼女は台所に戻った。神の手の台所はあまりにも広かったので、ミス・ジョウリフとアナスタシアはその一部を居間の代わりに使っていた。彼女は「ノーサンガー・アベイ」から鉛筆を抜き取り、自分の身をその舞台であるバースに送りこもうとした。五分前は彼女も鉱泉室にいて、ミセス・アレンやイザベラ・ソープやエドワード・モーランドがどこに座っているか、そしてキャサリンがどこに立っていて、ティルニーが歩み寄ってきたときジョン・ソープが彼女に何を話していたのか、正確に知っていたのである。ところがどうだろう！アナスタシアは二度とそこに入ることができなかった。灯りは消え、鉱泉室は真暗だった。五分間のあいだに悲しむべき変化が起きたのだ。入会の難しいこの団体は、もはやミス・アナスタシア・ジョウリフの興味の中心ではないことを知り、憤然として解散してしまったのである。彼らがいなくなっても、もちろん彼女は少しも寂しくなかった。彼女は自分に素晴らしい恋愛小説の才能があることを見いだしていたし、すでに胸をときめかす物語の第一章を書きはじめていたからである。
Nearly half an hour passed before her aunt returned, and in the interval Miss Austen's knights and dames had retired still farther into the background, and Miss Anastasia's hero had entirely monopolised the stage. It was twenty minutes past five when Miss Joliffe, senior, returned from the Dorcas meeting; "precisely twenty minutes past five," as she remarked many times subsequently, with that factitious importance which the ordinary mind attaches to the exact moment of any epoch-making event.
"Is the water boiling, my dear?" she asked, sitting down at the kitchen table. "I should like to have tea to-day before the gentlemen come in, if you do not mind. The weather is quite oppressive, and the schoolroom was very close because we only had one window open. Poor Mrs Bulteel is so subject to take cold from draughts, and I very nearly fell asleep while she was reading."
"I will get tea at once," Anastasia said; and then added, in a tone of fine unconcern: "There is a gentleman waiting upstairs to see Mr Westray."
"My dear," Miss Joliffe exclaimed deprecatingly, "how could you let anyone in when I was not at home? It is exceedingly dangerous with so many doubtful characters about. There is Mr Westray's presentation inkstand, and the flower-picture for which I have been offered so much money. Valuable paintings are often cut out of their frames; one never has an idea what thieves may do."
There was the faintest trace of a smile about Anastasia's lips.
"I do not think we need trouble about that, dear Aunt Phemie, because I am sure he is a gentleman. Here is his card. Look!" She handed Miss Joliffe the insignificant little piece of white cardboard that held so momentous a secret, and watched her aunt put on her spectacles to read it.
ミス・ジョウリフは名刺に焦点を合わせた。「ブランダマー卿」と、たった二つのことばが実に平々凡々とした字で書かれているだけだったが、それは魔法のような効果をあらわした。疑心暗鬼はたちどころに消え、輝くばかりの驚きが顔に広がった。そのさまは、ローマ帝国軍旗の幻を見たコンスタンティン大帝もかくやと思われた。彼女は徹頭徹尾浮き世離れした女で、現世の何ものにも価値を置かず、ひたすら来世の到来を待ち望み、彼女よりも大きな世俗的財産を持つ者にはめったに持つことを許されない堅固な志操と悟りを胸に抱いていた。彼女の善と悪に対する観念ははっきりと定められて揺るぎなく、それにそむくくらいなら喜んで火あぶりの刑に処せられただろうし、もしかしたら無意識のうちに、文明が信仰厚き者から火刑を奪ったことを嘆いていたかも知れない。とはいえ、こうした性癖にはある種のちょっとした欠点、とりわけ有名人の名前に弱いという欠点が結びついていて、この世の高貴な人々をやや過大に評価する傾向があったのである。もしも慈善市や伝道集会の際、対等の人間として彼らとともに同じ四つの壁にはさまれたなら、彼女はその素晴らしい機会に狂喜しただろう。しかしブランダマー卿が自分の家の屋根の下にいるというのはあまりにも驚くべき、予想外の恩寵で、彼女はほとんど気が動顛してしまった。
Miss Joliffe focussed the card. There were only two words printed on it, only "Lord Blandamer" in the most unpretending and simple characters, but their effect was magical. Doubt and suspicion melted suddenly away, and a look of radiant surprise overspread her countenance, such as would have become a Constantine at the vision of the Labarum. She was a thoroughly unworldly woman, thinking little of the things of this life in general, and keeping her affections on that which is to come, with the constancy and realisation that is so often denied to those possessed of larger temporal means. Her views as to right and wrong were defined and inflexible; she would have gone to the stake most cheerfully rather than violate them, and unconsciously lamented perhaps that civilisation has robbed the faithful of the luxury of burning. Yet with all this were inextricably bound up certain little weaknesses among which figured a fondness for great names, and a somewhat exaggerated consideration for the lofty ones of this earth. Had she been privileged to be within the same four walls as a peer at a bazaar or missionary meeting, she would have revelled in a great opportunity; but to find Lord Blandamer under her own roof was a grace so wondrous and surprising as almost to overwhelm her.
"Lord Blandamer!" she faltered, as soon as she had collected herself a little. "I hope Mr Westray's room was tidy. I dusted it thoroughly this morning, but I wish he had given some notice of his intention to call. I should be so vexed if he found anything dusty. What is he doing, Anastasia? Did he say he would wait till Mr Westray came back?"
"He said he would write a note for Mr Westray. I found him writing things."
「ミスタ・ウエストレイの記念インクスタンドをお出ししたでしょうね」
"I hope you gave his lordship Mr Westray's presentation inkstand."
"No, I did not think of that; but there was the little black inkstand, and plenty of ink in it."
"Dear me, dear me!" Miss Joliffe said, ruminating on so extraordinary a position, "to think that Lord Blandamer, whom no one has ever seen, should have come to Cullerne at last, and is now in this very house. I will just change this bonnet for my Sunday one," she added, looking at herself in the glass, "and then tell his lordship how very welcome he is, and ask him if I can get anything for him. He will see at once, from my bonnet, that I have only just returned, otherwise it would appear to him very remiss of me not to have paid him my respects before. Yes, I think it is undoubtedly more fitting to appear in a bonnet."
アナスタシアは叔母がブランダマー卿に面会すると思うといささかとまどいを覚えた。彼女はミス・ジョウリフの度を超した熱狂や、浴びせかけずにはいられないであろうお世辞、そして地位ある人への当然の敬意でしかないのに卑屈な追従と取られかねない賞賛のことばを思った。どういうわけかアナスタシアは自分の家族が賓客の目にできるだけ好ましく映ることを願い、一瞬、ミス・ジョウリフに、呼ばれるまではブランダマー卿に合う必要などまったくないと説得しようかと思った。しかし彼女には達観したところがあって、すぐに自分で自分の愚かしさを咎めた。ブランダマー卿がどう思おうとわたしには何の関係もないわ。お帰りになるとき、ドアを開けでもしないかぎり、再び会うことなんかありはしない。ありふれた下宿屋やその住人のことなど、彼は一顧だにしないだろうし、もしそんな詰まらぬことを考えることがあったとしても、あんなに賢い人なのだから、自分とは立場が違うことを斟酌して、叔母のことを、わざとらしさはいろいろあっても善良な女だと見抜いてくれるだろう。
Anastasia was a little perturbed at the idea of her aunt's interview with Lord Blandamer. She pictured to herself Miss Joliffe's excess of zeal, the compliments which she would think it necessary to shower upon him the marked attention and homage which he might interpret as servility, though it was only intended as a proper deference to exalted rank. Anastasia was quite unaccountably anxious that the family should appear to the distinguished visitor in as favourable a light as possible, and thought for a moment of trying to persuade Miss Joliffe that there was no need for her to see Lord Blandamer at all, unless he summoned her. But she was of a philosophic temperament, and in a moment had rebuked her own folly. What could any impression of Lord Blandamer's matter to her? she would probably never see him again unless she opened the door when he went out. Why should he think anything at all about a commonplace lodging-house, and its inmates? And if such trivial matters did ever enter his thoughts, a man so clever as he would make allowance for those of a different station to himself, and would see what a good woman her aunt was in spite of any little mannerisms.
So she made no remonstrance, but sat heroically quiet in her chair, and re-opened "Northanger Abbey" with a determination to entirely forget Lord Blandamer, and the foolish excitement which his visit had created.
第八章 ~~~
CHAPTER EIGHT.
Miss Joliffe must have had a protracted conversation with Lord Blandamer. To Anastasia, waiting in the kitchen, it seemed as if her aunt would never come down. She devoted herself to "Northanger Abbey" with fierce resolution, but though her eyes followed the lines of type, she had no idea what she was reading, and found herself at last turning the pages so frequently and with so much rustling as to disturb her own reverie. Then she shut the book with a bang, got up from her chair, and paced the kitchen till her aunt came back.
ミス・ジョウリフは訪問者の愛想のよさについて滔々とまくしたてた。
Miss Joliffe was full of the visitor's affability.
"It is _always_ the way with these really great people, my dear," she said with effusion. "I have _always_ noticed that the nobility are condescending; they adapt themselves so entirely to their surroundings." Miss Joliffe fell into a common hyperbole in qualifying an isolated action as a habit. She had never before been brought face to face with a peer, yet she represented her first impression of Lord Blandamer's manner as if it were a mature judgment based upon long experience of those of his rank and position.
「どうぞ記念インクスタンドをお使いくださいって、みすぼらしい黒いやつはのけてしまったの。すぐ分ったわ、銀のほうが使い慣れていらっしゃるものにずっと近いことは。わたしたちのこと、多少はお聞き及びのようよ。中に入れてくれた若い女性はわたしの姪かってお尋ねにまでなったんだもの。あなたよ。あなたのことよ、アナスタシア。あなたかってお訊きになったのよ。きっとどこかでマーチンにお会いになったんだと思うわ。でも、わたし、あんまり予想外のご訪問なので、本当に取り乱してしまって、お話がほとんど理解できなかった。でも、わたしが落ち着けるように絶えず気を遣ってくださって、だから、わたし、とうとう軽い飲み物でもいかがですかって思い切って訊いてみたの。『御前様、お茶を一杯さし上げたいのですが、いかがでしょうか。たいしたおもてなしはできませんが、お受けいただければとっても光栄ですわ』って。そうしたら、あなた、なんてお答えになったと思う？『ミス・ジョウリフ』――あの方はすごく魅力的な表情をなさるの――『そうしていただければ、こんなにありがたいことはありません。聖堂を歩き回ってとても疲れていましてね。それにもうちょっと時間をつぶさないとならないんです。夜の汽車でロンドンに行くので』お若いのに大変ね！（八十才を越えた先代しか知らないカランでは、ブランダマー卿はまだ若いのである）きっと何か公のお仕事でロンドンに呼ばれているのよ――上院とか宮廷とか、そんな関係だわ。他人に気を遣っていらっしゃるようだけど、同じくらいご自分にも気を遣っていただきたいわ。すごく疲れていらっしゃるみたいだし、顔つきも寂しそうなんですもの、アナスタシア。それでいてとっても思いやりがあるの。『是非お茶を一杯いただきたいです』――一語一句この通りにおっしゃったのよ――『でもそれを持ってくるのにまた階段を登ることはありませんよ。わたしが下に降りて、一緒にいただくとしましょう』ですって。
"I insisted on his using the presentation inkstand, and took away that shabby little black thing; and I could see at once that the silver one was far more like what he had been accustomed to use. He seemed to know something about us, and even asked if the young lady who had shown him in was my niece. That was you; he meant you, Anastasia; he asked if it was _you_. I think he must have met dear Martin somewhere, but I really was so agitated by such a very unexpected visit that I scarcely took in all he said. Yet he was so careful all the time to put me at my ease that at last I ventured to ask him if he would take some light refreshment. `My lord,' I said, `may I be so bold as to offer your lordship a cup of tea? It would be a great honour if you would partake of our humble hospitality.' And what _do_ you think he answered, my dear? `Miss Joliffe'--and he had such a winning look--`there is nothing I should like better. I am very tired with walking about in the church, and have still some little time to wait, for I am going to London by the evening train.' Poor young man! (for Lord Blandamer was still young in Cullerne, which had only known his octogenarian predecessor) he is no doubt called to London on some public business--the House of Lords, or the Court, or something like that. I wish he would take as much care of himself as he seems to take for others. He looks so very tired, and a sad face too, Anastasia, and yet is most considerate. `I should like a cup of tea very much'--those were his exact words--`but you must not trouble to come all the way upstairs again to bring it to me. Let me come down and take it with you.'
"`Forgive me, my lord,' was my answer, `but I could not permit that. Our establishment is much too homely, and I shall feel it a privilege to wait on you, if you will kindly excuse my walking-clothes, as I have just come back from an afternoon meeting. My niece often wishes to relieve me, but I tell her my old legs are more active than her young ones even still.'"
Anastasia's cheeks were red, but she said nothing, and her aunt went on: "So I will take him some tea at once. You can make it, my dear, if you like, but put a great deal more in than we use ourselves. The upper classes have no call to practise economy in such matters, and he is no doubt used to take his tea very strong. I think Mr Sharnall's teapot is the best, and I will get out the silver sugar-tongs and one of the spoons with the `J' on them."
As Miss Joliffe was taking up the tea, she met Westray in the hall. He had just come back from the church, and was not a little concerned at his landlady's greeting. She put down her tray, and, with a fateful gesture and an "Oh, Mr Westray, what do you think?" beckoned him aside into Mr Sharnall's room. His first impression was that some grave accident had happened, that the organist was dead, or that Anastasia Joliffe had sprained an ankle; and he was relieved to hear the true state of affairs. He waited a few minutes while Miss Joliffe took the visitor his tea, and then went upstairs himself.
ブランダマー卿が立ち上がった。
Lord Blandamer rose.
「勝手にお部屋にあがりこんだりして申し訳ありません。わたしのことは、もう下宿のご主人からお聞きになったでしょうね。勝手させていただいた事情についても。言うまでもありませんが、わたしはカランに関係することすべてに興味を持っています。この町のことも早速詳しく知ろうと思っています――それからここの住人のことも」彼はちょっと考えてからそう言い添えた。「まったくお恥ずかしいのですが、今は何も知らないのですよ。しかしこれは長いあいだ外国にいたせいなのです。ほんの数ヶ月前に戻ってきたばかりですから。しかしそんなことはわざわざ申し上げる必要はないでしょう。実はここに来たのは、大聖堂で行われることになっている修復計画についていくつか教えていただきたかったからなのです。そんな計画があるとは、先週まで知りませんでした」
"I must apologise," he said, "for making myself at home in your room; but I hope your landlady may have explained who I am, and how I come to take so great a liberty. I am naturally interested in Cullerne and all that concerns it, and hope ere long to get better acquainted with the place--and the people," he added as an after-thought. "At present I know disgracefully little about it, but that is due to my having been abroad for many years; I only came back a few months ago. But I need not bother you with all this; what I really wanted was to ask you if you would give me some idea of the scheme of restoration which it is proposed to undertake at the minster. Until last week I had not heard that anything of the kind was in contemplation."
His tone was measured, and a clear, deep, voice gave weight and sincerity to his words. His clean-shaven face and olive complexion, his regular features and dark eyebrows, suggested a Spaniard to Westray as he spoke, and the impression was strengthened by the decorous and grave courtesy of his manner.
"I shall be delighted to explain anything I can," said the architect, and took down a bundle of plans and papers from a shelf.
「残念ですが、今晩は時間がありません」とブランダマー卿は言った。「もうすぐロンドン行きの汽車に乗らなければならないのです。しかしよろしければ早い機会にもう一度ここに来ようと思います。たぶん、そのとき一緒に聖堂に行けると思います。あの建物にはとても愛着を感じているんです。建物自体の壮麗さもさることながら、昔の思い出もありましてね。子供の頃、まあ、ときにはとてもみじめな子供時代だったのですが、よくフォーディングからここまで遊びにきて大聖堂のあちこちをぶらぶらしながら何時間も過ごしたものです。螺旋階段や、暗い壁廊や、いわくありげな障壁や信者席を見ているとロマンチックな夢にひたってしまい、今でもその夢から完全に覚めてはいないんじゃないかという気がします。あの建物は大幅な修理の必要があると聞きました。素人目には変わったところは何もないように見えますけど。昔からずっと荒れた感じがしていたせいでしょうか」
"I fear I shall not be able to do much this evening," Lord Blandamer said; "for I have to catch the train to London in a short time; but, if you will allow me, I will take an early opportunity of coming over again. We might then, perhaps, go to the church together. The building has a great fascination for me, not only on account of its own magnificence, but also from old associations. When I was a boy, and sometimes a very unhappy boy, I used often to come over from Fording, and spend hours rambling about the minster. Its winding staircases, its dark wall-passages, its mysterious screens and stalls, brought me romantic dreams, from which I think I have never entirely wakened. I am told the building stands in need of extensive restoration, though to the outsider it looks much the same as ever. It always had a dilapidated air."
Westray gave a short outline of what it was considered should ultimately be done, and of what it was proposed to attack for the present.
"You see, we have our work cut out for us," he said. "The transept roof is undoubtedly the most urgent matter, but there are lots of other things that cannot be left to themselves for long. I have grave doubts about the stability of the tower, though my Chief doesn't share them to anything like the same extent: and perhaps that is just as well, for we are hampered on every side by lack of funds. They are going to have a bazaar next week to try to give the thing a lift, but a hundred bazaars would not produce half that is wanted."
"I gathered that there were difficulties of this kind," the visitor said reflectively. "As I came out of the church after service to-day I met the organist. He had no idea who I was, but gave his views very strongly as to Lord Blandamer's responsibilities for things in general, and for the organ in particular. We are, I suppose, under some sort of moral obligation for the north transept, from having annexed it as a burying-place. It used to be called, I fancy, the Blandamer Aisle."
"Yes, it is called so still," Westray answered. He was glad to see the turn the conversation had taken, and hoped that a _deus ex machina_ had appeared. Lord Blandamer's next question was still more encouraging.
「袖廊の修復にはいくらかかるとお考えですか」
"At what do you estimate the cost of the transept repairs?"
Westray ran through his papers till he found a printed leaflet with a view of Cullerne Minster on the outside.
"Here are Sir George Farquhar's figures," he said. "This was a circular that was sent everywhere to invite subscriptions, but it scarcely paid the cost of printing. No one will give a penny to these things nowadays. Here it is, you see--seven thousand eight hundred pounds for the north transept."
There was a little pause. Westray did not look up, being awkwardly conscious that the sum was larger than Lord Blandamer had anticipated, and fearing that such an abrupt disclosure might have damped the generosity of an intended contributor.
ブランダマー卿は話題を変えた。
Lord Blandamer changed the subject.
"Who is the organist? I rather liked his manner, for all he took me so sharply, if impersonally, to task. He seems a clever musician, but his instrument is in a shocking state."
"He _is_ a very clever organist," Westray answered. It was evident that Lord Blandamer was in a subscribing frame of mind, and if his generosity did not extend to undertaking the cost of the transept, he might at least give something towards the organ. The architect tried to do his friend Mr Sharnall a service. "He is a very clever organist," he repeated; "his name is Sharnall, and he lodges in this house. Shall I call him? Would you like to ask him about the organ?"
"Oh no, not now; I have so little time; another day we can have a chat. Surely a very little money--comparatively little money, I mean--would put the organ in proper repair. Did they never approach my grandfather, the late Lord Blandamer, on the question of funds for these restorations?"
Westray's hopes of a contribution were again dashed, and he felt a little contemptuous at such evasions. They came with an ill grace after Lord Blandamer's needlessly affectionate panegyric of the church.
"Yes," he said; "Canon Parkyn, the Rector here, wrote to the late Lord Blandamer begging for a subscription to the restoration fund for the church, but never got any answer."
Westray flung something like a sneer into his tone, and was already sorry for his ungracious words before he had finished speaking. But the other seemed to take no offence, where some would have been offended.
"Ah," he said, "my grandfather was no doubt a very sad old man indeed. I must go now, or I shall miss my train. You shall introduce me to Mr Sharnall the next time I come to Cullerne; I have your promise, remember, to take me over the church. Is it not so?"
"Yes--oh yes, certainly," Westray said, though with less cordiality perhaps than he had used on the previous occasion. He was disappointed that Lord Blandamer had promised no subscription, and accompanied him to the foot of the stairs with much the same feelings as a shop-assistant entertains for the lady who, having turned over goods for half an hour, retreats with the promise that she will consider the matter and call again.
ブランダマー卿がベルヴュー・ロッジの外の階段を降りていくとき、日はかげりはじめていた。いつもより早く日が暮れたのだろう、訪問者が上の階にあがってすぐ、アナスタシアは台所が暗すぎて本が読めないことに気がついた。そこで彼女は本を持ってミスタ・シャーノールの部屋へ行き、窓辺の席に座った。 ~~~ そこはミスタ・シャーノールが外出しているときも、家にいるときも、彼女が好んでよく行く場所だった。ミスタ・シャーノールは子供のときから彼女を知っていたし、作曲しているとき静かに読書する優雅な娘の姿を見るのが好きだったのだ。奥行きのある窓辺の腰掛けはペンキを塗った樅の板で作られていた。背に沿って色あせたクッションが垂れ下がっていて、窓が開いているときは上に持ちあげ窓枠に載せることができ、夏の夜など、誰でも肘を休めながら外を眺めることができた。
Miss Joliffe had been waiting on the kitchen stairs, and so was able to meet Lord Blandamer in the hall quite accidentally. She showed him out of the front-door with renewed professions of respect, for she knew nothing of his niggardly evasions of a subscription, and in her eyes a lord was still a lord. He added the comble to all his graces and courtesies by shaking her hand as he left the house, and expressing a hope that she would be so kind as to give him another cup of tea, the very next time he was in Cullerne.
The light was failing as Lord Blandamer descended the flight of steps outside the door of Bellevue Lodge. The evening must have closed in earlier than usual, for very soon after the visitor had gone upstairs Anastasia found it too dark to read in the kitchen; so she took her book, and sat in the window-seat of Mr Sharnall's room.
しばらく前から読書ができないくらい暗くなっていたのだが、アナスタシアは窓辺の席に座りつづけた。ブランダマー卿が階段を降りてくる音を聞きつけると、通りの景色が見えるように真鍮のつまみを回した。叔母が玄関で滔々と同じお世辞を繰り返すのを聞き、暗闇の中で顔が赤くなるのを感じた。彼女が赤面したのはウエストレイが重要人物にむかってあまりにもぞんざいでなれなれしい口を利くのが癇に障ったからでもある。そして顔を赤くするという自分の愚かさに対して赤面した。正面玄関のドアがようやく閉まり、ガス灯の明かりが階段を降りるブランダマー卿の活力のある姿と、まっすぐで四角い肩に当たった。三千年前、もう一人の乙女が側柱とドアのあいだから、父の宮殿を去るもう一人の偉大なよそ者のまっすぐな広い背中を見ていた。しかしアナスタシアはナウシカアより幸運だった。バイエケス人の船にむかいながら、ユリシーズが後ろを振り返ったという記録はないけれど、ブランダマー卿は振り返って後ろを見たからである。
It was a favourite resort of hers, both when Mr Sharnall was out, and also when he was at home; for he had known her from childhood, and liked to watch the graceful girlish form as she read quietly while he worked at his music. The deep window-seat was panelled in painted deal, and along the side of it hung a faded cushion, which could be turned over on to the sill when the sash was thrown up, so as to form a rest for the arms of anyone who desired to look out on a summer evening.
The window was still open, though it was dusk; but Anastasia's head, which just appeared above the sill, was screened from observation by a low blind. This blind was formed of a number of little green wooden slats, faded and blistered by the suns of many summers, and so arranged that, by the turning of a brass, urn-shaped knob, they could be made to open and afford a prospect of the outer world to anyone sitting inside.
It had been for some time too dark for Anastasia to read, but she still sat in the window-seat; and as she heard Lord Blandamer come down the stairs, she turned the brass urn so as to command a view of the street. She felt herself blushing in the dusk, at the reiterated and voluminous compliments which her aunt was paying in the hall. She blushed because Westray's tone was too off-handed and easy towards so important a personage to please her critical mood; and then she blushed again at her own folly in blushing. The front-door shut at last, and the gaslight fell on Lord Blandamer's active figure and straight, square shoulders as he went down the steps. Three thousand years before, another maiden had looked between the doorpost and the door, at the straight broad back of another great stranger as he left her father's palace; but Anastasia was more fortunate than Nausicaa, for there is no record that Ulysses cast any backward glance as he walked down to the Phaeacian ship, and Lord Blandamer did turn and look back.
それは厳しい顔だった。彼女は暗がりの中で目を閉じ、何度もその顔を思い浮かべた。彼女にはその厳しさが分かった。厳しくて――ほとんど残酷ですらあった。いや、残酷ではない。ただ情け容赦ない決意を秘めているのだ。目的を達するために必要ならば残酷さえも辞さない決意を。このように彼女は小説風のやり方で議論を重ねた。ヒロインたるもの、この程度の議論ができなくてどうしようと彼女は思っていた。ヒロインは、どれほど謎めいた顔であっても一目でその仮面をはぎ取り、「涙なしの読み物」（註 イギリスの初等読本）の頁を読むように、そこに書かれた情熱を明瞭に読み取ることができなければ、残念ながらその気高い役割を勤める資格がないのである。彼女、アナスタシアにそのくらいの単純な能力が欠けているはずがあるだろうか。いや、彼女は男の顔つきを一瞬で見定めた。あれは残酷なまでに固く決意している顔だわ。厳しいけれど、でも、なんてハンサムなのかしら！彼女ははじめて戸口で会ったとき、灰色の目が彼女の目とぶつかり、その力で彼女の目を眩ませてしまったことを思い出した。十代の田舎娘にしては驚くべき洞察、驚くべき心理の読み取りである。しかし嬰児《をさなご》や乳飲み子の口によってこそ、力の基《もとゐ》は永遠に定められるのではなかっただろうか。（註 詩篇から）
He turned and looked back; he seemed to Anastasia to look between the little blistered slats into her very eyes. Of course, he could not have guessed that a very foolish girl, the niece of a very foolish landlady in a very commonplace lodging-house, in a very commonplace country town, was watching him behind a shutter; but he turned and looked, and Anastasia stayed for half an hour after he had gone, thinking of the hard and clean-cut face that she had seen for an instant in the flickering gaslight.
It was a hard face, and as she sat in the dark with closed eyes, and saw that face again and again in her mind, she knew that it was hard. It was hard--it was almost cruel. No, it was not cruel, but only recklessly resolved, with a resolution that would not swerve from cruelty, if cruelty were needed to accomplish its purpose. Thus she reasoned in the approved manner of fiction. She knew that such reasonings were demanded of heroines. A heroine must be sadly unworthy of her lofty role if she could not with a glance unmask even the most enigmatic countenance, and trace the passions writ in it, clearly as a page of "Reading without Tears." And was she, Anastasia, to fall short in such a simple craft? No, she had measured the man's face in a moment; it was resolved, even to cruelty. It was hard, but ah! how handsome! and she remembered how the grey eyes had met hers and blinded them with power, when she first saw him on the doorstep. Wondrous musings, wondrous thought-reading, by a countrified young lady in her teens; but is it not out of the mouths of babes and sucklings that strength has been eternally ordained?
She was awakened from her reverie by the door being flung open, and she leapt from her perch as Mr Sharnall entered the room.
"Heyday! heyday!" he said, "what have we here? Fire out, and window open; missy dreaming of Sir Arthur Bedevere, and catching a cold--a very poetic cold in the head."
His words jarred on her mood like the sharpening of a slate-pencil. She said nothing, but brushed by him, shut the door behind her, and left him muttering in the dark.
ブランダマー卿の訪問という興奮は、ミス・ジョウリフを疲労困憊させてしまった。彼女は殿方たちに夕食を持っていき――ミスタ・ウエストレイはその晩ミスタ・シャーノールの部屋で食事をした――アナスタシアにちっとも疲れていないと請け合ったのだが、しかし程なくそんなそぶりもできなくなって、首もたれが左右に張り出した背の高い椅子に、安らぎを求めて避難せざるを得なかった。この椅子は台所の隅に置いてあって、病気とかほかの緊急事態のときにしか使われないものだった。食事の片付けを促す呼び鈴が鳴ったが、ミス・ジョウリフはぐっすりと寝こんでいて、その音が聞こえなかった。アナスタシアは通常は「給仕」をすることを許されていなかったが、疲労の溜まりすぎた叔母を起こしてはならないと、自分でお盆を持って階段を上がった。
The excitement of Lord Blandamer's visit had overtaxed Miss Joliffe. She took the gentlemen their supper--and Mr Westray was supping in Mr Sharnall's room that evening--and assured Anastasia that she was not in the least tired. But ere long she was forced to give up this pretence, and to take refuge in a certain high-backed chair with ears, which stood in a corner of the kitchen, and was only brought into use in illness or other emergency. The bell rang for supper to be taken away, but Miss Joliffe was fast asleep, and did not hear it. Anastasia was not allowed to "wait" under ordinary circumstances, but her aunt must not be disturbed when she was so tired, and she took the tray herself and went upstairs.
"He is a striking-looking man enough," Westray was saying as she entered the room; "but I must say he did not impress me favourably in other respects. He spoke too enthusiastically about the church. It would have sat on him with a very good grace if he had afterwards come down with five hundred pounds, but ecstasies are out of place when a man won't give a halfpenny to turn them into reality."
「あいつは爺さんそっくりだ」とオルガン奏者は言った。 ~~~
"He is a chip of the old block," said the organist.
うるう年 二月は二十九日まで ~~~ 支払いは 三十日《みそか》にするぞとブランダマー
"`_Leap year's February twenty-nine days, And on the thirtieth Blandamer pays_.'
"That's a saw about here. Well, I rubbed it into him this afternoon, and all the harder because I hadn't the least idea who he was."
There was a fierce colour in Anastasia's cheeks as she packed the dirty plates and supper debris into the tray, and a fiercer feeling in her heart. She tried hard to conceal her confusion, and grew more confused in the effort. The organist watched her closely, without ever turning his eyes in her direction. He was a cunning little man, and before the table was cleared had guessed who was the hero of those dreams, from which he had roused her an hour earlier.
Westray waved away with his hand a puff of smoke which drifted into his face from Mr Sharnall's pipe.
"He asked me whether anyone had ever approached the old lord about the restoration, and I said the Rector had written, and never got an answer."
「手紙は先代の卿に出したんじゃないよ」ミスタ・シャーノールが口をはさんだ。「他でもないあいつに宛てて出したんだ。あいつに出したことを知らなかったのかい？先代のブランダマーに手紙を出したって紙とインクの無駄だってことは皆知っている。そんな馬鹿なことをしたのはわたしだけだよ。一度、オルガン修理の嘆願書を印刷し、名簿の筆頭に署名して欲しいと一部送りつけたことがある。しばらくして十シリング六ペンスの小切手を送ってきたよ。わたしは礼状を書いて、オルガン椅子の脚が折れたら、これで直せますわいと言ってやった。もっともやつのほうが一枚上手だった。小切手を現金に換えようと銀行に行ったら、支払い停止になっていたんだ」
"It wasn't to the _old_ lord he wrote," Mr Sharnall cut in; "it was to this very man. Didn't you know it was to this very man? No one ever thought it worth ink and paper to write to _old_ Blandamer. I was the only one, fool enough to do that. I had an appeal for the organ printed once upon a time, and sent him a copy, and asked him to head the list. After a bit he sent me a cheque for ten shillings and sixpence; and then I wrote and thanked him, and said it would do very nicely to put a new leg on the organ-stool if one should ever break. But he had the last word, for when I went to the bank to cash the cheque, I found it stopped."
Westray laughed with a thin and tinkling merriment that irritated Anastasia more than an honest guffaw.
"When he stuck at seven thousand eight hundred pounds for the church, I tried to give _you_ a helping hand with the organ. I told him you lived in the house; would he not like to see you? `Oh no, not _now_,' he said; `some other day.'"
"He is a chip of the old block," the organist said again bitterly. "Gather figs of thistles, if you will, but don't expect money from Blandamers."
Anastasia's thumb went into the curry as she lifted the dish, but she did not notice it. She was only eager to get away, to place herself outside the reach of these slanderous tongues, to hide herself where she could unburden her heart of its bitterness. Mr Sharnall fired one more shaft at her as she left the room.
"He takes after his grandfather in other ways besides close-fistedness. The old man had a bad enough name with women, and this man has a worse. They are a poor lot--lock, stock, and barrel."
Lord Blandamer had certainly been unhappy in the impression which he created at Bellevue Lodge; a young lady had diagnosed his countenance as hard and cruel, an architect had detected niggardliness in his disposition, and an organist was resolved to regard him at all hazards as a personal foe. It was fortunate indeed for his peace of mind that he was completely unaware of this, but, then, he might not perhaps have troubled much even if he had known all about it. The only person who had a good word for him was Miss Euphemia Joliffe. She woke up flushed, but refreshed, after her nap, and found the supper-things washed and put away in their places.
"My dear, my dear," she said deprecatingly, "I am afraid I have been asleep, and left all the work to you. You should not have done this, Anastasia. You ought to have awakened me." The flesh was weak, and she was forced to hold her hand before her mouth for a moment to conceal a yawn; but her mind reverted instinctively to the great doings of the day, and she said with serene reflection: "A very remarkable man, so dignified and yet so affable, and _very_ handsome too, my dear."
第九章 ~~~
CHAPTER NINE.
Among the letters which the postman brought to Bellevue Lodge on the morning following these remarkable events was an envelope which possessed a dreadful fascination. It bore a little coronet stamped in black upon the flap, and "Edward Westray, Esquire, Bellevue Lodge, Cullerne," written on the front in a bold and clear hand. But this was not all, for low in the left corner was the inscription "Blandamer." A single word, yet fraught with so mystical an import that it set Anastasia's heart beating fast as she gave it to her aunt, to be taken upstairs with the architect's breakfast.
"There is a letter for you, sir, from Lord Blandamer," Miss Joliffe said, as she put down the tray on the table.
But the architect only grunted, and went on with ruler and compass at the plan with which he was busy. Miss Joliffe would have been more than woman had she not felt a burning curiosity to know the contents of so important a missive; and to leave a nobleman's letter neglected on the table seemed to her little short of sacrilege.
Never had breakfast taken longer to lay, and still there was the letter lying by the tin cover, which (so near is grandeur to our dust) concealed a simple bloater. Poor Miss Joliffe made a last effort ere she left the room to bring Westray to a proper appreciation of the situation.
"There is a letter for you, sir; I think it is from Lord Blandamer."
"Yes, yes," the architect said sharply; "I will attend to it presently."
And so she retired, routed.
Westray's nonchalance had been in part assumed. He was anxious to show that he, at any rate, could rise superior to artificial distinctions of rank, and was no more to be impressed by peers than peasants. He kept up this philosophic indifference even after Miss Joliffe left the room; for he took life very seriously, and felt his duty towards himself to be at least as important as that towards his neighbours. Resolution lasted till the second cup of tea, and then he opened the letter.
"Dear Sir" (it began),
"I understood from you yesterday that the repairs to the north transept of Cullerne Minster are estimated to cost 7,800 pounds. This charge I should like to bear myself, and thus release for other purposes of restoration the sum already collected. I am also prepared to undertake whatever additional outlay is required to put the whole building in a state of substantial repair. Will you kindly inform Sir George Farquhar of this, and ask him to review the scheme of restoration as modified by these considerations? I shall be in Cullerne on Saturday next, and hope I may find you at home if I call about five in the afternoon, and that you may then have time to show me the church.
敬白
"I am, dear sir,
"Very truly yours,
ブランダマー ~~~
"Blandamer."
ウエストレイは手紙を一気に斜め読みした。平凡に一つ一つ字句を追って理解したというより、直感的に内容を感じ取ったのだった。また、小説では普通、重要な手紙は読み返すことになっているのだが、彼はそれもしなかった。ただ手紙を手に持ち、考えごとをしながら思わずそれをくしゃっと丸めこんでしまった。彼は驚き、喜んだ――ブランダマー卿の申し出によって活動の幅がいちだんと広がり、また自分がこのように重要な通知の伝達役に選ばれたことを喜んだ。要するに彼はうれしさと当惑の入りまじった興奮、思いもよらぬ幸運が訪れたとき、よほど強い心の持ち主でないかぎり見舞われる精神的陶酔を感じ、くしゃくしゃの手紙を握り締めたまま、ミスタ・シャーノールの部屋へ降りていったのである。燻製ニシンはおいしそうな匂いをいたずらに朝の空気にまき散らした。
Westray had scanned the letter so rapidly that he knew its contents by intuition rather than by the more prosaic method of reading. Nor did he re-read it several times, as is generally postulated by important communications in fiction; he simply held it in his hand, and crumpled it unconsciously, while he thought. He was surprised, and he was pleased--pleased at the wider vista of activity that Lord Blandamer's offer opened, and pleased that he should be chosen as the channel through which an announcement of such gravity was to be made. He felt, in short, that pleasurable and confused excitement, that mental inebriation, which unexpected good fortune is apt to produce in any except the strongest minds, and went down to Mr Sharnall's room still crumpling the letter in his hand. The bloater was left to waste its sweetness on the morning air.
"I have just received some extraordinary news," he said, as he opened the door.
Mr Sharnall was not altogether unprepared, for Miss Joliffe had already informed him that a letter from Lord Blandamer had arrived for Mr Westray; so he only said "Ah!" in a tone that implied compassion for the lack of mental balance which allowed Westray to be so easily astonished, and added "Ah, yes?" as a manifesto that no sublunary catastrophe could possibly astonish him, Mr Sharnall. But Westray's excitement was cold-waterproof, and he read the letter aloud with much jubilation.
"Well," said the organist, "I don't see much in it; seven thousand pounds is nothing to him. When we have done all that we ought to do, we are unprofitable servants."
"It isn't only seven thousand pounds; don't you see he gives carte-blanche for repairs in general? Why, it may be thirty or forty thousand, or even more."
"Don't you wish you may get it?" the organist said, raising his eyebrows and shutting his eyelids.
ウエストレイはいらいらした。
Westray was nettled.
"Oh, I think it's mean to sneer at everything the man does. We abused him yesterday as a niggard; let us have the grace to-day to say we were mistaken." He was afflicted with the over-scrupulosity of a refined, but strictly limited mind, and his conscience smote him. "I, at any rate, was quite mistaken," he went on; "I quite misinterpreted his hesitation when I mentioned the cost of the transept repairs."
"Your chivalrous sentiments do you the greatest credit," the organist said, "and I congratulate you on being able to change your ideas so quickly. As for me, I prefer to stick to my first opinion. It is all humbug; either he doesn't mean to pay, or else he has some plan of his own to push. _I_ wouldn't touch his money with a barge-pole."
"Oh no, of course not," Westray said, with the exaggerated sarcasm of a schoolboy in his tone. "If he was to offer a thousand pounds to restore the organ, you wouldn't take a penny of it."
"He hasn't offered a thousand yet," rejoined the organist; "and when he does, I'll send him away with a flea in his ear."
"That's a very encouraging announcement for would-be contributors," Westray sneered; "they ought to come forward very strongly after that."
"Well, I must get on with some copying," the organist said dryly; and Westray went back to the bloater.
このようにミスタ・シャーノールは気前のよい申し出に対して情けないほど感謝の意をあらわさなかったが、カランの他の人々はその例に追従するそぶりも見せなかった。ウエストレイはうれしさのあまり素晴らしい知らせを打ち明けずにはいられなかった。また秘密にしなければならないいかなる理由もなかった。彼は石工頭、教会事務員のミスタ・ジャナウエイ、牧師補のミスタ・ヌートにこのことを告げ、主任司祭の参事会員パーキンにはいちばん最後に話をした。もっとも彼にこそ、いちばん最初にニュースを伝えるべきであったことは言うまでもないけれど。そういうわけで聖セパルカ大聖堂の組み鐘がその日の午後三時に「新しい安息日」を演奏する頃には、町中の人がブランダマー卿の帰還と、大聖堂修復工事費用負担の約束を知ったのだった。大聖堂は誰にとっても大きな誇りであったが、自分の懐から寄付金を出すという、疎ましいことを考える必要がないとき、その誇りはいやがうえにも高まった。
If Mr Sharnall was thus pitiably wanting in appreciation of a munificent offer, the rest of Cullerne made no pretence of imitating his example. Westray was too elated to keep the good news to himself, nor did there appear, indeed, to be any reason for making a secret of it. So he told the foreman-mason, and Mr Janaway the clerk, and Mr Noot the curate, and lastly Canon Parkyn the rector, whom he certainly ought to have told the first of all. Thus, before the carillon of Saint Sepulchre's played "New sabbath" [See Appendix at the end of the volume] at three o'clock that afternoon, the whole town was aware that the new Lord Blandamer had been among them, and had promised to bear the cost of restoring the great minster of which they were all so proud--so very much more proud when their pride entailed no sordid considerations of personal subscription.
Canon Parkyn was ruffled. Mrs Parkyn perceived it when he came in to dinner at one o'clock, but, being a prudent woman, she did not allude directly to his ill-humour, though she tried to dispel it by leading the conversation to topics which experience had shown her were soothing to him. Among such the historic visit of Sir George Farquhar, and the deference which he had paid to the Rector's suggestions, occupied a leading position: but the mention of the great architect's name, was a signal for a fresh exhibition of vexation on her husband's part.
"I wish," he said, "that Sir George would pay a little more personal attention to the work at the minster. His representative, this Mr-- er--er--this Mr Westray, besides being, I fear, very inexperienced and deficient in architectural knowledge, is a most conceited young man, and constantly putting himself forward in an unbecoming way. He came to me this morning with an exceedingly strange communication--a letter from Lord Blandamer."
ミセス・パーキンはナイフとフォークを置いた。
Mrs Parkyn laid down her knife and fork.
"A letter from Lord Blandamer?" she said in unconcealed amazement--"a letter from Lord Blandamer to Mr Westray!"
"Yes," the Rector went on, losing some of his annoyance in the pleasurable consciousness that his words created a profound sensation--"a letter in which his lordship offers to bear in the first place the cost of the repairs of the north transept, and afterwards to make good any deficiency in the funds required for the restoration of the rest of the fabric. Of course, I am very loth to question any action taken by a member of the Upper House, but at the same time I am compelled to characterise the proceeding as most irregular. That such a communication should be made to a mere clerk of the works, instead of to the Rector and duly appointed guardian of the sacred edifice, is so grave a breach of propriety that I am tempted to veto the matter entirely, and to refuse to accept this offer."
His face wore a look of sublime dignity, and he addressed his wife as if she were a public meeting. _Ruat coelum_, Canon Parkyn was not to be moved a hair's-breadth from the line traced by propriety and rectitude. He knew in his inmost heart that under no possible circumstances would he have refused any gift that was offered him, yet his own words had about them so heroic a ring that for a moment he saw himself dashing Lord Blandamer's money on the floor, as early Christians had flung to the wind that pinch of incense that would have saved them from the lions.
"I think I _must_ refuse this offer," he repeated.
Mrs Parkyn knew her husband intimately--more intimately, perhaps, than he knew himself--and had an additional guarantee that the discussion was merely academic in the certainty that, even were he really purposed to refuse the offer, she would not _allow_ him to do so. Yet she played the game, and feigned to take him seriously.
"I quite appreciate your scruples, my dear; they are just what anyone who knew you would expect. It is a positive affront that you should be told of such a proposal by this impertinent young man; and Lord Blandamer has so strange a reputation himself that one scarcely knows how far it is right to accept anything from him for sacred purposes. I honour your reluctance. Perhaps it _would_ be right for you to decline this proposal, or, at any rate, to take time for consideration."
The Rector looked furtively at his wife. He was a little alarmed at her taking him so readily at his word. He had hoped that she would be dismayed--that she could have brought proper arguments to bear to shake his high resolve.
"Ah, your words have unwittingly reminded me of my chief difficulty in refusing. It is the sacred purpose which makes me doubt my own judgment. It would be a painful reflection to think that the temple should suffer by my refusing this gift. Maybe I should be yielding to my own petulance or personal motives if I were to decline. I must not let my pride stand in the way of higher obligations."
彼は最上の説教檀的態度で締めくくり、茶番はすぐに終わった。贈り物は受け取らなければならないこと、ミスタ・ウエストレイについては、ブランダマー卿がかくも不適切な伝達経路を用いたのは彼の仕組んだことに違いないから、しかるべき方法でそのおこがましさを罰すること、そして主任司祭はやんごとなき寄付者に直接感謝の手紙を書くことが合意された。かくして昼食後、参事会員パーキンは「書斎」に引きこもって、そうした場合にふさわしい、大げさな言い回しの手紙を書きあげた。その中で彼はありとあらゆる高潔な動機や美質をブランダマー卿に付与し、きざったらしいことこの上ない祝福を彼の頭に浴びせかけた。お茶の時間にこの手紙はミセス・パーキンによって目を通され添削された。彼女は仕上げに独自のことばを付け加えた。特に前口上には、参事会員パーキンが現場監督から聞いたところによると、ブランダマー卿はある申し出をするために参事会員パーキンに手紙を書きたいとおっしゃったが、まずそのような申し出が参事会員パーキンの意にかなうかどうか、現場監督にお尋ねになったそうですね、という文言を加え、また結語には、この次カランにお出での際は司祭館でおもてなしを受けてくださいますように、と書き添えた。
He concluded in his best pulpit manner, and the farce was soon at an end. It was agreed that the gift must be accepted, that proper measures should be taken to rebuke Mr Westray's presumption, as _he_ had no doubt induced Lord Blandamer to select so improper a channel of communication, and that the Rector should himself write direct to thank the noble donor. So, after dinner, Canon Parkyn retired to his "study," and composed a properly fulsome letter, in which he attributed all the noblest possible motives and qualities to Lord Blandamer, and invoked all the most unctuously conceived blessings upon his head. And at teatime the letter was perused and revised by Mrs Parkyn, who added some finishing touches of her own, especially a preamble which stated that Canon Parkyn had been informed by the clerk of the works that Lord Blandamer had expressed a desire to write to Canon Parkyn to make a certain offer, but had asked the clerk of the works to find out first whether such an offer would be acceptable to Canon Parkyn, and a peroration which hoped that Lord Blandamer would accept the hospitality of the Rectory on the occasion of his next visit to Cullerne.
The letter reached Lord Blandamer at Fording the next morning as he sat over a late breakfast, with a Virgil open on the table by his coffee-cup. He read the Rector's stilted periods without a smile, and made a mental note that he would at once send a specially civil acknowledgment. Then he put it carefully into his pocket, and turned back to the _Di patrii indigetes et Romule Vestaque Mater_ of the First Georgic, which he was committing to memory, and banished the invitation so completely from his mind that he never thought of it again till he was in Cullerne a week later.
ブランダマー卿の訪問と聖堂修復に対する申し出は、一週間のあいだ、カランの人が寄ると触ると噂する、お決まりの話題となった。幸運にも彼を見たり、話をした人は、その人となりを議論し意見を交換した。外見から声から物腰まで、どんな些細な点も彼らは逃すことがなかった。この関心は感染力があり、卿をまったく見たことのない人までもが興奮のあまり、卿に通りで呼び止められ、建築家の下宿へ行く道を聞かれたと言い出す始末で、卿があまりにも多くの印象的、かつ信用すべき発言をしているものだから、あの晩、彼がベルヴュー・ロッジにたどり着いたのが不思議なくらいだった。教会事務員ジャナウエイは重要人物との会話の機会を逃し、悔しがることしきりだったが、見知らぬ男の灰色の目が彼をナイフのように刺し貫くのを感じたとか、自分は御前様が聖歌隊席に入るのを止める振りをしただけで、相手の堂々たる要求態度を見て、自分の直感が正しいことを確かめたかったのだ、などと強調した。ほかでもねえ、ブランダマー卿とお話しているこたあ、しょっぱなから分かっていたのさ、と彼は言った。
Lord Blandamer's visit, and the offer which he had made for the restoration of the church, formed the staple of Cullerne conversation for a week. All those who had been fortunate enough to see or to speak to him discussed him with one another, and compared notes. Scarcely a detail of his personal appearance, of his voice or manner escaped them; and so infectious was this interest that some who had never seen him at all were misled by their excitement into narrating how he had stopped them in the street to ask the way to the architect's lodgings, and how he had made so many striking and authentic remarks that it was wonderful that he had ever reached Bellevue Lodge at all that night. Clerk Janaway, who was sorely chagrined to think that he should have missed an opportunity of distinguished converse, declared that he had felt the stranger's grey eyes go through and through him like a knife, and had only made believe to stop him entering the choir, in order to convince himself by the other's masterful insistence that his own intuition was correct. He had known all the time, he said, that he was speaking to none other than Lord Blandamer.
Westray thought the matter important enough to justify him in going to London to consult Sir George Farquhar, as to the changes in the scheme of restoration which Lord Blandamer's munificence made possible; but Mr Sharnall, at any rate, was left to listen to Miss Joliffe's recollections, surmises, and panegyrics.
In spite of all the indifference which the organist had affected when he first heard the news, he showed a surprising readiness to discuss the affair with all comers, and exhibited no trace of his usual impatience with Miss Joliffe, so long as she was talking of Lord Blandamer. To Anastasia it seemed as if he could talk of nothing else, and the more she tried to check him by her silence or by change of subject, the more bitterly did he return to the attack.
The only person to exhibit no interest in this unhappy nobleman, who had outraged propriety by offering to contribute to the restoration of the minster, was Anastasia herself; and even tolerant Miss Joliffe was moved to chide her niece's apathy in this particular.
「ねえ、あなた。立派なすぐれた行いをそんなふうに無視するなんて、若い人であろうと年寄りであろうと、いけないことじゃないかしら。ミスタ・シャーノールは神様の思し召した境涯に不満を持っているみたいだから、褒めるべきものを褒めないことがあったとしても驚かないわ。でも若い人はそうはいかない。わたしが若いときに誰かがウィドコウム大聖堂の修復費用を寄付したら――特に貴族が寄付したら――きっとその――新しい服を買ってもらったみたいな喜びを、それに近いものを感じると思うわ」彼女は「きっとその方がわたしに新しい服を買ってくれたみたいな」と言いそうになったのを別の表現に変えたのだった。いくら説明に過ぎないとはいえ、貴族が自分に新しい服を買ってくれるなど、大それた不適切なことのように思われたのだ。
"I do not think it becomes us, love, young or old, to take so little notice of great and good deeds. Mr Sharnall is, I fear, discontented with the station of life to which it has pleased Providence to call him, and I am less surprised at _his_ not always giving praise where praise should be given; but with the young it is different. I am sure if anyone had offered to restore Wydcombe Church when I was a girl--and specially a nobleman--I should have been as delighted, or nearly as delighted, as if he--as if I had been given a new frock." She altered the "as if he had given me" which was upon her tongue because the proposition, even for purposes of illustration, that a nobleman could ever have offered her a new frock seemed to have in itself something of the scandalous and unfitting.
「わたしなら有頂天になったと思うわ。でもねえ、あの当時はみんな先見の明がなくて、修復なんて考えもしなかった。わたしたちは日曜日ごとにとっても座り心地のいい椅子に座っていたものよ。クッションと膝布団がついていて、通路は板石敷き――表面がすり減った普通の板石敷きで、陶磁のタイルなんか全然使っていないの。タイルは見栄えはするけど、いつも滑りそうな気がしてねえ。あんなのはないほうがいいわ。固すぎるし、ぴかぴかしすぎ。あの頃教会にあったのはとても時代遅れなものばかりよ。みんながまわりの壁に血縁の銘板をかけたり、黒大理石の石版の上に白い小箱を載せたものとか、壺とか、天使の頭像とかを置いてるの。わたしの席の真向かいには、名前は忘れたけど、柳の木の下で泣いている可哀想な貴婦人の絵がかかっていたわ。去年の冬に町の会館で若い男の方が『教会を美しくするために』っていう講演をして、その中で言っていたけど、確かにああしたものは神聖な場所にふさわしくないわね。あの方は『壁面の火ぶくれ』と呼んでいたわ。でもわたしの若い頃はそれを取っ払おうなんて誰も言わなかった。そのためのお金を出す人がいなかったからだと思うわ。それが、ほら、ご親切にもまだお若いブランダマー卿が気前よく寄付をしてくださって。きっとカラン大聖堂はもうすぐ見違えるようになるでしょう。あの講演者も言っていたけど、わたしたち礼拝のときはしなだれるような姿勢をしちゃだめなのよ。あの方は『しなだれる』ってことばを使っていた。ベーズと膝布団は取り払われるでしょうねえ。でもちょっとでいいから何かを席に残しておいて欲しいわ。むき出しの木の上に座ると、ときどき身体が痛くなるんですもの。こんなこと、世界中であなたにしか言えないけど、でも本当にときどき身体が痛くなるのよ。それから通路に陶磁が敷かれたら、わたし、転ばないようにあなたの腕にすがりつくわ。ブランダマー卿がわたしたちのためにこうしたことをみんなしてくださるっていうのに、あなたときたらちっとも感謝してないんですもの。若い娘にあるまじき態度よ」
"I should have been delighted, but, dear me! in those days people were so blind as never to think of restorations. We used to sit in quite _comfortable_ seats every Sunday, with cushions and hassocks, and the aisles were paved with flagstones--simple worn flagstones, and none of the caustic tiles which look so much more handsome; though I am always afraid I am going to slip, and glad to be off them, they are so hard and shiny. Church matters were very behindhand then. All round the walls were tablets that people had put up to their relations, white caskets on black marble slates, and urns and cherubs' heads, and just opposite where I used to sit a poor lady, whose name I have forgotten, weeping under a willow-tree. No doubt they were very much out of place in the sanctuary, as the young gentleman said in his lecture on `How to make our Churches Beautiful' in the Town Hall last winter. He called them `mural blisters,' my dear, but there was no talk of removing them in my young days, and that was, I dare say, because there was no one to give the money for it. But now, here is this good young nobleman, Lord Blandamer, come forward so handsomely, and I have no doubt at Cullerne all will be much improved ere long. We are not meant to _loll_ at our devotions, as the lecturer told us. That was his word, to `_loll_'; and they will be sure to take away the baize and hassocks, though I do hope there will be a little strip of _something_ on the seats; the bare wood is apt to make one ache sometimes. I should not say it to anyone else in the world but you, but it _does_ make me ache a little sometimes; and when the caustic is put down in the aisle, I shall take your arm, my dear, to save me from slipping. Here is Lord Blandamer going to do all this for us, and you do not show yourself in the least grateful. It is not becoming in a young girl."
"Dear aunt, what would you have me do? I cannot go and thank him publicly in the name of the town. That would be still more unbecoming; and I am sure I hope they will not do all the dreadful things in the church that you speak of. I love the old monuments, and like _lolling_ much better than bare forms."
So she would laugh the matter off; but if she could not be induced to talk of Lord Blandamer, she thought of him the more, and rehearsed again and again in day-dreams and in night-dreams every incident of that momentous Saturday afternoon, from the first bars of the overture, when he had revealed in so easy and simple a way that he was none other than Lord Blandamer, to the ringing down of the curtain, when he turned to look back--to that glance when his eyes had seemed to meet hers, although she was hidden behind a blind, and he could not have guessed that she was there.
ウエストレイは状況の変化に伴って練り直され拡充された修復計画と、ブランダマー卿宛の手紙を手に、ロンドンから戻った。手紙の中でサー・ジョージ・ファークワーは気前のいい献金者に面会の日取りを指定してもらえないだろうかと書いていた。サー・ジョージはカランまで出むいて卿に挨拶をし、この件に関して直接相談しようと思っていたのである。ウエストレイは一週間のあいだブランダマー卿との土曜日午後五時の約束を楽しみにし、聖堂をどのような道順で案内しようかと慎重に思案をめぐらせていた。ところが五時十五分前にベルヴュー・ロッジに戻ると、訪問者はすでに彼を待っていた。ミス・ジョウリフはいつものように土曜日の会合に出ていたが、アナスタシアがウエストレイに、ブランダマー卿が半時間以上もお待ちだと告げたのである。
Westray came back from London with the scheme of restoration reconsidered and amplified in the light of altered circumstances, and with a letter for Lord Blandamer in which Sir George Farquhar hoped that the munificent donor would fix a day on which Sir George might come down to Cullerne to offer his respects, and to discuss the matter in person. Westray had looked forward all the week to the appointment which he had with Lord Blandamer for five o'clock on the Saturday afternoon, and had carefully thought out the route which he would pursue in taking him round the church. He returned to Bellevue Lodge at a quarter to five, and found his visitor already awaiting him. Miss Joliffe was, as usual, at her Saturday meeting, but Anastasia told Westray that Lord Blandamer had been waiting more than half an hour.
"I must apologise, my lord, for keeping you waiting," Westray said, as he went in. "I feared I had made some mistake in the time of our meeting, but I see it _was_ five that your note named." And he held out the open letter which he had taken from his pocket.
"The mistake is entirely mine," Lord Blandamer admitted with a smile, as he glanced at his own instructions; "I fancied I had said four o'clock; but I have been very glad of a few minutes to write one or two letters."
"We can post them on our way to the church; they will just catch the mail."
"Ah, then I must wait till to-morrow; there are some enclosures which I have not ready at this moment."
They set out together for the minster, and Lord Blandamer looked back as they crossed the street.
"The house has a good deal of character," he said, "and might be made comfortable enough with a little repair. I must ask my agent to see what can be arranged; it does not do me much credit as landlord in its present state."
"Yes, it has a good many interesting features," Westray answered; "you know its history, of course--I mean that it was an old inn."
He had turned round as his companion turned, and for an instant thought he saw something moving behind the blind in Mr Sharnall's room. But he must have been mistaken; only Anastasia was in the house, and she was in the kitchen, for he had called to her as they went out to say that he might be late for tea.
Westray thoroughly enjoyed the hour and a half which the light allowed him for showing and explaining the church. Lord Blandamer exhibited what is called, so often by euphemism, an intelligent interest in all that he saw, and was at no pains either to conceal or display a very adequate architectural knowledge. Westray wondered where he had acquired it, though he asked no questions; but before the inspection was ended he found himself unconsciously talking to his companion of technical points, as to a professional equal and not to an amateur. They stopped for a moment under the central tower.
"I feel especially grateful," Westray said, "for your generosity in giving us a free hand for all fabric work, because we shall now be able to tackle the tower. Nothing will ever induce me to believe that all is right up there. The arches are extraordinarily wide and thin for their date. You will laugh when I tell you that I sometimes think I hear them crying for repair, and especially that one on the south with the jagged crack in the wall above it. Now and then, when I am alone in the church or the tower, I seem to catch their very words. `The arch never sleeps,' they say; `we never sleep.'"
"It is a romantic idea," Lord Blandamer said. "Architecture is poetry turned into stone, according to the old aphorism, and you, no doubt, have something of the poet in you."
He glanced at the thin and rather bloodless face, and at the high cheekbones of the water-drinker as he spoke. Lord Blandamer never made jokes, and very seldom was known to laugh, yet if anyone but Westray had been with him, they might have fancied that there was a whimsical tone in his words, and a trace of amusement in the corners of his eyes. But the architect did not see it, and coloured slightly as he went on:
"Well, perhaps you are right; I suppose architecture does inspire one. The first verses I ever wrote, or the first, at least, that I ever had printed, were on the Apse of Tewkesbury Abbey. They came out in the _Gloucester Herald_, and I dare say I shall scribble something about these arches some day."
"Do," said Lord Blandamer, "and send me a copy. This place ought to have its poet, and it is much safer to write verses to arches than to arched eyebrows."
Westray coloured again, and put his hand in his breast-pocket. Could he have been so foolish as to leave those half-finished lines on his desk for Lord Blandamer or anyone else to see? No, they were quite safe; he could feel the sharp edge of the paper folded lengthways, which differentiated them from ordinary letters.
"We shall just have time to go up to the roof-space, if you care to do so," he suggested, changing the subject. "I should like to show you the top of the transept groining, and explain what we are busy with at present. It is always more or less dark up there, but we shall find lanterns."
「もちろん喜んで」彼らは北東の基柱内部に造られた螺旋階段を登った。
"Certainly, with much pleasure." And they climbed the newel staircase that was carried in the north-east pier.
教会事務員のジャナウエイは視察する彼らから安全な距離を置いたところをうろうろしていた。彼は聖堂が閉まる前に、日曜日の「準備」をしておくという名目のもとに忙しく立ち働いていたのだ。一週間前、ブランダマー卿の行く手に立ちはだかったことを思い出して、できるだけ目につかないようにしていたが、その実、彼はあたかも偶然であるかのように卿に出会い、あんな振る舞いに及んだのは何も知らなかったからだと言い訳がしたくてたまらなかったのである。だがそんな言い訳の機会は都合よく訪れなかった。二人は天井に登り、教会事務員は扉口に鍵をかけようとしていた――ウエストレイは自分用の鍵を持っていたのだ――するとそのとき、誰かが身廊をこちらへやって来る音が聞こえた。
Clerk Janaway had been hovering within a safe distance of them as they went their round. He was nominally busy in "putting things straight" for the Sunday, before the church was shut up; and had kept as much out of sight as was possible, remembering how he had withstood Lord Blandamer to the face a week before. Yet he was anxious to meet him, as it were, by accident, and explain that he had acted in ignorance of the real state of affairs; but no favourable opportunity for such an explanation presented itself. The pair had gone up to the roof, and the clerk was preparing to lock up--for Westray had a key of his own--when he heard someone coming up the nave.
脇に楽譜をどっさり抱えたミスタ・シャーノールだった。
It was Mr Sharnall, who carried a pile of music-books under his arm.
"Hallo!" he said to the clerk, "what makes _you_ so late? I expected to have to let myself in. I thought you would have been off an hour ago."
"Well, things took a bit longer to-night than usual to put away." He broke off, for there was a little noise somewhere above them in the scaffolding, and went on in what was meant for a whisper: "Mr Westray's taking his lordship round; they're up in the roof now. D'ye hear 'em?"
「卿だって？どこの卿かね。あのブランダマーの野郎のことか」
"Lordship! What lordship? D'you mean that fellow Blandamer?"
「ええ、そう。でも野郎なんて言っていいんですかい。あの方は卿ですからね。だからわたしは卿とお呼びして野郎なんて言いませんよ。そんなに敵意をむき出しにして、あの方が何をしたって言うんです？どうしてここであの方を待ってパイプオルガンのことを話さないんです？もしかしたら太っ腹な気分になっていてパイプオルガンを修理するとか、あんたがしきりに話しているちっこい送風器を買ってくれるかもしれんじゃねえですか。どうしていつも歯をむき出すんですかねえ――いや、見せようにも、あんたには本物の歯がたくさん残っちゃいないから、こりゃあもののたとえっちゅうもんだがね――たまには他の人と同じようにしちゃあどうです？わたしが思うには、あんたは年寄りなのに若者ぶろうとしている。貧乏なのに金持ちぶろうとしている。そこがいけない。そのせいであんたはみじめな気分になり、酒でまぎらせようとする。わたしの忠告を聞いて、他の人みたいに振る舞いなさいよ。わたしはあんたより二十も年寄りだが、二十歳の時より遙かに人生を楽しんどるよ。今はお隣さんも連中の癖もわたしを楽しませてくれるし、パイプの味もよくなった。若いときゃさんざん馬鹿なまねをしでかすが、年をとりゃ、そんなこともない。あんたはわたしに遠慮なくしゃべるから、わたしもあんたに遠慮なくしゃべるよ。わたしは遠慮のない人間だし、誰もおそれるこたあないんだ。卿だろうが、野郎だろうが、オルガン弾きだろうがね。まあ、この老いぼれの忠告を聞くんだね。明るく構えて卿にお仕えし、新しいパイプオルガンを買ってもらいなさいよ」
"Yes, that's just who I do mean. But I don't know as how he's a fellow, and he _is_ a lordship; so that's why I call him a lordship and not a fellow. And mid I ask what he's been doing to set _your_ back up? Why don't you wait here for him, and talk to him about the organ? Maybe, now he's in the giving mood, he'd set it right for 'ee, or anyways give 'ee that little blowin'-engine you talk so much about. Why do 'ee always go about showin' your teeth?--metaforally, I mean, for you haven't that many real ones left to make much show--why ain't you like other folk sometimes? Shall I tell 'ee? 'Cause you wants to be young when you be old, and rich when you be poor. That's why. That makes 'ee miserable, and then you drinks to drown it. Take my advice, and act like other folk. I'm nigh a score of years older than you, and take a vast more pleasure in my life than when I was twenty. The neighbours and their ways tickle me now, and my pipe's sweeter; and there's many a foolish thing a young man does that age don't give an old one the chanst to. You've spoke straight to me, and now I've spoke straight to you, 'cause I'm a straight-speaking man, and have no call to be afraid of anyone--lord or fellow or organist. So take an old man's word: cheer up, and wait on my lord, and get him to give 'ee a new organ."
「くだらない！」ミスタ・シャーノールはジャナウエイの態度に慣れてしまっていて、腹も立てなければ注意も払わなかった。「くだらない！ブランダマーなんてどいつもこいつも大嫌いさ。ドードー鳥みたいに絶滅すりゃいいんだ。絶滅してないって保証はないんだけどね。いいかい、あの気取って歩くクジャク野郎は、あんたやわたしと同じくらいブランダマーを名乗る権利を持ってないんだ。この富というやつにはまったくむかつくな。今じゃあ教会や博物館や病院を建てることができない人間は価値がないと思われている。『みづからを厚うするがゆゑに人々なんぢをほむる』（註 詩篇から）金を持ってりゃひたすら賞賛され、なければ鼻も引っかけられん。ブランダマーなど全員墓に埋められてしまえばいい」彼は細いしゃがれ声をまたもや頭上の穹窿天井に響かせた。「経帷子の代わりに雲形紋章を巻き付けてな。あいつらの忌々しい紋章なんかにゃ石をぶつけてやりたいよ」彼は袖廊の窓高くに描かれた海緑色と銀色の盾を指さした。「日の照るときも、月明かりの差すときも、あれはいつもあそこにある。ここで満月の夜、コウモリに演奏を聴かせるのが楽しみだったんだ、あれがいつも張り出しをのぞきこんでいて、わたしから離れようとしないことに気づくまでは」
"Bah!" said Mr Sharnall, who was far too used to Janaway's manner to take umbrage or pay attention to it. "Bah! I hate all Blandamers. I wish they were as dead and buried as dodos; and I'm not at all sure they aren't. I'm not at all sure, mind you, that this strutting peacock has any more right to the name of Blandamer than you or I have. I'm sick of all this wealth. No one's thought anything of to-day, who can't build a church or a museum or a hospital. `So long as thou doest well unto _thyself_, men will speak good of thee.' If you've got the money, you're everything that's wonderful, and if you haven't, you may go rot. I wish all Blandamers were in their graves," he said, raising his thin and strident voice till it rang again in the vault above, "and wrapped up in their nebuly coat for a shroud. I should like to fling a stone through their damned badge." And he pointed to the sea-green and silver shield high up in the transept window. "Sunlight and moonlight, it is always there. I used to like to come down and play here to the bats of a full moon, till I saw _that_ would always look into the loft and haunt me."
He thumped his pile of books down on a seat, and flung out of the church. He had evidently been drinking, and the clerk made his escape at the same time, being anxious not to be identified with sentiments which had been so loudly enunciated that he feared those in the roof might have overheard them.
Lord Blandamer wished Westray good-night at the church-door, excusing himself from an invitation to tea on the ground of business which necessitated his return to Fording.
"We must spend another afternoon in the minster," he said. "I hope you will allow me to write to make an appointment. I am afraid that it may possibly be for a Saturday again, for I am much occupied at present during the week."
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~~~ 教会事務員ジャナウエイは聖堂からさほど離れていないガヴァナーズ通りにすんでいた。この名の由来は誰も知らなかったが、ドクタ・エニファーは革命が起きて、カランが議会派によって守られていたとき、この近所に軍司令官《ガヴァナー》が宿舎を構えたからではないかと考えていた。この通りは静かな二本の裏道をつなぐ通路の役割を果たしていたが、どちらの裏道よりも静かで、それでいてある種の快適さと安らぎが漂っていた。通りの両端には昔の大砲が据えつけられているため馬車は通ることができない。大砲は砲尾を地面に埋められ、砲口を天にむけ、がっしりした鉄の柱のように突っ立っていた。茶色い小石を敷き詰めた道は、この通りの中央を走る浅い石の溝にむかって緩やかに傾斜していた。家々はピンク色の塗料を塗るのがしきたりになっていて、そのあたりの特徴である鎧戸は、オランダの町を彷彿とさせる明るい色に輝いていた。
Clerk Janaway lived not far from the church, in Governor's Lane. No one knew whence its name was derived, though Dr Ennefer thought that the Military Governour might have had his quarters thereabouts when Cullerne was held for the Parliament. Serving as a means of communication between two quiet back-streets, it was itself more quiet than either, and yet; for all this, had about it a certain air of comfort and well-being. The passage of vehicles was barred at either end by old cannon. Their breeches were buried in the ground, and their muzzles stood up as sturdy iron posts, while the brown cobbles of the roadway sloped to a shallow stone gutter which ran down the middle of the lane. Custom ordained that the houses should be coloured with a pink wash; and the shutters, which were a feature of the place, shone in such bright colours as to recall a Dutch town.
Shutter-painting was indeed an event of some importance in Governour's Lane. Not a few of its inhabitants had followed the sea as fishermen or smack-owners, and when fortune so smiled on them that they could retire, and there were no more boats to be painted, shutters and doors and window-frames came in to fill the gap. So, on a fine morning, when the turpentine oozing from cracks, and the warm smell of blistering varnish brought to Governour's Lane the first tokens of returning summer, might have been seen sexagenarians and septuagenarians, and some so strong that they had come to fourscore years, standing paint-pot and paint-brush in hand, while they gave a new coat to the woodwork of their homes.
They were a kindly folk, open of face, and fresh-complexioned, broad in the beam, and vested as to their bodies in dark blue, brass-buttoned pilot coats. Insuperable smokers, inexhaustible yarn-spinners, they had long welcomed Janaway as a kindred spirit--the more so that in their view a clerk and grave-digger was in some measure an expert in things unseen, who might anon assist in piloting them on that last cruise for which some had already the Blue Peter at the fore.
A myrtle-bush which grew out of a hole in the cobbles was carefully trained against the front of a cottage in the middle of the row, and a brass plate on the door informed the wayfarer and ignorant man that "T. Janaway, Sexton," dwelt within. About eight o'clock on the Saturday evening, some two hours after Lord Blandamer and Westray had parted, the door of the myrtle-fronted cottage was open, and the clerk stood on the threshold smoking his pipe, while from within came a cheerful, ruddy light and a well-defined smell of cooking; for Mrs Janaway was preparing supper.
"Tom," she called, "shut the door, and come to thy victuals."
"Ay," he answered, "I'll be with 'ee directly; but gi'e me a minute. I want to see who this is coming up the lane."
Someone that the clerk knew at once for a stranger had entered the little street at the bottom. There was half a moon, and light enough to see that he was in search of some particular house; for he crossed from one side of the lane to the other, and peered at the numbers on the doors. As he came nearer, the clerk saw that he was of spare build, and wore a loose overcoat or cape, which fluttered in the breeze that blew at evening from the sea. A moment later Janaway knew that the stranger was Lord Blandamer, and stepped back instinctively to let him pass. But the open door had caught the attention of the passer-by; he stopped, and greeted the householder cheerily.
"A beautiful night, but with a cold touch in the air that makes your warm room look very cheerful." He recognised the clerk's face as he spoke, and went on: "Ah, ha! we are old friends already; we met in the minster a week ago, did we not?"
Mr Janaway was a little disconcerted at the unexpectedness of the meeting, and returned the salutation in a confused way. The attempt which he had made to prevent Lord Blandamer from entering the choir was fresh in his memory, and he stammered some unready excuses.
ブランダマー卿はにっこりと好意的な笑みを浮かべた。
Lord Blandamer smiled with much courtesy.
"You were quite right to stop me; you would have been neglecting your duty if you had not done so. I had no idea that service was going on, or I should not have come in; you may make your mind quite easy on that score. I hope you will have many more opportunities of finding a place for me in Cullerne Church."
「あなたの席は探す必要がありませんや、御前様。参事会員パーキンと同じように、ちゃあんと決まってるんで。裏側に紋章がくっきりと描かれとります。ご心配には及びません。みんな内務規定に定めてあるんです。御前様が席にお着きになるときは、主教様のときと同じ敬礼をいたします。『二回腰をかがめること。職杖は右手に持ち、左手を添えること』これ以上丁寧にはできねえんですよ。というのは三回礼をするのは皇族に対してだけなんで。わたしが勤めているあいだ、皇族なんて一人も聖堂に来たことがありませんがね――それだけじゃないんです。覚えていらっしゃらねえでしょうが、先代のブランダマー卿もあなたのお父様とお母様が埋葬された日から、お出でになったことがございません」
"No need to find any place for _you_, my Lord. You have your own seat appointed and fixed, as sure as Canon Parkyn, and your own arms painted up clear on the back of it. Don't you trouble for that. It is all laid down in the statutes, and I shall make the very same obeisance for your lordship when you take your seat as for my Lord Bishop. `Two inclinations of the body, the mace being held in the right hand, and supported on the left arm.' I cannot say more fair than that, for only royalties have three inclinations, and none of them has ever been to church in my time--no, nor yet a Lord Blandamer neither, since the day that your dear father and mother, what you never knew, was buried."
Mrs Janaway drummed with her knuckles on the supper-table, in amazement that her husband should dare to stand chattering at the door when she had told him that the meal was ready. But, as the conversation revealed by degrees the stranger's identity, curiosity to see the man whose name was in all Cullerne mouths got the better of her, and she came curtseying to the door.
Lord Blandamer flung the flapping cape of his overcoat over the left shoulder in a way that made the clerk think of foreigners, and of woodcuts of Italian opera in a bound volume of the _Illustrated London News_ which he studied on Sunday evenings.
"I must be moving on," said the visitor, with a shiver. "I must not keep you standing here; there is a very chill air this evening."
Then Mrs Janaway was seized with a sudden temerity.
"Will your lordship not step in and warm yourself for a moment?" she interposed. "We have a clear fire burning, if you will overlook the smell of cooking."
The clerk trembled for a moment at his wife's boldness, but Lord Blandamer accepted the invitation with alacrity.
"Thank you very much," said he; "I should be very glad to rest a few minutes before my train leaves. Pray make no apology for the smell of cookery; it is very appetising, especially at supper-time."
He spoke as if he took supper every evening, and had never heard of a late dinner in his life; and five minutes later he sat at table with Mr and Mrs Janaway. The cloth was of roughest homespun, but clean; the knives and forks handled in old green horn, and the piece-of-resistance tripe; but the guest made an excellent meal.
"Some folk think highly of squash tripe or ribband tripe," the clerk said meditatively, looking at the empty dish; "but they don't compare, according to my taste, with cushion tripe." He was emboldened to make these culinary remarks by that moral elevation which comes to every properly-constituted host, when a guest has eaten heartily of the viands set before him.
"No," Lord Blandamer said, "there can be no doubt that cushion tripe is the best."
"Quite as much depends upon the cooking as upon the tripe itself," remarked Mrs Janaway, bridling at the thought that her art had been left out of the reckoning; "a bad cook will spoil the best tripe. There are many ways of doing it, but a little milk and a leek is the best for me."
"You cannot beat it," Lord Blandamer assented--"you cannot beat it"--and then went on suggestively: "Have you ever tried a sprig of mace with it?"
No, Mrs Janaway had never heard of that; nor, indeed, had Lord Blandamer either, if the point had been pushed; but she promised to use it the very next time, and hoped that the august visitor would honour them again when it was to be tasted.
"'Tis only Saturday nights that we can get the cushion," she went on; "and it's well it don't come oftener, for we couldn't afford it. No woman ever had a call to have a better husband nor Thomas, who spends little enough on hisself. He don't touch nothing but tea, sir, but Saturday nights we treat ourselves to a little tripe, which is all the more convenient in that it is very strengthening, and my husband's duties on Sunday being that urgent-like. So, if your lordship is fond of tripe, and passing another Saturday night, and will do us the honour, you will always find something ready."
"Thank you very much for your kind invitation," Lord Blandamer said; "I shall certainly take you at your word, the more so that Saturday is the day on which I am oftenest in Cullerne, or, I should say, have happened to be lately."
「世の中にゃ貧乏で哀れな人間がおります」と教会事務員は考え深げに言った。「わたしら夫婦は貧乏だが幸せですよ。しかしミスタ・シャーノールは貧乏で不幸せです。『ミスタ・シャーノール』とわたしは言ってやるんです、『親父が十ペンスのビールを飲みながらよく言ったもんだ。排水口に押しこまれた貧乏と、そいつを踏みつける、木の義足の男に乾杯ってね。でもあんたは貧乏を排水口に詰めこまねえし、まして踏みつけもしない。いつも取り出して風にさらし、思い悩んで自分を悲しませている。あんたが悲しいのは貧乏だからじゃない。貧乏だと思ってそのことを口にしすぎるんだ。あんたはわたしらほど貧乏じゃない。ただやたらと不平が多いんのさ』ってね」
"There's poor and poor," said the clerk reflectively; "and _we're_ poor, but we're happy; but there's Mr Sharnall poor and unhappy. `Mr Sharnall,' says I to him, `many a time have I heard my father say over a pot of tenpenny, "Here's to poverty in a plug-hole, and a man with a wooden leg to trample it down;" but you never puts your poverty in a plug-hole, much less tramples it down. You always has it out and airs it, and makes yourself sad with thinking of it. 'Tisn't because you're poor that you're sad; 'tis because you _think_ you're poor, and talk so much about it. You're not so poor as we, only you have so many grievances.'"
"Ah, you are speaking of the organist?" Lord Blandamer asked. "I fancy it was he who was talking with you in the minster this afternoon, was it not?"
The clerk felt embarrassed once more, for he remembered Mr Sharnall's violent talk, and how his anathema of all Blandamers had rang out in the church.
"Yes," he said; "poor organist was talking a little wild; he gets took that way sometimes, what with his grievances, and a little drop of the swanky what he takes to drown them. Then he talks loud; but I hope your lordship didn't hear all his foolishness."
"Oh dear no; I was engaged at the time with the architect," Lord Blandamer said; but his tone made Janaway think that Mr Sharnall's voice had carried further than was convenient. "I did not hear what he said, but he seemed to be much put out. I chatted with him in the church some days ago; he did not know who I was, but I gathered that he bore no very good will to my family."
Mrs Janaway saw it was a moment for prudent words. "Don't pay no manner of attention to him, if I may make so bold as to advise your lordship," she said; "he talks against my husband just as well. He is crazy about his organ, and thinks he ought to have a new one, or, at least, a waterworks to blow it, like what they have at Carisbury. Don't pay no attention to him; no one minds what Sharnall says in Cullerne."
The clerk was astonished at his wife's wisdom, yet apprehensive as to how it might be taken. But Lord Blandamer bowed his head graciously by way of thanks for sage counsel, and went on:
"Was there not some queer man at Cullerne who thought he was kept out of his rights, and should be in my place--who thought, I mean, he ought to be Lord Blandamer?"
The question was full of indifference, and there was a little smile of pity on his face; but the clerk remembered how Mr Sharnall had said something about a strutting peacock, and that there were no real Blandamers left, and was particularly ill at ease.
"Oh yes," he answered after a moment's pause, "there was a poor doited body who, saving your presence, had some cranks of that kind; and, more by token, Mr Sharnall lived in the same house with him, and so I dare say he has got touched with the same craze."
Lord Blandamer took out a cigar instinctively, and then, remembering that there was a lady present, put it back into his case and went on:
"Oh, he lived in the same house with Mr Sharnall, did he? I should like to hear more of this story; it naturally interests me. What was his name?"
"His name was Martin Joliffe," said the clerk quickly, being surprised into eagerness by the chance of telling a story; and then the whole tale of Martin, and Martin's father and mother and daughter, as he had told it to Westray, was repeated for Lord Blandamer.
The night was far advanced before the history came to an end, and the local policeman walked several times up and down Governour's Lane, and made pauses before Mr Janaway's house, being surprised to see a window lighted so late. Lord Blandamer must have changed his intention of going by train, for the gates of Cullerne station had been locked for hours, and the boiler of the decrepit branch-line engine was cooling in its shed.
"It is an interesting tale, and you tell tales well," he said, as he got up and put on his coat. "All good things must have an end, but I hope to see you again ere long." He shook hands with hostess and host, drained the pot of beer that had been fetched from a public-house, with a "Here's to poverty in a plug-hole, and a man with a wooden leg to trample it down," and was gone.
A minute later the policeman, coming back for yet another inspection of the lighted window, passed a man of middle height, who wore a loose overcoat, with the cape tossed lightly over the left shoulder. The stranger walked briskly, and hummed an air as he went, turning his face up to the stars and the wind-swept sky, as if entirely oblivious of all sublunary things. A midnight stranger in Governour's Lane was even more surprising than a lighted window, and the policeman had it in his mind to stop him and ask his business. But before he could decide on so vigorous a course of action, the moment was past, and the footsteps were dying away in the distance.
The clerk was pleased with himself, and proud of his success as a story-teller.
"That's a clever, understanding sort of chap," he said to his wife, as they went to bed; "he knows a good tale when he hears one."
"Don't you be too proud of yourself, my man," answered she; "there's more in that tale than your telling, I warrant you, for my lord to think about."
第十章 ~~~
CHAPTER TEN.
The extension of the scheme of restoration which Lord Blandamer's liberality involved, made it necessary that Westray should more than once consult Sir George Farquhar in London. On coming back to Cullerne from one of these visits on a Saturday night, he found his meal laid in Mr Sharnall's room.
"I thought you would not mind our having supper together," Mr Sharnall said. "I don't know how it is, I always feel gloomy just when the winter begins, and the dark sets in so soon. It is all right later on; I rather enjoy the long evenings and a good fire, when I can afford a good one, but at first it is a little gloomy. So come and have supper with me. There _is_ a good fire to-night, and a bit of driftwood that I got specially for your benefit."
They talked of indifferent subjects during the meal, though once or twice it seemed to Westray that the organist gave inconsequential replies, as though he were thinking of something else. This was no doubt the case, for, after they had settled before the fire, and the lambent blue flames of the driftwood had been properly admired, Mr Sharnall began with a hesitating cough:
「今日の午後、どうも妙なことが起きたんだ。夕べの祈りが終わって帰ってみると、なんとブランダマーがわたしの部屋で待っているじゃないか。明かりも灯していなかったし、火も焚いていなかった。火は遅くに焚いたほうが、きみと暖かく過ごせると思っていたんだ。やつは窓辺の席の端っこに座っていた。くそっ、地獄に落ちろ！――（ミスタ・シャーノールが冒涜のことばを発したのは、そこがアナスタシアのお気に入りの席で、他の人が使うことは認めがたかったからである）――しかしわたしが入ってくると、もちろん立ち上がったよ。そして調子のいいことをとうとうとまくし立てるのさ。部屋に入りこんだことは心からお詫びする。ミスタ・ウエストレイに会いに来たのだが、残念なことによそにお出かけになっている。勝手だがミスタ・シャーノールの部屋でしばらく待たせてもらうことにした。ミスタ・シャーノールと是非、お話したいことが一つ二つあったのだ、ってな具合だよ。わたしはおべっかが大嫌いだということは知っているだろう。それにあいつがどんなに嫌いだったか――いや、嫌いかってことも（と彼は訂正した）。しかしどうも具合が悪くてなあ。ほら、彼はもう実際に部屋の中に入りこんでいたわけだし、人は自分の部屋にいるときは、他人の部屋にいるときみたいに不作法な真似はできないからね。それに明かりもつけず、火も燃やさず、わたしを待っていてくれたということで、気の毒したという気持ちも多少あった。もっともどうしてあいつが自分でガスの火を入れなかったのか、理由が分からんが。だから不本意ではあるが丁寧にお相手をしてさしあげたのだよ。で、さあ、これでやつを追い払えるぞと思ったときに、折悪しく家に一人残っていたアナスタシアがお茶を出してもいいかと聞きにきたというわけさ。分るだろう、わたしの苛立ちが。しかしやつにお茶を一杯いかがですと訊かないわけにもいかないじゃないか。まさかうんと言うとは夢にも思わなかったが、やつは招待を受けやがった。そんなわけで、なんてことだろう！われわれは旧知の仲みたいにお茶を飲みながら和気藹々おしゃべりしたってわけさ」
"A rather curious thing happened this afternoon. When I got back here after evening-service, who should I find waiting in my room but that Blandamer fellow. There was no light and no fire, for I had thought if we lit the fire late we could afford a better one. He was sitting at one end of the window-seat, damn him!"--(the expletive was caused by Mr Sharnall remembering that this was Anastasia's favourite seat, and his desire to reprobate the use of it by anyone else)--"but got up, of course, as I came in, and made a vast lot of soft speeches. He must really apologise for such an intrusion. He had come to see Mr Westray, but found that Mr Westray had unfortunately been called away. He had taken the liberty of waiting a few minutes in Mr Sharnall's room. He was anxious to have a few moments' conversation with Mr Sharnall, and so on, and so on. You know how I hate palaver, and how I disliked--how I dislike" (he corrected himself)--"the man; but he took me at a disadvantage, you see, for here he was actually in my room, and one cannot be so rude in one's own room as one can in other people's. I felt responsible, too, to some extent for his having had to wait without fire or light, though why he shouldn't have lit the gas himself I'm sure I don't know. So I talked more civilly than I meant to, and then, just at the moment that I was hoping to get rid of him, Anastasia, who it seems was the only person at home, must needs come in to ask if I was ready for my tea. You may imagine my disgust, but there was nothing for it but to ask him if he would like a cup of tea. I never dreamt of his taking it, but he did; and so, behold! there we were hobnobbing over the tea-table as if we were cronies."
Westray was astonished. Mr Sharnall had rebuked him so short a time before for not having repulsed Lord Blandamer's advances that he could scarcely understand such a serious falling away from all the higher principles of hatred and malice as were implied in this tea-drinking. His experience of life had been as yet too limited to convince him that most enmities and antipathies, being theoretical rather than actual, are apt to become mitigated, or to disappear altogether on personal contact--that it is, in fact, exceedingly hard to keep hatred at concert-pitch, or to be consistently rude to a person face to face who has a pleasant manner and a desire to conciliate.
Perhaps Mr Sharnall read Westray's surprise in his face, for he went on with a still more apologetic manner:
"That is not the worst of it; he has put me in a most awkward position. I must admit that I found his conversation amusing enough. We spoke a good deal of music, and he showed a surprising knowledge of the subject, and a correct taste; I do not know where he has got it from."
"I found exactly the same thing with his architecture," Westray said. "We started to go round the minster as master and pupil, but before we finished I had an uncomfortable impression that he knew more about it than I did--at least, from the archaeologic point of view."
「ほう！」とオルガン奏者は無関心そうに言った。自分の体験を話したくてたまらない人は、他の人がどんなにわくわくするようなことを言っても、無関心な態度を取るものだ。「やつの趣味は異常に洗練されていた。前世紀の対位法の作曲家に精通していて、わたしの作品もいくつか知っているのさ。不思議なことがあるものだ。やつが言うには、どこかの聖堂で――どこだったか忘れたが――サーヴィスを聴き、あんまり感動したのでビラを見たら、シャーノール変ニ長調だったというのだ。われわれが話を始めるまで、わたしの作品だとは気づかなかったらしい。あのサーヴィスはもう何年もしまいこんだままだな。オクスフォードでギボンズ賞に応募したときの作品でね。グロリアの中にフーガを取り入れ、主音のペダル音で終わるんだ。きみも気に入るだろう。あれは探し出しておかなければならんな」
"Ah!" said the organist, with that indifference with which a person who wishes to recount his own experiences listens to those of someone else, however thrilling they may be. "Well, his taste was singularly refined. He showed a good acquaintance with the contrapuntists of the last century, and knew several of my own works. A very curious thing this. He said he had been in some cathedral--I forget which--heard the service, and been so struck with it that he went afterwards to look it up on the bill, and found it was Sharnall in D flat. He hadn't the least idea that it was mine till we began to talk. I haven't had that service by me for years; I wrote it at Oxford for the Gibbons' prize; it has a fugal movement in the _Gloria_, ending with a tonic pedal-point that you would like. I must look it up."
"Yes, I should like to hear it," Westray said, more to fill the interval while the speaker took breath than from any great interest in the matter.
「聴かせてあげるとも――聴かせてあげるとも」とオルガン奏者はつづけた。「ペダル音がすばらしい効果を出していることが分かるだろう。それでわれわれの話題はだんだんとオルガンのことに移っていった。聖堂ではじめて彼に会った日にたまたまオルガンの話をしたんだ。もっとも普段はきみも知ってのとおり、わたしはオルガンのことは一言もしゃべらないことにしている。あのときはオルガンのことにさほど通じているようには思えなかったが、今じゃ知らぬことはないという感じだ。だからわたしは何をするべきか、自分の意見を言ったのだよ。で、ふと気がついたらやつが口をはさんできて『ミスタ・シャーノール、あなたのお話には大変関心があります。とても理路整然としていて、わたしのような門外漢にも理解ができます。ファーザー・スミスがはるか昔に作った、この美しい音色の楽器が壊れたまま、いつまでも放置されているのは嘆かわしいことです。聖堂を修復してもオルガンがなければ意味がありません。ですので修理の細目と、他にそろえるべき品目を一覧にして書き出してくれませんか。あなたの提案はすべて実行されるとお考えください。とりあえず、あなたがおっしゃっていたウオーター・エンジンと新しい足鍵盤をすぐ注文して、費用をお知らせいただければと思います』わたしは呆気にとられてしまったよ。口がきけるようになったときには、彼の姿はもうなかった。わたしはどうすればいいのか、さっぱり判らなくなった。あの男はいけ好かないね。やつの申し出は冷ややかに拒絶するつもりだ。あんな男の恩を受けるなんてまっぴらだ。きみだってわたしの立場だったら断るだろう？すぐさま断固拒否の手紙を書くだろう？」
"So you shall--so you shall," went on the organist; "you will find the pedal-point adds immensely to the effect. Well, by degrees we came to talking of the organ. It so happens that we had spoken of it the very first day I met him in the church, though you know I _never_ talk about my instrument, do I? At that time it didn't strike me that he was so well up in the matter, but now he seemed to know all about it, and so I gave him my ideas as to what ought to be done. Then, before I knew where I was, he cut in with, `Mr Sharnall, what you say interests me immensely; you put things in such a lucid way that even an outsider like myself can understand them. It would be a thousand pities if neglect were permanently to injure this sweet-toned instrument that Father Smith made so long ago. It is no use restoring the church without the organ, so you must draw up a specification of the repairs and additions required, and understand that anything you suggest shall be done. In the meantime pray order at once the water-engine and new pedal-board of which you speak, and inform me as to the cost.' He took me quite aback, and was gone before I had time to say anything. It puts me in a very equivocal position; I have such an antipathy to the man. I shall refuse his offer point-blank. I will not put myself under any obligation to such a man. You would refuse in my position? You would write a strong letter of refusal at once, would you not?"
ウエストレイは馬鹿正直な性格で、人の言ったことばをそのまま信じる傾向があった。彼はミスタ・シャーノールの自主独立の精神がいかに気高いものであれ、それがためにこれほど気前のいい寄付が断られるのはまことに残念なことだと思った。そしてオルガン奏者の決心を翻させようと、思いつくかぎりの反論を必死になって繰り広げ、かき口説いた。この申し出は善意から出たものである。ミスタ・シャーノールはブランダマー卿の人柄をきっと誤解しているのだ――ブランダマー卿には下心があるというミスタ・シャーノールの考えは間違っている。善意以外のどんな動機があり得るだろうか。それにミスタ・シャーノールがどれほど個人として拒否しようとも、あれだけ修理の必要が歴然としたオルガンなのだから、結局は直されるに決まっているではないか。
Westray was of a guileless disposition, and apt to assume that people meant what they said. It seemed to him a matter for much regret that Mr Sharnall's independence, however lofty, should stand in the way of so handsome a benefaction, and he was at pains to elaborate and press home all the arguments that he could muster to shake the organist's resolve. The offer was kindly-meant; he was sure that Mr Sharnall took a wrong view of Lord Blandamer's character--that Mr Sharnall was wrong in imputing motives to Lord Blandamer. What motives could he have except the best? and however much Mr Sharnall might personally refuse, how was a man to be stopped eventually from repairing an organ which stood so manifestly in need of repair?
Westray spoke earnestly, and was gratified to see the effect which his eloquence produced on Mr Sharnall. It is so rarely that argument prevails to change opinion that the young man was flattered to see that the considerations which he was able to marshal were strong enough, at any rate, to influence Mr Sharnall's determination.
Well, perhaps there was something in what Mr Westray said. Mr Sharnall would think it over. He would not write the letter of refusal that night; he could write to refuse the next day quite as well. In the meantime he _would_ see to the new pedal-board, and order the water-engine. Ever since he had seen the water-engine at Carisbury, he had been convinced that sooner or later they must have one at Cullerne. It _must_ be ordered; they could decide later on whether it should be paid for by Lord Blandamer, or should be charged to the general restoration fund.
This conclusion, however inconclusive, was certainly a triumph for Westray's persuasive oratory, but his satisfaction was chastened by some doubts as to how far he was justified in assailing the scrupulous independence which had originally prompted Mr Sharnall to refuse to have anything to do with Lord Blandamer's offer. If Mr Sharnall had scruples in the matter, ought not he, Westray, to have respected those scruples? Was it not tampering with rectitude to have overcome them by a too persuasive rhetoric?
His doubts were not allayed by the observation that Mr Sharnall himself had severely felt the strain of this mental quandary, for the organist said that he was upset by so difficult a question, and filled himself a bumper of whisky to steady his nerves. At the same time he took down from a shelf two or three notebooks and a mass of loose papers, which he spread open upon the table before him. Westray looked at them with a glance of unconscious inquiry.
「本気でまたこれを調べなければならんよ」とオルガン奏者は言った。「最近はえらく怠けていたんだが。これはマーチン・ジョウリフが残した大量の書類とメモだ。かわいそうにミス・ユーフィミアはこれを調べる勇気がなかったんだ。そのまま焼き捨てようとしていたのを、わたしが『おや、そんなことをしちゃいけない。わたしによこしなさい。調べて保管する価値のあるものが混じってないか見てあげよう』と言ったのだ。それでこれを手に入れたのだが、なんだかんだ邪魔が入って、ろくに調べちゃいないのさ。死んだ人の書き物に目を通すのはいつだってわびしい気持ちにさせられるが、生涯をかけた仕事として、これが残されたすべてだというときは、そのわびしさはひとしおだよ――マーチンの場合は失われた仕事とでもいうんだろうな。日の光が見えはじめたちょうどそのとき、あの世に召されたんだから。『我らは何をも携へて世に来たらず、また何をも携へて世を去ること能はざればなり』（註 テモテへの手紙から）このことばが頭に浮かぶとき、わたしは金や土地のことよりもささやかなもののことを考える。お金よりも大切にしていた恋文とか、その人の死と共に手がかりが失われた証拠品とか、戻ってきて片付けるはずだったのに、戻ることなく未完に終わった仕事とか、もっと言えば、気に病んでいた未払いの請求書とかね。死はすべてを変貌させる。ありきたりのものを哀切なものに変えるんだ」
"I must really get to work at these things again," said the organist; "I have been dreadfully negligent of late. They are a lot of papers and notes that Martin Joliffe left behind him. Poor Miss Euphemia never had the heart to go through them. She was going to burn them just as they were, but I said, `Oh, you mustn't do that; turn them over to me. I will look into them, and see whether there is anything worth keeping.' So I took them, but haven't done nearly as much as I ought, what with one interruption and another. It's always sad going through a dead man's papers, but sadder when they're all that's left of a life's labour--lost labour, so far as Martin was concerned, for he was taken away just when he began to see daylight. `We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we shall carry nothing out.' When that comes into my mind, I think rather of the _little_ things than of gold or lands. Intimate letters that a man treasured more than money; little tokens of which the clue has died with him; the unfinished work to which he was coming back, and never came; even the unpaid bills that worried him; for death transfigures all, and makes the commonplace pathetic."
He stopped for a moment. Westray said nothing, being surprised at this momentary softening of the other's mood.
"Yes, it's sad enough," the organist resumed; "all these papers are nebuly coat--the sea-green and silver."
"He was quite mad, I suppose?" Westray said.
「他の人ならそう言うだろうが」オルガン奏者は答えた。「しかしいろいろ考えると、この中には単に狂気とばかりはいえないものがありそうな気もするんだ。今はそれくらいしか言えないが、生きていればそのうち真相が分かるだろう。このあたりには奇妙な言い伝えがあってね。いつ頃から言われはじめたのか知らないが、ブランダマーの家系には謎があるというのだ。家督を受け継いだ者には、実はその権利がないといわれている。それだけじゃない。大勢の人が謎を解こうとして、中には有力な手がかりをつかんだ人もいたそうだが、しかしあと一息というところで、何かが彼らの命を奪うんだ。マーチンに起こったのはそれなんだよ。わたしは彼が死んだ日に彼と会った。『シャーノール』と彼はわたしに言ったよ。『おれがあと四十八時間生きられたら、あんたは帽子を脱いで、おれに御前様って言っているかもしれないぜ』ってね。
"Everyone except me will tell you so," replied the organist; "but I'm not so very sure after all that there wasn't a good deal more in it than madness. That's all that I can say just now, but those of us who live will see. There is a queer tradition hereabout. I don't know how long ago it started, but people say that there _is_ some mystery about the Blandamer descent, and that those in possession have no right to what they hold. But there is something else. Many have tried to solve the riddle, and some, you may depend, have been very hot on the track. But just as they come to the touch, something takes them off; that's what happened to Martin. I saw him the very day he died. `Sharnall,' he said to me, `if I can last out forty-eight hours more, you may take off your hat to me, and say "My lord."'
"But the nebuly coat was too much for him; he had to die. So don't you be surprised if I pop off the hooks some of these fine days; if I don't, I'm going to get to the bottom, and you will see some changes here before so very long."
He sat down at the table, and made a show for a minute of looking at the papers.
"Poor Martin!" he said, and got up again, opened the cupboard, and took out the bottle. "You'll have a drop," he asked Westray, "won't you?"
"No, thanks, not I," Westray said, with something as near contempt as his thin voice was capable of expressing.
"Just a drop--do! I must have just a drop myself; I find it a great strain working at these papers; there may be more at stake in the reading than I care to think of."
He poured out half a tumbler of spirit. Westray hesitated for a moment, and then his conscience and an early puritan training forced him to speak.
"Sharnall," he said, "put it away. That bottle is your evil angel. Play the man, and put it away. You force me to speak. I cannot sit by with hands folded and see you going down the hill."
The organist gave him a quick glance; then he filled up the tumbler to the brim with neat spirit.
"Look you," he said: "I was going to drink half a glass; now I'm going to drink a whole one. That much for your advice! Going down the hill indeed! Go to the devil with your impertinence! If you can't keep a civil tongue in your head, you had better get your supper in someone else's room."
A momentary irritation dragged Westray down from the high podium of judicial reproof into the arena of retort.
"Don't worry yourself," he said sharply; "you may rely on my not troubling you with my company again." And he got up and opened the door. As he turned to go out, Anastasia Joliffe passed through the passage on her way to bed.
The glimpse of her as she went by seemed still further to aggravate Mr Sharnall. He signed to Westray to stay where he was, and to shut the door again. ~~~ "Damn you!" he said; "that's what I called you back to say. Damn you! Damn Blandamer! Damn everybody! Damn poverty! Damn wealth! I will not touch a farthing of his money for the organ. Now you can go."
朝になっても気分はさわやかにならずしょげ返っていたのだが、朝食の最中に太陽が輝きだし、彼はより悲観的でない方向で自分の置かれた状況をとらえはじめた。ミスタ・シャーノールとの友情は修復できないほど壊れてはいないかも知れない。もしも壊れてしまったとしたら残念だ。彼はその生活態度の欠点にもかかわらず、老人が好きになっていたからである。全面的に非難されるべきは、彼、ウエストレイのほうだった。他人の部屋に呼ばれておきながら、その人にむかって説教したのだ。青二才の彼が老人である相手に説教したのだ。それが善意のなせる行為であったことは本当である。つらいけれども義務だと思ってしゃべったに過ぎない。しかし言い方がまずかった。あまりにも押しつけがましかったのだ。話し方に思慮を欠いたため、もっともな忠告があだになってしまった。はねつけられることは覚悟の上で謝ろう。下に降りてミスタ・シャーノールに謝罪し、必要ならもう一方の頬もぶたれてやろう。
Westray had been cleanly bred. He had been used neither to the vulgarity of ill-temper nor to the coarser insolence of personal abuse. He shrank by natural habit even from gross adjectives, from the "beastly" and the "filthy" which modern manners too often condone, and still more from the abomination of swearing. So Mr Sharnall's obloquy wounded him to the quick. He went to bed in a flutter of agitation, and lay awake half the night mourning over a friendship so irreparably broken, bitter with the resentment of an unjustified attack, yet reproaching himself lest through his unwittingness he might have brought it all upon himself.
良き決断はそれを実行する固い意志を伴う場合、乱れた心に幾分かの落ち着きを回復せずにはおかないものだ。良き決断がその穏やかな効き目を失うのは、一定間隔で繰り返す悪行と後悔の恐るべきシーソーが停まってしまい、心がもはや生における不変の正しさの可能性を信じられなくなったときである。このシーソーは必ず漸を追って均衡を失うものなのだ。悪への傾きがますます優勢になり、美徳への回帰はますますまれに、かつ短くなる。そのあとは神を敬う心の持続しないことにあきらめを覚え、良き決断は単なる心の反射運動となって慈悲深い影響力をなくし、心に平安をもたらすことがなくなるのである。こうした状態は中年より前に生じることはまれで、ウエストレイは若く、ことのほか良心的であったから、高尚な意図を抱くと、胸の中に強い落ち着いた気分がじわりじわりと広がっていった。そのときドアが開いてオルガン奏者が入ってきた。
The morning found him unrefreshed and dejected, but, whilst he sat at breakfast, the sun came out brightly, and he began to take a less despondent view of the situation. It was possible that Mr Sharnall's friendship might not after all be lost beyond repair; he would be sorry if it were, for he had grown fond of the old man, in spite of all his faults of life and manner. It was he, Westray, who had been entirely to blame. In another man's room he had lectured the other man. He, a young man, had lectured the other, who was an old man. It was true that he had done so with the best motives; he had only spoken from a painful sense of duty. But he had shown no tact, he had spoken much too strongly; he had imperilled his own good cause by the injudicious manner in which he had put it forward. At the risk of all rebuffs, he would express his regret; he would go down and apologise to Mr Sharnall, and offer, if need be, the other cheek to the smiter.
Good resolves, if formed with the earnest intention of carrying them into effect, seldom fail to restore a measure of peace to the troubled mind. It is only when a regular and ghastly see-saw of wrong-doing and repentance has been established, and when the mind can no longer deceive even itself as to the possibility of permanent uprightness of life, that good resolves cease to tranquillise. Such a see-saw must gradually lose its regularity; the set towards evil grows more and more preponderant; the return to virtue rarer and more brief. Despair of any continuity of godliness follows, and then it is that good resolves, becoming a mere reflex action of the mind, fail in their gracious influence, and cease to bring quiet. These conditions can scarcely occur before middle age, and Westray, being young and eminently conscientious, was feeling the full peacefulness of his high-minded intention steal over him, when the door opened, and the organist entered.
An outbreak of temper and a night of hard drinking had left their tokens on Mr Sharnall's face. He looked haggard, and the rings that a weak heart had drawn under his eyes were darker and more puffed. He came in awkwardly, and walked quickly to the architect, holding out his hand.
"Forgive me, Westray," he said; "I behaved last night like a fool and a cad. You were quite right to speak to me as you did; I honour you for it. I wish to God there had been someone to speak to me like that years ago."
His outstretched hand was not so white as it should have been, the nails were not so well trimmed as a more fastidious mood might have demanded; but Westray did not notice these things. He took the shaky old hand, and gripped it warmly, not saying anything, because he could not speak.
"We _must_ be friends," the organist went on, after a moment's pause; "we must be friends, because I can't afford to lose you. I haven't known you long, but you are the only friend I have in the world. Is it not an awful thing to confess?" he said, with a tremulous little laugh. "I have no other friend in the world. Say those things you said last night whenever you like; the oftener you say them the better."
He sat down, and, the situation being too strained to remain longer at so high a pitch, the conversation drifted, however awkwardly, to less personal topics.
「昨日の晩、話したいことが一つあったんだ」とオルガン奏者は言った。「気の毒にミス・ジョウリフは金に困っている。そんなことはわたしには一言も――誰にも言おうとしないが――しかしわたしはたまたまそれが事実であることを知っている。本当に困っているんだ。慢性的な金欠状態。われわれもみんなそうだが、彼女の場合は深刻だよ――壁際に追いつめられ、身動きもならん。彼女を苦しめているのはマーチンの最後の借金だ。生き血を吸い取る商人どもがうるさく彼女につきまとうが、彼女はやつらにくたばっちまえと言ってやる勇気がない。もっとも彼らだって彼女には一銭だって返す責任がないのは知っているのさ。彼女はマーチンの借金が返せないかぎり、あの花と毛虫の絵を持っている権利がないと考えている。あれを売れば金になるからね。覚えているだろう、ボーントン・アンド・ラターワースが五十ポンド払うと言ったことを」
"There is a thing I wanted to speak about last night," the organist said. "Poor old Miss Joliffe is very hard up. She hasn't said a word to me about it--she never would to anyone--but I happen to know it for a fact: she _is_ hard up. She is in a chronic state of hard-up-ishness always, and that we all are; but this is an acute attack--she has her back against the wall. It is the fag-end of Martin's debts that bother her; these blood-sucking tradesmen are dunning her, and she hasn't the pluck to tell them go hang, though they know well enough she isn't responsible for a farthing. She has got it into her head that she hasn't a right to keep that flower-and-caterpillar picture so long as Martin's debts are unpaid, because she could raise money on it. You remember those people, Baunton and Lutterworth, offered her fifty pounds for it."
"Yes, I remember," Westray said; "more fools they."
"More fools, by all means," rejoined the organist; "but still they offer it, and I believe our poor old landlady will come to selling it. `All the better for her,' you will say, and anyone with an ounce of common-sense would have sold it long ago for fifty pounds or fifty pence. But, then, she has no common-sense, and I do believe it would break her pride and worry her into a fever to part with it. Well, I have been at the pains to find out what sum of money would pull her through, and I fancy something like twenty pounds would tide over the crisis."
He paused a moment, as if he half expected Westray to speak; but the architect making no suggestion, he went on.
"I didn't know," he said timidly; "I wasn't quite sure whether you had been here long enough to take much interest in the matter. I had an idea of buying the picture myself, so that we could still keep it here. It would be no good offering Miss Euphemia money as a _gift_; she wouldn't accept it on any condition. I know her quite well enough to be sure of that. But if I was to offer her twenty pounds for it, and tell her it must always stop here, and that she could buy it back from me when she was able, I think she would feel such an offer to be a godsend, and accept it readily."
"Yes," Westray said dubitatively; "I suppose it couldn't be construed into attempting to outwit her, could it? It seems rather funny at first sight to get her to sell a picture for twenty pounds for which others have offered fifty pounds."
"No, I don't think so," replied the organist. "It wouldn't be a real sale at all, you know, but only just a colour for helping her."
"Well, as you have been kind enough to ask my advice, I see no further objection, and think it very good of you to show such thoughtfulness for poor Miss Joliffe."
"Thank you," said the organist hesitatingly--"thank you; I had hoped you would take that view of the matter. There is a further little difficulty: I am as poor as a church mouse. I live like an old screw, and never spend a penny, but, then, I haven't got a penny to spend, and so can't save."
Westray had already wondered how Mr Sharnall could command so large a sum as twenty pounds, but thought it more prudent to make no comments.
Then the organist took the bull by the horns.
"I didn't know," he said, "whether you would feel inclined to join me in the purchase. I have got ten pounds in the savings' bank; if you could find the other ten pounds, we could go shares in the picture; and, after all, that wouldn't much matter, for Miss Euphemia is quite sure to buy it back from us before very long."
He stopped and looked at Westray. The architect was taken aback. He was of a cautious and calculating disposition, and a natural inclination to save had been reinforced by the conviction that any unnecessary expenditure was in itself to be severely reprobated. As the Bible was to him the foundation of the world to come, so the keeping of meticulous accounts and the putting by of however trifling sums, were the foundation of the world that is. He had so carefully governed his life as to have been already able, out of a scanty salary, to invest more than a hundred pounds in Railway Debentures. He set much store by the half-yearly receipt of an exiguous interest cheque, and derived a certain dignity and feeling of commercial stability from envelopes headed the "Great Southern Railway," which brought him from time to time a proxy form or a notice of shareholders' meetings. A recent examination of his bankbook had filled him with the hope of being able ere long to invest a second hundred pounds, and he had been turning over in his mind for some days the question of the stocks to be selected; it seemed financially unsound to put so large a sum in any single security.
彼は話をやめてウエストレイを見た。建築家はぎょっとした。彼は慎重かつ用心深い性格で、生まれつきの貯蓄癖は、いかなる不必要な出費も厳しく咎められるべきだという信念と織り合わさって、いちだんと強固なものにされていた。聖書が彼にとって来世の礎であるように、細かく家計を記録し、どんなに少額であっても金を貯金にまわすことが彼にとってのこの世の礎だったのである。注意して生活を切り詰めたおかげで、給金は少ないながら、鉄道会社の社債券にすでに百ポンド以上の投資ができるほどになっていた。半年ごとのわずかな利息小切手の受け取りをひどく大切に保管し、「グレート・サザン鉄道」のレターヘッドの入った封筒に、ある種の威厳と金銭的安心感を見いだしていた。これはときどき株主総会の代理委任状や告知を彼に送り届ける封筒だった。最近預金通帳を調べたところ、もうじき新たに百ポンドを投資に回せそうなことが分かり、彼は胸にいっぱいの希望を抱いて、ここ数日のあいだ、どの株を選ぶべきだろうかと思いを巡らしていたのである。一社の社債に大金をつぎこむことは資産運営上好ましくないと思われたのだ。
This suddenly presented proposal that he should make a serious inroad on his capital filled him with dismay; it was equivalent to granting a loan of ten pounds without any tangible security. No one in their senses could regard this miserable picture as a security; and the bulbous green caterpillar seemed to give a wriggle of derision as he looked at it across the breakfast-table. He had it on his tongue to refuse Mr Sharnall's request, with the sympathetic but judicial firmness with which all high-minded persons refuse to lend. There is a tone of sad resolution particularly applicable to such occasions, which should convey to the borrower that only motives of great moral altitude constrain us for the moment to override an earnest desire to part with our money. If it had not been for considerations of the public weal, we would most readily have given him ten times as much as was asked.
資産をはなはだ磨り減らすこの突然の提案はすっかり彼を狼狽させた。それは確かな担保もなしに十ポンドを貸し与えるようなものだった。まともな人間ならこんなへたくそな絵が担保になるとは誰も考えはしない。ぶよぶよした緑の毛虫は朝食のテーブル越しに見たとき彼をあざけって身をくねらせたように思えた。ミスタ・シャーノールの頼みを断ることばが喉元まで出かかった。お偉方が金を貸すのを断るとき、誰もが使う同情のこもった、しかし裁判官のように断固たる調子のことばが。そうした機会にとりわけよく使われる、悲しげだがきっぱりした口調というものがある。それは借り手に、金を出したいのはやまやまだが、道徳的高みに立って判断するなら、今のところ断らざるを得ない、という趣旨を伝えるはずのものである。公共の福利のことを考えなくてすむのなら、すぐにでも頼まれた額の十倍だって出すのだが。
Westray was about to express sentiments of this nature when he glanced at the organist's face, and saw written in its folds and wrinkles so paramount and pathetic an anxiety that his resolution was shaken. He remembered the quarrel of the night before, and how Mr Sharnall, in coming to beg his pardon that morning, had humbled himself before a younger man. He remembered how they had made up their differences; surely an hour ago he would willingly have paid ten pounds to know that their differences could be made up. Perhaps, after all, he might agree to make this loan as a thank-offering for friendship restored. Perhaps, after all, the picture _was_ a security: someone _had_ offered fifty pounds for it.
The organist had not followed the change of Westray's mind; he retained only the first impression of reluctance, and was very anxious--curiously anxious, it might have seemed, if his only motive in the acquiring of the picture was to do a kindness to Miss Euphemia.
オルガン奏者にはウエストレイの心の変化が分らなかった。ただ気乗り薄そうな最初の印象だけを心に留め、ひどくそわそわしていた――絵を買う動機がミス・ユーフィミアに対する親切だけだとしたら、不思議に思われるくらいそわそわと。 ~~~ 「確かに大金だね。分っているよ」彼は低い声で言った。「きみにこんなことを頼むなんて、わたしもすごく嫌なのさ。でも、これはわたしのためにするんじゃない。わたしは今まで自分のために一銭だって物乞いをしたことはないし、これからも貧民収容施設に行くまでは、そんなことをするつもりはない。迷っているなら、すぐ答えなくてもいい。じっくり時間をかけて考えてくれ。ただできるものなら、ウエストレイ、助けて欲しいんだよ。今、絵をこの家からなくしてしまうのは何とも惜しい」
"It _is_ a large sum, I know," he said in a low voice. "I am very sorry to ask you to do this. It is not for myself; I never asked a penny for myself in my life, and never will, till I go to the workhouse. Don't answer at once, if you don't see your way. Think it over. Take time to think it over; but do try, Westray, to help in the matter, if you can. It would be a sad pity to let the picture go out of the house just now."
The eagerness with which he spoke surprised Westray. Could it be that Mr Sharnall had motives other than mere kindness? Could it be that the picture _was_ valuable after all? He walked across the room to look closer at the tawdry flowers and the caterpillar. No, it could not be that; the painting was absolutely worthless. Mr Sharnall had followed him, and they stood side by side looking out of the window. Westray was passing through a very brief interval of indecision. His emotional and perhaps better feelings told him that he ought to accede to Mr Sharnall's request; caution and the hoarding instinct reminded him that ten pounds was a large proportion of his whole available capital.
Bright sunshine had succeeded the rain. The puddles flashed on the pavements; the long rows of raindrops glistened on the ledges which overhung the shop-windows, and a warm steam rose from the sandy roadway as it dried in the sun. The front-door of Bellevue Lodge closed below them, and Anastasia, in a broad straw hat and a pink print dress, went lightly down the steps. On that bright morning she looked the brightest thing of all, as she walked briskly to the market with a basket on her arm, unconscious that two men were watching her from an upper window.
It was at that minute that thrift was finally elbowed by sentiment out of Westray's mind.
"Yes," he said, "by all means let us buy the picture. You negotiate the matter with Miss Joliffe, and I will give you two five-pound notes this evening."
"Thank you--thank you," said the organist, with much relief. "I will tell Miss Euphemia that she can buy it back from us whenever it suits her to do so; and if she should not buy it back before one of us dies, then it shall remain the sole property of the survivor."
So that very day the purchase of a rare work of art was concluded by private treaty between Miss Euphemia Joliffe of the one part, and Messrs. Nicholas Sharnall and Edward Westray of the other. The hammer never fell upon the showy flowers with the green caterpillar wriggling in the corner; and Messrs. Baunton and Lutterworth received a polite note from Miss Joliffe to say that the painting late in the possession of Martin Joliffe, Esquire, deceased, was not for sale.
第十一章 ~~~
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
The old Bishop of Carisbury was dead, and a new Bishop of Carisbury reigned in his stead. The appointment had caused some chagrin in Low-Church circles, for Dr Willis, the new Bishop, was a High Churchman of pronounced views. But he had a reputation for deep personal piety, and a very short experience sufficed to show that he was full of Christian tolerance and tactful loving-kindness.
One day, as Mr Sharnall was playing a voluntary after the Sunday morning-service, a chorister stole up the little winding steps, and appeared in the organ-loft just as his master had pulled out a handful of stops and dashed into the _stretto_. The organist had not heard the boy on the stairs, and gave a violent start as he suddenly caught sight of the white surplice. Hands and feet for an instant lost their place, and the music came perilously near breaking down. It was only for an instant; he pulled himself together, and played the fugue to its logical conclusion.
Then the boy began, "Canon Parkyn's compliments," but broke off; for the organist greeted him with a sound cuff and a "How many times have I told you, sir, not to come creeping up those stairs when I am in the middle of a voluntary? You startle me out of my senses, coming round the corner like a ghost."
"I'm very sorry, sir," the boy said, whimpering. "I'm sure I never meant--I never thought--"
"You never _do_ think," Mr Sharnall said. "Well, well, don't go on whining. Old heads don't grow on young shoulders; don't do it again, and there's a sixpence for you. And now let's hear what you have to say."
Sixpences were rare things among Cullerne boys, and the gift consoled more speedily than any balm in Gilead.
"Canon Parkyn's compliments to you, sir, and he would be glad to have a word with you in the clergy-vestry."
"All in good time. Tell him I'll be down as soon as I've put my books away."
Mr Sharnall did not hurry. There were the Psalter and the chant-book to be put open on the desk for the afternoon; there were the morning-service and anthem-book to be put away, and the evening-service and anthem-book to be got out.
かつてこの教会には優れた楽譜集を買う余裕があった。ボイ（註 十八世紀英国の作曲家）の初版申しこみリストには――その人数の少なさにボイ博士が猛烈な屈辱を感じるリストだが――「カラン大聖堂主任司祭兼創設会員（六部）」という記載が今でも見られる。ミスタ・シャーノールは硫酸紙で装丁され、最大限余白をたっぷり取った、偉大なボイの楽譜をこよなく愛した。ページをめくるときの乾いた音も大好きだったし、簡略譜のように一度に九つの五線が読める、古風な音部記号も大好きだった。彼は記憶を確かめるために、一週間の曲目一覧を見た――ワイズ作曲「わが栄えよ、醒めよ」。いや、これは第二巻じゃなくて第三巻に載っているやつだ。間違った巻を取り出したぞ――この楽譜集はよく知っているのに何をしているんだ。背表紙の子牛の粗革がぼろぼろだ！さびのような赤い革くずが彼の外套の袖にくっついていた。これでは人前には出られぬと、さらにしばらく時間をかけてそれを払い落とした。参事会員パーキンは聖具室で待たされていらいらし、ミスタ・シャーノールがあらわれるなり、とげとげしい口調で挨拶した。
The establishment had once been able to afford good music-books, and in the attenuated list of subscribers to the first-edition Boyce you may see to this day, "The Rector and Foundation of Cullerne Minster (6 copies)." Mr Sharnall loved the great Boyce, with its parchment paper and largest of large margins. He loved the crisp sound of the leaves as he turned them, and he loved the old-world clefs that he could read nine staves at a time as easily as a short score. He looked at the weekly list to check his memory--"Awake up my Glory" (_Wise_). No, it was in
Volume Three instead of Two; he had taken down the wrong volume--a stupid mistake for one who knew the copy so well. How the rough calf backs were crumbling away! The rusty red-leather dust had come off on his coat-sleeves; he really was not fit to be seen, and he took some minutes more to brush it all off. So it was that Canon Parkyn chafed at being kept waiting in the clergy-vestry, and greeted Mr Sharnall on his appearance with a certain tartness:
"I wish you could be a little quicker when you are sent for. I am particularly busy just now, and you have kept me waiting a quarter of an hour at least."
As this was precisely what Mr Sharnall had intended to do, he took no umbrage at the Rector's remarks, but merely said:
"Pardon me; scarcely so long as a quarter of an hour, I think."
"Well, do not let us waste words. What I wanted to tell you was that it has been arranged for the Lord Bishop of Carisbury to hold a confirmation in the minster on the eighteenth of next month, at three o'clock in the afternoon. We must have a full musical service, and I shall be glad if you will submit a sketch of what you propose for my approval. There is one point to which I must call your attention particularly. As his lordship walks up the nave, we must have a becoming march on the organ--not any of this old-fashioned stuff of which I have had so often to complain, but something really dignified and with tune in it."
"Oh yes, we can easily arrange that," Mr Sharnall said obsequiously--"`See the Conquering Hero comes,' by Handel, would be very appropriate; or there is an air out of one of Offenbach's Operas that I think I could adapt to the purpose. It is a very sweet thing if rendered with proper feeling; or I could play a `Danse Maccabre' slowly on the full organ."
「ただのフーガですよ。カーンバーガーの」 ~~~ 「そのフーガというやつばかりを演奏しないでもらいたいね。学問的見地からはどれもすばらしいことに間違いないが、大多数の人にはただ混乱しているようにしか聞こえん。わたしと聖歌隊が威厳を持って退出しようとするとき、後押ししてくれるというより足かせになっている。厳かな礼拝の最後にふさわしい悲哀と威厳のこもった曲がほしいのだが、同時に聖歌隊席を出て行くときに、足取りを合わせられる、リズムのはっきりしたやつがいい。こんなことを言っても気を悪くしないでくれたまえ。だがオルガンの実用的な側面が最近は非常になおざりにされている。ミスタ・ヌートが礼拝をするときはどうだっていいが、わたしのときは頼むからフーガはやめてくれ」
"Ah, that is from the `Judas Maccabaeus,' I conclude," said the Rector, a little mollified at this unexpected acquiescence in his views. "Well, I see that you understand my wishes, so I hope I may leave that matter in your hands. By the way," he said, turning back as he left the vestry, "what _was_ the piece which you played after the service just now?"
カリスベリ主教のカラン訪問は重大事件で、ある程度の事前の計画と準備を必要とした。
"Oh, only a fugal movement--just a fugue of Kirnberger's."
"I _wish_ you would not give us so much of this fugal style. No doubt it is all very fine from a scholastic point of view, but to most it seems merely confused. So far from assisting me and the choir to go out with dignity, it really fetters our movements. We want something with pathos and dignity, such as befits the end of a solemn service, yet with a marked rhythm, so that it may time our footsteps as we leave the choir. Forgive these suggestions; the _practical_ utility of the organ is so much overlooked in these days. When Mr Noot is taking the service it does not so much matter, but when I am here myself I beg that there may be no more fugue."
The visit of the Bishop of Carisbury to Cullerne was an important matter, and necessitated some forethought and arrangement.
"The Bishop must, of course, lunch with us," Mrs Parkyn said to her husband; "you will ask him, of course, to lunch, my dear."
"Oh yes, certainly," replied the Canon; "I wrote yesterday to ask him to lunch."
He assumed an unconcerned air, but with only indifferent success, for his heart misgave him that he had been guilty of an unpardonable breach of etiquette in writing on so important a subject without reference to his wife.
"Really, my dear!" she rejoined--"really! I hope at least that your note was couched in proper terms."
"Psha!" he said, a little nettled in his turn, "do you suppose I have never written to a Bishop before?"
"That is not the point; _any_ invitation of this kind should always be given by me. The Bishop, if he has any _breeding_, will be very much astonished to receive an invitation to lunch that is not given by the lady of the house. This, at least, is the usage that prevails among persons of _breeding_." There was just enough emphasis in the repetition of the last formidable word to have afforded a _casus belli_, if the Rector had been minded for the fray; but he was a man of peace.
"You are quite right, my dear," was the soft answer; "it was a slip of mine, which we must hope the Bishop will overlook. I wrote in a hurry yesterday afternoon, as soon as I received the official information of his coming. You were out calling, if you recollect, and I had to catch the post. One never knows what tuft-hunting may not lead people to do; and if I had not caught the post, some pushing person or other might quite possibly have asked him sooner. I meant, of course, to have reported the matter to you, but it slipped my memory."
"Really," she said, with fine deprecation, being only half pacified, "I do not see who there _could_ be to ask the Bishop except ourselves. Where should the Bishop of Carisbury lunch in Cullerne except at the Rectory?" In this unanswerable conundrum she quenched the smouldering embers of her wrath. "I have no doubt, dear, that you did it all for the best, and I hate these vulgar pushing nobodies, who try to get hold of everyone of the least position quite as much as you do. So let us consider whom we _ought_ to ask to meet him. A small party, I think it should be; he would take it as a greater compliment if the party were small."
She had that shallow and ungenerous mind which shrinks instinctively from admitting any beauty or intellect in others, and which grudges any participation in benefits, however amply sufficient they may be for all. Thus, few must be asked to meet the Bishop, that it might the better appear that few indeed, beside the Rector and Mrs Parkyn, were fit to associate with so distinguished a man.
"I quite agree with you," said the Rector, considerably relieved to find that his own temerity in asking the Bishop might now be considered as condoned. "Our party must above all things be select; indeed, I do not know how we could make it anything but very small; there are so few people whom we _could_ ask to meet the Bishop."
"Let me see," his wife said, making a show of reckoning Cullerne respectability with the fingers of one hand on the fingers of the other. "There is--" She broke off as a sudden idea seized her. "Why, of course, we must ask Lord Blandamer. He has shown such marked interest in ecclesiastical matters that he is sure to wish to meet the Bishop."
"A most fortunate suggestion--admirable in every way. It may strengthen his interest in the church; and it must certainly be beneficial to him to associate with correct society after his wandering and Bohemian life. I hear all kinds of strange tales of his hobnobbing with this Mr Westray, the clerk of the works, and with other persons entirely out of his own rank. Mrs Flint, who happened to be visiting a poor woman in a back lane, assures me that she has every reason to believe that he spent an hour or more in the clerk's house, and even ate there. They say he positively ate tripe."
"Well, it will certainly do him good to meet the Bishop," the lady said. "That would make four with ourselves; and we can ask Mrs Bulteel. We need not ask her husband; he is painfully rough, and the Bishop might not like to meet a brewer. It will not be at all strange to ask her alone; there is always the excuse of not liking to take a businessman away from his work in the middle of the day."
"That would be five; we ought to make it up to six. I suppose it would not do to ask this architect-fellow or Mr Sharnall."
"My dear! what can you be thinking of? On no account whatever. Such guests would be _most_ inappropriate."
The Rector looked so properly humble and cast down at this reproof that his wife relented a little.
"Not that there is any _harm_ in asking them, but they would be so very ill at ease themselves, I fear, in such surroundings. If you think the number should be even, we might perhaps ask old Noot. He _is_ a gentleman, and would pass as your chaplain, and say grace."
Thus the party was made up, and Lord Blandamer accepted, and Mrs Bulteel accepted; and there was no need to trouble about the curate's acceptance--he was merely ordered to come to lunch. But, after all had gone so well up to this point, the unexpected happened--the Bishop could not come. He regretted that he could not accept the hospitality so kindly offered him by Canon Parkyn; he had an engagement which would occupy him for any spare time that he would have in Cullerne; he had made other arrangements for lunch; he would call at the Rectory half an hour before the service.
The Rector and his wife sat in the "study," a dark room on the north side of the rectory-house, made sinister from without by dank laurestinus, and from within by glass cases of badly-stuffed birds. A Bradshaw lay on the table before them.
"He cannot be _driving_ from Carisbury," Mrs Parkyn said. "Dr Willis does not keep at all the same sort of stables that his predecessor kept. Mrs Flint, when she was attending the annual Christian Endeavour meeting at Carisbury, was told that Dr Willis thinks it wrong that a Bishop should do more in the way of keeping carriages than is absolutely necessary for church purposes. She said she had passed the Bishop's carriage herself, and that the coachman was a most unkempt creature, and the horses two wretched screws."
"I heard much the same thing," assented the Rector. "They say he would not have his own coat of arms painted on the carriage, for what was there already was quite good enough for him. He cannot possibly be driving here from Carisbury; it is a good twenty miles."
"Well, if he does not drive, he must come by the 12:15 train; that would give him two hours and a quarter before the service. What business can he have in Cullerne? Where can he be lunching? What can he be doing with himself for two mortal hours and a quarter?"
Here was another conundrum to which probably only one person in Cullerne town could have supplied an answer, and that was Mr Sharnall. A letter had come for the organist that very day:
カリスベリ、主教公邸
"The Palace,
親愛なるシャーノール
"Carisbury.
"My dear Sharnall, ~~~ "(I had almost written `My dear Nick'; forty years have made my pen a little stiff, but you must give me your official permission to write `My dear Nick' the very next time.) You may have forgotten my hand, but you will not have forgotten me. Do you know, it is I, Willis, who am your new Bishop? It is only a fortnight since I learnt that you were so near me--
何と喜ばしきことだろう ~~~ 輝ける友情を再び蘇らせることは――
"`Quam dulce amicitias, Redintegrare nitidas' -
"and the very first point of it is that I am going to sponge on you, and ask myself to lunch. I am coming to Cullerne at 12:45 to-day fortnight for the Confirmation, and have to be at the Rectory at 2:30, but till then an old friend, Nicholas Sharnall, will give me food and shelter, will he not? Make no excuses, for I shall not accept them; but send me word to say that in this you will not fail of your duty, and believe me always to be
いつも変わらぬきみの友
"Yours,
ジョン・カラム
"John Carum."
There was something that moved strangely inside Mr Sharnall's battered body as he read the letter--an upheaval of emotion; the child's heart within the man's; his young hopeful self calling to his old hopeless self. He sat back in his armchair, and shut his eyes, and the organ-loft in a little college chapel came back to him, and long, long practisings, and Willis content to stand by and listen as long as he should play. How it pleased Willis to stand by, and pull the stops, and fancy he knew something of music! No, Willis never knew any music, and yet he had a good taste, and loved a fugue.
田舎を歩き回って聖堂めぐりをしたこと、そして「ゴシック建築入門」を手に、初期イギリス様式の刳形とイギリスゴシック建築様式の刳形の違いを説明しようとするウイリスの姿が思い浮かんできた。日が落ちて何時間経っても、北の空が澄み切った黄色に染まったままの、かぎりなく長い夏の夕べ。しっとり露にぬれた広い乗馬道が脇を走る、埃っぽい白い道。暗くて神秘的なストウウッドの森。ベックリイの小道に生えたハシドイの香り。チャーウエルの谷に立ち籠める白い霞。それから寮に帰って食べた夕食――記憶は強力な錬金術師で、夕映えだけでなく夕食までも変質させてしまう。なんという夕食だったろう！ルリチシャの浮かぶ林檎酒、ミントソースをかけた冷めた子羊の肉、ミズガラシ、三角形のスティルトンチーズ。そういや、スティルトンチーズは四十年も食べていないぞ！
There came to him country rambles and country churches and Willis with an "A.B.C. of Gothic Architecture," trying to tell an Early English from a Decorated moulding. There came to him inimitably long summer evenings, with the sky clearest yellow in the north, hours after sunset; dusty white roads, with broad galloping-paths at the side, drenched with heavy dew; the dark, mysterious boskage of Stow Wood; the scent of the syringa in the lane at Beckley; the white mist sheeting the Cherwell vale. And supper when they got home--for memory is so powerful an alchemist as to transmute suppers as well as sunsets. What suppers! Cider-cup with borage floating in it, cold lamb and mint sauce, watercress, and a triangular commons of Stilton. Why, he had not tasted Stilton for forty years!
No, Willis never knew any music, but he loved a fugue. Ah, the fugues they had! And then a voice crossed Mr Sharnall's memory, saying, "When I am here myself, I beg that there may be no more fugue." "No more fugue"--there was a finality in the phrase uncompromising as the "no more sea" of the Apocalyptic vision. It made Mr Sharnall smile bitterly; he woke from his daydream, and was back in the present.
主教選出のニュースをはじめて聞いたとき、それが昔の友人であることはもちろん分かった。そのウイリスが会いに来てくれるとは嬉しいじゃないか。ウイリスはあの騒動のことをみんな知っている。わたしがオクスフォードを退学しなければならなくなった事情も。うん、しかし主教は心の広い寛大な男だから、いまさらあんなことをとやかく言わないだろう。ウイリスはわたしが貧しい、尾羽打ち枯らした老人に過ぎないことをよく知っているはずだ。それでもわたしのところに昼飯を食べに来るといっている。しかしウイリスはわたしが今も――。彼は考えつづけるのをやめ、鏡を見てネクタイを直し、外套の第一ボタンを留めると、震える手で左右の頭髪を後ろに撫で付けた。いや、ウイリスはそこまでは知らないし、知られてはならない。悔い改めるに遅すぎることはないのだ。
Oh yes, he knew very well that it was his old friend when he first saw on whom the choice had fallen for the Bishopric. He was glad Willis was coming to see him. Willis knew all about the row, and how it was that Sharnall had to leave Oxford. Ay, but the Bishop was too generous and broad-minded to remember that now. Willis must know very well that he was only a poor, out-at-elbows old fellow, and yet he was coming to lunch with him; but did Willis know that he still--He did not follow the thought further, but glanced in a mirror, adjusted his tie, fastened the top button of his coat, and with his uncertain hands brushed the hair back on either side of his head. No, Willis did not know that; he never should know; it was _never_ too late to mend.
彼は戸棚のほうにむかい、酒瓶とタンブラーを取り出した。アルコールはほんの少ししか残っていなかったが、彼はそれをタンブラーに残らず注いだ。束の間彼は躊躇した。気弱になった意志が負けるなとみずからを励ました一瞬だった。どうやら彼はこの高価な酒を一滴たりとも無駄にするまいとしているらしかった。彼は酒瓶を慎重にひっくり返し、最後の小さな一滴が瓶を離れ、タンブラーに落ちるのを見た。いいや、わたしの意志の力はまだ完全に麻痺してはいないぞ――まだな。そして彼はタンブラーの中身を火にぶちまけた。淡い青色の炎がぼっと大きく燃え立ち、小さな爆風が窓ガラスを鳴らした。しかし英雄的行為はなされた。彼は心の中で幾つものトランペットが鳴り、「自己に打ち勝った者」（註 ケンピスの「キリストにならいて」から）と叫ぶ賞賛の声を聞いた。ウイリスに知られてはならない、わたしが今も――なぜならわたしは金輪際酒とは縁を切るつもりなのだから。
He went to the cupboard, and took out a bottle and a tumbler. Only very little spirit was left, and he poured it all into the glass. There was a moment's hesitation, a moment while enfeebled will-power was nerving itself for the effort. He was apparently engaged in making sure that not one minim of this most costly liquor was wasted. He held the bottle carefully inverted, and watched the very last and smallest drop detach itself and fall into the glass. No, his will-power was not yet altogether paralysed--not yet; and he dashed the contents of the glass into the fire. There was a great blaze of light-blue flame, and a puff in the air that made the window-panes rattle; but the heroic deed was done, and he heard a mental blast of trumpets, and the acclaiming voice of the _Victor Sui_. Willis should never know that he still--because he never would again.
He rang the bell, and when Miss Euphemia answered it she found him walking briskly, almost tripping, to and fro in the room. He stopped as she entered, drew his heels together, and made her a profound bow.
"Hail, most fair chastelaine! Bid the varlets lower the draw-bridge and raise the portcullis. Order pasties and souse-fish and a butt of malmsey; see the great hall is properly decored for my Lord Bishop of Carisbury, who will take his _ambigue_ and bait his steeds at this castle."
Miss Joliffe stared; she saw a bottle and an empty tumbler on the table, and smelt a strong smell of whisky; and the mirth faded from Mr Sharnall's face as he read her thoughts.
"No, wrong," he said--"wrong this once; I am as sober as a judge, but excited. A Bishop is coming to lunch with me. _You_ are excited when Lord Blandamer takes tea with you--a mere trashy temporal peer; am I not to be excited when a real spiritual lord pays me a visit? Hear, O woman! The Bishop of Carisbury has written to ask, not me to lunch with him, but him to lunch with me. You will have a Bishop lunching at Bellevue Lodge."
"Oh, Mr Sharnall! pray, sir, speak plainly. I am so old and stupid, I can never tell whether you are joking or in earnest."
そこで彼は心の高揚を抑え、彼女に事実を語った。
So he put off his exaltation, and told her the actual facts.
「でも、旦那様、いったい昼食に何を差し上げるおつもりですの」とミス・ジョウリフは言った。彼女は常に敬意を示す「旦那様」を適当な回数だけさしはさむように気をつけていた。自分の家柄を誇りにし、生まれに関するかぎり、カランのどんな上流婦人にも引けをとらない自信があったが、訳あって下宿の女主人となった今は、その地位をまっとうするのがキリスト教徒の勤めと思っていた。「いったい昼食に何を差し上げるおつもりですの。聖職者の方にお食事を用意するのは、いつも面倒でほとほと困ってしまいます。美味しいものをあんまりたくさんお出しすると、あの方たちの神聖な天職を充分わきまえていないみたいに思われますでしょう。まるでマルタみたいじゃありませんか、聖職者とのお付き合いからありったけの精神的利益を引き出そうとして、やたら食べ物を差し出そうとあくせくしたり、心配したり、頭を悩ましたりするなんて（註 ルカ伝より）。でも、もちろん、どんな精神的なお方だって肉体を養わないわけには行きませんわ。さもなければ善を施すこともできなくなってしまいますから。ただ、お食事の用意を控えめにすると、ときどき聖職者の方が全部召し上がってしまい、もう食べ物がないと分かると、お気の毒にがっかりなさるのです。そうそう、ミセス・シャープが教区民を招いて、教会伝道集会のあと『代表者』と顔合わせなさったときがそうだった。揚げ物料理が『代表者』の到着前になくなってしまいましたの。おかわいそうでしたわ、長い演説をなさった後で、とても疲れていらしたので、食べ物がないと分かるととてもイライラなさって。もちろんそれはほんの一瞬のことです。でもわたしはあの方が、名前は忘れたけど誰かにこう言うのを聞いたんです。これなら駅の軽食堂でハム・サンドイッチを頼んでおいたほうがずっとよかったって。
"I am sure I don't know, sir, what you will give him for lunch," Miss Joliffe said. She was always careful to put in a proper number of "sirs," for, though she was proud of her descent, and considered that so far as birth went she need not fear comparison with other Cullerne dames, she thought it a Christian duty to accept fully the position of landlady to which circumstances had led her. "I am sure I don't know what you will give him for lunch; it is always so difficult to arrange meals for the clergy. If one provides _too_ much of the good things of this world, it seems as if one was not considering sufficiently their sacred calling; it seems like Martha, too cumbered with much serving, too careful and troubled, to gain all the spiritual advantage that must come from clergymen's society. But, of course, even the most spiritually-minded must nourish their _bodies_, or they would not be able to do so much good. But when less provision has been made, I have sometimes seen clergymen eat it all up, and become quite wearied, poor things! for want of food. It was so, I remember, when Mrs Sharp invited the parishioners to meet the deputation after the Church Missionary Meeting. All the patties were eaten before the deputation came, and he was so tired, poor man! with his long speech that when he found there was nothing to eat he got quite annoyed. It was only for a moment, of course, but I heard him say to someone, whose name I forget, that he had much better have trusted to a ham-sandwich in the station refreshment-room.
食べ物も厄介ですけど、飲み物はもっと厄介ですわ。聖職者の中にはワインを毛嫌いなさる方もいるし、かと思うとお話の前にぜひ一杯という方もいらっしゃいます。つい昨年のことですけど、ミセス・ブルティールが応接間集会を開いて、会合の前にシャンペンとビスケットをお出ししたの。そうしたらスティミイ博士は、酒飲み全員が自堕落だとは思わんが、しかしアルコールは獣の刻印であると考える、そして人々が応接間集会に来るのは、話を聞く前に酔っ払ってうつらうつらするためではないとはっきりおっしゃったの。それが主教ともなればもっと面倒なことになるわ。そういうわけですからねえ、いったいわたしたち何をお出ししたらいいのでしょう」
"And if it is difficult with the food, it is worse still with what they are to drink. Some clergymen do so dislike wine, and others feel they need it before the exertion of speaking. Only last year, when Mrs Bulteel gave a drawing-room meeting, and champagne with biscuits was served before it, Dr Stimey said quite openly that though he did not consider all who drank to be _reprobate_, yet he must regard alcohol as the Mark of the Beast, and that people did not come to drawing-room meetings to drink themselves sleepy before the speaking. With Bishops it must be much worse; so I don't know what we shall give him."
"Don't distress yourself too much," the organist said, having at last spied a gap in the serried ranks of words; "I have found out what Bishops eat; it is all in a little book. We must give him cold lamb-- cold ribs of lamb--and mint sauce, boiled potatoes, and after that Stilton cheese."
"Stilton?" Miss Joliffe asked with some trepidation. "I am afraid it will be very expensive."
As a drowning man in one moment passes in review the events of a lifetime, so her mind took an instantaneous conspectus of all cheeses that had ever stood in the cheese-cradle in the palmy days of Wydcombe, when hams and plum-puddings hung in bags from the rafters, when there was cream in the dairy and beer in the cellar. Blue Vinny, little Gloucesters, double Besants, even sometimes a cream-cheese with rushes on the bottom, but Stilton never!
"I am afraid it is a _very_ expensive cheese; I do not think anyone in Cullerne keeps it."
"It is a pity," Mr Sharnall said; "but we cannot help ourselves, for Bishops _must_ have Stilton for lunch; the book says so. You must ask Mr Custance to get you a piece, and I will tell you later how it is to be cut, for there are rules about that too."
He laughed to himself with a queer little chuckle. Cold lamb and mint sauce, with a piece of Stilton afterwards--they would have an Oxford lunch; they would be young again, and undefiled.
The stimulus that the Bishop's letter had brought Mr Sharnall soon wore off. He was a man of moods, and in his nervous temperament depression walked close at the heels of exaltation. Westray felt sure in those days that followed that his friend was drinking to excess, and feared something more serious than a mere nervous breakdown, from the agitation and strangeness that he could not fail to observe in the organist's manner.
The door of the architect's room opened one night, as he sat late over his work, and Mr Sharnall entered. His face was pale, and there was a startled, wide-open look in his eyes that Westray did not like.
"I wish you would come down to my room for a minute," the organist said; "I want to change the place of my piano, and can't move it by myself."
"Isn't it rather late to-night?" Westray said, pulling at his watch, while the deep and slow melodious chimes of Saint Sepulchre told the dreaming town and the silent sea-marshes that it lacked but a quarter of an hour to midnight. "Wouldn't it be better to do it to-morrow morning?"
"Couldn't you come down to-night?" the organist asked; "it wouldn't take you a minute."
Westray caught the disappointment in the tone.
"Very well," he said, putting his drawing-board aside. "I've worked at this quite long enough; let us shift your piano."
「今晩はだめかね」オルガン奏者は訊いた。「すぐすむんだが」
They went down to the ground-floor.
"I want to turn the piano right-about-face," the organist said, "with its back to the room and the keyboard to the wall--the keyboard quite close to the wall, with just room for me to sit."
"It seems a curious arrangement," Westray criticised; "is it better acoustically?"
"Oh, I don't know; but, if I want to rest a bit, I can put my back against the wall, you see."
The change was soon accomplished, and they sat down for a moment before the fire.
"You keep a good fire," Westray said, "considering it is bed-time." And, indeed, the coals were piled high, and burning fiercely.
The organist gave them a poke, and looked round as if to make sure that they were alone.
「きみはわたしのことを馬鹿な男だと思っているだろう」と彼は言った。「まさにその通りだよ。きみはわたしが酒を飲んでいたと思っているだろう。まさにその通り。きみはわたしが今酔っぱらっていると思っているだろう。ところが違うんだ。聞きたまえ。わたしは酔っぱらっちゃいない。臆病なだけさ。きみとわたしがこの家まで一緒に歩いた最初の晩のことを覚えているかい。真暗で土砂降りだった。それから旧保税倉庫のそばを通るとき、わたしが怯えていたことを覚えているかい。ああ、あの頃から始まって、今はずっとひどくなっている。あの頃でさえ、いつも何かにつけられているという恐ろしい考えに取り憑かれていた――それもすぐ後ろをつけてくるんだ。そいつが何かは知らんが――とにかく何かがすぐ後ろにいることは知っていた」
"You'll think me a fool," he said; "and I am. You'll think I've been drinking, and I have. You'll think I'm drunk, but I'm not. Listen to me: I'm not drunk; I'm only a coward. Do you remember the very first night you and I walked home to this house together? Do you remember the darkness and the driving rain, and how scared I was when we passed the Old Bonding-house? Well, it was beginning then, but it's much worse now. I had a horrible idea even then that there was something always following me--following me close. I didn't know what it was--I only knew there was _something_ close behind me."
His manner and appearance alarmed Westray. The organist's face was very pale, and a curious raising of the eyelids, which showed the whites of the eyes above the pupils, gave him the staring appearance of one confronted suddenly with some ghastly spectacle. Westray remembered that the hallucination of pursuant enemies is one of the most common symptoms of incipient madness, and put his hand gently on the organist's arm.
"Don't excite yourself," he said; "this is all nonsense. Don't get excited so late at night."
Mr Sharnall brushed the hand aside.
「そんな気がするのは外に出たときだけだったのだが、今は家の中にいてもしばしば感じる――この部屋にいるときさえ。以前は何があとをつけてくるのか分からなかった――何かがつけてくるとしか分からなかった。でも今はそれが何か分ったよ。それは男なんだ――ハンマーを持った男なんだ。笑っちゃいかん。本当は笑いたくないんだろう。笑えばわたしの気が静まると思っているだけで。しかしその手は食わんぞ。そいつはハンマーを持った男だと思う。顔はまだ見たことがない。しかしそのうち拝ませてもらうことになるだろう。わたしに分っているのは、それが邪悪な顔だということだけだ――悪魔の絵とか、あの手のおどろおどろしい顔じゃない。もっと不吉な顔だ――一見まともに見えるが実は仮面をかぶっているぞっとするような変装した顔だよ。やつは絶えずわたしのあとをつけてくる。わたしはそのハンマーがわたしの脳天を打ち砕くんじゃないかと、いつもそんな気がしているんだ」
"I only used to have that feeling when I was out of doors, but now I have it often indoors--even in this very room. Before I never knew what it was following me--I only knew it was something. But now I know what it is: it is a man--a man with a hammer. Don't laugh. You don't _want_ to laugh; you only laugh because you think it will quiet me, but it won't. I think it is a man with a hammer. I have never seen his face yet, but I shall some day. Only I know it is an evil face--not hideous, like pictures of devils or anything of that kind, but worse--a dreadful, disguised face, looking all right, but wearing a mask. He walks constantly behind me, and I feel every moment that the hammer may brain me."
"Come, come!" Westray said in what is commonly supposed to be a soothing tone, "let us change this subject, or go to bed. I wonder how you will find the new position of your piano answer."
オルガン奏者はにやりとした。
The organist smiled.
「どうしてこんなふうに位置を変えたのか、本当の理由が分かるかい」と彼は言った。「それはわたしが臆病者だからだよ。壁を背にすれば、後ろにまわられることはないからね。夜更けに怖いのを必死に我慢してかろうじてここに座っているということが何回あったことか。そんなにびくびくするくらいなら、さっさと寝ればいいんだが、ただわたしはこんなふうに自分に言い聞かせるんだ。『ニック』――子供の頃は家でそう呼ばれていたんだ――『ニック、尻尾を巻いて逃げるわけにはいかないぞ。まさか幽霊におびえて部屋を出て行ったりはしまいな』それからわたしは頑張って演奏をつづけるんだが、上の空でやっていることもしょっちゅうなのさ。こうなっちゃあ、人間も哀れなものだね」ウエストレイは返すことばがなかった。
"Do you know why I really put it like that?" he said. "It is because I am such a coward. I like to have my back against the wall, and then I know there can be no one behind me. There are many nights, when it gets late, that it is only with a great effort I can sit here. I grow so nervous that I should go to bed at once, only I say to myself, `Nick'-- that's what they used to call me at home, you know, when I was a boy--`Nick, you're not going to be beat; you're not going to be scared out of your own room by ghosts, surely.' And then I sit tight, and play on, but very often don't think much of what I'm playing. It is a sad state for a man to get into, is it not?" And Westray could not traverse the statement.
"Even in the church," Mr Sharnall went on, "I don't care to practise much in the evening by myself. It used to be all right when Cutlow was there to blow for me. He is a daft fellow, but still was some sort of company; but now the water-engine is put in, I feel lonely there, and don't care to go as often as I used. Something made me tell Lord Blandamer how his water-engine contrived to make me frightened, and he said he should have to come up to the loft himself sometimes to keep me company."
"Well, let me know the first evening you want to practise," Westray said, "and I will come, too, and sit in the loft. Take care of yourself, and you will soon grow out of all these fancies, and laugh at them as much as I do." And he feigned a smile. But it was late at night; he was high-strung and nervous himself, and the fact that Mr Sharnall should have been brought to such a pitiable state of mental instability depressed him.
主教が堅信礼の日にミスタ・シャーノールと昼食をするという噂はすぐにカランに広まった。ミス・ジョウリフは従兄弟で豚肉屋のミスタ・ジョウリフに話をし、ミスタ・ジョウリフは教区委員として参事会員パーキンに話をした。たった数週間のうちに二度も重要なニュースが人伝に主任司祭に伝わってきたのだ。しかし今回はブランダマー卿がウエストレイを通じて修復工事に大金を差し出したときのような悔しさはほとんど感じなかった。彼はミスタ・シャーノールに憤りを感じなかったのである。この一件はあまりに厳粛重要であって、個人的なつまらない感情の割りこむ余地はなかったのだ。いかなる主教の、いかなる行いもすべからく神の行いであり、この神の定めに憤慨するのは船の難破や地震に腹を立てるのと同じくらい場違いなことだったろう。カリスベリ主教をもてなす役に選ばれ、主任司祭の目にはミスタ・シャーノールがただならぬ人物に見えてきた。これは単に知性があるとか、技術が優れているとか、骨の折れる単調な仕事にまじめに取り組んできたとか、そうしたことだけでは決して得られない評価であった。オルガン奏者は事実上、端倪すべからざる人物となったのである。
The report that the Bishop was going to lunch with Mr Sharnall on the day of the Confirmation soon spread in Cullerne. Miss Joliffe had told Mr Joliffe the pork-butcher, as her cousin, and Mr Joliffe, as churchwarden, had told Canon Parkyn. It was the second time within a few weeks that a piece of important news had reached the Rector at second-hand. But on this occasion he experienced little of the chagrin that had possessed him when Lord Blandamer made the great offer to the restoration fund through Westray. He did not feel resentment against Mr Sharnall; the affair was of too solemn an importance for any such personal and petty sentiments to find a place. Any act of any Bishop was vicariously an act of God, and to chafe at this dispensation would have been as out of place as to be incensed at a shipwreck or an earthquake. The fact of being selected as the entertainer of the Bishop of Carisbury invested Mr Sharnall in the Rector's eyes with a distinction which could not have been possibly attained by mere intellect or technical skill or devoted drudgery. The organist became _ipso facto_ a person to be taken into account.
司祭館は憶測を巡らしては議論し、議論しては憶測を巡らせた。主教がミスタ・シャーノールと昼食を共にするなど、いったいどうすればそんなことになるのか、どうしてそんなことが起きうるのか、どうしてそんなことをしようという気になるのか、どうしてそうでなければならないのか。主教はミスタ・シャーノールが小料理屋でも開いていると思ったのか。それとも主教はミスタ・シャーノールしか作り方を知らない特殊なものを食べるのか。主教はミスタ・シャーノールを専用礼拝堂のオルガン弾きとして迎えようとしているのか。たしか主教座聖堂に空きはなかったはずだ。憶測は謎というめくら壁に総攻撃をしかけ、痛手を受けて退却した。何時間もそのことばかりを話し合ったあげく、ミセス・パーキンは、もうどうでもいいと投げ出した。
The Rectory had divined and discussed, and discussed and divined, how it was, could, would, should, have been that the Bishop could be lunching with Mr Sharnall. Could it be that the Bishop had thought that Mr Sharnall kept an eating-house, or that the Bishop took some special diet which only Mr Sharnall knew how to prepare? Could it be that the Bishop had some idea of making Mr Sharnall organist in his private chapel, for there was no vacancy in the Cathedral? Conjecture charged the blank wall of mystery full tilt, and retired broken from the assault. After talking of nothing else for many hours, Mrs Parkyn declared that the matter had no interest at all for her.
"For my part, I cannot profess to understand such goings-on," she said in that convincing and convicting tone which implies that the speaker knows far more than he cares to state, and that the solution of the mystery must in any case be discreditable to all concerned.
"I wonder, my dear," the Rector said to his wife, "whether Mr Sharnall has the means to entertain the Bishop properly."
"Properly!" said Mrs Parkyn--"properly! I think the whole proceeding entirely improper. Do you mean has Mr Sharnall money enough to purchase a proper repast? I should say certainly not. Or has he proper plates or forks or spoons, or a proper room in which to eat? Of course he has not. Or do you mean can he get things properly cooked? Who is to do it? There is only feckless old Miss Joliffe and her stuck-up niece."
The Canon was much perturbed by the vision of discomfort which his wife had called up.
"The Bishop ought to be spared as much as _possible_," he said; "we ought to do all we _can_ to save him annoyance. What do you think? Should we not put up with a little inconvenience, and ask Sharnall to bring the Bishop here, and lunch himself? He must know perfectly well that entertaining a Bishop in a lodging-house is an unheard-of thing, and he would do to make up the sixth instead of old Noot. We could easily tell Noot he was not wanted."
"Sharnall is such a disreputable creature," Mrs Parkyn answered; "he is quite as likely as not to come tipsy; and, if he does not, he has no _breeding_ or education, and would scarcely understand polite conversation."
「おまえ、主教はもうミスタ・シャーノールとお昼の約束をなさっているんだから、二人を引き合わせてもとやかく言われることはないんだよ。それにシャーノールはちょっとした学問を身につけている――どこで身につけたのか想像もできんが。だがね、一度やつが短いラテン語をすらすら理解するのを見たことがある。ブランダマー家の座右銘『ファインズにあらざれば死』（本章末尾の註参照）というやつだ。他の人から聞いたのかもしれないが、しかしラテン語が分かるような様子だった。もちろんラテン語の本当の知識は『大学』教育を受けなければ得られないが」――主任司祭はネクタイとカラーを直した――「しかし薬屋とかあの手の連中は門前の小僧で生かじりの知識を持っているからね」
"You forget, my dear, that the Bishop is already pledged to lunch with Mr Sharnall, so that we should not be held responsible for introducing him. And Sharnall has managed to pick up some sort of an education--I can't imagine where; but I found on one occasion that he could understand a little Latin. It was the Blandamer motto, `_Aut Fynes, aut finis_.' He may have been told what it meant, but he certainly seemed to know. Of course, no real knowledge of Latin can be obtained without a _University_ education"--and the Rector pulled up his tie and collar--"but still chemists and persons of that sort do manage to get a smattering of it."
"Well, well, I don't suppose we are going to talk Latin all through lunch," interrupted his wife. "You can do precisely as you please about asking him."
The Rector contented himself with the permission, however ungraciously accorded, and found himself a little later in Mr Sharnall's room.
"Mrs Parkyn was hoping that she might have prevailed on you to lunch with us on the day of the Confirmation. She was only waiting for the Bishop's acceptance to send you an invitation; but we hear now," he said in a dubitative and tentative way--"we hear now that it is possible that the Bishop may be lunching with you."
There was a twitch about the corners of Canon Parkyn's mouth. The position that a Bishop should be lunching with Mr Sharnall in a common lodging-house was so exquisitely funny that he could only restrain his laughter with difficulty.
ミスタ・シャーノールはその通りと頷いた。
Mr Sharnall gave an assenting nod.
"Mrs Parkyn was not quite sure whether you might have in your lodgings exactly everything that might be necessary for entertaining his lordship."
"Oh dear, yes," Mr Sharnall said. "It looks a little dowdy just this minute, because the chairs are at the upholsterers to have the gilt touched up; we are putting up new curtains, of _course_, and the housekeeper has already begun to polish the best silver."
"It occurred to Mrs Parkyn," the Rector continued, being too bent on saying what he had to say to pay much attention to the organist's remarks--"it occurred to Mrs Parkyn that it might perhaps be more convenient to you to bring the Bishop to lunch at the Rectory. It would spare you all trouble in preparation, and you would of course lunch with us yourself. It would be putting us to no inconvenience; Mrs Parkyn would be glad that you should lunch with us yourself."
Mr Sharnall nodded, this time deprecatingly.
"You are very kind. Mrs Parkyn is very considerate, but the Bishop has signified his intention of lunching in _this_ house; I could scarcely venture to contravene his lordship's wishes."
"The Bishop is a friend of yours?" the Rector asked.
"You can scarcely say that; I do not think I have set eyes on the man for forty years."
The Rector was puzzled.
"Perhaps the Bishop is under some misconception; perhaps he thinks that this house is still an inn--the Hand of God, you know."
"Perhaps," said the organist; and there was a little pause.
ミスタ・シャーノールの妄想、とりわけ誰かが後をつけてくるという妄想は、ウエストレイに好ましからざる印象を与えた。彼は同宿人の身を案じ、そのような状態にある人間はみずからに危害を与えることもあると、思いやりのある目で彼を監視しようとした。夕方になるとたいていミスタ・シャーノールの部屋に降りてゆき、あるいはオルガン奏者を上の自分の部屋に招いた。高齢者の一人暮らしにつきまとう孤独が妄想を生み出す大きな原因に違いないと考えたのである。ミスタ・シャーノールは夜になると、かつてマーチン・ジョウリフの持ち物だった書類の整理と閲読に没頭した。書類は生涯をかけて集めただけに膨大だった。中身はメモの切れ端とか登記簿からの書き抜きとか系図がびっしり書きこまれた写本とか、それに類したものだった。最初、これらを分類あるいは破棄する目的で調べはじめたとき、彼はこの仕事に乗り気でないことをありありと示していた。理由さえあれば喜んで仕事を中断したり、ウエストレイの援助を請うた。一方建築家はもともと考古学や系譜学を好み、かりにミスタ・シャーノールが彼に書類全部の閲読を任せたとしても不快には思わなかっただろう。彼は一人の男の全人生を無駄にさせたキメラの由って来たるところを突き止めたかった――マーチンがそもそもブランダマー家の爵位継承権を持つと信ずるに至った、その原因を探り出したかった。はっきり意識はしていなかったが、アナスタシア・ジョウリフに惹かれはじめていたことがさらなる動機となっていたのかもしれない。この調査によって彼女の運命が左右される可能性もあったからである。
"I hope you will consider the matter. May I not tell Mrs Parkyn that you will urge the Bishop to lunch at the Rectory--that you both"--and he brought out the word bravely, though it cost him a pang to yoke the Bishop with so unworthy a mate, and to fling the door of select hospitality open to Mr Sharnall--"that you both will lunch with us?"
"I fear not," the organist said; "I fear I must say no. I shall be very busy preparing for the extra service, and if I am to play `See the Conquering Hero' as the Bishop enters the church, I shall need time for practice. A piece like that takes some playing, you know."
"I hope you will endeavour to render it in the very best manner," the Rector said, and withdrew his forces _re infecta_.
The story of Mr Sharnall's mental illusions, and particularly of the hallucination as to someone following him, had left an unpleasant impression on Westray's mind. He was anxious about his fellow-lodger, and endeavoured to keep a kindly supervision over him, as he felt it to be possible that a person in such a state might do himself a mischief. On most evenings he either went down to Mr Sharnall's room, or asked the organist to come upstairs to his, considering that the solitude incident to bachelor life in advancing years was doubtless to blame to a large extent for these wandering fancies. Mr Sharnall occupied himself at night in sorting and reading the documents which had once belonged to Martin Joliffe. There was a vast number of them, representing the accumulation of a lifetime, and consisting of loose memoranda, of extracts from registers, of manuscript-books full of pedigrees and similar material. When he had first begun to examine them, with a view to their classification or destruction, he showed that the task was distinctly uncongenial to him; he was glad enough to make any excuse for interruption or for invoking Westray's aid. The architect, on the other hand, was by nature inclined to archaeologic and genealogic studies, and would not have been displeased if Mr Sharnall had handed over to him the perusal of these papers entirely. He was curious to trace the origin of that chimera which had wasted a whole life--to discover what had led Martin originally to believe that he had a claim to the Blandamer peerage. He found, perhaps, an additional incentive in an interest which he was beginning unconsciously to take in Anastasia Joliffe, whose fortunes might be supposed to be affected by these investigations.
「ねえ、あなた」と彼女は姪に言った。「富や財産を求める旅というのは、どんなものであれ神様の御心にかなったものじゃないのよ。ものを探し当てようなんてすることは」――彼女は女性らしく「もの」ということばに重々しい包括的意味をこめた――「たいてい人間によくない影響を与えるの。私たちにとって貴族であり金持ちであることがよいことなら、神様はきっとわたしたちをそういう境遇につけてくださるわ。でも自分が貴族であることを証明するなんて、白昼夢にふけったり易を見てもらうようなものよ。偶像崇拝は罪深い魔術みたいなものね。そこに神様の祝福はないわ。わたし、マーチンの書類をミスタ・シャーノールに渡したことを、これからずっと後悔する。自分で調べるなんてとても耐えられそうになかったし、もしかしたら小切手みたいな貴重なものが混じっているかもしれないと思って渡したんだけど。さっさと燃やしてしまえばよかった。ミスタ・シャーノールは全部読み終わるまで捨てるつもりはないと言っている。あんなもの、マーチンにとって祝福でも何でもなかった。あのお二人も魔力に惑わされなければいいけど」
But in a little while Westray noticed a change in the organist's attitude as touching the papers. Mr Sharnall evinced a dislike to the architect examining them further; he began himself to devote a good deal more time and attention to their study, and he kept them jealously under lock and key. Westray's nature led him to resent anything that suggested suspicion; he at once ceased to concern himself with the matter, and took care to show Mr Sharnall that he had no wish whatever to see more of the documents.
As for Anastasia, she laughed at the idea of there being any foundation underlying these fancies; she laughed at Mr Sharnall, and rallied Westray, saying she believed that they both were going to embark on the quest of the nebuly coat. To Miss Euphemia it was no laughing matter.
"I think, my dear," she said to her niece, "that all these searchings after wealth and fortune are not of God. I believe that trying to discover things"--and she used "things" with the majestic comprehensiveness of the female mind--"is generally bad for man. If it is good for us to be noblemen and rich, then Providence will bring us to that station; but to try to prove one's self a nobleman is like star-gazing and fortune-telling. Idolatry is as the sin of witchcraft. There can be no _blessing_ on it, and I reproach myself for ever having given dear Martin's papers to Mr Sharnall at all. I only did so because I could not bear to go through them myself, and thought perhaps that there might be cheques or something valuable among them. I wish I had burnt everything at first, and now Mr Sharnall says he will not have the papers destroyed till he has been through them. I am sure they were no blessing at all to dear Martin. I hope they may not bewitch these two gentlemen as well."
第十二章 ~~~
CHAPTER TWELVE.
修復計画がブランダマー卿の寛大な寄付によってしかるべく修正され、作業も順調に進捗する段階に入ると、当初は細かい点までみずから厳しい監督の目を光らせていたウエストレイにも、ときには軽くくつろぐ余裕が生まれた。ミスタ・シャーノールは夕べの祈りのあと、半時間以上も演奏していることがしばしばあり、そんなときウエストレイは暇をとらえてオルガンのある張り出しにむかった。オルガン奏者も彼を喜んで迎え入れた。どれほどさりげない形ではあれ、そうした訪問に示される関心のしるしをありがたく思ったのだ。ウエストレイは専門知識はなかったものの、張り出しの見慣れぬ様子に大いに興味をそそられた。そこはそれ自体でひとつの不思議な王国をなしていた。カラン大聖堂の聖歌隊席を身廊からへだてる、巨大な石の障壁の上にあり、まるで無人島ででもあるかのように、外界から遠く切り離されているのである。そこへ行くには障壁の南端、身廊の側から狭い石の螺旋階段を登らなければならなかった。この窓のない階段は、下のドアが閉められると、登っている者が一瞬うろたえるほどの真暗闇に包まれる。彼は足で階段をさぐり、中心の小柱に手をかけながら進まなければならなかった。それは過去、数え切れないほどの手によって大理石のような滑らかさにまで磨きあげられていた。
The scheme of restoration had been duly revised in the light of Lord Blandamer's generosity, and the work had now entered on such a methodical progress that Westray was able on occasion to relax something of that close personal supervision which had been at first so exacting. Mr Sharnall often played for half an hour or more after the evening-service, and on such occasions Westray found time, now and then, to make his way to the organ-loft. The organist liked to have him there; he was grateful for the token of interest, however slight, that was implied in such visits; and Westray, though without technical knowledge, found much to interest him in the unfamiliar surroundings of the loft. It was a curious little kingdom of itself, situate over the great stone screen, which at Cullerne divides the choir from the nave, but as remote and cut off from the outside world as a desert island. Access was gained to it by a narrow, round, stone staircase, which led up from the nave at the south end of the screen. After the bottom door of this windowless staircase was opened and shut, anyone ascending was left for a moment in bewildering darkness. He had to grope the way by his feet feeling the stairs, and by his hand laid on the central stone shaft which had been polished to the smoothness of marble by countless other hands of past times.
しかし六段も登ると暗闇は薄れていく。まず夜明け前の薄明かりが見え、やがて階段の上に達し、張り出しに足を踏み入れると柔らかな光があふれてくる。そこで何よりも目を惹くものが二つあった――一つは南袖廊の入り口に架かる、巨大なノルマン様式のアーチで、その表面には雅やかで繊細な刳り形が施されていた。もう一つはその背後にあるブランダマー・ウィンドウの上端で、複雑きわまりない狭間飾りの中心に、海緑色と銀色の雲形紋章が光り輝いている。それから彼は延々とつづく身廊の天井を見上げたり、ノルマン様式の穹窿天井を山形模様のリブが交差し、斜め十字を形作りながら柱間を区切っている様子を眺めたり、中央塔のランタンに目をやり、ヴィニコウム修道院長の垂直様式の羽目板が軽やかな線を描いて上昇し、はるか頭上の窓のところで消えているのを眼で追ったりするのである。
But, after half a dozen steps, the darkness resolved; there was first the dusk of dawn, and soon a burst of mellow light, when he reached the stairhead and stepped out into the loft. Then there were two things which he noticed before any other--the bow of that vast Norman arch which spanned the opening into the south transept, with its lofty and over-delicate roll and cavetto mouldings; and behind it the head of the Blandamer window, where in the centre of the infinite multiplication of the tracery shone the sea-green and silver of the nebuly coat. Afterwards he might remark the long-drawn roof of the nave, and the chevroned ribs of the Norman vault, delimiting bay and bay with a saltire as they crossed; or his eyes might be led up to the lantern of the central tower, and follow the lighter ascending lines of Abbot Vinnicomb's Perpendicular panelling, till they vanished in the windows far above.
張り出しにはありあまるほどの空間があった。ゆったりした線に囲われ、演奏者の席の横には椅子を一、二脚置く余裕があった。側面には楽譜を納めた背の低い本棚が並んでいる。この棚にあったのはボイの偉大な二つ折り版、クロフト、アーノルド、ペイジ、グリーン、バティシル、クロッチ――どれもこれも裕福だったその昔、「カラン大聖堂主任司祭兼創設委員」が惜しみなく金を出して購入した本である。しかしこれらは後の世に生まれた子供たちにすぎない。そのまわりには年上の兄弟たちが控えていた。カラン大聖堂には今も十七世紀の楽譜が残されていたのだ。それらは有名な楽譜集で、百冊以上あり、古い黒光りする子牛革の装丁に、大きな金の丸い浮き彫り模様が施され、どの表紙の中央にも「南側聖歌隊席テノール」とか「北側聖歌隊席コントラテノール」とか「バス」とか「ソプラノ」などという字が刻印されていた。中を開くと赤い線で縁取られた羊皮紙があらわれ、実に黒々とした太い活字で礼拝名や「ヴァース・アンセム」、「フル・アンセム」と書かれている。次に目次が何ページもつづく――ミスタ・バテンにミスタ・ギボンズ、ミスタ・マンディにミスタ・トムキンス、ブル博士にジャイルズ博士、すべてがきれいに整理されページ番号を打たれていた。ミスタ・バードは、とうに墓場の土と化した歌い手たちを鼓舞して「太鼓を打て、快いハープを、ビオールを鳴らせ」と歌わせ、六つの声部と赤い大文字を使ってもう一度「快いハープを、ビオールを鳴らせ」と繰り返させた（註 バードのアンセム「神にむかいて喜びもて歌え」から）。
Inside the loft there was room and to spare. It was formed on ample lines, and had space for a stool or two beside the performer's seat, while at the sides ran low bookcases which held the music library. In these shelves rested the great folios of Boyce, and Croft, and Arnold, Page and Greene, Battishill and Crotch--all those splendid and ungrudging tomes for which the "Rectors and Foundation of Cullerne" had subscribed in older and richer days. Yet these were but the children of a later birth. Round about them stood elder brethren, for Cullerne Minster was still left in possession of its seventeenth-century music-books. A famous set they were, a hundred or more bound in their old black polished calf, with a great gold medallion, and "Tenor: Decani," or "Contra-tenor: Cantoris", "Basso," or "Sopra," stamped in the middle of every cover. And inside was parchment with red-ruled margins, and on the parchment were inscribed services and "verse-anthems" and "ffull-anthems," all in engrossing hand and the most uncompromising of black ink. Therein was a generous table of contents-- Mr Batten and Mr Gibbons, Mr Mundy and Mr Tomkins, Doctor Bull and Doctor Giles, all neatly filed and paged; and Mr Bird would incite singers long since turned to churchyard mould to "bring forthe ye timbrell, ye pleasant harp and ye violl," and reinsist with six parts, and a red capital letter, "ye pleasant harp and ye violl."
It was a great place for dust, the organ-loft--dust that fell, and dust that rose; dust of wormy wood, dust of crumbling leather, dust of tattered mothy curtains that were dropping to pieces, dust of primeval green baize; but Mr Sharnall had breathed the dust for forty years, and felt more at home in that place than anywhere else. If it was Crusoe's island, he was Crusoe, monarch of all he surveyed.
"Here, you can take this key," he said one day to Westray; "it unlocks the staircase-door; but either tell me when to expect you, or make a noise as you come up the steps. I don't like being startled. Be sure you push the door to after you; it fastens itself. I am always particular about keeping the door locked, otherwise one doesn't know what stranger may take it into his head to walk up. I can't bear being startled." And he glanced behind him with a strange look in his eyes.
A few days before the Bishop's visit Westray was with Mr Sharnall in the organ-loft. He had been there through most of the service, and, as he sat on his stool in the corner, had watched the curious diamond pattern of light and dark that the clerestory windows made with the vaulting-ribs. Anyone outside would have seen islands of white cloud drifting across the blue sky, and each cloud as it passed threw the heavy chevroned diagonals inside into bold relief, and picked out that rebus of a carding-comb encircled by a wreath of vine-leaves which Nicholas Vinnicomb had inserted for a vaulting-boss.
The architect had learned to regard the beetling roof with an almost superstitious awe, and was this day so fascinated with the strange effect as to be scarcely aware that the service was over till Mr Sharnall spoke.
"You said you would like to hear my service in D flat--`Sharnall in D flat,' did you not? I will play it through to you now, if you care to listen. Of course, I can only give you the general effect, without voices, though, after all, I don't know that you won't get quite as good an idea of it as you could with any voices that we have here."
Westray woke up from his dreams and put himself into an attitude of proper attention, while Mr Sharnall played the service from a faded manuscript.
「ほら」彼は曲の終りに近づいたとき言った。「聴いてごらん。ここがいちばん盛り上がるんだ――フーガ風のグローリアで、ペダル音で終わるんだ。ほら、ここだよ――主音のペダル音だ、この変ニ音、新しい足鍵盤の端っこの突き出たペダル、これを最後まで押さえておくんだ」そう言って彼はペダルに左足を載せた。「マニフィカトをこういうふうに終えるのはどうかね」演奏を終えて彼は言った。ウエストレイはすぐにありきたりの賞賛のことばを浴びせた。「悪くないだろう？しかしこの作品の聴きどころはグローリアだよ――本物のフーガじゃないんだが、フーガ風の曲で、ペダル音を使っている。さっきのペダル音の効果は分ったかい。あの音だけちょっと響かせてみるよ。そうすればはっきり識別できるから。それからもう一度グローリアを弾こう」
"Now," he said, as he came towards the end--"now listen. This is the best part of it--a fugal _Gloria_, ending with a pedal-point. Here you are, you see--a tonic pedal-point, this D flat, the very last raised note in my new pedal-board, held down right through." And he set his left foot on the pedal. "What do you think of _that_ for a _Magnificat_?" he said, when it was finished; and Westray was ready with all the conventional expressions of admiration. "It is not bad, is it?" Mr Sharnall asked; "but the gem of it is the _Gloria_--not real fugue, but fugal, with a pedal-point. Did you catch the effect of that point? I will keep the note down by itself for a second, so that you may get thoroughly hold of it, and then play the _Gloria_ again."
He held down the D flat, and the open pipe went booming and throbbing through the long nave arcades, and in the dark recesses of the triforium, and under the beetling vaulting, and quavered away high up in the lantern, till it seemed like the death-groan of a giant.
"Take it up," Westray said; "I can't bear the throbbing."
"Very well; now listen while I give you the _Gloria_. No, I really think I had better go through the whole service again; you see, it leads up more naturally to the finale."
He began the service again, and played it with all the conscientious attention and sympathy that the creative artist must necessarily give to his own work. He enjoyed, too, that pleasurable surprise which awaits the discovery that a composition laid aside for many years and half forgotten is better and stronger than had been imagined, even as a disused dress brought out of the wardrobe sometimes astonishes us with its freshness and value.
ウエストレイは張り出しの隅の壇の上に立っていた。そこからだとカーテン越しに聖堂内が見渡せた。音楽を聴きながら彼の眼は建物の中をさまよった。しかしだからといってその分、音楽をおざなりに聴いていたわけではない。いや、それどころか、かえって真剣に耳を傾けていたのである。何人かの文人が気づいているように、文学的感受性と表現能力は音楽の刺激を受けて活気づくのだ。大聖堂はがらんとしていた。ジャナウエイは午後のお茶を飲みに帰っていた。扉には鍵がかけられ、部外者は誰も入って来られない。オルガンのパイプの声を除けば、いかなる音も、いかなるささやきも、いかなる声も聞えなかった。ウエストレイは耳を澄ました。いや、待てよ。他には何の声も聞こえないだろうか。聞こえるものは何もないだろうか――彼の心の中で何かが語ってはいないだろうか。はじめのうち、それは「何か」としか意識されなかった――彼の注意を音楽から逸らそうとする「何か」としか。しかし注意を妨げるこの力は、そのとき、いまひとつの声に変わった。かすかな声だが、「シャーノール変ニ長調」が流れる中でもはっきりと聞こえた。「アーチは決して眠らない」とその静かな不吉な声が言った。「アーチは決して眠らない。彼らはわれわれの上に背負いきれないほどの重荷を載せた。われわれはその重量を分散する。アーチは決して眠らない」。彼は塔の下の交差部のアーチに目をむけた。そこ、南袖廊のアーチの上には巨大なひび割れが黒々と、稲妻のようなねじくれた姿を見せていた。それは過去百年間見せていた姿と少しも変わっていないように思えた。普通の観察者なら何ら異変を認めなかっただろう。しかし建築家は違った。彼は一瞬割れ目を凝視し、ミスタ・シャーノールのことも音楽のことも忘れて、張り出しを降り、石工たちが天井下まで組み上げた木の足場へむかった。
Westray stood on a foot-pace at the end of the loft which allowed him to look over the curtain into the church. His eyes roamed through the building as he listened, but he did not appreciate the music the less. Nay, rather, he appreciated it the more, as some writers find literary perception and power of expression quickened at the influence of music itself. The great church was empty. Janaway had left for his tea; the doors were locked, no strangers could intrude; there was no sound, no murmur, no voice, save only the voices of the organ-pipes. So Westray listened. Stay, were there no other voices? was there nothing he heard--nothing that spoke within him? At first he was only conscious of _something_--something that drew his attention away from the music, and then the disturbing influence was resolved into another voice, small, but rising very clear even above "Sharnall in D flat." "The arch never sleeps," said that still and ominous voice. "The arch never sleeps; they have bound on us a burden too heavy to be borne. We are shifting it; we never sleep." And his eyes turned to the cross arches under the tower. There, above the bow of the south transept, showed the great crack, black and writhen as a lightning-flash, just as it had showed any time for a century--just the same to the ordinary observer, but not to the architect. He looked at it fixedly for a moment, and then, forgetting Mr Sharnall and the music, left the loft, and made his way to the wooden platform that the masons had built up under the roof.
Mr Sharnall did not even perceive that he had gone down, and dashed _con furore_ into the _Gloria_. "Give me the full great," he called to the architect, who he thought was behind him; "give me the full great, all but the reed," and snatched the stops out himself when there was no response. "It went better that time--distinctly better," he said, as the last note ceased to sound, and then turned round for Westray's comment; but the loft was empty--he was alone.
"Curse the fellow!" he said; "he might at least have let me know that he was going away. Ah, well, it's all poor stuff, no doubt." And he shut up the manuscript with a lingering and affectionate touch, that contrasted with so severe a criticism. "It's poor stuff; why should I expect anyone to listen to it?"
ウエストレイがベルヴュー・ロッジのオルガン奏者の部屋に飛びこんできたのは二時間も後のことだった。
It was full two hours later that Westray came quickly into the organist's room at Bellevue Lodge.
"I beg your pardon, Sharnall," he said, "for leaving you so cavalierly. You must have thought me rude and inappreciative; but the fact is I was so startled that I forgot to tell you why I went. While you were playing I happened to look up at that great crack over the south transept arch, and saw something very like recent movement. I went up at once to the scaffolding, and have been there ever since. I don't like it at all; it seems to me that the crack is opening, and extending. It may mean very serious mischief, and I have made up my mind to go up to London by the last train to-night. I must get Sir George Farquhar's opinion at once."
The organist grunted. The wound inflicted on his susceptibility had rankled deeply, and indignation had been tenderly nursed. A piece of his mind was to have been given to Westray, and he regretted the very reasonableness of the explanation that robbed him of his opportunity.
"Pray don't apologise," he said; "I never noticed that you had gone. I really quite forgot that you had been there."
Westray was too full of his discovery to take note of the other's annoyance. He was one of those excitable persons who mistake hurry for decision of action.
"Yes," he said, "I must be off to London in half an hour. The matter is far too serious to play fast-and-loose with. It is quite possible that we shall have to stop the organ, or even to forbid the use of the church altogether, till we can shore and strut the arch. I must go and put my things together."
So, with heroic promptness and determination, he flung himself into the last train, and spent the greater part of the night in stopping at every wayside station, when his purpose would have been equally served by a letter or by taking the express at Cullerne Road the next morning.
第十三章 ~~~
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
The organ was not silenced, nor was the service suspended. Sir George came down to Cullerne, inspected the arch, and rallied his subordinate for an anxiety which was considered to be unjustifiable. Yes, the wall above the arch _had_ moved a little, but not more than was to be expected from the repairs which were being undertaken with the vaulting. It was only the old wall coming to its proper bearings--he would have been surprised, in fact, if no movement had taken place; it was much safer as it was.
Canon Parkyn was in high good-humour. He rejoiced in seeing the pert and officious young clerk of the works put in his proper place; and Sir George had lunched at the Rectory. There was a repetition of the facetious proposal that Sir George should wait for payment of his fees until the tower should fall, which acquired fresh point from the circumstance that all payments were now provided for by Lord Blandamer. The ha-ha-ing which accompanied this witticism palled at length even upon the robust Sir George, and he winced under a dig in the ribs, which an extra glass of port had emboldened the Canon to administer.
"Well, well, Mr Rector," he said, "we cannot put old heads on young shoulders. Mr Westray was quite justified in referring the matter to me. It _has_ an ugly look; one needs _experience_ to be able to see through things like this." And he pulled up his collar, and adjusted his tie.
ウエストレイが主任の決定を甘んじて受け入れたのは忠誠心の故であって、心から納得したからではない。黒い稲妻は心の網膜に焼き付けられ、アーチの絶え間ない叫びは常に耳朶に響いた。それを聞かずに交差廊を渡ることはめったになかった。しかし彼は模範的な忍従をもって主任の叱責に耐えた――その頃ブランダマー卿が彼を訪ねてくるようになり、そちらのほうがはるかに彼の関心事だったから、あまり気にならなかったということもあるけれど。ブランダマー卿は一度ならず夜中にベルヴュー・ロッジを訪れ、ときには夜の九時という遅い時間にやってきた。そしてウエストレイと一緒に二時間あまり見取り図をひっくり返したり、修復のやり方を議論した。建築家は卿の態度に魅了され、その建築学的知識と批評眼の鋭さに絶えず驚かされた。ときどきミスタ・シャーノールが短い時間仲間に加わることもあったが、ブランダマー卿はオルガン奏者がいるときはどことなく落ち着かない様子を見せた。ミスタ・シャーノールは時に機転が利かず、ぶしつけですらあると、ウエストレイは思わざるを得なかった。なにしろブランダマー卿のご恩のおかげで新しい鍵盤と新しい送風器とウオーター・エンジンを手に入れ、さらにこれからオルガンをすっかり修理してもらえる可能性もあったのだから。
Westray was content to accept his Chief's decision as a matter of faith, though not of conviction. The black lightning-flash was impressed on his mental retina, the restless cry of the arches was continually in his ear; he seldom passed the transept-crossing without hearing it. But he bore his rebuke with exemplary resignation--the more so that he was much interested in some visits which Lord Blandamer paid him at this period. Lord Blandamer called more than once at Bellevue Lodge in the evenings, even as late as nine o'clock, and would sit with Westray for two hours together, turning over plans and discussing the restoration. The architect learnt to appreciate the charm of his manner, and was continually astonished at the architectural knowledge and critical power which he displayed. Mr Sharnall would sometimes join them for a few minutes, but Lord Blandamer never appeared quite at his ease when the organist was present; and Westray could not help thinking that Mr Sharnall was sometimes tactless, and even rude, considering that he was beholden to Lord Blandamer for new pedals and new bellows and a water-engine _in esse_, and for the entire repair of the organ _in posse_.
「わたしは、きみのすかした言い方を借りれば、あいつの『ご恩にあずかっている』わけだが、それはしょうがないじゃないか」ミスタ・シャーノールはある晩ブランダマー卿が帰ったときに言った。「新しい送風器や新しい足鍵盤をやるというのを、わたしがとめるわけにもいかんだろう。実際新しい鍵盤と追加のパイプが必要なんだし。今のままじゃドイツの音楽が演奏できないんだ。バッハの作品なんかほとんど弾けない。オルガンを直したいという人に誰がやめろと言うものか。しかしわたしは誰にもこびへつらう気はない。特にあいつにはな。あいつが卿だからといってはいつくばれと言うのかね。ちゃんちゃらおかしい！われわれはみんなあいつみたいに卿になれるのさ。あと一週間マーチンの書類を調べさせてくれ。そうしたらあっと言わせてやるよ。ふん、そうやって好きなだけじろじろわたしを見つめたり、鼻先でせせら笑うがいい。必ずきみをあっと言わせてやる。『光は東方より』――光が差してくるのはそこなんだよ、マーチンの書類からなんだ。今度の堅礼式が終わったら分かるさ。それまでは書類をじっくり読むことができない。しかし何のために男の子や女の子に堅礼させようというのかねえ。健全な子供たちを偽善者に仕立て上げるだけじゃないか。どうもいけ好かない。信仰を告白させるなら二十五になったときさせればいい。そのくらいになれば自分が何をしようとしているのか、少しは理解できるだろうから」
"I can't help being `beholden to him,' as you genteelly put it," Mr Sharnall said one evening, when Lord Blandamer had gone. "I can't _stop_ his giving new bellows or a new pedal-board. And we do want the new board and the additional pipes. As it is, I can't play German music, can't touch a good deal of Bach's organ work. Who is to say this man nay, if he chooses to alter the organ? But I'm not going to truckle to anyone, and least of all to him. Do you want me to fall flat on my face because he is a lord? Pooh! we could all be lords like him. Give me another week with Martin's papers, and I'll open your eyes. Ay, you may stare and sniff if you please, but you'll open your eyes then. _Ex oriente lux_--that's where the light's coming from, out of Martin's papers. Once this Confirmation over, and you'll see. I can't settle to the papers till that's done with. What do people want to confirm these boys and girls for? It only makes hypocrites of wholesome children. I hate the whole business. If people want to make their views public, let them do it at five-and-twenty; then we should believe that they knew something of what they were about."
The day of the Bishop's visit had arrived; the Bishop had arrived himself; he had entered the door of Bellevue Lodge; he had been received by Miss Euphemia Joliffe as one who receives an angel awares; he had lunched in Mr Sharnall's room, and had partaken of the cold lamb, and the Stilton, and even of the cider-cup, to just such an extent as became a healthy and good-hearted and host-considering bishop.
"You have given me a regular Oxford lunch," he said. "Your landlady has been brought up in the good tradition." And he smiled, never doubting that he was partaking of the ordinary provision of the house, and that Mr Sharnall fared thus sumptuously every day. He knew not that the meal was as much a set piece as a dinner on the stage, and that cold lamb and Stilton and cider-cup were more often represented by the bottom of a tin of potted meat and--a gill of cheap whisky.
"A regular Oxford lunch." And then they fell to talking of old days, and the Bishop called Mr Sharnall "Nick," and Mr Sharnall called the Bishop of Carum "John"; and they walked round the room looking at pictures of college groups and college eights, and the Bishop examined very tenderly the little water-colour sketch that Mr Sharnall had once made of the inner quad; and they identified in it their own old rooms, and the rooms of several other men of their acquaintance.
話をするうちにミスタ・シャーノールは機嫌がよくなっていった。楽しい気分が刻々と募ってきた。彼は主教に対して傲岸に、他人行儀に接してやろうと思っていた――思い切りもったいぶり、冷たいくらいに堅苦しく振る舞おうと。よしやジョン・ウイリスがゲイター（註 主教のはく靴下）を穿こうとも、ニコラス・シャーノールの不屈の独立心はびくとも揺るがず、おべっかを使うつもりもなければ、精神的にも誰かの下風に立つつもりはなかった。堅礼式や音楽軽視の風潮や主任司祭どもを手厳しく非難し、できればついでに聖職者議員団そのものもやりこめてやろうと思っていた。なのに彼はそんなことは何一つしなかった。ジョン・ウイリスと一緒にいると、傲岸も他人行儀も自己主張も不可能だからである。彼はただおいしい昼ご飯を食べ、優しい、心の広い紳士と長々おしゃべりをして、ひからびた心をぬくもらせ、人生はまだ捨てたものじゃないなと思っていたのである。
The talk did Mr Sharnall good; he felt the better for it every moment. He had meant to be very proud and reserved with the Bishop--to be most dignified and coldly courteous. He had meant to show that, though John Willis might wear the gaiters, Nicholas Sharnall could retain his sturdy independence, and was not going to fawn or to admit himself to be the mental inferior of any man. He had meant to _give_ a tirade against Confirmation, against the neglect of music, against rectors, with perhaps a back-thrust at the Bench of Bishops itself. But he had done none of these things, because neither pride nor reserve nor assertiveness were possible in John Willis's company. He had merely eaten a good lunch, and talked with a kindly, broad-minded gentleman, long enough to warm his withered heart, and make him feel that there were still possibilities in life.
There is a bell that rings for a few strokes three-quarters of an hour before every service at Cullerne. It is called the Burgess Bell--some say because it was meant to warn such burgesses as dwelt at a distance that it was time to start for church; whilst others will have it that Burgess is but a broken-down form of _expergiscere_--"Awake! awake!"-- that those who dozed might rise for prayer. The still air of the afternoon was yet vibrating with the Burgess Bell, and the Bishop rose to take his leave.
If it was the organist of Cullerne who had been ill at ease when their interview began, it was the Bishop of Carisbury who was embarrassed at the end of it. He had asked himself to lunch with Mr Sharnall with a definite object, and towards the attainment of that object nothing had been done. He had learnt that his old friend had fallen upon evil times, and, worse, had fallen into evil courses--that the failing which had ruined his Oxford career had broken out again with a fresh fire in advancing age, that Nicholas Sharnall was in danger of a drunkard's judgment.
オルガン奏者の人生には明るく澄んだ中休みの期間もあって、悪疫は何年も活動を止めているのだが、発症するとそれまでの積み重ねをことごとくご破算にした。それはまるで双六のようなもので、小さな銅の馬が着実に前進していくかと思えば、とうとうサイコロが致命的な目を出し、一度順番をとばされたり、六つも目を戻ったり、最悪の場合は振り出しからやり直さなければならない。主教がベルヴュー・ロッジに来たのは一人の男をほんの少しでも転落の人生から救い出したいという虚しい望みを抱いてのことだった。時を得た、有益な忠告を与えたかった。しかしまだ何も言っていない。給料を上げてくれと店主に面会を求めてきた事務員が、思い切って用件を切り出せず、他の用事でやって来たようなふりをするようなものだ、と彼は感じた。進退窮まって父親と相談したがっている息子、あるいは大きな借金を告白する機会を待ち受ける浪費家の妻のような気分だった。
There had been lucid intervals in the organist's life; the plague would lie dormant for years, and then break out, to cancel all the progress that had been made. It was like a "race-game" where the little leaden horse is moved steadily forward, till at last the die falls on the fatal number, and the racer must lose a turn, or go back six, or, even in the worst issue, begin his whole course again. It was in the forlorn hope of doing something, however little, to arrest a man on the downward slope that the Bishop had come to Bellevue Lodge; he hoped to speak the word in season that should avail. Yet nothing had been said. He felt like a clerk who has sought an interview with his principal to ask for an increase of salary, and then, fearing to broach the subject, pretends to have come on other business. He felt like a son longing to ask his father's counsel in some grievous scrape, or like an extravagant wife waiting her opportunity to confess some heavy debt.
"A quarter past two," the Bishop said; "I must be going. It has been a great pleasure to recall the old times. I hope we shall meet again soon; but remember it is your turn now to come and see me. Carisbury is not so very far off, so do come. There is always a bed ready for you. Will you walk up the street with me now? I have to go to the Rectory, and I suppose you will be going to the church, will you not?"
"Yes," said Mr Sharnall; "I'll come with you if you wait one minute. I think I'll take just a drop of something before I go, if you'll excuse me. I feel rather run down, and the service is a long one. You won't join me, of course?" And he went to the cupboard.
The Bishop's opportunity was come.
「止めたまえ、シャーノール、止めるんだ、ニック」と彼は言った。「それは飲んじゃいけない。率直に話すが許してくれ。時間がないのでね。わたしは自分の職務とか信仰の観点からこんなことを言うんじゃない。ただ一人の人間として、友人として言うんだ。いつまでもこんな状態がつづくのを黙って見ているわけにはいかない。怒らないでくれ、ニック」彼は相手の顔色が変化したのを見てこう言った。「わたしたちの古い友情を思えば、わたしには忠告の権利がある。きみの顔に刻まれた物語を読めば、わたしにはきみを諭す権利がある。止めたまえ。やり直す時間はまだある。止めたまえ。わたしに手助けさせてくれないか。わたしにできることはないかね」
"Don't, Sharnall. Don't, Nick," he said; "don't take that stuff. Forgive me for speaking openly, the time is so short. I am not speaking professionally or from the religious standpoint, but only just as one man of the world to another, just as one friend to another, because I cannot bear to see you going on like this without trying to stop you. Don't take offence, Nick," he added, as he saw the change of the other's countenance; "our old friendship gives me a right to speak; the story you are writing on your own face gives me a right to speak. Give it up. There is time yet to turn; give it up. Let me help you; is there nothing I can do to help?"
The angry look that crossed Mr Sharnall's face had given way to sadness.
「そりゃ、きみにとっちゃ簡単だろうさ」と彼は言った。「きみは今までにあらゆることをやってきて、後ろにはきみの歩みを示す里程標が長々と立ち並んでいる。わたしは何もやっていない。後ろむきに進んだだけで、目の前にはわたしの失敗を示す里程標があるばかりだ。わたしを責めるのは簡単だよ。きみは欲しいものをすべて持っているのだから――地位、名声、富、それにふさわしい強い信仰も。わたしはろくでなしで、みじめなほど貧乏で、友達もなく、教会で語られることの半分も信じちゃいない。わたしはどうすればいいんだね。誰もわたしのことなど気にかけない。何のためにわたしは生きるのだ？酒だけが人生のささやかな楽しみを味わわせてくれるんだよ。のけ者という恐ろしい意識をしばらくのあいだ忘れさせてくれる。昔の楽しかった日々の記憶をほんの一時忘れさせてくれる。あれがわたしを一番苦しめるんだ、ウイリス。酒を飲むからといって責めないでくれ。パラケルススにとってと同様、わたしにとっても不老不死の霊薬なんだ」そう言って彼は棚の取っ手を回した。
"It is all very easy for you," he said; "you've done everything in life, and have a long row of milestones behind you to show how you've moved on. I have done nothing, only gone back, and have all the milestones in front to show how I've failed. It's easy to twit me when you've got everything you want--position, reputation, fortune, a living faith to keep you up to it. I am nobody, miserably poor, have no friends, and don't believe half we say in church. What am I to do? No one cares a fig about me; what have I got to live for? To drink is the only chance I have of feeling a little pleasure in life; of losing for a few moments the dreadful consciousness of being an outcast; of losing for a moment the remembrance of happy days long ago: that's the greatest torment of all, Willis. Don't blame me if I drink; it's the _elixir vitae_ for me just as much as for Paracelsus." And he turned the handle of the cupboard.
"Don't," the Bishop said again, putting his hand on the organist's arm; "don't do it; don't touch it. Don't make success any criterion of life; don't talk about `getting on.' We shan't be judged by how we have got on. Come along with me; show you've got your old resolution, your old will-power."
"I _haven't_ got the power," Mr Sharnall said; "I can't help it." But he took his hand from the cupboard-door.
"Then let me help it for you," said the Bishop; and he opened the cupboard, found a half-used bottle of whisky, drove the cork firmly into it, and put it under his arm inside the lappet of his coat. "Come along."
So the Bishop of Carisbury walked up the High Street of Cullerne with a bottle of whisky under his left arm. But no one could see that, because it was hid under his coat; they only saw that he had his right arm inside Mr Sharnall's. Some thought this an act of Christian condescension, but others praised the times that were past; bishops were losing caste, they said, and it was a sad day for the Church when they were found associating openly with persons so manifestly their inferiors.
"We must see more of each other," the Bishop said, as they walked under the arcade in front of the shops. "You must get out of this quag somehow. You can't expect to do it all at once, but we must make a beginning. I have taken away your temptation under my coat, and you must make a start from this minute; you must make me a promise _now_. I have to be in Cullerne again in six days' time, and will come and see you. You must promise me not to touch anything for these six days, and you must drive back with me to Carisbury when I go back then, and spend a few days with me. Promise me this, Nick; the time is pressing, and I must leave you, but you must promise me this first."
The organist hesitated for a moment, but the Bishop gripped his arm.
"Promise me this; I will not go till you promise."
"Yes, I promise."
And lying-and-mischief-making Mrs Flint, who was passing, told afterwards how she had overheard the Bishop discussing with Mr Sharnall the best means for introducing ritualism into the minster, and how the organist had promised to do his very best to help him so far as the musical part of the sendee was concerned.
The Confirmation was concluded without any contretemps, save that two of the Grammar School boys incurred an open and well-merited rebuke from the master for appearing in gloves of a much lighter slate colour than was in any way decorous, and that this circumstance reduced the youngest Miss Bulteel to such a state of hysteric giggling that her mother was forced to remove her from the church, and thus deprive her of spiritual privileges for another year.
ミスタ・シャーノールは執行猶予の期間を雄々しく耐えた。三日経っても彼は誓いを破らなかった――一口も、一滴も酒を飲まなかったのだ。そのあいだは好天に恵まれ、青い空と心浮き立つ空気が支配する、輝くような秋晴れがつづいた。それはミスタ・シャーノールにとって明るい希望の日々だった。彼自身心が浮き立ち、血管の中を新しい生命が駆けめぐるのを感じた。主教のことばは彼に元気を与え、そのことに彼は心から感謝した。酒を止めたからといって不都合があるわけではない。節制のおかげで、かえって調子がいいくらいだ。憂鬱になることなどまったくなかった。それどころか、ここ何年もなかったくらい朗らかな気分になった。あの会話で目から鱗が落ちたのだ。真に自分がなすべきことをもう一度自覚し、人生の真実が見えてきた。どれだけ時間を無駄にしてきたことだろう。どうしてあんなにへそ曲がりだったのだろう。どうして不機嫌をかこってばかりいたのだろう。どうして人生をあのようなねじけた目で見ていたのだろう。これからは嫉妬を捨て、敵対するのをやめるのだ。心を広く持ち――そうだ、心をうんと広く持つのだ。人類すべてを受け入れよう――うむ、参事会員パーキンさえも。一番大事なのは、自分がもう老人であることを認めること。もっと沈着に考え、子供じみた真似をやめ、アナスタシアへの馬鹿げた恋心を断固絶たなければならない。笑止千万ではないか――気むずかしい六十代の爺さんが若い娘に恋をするなんて！これから彼女はわたしにとって何者でもない――完全に赤の他人だ。いや、それはおかしいな。一切の友情を絶ってしまうなんて彼女に対して不公平だ。彼女には父親のような愛情を感じることはできるだろう――それは家族に対するような愛情であって、それ以上のものではない。愚かな過ちすべてに別れを告げよう。しかし、わたしの人生がその分だけ空虚になるのでは困る。空いた分はいろいろな趣味で埋め合わすのだ――ありとあらゆる趣味で。音楽はその第一のものとならなければならない。長年想を練ってきたあのオラトリオ「アブサロム」にもう一度取り組んで完成させてみよう。いくつかの曲はもうでき上がっている。バスのソロが歌う「アブサロムよ、わが子、わが子」と、それにつづく二重合唱「そなえよ、力強きもの、立ちて剣を抜け！」を書き上げるのだ。
Mr Sharnall bore his probation bravely. Three days had passed, and he had not broken his vow--no, not in one jot or tittle. They had been days of fine weather, brilliantly clear autumn days of blue sky and exhilarating air. They had been bright days for Mr Sharnall; he was himself exhilarated; he felt a new life coursing in his veins. The Bishop's talk had done him good; from his heart he thanked the Bishop for it. Giving up drinking had done him no harm; he felt all the better for his abstinence. It had not depressed him at all; on the contrary, he was more cheerful than he had been for years. Scales had fallen from his eyes since that talk; he had regained his true bearings; he began to see the verities of life. How he had wasted his time! Why _had_ he been so sour? why _had_ he indulged his spleen? why _had_ he taken such a jaundiced view of life? He would put aside all jealousies; he would have no enmities; he would be broader-minded--oh, so much broader-minded; he would embrace all mankind--yes, even Canon Parkyn. Above all, he would recognise that he was well advanced in life; he would be more sober-thinking, would leave childish things, would resolutely renounce his absurd infatuation for Anastasia. What a ridiculous idea--a crabbed old sexagenarian harbouring affection for a young girl! Henceforth she should be nothing to him--absolutely nothing. No, that would be foolish; it would not be fair to her to cut her off from all friendship; he could feel for her a fatherly affection--it should be paternal and nothing more. He would bid adieu to all that folly, and his life should not be a whit the emptier for the loss. He would fill it with interests--all kinds of interests, and his music should be the first. He would take up again, and carry out to the end, that oratorio which he had turned over in his mind for years--the "Absalom." He had several numbers at his fingers' ends; he would work out the bass solo, "Oh, Absalom, my son, my son!" and the double chorus that followed it, "Make ready, ye mighty; up and bare your swords!"
こんなふうに彼は楽しげに自分の心と対話し、みずからの内部に生まれた大きな突然の変化に計り知れない高揚を覚えた。しかし彼は、雨を降らせた雲はまた戻って来ること、人間が習慣を変えるのは豹が斑紋の色を変えるのと同じくらい困難であることを忘れていたのだ。五十五歳、四十五歳、あるいは三十五歳で習慣を変えたり、川に坂を登らせたり、原因と結果の仮借なき順序をひっくり返したり――そんなことがいったいどれだけ可能だろう。ネーモ・レペンテ、すなわち人が突然善人になったことはない。一瞬の精神的苦痛が本能を鈍らせ、われわれに巣くう悪を麻痺させることがあるかも知れない――ほんのしばらく、ちょうどクロロフォルムが肉体の感覚を鈍麻させるように。しかし突然の心変わりがいつまでもつづくことはないのだ。生きているときも死んでからも、同じように突然の悔悛などあり得ないのである。
So he discoursed joyfully with his own heart, and felt above measure elated at the great and sudden change that was wrought in him, not recognising that the clouds return after the rain, and that the leopard may change his spots as easily as man may change his habits. To change a habit at fifty-five or forty-five or thirty-five; to ordain that rivers shall flow uphill; to divert the relentless sequence of cause and effect--how often dare we say this happens? _Nemo repente_--no man ever suddenly became good. A moment's spiritual agony may blunt our instincts and paralyse the evil in us--for a while, even as chloroform may dull our bodily sense; but for permanence there is no sudden turning of the mind; sudden repentances in life or death are equally impossible.
Three halcyon days were followed by one of those dark and lowering mornings when the blank life seems blanker, and when the gloom of nature is too accurately reflected in the nervous temperament of man. On healthy youth climatic influences have no effect, and robust middle age, if it perceive them, goes on its way steadfast or stolid, with a _cela passera, tout passera_. But on the feeble and the failing such times fall with a weight of fretful despondency; and so they fell on Mr Sharnall.
昼食の頃には、ひどくそわそわした気分になっていた。海から真黒な濃い霧が巨大なかたまりとなってカラン・フラットに押し寄せ、ついにその先端が街の外縁をとらえた。そのあとは通りに居座り、とりわけベルヴュー・ロッジをその本陣と定めた。おかげでミス・ユーフィミアは咳が止まらず、イペカック薬用ドロップを二錠も飲み、ミスタ・シャーノールは呼び鈴を鳴らしてランプを持ってきてもらわなければ食事が見えないという有様だった。ウエストレイの部屋まで上がっていって、夕食を上で食べても構わないかと尋ねようとしたが、建築家はロンドンに行っており、晩の汽車まで帰らないということだった。彼は一人で何とかしなければならなかった。
He was very restless about the time of the mid-day meal. There came up a thick, dark fog from the sea, which went rolling in great masses over Cullerne Flat, till its fringe caught the outskirts of the town. After that, it settled in the streets, and took up its special abode in Bellevue Lodge; till Miss Euphemia coughed so that she had to take two ipecacuanha lozenges, and Mr Sharnall was forced to ring for a lamp to see his victuals. He went up to Westray's room to ask if he might eat his dinner upstairs, but he found that the architect had gone to London, and would not be back till the evening train; so he was thrown upon his own resources.
食が進まず、食べ終わる頃には憂鬱が彼を圧倒し、ふと気がつくとなじみ深い棚の前に立っているのだった。三日間の禁酒が身体にこたえ、いつもの慰めへと彼を駆り立てたのかも知れない。棚のほうへむかったのは本能だった。戸棚を手で開けるまで自分が何をしているのか意識すらしなかった。しかしその時ふと断酒の決意が心によみがえった。棚の中が空っぽであることを思い出したせいもあるだろう（ウイスキーは主教に取り上げられていた）。彼はぴしゃりと戸を閉めた。もう約束を忘れてしまっただなんて――これまでの希望に満ちた日々、清明な中休みのあと、またもやあやうく泥沼に落ちこむところだった。彼は机にむかい、バージェス・ベルが午後の礼拝を予告するまでマーチン・ジョウリフの書類に没頭した。
He ate little, and by the end of the meal depression had so far got the better of him, that he found himself standing before a well-known cupboard. Perhaps the abstemiousness of the last three days had told upon him, and drove him for refuge to his usual comforter. It was by instinct that he went to the cupboard; he was not even conscious of doing so till he had the open door in his hand. Then resolution returned to him, aided, it may be, by the reflection that the cupboard was bare (for the Bishop had taken away the whisky), and he shut the door sharply. Was it possible that he had so soon forgotten his promise--had come so perilously near falling back into the mire, after the bright prospects of the last days, after so lucid an interval? He went to his bureau and buried himself in Martin Joliffe's papers, till the Burgess Bell gave warning of the afternoon service.
The gloom and fog made way by degrees for a drizzling rain, which resolved itself into a steady downpour as the afternoon wore on. It was so heavy that Mr Sharnall could hear the indistinct murmur of millions of raindrops on the long lead roofs, and their more noisy splash and spatter as they struck the windows in the lantern and north transept. He was in a bad humour as he came down from the loft. The boys had sung sleepily and flat; Jaques had murdered the tenor solo with his strained and raucous voice; and old Janaway remembered afterwards that Mr Sharnall had never vouchsafed a good-afternoon as he strode angrily down the aisle.
ベルヴュー・ロッジに戻っても事態は変わらなかった。雨に濡れて寒気がしたが、暖炉に火はなかった。そんな贅沢をするにはまだ時期的に早かったのである。台所へ行ってお茶でも飲もうか。土曜の午後だ。ミス・ジョウリフはドルカス会に出席しているだろうが、アナスタシアは家にいるはずだ。暗くどんよりしたひとときに一条の陽の光が射し込むように、その考えが頭に浮かんだ。アナスタシアは家にいるだろう、一人で。暖炉のそばに腰かけて熱いお茶を飲もう。そのあいだアナスタシアが話しかけてきて楽しませてくれるはずだ。台所のドアを軽くノックした。開けると、湿った空気がどっとばかりに顔を打った。部屋には誰もいなかった。半開きの窓から雨が吹きこみ、窓辺の樅のテーブルの上を黒く濡らしていた。火はくすぶっている灰にすぎない。考えこみながら無意識に窓を閉めた。アナスタシアはどこに行ったのだ？台所を出てから相当時間が経っているにちがいない。さもなければあんなに火が落ちていることはないだろうし、雨が吹きこむのも見たはずだ。きっと上の階にいるのだろう。ウエストレイの留守を利用して部屋を片付けているのだ。上に行ってみよう。もしかしたらウエストレイの部屋には火が入っているかも知れない。
Things were no better when he reached Bellevue Lodge. He was wet and chilled, and there was no fire in the grate, because it was too early in the year for such luxuries to be afforded. He would go to the kitchen, and take his tea there. It was Saturday afternoon. Miss Joliffe would be at the Dorcas meeting, but Anastasia would be in; and this reflection came to him as a ray of sunlight in a dark and lowering time. Anastasia would be in, and alone; he would sit by the fire and drink a cup of hot tea, while Anastasia should talk to him and gladden his heart. He tapped lightly at the kitchen-door, and as he opened it a gusty buffet of damp air smote him on the face; the room was empty. Through a half-open sash the wet had driven in, and darkened the top of the deal table which stood against the window; the fire was but a smouldering ash. He shut the window instinctively while he reflected. Where could Anastasia be? She must have left the kitchen some time, otherwise the fire would not be so low, and she would have seen that the rain was beating in. She must be upstairs; she had no doubt taken advantage of Westray's absence to set his room in order. He would go up to her; perhaps there was a fire in Westray's room.
He went up the circular stone staircase, that ran like a wide well from top to bottom of the old Hand of God. The stone steps and the stone floor of the hall, the stuccoed walls, and the coved stucco roof which held the skylight at the top, made a whispering-gallery of that gaunt staircase; and before Mr Sharnall had climbed half-way up he heard voices.
それらは会話をしている声だった。アナスタシアに話し相手がいる。次の瞬間、一つの声は男の声だと分った。何の権利があってウエストレイの部屋にあがりこんでいるんだ？厚かましくもアナスタシアと話しをしているのはどこのどいつだ？突拍子もない疑惑が心をよぎった――まさか、そんなことはあるまい。わたしは盗み聞きをしたり、こっそり近寄って聞き耳を立てたりはしないぞ。しかしそう思いながらも一段か二段さらに階段を登った。声がいっそうはっきりと聞こえた。アナスタシアが話し終え、男がまたしゃべり出した。そうでなければいいという期待と、そうではないかという恐れが、一瞬均衡して、ミスタ・シャーノールの心を宙づり状態にした。そして疑惑は消えた。彼はその声がブランダマー卿の声であることを知ったのだ。
They were voices in conversation; Anastasia had company. And then he heard that one was a man's voice. What right had any man to be in Westray's room? What man had any right to be talking to Anastasia? A wild suspicion passed through his mind--no, that was quite impossible. He would not play the eavesdropper or creep near them to listen; but, as he reflected, he had mounted a step or two higher, and the voices were now more distinct. Anastasia had finished speaking, and the man began again. There was one second of uncertainty in Mr Sharnall's mind, while the hope that it was not, balanced the fear that it was; and then doubt vanished, and he knew the voice to be Lord Blandamer's.
オルガン奏者は階段を二段か三段、素早く駆け上がった。すぐ彼らの所へ行こう――すぐウエストレイの部屋の中へ。それから――そこで彼は立ち止まった。それから、どうするのだ？だいたい何の権利があって中に入るのだ？彼らが何をしようと自分とは関係がないではないか。誰かが口出しする筋合いのものではない。彼は立ち止り、むきを変えて、また下に降りていった。なんて馬鹿なのだろうと自分に言いながら――モグラ塚を山と勘違いして騒ぎ立てるようなものだ。しかも実際はモグラ塚すら存在しないというのに。だが彼はそう思うあいだもずっと生身の心臓をつかまれ押しつぶされるような、むかむかした気持ちに襲われていたのである。戻ると自分の部屋は今まで以上に陰気に思えた。しかし今となってはそんなことはどうでもいい。ここにいる気はないのだから。ほんのしばらく足を止めたのは、ただ事務机の垂れ板の上に乱雑に積まれたマーチン・ジョウリフの書類をごそっと引き出しに放りこむためだった。書類を入れて鍵をかけるとき、ぞっとするような笑みが顔に浮かんだ。「報いを受ける日の必ずや来たらん」。この書類がすべての不当な仕打ちに対する復讐を果してくれるはずだ。
The organist sprang up two or three steps very quickly. He would go straight to them--straight into Westray's room; he would--And then he paused; he would do, what? What right had he to go there at all? What had he to do with them? What was there for anyone to do? He paused, then turned and went downstairs again, telling himself that he was a fool--that he was making mountains of molehills, that there did not exist, in fact, even a molehill; yet having all the while a sickening feeling within him, as if some gripping hand had got hold of his poor physical and material heart, and was squeezing it. His room looked more gloomy than ever when he got back to it, but it did not matter now, because he was not going to remain there. He only stopped for a minute to sweep back into the bureau all those loose papers of Martin Joliffe's that were lying in a tumble on the open desk-flap. He smiled grimly as he put them back and locked them in. _Le jour viendra qui tout paiera_. These papers held a vengeance that would atone for all wrongs.
重く濡れそぼった外套を玄関の掛け釘からはずした。これなら悪天候でも台なしになることはないな、なにしろとっくにすり切れて緑色になっているし、次の四半期の給料が出たらさっそく買い換えなければならないような代物なのだから。そう考えて彼は心の中でにやりとした。雨はまだ土砂降りだったが、出て行かずにはいられなかった。四つの壁は彼のいらだちを納めておくには狭すぎたし、外の自然の悲しさは彼の憂鬱な気分にぴったり合った。通りに面したドアをそっと閉め、神の手正面の半円形の階段を降りた。アナスタシアがはじめてブランダマー卿を見た、あの歴史的な夕方に、卿が降りていったのとまったく同じように。そのとき卿が振り返ったように、彼も家のほうを振り返ったが、光り輝く前者と違って彼には運がなかった。ウエストレイの部屋の窓は固く閉ざされ、誰の姿も見えなかったからだ。
He took down his heavy and wet-sodden overcoat from the peg in the hall, and reflected with some satisfaction that the bad weather could not seriously damage it, for it had turned green with wear, and must be replaced as soon as he got his next quarter's salary. The rain still fell heavily, but he _must_ go out. Four walls were too narrow to hold his chafing mood, and the sadness of outward nature accorded well with a gloomy spirit. So he shut the street-door noiselessly, and went down the semicircular flight of stone steps in front of the Hand of God, just as Lord Blandamer had gone down them on that historic evening when Anastasia first saw him. He turned back to look at the house, just as Lord Blandamer had turned back then; but was not so fortunate as his illustrious predecessor, for Westray's window was tight shut, and there was no one to be seen.
"I wish I may never look upon the place again," he said to himself, half in earnest, and half with that cynicism which men affect because they know Fate seldom takes them at their word.
一時間以上、当てもなくうろつき、夜になって気がつくと町の西の外れに来ていた。そこの小さな革なめし工場は、形だけはカランで商業活動が行われていることを示す最後のものだった。カル川は何マイルも柳と榛《はん》の木の下を流れ、黄金色の金鳳花《きんぽうげ》や、香り高い下野草《しもつけそう》が茂る広い牧草地を抜け、種付花やサラセニア、菖蒲や揺れる葭を通り過ぎるのだが、ここで昔ながらのよき風景は途切れて、どこにでもよくある町の人工水路となり、波止場のあたりで水深を深め、泥まじりの激しい潮流と出会うのである。ミスタ・シャーノールは疲れを覚え、道路と水の流れをへだてる鉄の杭垣に寄りかかった。立ち止まってはじめて自分がどれほど歩き疲れているかを知り、また、頭を少しかしげて古帽子のつばから滝のような水が落ちたとき、はじめて自分がどれほど雨に打たれたかを知った。
For an hour or more he wandered aimlessly, and found himself, as night fell, on the western outskirts of the town, where a small tannery carries on the last pretence of commercial activity in Cullerne. It is here that the Cull, which has run for miles under willow and alder, through deep pastures golden with marsh marigolds or scented with meadow-sweet, past cuckoo-flower and pitcher-plant and iris and nodding bulrush, forsakes better traditions, and becomes a common town-sluice before it deepens at the wharves, and meets the sandy churn of the tideway. Mr Sharnall had become aware that he was tired, and he stood and leant over the iron paling that divides the roadway from the stream. He did not know how tired he was till he stopped walking, nor how the rain had wetted him till he bent his head a little forward, and a cascade of water fell from the brim of his worn-out hat.
It was a forlorn and dismal stream at which he looked. The low tannery buildings of wood projected in part over the water, and were supported on iron props, to which were attached water-whitened skins and repulsive portions of entrails, that swung slowly from side to side as the river took them. The water here is little more than three feet deep, and beneath its soiled current can be seen a sandy bottom on which grow patches of coarse duck-weed. To Mr Sharnall these patches of a green so dark and drain-soiled as to be almost black in the failing light, seemed tresses of drowned hair, and he weaved stories about them for himself as the stream now swayed them to and fro, and now carried them out at length.
彼はぼんやりと観察とつづけたが、心に大きな懸念があるとき、肉体はときどきそんな姿勢を取ったままじっとしているものだ。ごくつまらぬ小さなものまで目についた。彼は汚れた水の下の、汚れた川底に横たわるものを、一つ一つ数えていった。底に穴の開いたブリキのバケツ、注ぎ口のない茶色のティーポット、頑丈すぎて毀れない、陶器製の靴墨の瓶、他にもガラスの欠片や瀬戸物の破片があった。つばだけ残ったシルクハットがあり、つま先のない長靴が一足ならずあった。振り返って道の先にある町を見た。ランプが灯りはじめ、その光が泥道に付けられた幾筋もの交差する白い線を照らし出した。轍《わだち》の跡に水が溜まっていたのである。黒々とした馬車が道をこちらにやって来て、泥の中に新しい跡を付け、二本のかすかに光る線をあとに残した。近づいてきたとき、彼は少々ぎくりとした。救貧院の生活保護者用に棺桶を送り届ける葬儀屋の馬車だった。
He observed things with that vacant observation which the body at times insists on maintaining, when the mind is busy with some overmastering preoccupation. He observed the most trivial details; he made an inventory of the things which he could see lying on the dirty bed of the river underneath the dirty water. There was a tin bucket with a hole in the bottom; there was a brown teapot without a spout; there was an earthenware blacking-bottle too strong to be broken; there were other shattered glass bottles and shards of crockery; there was a rim of a silk hat, and more than one toeless boot. He turned away, and looked down the road towards the town. They were beginning to light the lamps, and the reflections showed a criss-cross of white lines on the muddy road, where the water stood in the wheel-tracks. There was a dark vehicle coming down the road now, making a fresh track in the mud, and leaving two shimmering lines behind it as it went. He gave a little start when it came nearer, and he saw that it was the undertaker's cart carrying out a coffin for some pauper at the Union Workhouse.
He gave a start and a shiver; the wet had come through his overcoat; he could feel it on his arms; he could feel the cold and clinging wet striking at his knees. He was stiff with standing so long, and a rheumatic pain checked him suddenly as he tried to straighten himself. He would walk quickly to warm himself--would go home at once. Home-- what _home_ had he? That great, gaunt Hand of God. He detested it and all that were within its walls. That was no home. Yet he was walking briskly towards it, having no other whither to go.
みすぼらしい小路を通り、五分も経たぬうちに目的地に着くというとき、歌声が聞こえてきた。ウエストレイが到着した最初の晩に通った、同じ小さな酒場の前を通り過ぎようとしていた。ウエストレイが来た晩に歌っていたのと同じ声が中で歌っていた。ウエストレイが不愉快を連れてきやがった。ウエストレイがブランダマー卿を連れてきたのだ。あれから何もかも変わってしまった。ウエストレイなんか来なければよかったのに。わたしの望みは――ああ、わたしの心からの望みは――すべてが昔に戻ること――一世代前のようにすべてが静かに進んでいくことだ。確かにいい声をしている、あの女は。どんな人なのか、一目見る価値はあるだろう。部屋の中が覗ければいいのだが。いや、中を見る言い訳なら簡単だ。軽くお湯割りのウイスキーを注文しよう。こんなに濡れてしまったのだから一杯やったほうがいい。風邪を防ぐことができるだろう。もちろんほんのちょっとだけ、薬代わりに。それならちっとも差し支えはない――ただ健康のため用心をするだけなのだから。
He was in the mean little streets, he was within five minutes of his goal, when he heard singing. He was passing the same little inn which he had passed the first night that Westray came. The same voice was singing inside which had sung the night that Westray came. Westray had brought discomfort; Westray had brought Lord Blandamer. Things had never been the same since; he wished Westray had never come at all; he wished--oh, how he wished!--that all might be as it was before--that all might jog along quietly as it had for a generation before. She certainly had a fine voice, this woman. It really would be worth while seeing who she was; he wished he could just look inside the door. Stay, he could easily make an excuse for looking in: he would order a little hot whisky-and-water. He was so wet, it was prudent to take something to drink. It might ward off a bad chill. He would only take a very little, and only as a medicine, of course; there could be no harm in _that_--it was mere prudence.
He took off his hat, shook the rain from it, turned the handle of the door very gently, with the consideration of a musician who will do nothing to interrupt another who is making music, and went in.
彼は一度窓から見たことのある、床が砂でざらざらしている部屋にいた。奥行きがあって天井が低く、屋根には重い梁が渡されている。向こう端には暖炉があり、くすぶる火の上に薬罐がつるされていた。一方の隅にはフィドルを弾く老人が腰かけ、その旁らにあのクレオールの女が立って歌っていた。部屋の中にはテーブルが数台置かれ、後ろの長椅子には十人ほどの男が座っていた。若い者は一人もなく、ほとんどはとうに人生の盛りを過ぎている。顔は日焼けしてマホガニー色になっていた。ある者は耳飾りをし、白髪の揉み上げを奇妙な具合にカールさせていた。彼らはまるで何年もそこに座りつづけているかのようだった――まるで永遠に酒場に集う至福境を与えられた昔の沈没船の乗組員といった風情だった。誰もミスタ・シャーノールに注意を払わなかった。音楽が人を恍惚とさせる力を発揮し、彼らは心ここにあらずという状態だったのだ。ある者は昔のカランの捕鯨船や、銛や浮氷塊とともにあった。ある者は船首の四角い木材運搬用ブリッグや、バルト海とメーメル産の白い木材、荒れ狂う海上の夜と、それ以上に荒れ狂った上陸地の夜を夢見ていた。またある者はマンゴーの木立を通して見た菫色の空と月明かりを思い出し、クレオールの女を見ながら、その衰えた容色の中に一昔前、若い情熱に火を付けた甘い、浅黒い顔を呼び起こそうとした。 ~~~
He found himself in that sanded parlour which he had seen once before through the window. It was a long, low room, with heavy beams crossing the roof, and at the end was an open fireplace, where a kettle hung above a smouldering fire. In a corner sat an old man playing on a fiddle, and near him the Creole woman stood singing; there were some tables round the room, and behind them benches on which a dozen men were sitting. There was no young man among them, and most had long passed the meridian of life. Their faces were sun-tanned and mahogany-coloured; some wore earrings in their ears, and strange curls of grey hair at the side of their heads. They looked as if they might have been sitting there for years--as if they might be the crew of some long-foundered vessel to whom has been accorded a Nirvana of endless tavern-fellowship. None of them took any notice of Mr Sharnall, for music was exercising its transporting power, and their thoughts were far away. Some were with old Cullerne whalers, with the harpoon and the ice-floe; some dreamt of square-stemmed timber-brigs, of the Baltic and the white Memel-logs, of wild nights at sea and wilder nights ashore; and some, remembering violet skies and moonlight through the mango-groves, looked on the Creole woman, and tried to recall in her faded features, sweet, swart faces that had kindled youthful fires a generation since.
"Then the grog, boys--the grog, boys, bring hither,"
とクレオールは歌った。 ~~~
sang the Creole.
"Fill it up true to the brim. May the mem'ry of Nelson ne'er wither Nor the star of his glory grow dim."
There were rummers standing on the tables, and now and then a drinking-brother would break the sugar-knobs in his liquor with a glass stirrer, or take a deep draught of the brown jorum that steamed before him. No one spoke to Mr Sharnall; only the landlord, without asking what he would take, set before him a glass filled with the same hot spirit as the other guests were drinking.
The organist accepted his fate with less reluctance than he ought perhaps to have displayed, and a few minutes later was drinking and smoking with the rest. He found the liquor to his liking, and soon experienced the restoring influences of the warm room and of the spirit. He hung his coat up on a peg, and in its dripping condition, and in the wet which had penetrated to his skin, found ample justification for accepting without demur a second bumper with which the landlord replaced his empty glass. Rummer followed rummer, and still the Creole woman sang at intervals, and still the company smoked and drank.
Mr Sharnall drank too, but by-and-by saw things less clearly, as the room grew hotter and more clouded with tobacco-smoke. Then he found the Creole woman standing before him, and holding out a shell for contributions. He had in his pocket only one single coin--a half-crown that was meant to be a fortnight's pocket-money; but he was excited, and had no hesitation.
"There," he said, with an air of one who gives a kingdom--"there, take that: you deserve it; but sing me a song that I heard you sing once before, something about the rolling sea."
She nodded that she understood, and after the collection was finished, gave the money to the blind man, and bade him play for her.
It was a long ballad, with many verses and a refrain of:
"Oh, take me back to those I love, Or bring them here to me; I have no heart to rove, to rove Across the rolling sea."
At the end she came back, and sat down on the bench by Mr Sharnall.
"Will you not give me something to drink?" she said, speaking in very good English. "You all drink; why should not I?"
He beckoned to the landlord to bring her a glass, and she drank of it, pledging the organist.
"You sing well," he said, "and with a little training should sing very well indeed. How do you come to be here? You ought to do better than this; if I were you, I would not sing in such company."
She looked at him angrily.
"How do _I_ come to be here? How do _you_ come to be here? If I had a little training, I should sing better, and if I had your training, Mr Sharnall"--and she brought out his name with a sneering emphasis--"I should not be here at all, drinking myself silly in a place like this."
彼女は立ち上がって老いたフィドル弾きのほうへ戻っていった。しかし彼女のことばはオルガン奏者の酔いを醒まし、胸に鋭く突き刺さった。結局、良き決心はことごとく無駄に終わったのだ。彼は主教との約束を破ってしまった。主教は月曜日にまたやってきて、相変わらず悪習に染まった彼を――今まで以上に悪習に染まった彼を見いだすだろう。悪魔が戻ってきて飾られたる家（註 ルカ伝から）で大騒ぎをしているのだ。彼は勘定を払おうとして振り返ったが、半クラウン硬貨は既にクレオールに渡っていた。金のない彼は店の主人に言い訳をし、恥をかき、名前と住所を言わされた。相手はぶつぶつと苦情を言った。楽しい仲間とお酒を飲む紳士は、紳士らしく勘定の用意をなさっておくものです。ずいぶんお飲みになりましたから、これがお支払いいただけないとなると、わたしみたいな貧乏人にとってはえらいことなんですよ。お客さんのおっしゃることは嘘じゃないんでしょうが、オルガン弾きともあろう方がメリーマウスへ酒を飲みに来てポケットに一文もなしというのは変じゃありませんか。雨は止みましたからね、誠意のしるしとして外套をかたに置いていってください。後で取りに来たらいいですよ。そういうわけでミスタ・シャーノールは着衣の一部を置いて行かざるを得ず、長年つきあってきたおんぼろ外套と別れさせられたのだった。彼は開いたドアのところで振り返り、寂しそうに笑みを浮かべて、掛け釘にひっかかって水をしたたらせている外套を見た。競売に付されたとしても、はたして酒代になるほどの値がつくだろうか。
She got up, and went back to the old fiddler, but her words had a sobering influence on the organist, and cut him to the quick. So all his good resolutions had vanished. His promise to the Bishop was broken; the Bishop would be back again on Monday, and find him as bad as ever--would find him worse; for the devil had returned, and was making riot in the garnished house. He turned to pay his reckoning, but his half-crown had gone to the Creole; he had no money, he was forced to explain to the landlord, to humiliate himself, to tell his name and address. The man grumbled and made demur. Gentlemen who drank in good company, he said, should be prepared to pay their shot like gentlemen. Mr Sharnall had drunk enough to make it a serious thing for a poor man not to get paid. Mr Sharnall's story might be true, but it was a funny thing for an organist to come and drink at the Merrymouth, and have no money in his pocket. It had stopped raining; he could leave his overcoat as a pledge of good faith, and come back and fetch it later. So Mr Sharnall was constrained to leave this part of his equipment, and was severed from a well-worn overcoat, which had been the companion of years. He smiled sadly to himself as he turned at the open door, and saw his coat still hang dripping on the peg. If it were put up to auction, would it ever fetch enough to pay for what he had drunk?
It was true that it had stopped raining, and though the sky was still overcast, there was a lightness diffused behind the clouds that spoke of a rising moon. What should he do? Whither should he turn? He could not go back to the Hand of God; there were some there who did not want him--whom he did not want. Westray would not be home, or, if he were, Westray would know that he had been drinking; he could not bear that they should see that he had been drinking again.
And then there came into his mind another thought: he would go to the church, the water-engine should blow for him, and he would play himself sober. Stay, _should_ he go to the church--the great church of Saint Sepulchre alone? Would he be alone there? If he thought that he would be alone, he would feel more secure; but might there not be someone else there, or something else? He gave a little shiver, but the drink was in his veins; he laughed pot-valiantly, and turned up an alley towards the centre tower, that loomed dark in the wet, misty whiteness of the cloud screened moon.
第十四章 ~~~
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
Westray returned to Cullerne by the evening train. It was near ten o'clock, and he was finishing his supper, when someone tapped at the door, and Miss Euphemia Joliffe came in.
"I beg your pardon for interrupting you, sir," she said; "I am a little anxious about Mr Sharnall. He was not in at teatime, and has not come back since. I thought you might know perhaps where he was. It is years since he has been out so late in the evening."
"I haven't the least idea where he is," Westray said rather testily, for he was tired with a long day's work. "I suppose he has gone out somewhere to supper."
"No one ever asks Mr Sharnall out. I do not think he can be gone out to supper."
"Oh, well, I dare say he will turn up in due course; let me hear before you go to bed if he has come back;" and he poured himself out another cup of tea, for he was one of those thin-blooded and old-womanly men who elevate the drinking of tea instead of other liquids into a special merit. "He could not understand," he said, "why everybody did not drink tea. It was so much more refreshing--one could work so much better after drinking tea."
He turned to some calculations for the section of a tie-rod, with which Sir George Farquhar had at last consented to strengthen the south side of the tower, and did not notice how time passed till there came another irritating tap, and his landlady reappeared.
"It is nearly twelve o'clock," she said, "and we have seen nothing of Mr Sharnall. I am so alarmed! I am sure I am very sorry to trouble you, Mr Westray, but my niece and I are so alarmed."
"I don't quite see what I am to do," Westray said, looking up. "Could he have gone out with Lord Blandamer? Do you think Lord Blandamer could have asked him to Fording?"
"Lord Blandamer was here this afternoon," Miss Joliffe answered, "but he never saw Mr Sharnall, because Mr Sharnall was not at home."
"Oh, Lord Blandamer was here, was he?" asked Westray. "Did he leave no message for me?"
"He asked if you were in, but he left no message for you. He drank a cup of tea with us. I think he came in merely as a friendly visitor," Miss Joliffe said with some dignity. "I think he came in to drink a cup of tea with me. I was unfortunately at the Dorcas meeting when he first arrived, but on my return he drank tea with me."
"It is curious; he seems generally to come on Saturday afternoons," said Westray. "Are you _always_ at the Dorcas meeting on Saturday afternoons?"
"Yes," Miss Joliffe said, "I am always at the meeting on Saturday afternoons."
There was a minute's pause--Westray and Miss Joliffe were both thinking.
"Well, well," Westray said, "I shall be working for some time yet, and will _let_ Mr Sharnall in if he comes; but I suspect that he has been invited to spend the night at Fording. Anyhow, you can go to bed with a clear conscience, Miss Joliffe; you have waited up far beyond your usual time."
ミス・ユーフィミアは床に就き、ウエストレイは一人残された。数分後十五分置きに鳴る四つの鐘が鳴り、それから低音鐘が十二時を打ち、次に全部の鐘が夜も昼も三時間ごとに奏でる曲を鳴らしはじめた。聖セパルカ大聖堂の近隣に住む人々は鐘の音など聞きはしない。耳が慣れてしまい、十五分置き、一時間置きの鐘の音は、人々に意識されることなく鳴った。もしもよそ者が大聖堂の近くに泊まったなら、その騒音は最初の晩こそ彼らの眠りを破るが、その後は何も聞こえなくなる。ウエストレイも夜な夜な遅くまで仕事をしていたが、鐘が鳴ったかどうか分からなかった。鐘が聞こえるのは注意力が目覚めているようなときのみである。しかしこの夜は鐘が聞こえ、「エフライム山」の穏やかなメロディに聴き入っていた。
So Miss Euphemia went to bed, and left Westray alone; and a few minutes later the four quarter-chimes rang, and the tenor struck twelve, and then the bells fell to playing a tune, as they did every three hours day and night. Those who dwell near Saint Sepulchre's take no note of the bells. The ear grows so accustomed to them, that quarter by quarter and hour by hour strike unperceived. If strangers come to stop under the shadow of the church the clangour disturbs their sleep for the first night, and after that they, too, hear nothing. So Westray would sit working late night by night, and could not say whether the bells had rung or not. It was only when attention was too wide awake that he heard them, but he heard them this night, and listened while they played the sober melody of "Mount Ephraim." [See Appendix at end for tune.]
He got up, flung his window open, and looked out. The storm had passed; the moon, which was within a few hours of the full, rode serenely in the blue heaven with a long bank of dappled white cloud below, whose edge shone with an amber iridescence. He looked over the clustered roofs and chimneys of the town; the upward glow from the market-place showed that the lamps were still burning, though he could not see them. Then, as the glow lessened gradually and finally became extinct, he knew that the lights were being put out because midnight was past. The moonlight glittered on the roofs, which were still wet, and above all towered in gigantic sable mass the centre tower of Saint Sepulchre's.
建築家は奇妙に身体が緊張するのを感じた。興奮しているのだが、その理由は分からなかった。床に就いてもこれでは眠れないだろう。シャーノールが帰ってこないのは確かにおかしい。シャーノールはフォーディングに行ったに違いない。はっきり聞いたわけではないが、フォーディングに招待されたというようなことをしゃべっていた。しかしそうだとしたら一泊するために用意をして行ったはずだ。だのに、何も持ち出していない。持ち出していればミス・ユーフィミアがそう言っただろう。待てよ、シャーノールの部屋に降りていって、荷物を持ち出した跡がないか、調べてみようか。ひょっとしたら不在の理由を説明する書き置きでも残されているかも知れない。彼は蝋燭に火をつけ、足もとで石の踏み段がこだまする巨大な井戸のような階段を下りた。てっぺんの天窓から一条の月明かりが射しこみ、屋根裏部屋から聞こえる物音はミス・ジョウリフがまだ寝ていないことを彼に告げた。オルガン奏者の部屋には、彼の不在を説明するようなものは何もなかった。蝋燭の光がピアノの側面に反射し、数週間前に友人と交わした会話や、ハンマーを持った男が後ろからつけてくるというミスタ・シャーノールの奇妙な妄想を思い出し、ウエストレイは思わず身震いした。もしや友人は病気になって今まで人事不省のままじっと寝ていたのではないかとふと不安を覚え、寝室をのぞきこんだが誰もいない――ベッドは乱れていなかった。そこで彼は上の自分の部屋に戻ったのだが、夜はしんしんと冷え、もう窓を開けていられなかった。閉める前に窓枠に手をついて、中央塔が町全体を威圧し、圧倒している様を眺めた。この岩のようなかたまりがぐらつくなど、まったくあり得ない話だ。このようなよろめく巨人を支えるには、自分が今その断面図を描いている引っ張り鉄など、あまりにも弱々しく不十分だ。彼はオルガンのある張り出しから見た南袖廊のアーチの上の亀裂を頭に浮かべ、その発見のために「シャーノール変ニ長調」を途中までしか聴かなかったことを思い出した。そうだ、ミスタ・シャーノールは聖堂にいるのかも知れない。練習に行って閉じこめられたのではないか。鍵が折れたかして、出られなくなったのだ。彼はどうしてもっと前に聖堂のことを考えなかったのだろうと思った。
Westray felt a curious physical tension. He was excited, he could not tell why; he knew that sleep would be impossible if he were to go to bed. It _was_ an odd thing that Sharnall had not come home; Sharnall _must_ have gone to Fording. He had spoken vaguely of an invitation to Fording that he had received; but if he had gone there he must have taken some things with him for the night, and he had not taken anything, or Miss Euphemia would have said so. Stay, he would go down to Sharnall's room and see if he could find any trace of his taking luggage; perhaps he had left some message to explain his absence. He lit a candle and went down, down the great well-staircase where the stone steps echoed under his feet. A patch of bright moonshine fell on the stairs from the skylight at the top, and a noise of someone moving in the attics told him that Miss Joliffe was not yet asleep. There was nothing in the organist's room to give any explanation of his absence. The light of the candle was reflected on the front of the piano, and Westray shuddered involuntarily as he remembered the conversation which he had a few weeks before with this friend, and Mr Sharnall's strange hallucinations as to the man that walked behind him with a hammer. He looked into the bedroom with a momentary apprehension that his friend might have been seized with illness, and be lying all this time unconscious; but there was no one there--the bed was undisturbed. So he went back to his own room upstairs, but the night had turned so chill that he could no longer bear the open window. He stood with his hand upon the sash looking out for a moment before he pulled it down, and noticed how the centre tower dominated and prevailed over all the town. It was impossible, surely, that this rock-like mass could be insecure; how puny and insufficient to uphold such a tottering giant seemed the tie-rods whose section he was working out. And then he thought of the crack above the south transept arch that he had seen from the organ-loft, and remembered how "Sharnall in D flat" had been interrupted by the discovery. Why, Mr Sharnall might be in the church; perhaps he had gone down to practise and been shut in. Perhaps his key had broken, and he could not get out; he wondered that he had not thought of the church before.
In a minute he had made up his mind to go to the minster. As resident architect he possessed a master key which opened all the doors; he would walk round, and see if he could find anything of the missing organist before going to bed. He strode quickly through the deserted streets. The lamps were all put out, for Cullerne economised gas at times of full moon. There was nothing moving, his footsteps rang on the pavement, and echoed from wall to wall. He took the short-cut by the wharves, and in a few minutes came to the old Bonding-house.
壁を支えるため波止場の方向に突き出した煉瓦造りの控え壁のあいだには黒いビロードのような影が落ちていた。オルガン奏者が神経を昂ぶらせ、暗い壁のへこみに誰かが潜んでいるとか、建物と人間の運命のあいだには何かしらつながりがあると妄想したりしたことを思い出し、一人微笑んだ。しかしその微笑みが無理に作られたものであることは自分にも分かっていた。孤独感や半ば廃墟と化した建物のわびしさやごぼごぼという川の囁きに終始押しつぶされそうな気分だった。彼は本能的に足を速めた。そこを通り抜けたときはほっとして、その晩二度目であったが、後ろを振り返った。すると光と闇の不思議な効果が最後の控え壁の暗がりに誰かが立っているような印象を生み出していた。長い緩やかなケープを風にはためかせている男の姿が錯覚とは思えないくらいはっきり見えるような気がした。
The shadows hung like black velvet in the spaces between the brick buttresses that shored up the wall towards the quay. He smiled to himself as he thought of the organist's nervousness, of those strange fancies as to someone lurking in the black hiding-holes, and as to buildings being in some way connected with man's fate. Yet he knew that his smile was assumed, for he felt all the while the oppression of the loneliness, of the sadness of a half-ruined building, of the gurgling mutter of the river, and instinctively quickened his pace. He was glad when he had passed the spot, and again that night, as he looked back, he saw the strange effect of light and darkness which produced the impression of someone standing in the shadow of the last buttress space. The illusion was so perfect that he thought he could make out the figure of a man, in a long loose cape that napped in the wind.
He had passed the wrought-iron gates now--he was in the churchyard, and it was then that he first became aware of a soft, low, droning, sound which seemed to fill the air all about him. He stopped for a moment to listen; what was it? Where was the noise? It grew more distinct as he passed along the flagged stone path which led to the north door. Yes, it certainly came from inside the church. What could it be? What could anyone be doing in the church at this hour of night?
He was in the north porch now, and then he knew what it was. It was a low note of the organ--a pedal-note; he was almost sure it was that very pedal-point which the organist had explained to him with such pride. The sound reassured him nothing had happened to Mr Sharnall--he was practising in the church; it was only some mad freak of his to be playing so late; he was practising that service "Sharnall in D flat."
He took out his key to unlock the wicket, and was surprised to find it already open, because he knew that it was the organist's habit to lock himself in. He passed into the great church. It was strange, there was no sound of music; there was no one playing; there was only the intolerably monotonous booming of a single pedal-note, with an occasional muffled thud when the water-engine turned spasmodically to replenish the emptying bellows.
"Sharnall!" he shouted--"Sharnall, what are you doing? Don't you know how late it is?"
He paused, and thought at first that someone was answering him--he thought that he heard people muttering in the choir; but it was only the echo of his own voice, his own voice tossed from pillar to pillar and arch to arch, till it faded into a wail of "Sharnall, Sharnall!" in the lantern.
It was the first time that he had been in the church at night, and he stood for a moment overcome with the mystery of the place, while he gazed at the columns of the nave standing white in the moonlight like a row of vast shrouded figures. He called again to Mr Sharnall, and again received no answer, and then he made his way up the nave to the little doorway that leads to the organ-loft stairs.
This door also was open, and he felt sure now that Mr Sharnall was not in the organ-loft at all, for had he been he would certainly have locked himself in. The pedal-note must be merely ciphering, or something, perhaps a book, might have fallen upon it, and was holding it down. He need not go up to the loft now; he would not go up. The throbbing of the low note had on him the same unpleasant effect as on a previous occasion. He tried to reassure himself, yet felt all the while a growing premonition that something might be wrong, something might be terribly wrong. The lateness of the hour, the isolation from all things living, the spectral moonlight which made the darkness darker--this combination of utter silence, with the distressing vibration of the pedal-note, filled him with something akin to panic. It seemed to him as if the place was full of phantoms, as if the monks of Saint Sepulchre's were risen from under their gravestones, as if there were other dire faces among them such as wait continually on deeds of evil. He checked his alarm before it mastered him. Come what might, he would go up to the organ-loft, and he plunged into the staircase that leads up out of the nave.
このドアも開いていたので、ミスタ・シャーノールはきっと張り出しにいないだろうと思われた。いるなら必ず鍵がかかっているはずだからだ。ペダル音は自鳴しているだけなのだろう。さもなければ、たぶん本のようなものがその上に落ちてペダルを押さえつけているのだ。張り出しに行く必要はないだろう。行くのは止めよう。振動する低音は前回の時と同じように彼を不快にさせた。彼は自分に何でもないと言い聞かせようとしたが、しかし何かがおかしい、それもひどくおかしいという不安な気持ちがますます強くなった。夜は更け、あらゆる生きとし生けるものから隔絶され、幽霊のような月明かりが暗闇をいちだんと暗くしている――完全な静寂にペダル音の陰鬱な響きが組み合わされて、彼はほとんど恐慌状態に陥った。幽霊が蠢いているような、聖セパルカ大聖堂の僧侶たちが墓石の下から蘇ったような、ほかにも不吉な顔があらわれ、じっと悪の所行を待ち受けているような、そんな気がした。彼は怯えに取り憑かれる前に、それを押し殺した。何が出て来ようとかまうものか。張り出しに行こう。彼は身廊から上へ行く階段に飛びこんだ。
It is a circular stair, twisted round a central pillar, of which mention has already been made, and though short, is very dark even in bright daylight. But at night the blackness is inky and impenetrable, and Westray fumbled for an appreciable time before he had climbed sufficiently far up to perceive the glimmer of moonlight at the top. He stepped out at last into the loft, and saw that the organ seat was empty. The great window at the end of the south transept shone full in front of him; it seemed as if it must be day and not night--the light from the window was so strong in comparison with the darkness which he had left. There was a subdued shimmer in the tracery where the stained glass gleamed diaphanous--amethyst and topaz, chrysoprase and jasper, a dozen jewels as in the foundations of the city of God. And in the midst, in the head of the centre light, shone out brighter than all, with an inherent radiance of its own, the cognisance of the Blandamers, the sea-green and silver of the nebuly coat.
既に述べたように、これは中心の小柱のまわりをぐるぐると回りながら登る螺旋階段で、長くはないが明るい昼間でも相当暗かった。しかし夜になるとインクで塗りつぶしたような闇に包まれ、ウエストレイはかなりの時間手探りで進み、ようやく月明かりが見えるところまでたどり着いた。それからついに張り出しに足を踏み入れたのだが、オルガン椅子には誰も座っていなかった。真正面には南袖廊の端にある大きな窓が光っていた。夜ではなく、昼ではないかと思われた――そのくらい窓の光は彼が後にした暗闇に比べて強烈だった。ステンドグラスが半透明に輝く狭間飾りは、鈍い光を放っている――紫水晶、黄玉、玉髄、碧玉と、神の都の土台のような十以上もの宝石たち。そしてその真ん中、中央の窓仕切りの上部で、みずからの内に秘めた光で他の何よりも輝いていたのがブランダマー家の紋章、海緑色と銀色の雲形紋章だった。
Westray gave a step forward into the loft, and then his foot struck against something, and he nearly fell. It was something soft and yielding that he had struck, something of which the mere touch filled him with horrible surmise. He bent down to see what it was, and a white object met his eyes. It was the white face of a man turned up towards the vaulting; he had stumbled over the body of Mr Sharnall, who lay on the floor with the back of his head on the pedal-note. Westray had bent low down, and he looked full in the eyes of the organist, but they were fixed and glazing.
The moonlight that shone on the dead face seemed to fall on it through that brighter spot in the head of the middle light; it was as if the nebuly coat had blighted the very life out of the man who lay so still upon the floor.
第十五章 ~~~
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
No evidence of any importance was given at the inquest except Westray's and the doctor's, and no other evidence was, in fact, required. Dr Ennefer had made an autopsy, and found that the immediate cause of death was a blow on the back of the head. But the organs showed traces of alcoholic habit, and the heart was distinctly diseased. It was probable that Mr Sharnall had been seized with a fainting fit as he left the organ-stool, and had fallen backwards with his head on the pedal-board. He must have fallen with much violence, and the pedal-note had made a bad wound, such as would be produced by a blunt instrument.
The inquest was nearly finished when, without any warning, Westray found himself, as by intuition, asking:
"The wound was such a one, you mean, as might have been produced by the blow of a hammer?"
The doctor seemed surprised, the jury and the little audience stared, but most surprised of all was Westray at his own question.
"You have no _locus standi_, sir," the coroner said severely; "such an interrogation is irregular. You are to esteem it an act of grace if I allow the medical man to reply."
"Yes," said Dr Ennefer, with a reserve in his voice that implied that he was not there to answer every irrelevant question that it might please foolish people to put to him--"yes, such a wound as might have been caused by a hammer, or by any other blunt instrument used with violence."
"Even by a heavy stick?" Westray suggested.
The doctor maintained a dignified silence, and the coroner struck in:
"I must say I think you are wasting our time, Mr Westray. I am the last person to stifle legitimate inquiry, but no inquiry is really needed here; it is quite certain that this poor man came to his end by falling heavily, and dashing his head against this wooden note in the pedals."
"_Is_ it quite certain?" Westray asked. "Is Dr Ennefer quite sure that the wound _could_ have been caused by a mere fall; I only want to know that Dr Ennefer is quite sure."
The coroner looked at the doctor with a deprecating glance, which implied apologies that so much unnecessary trouble should be given, and a hope that he would be graciously pleased to put an end to it by an authoritative statement.
"Oh, I am quite sure," the doctor responded. "Yes"--and he hesitated for the fraction of a second--"oh yes, there is no doubt such a wound could be caused by a fall."
"I merely wish to point out," said Westray, "that the pedal-note on which he fell is to a certain extent a yielding substance; it would yield, you must remember, at the first impact."
"That is quite true," the doctor said; "I had taken that into account, and admit that one would scarcely expect so serious an injury to have been caused. But, of course, it _was_ so caused, because there is no other explanation; you don't suggest, I presume, that there was any foul play. It is certainly a case of accident or foul play."
"Oh no, I don't suggest anything."
The coroner raised his eyebrows; he was tired, and could not understand such waste of time. But the doctor, curiously enough, seemed to have grown more tolerant of interruption.
"I have examined the injury very carefully," he said, "and have come to the deliberate conclusion that it must have been caused by the wooden key. We must also recollect that the effect of any blow would be intensified by a weak state of health. I don't wish to rake up anything against the poor fellow's memory, or to say any word that may cause you pain, Mr Westray, as his friend; but an examination of the body revealed traces of chronic alcoholism. We must recollect that."
"The man was, in fact, a confirmed drunkard," the coroner said. He lived at Carisbury, and, being a stranger both to Cullerne and its inhabitants, had no scruple in speaking plainly; and, besides this, he was nettled at the architect's interference. "You mean the man was a confirmed drunkard," he repeated.
"He was nothing of the kind," Westray said hotly. "I do not say that he never took more than was good for him, but he was in no sense an habitual drunkard."
"I did not ask _your_ opinion," retorted the coroner; "we do not want any lay conjectures. What do you say, Mr Ennefer?"
The surgeon was vexed in his turn at not receiving the conventional title of doctor, the more so because he knew that he had no legal right to it. To be called "Mr" demeaned him, he considered, in the eyes of present or prospective patients, and he passed at once into an attitude of opposition.
"Oh no, you quite mistake me, Mr Coroner. I did not mean that our poor friend was an habitual drunkard. I never remember to have actually seen him the worse for liquor."
"Well, what do you mean? You say the body shows traces of alcoholism, but that he was not a drunkard."
"Have we any evidence as to Mr Sharnall's state on the evening of his death?" a juror asked, with a pleasant consciousness that he was taking a dispassionate view, and making a point of importance.
"Yes, we have considerable evidence," said the coroner. "Call Charles White."
There stepped forward a little man with a red face and blinking eyes. His name was Charles White; he was landlord of the Merrymouth Inn. The deceased visited his inn on the evening in question. He did not know deceased by sight, but found out afterwards who he was. It was a bad night, deceased was very wet, and took something to drink; he drank a fairish amount, but not _that_ much, not more than a gentleman should drink. Deceased was not drunk when he went away.
"He was drunk enough to leave his top-coat behind him, was he not?" the coroner asked. "Did you not find this coat after he was gone?" and he pointed to a poor masterless garment, that looked greener and more outworn than ever as it hung over the back of a chair.
"Yes, deceased had certainly left his coat behind him, but he was not drunk."
「皆さん、酔っぱらいの基準にもさまざまあるものですな」検死官は本物の裁判官の説得力に満ちた口調を一生懸命おもしろおかしく真似して言った。「どうやらメリーマウスの基準は他のところより進んでいるようだ。わたしは」――彼はあざけるようにウエストレイを見た――「わたしはこのような質問をつづける必要があるとは思いません。ここに酒飲みがいます。ミスタ・エニファーが言うように常習的な飲酒家ではないにしろ、完全に病的な状態に陥るほど酒を飲みつづけていた。この男が安酒場に一晩居座って深酒し、帰るころにはへべれけになり外套を忘れていってしまう。外は大雨が降っていたというのに外套を置いていったのです。彼は酔っぱらってオルガンのある張り出しに行き、椅子に座ろうとして足を滑らせ、激しく後頭部を木片にぶつけた。そして、数時間後、慎重にして疑う余地なき証人により」――ここで彼は軽くフンと鼻を鳴らした――「死体として発見される。この木片の上に頭を載せたままね。この点に注意してください――彼が発見されたとき、頭は致命傷を与えたまさにそのペダルの上にあったのです。皆さん、これ以上の証拠は何も必要ないでしょう。皆さんがなさるべきことは実に明白です」 ~~~ 確かにすべては実に明白だった。事故死という全員一致の評決がミスタ・シャーノールの哀しい人生に奥付を付し、彼の人生を荒廃させた、まさにその弱点が、とうとう彼に飲んだくれとしての死をもたらしたのだと裁定された。
"There are different standards of drunkenness, gentlemen," said the coroner, imitating as well as he might the facetious cogency of a real judge, "and I imagine that the standard of the Merrymouth may be more advanced than in some other places. I don't think"--and he looked sarcastically at Westray--"I do _not_ think we need carry this inquiry farther. We have a man who drinks, not an habitual drunkard, Mr Ennefer says, but one who drinks enough to bring himself into a thoroughly diseased state. This man sits fuddling in a low public-house all the evening, and is so far overtaken by liquor when he goes away, that he leaves his overcoat behind him. He actually leaves his coat behind him, though we have it that it was a pouring wet night. He goes to the organ-loft in a tipsy state, slips as he is getting on to his stool, falls heavily with the back of his head on a piece of wood, and is found dead some hours later by an unimpeachable and careful witness"--and he gave a little sniff--"with his head still on this piece of wood. Take note of that--when he was found his head was still on this very pedal which had caused the fatal injury. Gentlemen, I do not think we need any further evidence; I think your course is pretty clear."
All was, indeed, very clear. The jury with a unanimous verdict of accidental death put the colophon to the sad history of Mr Sharnall, and ruled that the same failing which had blighted his life, had brought him at last to a drunkard's end.
Westray walked back to the Hand of God with the forlorn old top-coat over his arm. The coroner had formally handed it over to him. He was evidently a close friend of the deceased, he would perhaps take charge of his wearing apparel. The architect's thoughts were too preoccupied to allow him to resent the sneer which accompanied these remarks; he went off full of sorrow and gloomy forebodings.
Death in so strange a shape formed a topic of tavern discussion in Cullerne, second only to a murder itself. Not since Mr Leveritt, the timber-merchant, shot a barmaid at the Blandamer Arms, a generation since, had any such dramatic action taken place on Cullerne boards. The loafers swore over it in all its bearings as they spat upon the pavement at the corner of the market square. Mr Smiles, the shop-walker in Rose and Storey's general drapery mart, discussed it genteelly with the ladies who sat before the counter on the high wicker-seated chairs.
Dr Ennefer was betrayed into ill-advised conversation while being shaved, and got his chin cut. Mr Joliffe gave away a packet of moral reflections gratis with every pound of sausage, and turned up the whites of his eyes over the sin of intemperance, which had called away his poor friend in so terrible a state of unpreparedness. Quite a crowd followed the coffin to its last resting-place, and the church was unusually full on the Sunday morning which followed the catastrophe. People expected a "pulpit reference" from Canon Parkyn, and there were the additional, though subordinate, attractions of the playing of the Dead March, and the possibility of an amateur organist breaking down in the anthem.
Church-going, which sprung from such unworthy motives, was very properly disappointed. Canon Parkyn would not, he said, pander to sensationalism by any allusion in his discourse, nor could the Dead March, he conceived, be played with propriety under such very unpleasant circumstances. The new organist got through the service with provokingly colourless mediocrity, and the congregation came out of Saint Sepulchre's in a disappointed mood, as people who had been defrauded of their rights.
Then the nine days' wonder ceased, and Mr Sharnall passed into the great oblivion of middle-class dead. His successor was not immediately appointed. Canon Parkyn arranged that the second master at the National School, who had a pretty notion of music, and was a pupil of Mr Sharnall, should be spared to fill the gap. As Queen Elizabeth, of pious memory, recruited the privy purse by keeping in her own hand vacant bishoprics, so the rector farmed the post of organist at Cullerne Minster. He thus managed to effect so important a reduction in the sordid emoluments of that office, that he was five pounds in pocket before a year was ended.
But if the public had forgotten Mr Sharnall, Westray had not. The architect was a man of gregarious instinct. As there is a tradition and bonding of common interest about the Universities, and in a less degree about army, navy, public schools, and professions, which draws together and marks with its impress those who are attached to them, so there is a certain cabala and membership among lodgers which none can understand except those who are free of that guild.
下宿生活はむさ苦しく、貧乏くさく、わびしいと言うかも知れないが、それを和らげ、埋め合わせるものがないわけではない。下宿生活はほとんどの場合、若者の生活である。ミスタ・シャーノールのような老齢の下宿人は比較的まれなのだ。それは素朴な必要と素朴な趣味の生活である。下宿することは芸術と違い、過度の趣味の洗練を好まないのだ。豊かな生活ではない。豊かな生活ができるようになったとたん、人はたいてい自分の家を持つものだからである。それは働きながら明るい未来を夢見る生活、人生の闘いに備え、財産の基礎を作る段階、あるいは極貧という名の落とし穴を掘り進む段階なのだ。そのような境遇はよき友情を生み、育む。下宿したことのある者は、誠意のこもった、私心のない友情を振り返ることができる。誰もが天を前に対等で、打ち解け、人間が作り出した身分の差を知らない――誰もが声をそろえて楽しく合唱しながら人生の第一段階を旅し、本街道が分岐して、成功と失敗の分かれ道が古い仲間を遠く引き離してしまう地点にはまだ達していないのだ。ああ、なんという同志愛であり、連帯感だろう。それは家計の窮迫によって堅固にされ、強欲な、怠慢な、あるいは専制的な女主人に耐える必要によって強められ、与える者の懐は痛まないが受ける者にとっては大きな価値のある親切と思いやりによって甘美な味わいをつけられている！一階の住人が軽い病気にかかったとき（下宿で重い病気が発生することはほとんどない）、二階の住人が夕方下に降りてきて看病をしないだろうか。二階の住人は長い一日の仕事に疲れているかも知れないし、つましい食事をすましてみると、外がすてきな晩であったり、地元の劇場で優れた一座の公演があるというビラに気を引かれるかも知れない。それでも彼は惜しみなく時間をさいて一階の住人のところへ降りて行き、椅子に腰かけ、その日起こったことを話したり、もしかしたらオレンジやいわしの缶詰を持っていったりもするのである。一方、終日部屋に閉じこもっていることにうんざりし、他にすることがないからと嫌になるほど本を読んでいた一階の住人は、二階の住人を見てどれほど喜ぶことだろう。そして彼とのおしゃべりが医者の薬よりどれほど元気の回復に役立つだろう！
The lodging-house life, call it squalid, mean, dreary if you will, is not without its alleviations and counterpoises. It is a life of youth for the most part, for lodgers of Mr Sharnall's age are comparatively rare; it is a life of simple needs and simple tastes, for lodgings are not artistic, nor favourable to the development of any undue refinement; it is not a rich life, for men as a rule set up their own houses as soon as they are able to do so; it is a life of work and buoyant anticipation, where men are equipping for the struggle, and laying the foundations of fortune, or digging the pit of indigence. Such conditions beget and foster good fellowship, and those who have spent time in lodgings can look back to whole-hearted and disinterested friendships, when all were equal before high heaven, hail-fellows well met, who knew no artificial distinctions of rank--when all were travelling the first stage of life's journey in happy chorus together, and had not reached that point where the high road bifurcates, and the diverging branches of success and failure lead old comrades so very far apart. Ah, what a camaraderie and fellowship, knit close by the urgency of making both ends meet, strengthened by the necessity of withstanding rapacious, or negligent, or tyrannous landladies, sweetened by kindnesses and courtesies which cost the giver little, but mean much to the receiver! Did sickness of a transitory sort (for grievous illness is little known in lodgings) fall on the ground-floor tenant, then did not the first-floor come down to comfort him in the evenings? First-floor might be tired after a long day's work, and note when his frugal meal was done that 'twas a fine evening, or that a good company was billed for the local theatre; yet he would grudge not his leisure, but go down to sit with ground-floor, and tell him the news of the day, perhaps even would take him a few oranges or a tin of sardines. And ground-floor, who had chafed all the day at being shut in, and had read himself stupid for want of anything else to do, how glad he was to see first-floor, and how the chat did him more good than all the doctor's stuff!
そののち花の展示会の日に女性が二階の住人を訪ねてきたときは、一階の住人は外出して居間を同宿人にすっかり明け渡し、食事のあと客がくつろぎ気分転換できるよう気を配らないだろうか。女性の訪問というのは恐れに満ちた喜びである。若い男に日曜日を一緒に過ごしましょうと親切に言ってくれた女性が、その上さらに親切を発揮して、いつかは男が意を決して申しこむ招待を、ありとあらゆる感謝とともに受け入れるときだ。この恐れに満ちた喜びがもてなす側に気もそぞろな準備を強いることは、国葬が紋章院総裁に強いるそれを上回る。あらゆるものがあたうかぎり最高の装いをしなければならず、実にさまざまな細部に注意を払い、実にさまざまな不足を隠さなければならない。しかしそのすべては結果によって報われるのではないか。小さな部屋とはいえ、そこには多くのものを補ってあまりある繊細さがあり、マントルピースの上の写真や銀のトディ・スプーン、さらには緑のテーブルクロスの染みを無造作に隠す「ロゼッティ詩集」と「享楽主義者マリウス」に至るまで、すべてが洗練された趣味に息づいていると若い男には思われないだろうか。そこへ親切な女性が微笑を浮かべてやって来る。彼女は相手の些細な不安やこまごました準備のことはすっかりお見通しなのだが、しかし何も知らないふりをして、彼の部屋や、取るに足りない宝物、料理、怪しげなワインをすらをも褒めてやり、ちょっとした不都合を巧みに興味深い珍奇な出来事に変えてしまうのだ。持ち家のある人々よ、あなた方は立派な人々である。一人前の男であり、智慧は汝らとともに死ぬであろう（註 ヨブ記から）。しかし下宿に住む者をあまり哀れまないことだ。彼らの知らない重荷を担うあなたは、反対に哀れまれ、心を千々にかき乱されてしまうから。彼らはあなたにこう言うだろう。種を蒔くときは収穫の時に勝るのだ、そしてさすらいの年月は主人となって一家を営む年月に勝るのだと。哀れみすぎてはいけない。孤独が必ずしも孤独なものではないことを知りたまえ。
And later on, when some ladies came to lunch with first-floor on the day of the flower-show, did not ground-floor go out and place his sitting-room completely at his fellow-lodger's disposal, so that the company might find greater convenience and change of air after meat? They were fearful joys, these feminine visits, when ladies who were kind enough to ask a young man to spend a Sunday with them, still further added to their kindness, by accepting with all possible effusion the invitation which he one day ventured to give. It was a fearful joy, and cost the host more anxious preparation than a state funeral brings to Earl-marshal. As brave a face as might be must be put on everything; so many details were to be thought out, so many little insufficiencies were to be masked. But did not the result recompense all? Was not the young man conscious that, though his rooms might be small, there was about them a delicate touch which made up for much, that everything breathed of refinement from the photographs and silver toddy-spoon upon the mantelpiece to Rossetti's poems and "Marius the Epicurean," which covered negligently a stain on the green tablecloth? And these kindly ladies came in riant mood, well knowing all his little anxieties and preparations, yet showing they knew none of them; resolved to praise his rooms, his puny treasures, even his cookery and perilous wine, and skilful to turn little contretemps into interesting novelties. Householders, yours is a noble lot, ye are the men, and wisdom shall die with you. Yet pity not too profoundly him that inhabiteth lodgings, lest he turn and rend you, pitying you in turn that have bound on your shoulders heavy burdens of which he knows nothing; saying to you that seed time is more profitable than harvest, and the wandering years than the practice of the master. Refrain from too much pity, and believe that loneliness is not always lonely.
ウエストレイは社交的な性格で、同宿者がいなくなったことを寂しく思った。偏屈な小男で苦虫をかみつぶしたような顔をしていたが、それでもその性格の中に同情を引き出すなにがしかの力と、なにがしかの魅力を備えていたに違いない。とげとげしいことばと気むずかしさの下に隠れていたけれど、しかしそうしたものがそこにあったことは間違いない。というのはウエストレイは自分でもまさかと思うほど彼の死を痛切に受け止めたからである。この一年間、オルガン奏者と彼は一日に二三度顔を突き合わせた。二人は、共にその中で仕事をし、共にこよなく愛する大聖堂のことを語り合った。そして雲形紋章、ブランダマー家、ミス・ユーフィミアのことを噂した。彼らが取り上げなかった話題は一つだけ――ミス・アナスタシア・ジョウリフのことだ。もっとも頭の中では二人とも頻繁に彼女のことを考えていたのだけれど。
Westray was of a gregarious temperament, and missed his fellow-lodger. The cranky little man, with all his soured outlook, must still have had some power of evoking sympathy, some attractive element in his composition. He concealed it under sharp words and moody bitterness, but it must still have been there, for Westray felt his loss more than he had thought possible. The organist and he had met twice and thrice a day for a year past. They had discussed the minster that both loved so well, within whose walls both were occupied; they had discussed the nebuly coat, and the Blandamers, and Miss Euphemia. There was only one subject which they did not discuss--namely, Miss Anastasia Joliffe, though she was very often in the thoughts of both.
It was all over now, yet every day Westray found himself making a mental note to tell this to Mr Sharnall, to ask Mr Sharnall's advice on that, and then remembering that there is no knowledge in the grave. The gaunt Hand of God was ten times gaunter now that there was no lodger on the ground-floor. Footfalls sounded more hollow at night on the stone steps of the staircase, and Miss Joliffe and Anastasia went early to bed.
「上に行きましょう、あなた」ミス・ユーフィミアは十時十五分前の鐘が鳴るといつもそう言った。「夜が長くなると、とっても寂しい感じがするわね。窓にちゃんと掛け金がかかっているか確認するのよ」それから彼らは玄関ホールを急いで抜け、一緒に並んで階段を上がった。まるで一段たりとも二人の間に距離を置くまいとするかのように。ウエストレイでさえ夜遅くこの洞穴のような大きな家に帰ってくると同じ感覚に襲われた。彼は急いで暗い玄関ホールの棚の上に手を伸ばした。その大理石の天板には自分用のマッチ箱が置いてあるのだ。そして蝋燭を灯してから、ときどき本能的にミスタ・シャーノールの部屋のドアを見た。そうした折によくあったように、ドアから年老いた顔が突き出し、彼を迎えてくれるのではないかと半ば期待しながら。ミス・ジョウリフは新しい下宿人を探そうとはしなかった。「空き部屋あり」の看板が窓のところにかけられることはなかった。また、ミスタ・シャーノールが所有していた人的財産は彼が残したままに置かれてあった。ただし、一つだけ動かされたものがある――マーチン・ジョウリフの書類の束で、ウエストレイはこれを上の自分の部屋に運びこんでいたのだ。
"Let us go upstairs, my dear," Miss Euphemia would say when the chimes sounded a quarter to ten. "These long evenings are so lonely, are they not? and be sure you see that the windows are properly hasped." And then they hurried through the hall, and went up the staircase together side by side, as if they were afraid to be separated by a single step. Even Westray knew something of the same feeling when he returned late at night to the cavernous great house. He tried to put his hand as quickly as he might upon the matchbox, which lay ready for him on the marble-topped sideboard in the dark hall; and sometimes when he had lit the candle would instinctively glance at the door of Mr Sharnall's room, half expecting to see it open, and the old face look out that had so often greeted him on such occasions. Miss Joliffe had made no attempt to find a new lodger. No "Apartments to Let" was put in the window, and such chattels as Mr Sharnall possessed remained exactly as he left them. Only one thing was moved--the collection of Martin Joliffe's papers, and these Westray had taken upstairs to his own room.
When they opened the dead man's bureau with the keys found in his pocket to see whether he had left any will or instructions, there was discovered in one of the drawers a note addressed to Westray. It was dated a fortnight before his death, and was very short:
"_If I go away and am not heard of, or if anything happens to me, get hold of Martin Joliffe's papers at once. Take them up to your own room, lock them up, and don't let them out of your hands. Tell Miss Joliffe it is my wish, and she will hand them over to you. Be very careful there isn't a fire, or lest they should be destroyed in any other way. Read them carefully, and draw your own conclusions; you will find some notes of mine in the little red pocket-book_."
建築家はこのことばを繰り返し読んだ。それはミスタ・シャーノールが一度ならず話していた例の妄想の産物に違いなかった――すなわち、敵が彼のあとをつけてくるという、オルガン奏者の最後の日々を暗くしていたあの妄想である。しかし当然のことながら、事件のあとにこのような書き物に接すると不思議な感慨が湧いてくる。あの偶然はあまりにも奇怪、恐ろしいまでに奇怪だった。ハンマーを持った男がつけてくる――それがオルガン奏者の妄想だった。襲撃者が後ろから忍び寄り、こっそりと恐るべき一撃をあびせ彼を死に追いやる。そして現実に起きたことは――予期せぬ突然の死、勢いよく倒れたがための後頭部強打。これは単なる偶然だろうか。あるいは何か説明のつかない予感があったのだろうか。それともそれら以上の何かだったのか。恨みを抱く誰かに襲われる、というオルガン奏者の思いには、実は根拠があったのではないだろうか。本当はあの晩、寂しい聖堂の中で忌まわしい光景が繰り広げられたのではないだろうか。オルガン奏者は不意打ちを食らったか、静けさの中に何かが動く物音を聞きつけ、振り返り、殺人者と二人きりであることに気づいたのではないか。もしもそれが殺人者であったなら、犠牲者が覗きこんだ顔は誰のものだったのか。ウエストレイは考えながら身震いした。それは人間の顔ではなく、何か戦慄を催させる存在、暗きを歩む邪悪なものが目に見える形に具現化したもののように思われた。
The architect had read these words many times. They were no doubt the outcome of the delusions of which Mr Sharnall had more than once spoken--of that dread of some enemy pursuing him, which had darkened the organist's latter days. Yet to read these things set out in black and white, after what had happened, might well give rise to curious thoughts. The coincidence was so strange, so terribly strange. A man following with a hammer--that had been the organist's hallucination; the vision of an assailant creeping up behind, and doing him to death with an awful, stealthy blow. And the reality--an end sudden and unexpected, a blow on the back of the head, which had been caused by a heavy fall. Was it mere coincidence, was it some inexplicable presentiment, or was it more than either? Had there, in fact, existed a reason why the organist should think that someone had a grudge against him, that he was likely to be attacked? Had some dreadful scene been really enacted in the loneliness of the great church that night? Had the organist been taken unawares, or heard some movement in the silence, and, turning round, found himself alone with his murderer? And if a murderer, whose was the face into which the victim looked? And as Westray thought he shuddered; it seemed it might have been no human face at all, but some fearful presence, some visible presentment of the evil that walketh in darkness.
Then the architect would brush such follies away like cobwebs, and, turning back, consider who could have found his interest in such a deed. Against whom did the dead man urge him to be on guard lest Martin's papers should be spirited away? Was there some other claimant of that ill-omened peerage of whom he knew nothing, or was it--And Westray resolutely quenched the thought that had risen a hundred times before his mind, and cast it aside as a malign and baseless suspicion.
If there was any clue it must lie in those same papers, and he followed the instruction given him, and took them to his own room. He did not show Miss Joliffe the note; to do so could only have shaken her further, and she had felt the shock too severely already. He only told her of Mr Sharnall's wishes for the temporary disposal of her brother's papers. She begged him not to take them.
「ミスタ・ウエストレイ」と彼女は言った。「あんなもの放っておいてください。関わり合いになるのは止めましょう。わたし、ミスタ・シャーノールにも手を付けて欲しくなかったんです、あんなものには。おかげでこんなことになってしまって。もしかしたら天罰なのかも知れませんわ」――彼女は声を潜めて「天罰」と言った。中世の人間のように天は報復的で怒りっぽいと信じこみ、インクスタンドをひっくり返すことから下宿人の死まで、何か不運があれば、そこにその徴《しるし》を読み取ったのだ。「天罰なのかも知れませんわ。首を突っこまなければ今でも生きていらっしゃったんじゃないかしら。マーチンの望んでいたことがすべて本当だと判ったとしても、それがわたしたちにとって何の役に立つでしょう。兄ったら、いつも自分はいつか『御前様』と呼ばれるようになると言っていました。兄が亡くなった今、アナスタシアしか残っていません。でも彼女はきっと『お嬢様』なんて呼ばれたくないと思います。ねえ、あなた、そんな権利があったとしても『お嬢様』なんて嫌よねえ」
"Dear Mr Westray," she said, "do not touch them, do not let us have anything to do with them. I wanted poor dear Mr Sharnall not to go meddling with them, and now see what has happened. Perhaps it is a judgment"--and she uttered the word under her breath, having a medieval faith in the vengeful irritability of Providence, and seeing manifestations of it in any untoward event, from the overturning of an inkstand to the death of a lodger. "Perhaps it is a judgment, and he might have been alive now if he had refrained. What good would it do us if all dear Martin hoped should turn out true? He always said, poor fellow, that he would be `my lord' some day; but now he is gone there is no one except Anastasia, and she would never wish to be `my lady,' I am sure, poor girl. You would not, darling, wish to be `my lady' even if you could, would you?"
アナスタシアは本から顔を上げて、止めてよというように笑みを見せたが、建築家が彼女にじっと視線をむけており、彼女の笑みに呼応するように笑みを浮かべるのを見たとき、それはいらだちの中に消えた。かすかに赤面し、若い男のまなざしが示す、彼女の一挙一動に対する関心が訳もなく腹立たしく思われ、急にまた本へと視線を戻した。わたしの問題なのに、何の権利があって心配そうな顔をしたりするのかしら。自分が本物の貴族だったら、昔レディ・クララがしたように、その高貴な生まれで彼を殺してやりたいくらい（註 テニソンの詩から）。彼女の面前でウエストレイがこのような関心のある目つき、関心を引こうとする目つきをすることに気づいたのは、つい最近のことだった。まさかわたしに恋している？そう思った瞬間、彼女の目に別の人の姿が浮かんだ。威圧的で、厳しく、不吉な感じさえするが、しかし圧倒的な強さを持ち、目の前で彼女のことばに耳を傾けている若者の、気の抜けたお愛想など色あせさせ、かき消してしまうような男の姿が。
Anastasia looked up from her book with a deprecating smile, which lost itself in an air of vexation, when she found that the architect's eyes were fixed steadfastly upon her, and that a responsive smile spread over his face. She flushed very slightly, and turned back abruptly to her book, feeling quite unjustifiably annoyed at the interest in her doings which the young man's gaze was meant to imply. What right had he to express concern, even with a look, in matters which affected _her_? She almost wished she _was_ indeed a peeress, and could slay him with her noble birth, as did one Lady Clara of old times. It was only lately that she had become conscious of this interested, would-be interesting, look, which Westray assumed in her presence. Was it possible that _he_ was falling in love with her? And at the thought there rose before her fancy the features of someone else, haughty, hard, perhaps malign, but oh, so powerful, and quite eclipsed and blotted out the lifeless amiability of this young man who hung upon her lips.
ミスタ・ウエストレイがわたしに気があるだなんて。そんなこと、あり得ないわ。とはいうものの、目で彼女を追ったり、彼女に話しかけるときの、蜜のしたたり落ちそうな態度は、この可能性を強く主張した。彼女は最近何度かやったように、急いで二人の関係を点検した。わたしが悪いのかしら。好意と勘違いされるようなこと、あるいは感謝と取られかねないようなことすらしたことがあるだろうか。当たり前の親切や優しさがすっかり意味をねじ曲げられるなんてことがあるのだろうか。彼女はこの心の取り調べにおいて堂々と無罪を勝ち取り、その人品に一点の汚点もつけられることなく法廷をあとにした。気を持たせるような振る舞いはどんなに些細なものも何一つしていない。失礼なのは覚悟の上で、ああいう色目にははじめからきっぱりした態度を取らなければならない。不作法とまでは言わないが、彼女の行為にむける熱心な関心や、同情的な目つきが、不愉快この上ないことを教えてやらなければならない。もう二度と彼のほうなんか見るものか。彼の前ではいつもじっと目を伏せていよう。この賢明な決意を固めたとき、彼女は何気なく目を上げ、辛抱強い彼の視線がまたもや彼女にじっと注がれていることを知った。
Could Mr Westray be thinking of falling in love with her? It was impossible, and yet this following her with his eyes, and the mellific manner which he adopted when speaking to her, insisted on its possibility. She ran over hastily in her mind, as she had done several times of late, the course of their relations. Was she to blame? Could anything that she had ever done be wrested into predilection or even into appreciation? Could natural kindness or courtesy have been so utterly misunderstood? She was victoriously acquitted by this commission of mental inquiry, and left the court without a stain upon her character. She certainly had never given him the very least encouragement. At the risk of rudeness she _must_ check these attentions in their beginning. Short of actual discourtesy, she must show him that this warm interest in her doings, these sympathetic glances, were exceedingly distasteful. She never would look near him again, she would keep her eyes rigorously cast down whenever he was present, and as she made this prudent resolution she quite unintentionally looked up, and found his patient gaze again fixed upon her.
"Oh, you are too severe, Miss Joliffe," the architect said; "we should all be delighted to see a title come to Miss Anastasia, and," he added softly, "I am sure no one would become it better."
He longed to drop the formal prefix of Miss, and to speak of her simply as Anastasia. A few months before he would have done so naturally and without reflection, but there was something in the girl's manner which led him more recently to forego this pleasure.
Then the potential peeress got up and left the room.
"I am just going to look after the bread," she said; "I think it ought to be baked by this time."
Miss Joliffe's scruples were at last overborne, and Westray retained the papers, partly because it was represented to her that if he did not examine them it would be a flagrant neglect of the wishes of a dead man--wishes that are held sacred above all others in the circles to which Miss Joliffe belonged--and partly because possession is nine points of the law, and the architect already had them safe under lock and key in his own room. But he was not able to devote any immediate attention to them, for a crisis in his life was approaching, which tended for the present to engross his thoughts.
彼はしばらく前からアナスタシア・ジョウリフに心を寄せていた。はじめてこの感情に気づいたときは、懸命になってそれを圧し殺そうとし、最初の内はその努力がある程度の成功を収めていた。ジョウリフ家と縁つづきになるなど自分の威厳をおとしめるものだと心の底から考えていたのである。両者の社会的地位の差は、敵対的な批判を引き起こさないまでも、十分に耳目を集めるだろうと思った。建築家は下宿の女主人の姪を嫁に選ぶという、不可解なまでに身分違いの結婚をしたと必ず噂されるだろう。それは紛れもなく社会的自殺行為だ。亡くなった父はメソジスト派の牧師で、まだ存命の母はこの気高い聖務に深い尊敬を抱き、子供の頃からウエストレイの心にその生まれの特権と責任を刻みこんできたのだ。このような反対理由の他にも、年若くして結婚すると必要以上に家庭の労苦に煩わされ、出世の妨げになるという問題もあった。これらはバランスの取れた心には熟慮すべき重要な問題である。幸いなことにウエストレイはひたすら意志の強さと理性の力であらゆる危険な心情をほどなく完全に消し去ることができた。
He had entertained for some time an attachment to Anastasia Joliffe. When he originally became aware of this feeling he battled vigorously against it, and his efforts were at first attended with some success. He was profoundly conscious that any connection with the Joliffes would be derogatory to his dignity; he feared that the discrepancy between their relative positions was sufficiently marked to attract attention, if not to provoke hostile criticism. People would certainly say that an architect was marrying strangely below him, in choosing a landlady's niece. If he were to do such a thing, he would no doubt be throwing himself away socially. His father, who was dead, had been a Wesleyan pastor; and his mother, who survived, entertained so great a respect for the high position of that ministry that she had impressed upon Westray from boyhood the privileges and responsibilities of his birth. But apart from this objection, there was the further drawback that an early marriage might unduly burden him with domestic cares, and so arrest his professional progress. Such considerations had due weight with an equally-balanced mind, and Westray was soon able to congratulate himself on having effectually extinguished any dangerous inclinations by sheer strength of reason.
この幸せな、冷静な状況は長くはつづかなかった。恋心はただくすぶっていただけで、消えてはいなかったのだ。しかし風を送り、新たな炎を吹き上げさせたのは、アナスタシアの美しさと長所に絶えず思いを致していたからというより、まったく外的な影響力のせいだった。この外的な要素とはベルヴュー・ロッジの狭い人間関係の中にブランダマー卿が闖入してきたことである。ウエストレイはこの頃、ブランダマー卿の訪問の真意に疑いを抱くようになり、聖堂や修復やウエストレイ自身を表むきの理由に使ってベルヴュー・ロッジに一時的に入りこみ、何か他の計画を遂行しようとしているのではないかと、密かに考えていた。建築家と気前のいい資金提供者が今も交わす長い会話や、図面の検討や、細部の議論は、どことなく昔のような楽しさがなかった。ウエストレイは必死になって自分の疑惑にいわれのないことを納得しようとした。ブランダマー卿が修復費用として大金を寄付し、あるいは寄付を約束したという事実は、単に聖堂が彼にとっての一番の関心事であるということを示すにすぎないと、繰り返し自分にむかって指摘し、主張してきた。いくら裕福だといっても、ベルヴュー・ロッジに入りこむために何千ポンドも使うということは考えられない。さらにブランダマー卿がアナスタシアと結婚するということも考えられない――そんな取り合わせの身分差は自分の場合よりもさらに大きいとウエストレイは考えた。それでもブランダマー卿はしばしばアナスタシアのことを考えていると、彼は信じていた。なるほどウエストレイがいるとき、フォーディングの館の主ははっきりと気のある素振りを見せたことがない。たまたま彼女が座に加わったときも、特にアナスタシアに注目したり、彼女にばかり話しかけたりはしなかった。ときには彼女から顔を背け、わざと存在を無視するようなふうさえあった。
This happy and philosophic state of things was not of long duration. His admiration smouldered only, and was not quenched, but it was a totally extraneous influence, rather than the constant contemplation of Anastasia's beauty and excellencies, which fanned the flame into renewed activity. This extraneous factor was the entrance of Lord Blandamer into the little circle of Bellevue Lodge. Westray had lately become doubtful as to the real object of Lord Blandamer's visits, and nursed a latent idea that he was using the church, and the restoration, and Westray himself, to gain a _pied-a-terre_ at Bellevue Lodge for the prosecution of other plans. The long conversations in which the architect and the munificent donor still indulged, the examination of plans, the discussion of details, had lost something of their old savour. Westray had done his best to convince himself that his own suspicions were groundless; he had continually pointed out to himself, and insisted to himself, that the mere fact of Lord Blandamer contributing such sums to the restoration as he either had contributed, or had promised to contribute, showed that the church was indeed his primary concern. It was impossible to conceive that any man, however wealthy, should spend many thousand pounds to obtain an entree to Bellevue Lodge; moreover, it was impossible to conceive that Lord Blandamer should ever marry Anastasia--the disparity in such a match would, Westray admitted, be still greater than in his own. Yet he was convinced that Anastasia was often in Lord Blandamer's thoughts. It was true that the Master of Fording gave no definite outward sign of any predilection when Westray was present. He never singled Anastasia out either for regard or conversation on such occasions as chance brought her into his company. At times he even made a show of turning away from her, of studiously neglecting her presence.
But Westray felt that the fact was there.
There is some subtle effluence of love which hovers about one who entertains a strong affection for another. Looks may be carefully guarded, speech may be framed to mislead, yet that pervading ambient of affection is strong to betray where perception is sharpened by jealousy.
Now and then the architect would persuade himself that he was mistaken; he would reproach himself with his own suspicious disposition, with his own lack of generosity. But then some little episode would occur, some wholly undemonstrable trifle, which swept his cooler judgment to the winds, and gave him a quite incommensurate heartburn. He would recall, for instance, the fact that for their interviews Lord Blandamer had commonly selected a Saturday afternoon. Lord Blandamer had explained this by saying that he was busy through the week; but then a lord was not like a schoolboy with a Saturday half-holiday. What business could he have to occupy him all the week, and leave him free on Saturdays? It was strange enough, and stranger from the fact that Miss Euphemia Joliffe was invariably occupied on that particular afternoon at the Dorcas meeting; stranger from the fact that there had been some unaccountable misunderstandings between Lord Blandamer and Westray as to the exact hour fixed for their interviews, and that more than once when the architect had returned at five, he had found that Lord Blandamer had taken four as the time of their meeting, and had been already waiting an hour at Bellevue Lodge.
ときどき建築家は自分が誤っていると思いこもうとした。疑い深い自分の性格を、心の狭さを咎めようとした。ところがそう思ったとたんに小さな出来事、まったく不可解な小事件が起き、冷静な判断を粉々にし、言うに言われぬ嫉妬にかられるのだった。たとえば彼はブランダマー卿が会見の時間にいつも土曜日を選ぶことを思い出す。ブランダマー卿の説明だと、平日は忙しいからということだが、しかし卿は土曜日が半ドンの小学生ではないのだ。いったいどんな仕事をしていたら平日はずっと忙しく、土曜日は時間が空くのだろう。それだけでも十分不思議だが、ミス・ユーフィミア・ジョウリフがその日の午後、決まってドルカス会に出ているという事実、さらにブランダマー卿とウエストレイのあいだに、会見の約束の時間に関して説明のつかない誤解があったという事実、つまり建築家が五時に帰宅すると一度ならずブランダマー卿が会う時間を四時と思いこんで、既に一時間もベルヴュー・ロッジで彼を待っていたという事実を考え合わせると、不思議さの度合いはいちだんと深まるのである。
Poor Mr Sharnall also must have noticed that something was going on, for he had hinted as much to Westray a fortnight or so before he died. Westray was uncertain as to Lord Blandamer's feelings; he gave the architect the idea of a man who had some definite object to pursue in making himself interesting to Anastasia, while his own affections were not compromised. That object could certainly not be marriage, and if it was not marriage, what was it? In ordinary cases an answer might have been easy, yet Westray hesitated to give it. It was hard to think that this grave man, of great wealth and great position, who had roamed the world, and known men and manners, should stoop to common lures. Yet Westray came to think it, and his own feelings towards Anastasia were elevated by the resolve to be her knightly champion against all base attempts.
気の毒なミスタ・シャーノールも死ぬ二週間ほど前、そんなことをウエストレイにほのめかしていたから、やはり何かが起きていると勘づいていたに違いない。ウエストレイはブランダマー卿の気持ちがよく分からなかった。明白な目的を持ってアナスタシアの興味を惹こうとしているようだが、それでいて愛情を外にあらわさない。きっと結婚が目的ではないのだろう。しかし結婚でないなら何なのだ？普通の場合、答は簡単である。しかしウエストレイはそう考えることをためらった。莫大な富と高い地位を持つこの厳格な男、世界を放浪し、さまざまな人間と風俗を知るこの男が野卑な誘惑に屈するとは考えがたかった。だがウエストレイは次第にその考え方に傾き、アナスタシアを思う気持ちは、あらゆる下劣な目論見から彼女を騎士のように守ろうとする気高い決意に高められた。
Can man's deepest love be deepened? Then it must surely be by the knowledge that he is protector as well as lover, by the knowledge that he is rescuing innocence, and rescuing it for--himself. Thoughts such as these bring exaltation to the humblest-minded, and they quickened the slow-flowing and thin fluid that filled the architect's veins.
He came back one evening from the church weary with a long day's work, and was sitting by the fire immersed in a medley of sleepy and half-conscious consideration, now of the crack in the centre tower, now of the tragedy of the organ-loft, now of Anastasia, when the elder Miss Joliffe entered.
彼はある晩、長い一日の仕事に疲れて聖堂から帰り、暖炉のそばでうとうとしながら中央塔の亀裂のことや、オルガンのある張り出しで起きた悲劇、そしてアナスタシアのことを次々と考えるともなく考えていた。すると年上のほうのミス・ジョウリフが部屋に入ってきた。 ~~~ 「あらまあ、旦那様」と彼女は言った。「お帰りだったとは知りませんでした！火が燃えているか見に来ただけなんですよ。お茶になさいますか。今晩は特に何か用意しましょうか。とてもお疲れのようなんですもの。きっと根を詰めすぎているんですよ。梯子や足場の上を動き回るのは大変なんでしょうね。わたしみたいな者が意見するのもなんですが、旦那様、休暇をお取りになるべきですわ。ここに下宿するようになってから一日も休んだことがないじゃありませんか」
"Dear me, sir," she said, "I did not know you were in! I only came to see your fire was burning. Are you ready for your tea? Would you like anything special to-night? You do look so very tired. I am sure you are working too hard; all the running about on ladders and scaffolds must be very trying. I think indeed, sir, if I may make so bold, that you should take a holiday; you have not had a holiday since you came to live with us."
"It is not impossible, Miss Joliffe, that I may take your advice before very long. It is not impossible that I may before long go for a holiday."
その答には異様な重々しさがあった。自分には極めて重要と考えられる問題について密かに思いを巡らしているとき、他人からどうでもいいような質問をされると、人はよく答えに異様な重々しさをこめることがある。わたしが死と愛について考察していることなど、この平凡な女に分るはずがない。優しく接し、邪魔したことを許してやらなければ。そうだ、運命は確かにわたしに休暇を取らせるかも知れない。彼はほとんどアナスタシアにプロポーズする腹を決めていた。即座に受け入れられることは疑いの余地がないが、しかしその場しのぎがあってはならないし、優柔不断は我慢できないし、愛情をもてあそぶ真似はお断りだった。完全に、無条件に、即刻受け入れるか、さもなければ結婚の申しこみを撤回するか、いずれかだ。後者の場合、そして拒絶というまったくあり得ない事態が起きた場合は、直ちにベルヴュー・ロッジを出る。
He spoke with that preternatural gravity which people are accustomed to throw into their reply, if asked a trivial question when their own thoughts are secretly occupied with some matter that they consider of deep importance. How could this commonplace woman guess that he was thinking of death and love? He must be gentle with her and forgive her interruption. Yes, fate might, indeed, drive him to take a holiday. He had nearly made up his mind to propose to Anastasia. It was scarcely to be doubted that she would at once accept him, but there must be no half-measures, he would brook no shilly-shallying, he would not be played fast and loose with. She must either accept him fully and freely, and at once, or he would withdraw his offer, and in that case, or still more in the entirely improbable case of refusal, he would leave Bellevue Lodge forthwith.
"Yes, indeed, I may ere long have to go away for a holiday."
己を抑えた返事の仕方が彼の口調に静かな威厳を与えた。ミス・ジョウリフはそのことばとともにふと漏れたため息を聞き逃さなかった。彼女にはこの話し方が謎めいて不吉に聞こえた。ひどく漠然とした言い回しには不気味な秘密めいたところがあった。休暇を取ら「なければならない」かも知れない。どういう意味なのだろう。この若者は友人のミスタ・シャーノールを失いすっかり気落ちしてしまったのだろうか。それとも人知れず恐るべき疾患の種を抱えているのか。休暇を取ら「なければならない」かも知れない。この人が言うのはただの休暇じゃないわ――もっと深刻なことを意味している。思い詰めた悲しそうな様子は、かなり長い不在を意味するとしか思えない。もしかしたらカランを離れるつもりなのだろうか。
The conscious forbearance of replying at all gave a quiet dignity to his tone, and an involuntary sigh that accompanied his words was not lost upon Miss Joliffe. To her this speech seemed oracular and ominous; there was a sepulchral mystery in so vague an expression. He might _have_ to take a holiday. What could this mean? Was this poor young man completely broken by the loss of his friend Mr Sharnall, or was he conscious of the seeds of some fell disease that others knew nothing of? He might _have to_ take a holiday. Ah, it was not a mere holiday of which he spoke--he meant something more serious than that; his grave, sad manner could only mean some long absence. Perhaps he was going to leave Cullerne.
彼がいなくなることは、ミス・ジョウリフにとって物質的な観点から大問題だった。彼は最後の頼みの綱、ベルヴュー・ロッジが破産へと漂い出すのを食い止める最後の錨だった。ミスタ・シャーノールが亡くなり、彼とともにこの家の維持費として彼が払っていたなけなしの金もなくなった。それにカランでは下宿人はごくまれにしか見つからない。ミス・ジョウリフはこうしたことを思い出してもよかったのだが、そうはしなかった。彼女の心をよぎった唯一の思いは、もしもミスタ・ウエストレイが出て行ったら、彼女はまた一人友人を失う、ということだった。物質的な観点からこの問題をとらえようとはせず、彼女は彼を友達とのみ考えていたのだ。金を生む機械ではなく、あらゆる宝物の中で最も貴重なもの――最後の友人とのみ見なしていたのだ。
To lose him would be a very serious matter to Miss Joliffe from the material point of view; he was her sheet-anchor, the last anchor that kept Bellevue Lodge from drifting into bankruptcy. Mr Sharnall was dead, and with him had died the tiny pittance which he contributed to the upkeep of the place, and lodgers were few and far between in Cullerne. Miss Joliffe might well have remembered these things, but she did not. The only thought that crossed her mind was that if Mr Westray went away she would lose yet another friend. She did not approach the matter from the material point of view, she looked on him only as a friend; she viewed him as no money-making machine, but only as that most precious of all treasures--a last friend.
"I may have to leave you for awhile," he said again, with the same portentous solemnity.
"I hope not, sir," she interrupted, as though by her very eagerness she might avert threatened evil--"I hope not; we should miss you terribly, Mr Westray, with dear Mr Sharnall gone too. I do not know what we should do having no man in the house. It is so very lonely if you are away even for a night. I am an old woman now, and it does not matter much for me, but Anastasia is so nervous at night since the dreadful accident."
ウエストレイの顔はアナスタシアの名前を聞いて明るくなった。そう、彼の愛情はよほど深いに違いない、彼女の名前が出ただけでこんなふうに悦ぶのだから。そうか、彼女は僕を頼っているのか。僕のことを守護者と思っているのだ。太くもない二の腕の筋肉が外套の袖の下ではち切れんばかりに盛り上がった。この二本の腕が愛する人をあらゆる悪から守るのだ。ペルセウス、サー・ギャラハド、コフェチュア王の姿が目の前をよぎった。彼はもう少しでミス・ユーフィミアに大声でこう言いそうになった。「ご心配には及びません。わたしはあなたの姪御さんを愛しています。わたしは身を屈め、彼女をわたしの王座につけてさしあげます。彼女に触れようとする者は、まずわたしを倒さなければならないでしょう」と。しかし躊躇する良識が彼の袖を引っ張った。この重大な一歩を踏み出す前に母親と相談しなければならない。
Westray's face brightened a little at the mention of Anastasia's name. Yes, his must certainly be a very deep affection, that the naming of her very name should bring him such pleasure. It was on _his_ protection, then, that she leant; she looked on _him_ as her defender. The muscles of his not gigantic arms seemed to swell and leap to bursting in his coat-sleeves. Those arms should screen his loved one from all evil. Visions of Perseus, and Sir Galahad, and Cophetua, swept before his eyes; he had almost cried to Miss Euphemia, "You need have no fear, I love your niece. I shall bow down and raise her to my throne. They that would touch her shall only do so over my dead body," when hesitating common-sense plucked him by the sleeve; he must consult his mother before taking this grave step.
It was well that reason thus restrained him, for such a declaration might have brought Miss Joliffe to a swoon. As it was, she noticed the cloud lifting on his face, and was pleased to think that her conversation cheered him. A little company was no doubt good for him, and she sought in her mind for some further topic of interest. Yes, of course, she had it.
「今日の午後、ブランダマー卿がいらっしゃったんですよ。他の人と同じように何気なくお出でになって、とても親切丁寧にわたしに面会をお求めになりましたの。ミスタ・シャーノールが亡くなって、わたしたち二人がひどいショックを受けているんじゃないかとご心配になったんです。ええ、そりゃ、大変な精神的打撃でしたわ。あの方はとっても思いやりがあって、一時間近く――時計を見たら四十七分だったんですけど――いらっしゃって、家族の一員みたいに台所で一緒にお茶をお飲みになったんです。こんなふうに親しくしていただけるなんて、思ってもいませんでしたわ。お帰りになるときは、ご丁寧にあなたに伝言を残していったんですよ、旦那様。家にいらっしゃらなかったのは残念ですが、また近いうちにお寄りしたいと思います、ですって」
"Lord Blandamer was here this afternoon. He came just like anyone else might have come, in such a very kind and condescending way to ask after me. He feared that dear Mr Sharnall's death might have been too severe a shock for us both, and, indeed, it has been a terrible blow. He was so considerate, and sat for nearly an hour--for forty-seven minutes I should say by the clock, and took tea with us in the kitchen as if he were one of the family. I never could have expected such condescension, and when he went away he left a most polite message for you, sir, to say that he was sorry that you were not in, but he hoped to call again before long."
The cloud had returned to Westray's face. If he had been the hero of a novel his brow would have been black as night; as it was he only looked rather sulky.
"I shall have to go to London to-night," he said stiffly, without acknowledging Miss Joliffe's remarks; "I shall not be back to-morrow, and may be away a few days. I will write to let you know when I shall be back."
Miss Joliffe started as if she had received an electric shock.
「ロンドンに、今晩」と彼女は言った――「これからですか」
"To London to-night," she began--"this very night?"
"Yes," Westray said, with a dryness that would have suggested of itself that the interview was to be terminated, even if he had not added: "I shall be glad to be left alone now; I have several letters to write before I can get away."
So Miss Euphemia went to impart this strange matter to the maiden who was _ex hypothesi_ leaning on the architect's strong arm.
"What _do_ you think, Anastasia?" she said. "Mr Westray is going to London to-night, perhaps for some days."
"Is he?" was all her niece's comment; but there was a languor and indifference in the voice, that might have sent the thermometer of the architect's affection from boiling-point to below blood-heat, if he could have heard her speak.
ウエストレイは女主人が出て行ったあと、しばらくむっつりと椅子に座っていた。生まれてはじめて煙草が吸いたいと思った。パイプを口にくわえ、シャーノールが不機嫌なときにやっていたように、煙を吸いこんだり吐き出したりできたらいいのにと思った。落ち着きなく心があれこれ考えているあいだ、身体も落ち着きなく何かをしていたかった。けむる想念に炎を上げさせたのは、まさにその日の午後もあったという、ブランダマー卿の来訪だった。ウエストレイの知るかぎり、おもてだった用むきもないのにベルヴュー・ロッジにやって来たのはこれがはじめてだった。ありとあらゆる困難にもかかわらず、信じたいと思うことを信じようとする痛々しい努力。折り合いのつかないものに折り合いをつけ、そうすることでなんとか幽霊を追い払い、受け入れがたい疑惑を鎮めることができはしまいかという盲目的で、よろめきかけた、頼りない希望。そうした努力をし、希望を持って、建築家はブランダマー卿がしげしげとベルヴュー・ロッジを訪れる理由を、修復工事の進捗状況を把握し、彼が惜しみなく供出している資金の用途を確認するためだと、これまでずっと信じこもうとしてきた。ウエストレイとしては、ブランダマー卿の動機にうしろめたいところは少しもないと思いたかった。才能豊かな若き専門家との交際、そのことに当然ながら魅力を感じているに違いないと思っていたのだ。聡明な建築家と建築について語り合ったり、四方山話をすることは（ウエストレイは一つの話題ばかり不要にくどくど話すことを避けた）田舎で単調な独身生活を送っているブランダマー卿にはいいうさ晴らしになるに違いない。そう考えていたウエストレイにとって、卿のベルヴュー・ロッジ訪問は仕事の次に重要な、いや、ときには仕事以上に重要なことだった。
Westray sat moodily for a few moments after his landlady had gone. For the first time in his life he wished he was a smoker. He wished he had a pipe in his mouth, and could pull in and puff out smoke as he had seen Sharnall do when _he_ was moody. He wanted some work for his restless body while his restless mind was turning things over. It was the news of Lord Blandamer's visit, as on this very afternoon, that fanned smouldering thoughts into flame. This was the first time, so far as Westray knew, that Lord Blandamer had come to Bellevue Lodge without at least a formal excuse of business. With that painful effort which we use to convince ourselves of things of which we wish to be convinced in the face of all difficulties; with that blind, stumbling hope against hope with which we try to reconcile things irreconcilable, if only by so doing we can conjure away a haunting spectre, or lull to sleep a bitter suspicion; the architect had hitherto resolved to believe that if Lord Blandamer came with some frequency to Bellevue Lodge, he was only prompted to do so by a desire to keep in touch with the restoration, to follow with intelligence the expenditure of money which he was so lavishly providing. It had been the easier for Westray to persuade himself that Lord Blandamer's motives were legitimate, because he felt that the other must find a natural attraction in the society of a talented young professional man. An occasional conversation with a clever architect on things architectural, or on other affairs of common interest (for Westray was careful to avoid harping unduly on any single topic) must undoubtedly prove a relief to Lord Blandamer from the monotony of bachelor life in the country; and in such considerations Westray found a subsidiary, and sometimes he was inclined to imagine primary, interest for these visits to Bellevue Lodge.
If various circumstances had conspired of late to impugn the sufficiency of these motives, Westray had not admitted as much in his own mind; if he had been disquieted, he had constantly assured himself that disquietude was unreasonable. But now disillusion had befallen him. Lord Blandamer had visited Bellevue Lodge as it were in his own right; he had definitely abandoned the pretence of coming to see Westray; he had been drinking tea with Miss Joliffe; he had spent an hour in the kitchen with Miss Joliffe and--Anastasia. It could only mean one thing, and Westray's resolution was taken.
せいぜい控えめな望ましさしか持たなかったものが、競争者があらわれたことにより、とびきり価値のあるものに変わった。嫉妬が愛を活性化し、義務と良心が仕掛けられた罠から彼女を救えと言い張った。大いなる犠牲が払われなければならない。彼、ウエストレイは自分より身分の低い娘を娶らなければならないのだ。しかしその前に事情を母親に打ち明けておこうと思った。もっともペルセウスがアンドロメダの鎖を断ち切る前にそんな相談を持ちかけたという記録はないのだけれども。 ~~~ それまで一刻の猶予もならない。今晩さっそく発つことにしよう。ロンドン行きの最終列車はもう出たけれど、カラン街道駅まで歩けば、夜行の郵便列車に間に合うはずだ。歩くのは好きだし荷物はいらない。母親の家に使えるものがあったのだ。決断を下したのは七時、その一時間後に彼はカランの町の最後の家を後にして夜の徒歩旅行に乗り出していた。
An object which had seemed at best but mildly desirable, became of singular value when he believed that another was trying to possess himself of it; jealousy had quickened love, duty and conscience insisted that he should save the girl from the snare that was being set for her. The great renunciation must be made; he, Westray, must marry beneath him, but before doing so he would take his mother into his confidence, though there is no record of Perseus doing as much before he cut loose Andromeda.
カラウナ（カリスベリ）からその港クルルヌム（カラン）に至る街道はローマ人によって敷かれた。それは今日でも近代的道路に沿って、この二つの場所をへだてる十六マイルあまりの距離をほぼ直線状に延びている。その中間あたりでグレートサザン鉄道の幹線が街道と直角に交わり、ここにカラン街道駅があった。最初の半分の道のりはマロリー・ヒースと呼ばれる平坦な砂地を通る。わずかに広がる緑の芝生が街道際に迫っているが、その他は西を見ても東を見ても北を見ても果てしなく荒れ地がつづき、ところどころにハリエニシダやシダ、あるいは風に吹かれてやせ細った松や赤松が枝を絡ませ小さな木立を作っているだけだった。暗黄色の砂地の道は夜になるとたどりにくく、道端には旅人の目印となるように間隔を置いて標柱が立てられていた。標柱は星のない夜空を背景にしたときは白く浮き出し、たまに荒れ地を銀の毛布で覆う雪を背景にしたときは黒く見えた。
Meanwhile, no time must be lost; he would start this very night. The last train for London had already left, but he would walk to Cullerne Road Station and catch the night-mail from thence. He liked walking, and need take no luggage, for there were things that he could use at his mother's house. It was seven o'clock when he came to this resolve, and an hour later he had left the last house in Cullerne behind him, and entered upon his night excursion.
晴れた夜なら旅人は古い港町から一マイルも離れた頃、遠くにカラン街道駅の灯火を見ることができる。それは彼方の闇に浮かぶ細い一筋の光のようで、はじめは連続した線に見えるが、まっすぐな道をさらに進んでしばらくすると一つ一つのランプが別々に見えてくる。多くの疲れた旅人が遠くのほうで少しも変化しないこのランプを見て、その動きのなさにいらいらした。苔むした表に昔の数字でハイド・パーク・コーナーまでの距離を刻んだ里程標を幾つも通り過ぎたのに、ランプは少しも近づいてこないように見えるのだ。ただ次第に大きくなる列車の音だけが目標に近づいていることを教えてくれる。急行の突進する音が鈍い地響きからだんだんと耳を聾する騒音に変わっていくのである。すがすがしい冬の日は、列車は真白い綿をたなびかせ、夜中に竈の口を開けて雲に煌々たる輝きを放つときは火焔の蛇を従えた。しかし真夏のけだるい暑さの中では太陽が蒸気を干上がらせ、列車はひたすら疾走した。いったい何がそれを動かしているのか、示すものがないだけにいっそうすばらしい勢いがあった。
The line of the Roman way which connected Carauna (Carisbury) with its port Culurnum (Cullerne) is still followed by the modern road, and runs as nearly straight as may be for the sixteen miles which separate those places. About half-way between them the Great Southern main line crosses the highway at right angles, and here is Cullerne Road Station. The first half of the way runs across a flat sandy tract called Mallory Heath, where the short greensward encroaches on the road, and where the eye roaming east or west or north can discern nothing except a limitless expanse of heather, broken here and there by patches of gorse and bracken, or by clumps of touselled and wind-thinned pines and Scotch firs. The tawny-coloured, sandy, track is difficult to follow in the dark, and there are posts set up at intervals on the skirts of the way for travellers' guidance. These posts show out white against a starless night, and dark against the snow which sometimes covers the heath with a silvery sheet.
ウエストレイはこうしたものを何一つ目にしなかった。柔らかい白い霧があらゆるものを蔽っていたのだ。ほんの一分前まではすべてが静止していたのだが、それ自身の内なる力に突き動かされるように、霧は優雅に渦を巻きながら漂ってきた。服の表面にごく細かな粉のような水滴が幕を張り、指で触れると流れて重い粒になった。口髭、髪の毛、睫毛からもしずくが垂れた。前が見えなくなり、彼は息を詰めた。ミスタ・シャーノールが天に召された晩と同じく、それは海から渦を巻いてやって来た。ウエストレイは遠くの海峡でうなる霧笛の音を聞いた。カランの方を振り返り、ぼうっとした光が緑や赤に変わるのを見て、沖合の船が沿岸水先案内人に合図を送っていることが分かった。ゆっくりたゆまず歩きつづけ、ときどき芝地に踏みこんだときは、立ち止まって街道のほうに戻った。白い標柱の一つが正しい方向に進んでいることを確認してくれたときはほっとした。視界を奪う霧は奇妙に彼を孤立させた。彼は自然から切り離されていた。自然など何も見えなかったからである。彼は人間から切り離されていた。兵士の一団に囲まれていたとしても、それすら見えなかったからである。このように外からの刺激がなくなると、心はそれ自身に投げ返され、彼は内省へといざなわれた。彼は、これが百回目であったが、自分の立場を慎重に検討し、今まさに踏み出そうとしている重大な一歩が心の安らぎのために必要であるのか、正しいのか、賢明であるのか、考えはじめた。
On a clear night the traveller can see the far-off lamps of the station at Cullerne Road a mile after he has left the old seaport town. They stand out like a thin line of light in the distant darkness, a line continuous at first, but afterwards resolvable into individual units of lamps as he walks further along the straight road. Many a weary wayfarer has watched those lamps hang changeless in the distance, and chafed at their immobility. They seem to come no nearer to him for all the milestones, with the distance from Hyde Park Corner graven in old figures on their lichened faces, that he has passed. Only the increasing sound of the trains tells him that he is nearing his goal, and by degrees the dull rumble becomes a clanking roar as the expresses rush headlong by. On a crisp winter day they leave behind them a trail of whitest wool, and in the night-time a fiery serpent follows them when the open furnace-door flings on the cloud a splendid radiance. But in the dead heats of midsummer the sun dries up the steam, and they speed along, the more wonderful because there is no trace to tell what power it is that drives them.
Of all these things Westray saw nothing. A soft white fog had fallen upon everything. It drifted by in delicate whirling wreaths, that seemed to have an innate motion of their own where all had been still but a minute before. It covered his clothes with a film of the finest powdery moisture that ran at a touch into heavy drops, it hung in dripping dew on his moustache, and hair, and eyebrows, it blinded him, and made him catch his breath. It had come rolling in from the sea as on that night when Mr Sharnall was taken, and Westray could hear the distant groaning of fog-horns in the Channel; and looking backwards towards Cullerne, knew from a blurred glare, now green, now red, that a vessel in the offing was signalling for a coastwise pilot. He plodded steadily forward, stopping now and then when he found his feet on the grass sward to recover the road, and rejoicing when one of the white posts assured him that he was still keeping the right direction. The blinding fog isolated him in a strange manner; it cut him off from Nature, for he could see nothing of her; it cut him off from man, for he could not have seen even a legion of soldiers had they surrounded him. This removal of outside influences threw him back upon himself, and delivered him to introspection; he began for the hundredth time to weigh his position, to consider whether the momentous step that he was taking was necessary to his ease of mind, was right, was prudent.
結婚の申しこみはどんなに決断力のある人間をも躊躇させるだろうし、ウエストレイは決断力のあるほうではなかった。彼は頭がよく、想像力があり、頑固で、極端に几帳面だった。しかし経験を積むことによって身につくおおらかな人生観や、困難な状況で即座に決断を下し、また一度決断したらそれをやり抜く精神力と不屈の意志に欠けていた。そのため例の理性というやつが彼の決意に揺さぶりをかけ、六回ほども道の真中で足を止め、目的を断念してカランに帰ることを考えたのである。しかし六回とも彼は歩きつづけた。ゆっくりした足取りでじっと考えこみながら。これは正しい行動だろうか。僕は正しいことをしているのだろうか。霧はいっそう深くなり、ほとんど息ができないくらいだった。目の前に腕を伸ばしても、手を見ることができなかった。僕は正しいのだろうか。物事には正しいことと間違ったことが存在するのだろうか。実在するものなどあるのだろうか。一切は主観的――つまり自分の頭が作り出したものではないのか。僕は存在するのだろうか。僕は僕なのか。僕は肉体の中にあるのか、それとも外にあるのか。そのとき激しい動揺、闇と霧の恐怖が彼を襲った。両腕を伸ばし霧の中をまさぐる姿は、まるで誰かか何かをつかんでみずからの正体を確かめようとしているかのようだった。ついに彼は自制心を失い、くるりとむきを変えるとカランに戻りはじめた。 ~~~ それはほんの一瞬のことだった。すぐに理性がその支配力を回復しはじめたのである。立ち止まって道端のヒースの上に腰を下ろした。どの枝も濡れてしずくがしたたっていたが、頓着せずに考えを集中した。心臓は悪夢から目覚めたばかりのときのように激しく動悸を打っていた。誰にも見られていなかったとはいえ、自分の弱さと精神的な混乱を今は恥じていた。いったいどうしたというのだ。なんという半狂乱ぶりだろう。数分後には再び方向転換し、しっかりきびきびした足取りで駅にむかって歩き出した。これは自分を取り戻したということの、彼にとっては満足すべき証拠であった。
To make a proposal of marriage is a matter that may give the strongest-minded pause, and Westray's mind was not of the strongest. He was clever, imaginative, obstinate, scrupulous to a fault; but had not that broad outlook on life which comes of experience, nor the power and resolution to readily take a decision under difficult circumstances, and to abide by it once taken. So it was that reason made a shuttlecock of his present resolve, and half a dozen times he stopped in the road meaning to abandon his purpose, and turn back to Cullerne. Yet half a dozen times he went on, though with slow feet, thinking always, Was he right in what he was doing, was he right? And the fog grew thicker; it seemed almost to be stifling him; he could not see his hand if he held it at arm's length before his face. Was he right, was there any right or any wrong, was anything real, was not everything subjective--the creation of his own brain? Did he exist, was he himself, was he in the body or out of the body? And then a wild dismay, a horror of the darkness and the fog, seized hold of him. He stretched out his arms, and groped in the mist as if he hoped to lay hold of someone, or something, to reassure him as to his own identity, and at last a mind-panic got the better of him; he turned and started back to Cullerne.
そのあとは旅が終わるまで正しいだの間違っているだの、賢明だの無分別だのといった途方に暮れる問題を避け、自分がしようとしていることの正しさ、賢明さは自明であるとし、もっと物質的で家庭的な諸問題について忙しく思案を巡らせた。収入がいくらあればアナスタシアと家を維持していけるのかとその額を計算し、心の中で手持ちの資金を最大限に活用して、この見積額に近づけては楽しんだ。他の人が似たような状況に置かれたら、恐らく結婚の申しこみが受け入れられる見こみについてあれこれ考えるだろうが、ウエストレイはこの点に関しては疑問すら抱かなかった。求婚すればアナスタシアは受け入れるものと決めつけていたのである。彼女だってこの結婚が物質的な点においても、名門一族と縁つづきになるという点においても、得であることが分からないはずはない。彼は独りよがりな考え方しかしていなかった。彼のほうでアナスタシアが好きになり、結婚を申しこんでもいいと思いさえすれば、あとは彼女は彼を受け入れる一手と思いこんでいた。
It was only for a moment, and then reason began to recover her sway; he stopped, and sat down on the heather at the side of the road, careless that every spray was wet and dripping, and collected his thoughts. His heart was beating madly as in one that wakes from a nightmare, but he was now ashamed of his weakness and of the mental _debacle_, though there had been none to see it. What could have possessed him, what madness was this? After a few minutes he was able to turn round once more, and resumed his walk towards the railway with a firm, quick step, which should prove to his own satisfaction that he was master of himself.
確かに彼女がはっきりと好意を示した例はとっさにはあまり頭に浮かんでこないのだが、彼のことを憎からず思っていることは分かっていた。慎み深いがゆえに、普通なら報われる望みのない感情をあらわすことに消極的になっているに違いない。しかし控えめな、さりげないものではあったが、好ましい結果を保証するに足る十分な誘いを受けたことは間違いないのだ。彼は一緒にいるとき何度も何度も彼女と目が合ったことを思い出した。きっと僕の目に宿る優しさを読み取ってくれたのだろう。そして視線を返すことで、真の慎み深さが許しうる最大限の誘いをかけたのだ。その返事はなんと上品で、なんとかぎりなく優雅だったろう。まるでこっそりとのぞき見るみたいに僕のほうに目をむけ、僕の情熱的なまなざしにはっとなって恥ずかしそうに目を伏せることがどれほどあったことか。夢想にふけりながら彼は、ここ数週間のあいだ、彼女と同じ部屋にいるときはほとんど片時も彼女から目を離さなかった事実を考慮しなかった。これでときどき目が合わなかったとしたらそのほうが可笑しいというべきだろう。じっと見つめられると、ふとその視線のほうを振りむいてしまうという例の衝動に彼女はたまに従わざるを得なかったのだから。あの目は間違いなく僕を誘っていた、と彼は考えた。それにもらい物なんですと、何気なく言ってスズランの花束を渡したときは嬉しそうに受け取ってくれた。本当は彼女のためにカリスベリで特別に買ってきたのだけれど。しかしこれも彼女にとっては断りがたかったのだと考えるべきである。大体断ることなどできるだろうか。そんな状況で礼とともにスズランを受け取らない娘がいるだろうか。断ればお高くとまっていると思われるだろう。断ることで、親切からしてくれた行為に誤った、妙な意味合いを与えてしまうかも知れない。うん、スズランをあげたとき、彼女は僕を誘っていた。期待と違って胸に花を挿してくれなかったけれど、あれはきっと好意をはっきり示しすぎることを恐れたんだ。たちの悪い風邪にかかって、何日か家に閉じこもっていたとき、彼女が彼に示した関心には特に注目すべきものがあった。そして今晩、僕が一晩でもいなくなると彼女は寂しがると言っていたではないか。霧に隠れて見えなかったが、彼はそう考えてにんまりしたのだった。自分が家にいるかいないかで、美しい乙女の心の平安と身の安全が左右されるとしたら、男には悦にいる権利がいくばくかあるというものではないか。ミス・ジョウリフは、僕、ウエストレイがいないとき、アナスタシアは不安になると言った。アナスタシアが叔母にそのことを話して欲しいと、それとなくほのめかしたということも大いにあり得る。彼はまた霧の中でにんまりした。申しこみが拒絶される心配なんかこれっぽっちもありはしない。
For the rest of his journey he dismissed bewildering questions of right and wrong, of prudence and imprudence, laying it down as an axiom that his emprise was both right and prudent, and busied himself with the more material and homely considerations of ways and means. He amused himself in attempting to fix the sum for which it would be possible for him and Anastasia to keep house, and by mentally straining to the utmost the resources at his command managed to make them approach his estimate. Another man in similar circumstances might perhaps have given himself to reviewing the chances of success in his proposal, but Westray did not trouble himself with any doubts on this point. It was a foregone conclusion that if he once offered himself Anastasia would accept him; she could not be so oblivious to the advantages which such a marriage would offer, both in material considerations and in the connection with a superior family. He only regarded the matter from his own standpoint; once he was convinced that _he_ cared enough for Anastasia to make her an offer, then he was sure that she would accept him.
It was true that he could not, on the spur of the moment, recollect many instances in which she had openly evinced a predilection for him, but he was conscious that she thought well of him, and she was no doubt too modest to make manifest, feelings which she could never under ordinary circumstances hope to see returned. Yet he certainly _had_ received encouragement of a quiet and unobtrusive kind, quite sufficient to warrant the most favourable conclusions. He remembered how many, many times their eyes had met when they were in one another's company; she must certainly have read the tenderness which had inspired his glances, and by answering them she had given perhaps the greatest encouragement that true modesty would permit. How delicate and infinitely gracious her acknowledgment had been, how often had she looked at him as it were furtively, and then, finding his passionate gaze upon her, had at once cast her own eyes shyly to the ground! And in his reveries he took not into reckoning, the fact that through these later weeks he had scarcely ever taken his gaze off her, so long as she was in the same room with him. It would have been strange if their eyes had not sometimes met, because she must needs now and then obey that impulse which forces us to look at those who are looking at us. Certainly, he meditated, her eyes had given him encouragement, and then she had accepted gratefully a bunch of lilies of the valley which he said lightly had been given him, but which he had really bought _ad hoc_ at Carisbury. But, again, he ought perhaps to have reflected that it would have been difficult for her to refuse them. How could she have refused them? How could any girl under the circumstances do less than take with thanks a few lilies of the valley? To decline them would be affectation; by declining she might attach a false and ridiculous significance to a kindly act. Yes, she had encouraged him in the matter of the lilies, and if she had not worn some of them in her bosom, as he had hoped she might, that, no doubt, was because she feared to show her preference too markedly. He had noticed particularly the interest she had shown when a bad cold had confined him for a few days to the house, and this very evening had he not heard that she missed him when he was absent even for a night? He smiled at this thought, invisibly in the fog; and has not a man a right to some complacence, on whose presence in the house hang a fair maiden's peace and security? Miss Joliffe had said that Anastasia felt nervous whenever he, Westray, was away; it was very possible that Anastasia had given her aunt a hint that she would like him to be told this, and he smiled again in the fog; he certainly need have no fear of any rejection of his suit.
こんな具合に心安まる思いに深くひたっていたため、彼はまわりの物や状況にはまったく注意をむけずにひたすら歩きつづけていたのだが、ふと気がつくと霧にかすんだ駅の灯火が見え、目的地に到着したことを知った。自分の懸念と変節のせいで道中ずいぶん遅れてしまい、今は真夜中すぎ、列車はもうすぐ到着するはずだった。プラットフォームにも狭い待合室にも他の旅行者の姿はなく、待合室の中では、火屋《ほや》の黒ずんだパラフィン・ランプが弱々しく霧と戦っていた。活気のある部屋とはいえなかった。彼は壁の掲示物やらテーブルの上の黴臭い水の瓶を眺めていたが、駅長と切符係と赤帽を兼ねた駅員が眠そうに入ってきて、人間の世界に呼び戻されたときは救われたような気がした。
He had been so deeply immersed in these reassuring considerations that he walked steadily on unconscious of all exterior objects and conditions until he saw the misty lights of the station, and knew that his goal was reached. His misgivings and tergiversations had so much delayed him by the way, that it was past midnight, and the train was already due. There were no other travellers on the platform, or in the little waiting-room where a paraffin-lamp with blackened chimney struggled feebly with the fog. It was not a cheery room, and he was glad to be called back from a contemplation of a roll of texts hanging on the wall, and a bottle of stale water on the table, to human things by the entry of a drowsy official who was discharging the duties of station-master, booking-clerk, and porter all at once.
"Are you waiting for the London train, sir?" he asked in a surprised tone, that showed that the night-mail found few passengers at Cullerne Road. "She will be in now in a few minutes; have you your ticket?"
They went together to the booking-office. The station-master handed him a third-class ticket, without even asking how he wished to travel.
"Ah, thank you," Westray said, "but I think I will go first-class to-night. I shall be more likely to have a compartment to myself, and shall be less disturbed by people getting in and out."
"Certainly, sir," said the station-master, with the marked increase of respect due to a first-class passenger--"certainly, sir; please give me back the other ticket. I shall have to write you one--we do not keep them ready; we are so very seldom asked for first-class at this station."
「そうだろうね」とウエストレイは言った。
"No, I suppose not," Westray said.
"Things happen funny," the station-master remarked while he _got_ his pen. "I wrote one by this same train a month ago, and before that I don't think we have ever sold one since the station was opened."
"Ah," Westray said, paying little attention, for he was engaged in a new mental disputation as to whether he was really justified in travelling first-class. He had just settled that at such a life-crisis as he had now reached, it was necessary that the body should be spared fatigue in order that the mind might be as vigorous as possible for dealing with a difficult situation, and that the extra expense was therefore justified; when the station-master went on:
"Yes, I wrote a ticket, just as I might for you, for Lord Blandamer not a month ago. Perhaps you know Lord Blandamer?" he added venturously; yet with a suggestion that even the sodality of first-class travelling was not in itself a passport to so distinguished an acquaintance. The mention of Lord Blandamer's name gave a galvanic shock to Westray's flagging attention.
「もちろんだよ」と彼は言った。「ブランダマー卿とは知り合いだよ」
"Oh yes," he said, "I know Lord Blandamer."
"Do you, indeed, sir"--and respect had risen by a skip greater than any allowed in counterpoint. "Well, I wrote a ticket for his lordship by this very train not a month ago; no, it was not a month ago, for 'twas the very night the poor organist at Cullerne was took."
"Yes," said the would-be indifferent Westray; "where did Lord Blandamer come from?"
"I do not know," the station-master replied--"I do _not_ know, sir," he repeated, with the unnecessary emphasis common to the uneducated or unintelligent.
"Was he driving?"
"No, he walked up to this station just as you might yourself. Excuse me, sir," he broke off; "here she comes."
They heard the distant thunder of the approaching train, and were in time to see the gates of the level-crossing at the end of the platform swing silently open as if by ghostly hands, till their red lanterns blocked the Cullerne Road.
誰も降りず、ウエストレイ以外は誰も乗りこまなかった。霧の中で郵便袋が交換され、駅長兼切符係兼赤帽がランプを振ると、列車は煙をあげて走り去った。ウエストレイは洞窟のような車内にいて、布の座席は棺桶の内部のように冷たく湿っていた。外套の襟を立て、ナポレオンのように腕を組み、隅に寄りかかって考えた。おかしい――ひどくおかしい。ブランダマー卿はシャーノールの事故があった晩、早めに帰ったものと思っていた。ブランダマー卿はベルヴュー・ロッジを去るとき、午後の汽車に乗ると言っていた。ところが卿は真夜中に、ここカラン街道駅にあらわれた。カランから来たのでなければどこから来たのだろう。フォーディングから来たはずはない。フォーディングからなら、リチェット駅で汽車に乗ったはずだから。妙だぞ、と彼はそう思いながら眠りに落ちた。
No one got out, and no one but Westray got in; there was some interchanging of post-office bags in the fog, and then the station-master-booking-clerk-porter waved a lamp, and the train steamed away. Westray found himself in a cavernous carriage, of which the cloth seats were cold and damp as the lining of a coffin. He turned up the collar of his coat, folded his arms in a Napoleonic attitude, and threw himself back into a corner to think. It was curious--it was very curious. He had been under the impression that Lord Blandamer had left Cullerne early on the night of poor Sharnall's accident; Lord Blandamer had told them at Bellevue Lodge that he was going away by the afternoon train when he left them. Yet here he was at Cullerne Road at midnight, and if he had not come from Cullerne, whence had he come? He could not have come from Fording, for from Fording he would certainly have taken the train at Lytchett. It was curious, and while he was so thinking he fell asleep.
第十六章 ~~~
CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
A day or two later Miss Joliffe said to Anastasia:
"I think you had a letter from Mr Westray this morning, my dear, had you not? Did he say anything about his return? Did he say when he was coming back?"
"No, dear aunt, he said nothing about coming back. He only wrote a few lines on a matter of business."
"Oh yes, just so," Miss Joliffe said dryly, feeling a little hurt at what seemed like any lack of confidence on her niece's part.
ミス・ジョウリフとしては、アナスタシアの考えることなどお見通しなのだから、隠し事をしてもむだよと言ってやりたいところだった。それに対してアナスタシアは、叔母さんは何でも知っているわ、いくつかの小さな秘密を除いてね、と答えていただろう。事実、一方が他方を知っていると言っても、恐らく老人が若者を知るようにしか知らなかったのである。「心というものは、それ自身一つの独自の世界なのだ、地獄を天国に変え、天国を地獄に変えうるものなのだ」（註 ミルトン「失楽園」から）この世の慰めの中で、このことが、つまり心というものはそれ自身一つの独自の世界であるということが最大の慰めである。心はどんな侵入者をもくい止める鉄壁の要塞、追われる者には昼も夜も開かれた聖域、夏の日照りのときでさえ木陰が元気を回復させる花園なのだ。幾人かの信頼する友人にはその迷路の道筋を教えるが、絹の糸玉一つでは短すぎて、自分以外の人がそこを通り抜けることは不可能である。陽光あふれる山頂があれば、汚れなき緑の芝地があり、花の匂いもかぐわしい小径、じめじめした絶望の土牢、あるいは罪の意識がこだまする、夜のように真暗な洞窟もある。ここを歩くときは一人だけ、決して手を引いて他人を連れて来ることはない。
Miss Joliffe would have said that she knew Anastasia's mind so well that no secrets were hid from her. Anastasia would have said that her aunt knew everything except a few _little_ secrets, and, as a matter of fact, the one perhaps knew as much of the other as it is expedient that age should know of youth. "The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a hell of heaven, a heaven of hell." Of all earthly consolations this is the greatest, that the mind is its own place. The mind is an impregnable fortress which can be held against all comers, the mind is a sanctuary open day or night to the pursued, the mind is a flowery pleasance where shade refreshes even in summer droughts. To some trusted friend we try to give the clue of the labyrinth, but the ball of silk is too short to guide any but ourselves along all the way. There are sunny mountain-tops, there are innocent green arbours, or closes of too highly-perfumed flowers, or dank dungeons of despair, or guilty _mycethmi_ black as night, where we walk alone, whither we may lead no one with us by the hand.
Miss Euphemia Joliffe would have liked to ignore altogether the matter of Westray's letter, and to have made no further remarks thereon; but curiosity is in woman a stronger influence than pride, and curiosity drove her to recur to the letter.
"Thank you, my dear, for explaining about it. I am sure you will tell me if there are any messages for me in it."
"No, there was no message at all for you, I think," said Anastasia. "I will get it for you by-and-by, and you shall see all he says;" and with that she left the room as if to fetch the letter. It was only a subterfuge, for she felt Westray's correspondence burning a hole in her pocket all the while; but she was anxious that her aunt should not see the letter until an answer to it had been posted; and hoped that if she once escaped from the room, the matter would drop out of memory. Miss Joliffe fired a parting shot to try to bring her niece to her bearings as she was going out:
"I do not know, my dear, that I should encourage any correspondence from Mr Westray, if I were you. It would be more seemly, perhaps, that he should write to me on any little matter of business than to you." But Anastasia feigned not to hear her, and held on her course.
She betook herself to the room that had once been Mr Sharnall's, but was now distressingly empty and forlorn, and there finding writing materials, sat down to compose an answer to Westray's letter. She knew its contents thoroughly well, she knew its expressions almost by heart, yet she spread it out on the table before her, and read and re-read it as many times as if it were the most difficult of cryptograms.
"Dearest Anastasia," it began, and she found a grievance in the very first word, "Dearest." What right had he to call her "Dearest"? She was one of those unintelligible females who do not shower superlatives on every chance acquaintance. She must, no doubt, have been callous as judged by modern standards, or at least, singularly unimaginative, for among her few correspondents she had not one whom she addressed as "dearest." No, not even her aunt, for at such rare times of absence from home as she had occasion to write to Miss Joliffe, "My dear Aunt Euphemia" was the invocation.
It was curious that this same word "Dearest" had occasioned Westray also considerable thought and dubiety. Should he call her "Dearest Anastasia," or "Dear Miss Joliffe"? The first sounded too forward, the second too formal. He had discussed this and other details with his mother, and the die had at last fallen on "Dearest." At the worst such an address could only be criticised as proleptic, since it must be justified almost immediately by Anastasia's acceptance of his proposal.
"Dearest Anastasia--for dearest you are and ever will be to me--I feel sure that your heart will go out to meet my heart in what I am saying; that your kindness will support me in the important step which has now to be taken."
Anastasia shook her head, though there was no one to see her. There was a suggestion of fate overbearing prudence in Westray's words, a suggestion that he needed sympathy in an unpleasant predicament, that jarred on her intolerably.
"I have known you now a year, and know that my happiness is centred in you; you too have known me a year, and I trust that I have read aright the message that your eyes have been sending to me.
"`For I shall happiest be to-night, Or saddest in the town; Heaven send I read their message right, Those eyes of hazel brown.'"
~~~ アナスタシアは腹を立てながらも思わず笑ってしまった。ただ微笑を浮かべたのではなく、声に出して、一人静かに笑ったのである。男がよくやる含み笑いというやつだ。わたしの目はハシバミのような茶色どころか、茶色ですらない。でも町《タウン》と韻を合わせるために茶色《ブラウン》を使ったのね。それにどうせこの詩はどこかから引っ張ってきたものだわ。特にわたしのことを書いたわけじゃない。彼女はもう一度読み返した。「あなたと知り合ってから一年が経ちました。あなたもわたしと知り合ってから一年が経ちました」。ウエストレイは詩的な繰り返しがロマンチックな雰囲気を醸し出すと考え、文に釣り合いを持たせたのだった。しかしアナスタシアには陳腐な文句の反復としか思えなかった。彼が彼女と知り合って一年が経ったなら、彼女も彼と知り合って一年が経ったことになる。女性の心にとって前提から導き出される結論はそこで終わりだ。 ~~~
Anastasia found space in the press of her annoyance to laugh. It was more than a smile, it was a laugh, a quiet little laugh to herself, which in a man would have been called a buckle. Her eyes were not hazel brown, they were no brown at all; but then brown rhymed with town, and after all the verse might perhaps be a quotation, and must so be taken only to apply to the situation in general. She read the sentence again, "I have known you now a year; you too have known me a year." Westray had thought this poetic insistence gave a touch of romance, and balanced the sentence; but to Anastasia it seemed the reiteration of a platitude. If he had known her a year, then she had known him a year, and to a female mind the sequitur was complete.
「わたしはあなたのメッセージを正しく受け取ったでしょうか、最愛の人よ。あなたの心はわたしのものでしょうか」
"Have I read the message right, dearest? Is your heart my own?"
Message? What message did he speak of? What message did he imagine she had wished to give _him_ with her eyes? He had stared at her persistently for weeks past, and if her eyes sometimes caught his, that was only because she could not help it; except when between whiles she glanced at him of set purpose, because it amused her to see how silly a man in love may look.
"Say that it is; tell me that your heart is my own" (and the request seemed to her too preposterous to admit even of comment).
~~~ 「わたしはあなたの現状を心配しながら見守っています。あなたが何も知らない危険に、今、この瞬間もさらされているのではないかとときどき危ぶむのです。また不幸や死があなたの叔母さんを襲った場合、どれほど先の読み解き得ない未来が訪れるか、不安になることもあるのです。わたしに未来という謎を読む手伝いをさせてください。あなたの盾となり、未来の支えとなることを許してください。わたしの妻になり、わたしにあなたの庇護者となる権利を与えてください。もうしばらく仕事でロンドンに滞在しなければなりません。しかしあなたのお返事をこちらで首を長くしてお待ちしています。いえ、こう言ってよければ、希望を抱きつつお待ちしています。
"I watch your present, dear Anastasia, with solicitude. Sometimes I think that you are even now exposed to dangers of whose very existence you know nothing; and sometimes I look forward with anxiety to the future, so undecipherable, if misfortune or death should overtake your aunt. Let me help you to decipher this riddle. Let me be your shield now, and your support in the days to come. Be my wife, and give me the right to be your protector. I am detained in London by business for some days more; but I shall await your answer here with overwhelming eagerness, yet, may I say it? not without hope.
~~~ あなたをひたむきに深く愛する
"Your most loving and devoted
エドワード・ウエストレイ」
"Edward Westray."
~~~ 彼女はゆっくりと手紙をたたんで封筒の中に戻した。どれほどウエストレイが自分の目的を挫折させる手段を探し回ったとしても、この最後の段落くらいその目論見にかなったものは見いだせなかっただろう。それは男を拒むときにつきものの相手を思いやる気持ち、不快なものをできるだけ不快でなくしてやろうとする気持ちをほとんど奪ってしまった。彼の独善的な口調は腹にすえかねた。こっちが彼の言うことを聞くか聞かないか、それさえ分からぬうちから忠告してくるとはいったいどういうことか。彼女が今もさらされている危険とは何なのか。ミスタ・ウエストレイが彼女の盾となって守ると言っている危険とは。一応疑問を呈してみたものの、答は最初から分かっていた。彼女も最近心の中でそのことを何度も考えていたので、ウエストレイが言外にほのめかすことなど苦もなく理解できたのだ。嫉妬深い男がいるとすれば、それは嫉妬深い女より軽蔑されるべきもの。男のよりすぐれた力とは心の広さと寛大な態度にある。こういうものがないとき、その欠点は女の場合よりも目立つのである。アナスタシアはウエストレイが謎めいたことを言うのは嫉妬のせいだと考えた。しかし彼女は苦心惨憺書かれた手紙を滑稽だと思う強さを持つと同時に、からかいの対象とはいえ、男の興味をかき立てたことに女としての悦びを感じるという弱さも持っていた。
She folded the letter up with much deliberation, and put it back into its envelope. If Westray had sought far and wide for means of damaging his own cause, he could scarcely have found anything better calculated for that purpose than these last paragraphs. They took away much of that desire to spare, to make unpleasantness as little unpleasant as may be, which generally accompanies a refusal. His sententiousness was unbearable. What right had he to advise before he knew whether she would listen to him? What were these dangers to which she was even now exposed, and from which Mr Westray was to shield her? She asked herself the question formally, though she knew the answer all the while. Her own heart had told her enough of late, to remove all difficulty in reading between Mr Westray's lines. A jealous man is, if possible, more contemptible than a jealous woman. Man's greater strength postulates a broader mind and wider outlook; and if he fail in these, his failure is more conspicuous than woman's. Anastasia had traced to jealousy the origin of Westray's enigmatic remarks; but if she was strong enough to hold him ridiculous for his pains, she was also weak enough to take a woman's pleasure in having excited the interest of the man she ridiculed.
She laughed again at the proposal that she should join him in deciphering any riddles, still more such as were undecipherable; and the air of patronage involved in his anxiety to provide for her future was the more distasteful in that she had great ideas of providing for it herself. She had told herself a hundred times that it was only affection for her aunt that kept her at home. Were "anything to happen" to Miss Joliffe, she would at once seek her own living. She had often reckoned up the accomplishments which would aid her in such an endeavour. She had received her education--even if it were somewhat desultory and discontinuous--at good schools. She had always been a voracious reader, and possessed an extensive knowledge of English literature, particularly of the masters of fiction; she could play the piano and the violin tolerably, though Mr Sharnall would have qualified her estimate. She had an easy touch in oils and water-colour, which her father said she must have inherited from his mother--from that Sophia Joliffe who painted the great picture of the flowers and caterpillar, and her spirited caricatures had afforded much merriment to her schoolfellows. She made her own clothes, and was sure that she had a taste in matters of dress design and manufacture that would bring her distinction if she were only given the opportunity of employing it; she believed that she had an affection for children, and a natural talent for training them, though she never saw any at Cullerne. With gifts such as these, which must be patent to others as well as herself, there would surely be no difficulty in obtaining an excellent place as governess if she should ever determine to adopt that walk of life; and she was sometimes inclined to gird at Fate, which for the present led her to deprive the world of these benefits.
彼女はもう一度、一緒に謎を、それも読み解き得ない謎を読み解きましょうという誘いを見て笑った。彼女の将来に備えたいなどと言っているが、その熱心な願いに含まれる恩着せがましい態度は、彼女自身、将来に備えてしっかりした考えを持っていただけにいっそう嫌らしく思えた。自分が家を離れないのはただ叔母を愛しているからだ、と彼女は何度も自分に言い聞かせていた。ミス・ジョウリフに「何か」があったら、彼女はすぐ自分で生計を立てるつもりだった。そうした際に役立ちそうな自分のたしなみを彼女はしばしば数え上げた。彼女は優れた学校で――やや一貫性に欠け、途中で中断したとはいうものの――教育を受けている。本をむさぼるように読み、イギリス文学、とりわけ小説の大家については深い知識を持っている。ピアノとバイオリンの腕前はまあまあ。もっともミスタ・シャーノールは彼女の自己評価に条件をつけただろうけど。油絵や水彩画を描かせると悠然とした筆致があって、父親はそれを母親から受け継いだに違いない――花と毛虫の大作を描いた、あのソフィア・ジョウリから受け継いだに違いないと言った。また、生気溢れる彼女の似顔絵は学校の友達を大いに湧かしたものだ。自分の服は自分で作り、デザインや仕立ての趣味のよさには自信があった。腕をふるう機会さえ与えられれば、ぬきんでた実力を示すことができるはずだ。彼女は自分が子供好きで、子供をしつける才能が生まれつき備わっていると信じていた。もっともカランで子供の面倒を見たことなど一度もなかったけれども。自分にはこうした能力、といっても彼女だけでなく他の人も持っているに違いない能力なのだが、これをもってすれば家庭教師のいい口を探すのはきっと簡単だろう、あとはそういう人生を歩む決意をするだけのこと。彼女はときどき運命をなじりたくなった。運命のおかげで世界は今、こうした恩恵を享受できずにいるのだから。
In her inmost heart, however, she doubted whether she would be really justified in devoting herself to teaching; for she was conscious that she might be called to fill a higher mission, and to instruct by the pen rather than by word of mouth. As every soldier carries in his knapsack the baton of the Field Marshal, so every girl in her teens knows that there lie hidden in the recesses of her _armoire_, the robes and coronet and full insignia of a first-rate novelist. She may not choose to take them out and air them, the crown may tarnish by disuse, the moth of indolence may corrupt, but there lies the panoply in which she may on any day appear fully dight, for the astonishment of an awakening world. Jane Austen and Maria Edgworth are heroines, whose aureoles shine in the painted windows of such airy castles; Charlotte Bronte wrote her masterpieces in a seclusion as deep as that of Bellevue Lodge; and Anastasia Joliffe thought many a time of that day when, afar off from her watch-tower in quiet Cullerne, she would follow the triumphant progress of an epoch-making romance.
しかし心の奥底では教育に人生を捧げることが本当に正しいかどうか疑問を感じていた。というのは自分の天命はもっと崇高な使命を果たすことではないか、口を使って教えるのではなく、ペンを使って教えることではないか、と思っていたのである。どの兵士も背嚢のなかに元帥杖を入れているように、どの十代の女の子も、大型衣装箪笥の奥には一流作家の衣冠束帯、そしてその地位を示す正式な記章が隠されていることを知っている。それを取り出し外気にさらさなければ、冠は使われないまま光を失い、怠惰という衣蛾に汚されることもあるだろう。しかしともかく正装一揃いはしまってあって、いつかそれに身を包み、驚き愕然とする世間の前に颯爽と登場するかも知れないのだ。ジェイン・オースチンとマリア・エッジワースは聳え立つ城のステンドグラスにその光輪を輝かすヒロインたちである。シャーロット・ブロンテもベルヴュー・ロッジと同じくらい鄙びたところで傑作をものしたのだ。アナスタシア・ジョウリフはいつの日か静かなカランの望楼から画期的な小説が勝利の行進をする様を遠く望み見たいものだと思っていた。
It would be published under a _nom de plume_, of course, she would not use her own name till she had felt her feet; and the choice of the pseudonym was the only definite step towards this venture that she had yet made. The period was still uncertain. Sometimes the action was to be placed in the eighteenth century, with tall silver urns and spindled-legged tables, and breast-waisted dresses; sometimes in the struggle of the Roses, when barons swam rivers in full armour after a bloody bout; sometimes in the Civil War, when Vandyke drew the arched eyebrow and taper hand, and when the shadow of death was over all.
It was to the Civil War that her fancy turned oftenest, and now and again, as she sat before her looking-glass, she fancied that she had a Vandyke face herself. And so it was indeed; and if the mirror was fogged and dull and outworn, and if the dress that it reflected was not of plum or amber velvet, one still might fancy that she was a loyalist daughter whose fortunes were fallen with her master's. The Limner of the King would have rejoiced to paint the sweet, young, oval face and little mouth; he would have found the space between the eyebrow and the eyelid to his liking.
If the plot were still shadowy, her characters were always with her, in armour or sprigged prints; and, the mind being its own place, she took about a little court of her own, where dreadful tragedies were enacted, and valorous deeds done; where passionate young love suffered and wept, and where a mere girl of eighteen, by consummate resolution, daring, beauty, genius, and physical strength, always righted the situation, and brought peace at the last.
筋立てはまだぼんやりしていたが、登場人物たちは鎧や小枝模様の衣装を纏い、いつも彼女とともにあった。心はそれ自身一つの独自の世界、彼女は自分が造り出した小さな宮廷を持ち歩き、そこでは恐るべき悲劇が繰り広げられ、勇敢な行為があり、情熱的な若い愛が苦悩のあまり涙をこぼし、そしてたかが十八歳の小娘が比類ない決意と大胆さと美と天才と肉体の力を持っていつも事態を正し、最後に平和をもたらすのだ。 ~~~ これだけの才能があるのだから、アナスタシアには未来が暗鬱なものとは見えなかったし、ミスタ・ウエストレイが考えるほど、その謎が解き難いとは思わなかった。彼女の将来に希望を与えようとするいかなる試みに対しても、彼女は未熟な人間の持つありったけの自信をこめて憤慨しただろう。実際ウエストレイの申し出は、彼女が寄る辺ない立場にあることをほのめかしたり、申し出を受け入れれば幸福になれるとか、いかにも低姿勢でお願いしているのだ、ということをやたら強調しているため、なおのことはらわたが煮えくりかえるのだった。
With resources such as these, the future did not present itself in dark colours to Anastasia; nor did its riddle appear to her nearly so undecipherable as Mr Westray had supposed. She would have resented, with all the confidence of inexperience, _any_ attempt to furnish her with prospects; and she resented Westray's offer all the more vigorously because it seemed to carry with it a suggestion of her own forlorn position, to insist unduly on her own good fortune in receiving such a proposal, and on his condescension in making it.
女性の中には結婚こそ人生の第一義と、常にそのことを中心に考え、条件のよい結婚、それがだめならそれなりの結婚を主要な目的とする人がいる。また結婚を偶然的なものと見なし、熱心に望みもしなければ避けることもせず、状況の善し悪しに従って受け入れたり拒んだりする人もいる。さらにまた、すでに若いときから結婚という考えを決然と捨て、心の中でこの問題を議論することさえみずからに禁ずる人もいる。男が結婚しないと言明しても、経験の示すところ、この決心はしばしば考え直されるものだ。しかし結婚しない女は違う。彼らはたいてい未婚のままである。なぜなら男というものは愛情問題に関してはへっぴり腰で、すげない態度を見せられると追いかけるのを止めてしまうからである。こうした女性もみずからの裁定を考え直したいと思うことがあるのかもしれないが、気がつくとすでに悔やんでもどうにもならない年齢に達しているのだ。しかし大体においてそうした事柄に対する女性の決心は男性のそれよりも堅固である。それというのも、女性にとっての結婚は男性の場合とは比較にならぬくらい重要な問題だからだ。
There are women who put marriage in the forefront of life, whose thoughts revolve constantly about it as a centre, and with whom an advantageous match, or, failing that, a match of some sort, is the primary object. There are others who regard marriage as an eventuality, to be contemplated without either eagerness or avoidance, to be accepted or declined according as its circumstances may be favourable or unfavourable. Again, there are some who seem, even from youth, to resolutely eliminate wedlock from their thoughts, to permit themselves no mental discussion upon this subject. Though a man profess that he will never marry, experience has shown that his resolve is often subject to reconsideration. But with unmarrying women the case is different, and unmarried for the most part they remain, for man is often so weak-kneed a creature in matters of the heart, that he refrains from pursuing where an unsympathetic attitude discourages pursuit. It may be that some of these women, also, would wish to reconsider their verdict, but find that they have reached an age when there is no place for repentance; yet, for the most part, woman's resolve upon such matters is more stable than man's, and that because the interests at stake in marriage are for her more vital than can ever be the case with man.
It was to the class of indifferentists that Anastasia belonged; she neither sought nor shunned a change of state, but regarded marriage as an accident that, in befalling her, might substantially change the outlook. It would render a life of teaching, no doubt, impossible; domestic or maternal cares might to some extent trammel even literary activity (for, married or not married, she was determined to fulfil her mission of writing), but in no case was she inclined to regard marriage as an escape from difficulties, as the solution of so trivial a problem as that of existence.
彼女はもう一度ウエストレイの手紙を始めから終わりまで読み返したが、ますます退屈なものに思えてきた。この手紙は書き手の性格を表している。いつも夢のない男だと思っていたけど、今は耐えきれないくらい散文的で、うぬぼれていて、けちくさく、功利主義者に見える。妻になってくれですって！保母兼家庭教師として一生を過ごす方がましよ！あんな人が相談相手で伴侶だったら小説なんて書けるものですか。あの人はわたしに几帳面さを求めてくるわ。卵は新鮮なものをそろえろ、ふとんはよく日干ししろ、って。こんな具合に頭の中で自分を妻にしようとするこの企てに理詰めの非難を重ねた結果、ついに彼の申し出は忌むべき犯罪になってしまった。素っ気なく、無愛想に、いいえ、乱暴に返事を書いてやったって、当然の報いだわ。こんな愚劣な結婚の申しこみでわたしにばかばかしい思いをさせたんだもの。そういうわけで彼女はきっぱり決意を固めて筆箱を開けたのである。
She read Westray's letter once more from beginning to end. It was duller than ever. It reflected its writer; she had always thought him unromantic, and now he seemed to her intolerably prosaic, conceited, pettifogging, utilitarian. To be his wife! She had rather slave as a nursery-governess all her life! And how could she write fiction with such a one for mentor and company? He would expect her to be methodic, to see that eggs were fresh, and beds well aired. So, by thinking, she reasoned herself into such a theoretic reprobation of this attempt upon her, that his offer became a heinous crime. If she answered him shortly, brusquely, nay rudely, it would be but what he deserved for making her ridiculous to herself by so absurd a proposal, and she opened her writing-case with much firmness and resolution.
それは擬革に覆われた小さな木箱で、蓋にはフランス語で「文箱」という金文字が押されていた。大して価値があるとは思っていなかったが、父親からの贈り物という意味で彼女には大切なものだった。実を言えば父親がくれた唯一の贈り物なのだ。トランペットで一大ファンファーレを奏でながら彼女をカリスベリのミセス・ハワードの学校へ送り出すとき、いつになく太っ腹な気分になった父親が、少なくとも半クラウンは奮発して買ったものだ。彼女は父親のことばをそっくり覚えている。「これを持っていきな」と彼は言った。「これから一流の学校に行くんだ。持ち物もそれにふさわしいものでなくっちゃな」そう言って筆箱をくれたのだった。足りないものは山ほどあったが、それで我慢しなければならなかった。アナスタシアはそれが新品のヘアブラシかハンカチ一ダースか、まともな一足の靴であったらよかったのにと嘆いた。
It was a little wooden case covered in imitation leather, with _Papeterie_ stamped in gold upon the top. She had no exaggerated notions as to its intrinsic worth, but it was valuable in her eyes as being a present from her father. It was, in fact, the only gift he ever had bestowed upon her; but on this he had expended at least half a crown, in a fit of unusual generosity when he sent her with a great flourish of trumpets to Mrs Howard's school at Carisbury. She remembered his very words. "Take this, child," he said; "you are now going to a first-class place of education, and it is right that you should have a proper equipment," and so gave her the _papeterie_. It had to cover a multitude of deficiencies, and poor Anastasia lamented that it had not been a new hair-brush, half a dozen pocket-handkerchiefs, or even a sound pair of shoes.
Still it had stood in good stead, for with it she had written all her letters ever since, and being the only receptacle with lock and key to which she had access, she had made it a little ark and coffer for certain girlish treasures. With such it was stuffed so full that they came crowding out as she opened it. There were several letters to which romance attached, relics of that delightful but far too short school-time at Carisbury; there was her programme, with rudely-scribbled names of partners, for the splendid dance at the term's end, to which a selection of other girls' brothers were invited; a pressed rose given her by someone which she had worn in her bosom on that historic occasion, and many other equally priceless mementoes. Somehow these things seemed now neither so romantic nor so precious as on former occasions; she was even inclined to smile, and to make light of them, and then a little bit of paper fluttered off the table on to the floor. She stooped and picked up the flap of an envelope with the coronet and "Fording" stamped in black upon it which she had found one day when Westray's waste-paper basket was emptied. It was a simple device enough, but it must have furnished her food for thought, for it lay under her eyes on the table for at least ten minutes before she put it carefully back into the _papeterie_, and began her letter to Westray.
それでも筆箱は役に立った。それ以来手紙はすべてそれで書いてきたのである。しかも彼女の持ち物の中では唯一鍵のかかる入れ物だったので、彼女は女の子らしい宝物を入れる、ささやかな宝石箱にしていた。びっしり中身が詰まっていたので、開けるとそれらがあふれ出てきた。ロマンスを添えた手紙もあれば、楽しかったけれどあまりにも短すぎたカリスベリでの学校生活の思い出の品もあった。学期末の素敵なダンスパーティーで踊る相手の名前を乱雑に書きこんだプログラム。パーティーには他の女生徒の兄弟が厳選されて招待されていたのだ。そしてその歴史的な機会に胸につけた、誰かのくれたバラの押し花。他にも同じように貴重な記念品が詰まっていたが、どういうわけかそれらは以前ほどロマンチックだとも大事だとも思えず、今はたわいもないものをと苦笑したいくらいだった。その時小さな紙片がひらひらと机から床に落ちた。彼女は屈んで宝冠の絵と「フォーディング」の字を黒く印した封筒の垂れ蓋を拾い上げた。ある日ウエストレイのゴミ箱を空けようとして見つけたものだ。ごく単純な図案でしかなかったが、彼女に思考の糧を与えたに違いない。筆箱にしまいこみ、ウエストレイの手紙を書くまで少なくとも十分は目の前の机の上に置かれていたからである。
She found no difficulty in answering, but the interval of reflection had soothed her irritation, and blunted her animosity. Her reply was neither brusque nor rude, it leant rather to conventionalism than to originality, and she used, after all, those phrases which have been commonplaces in such circumstances, since man first asked and woman first refused. She thanked Mr Westray for the kind interest which he had taken in her, she was deeply conscious of the consideration which he had shown her. She was grieved--sincerely grieved--to tell him that things could not be as he wished. She was so afraid that her letter would seem unkind; she did not mean it to be unkind. However difficult it was to say it now, she thought it was the truest kindness not to disguise from him that things _never_ could be as he wished. She paused a little to review this last sentiment, but she allowed it to remain, for she was anxious to avoid any recrudescence of the suppliant's passion, and to show that her decision was final. She should always feel the greatest esteem for Mr Westray; she trusted that the present circumstances would not interrupt their friendship in any way. She hoped that their relations might continue as in the past, and in this hope she remained very truly his.
返事を書くのはなんら難しいことではなかった。ただ、しばらく思い出に浸っていたせいで、いらだちは収まり、敵意は和らいでいた。返事は無愛想でも乱暴でもなく、独創的と言うよりありきたりで、しかも結局こういう場合によく使われる常套句を用いることにした。何しろはじめて男が求婚し、はじめて女が断るのだ。彼女は自分に優しい関心を寄せてくれたことをミスタ・ウエストレイに謝し、自分に対して示してくれた気遣いを十分に理解していると書いた。残念ながら――誠に残念ながら――ご希望に添うことはできません。こんなふうに書くと思いやりがないと思われるかも知れませんが、わざと思いやりのないことばを書いているわけではないのです。はなはだ申し上げにくいことではあるけれど、ご希望には「決して」添うことができないと偽らずに言うことが本当の思いやりであると考えるのです。彼女はしばらく手を休めてこの最後の文の含むところを検討していたが、書き直す必要はないと判断した。求婚者の情熱が再燃することがないよう、彼女の決定が最終的なものであることを示したかった。ミスタ・ウエストレイに対する強い敬意はこれからも少しも変わりませんし、今回のことで二人の友情にひびが入るようなことは決してないと信じています。今までと同じようにお付き合いがつづくことを希望しつつ筆を擱きます。
She gave a sigh of relief when the letter was finished, and read it through carefully, putting in commas and semicolons and colons at what she thought appropriate places. Such punctilio pleased her; it was, she considered, due from one who aspired to a literary style, and aimed at making a living by the pen. Though this was the first answer to a proposal that she had written on her own account, she was not altogether without practice in such matters, as she had composed others for her heroines who had found themselves in like position. Her manner, also, was perhaps unconsciously influenced by a perusal of "The Young Person's Compleat Correspondent, and Guide to Answers to be given in the Various Circumstances of Life," which, in a tattered calf covering, formed an item in Miss Euphemia's library.
書き終わって安堵のため息をつき、慎重に読み返しながら適当な箇所にコンマやセミコロンやコロンを付け加えた。句読点を厳守することは楽しかった。文学的な文体を志し、ペンで生計を立てようとする者なら当たり前の配慮であると彼女は思った。結婚の申しこみに自分で返事を書いたのはこれがはじめてだったけれど、似たような境遇に陥ったヒロインのために手紙を書いてやったことがあったので、まんざらこの手の経験がないわけでもないのだ。同時に彼女の書き方はミス・ユーフィミアの蔵書の一冊、ぼろぼろの子牛革で装丁された「若者のための手紙大全、および人生の様々な場面における返事の書き方指南」にいつの間にか影響されていたかも知れない。
It was not till the missive was duly sealed up and posted that she told her aunt of what had happened. "There is Mr Westray's letter," she said, "if you would care to read it," and passed over to Miss Joliffe the piece of white paper on which a man had staked his fate.
Miss Joliffe took the letter with an attempt to assume an indifferent manner, which was unsuccessful, because an offer of marriage has about it a certain exhalation and atmosphere that betrays its importance even to the most unsuspicious. She was a slow reader, and, after wiping and adjusting her spectacles, sat down for a steady and patient consideration of the matter before her.
But the first word that she deciphered, "Dearest," startled her composure, and she pressed on through the letter with a haste that was foreign to her disposition. Her mouth grew rounder as she read, and she sighed out "Dear's" and "Dear Anastasia's" and "Dear Child's" at intervals as a relief to her feelings.
Anastasia stood by her, following the lines of writing that she knew by heart, with all the impatience of one who is reading ten times faster than another who turns the page.
Miss Joliffe's mind was filled with conflicting emotions; she was glad at the prospect of a more assured future that was opening before her niece, she was hurt at not having been taken sooner into confidence, for Anastasia must certainly have known that he was going to propose; she was chagrined at not having noticed a courtship which had been carried on under her very eyes; she was troubled at the thought that the marriage would entail the separation from one who was to her as a child.
How weary she would find it to walk alone down the long paths of old age! how hard it was to be deprived of a dear arm on whose support she had reckoned for when "the slow dark hours begin"! But she thrust this reflection away from her as selfish, and contrition for having harboured it found expression in a hand wrinkled and roughened by hard wear, which stole into Anastasia's.
"My dear," she said, "I am very glad at your good fortune; this is a great thing that has befallen you." A general content that Anastasia should have received a proposal silenced her misgivings.
諾否を求める結婚の申しこみは、よいものであれ、悪いものであれ、どうでもいいものであれ、受け手にある種の自己満足を与える。軽くあしらってもいいし、不興をかこってもいいし、アナスタシアのように腹を立ててもいい。しかしその心の奥底には、一人の男の完全な賞賛を勝ち取ったといううぬぼれが潜んでいるものだ。たとえ相手が絶対に結婚したくないような男であっても、馬鹿であっても、けちであっても、悪党であっても、とにかく男であって、彼女は彼を虜にしたのだ。彼女の親族も同じようにご満悦である。申しこみが受諾されるなら、それまではたぶん先行き不確かだった者に未来が開かれることになる。拒絶した場合は、金の力に屈しなかったとか、不釣り合いな相手と運命を結びあわせなかったとか言って、血族の女の優れた判断、しっかりした分別を祝うのである。 ~~~ 「よかったじゃないの」ミス・ジョウリフは繰り返した。「おまえが幸せになることを願っているよ、アナスタシア。この婚約に神様の祝福がありますように」
To the recipient, an offer of marriage, be it good, bad, or indifferent, to be accepted or to be refused, brings a certain complacent satisfaction. She may pretend to make light of it, to be displeased at it, to resent it, as did Anastasia; but in her heart of hearts there lurks the self-appreciating reflection that she has won the completest admiration of a man. If he be a man that she would not marry under any conditions, if he be a fool, or a spendthrift, or an evil-liver, he is still a man, and she has captured him. Her relations share in the same pleasurable reflections. If the offer is accepted, then a future has been provided for one whose future, maybe, was not too certain; if it is declined, then they congratulate themselves on the high morale or strong common-sense of a kinswoman who refuses to be won by gold, or to link her destiny with an unsuitable partner.
"It is a great thing, my dear, that has befallen you," Miss Joliffe repeated. "I wish you all happiness, dear Anastasia, and may all blessings wait upon you in this engagement."
"Aunt," interrupted her niece, "please don't say that. I have refused him, _of course_; how could you think that I should marry Mr Westray? I never have thought of any such thing with him. I never had the least idea of his writing like this."
「あの人がメソジストだっていう点は少しも気にする必要がないと思うわ」彼女は問題のありかを突き止めたと強く確信し、また自分の洞察力の鋭さを多少誇りに思いながら言った。「お父さんはしばらく前にお亡くなりだと言うし、お母様はご存命だけど、一緒に暮らすことはないのよ。お母様はあなたにメソジストになって欲しいなんて思いやしないでしょう。ミスタ・ウエストレイは、いいえ、今やあなたのミスタ・ウエストレイよね」そう言って彼女はその場にふさわしいいたずらっぽい表情を浮かべた。「あの人は立派な教会の信者だわ。日曜にはきちんと大聖堂に行くし、建築家だから平日だって聖堂に行っている。国教会の礼拝のほうが他の派の礼拝より心にしっくりくるんでしょうね。もちろんメソジストの悪口なんか一言も言うつもりはないわ。あの人たちは本物のプロテスタントよ。もっと重大な過ちからわたしたちを守ってくれる土塁のような人たちだわ。あなたの恋人が小さいときの躾のおかげで典礼尊重主義に陥っていないことは喜ばしいことよ」
"You have refused him?" said the elder lady with a startled emphasis. Again a selfish reflection crossed her mind--they were not to be parted after all--and again she put it resolutely away. She ran over in her mind all the possible objections that could have influenced her niece in arriving at such a conclusion. Religion was the keynote of Miss Joliffe's life; to religion her thought reverted as the needle to the pole, and to it she turned for an explanation now. It must be some religious consideration that had proved an obstacle to Anastasia.
"I do not think you need find any difficulty in his having been brought up as a Wesleyan," she said, with a profound conviction that she had put her finger on the matter, and with some consciousness of her own perspicacity. "His father has been dead some time, and though his mother is still alive, you would not have to live with her. I do not think, dear, she would at all wish you to become a Methodist. As for our Mr Westray, your Mr Westray, I should say now," and she assumed that expression of archness which is considered appropriate to such occasions, "I am sure he is a sound Churchman. He goes regularly to the minster on Sundays, and I dare say, being an architect, and often in church on week-days, he has found out that the order of the Church of England is more satisfactory than that of any other sect. Though I am sure I do not wish to say one word against Wesleyans; they are no doubt true Protestants, and a bulwark against more serious errors. I rejoice that your lover's early training will have saved him from any inclination to ritualism."
"My dear aunt," Anastasia broke in, with a stress of earnest deprecation on the "dear" that startled her aunt, "please do _not_ go on like that. Do not call Mr Westray my lover; I have told you that I will have nothing to do with him."
ミス・ジョウリフの思いは大きく弧を描いて動いた。結婚の申しこみが断られ、縁談は破談というなりゆきに直面し、それがもたらすはずの利点が急にくっきりと見えてきたのである。興味津々のドラマが始まったと思ったらさっそく幕が閉まり、よきものをつかんだと思ったら、とたんに指のあいだからこぼれ落ちてしまう。これではあまりにも残念だと思った。数分前に彼女を悩ました孤独な老後の恐れなど今は考えようともしなかった。彼女が見ていたのはアナスタシアがわがままにも犠牲にしようとしつつある将来への備え、それだけだった。手はいつの間にか握りしめられ、持っていた縦長の紙片をくしゃくしゃにしてしまった。それはたかが牛乳屋の請求書に過ぎなかったけれども、もしかしたらそれが無意識のうちに彼女の考え方を実利主義的な色合いに染めていたのかも知れない。
Miss Joliffe's thoughts had moved through a wide arc. Now that this offer of marriage was about to be refused, now that this engagement was not to be, the advantages that it offered stood out in high relief. It seemed too sad that the curtain should be rung down just as the action of a drama of intense interest was beginning, that the good should slip through their fingers just as they were grasping it. She gave no thought now to that fear of a lonely old age which had troubled her a few minutes before; she only saw the provision for the future which Anastasia was wilfully sacrificing. Her hand tightened automatically, and crumpled a long piece of paper that she was holding. It was only a milkman's bill, and yet it might perhaps have unconsciously given a materialistic colour to her thoughts.
"We should not reject any good thing that is put before us," she said a little stiffly, "without being very certain that we are right to do so. I do not know what would become of you, Anastasia, if anything were to happen to me."
"That is exactly what he says, that is the very argument which he uses. Why should you take such a gloomy view of things? Why should something _happening_ always mean something bad. Let us hope something good will happen, that someone else will make me a better offer." She laughed, and went on reflectively: "I wonder whether Mr Westray will come back here to lodge; I hope he won't."
Hardly were the words out of her mouth when she was sorry for uttering them, for she saw the look of sadness which overspread Miss Joliffe's face.
"Dear aunt," she cried, "I am so sorry; I didn't mean to say that. I know what a difference it would make; we cannot afford to lose our last lodger. I hope he _will_ come back, and I will do everything I can to make things comfortable, short of marrying him. I will earn some money myself. I will _write_."
"How will you write? Who is there to write to?" Miss Joliffe said, and then the blank look on her face grew blanker, and she took out her handkerchief. "There is no one to help us. Anyone who ever cared for us is dead long ago; there is no one to write to now."
望みは冷たく死に絶えて
落ち葉のごとく散りはてる ~~~
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
というリフレインを持ち、クラプトン・メソジスト紙に掲載された。そののち、とある若い女性が、また一つあらわれた傷心をいやそうとして曲をつけてくれた。ベッドの中で一晩じゅう目を開けていようとして、あまり成功はしなかったのだが、会話の時は不眠症がその犠牲者に与える沈鬱な気分についてそれとなく語ったりした。嫌いな食べ物がでれば喜んで立てつづけに食事をしたくないと言い、母親は彼の健康状態を真剣に案じた。彼女はアナスタシアが息子を拒否したことを口を極めてののしったが、アナスタシアが申しこみを受け入れていたらもっと痛烈にののしっただろう。息子の前で大げさな重苦しい表情をして彼をうんざりさせ、またレディ・クララ・ヴィア・デ・ヴィアの残忍さが誠実な心を苦悩に陥れた故事を引き（註 テニソンの詩から）、はねつけられた恋人さえこのあまりに筋違いなたとえに苦笑せざるを得なかった。
Westray played the role of rejected lover most conscientiously; he treated the episode of his refusal on strictly conventional lines. He assured himself and his mother that the light of his life was extinguished, that he was the most unhappy of mortals. It was at this time that he wrote some verses called "Autumn," with a refrain of-- ~~~ "For all my hopes are cold and dead, And fallen like the fallen leaves,"
ミセス・ウエストレイはアナスタシアが嫁に来なかったことをさんざん罵倒したが、心の中ではそういう結果に終わったことを大喜びしていた。ウエストレイは正直なところ喜ぶべきなのか悲しむべきなのか分からなかった。彼は自分がアナスタシアを深く愛しており、この愛は彼女を悪から守ろうとする騎士道的な志によって崇高なものにまで昇華されていると信じていた。しかし見逃すことができないのは、この不幸な出来事のおかげで、少なくとも下宿の女主人の姪と結婚するという、前代未聞の事態は避けられたのだということである。彼は自分が心から深く悲しんでいると思いこもうとしたが、結局のところ悔しさと屈辱が彼の気持ちの大部分を占めているのではないかとも思われた。他にも考えたことはあったが、この深刻な悲劇のさなかに似合わぬ不謹慎な考えであると、頭の中から追い出した。しかし、にもかかわらず、それらは目に見えないところで心を慰める穏やかな効き目を放っていたのである。早すぎる、金のない結婚という不安を免れることができたのだ。家族を養う労苦によって仕事が邪魔されることはないのだ。全世界がもう一度目の前に広がり、また新たにやり直すことができるのだ。これらは決して看過できない、大切な点なのだが、胸を刺す悲しみが他のあらゆる感情を圧倒すべきときに、こうしたことをむやみに強調するのはどうも具合が悪いのだった。
which were published in the _Clapton Methodist_, and afterwards set to music by a young lady who wished to bind up another wounded heart. He attempted to lie awake of nights with indifferent success, and hinted in conversation at the depressing influence which insomnia exerts over its victims. For several meals in succession he refused to eat heartily of such dishes as he did not like, and his mother felt serious anxiety as to his general state of health. She inveighed intemperately against Anastasia for having refused her son, but then she would have inveighed still more intemperately had Anastasia accepted him. She wearied him with the portentous gloom which she affected in his presence, and quoted Lady Clara Vere de Vere's cruelty in turning honest hearts to gall, till even the rejected one was forced to smile bitterly at so inapposite a parallel.
彼はサー・ジョージ・ファークワーに手紙を書き、気分がすぐれないことを理由に十日間の休暇を得た。ミス・ユーフィミアには別の下宿を探す旨を伝えた。この措置は最初から取らざるを得ないと思っていた。ベルヴュー・ロッジに居座りつづけて、アナスタシアの姿を見、あるいは偶然彼女と話をすることで、日々悲しみを新たにしたり、日々傷口が開いたりするのは耐え難かった。言うまでもなく、この決断には傷つけられた自尊心への譲歩が一部含まれている。男は壊滅的な敗北を喫した場面を好んで再び訪れたりはしない。それにお湯が欲しいと呼び鈴を鳴らして振られた恋人を呼び出すなど、考えただけでもどこかグロテスクである。手紙で別の下宿を探すのは造作もなかった。教会事務員のジャナウエイに頼んで荷物を移してもらうことにしたので、本人が以前の住居に戻る必要はまったくなかった。
Though Mrs Westray senior poured out the vials of her wrath on Anastasia for having refused to become Mrs Westray junior, she was at heart devoutly glad at the turn events had taken. At heart Westray could not have said whether he was glad or sorry. He told himself that he was deeply in love with Anastasia, and that this love was further ennobled by a chivalrous desire to shield her from evil; but he could not altogether forget that the unfortunate event had at least saved him from the unconventionality of marrying his landlady's niece. He told himself that his grief was sincere and profound, but it was possible that chagrin and wounded pride were after all his predominant feelings. There were other reflections which he thrust aside as indecorous at this acute stage of the tragedy, but which, nevertheless, were able to exercise a mildly consoling influence in the background. He would be spared the anxieties of early and impecunious marriage, his professional career would not be weighted by family cares, the whole world was once more open before him, and the slate clean. These were considerations which could not prudently be overlooked, though it would be unseemly to emphasise them too strongly when the poignancy of regret should dominate every other feeling.
一ヶ月後のある朝、ミス・ジョウリフは生前ミスタ・シャーノールが使っていた部屋に腰かけていた。アナスタシアが保母兼家庭教師の口を求むという広告を出しにカラン・アドバタイザー紙の事務所へ行ったため、彼女は一人だった。日差しの明るい朝だったが空気は冷たかった。火床に火が入っていなかったので、ミス・ジョウリフは白い手編みの古ショールをぎゅっと身体に巻き付けた。火がないのは金がないせいだが、しかし窓を通して入って来る光はその部屋を台所よりも暖かくしていた。台所の残り火は朝食のあと消えるにまかされていた。天気のいい秋の日は、彼女とアナスタシアは火をたかずに石炭を節約していたのだ。同じ理由から二人は冷たい夕食を取り、早々に床に就いたのだが、それでも地下室の蓄えは徐々に減っていった。ちょうどその日の朝、ミス・ジョウリフは蓄えを調べて、残りがほとんどないことを知った。それを補充する金もなかったし、もう掛け買いもできなかった。
He wrote to Sir George Farquhar, and obtained ten days' leave of absence on the score of indisposition; and he wrote to Miss Euphemia Joliffe to tell her that he intended to seek other rooms. From the first he had decided that this latter step was inevitable. He could not bear the daily renewal of regret, the daily opening of the wound that would be caused by the sight of Anastasia, or by such chance intercourse with her as further residence at Bellevue Lodge must entail. There is no need to speculate whether his decision was influenced in part by a concession to humiliated pride; men do not take pleasure in revisiting the scenes of a disastrous rout, and it must be admitted that the possibility of summoning a lost love to his presence when he rang for boiling water, had in it something of the grotesque. He had no difficulty in finding other lodgings by correspondence, and he spared himself the necessity of returning at all to his former abode by writing to ask Clerk Janaway to move his belongings.
彼女の前のテーブルには山のような紙切れがあった。黄色いのや、ピンク色のや、白いのや、青いのがあったが、どれもきちんとたたまれている。それらは同じ幅になるように縦に折られていた。マーチン・ジョウリフの請求書である。彼は自分の習慣に関しては厳密といっていいくらい細かな注意を払い、秩序を重んじた。確かにそのうちの何枚かは彼女への請求書であったけれども、彼女はいつも兄のやり方を寸分違わず順守し、請求書に折り目をつけ、かつ表に摘要を書き記した。そう、何枚かは直接彼女に責任があり、どれが彼女のものかは開かずとも表を見ただけで分かった。その一枚を取り上げてみると、「ローズ・アンド・ストーリー服地店、フランス製婦人服飾品、花、羽毛、リボン等輸入業者、マント及びジャケット展示室」とある。ああ、何ということだろう！人間とは何と弱いものだろう！逆境のさなかにあっても、翳り行く老いのさなかにあっても、こうしたことばはミス・ジョウリフの心をときめかせた――花、羽毛、リボン、マント、そしてジャケット。目の前にカラン市場十九、二十、二十一、二十二番地の華やかな展示室が浮かんできた――仕立てたドレスが身体に合うか試着する、夏の朝の厳かな静けさに包まれた展示室。売れ残り商品のセールに人で埋まり、栄光に満ちた争奪戦が繰り広げられる展示室。「自宅用及び訪問用喪服、衣装、スカート、その他。外国及び国内産シルク仕立て保証付き」そのあとに書き記されていることは単なる興ざましとしか思えなかった。「ボンネット用材料及び飾り、１１シリング９ペンス、帽子、１３シリング６ペンス、合計１ポンド５シリング３ペンス」こんなものはがたがた騒ぐほどのものではない。アナスタシアの帽子のほうが１シリング１１ペンス高かったけれど、さくらんぼの飾りとスパンコール付きのネットはその差額分の価値が十分あった。
One morning, a month later, Miss Joliffe sat in that room which had been occupied by the late Mr Sharnall. She was alone, for Anastasia had gone to the office of the _Cullerne Advertiser_ with an announcement in which one A.J. intimated that she was willing to take a post as nursery-governess. It was a bright morning but cold, and Miss Joliffe drew an old white knitted shawl closer about her, for there was no fire in the grate. There was no fire because she could not afford it, yet the sun pouring in through the windows made the room warmer than the kitchen, where the embers had been allowed to die out since breakfast. She and Anastasia did without fire on these bright autumn days to save coals; they ate a cold dinner, and went early to bed for the same reason, yet the stock in the cellar grew gradually less. Miss Joliffe had examined it that very morning, and found it terribly small; nor was there any money nor any credit left with which to replenish it.
On the table before her was a pile of papers, some yellow, some pink, some white, some blue, but all neatly folded. They were folded lengthways and to the same breadth, for they were Martin Joliffe's bills, and he had been scrupulously neat and orderly in his habits. It is true that there were among them some few that she had herself contracted, but then she had always been careful to follow exactly her brother's method both of folding and also of docketing them on the exterior. Yes, no doubt she was immediately responsible for some, and she knew just which they were from the outside without any need to open them. She took up one of them: "Rose and Storey, importers of French millinery, flowers, feathers, ribbons, etcetera. Mantle and jacket show-rooms." Alas, alas! how frail is human nature! Even in the midst of her misfortunes, even in the eclipse of old age, such words stirred Miss Joliffe's interest--flowers, feathers, ribbons, mantles, and jackets; she saw the delightful show-room 19, 20, 21, and 22, Market Place, Cullerne--saw it in the dignified solitude of a summer morning when a dress was to be tried on, saw it in the crush and glorious scramble of a remnant sale. "Family and complimentary mourning, costumes, skirts, etcetera; foreign and British silks, guaranteed makes." After that the written entry seemed mere bathos: "Material and trimming one bonnet, 11 shillings and 9 pence; one hat, 13 shillings 6 pence. Total, 1 pound 5 shillings 3 pence." It really was not worth while making a fuss about, and the bunch of cherries and bit of spangled net were well worth the 1 shilling 9 pence, that Anastasia's had cost more than hers.
Hole, pharmaceutical chemist: "Drops, 1 shilling 6 pence; liniment, 1 shilling; mixture, 1 shilling 9 pence," repeated many times. "Cod-liver oil, 1 shilling 3 pence, and 2 shillings 6 pence, and 1 shilling 3 pence again. 2 pounds 13 shillings 2 pence, with 4 shillings 8 pence interest," for the bill was four years old. That was for Anastasia at a critical time when nothing seemed to suit her, and Dr Ennefer feared a decline; but all the medicine for poor Martin was entered in Dr Ennefer's own account.
Pilkington, the shoemaker, had his tale to tell: "Miss Joliffe: Semi-pold. lace boots, treble soles, 1 pound 1 shilling 0 pence. Miss A. Jol.: Semi-pold. lace boots, treble soles, 1 pound 1 shilling 0 pence. 6 pair mohair laces, 9 pence. 3 ditto, silk, 1 shilling." Yes, she was indeed a guilty woman. It was she that had "run up" _these_ accounts, and she grew red to think that her own hand should have helped to build so dismal a pile.
公共の利益に反するあらゆる習癖と同じく、借金にはいつか懲罰がもたらされる。近隣に迷惑をかけるやり方に、社会は懲らしめを与えて自分を守ろうとするのだ。借金する特殊な才能と能力を生まれながらに持っている人がいることは事実である――彼らはその才能を使って楽しく生きていく。しかし負債を抱える者はたいてい鎖の重みを感じ、金をだまし取られた貸し主よりももっとつらい思いをしているものだ。挽き臼はゆっくり廻るが、粒を細かく砕く。未払いの借金はそれで買った品物がもたらした悦びよりも、もっと大きな苦痛をもたらす。そうした苦痛の中でも間違いなく最大のものは、すでに使い古されてしまった物――擦り切れたドレス、しおれた花、空になったワイン――への請求書である。ピルキントンのブーツも、どれほどしっかり三重底になっていようと、永遠に履きつづけることができるわけではない。ミス・ジョウリフは無意識のうちにテーブルの下に目をむけ、どちらのブーツの側面にも縦のひび割れが走り、白い裏地をのぞかせているのを見た。これからどこで新しいブーツを手に入れればいいのだろう。着る物は？パンは？
Debt, like every other habit that runs counter to the common good, brings with it its own punishment, because society protects itself by making unpleasant the ways of such as inconvenience their neighbours. It is true that some are born with a special talent and capacity for debt--they live on it, and live merrily withal, but most debtors feel the weight of their chains, and suffer greater pangs than those which they inflict on any defrauded creditor. If the millstone grinds slowly it grinds small, and undischarged accounts bring more pain than the goods to which they relate ever brought pleasure. Among such bitternesses surely most bitter are the bills for things of which the fruition has ceased--for worn-out finery, for withered flowers, for drunk wine. Pilkington's boots, were they never so treble soled, could not endure for ever, and Miss Joliffe's eyes followed unconsciously under the table to where a vertical fissure showed the lining white at the side of either boot. Where were new boots to come from now, whence was to come clothing to wear, and bread to eat?
いや、それどころではない。借金の相手が何もせず我慢していた日々は終わったのだ。彼らは行動に移りはじめた。カラン水道会社は水道を止めると言い、カランガス会社はガスを止めると警告してきた。牛乳屋のイーブスは長い長い勘定（すべてわずか一パイントの牛乳の料金）を今すぐ精算しなければ召喚状を出してもらうと脅してきた。状況は縦走歩兵の最後列を戦闘に投入するところまでいっており、ミス・ジョウリフの体面は潰され、最後の兵士たちは浮き足立っていた。どうしたらいい？誰に助けを求めたらいい？家具を売らなければならないが、誰があんな古い物を買うだろう。それに家具を売ってしまえば、半ば空になった部屋に下宿しようとする人はいない。彼女は絶望してまわりを見回し、紙の山に両手を突っこみ、熱に浮かされたように引っかき回した。もう一度少女の頃に帰ってウィドコウムの牧草地で干し草をひっくり返しているようにすら見えた。そのとき外の舗道から足音が聞こえた。一瞬アナスタシアが予定より早く帰ってきたのかと思ったが、足音の重々しさは、それが男性であることを示していた。目をやると従兄弟で教区委員兼肉屋のミスタ・ジョウリフだった。でっぷりした不格好な姿が窓を水平に横切った。彼は間違っていないことを確認するように、立ち止まって家を見上げ、それからゆっくりと半円形の石段を登って、呼び鈴を鳴らした。
Nay, more, the day of passive endurance was past; action had begun. The Cullerne Water Company threatened to cut off the water, the Cullerne Gas Company threatened to cut off the gas. Eaves, the milkman, threatened a summons unless that long, long bill of his (all built up of pitiful little pints) was paid forthwith. The Thing had come to the _Triarii_, Miss Joliffe's front was routed, the last rank was wavering. What was she to do, whither was she to turn? She must sell some of the furniture, but who would buy such old stuff? And if she sold furniture, what lodger would take half-empty rooms? She looked wildly round, she thrust her hands into the pile of papers, she turned them over with a feverish action, till she seemed to be turning hay once more as a little girl in the meadows at Wydcombe. Then she heard footsteps on the pavement outside, and thought for a moment that it was Anastasia returned before she was expected, till a heavy tread told her that a man was coming, and she saw that it was Mr Joliffe, her cousin, churchwarden and pork-butcher. His bulky and unwieldy form moved levelly past the windows; he paused and looked up at the house as if to make sure that he was not mistaken, and then he slowly mounted the semicircular flight of stone steps and rang the bell.
In person he was tall, but disproportionately stout for his height. His face was broad, and his loose double chin gave it a flabby appearance. A pallid complexion and black-grey hair, brushed straightly down where he was not bald, produced an impression of sanctimoniousness which was increased by a fawning manner of speech. Mr Sharnall was used to call him a hypocrite, but the aspersion was false, as such an aspersion commonly is.
厳密、純粋な意味での偽善者は小説のページの外にはめったに存在しない。牧師の奨励を受けてペテンが蔓延する下層階級を除いて、人間は一時的な利得や目的達成のために宗教という衣を意図的に纏うことはまれである。公言するところと実際が十分に合致せず、口やかましい連中が文句を言うとしても、そうした場合の十中八九は目的をやり遂げようとする意志の弱さ、人間の性格の二重性に起因する不一致であり、意識的なごまかしではないのである。卑しむべき生活を送っていた者が、宗教的な、高尚な、清らかな社会に住み、あたかも自分が宗教的な、高尚な、清らかな人間であるかのごとく話し、あるいは振る舞うとしても、それは十中八九だまそうという明らかな意図があってのことではなく、優れた人々に一時的に影響された結果なのである。そのあいだ彼は自分の言うことを信じ、また信じていると自分に言い聞かせるのだ。厚かましい相手といるときは厚かましくなるように、正しい人々といるときは正しくなり、心根が優しく敏感であればあるほど、一時的な影響を受けやすいのだ。偽善といわれるものは、このカメレオンのような適応性のことである。
Hypocrites, in the pure and undiluted sense, rarely exist outside the pages of fiction. Except in the lower classes, where deceit thrives under the incentive of clerical patronage, men seldom assume deliberately the garb of religion to obtain temporal advantages or to further their own ends. It is probable that in nine cases out of ten, where practice does not accord sufficiently with profession to please the censorious, the discrepancy is due to inherent weakness of purpose, to the duality of our nature, and not to any conscious deception. If a man leading the lower life should find himself in religious, or high-minded, or pure society, and speak or behave as if he were religious, or high-minded, or pure, he does so in nine cases out of ten not with any definite wish to deceive, but because he is temporarily influenced by better company. For the time he believes what he says, or has persuaded himself that he believes it. If he is froward with the froward, so he is just with the just, and the more sympathetic and susceptible his nature, the more amenable is he to temporary influences. It is this chameleon adaptability that passes for hypocrisy.
従兄弟のジョウリフは決して偽善者ではない。自分を照らす光にふさわしい行動をしているだけなのだ。かりにその光が薄暗い、脂で汚れた、悪臭を放つパラフィン・ランプの光だったとしても、それにふさわしく振る舞おうと心がける者こそ、いっそう哀れまれるべきである。従兄弟のジョウリフはいわゆる素人聖職者の一人で、宗教を話題にし、教会の問題に関心を示し、聖職に就かなかったために己の天職を逃してしまったような人物だった。参事会員パーキンが高教会派なら、従兄弟のジョウリフも高教会派になっていただろう。しかし参事会員が低教会派だったので、従兄弟のジョウリフは自分でも喜んで言うように熱心な福音教会員になった。主任司祭の教区委員で、祈祷会では主導的な立場にあり、学校の慰安会、ハム・ティー、幻灯機に目がなく、一度ならずカリスベリのミッション・ルームで補佐を頼まれたというのが自慢だった。そこでクライストチャーチの教区主管代理が大聖堂の厳粛な雰囲気に包まれて信仰復興伝道集会を開いたのである。ユーモアのセンスや心の細やかさなどはかけらもなく――尊大で、自分の役職を鼻にかけ、さもしいくらいに節約家だったが、しかし彼は自分を照らす光にふさわしく振る舞っていただけで、決して偽善者ではなかった。
Cousin Joliffe was no hypocrite, he acted up to his light; and even if the light be a badly-trimmed, greasy, evil-smelling paraffin-lamp, the man who acts up to it is only the more to be pitied. Cousin Joliffe was one of those amateur ecclesiastics whose talk is of things religious, whom Church questions interest, and who seem to have missed their vocation in not having taken Orders. If Canon Parkyn had been a High Churchman, Cousin Joliffe would have been High Church; but the Canon being Low-Church, Cousin Joliffe was an earnest evangelical, as he delighted to describe himself. He was rector's churchwarden, took a leading part in prayer-meetings, with a keen interest in school-treats, ham teas, and magic lanterns, and was particularly proud of having been asked more than once to assist in the Mission Room at Carisbury, where the Vicar of Christ Church carried on revival work among the somnolent surroundings of a great cathedral. He was without any sense of humour or any refinement of feeling--self-important, full of the dignity of his office, thrifty to meanness, but he acted up to his light, and was no hypocrite.
In that petty middle-class, narrow-minded and penuriously pretentious, which was the main factor of Cullerne life, he possessed considerable influence and authority. Among his immediate surroundings a word from Churchwarden Joliffe carried more weight than an outsider would have imagined, and long usage had credited him with the delicate position of _censor morum_ to the community. Did the wife of a parishioner venture into such a place of temptation as the theatre at Carisbury, was she seen being sculled by young Bulteel in his new skiff of a summer evening, the churchwarden was charged to interview her husband, to point out to him privately the scandal that was being caused, and to show him how his duty lay in keeping his belongings in better order. Was a man trying to carry fire in his bosom by dalliance at the bar of the Blandamer Arms, then a hint was given to his spouse that she should use such influence as would ensure evenings being spent at home. Did a young man waste the Sabbath afternoon in walking with his dog on Cullerne Flat, he would receive "The Tishbite's Warning, a Discourse showing the Necessity of a Proper Observance of the Lord's Day." Did a pig-tailed hoyden giggle at the Grammar School boys from her pew in the minster, the impropriety was reported by the churchwarden to her mother.
カランの生活の中核をなす、あの偏狭でけちくさい、見栄ばかり張る、俗物だらけの中流階級のなかで、彼は絶大な影響力と権威を保っていた。彼の身近にいる人々にとって、教区委員ジョウリフの一言は部外者が想像する以上の重みを持ち、長いあいだの習慣で、彼はその地域の風紀係という、厄介な役職を与えられていた。教区民の妻がカリスベリの劇場というような誘惑の場に足を踏み入れたり、夏の夕暮れ、ブルティールの息子に買ったばかりのボートに乗せてもらっているのを目撃されたら、教区委員はその夫に面会し、醜聞が囁かれていることをこっそり教え、自分の家族をきちんと監督するのが彼の義務だと諭す役をまかされるのだ。夫がブランダマー・アームズの酒場で女といちゃつき浮気心に火を灯そうとしていたら、その妻に夜は外出させないように手を打てと耳打ちする。若者が安息日の午後をカラン・フラットで犬と散歩しながら無駄に過ごしていたら、「テシベの警告、主日遵守の必要性について」という本が送られる。お下げ髪のはねっかえりが大聖堂の家族席でグラマー・スクールの生徒たちを見てげらげら笑ったら、その不品行は教区委員から母親に通知される。
On such occasions he was scrupulous in assuming a frock-coat and a silk hat. Both were well-worn, and designed in the fashion of another day; but they were in his eyes insignia of office, and as he felt the tails of the coat about his knees they seemed to him as it were the skirts of Aaron's garment. Miss Joliffe was not slow to notice that he was thus equipped this morning; she knew that he had come to pay her a visit of circumstance, and swept her papers hurriedly into a drawer. She felt as if they were guilty things these bills, as if she had been engaged in a guilty action in even "going through" them, as if she had been detected in doing that which she should not do, and guiltiest of all seemed the very hurry of concealment with which she hid such compromising papers.
そうした際にはフロックコートにシルクハットと念入りに身なりを整えた。どちらもすっかり擦り切れ、一昔前の仕立てだったが、彼にはそれが自分の役職をあらわすしるしのように思われ、コートの裾が膝に当たるのを感じると、まるで大司祭アロンの装束の裾が当たっているような気分になった。ミス・ジョウリフはこの日の朝、彼がそんな服装をしていることにすぐ気がついた。改まった用事の訪問と察した彼女は、急いで紙切れを引き出しに突っこんだ。それら請求書が罪深いもののように思われ、ただ「目を通した」だけなのに、やましい行為を犯していたような、してはいけないことをしているのがばれてしまったような気がした。しかしいちばん後ろめたかったのは、この不名誉な紙切れを泡食って隠そうとする、まさにその行為であったのだけれども。
She tried to perform that feat of mental gymnastics called retaining one's composure, the desperate and forced composure which the coiner assumes when opening the door to the police, the composure which a woman assumes in returning to her husband with the kisses of a lover tingling on her lips. It _is_ a feat to change the current of the mind, to let the burning thought that is dearest or bitterest to us go by the board, to answer coherently to the banalities of conversation, to check the throbbing pulse. The feat was beyond Miss Joliffe's powers; she was but a poor actress, and the churchwarden saw that she was ill at ease as she opened the door.
"Good-morning, cousin," he said with one of those interrogative glances which are often more irritating and more difficult to parry than a direct question; "you are not looking at all the thing this morning. I hope you are not feeling unwell; I hope I do not intrude."
"Oh no," she said, making as good an attempt at continuous speech as the quick beating of her heart allowed; "it is only that your visit is a little surprise. I am a little flurried; I am not quite so young as I was."
「あら、とんでもない」動悸のする心臓が許すかぎり、なめらかにしゃべりつづけようとして彼女は必死だった。「あなたがいらっしゃったので少しびっくりしたのよ。ちょっとだけ慌てたわ。もう昔のように若くないから」 ~~~ 「そうだね」ミスタ・シャーノールの部屋に通されながら彼は言った。「わたしたちはみんな老いていく。外を歩くときは気をつけなければならないね。いつ天に召されるか分からんから」まじまじと同情するように見つめられ、彼女は自分が本当によぼよぼの老人になったような気がした。すぐにでも本当に「天に召される」べきであるような、ただちに死なないのは義務を怠っているかのような感じだった。彼女は手編みのショールを痩せた震える肩にいっそう強く引きつけた。
"Ay," he said, as she showed him into Mr Sharnall's room, "we are all of us growing older; it behoves us to walk circumspectly, for we never know when we may be taken." He looked at her so closely and compassionately that she felt very old indeed; it really seemed as if she ought to be "taken" at once, as if she was neglecting her duty in not dying away incontinently. She drew the knitted shawl more tightly round her spare and shivering body.
"I am afraid you will find this room a little cold," she said; "we are having the kitchen chimney cleaned, so I was sitting here." She gave a hurried glance at the bureau, feeling a suspicion that she might not have shut the drawer tight, or that one of the bills might have somehow got left out. No, all was safe, but her excuse had not deceived the churchwarden.
"Phemie," he said, not unkindly, though the word brought tears to her eyes, for it was the first time that anyone had called her by the old childhood name since the night that Martin died--"Phemie, you should not stint yourself in fires. It is a false economy; you must let me send you a coal ticket."
「お志は嬉しいけど結構よ。十分ありますから」彼女は急いでそう言った。ドルカス会の一員である彼女にしてみれば、教区の石炭券をもらったなどと言われるくらいなら、さっさと飢え死にしたほうがましである。彼はそれ以上彼女を説き伏せようとはせず、差し出された椅子に腰かけ、いささか居心地の悪い思いを味わっていた。身なりが立派で恰幅がよすぎる男が貧乏を前にしたときに当然感じる居心地の悪さだった。確かに彼女にはしばらく会いに来なかった。しかしベルヴュー・ロッジは遠く離れているし、彼は教区の世話や自分の仕事に追われていた。おまけに二人の歩む人生はあまりに違いすぎる。親類の女性が下宿を経営することにはもちろん強い反対があった。彼は今、同情心からつい「従姉妹《おまえ》さん」とか「フェミー」などと呼んだことを後悔していた。遠い親戚であることは事実だが、従姉妹ではないのだと心の中で繰り返し、親しみをこめすぎた態度に気づいてなければいいがと思った。彼は使い古したハンカチで顔をぬぐい、話の前にこほんと一つ咳をした。
"Oh no, thank you very much; we have plenty," she cried, speaking quickly, for she would rather have starved outright, than that it should be said a member of the Dorcas Society had taken a parish coal ticket. He urged her no more, but took the chair that she offered him, feeling a little uncomfortable withal, as a well-clothed and overfed man should, in the presence of penury. It was true he had not been to see her for some time; but, then, Bellevue Lodge was so far off, and he had been so pressed with the cares of the parish and of his business. Besides that, their walks of life were so different, and there was naturally a strong objection to any kinswoman of his keeping a lodging-house. He felt sorry now that compassion had betrayed him into calling her "cousin" and "Phemie"; she certainly _was_ a distant kinswoman, but _not_, he repeated to himself, a cousin; he hoped she had not noticed his familiarity. He wiped his face with a pocket-handkerchief that had seen some service, and gave an introductory cough.
"There is a little matter on which I should like to have a few words with you," he said, and Miss Joliffe's heart was in her mouth; he _had_ heard, then, of these terrible debts and of the threatened summons.
「ざっくばらんに言うよ。わたしは商売人で率直な人間だから、率直な話し方が好きなんだ」
"Forgive me if I go direct to business. I am a business man and a plain man, and like plain speaking."
It is wonderful to what rude remarks, and unkind remarks and untrue remarks such words as these commonly form the prelude, and how very few of these plain speakers enjoy being plainly spoken to in turn.
「いまさっき、外を歩くときは気をつけて歩かなければならんと言ったが、ミス・ジョウリフ、わたしたちが監督を任された人にも気をつけて歩くよう指導しなければならんよ。あんたを非難するつもりはないけれど、他の連中が姪をもっとよく見張るべきだと言うんだよ。とある貴族がやたら足繁くこの家を訪ねてくるね。名指しはしないけれども」――と、いかにも雅量があるような口調だった――「しかし誰のことかは分かるだろう。このあたりで貴族なんてそうお目にかかるものじゃないから。こんなことを言わなければならないとは残念だよ。普通は女性がめざとく見つける事柄だからね。しかし教区委員として町の噂に耳を閉ざすわけにはいかない。しかも同姓の人が当事者とあっては」
"We were talking just now," he went on, "of the duty of walking circumspectly, but it is our duty, Miss Joliffe, to see that those over whom we are set in authority walk circumspectly as well. I mean no reproach to you, but others beside me think it would be well that you should keep closer watch over your niece. There is a nobleman of high station that visits much too often at this house. I will _not_ name any names"--and this with a tone of magnanimous forbearance--"but you will guess who I mean, because the nobility is not that frequent hereabout. I am sorry to have to speak of such things which ladies generally see quick enough for themselves, but as churchwarden I can't shut my ears to what is matter of town talk; and more by token when a namesake of my own is concerned."
The composure which Miss Joliffe had been seeking in vain, came back to her at the pork-butcher's words, partly in the relief that he had not broached the subject of debts which had been foremost in her mind, partly in the surprise and indignation occasioned by his talk of Anastasia. Her manner and very appearance changed, and none would have recognised the dispirited and broken-down old lady in the sharpness of her rejoinder.
"Mr Joliffe," she apostrophised with tart dignity, "you must forgive me for thinking that I know a good deal more about the nobleman in question than you do, and I can assure you _he_ is a perfect gentleman. If he has visited this house, it has been to see Mr Westray about the restoration of the minster. I should have thought one that was churchwarden would have known better than to go bandying scandals about his betters; it is small encouragement for a nobleman to take an interest in the church if the churchwarden is to backbite him for it."
She saw that her cousin was a little taken aback, and she carried the war into the enemy's country, and gave another thrust.
"Not but what Lord Blandamer has called upon me too, apart from Mr Westray. And what have you to say to _that_? If his lordship has thought fit to honour me by drinking a cup of tea under my roof, there are many in Cullerne would have been glad to get out their best china if he had only asked himself to _their_ houses. And there are some might well follow his example, and show themselves a little oftener to their friends and relations."
The churchwarden wiped his face again, and puffed a little.
「これは慮外なことをおっしゃる」教育のない男は本で覚えた表現を嬉しそうに使うが、まさにそんな様子で彼は自分のことばを繰り返した――「これは慮外なことをおっしゃる、醜聞をばらまこうなんて――醜聞なんて言い出したのはあんたのほうですぞ――しかしわたしにも娘たちがおりますからな、変な影響があっては困るのですよ。アナスタシアのことをとやかく言うつもりはない。いい子だと信じているよ」――その見下すような態度はひどくミス・ジョウリフの神経に障った――「もっと日曜学校に興味を持つべきだと思うが。だがね、あの娘は身の程知らずの振る舞いや気取ったしゃべり方をする。あれじゃ人目をひいてしまう。止めたほうがいいですな。人に雇ってもらって生計を立てようとしているんだから。ブランダマー卿のこともとやかく言うつもりはないよ――聖堂のことを真剣に考えてくださっているようだし――しかし噂が本当なら、先代の御前様といい勝負ということになるね。それに、ミス・ジョウリフ、あんたの側の家系にはいろいろなことがあったから、血縁者としてアナスタシアのことが心配になるんだよ。父親の罪は三代か四代あとにまたあらわれるというしね」
"Far be it from me," he said, dwelling on the expression with all the pleasure that a man of slight education takes in a book phrase that he has got by heart--"far be it from me to set scandals afloat--'twas _you_ that used the word scandal--but I have daughters of my own to consider. I have nothing to say against Anastasia, who, I believe, is a good girl enough"--and his patronising manner grated terribly on Miss Joliffe--"though I wish I could see her take more interest in the Sunday-school, but I won't hide from you that she has a way of carrying herself and mincing her words which does _not_ befit her station. It makes people take notice, and 'twould be more becoming she should drop it, seeing she will have to earn her own living in service. I don't want to say anything against Lord Blandamer either--he seems to be well-intentioned to the church--but if tales are true the _old_ lord was no better than he should be, and things have happened before now on your side of the family, Miss Joliffe, that make connections feel uncomfortable about Anastasia. We are told that the sins of the fathers will be visited to the third and fourth generation."
"Well," Miss Joliffe said, and made a formidable pause on this adverb, "if it is the manners of your side of the family to come and insult people in their own houses, I am glad I belong to the other side."
She was alive to the profound gravity of such a sentiment, yet was prepared to take her stand upon it, and awaited another charge from the churchwarden with a dignity and confidence that would have become the Old Guard. But no fierce passage of arms followed; there was a pause, and if a dignified ending were desired the interview should here have ended. But to ordinary mortals the sound of their own voices is so musical as to deaden any sense of anticlimax; talking is continued for talking's sake, and heroics tail off into desultory conversation. Both sides were conscious that they had overstated their sentiments, and were content to leave main issues undecided.
Miss Joliffe did not take the bills out of their drawer again after the churchwarden had left her. The current of her ideas had been changed, and for the moment she had no thought for anything except the innuendoes of her visitor. She rehearsed to herself without difficulty the occasions of Lord Blandamer's visits, and although she was fully persuaded that any suspicions as to his motives were altogether without foundation, she was forced to admit that he _had_ been at Bellevue Lodge more than once when she had been absent. This was no doubt a pure coincidence, but we were enjoined to be wise as serpents as well as innocent as doves, and she would take care that no further occasion was given for idle talk.
アナスタシアが帰ってみると、叔母はいつもと違ってよそよそしく無口だった。ミス・ジョウリフは姪に落ち度は何もないのだからいつも通りに接しようと決めていたのだが、教区委員の話に腹の虫が治まらなかったのだ。その態度があまりにも不可解で、冷たくつんとしているものだから、アナスタシアは何かひどく不愉快なことがあったのだろうと思った。アナスタシアが今朝の天気はうっとうしいと言うと、叔母は顔を蹙めてぼんやりしたまま何も答えなかった。アナスタシアが十四号針を手に入れることができなかった、お店が切らしていたのだというと、叔母は「そう！」となじるような、あきらめたような調子の声を出した。この世界には編み針よりもはるかに大切なことがあるとでも言うように。
Anastasia on her return found her aunt unusually reserved and taciturn. Miss Joliffe had determined to behave exactly as usual to Anastasia because her niece was entirely free from fault; but she was vexed at what the churchwarden had said, and her manner was so mysterious and coldly dignified as to convince Anastasia that some cause for serious annoyance had occurred. Did Anastasia remark that it was a close morning, her aunt looked frowningly abstracted and gave no reply; did Anastasia declare that she had not been able to get any 14 knitting-needles, they were quite out of them, her aunt said, "Oh!" in a tone of rebuke and resignation which implied that there were far more serious matters in the world than knitting-needles.
This dispensation lasted a full half-hour, but beyond that the kindly old heart was quite unequal to supporting a proper hauteur. The sweet warmth of her nature thawed the chilly exterior; she was ashamed of her moodiness, and tried to "make up" for it to Anastasia by manifestation of special affection. But she evaded her niece's attempts at probing the matter, and was resolved that the girl should know nothing of Cousin Joliffe's suggestions or even of the fact of his visit.
アナスタシアは何一つ事情を知らずにいたが、それにしてもその無知は並外れているようだった。カランの人はみんな知っていた。噂になっていたのである。教区委員は数名の古老に相談し、忠告をしに行くことが適切かどうかを諮った。古老たちは男も女も彼の行動を承認し、今度は彼らが親しい、特に信頼している友人に秘密を打ち明けた。その後、陰険なゴシップ屋ミス・シャープが、嘘つきで争いの種をばらまくミセス・フリントに話し、嘘つきで争いの種をばらまくミセス・フリントは、そのことを主任司祭に詳細に報告した。彼は噂話なら何でも好きだった。とりわけ刺激的な噂は大好きだった。ブランダマー卿が神の手（下宿屋のおかみが酒場をベルヴュー・ロッジと名づけるなど笑止千万！）を「昼も夜も」「あらゆる」時間に訪れ、ミス・ジョウリフがその時喜んで天井をむき何も見てないふりをするということは、瞬く間に皆の知れるところとなった。いや、それどころか、彼女が集会に出席するのは彼らの邪魔にならないようにするためだとまで言われた（ドルカス会の集会を口実にするとはなんたる許し難き偽善！）。さらに、ブランダマー卿はあの小生意気なろくでなしの娘にひたすら――それこそ山のように――贈り物を捧げ、若い建築家でさえその不名誉な事態の進展に下宿を変更せざるを得なかったのだ、とも言われた。人々はミス・ジョウリフとその姪が日曜日に聖堂にあらわれるのを見て、何という鉄面皮だと思った。少なくとも若いほうには「多少は」羞恥心が残っているに違いない、「人前で」恋人がくれた綺麗なドレスを着たり、宝石を身につけようとはしないから、と彼らは言った。
But if Anastasia knew nothing of these things, she was like to be singular in her ignorance. All Cullerne knew; it was in the air. The churchwarden had taken a few of the elders into his confidence, and asked their advice as to the propriety of his visit of remonstrance. The elders, male and female, heartily approved of his action, and had in their turn taken into confidence a few of their intimate and specially-to-be-trusted friends. Then ill-natured and tale-bearing Miss Sharp told lying and mischief-making Mrs Flint, and lying and mischief-making Mrs Flint talked the matter over at great length with the Rector, who loved all kinds of gossip, especially of the highly-spiced order. It was speedily matter of common knowledge that Lord Blandamer was at the Hand of God (so ridiculous of a lodging-house keeper christening a public-house Bellevue Lodge!) at _all_ hours of the day _and_ night, and that Miss Joliffe was content to look at the ceiling on such occasions; and worse, to go to meetings so as to leave the field undisturbed (what intolerable hypocrisy making an excuse of the Dorcas meetings!); that Lord Blandamer loaded--simply loaded--that pert and good-for-nothing girl with presents; that even the young architect was forced to change his lodgings by such disreputable goings-on. People wondered how Miss Joliffe and her niece had the effrontery to show themselves at church on Sundays; the younger creature, at least, must have _some_ sense of shame left, for she never ventured to exhibit in _public_ either the fine dresses or the jewellery that her lover gave her.
Such stories came to Westray's ears, and stirred in him the modicum of chivalry which leavens the lump of most men's being. He was still smarting under his repulse, but he would have felt himself disgraced if he had allowed the scandal to pass unchallenged, and he rebutted it with such ardour that people shrugged their shoulders, and hinted that there had been something between _him_, too, and Anastasia.
教会事務員ジャナウエイはこの件に関しては嫌になるほどご都合主義的でそっけない態度を取った。彼は非難もしなければ弁護もしない。彼の考えでは、貴族が神から賜った権利は誰も侵すことができないのだった。たっぷり金を持っていて、けちけちせずに使っているかぎり、われわれはとやかく言うべきではない。彼らは平民とは違う基準で裁かれるべきだ。老いぼれの握り屋に取って代わって聖堂に関心を持つ人間が卿となり、聖堂やみんなのために金を使ってくれるのだから、ありがたいことだと彼は思っていた。べっぴんさんに惚れたからって、何が悪い。そんなこたあ、あの人たちにすりゃ、取るに足らぬこと、放っておくのがいちばんだ。教区委員が歎き、信心深げに悲しむと、彼はさっさとそれを中断するようにフォーディングの栄光について「蘊蓄」を傾け、あそこがもう一度きちんと管理されることはまわりの住人にとってもよいことなのだと言った。
Clerk Janaway was inclined to take a distressingly opportunist and matter-of-fact view of the question. He neither reprobated nor defended. In his mind the Divine right of peers was firmly established. So long as they were rich and spent their money freely, we should not be too particular. They were to be judged by standards other than those of common men; for his part, he was glad they had got in place of an old curmudgeon a man who would take an interest in the Church, and spend money on the place and the people. If he took a fancy to a pretty face, where was the harm? 'Twas nothing to the likes of them, best let well alone; and then he would cut short the churchwarden's wailings and godly lamentations by "decanting" on the glories of Fording, and the boon it was to the countryside to have the place kept up once more.
"Clerk Janaway, your sentiments do you no credit," said the pork-butcher on one such occasion, for he was given to gossip with the sexton on terms of condescending equality. "I have seen Fording myself, having driven there with the Carisbury Field Club, and felt sure it must be a source of temptation if not guarded against. That one man should live in such a house is an impiety; he is led to go about like Nebuchadnezzar, saying: `Is not this great Babylon that I have builded?'"
"_He_ never builded it," said the clerk with some inconsequence; "'twere builded centuries ago. I've heard 'tis that old no one don't know _who_ builded it. Your parents was Dissenters, Mr Joliffe, and never taught you the Catechism when you was young; but as for me, I order myself to my betters as I should, so long as they orders themselves to me. 'Taint no use to say as how we're all level; you've only got to go to Mothers' Meetings, my old missus says, to see that. 'Tis no use looking for too much, nor eating salt with red herrings."
"Well, well," the other deprecated, "I'm not blaming his lordship so much as them that lead him on."
「あの娘さんのこともあんまり非難はできませんぜ。どっちの側にも悪いところがありますからな。御前様のおじい様はいつも品行方正ってわけじゃあなかったし、娘さんの家系にも褒めることのできねえ例があります。今まで不思議なものをさんざん見てきましたが、血は争えねえって思いますよ。非難するなら子供たちより先祖でさあ。親父が酒を飲むと、身体から酒が切れるまで、子供へ孫へと引き継がれます。お袋が淫蕩だと娘も男好きになり、あたいのりんごはいかが、なんて言い寄ったりしがちなものです。いや、とんでもねえ、全能の神様はわたしらを平等にお作りじゃねえんですよ。みんながみんな教区委員だとは思いなさるな。なかには徳のある立派な先祖を持ち、あんたみたいに背中に翼をはやして生まれた人もいるでしょうさ」――そう言って彼はふと聞き手のずっしりした身体つきを見た――「わたしらを穹窿天井まで持ち上げてくれるような翼をね。しかしなかには親父が靴底に鉛をしこんで、床から離れられないってのもおりまさあ」
"Don't go for to blame the girl, neither, too hardly; there's faults on both sides. His grandfather didn't always toe the line, and there were some on her side didn't set too good an example, neither. I've seen many a queer thing in my time, and have got to think blood's blood, and forerunners more to blame than children. If there's drink in fathers, there'll be drink in sons and grandsons till 'tis worked out; and if there's wild love in the mothers, daughters 'll likely sell their apples too. No, no, God-amighty never made us equal, and don't expect us all to be churchwardens. Some on us comes of virtuous forerunners, and are born with wings at the back of our shoulders like you"--and he gave a whimsical look at his listener's heavy figure--"to lift us up to the vaulting; and some on us our fathers fits out with lead soles to the bottom of our boots to keep us on the floor."
土曜の午後はブランダマー卿がやってくる時間だったが、ミス・ジョウリフは家で見張りをするために三週つづけて土曜のドルカス会を休んだ。陰険なゴシップ屋ミス・シャープと嘘つきで争いの種をばらまくミセス・フリントの道徳心は、恥さらしな老女が少なくとも彼女より優れた人々との交わりを避けるくらいに慎みを持っていることを知って喜んだ。しかし会を休むのはミス・ジョウリフにはつらい試練だった。休むたびにもう二度とこんな犠牲は払えないと思ったが、アナスタシアへの愛が彼女を引き留めた。姪には調子がよくないと見え透いた言い訳をしたが、記憶にないほどはるか昔から会合に捧げられてきた二時間を、熱に浮かされたように焦燥しながら過ごす様子を、姪のほうはいぶかしそうに、不安そうに眺めていた。毎週訪れる楽しみは若いときや中年のときはいつまでもつづくように思われるが、人生が夕暮れ時に近づくと以前ほどかぎりないものとは思えなくなる。三十歳は平気で土曜日の親族懇親会を欠席したり、日曜日をいい加減に過ごすが、七十歳はその繰り返しに終わりの来る日が見え、残る一回一回を名残惜しむように過ごすのである。
Saturday afternoon was Lord Blandamer's hour, and for three Saturdays running Miss Joliffe deserted the Dorcas meeting in order to keep guard at home. It rejoiced the moral hearts of ill-natured and tale-bearing Miss Sharp and of lying and mischief-making Mrs Flint that the disreputable old woman had at least the decency not to show herself among her betters, but such defection was a sore trial to Miss Joliffe. She told herself on each occasion that she _could_ not make such a sacrifice again, and yet the love of Anastasia constrained her. To her niece she offered the patent excuse of being unwell, but the girl watched her with wonder and dismay chafe feverishly through the two hours, which had been immemorially consecrated to these meetings. The recurrence of a weekly pleasure, which seems so limitless in youth and middle age, becomes less inexhaustible as life turns towards sunset. Thirty takes lightly enough the foregoing of a Saturday reunion, the uncongenial spending of a Sunday; but seventy can see the end of the series, and grudges every unit of the total that remains.
For three Saturdays Miss Joliffe watched, and for three Saturdays no suspicious visitor appeared.
"We have seen nothing of Lord Blandamer lately," she would remark at frequent intervals with as much indifference as the subject would allow.
"There is nothing to bring him here now that Mr Westray has gone. Why should he come?"
Why, indeed, and what difference would it make to her if he never came again? These were questions that Anastasia had discussed with herself, at every hour of every day of those blank three weeks. She had ample time for such foolish discussions, for such vain imaginings, for she was left much to herself, having no mind-companions either of her own age or of any other. She was one of those unfortunate persons whose education and instincts' unfit them for their position. The diversions of youth had been denied her, the pleasures of dress or company had never been within her reach. For pastime she was turned back continually to her own thoughts, and an active imagination and much desultory reading had educated her in a school of romance, which found no counterpart in the life of Cullerne. She was proud at heart (and it is curious that those are often the proudest who in their neighbours' estimation have least cause for pride), but not conceited in manner in spite of Mr Joliffe's animadversion on the mincing of her words. Yet it was not her pride that had kept her from making friends, but merely the incompatibility of mental temperament, which builds the barrier not so much between education and ignorance, as between refinement and materialism, between romance and commonplace.
まったく、どうして来なきゃならないの。それに二度と来ないからといってそれがわたしに何の関係があるの。これはアナスタシアがあの空白の三週間のあいだ、毎日、毎時間、心のなかで問いかけたことだった。そういうくだらない議論や虚しい想像にふける時間はたっぷりあった。同年代にも年上にも年下にも心を許した友達がおらず、彼女は一人きりだったのだ。彼女はその地位に不相応の教育と天分を持った不幸な人々の一人だった。若者らしい遊びにふける機会はなかったし、おしゃれや人付き合いの楽しみも味わったことがなかった。気晴らしはいつも空想にふけることで、たくましい想像力と手当たりしだいの読書の結果、彼女は小説という学舎で教育を受けることになった。こんな人間はカランには彼女の他に誰もいなかった。彼女は誇り高き人間だった（奇妙なことだが、隣人の見るところ何の取り柄もない人がしばしばもっとも誇り高い人間なのである）。しかししゃべり方が気取っているというミスタ・ジョウリフの批判にもかかわらず、態度にうぬぼれたところはなかった。友達ができなかったのは誇り高かったからではなく、単に気が合わなかったからなのである。他人と彼女をへだてる壁、それは教養と無知をわけへだてる壁というより、洗練されたものと世俗的なもの、奔放な想像力と平凡な日常性をわけへだてる壁だった。
That barrier is so insurmountable that any attempt upon it must end in failure that is often pathetic from its very hopelessness; even the warmth of ardent affection has never yet succeeded in evolving a mental companionship from such discordant material. By kindly dispensation of nature the breadth of the gulf, indeed, is hidden from those who cannot cross it. They know it is there, they have some inkling of the difference of view, but they think that love may build a bridge across, or that in time they may find some other access to the further side. Sometimes they fancy that they are nearer to the goal, that they walk step and step with those they love; but this, alas! is not to be, because the mental sympathy, the touch of illumination that welds minds together, is wanting.
この壁は乗り越えがたく、それを克服しようとするいかなる試みも失敗に終わらざるを得ない。もともと成功の望みがまったくないのだから、その試みが滑稽に見えることも往々にしてある。熱烈な愛もこれほど相容れない素材からは精神的な結びつきを生み出すことなどできたことがない。自然の思いやりある配慮のおかげで、裂け目の広さは、それを越えられぬ者には見えないようになっている。彼らはそこに裂け目があることは知っている。考え方の違いにうすうす気がついてはいる。しかし愛があればそこに橋を架けることができ、あるいはいつかは反対側に渡る道が見つかるはずだと考える。ときには目標にむかって一歩一歩、愛する者と前進しているような気がする。しかし残念だがそううまくはいかないのだ。精神的な理解、心と心を溶接する、あの啓示のような一瞬が欠けているのだ。
It was so with Miss Joliffe the elder--she longed to be near her niece, and was so very far away; she thought that they went hand in hand, when all the while a different mental outlook set them poles asunder. With all her thousand good honest qualities, she was absolutely alien to the girl; and Anastasia felt as if she was living among people of another nation, among people who did not understand her language, and she took refuge in silence.
The dulness of Cullerne had grown more oppressive to her in the last year. She longed for a life something wider, she longed for sympathy. She longed for what a tall and well-favoured maiden of her years most naturally desires, however much she may be ignorant of her desire; she longed for someone to admire her and to love her; she longed for someone about whom she could weave a romance.
過去一年間、カランの退屈さ加減はますます彼女を押しひしいだ。もっと広い世界で生活すること、そして理解されることを彼女は求めていた。どれほど本人がそのような欲望に無自覚だったにしろ、彼女は彼女の年頃の、背が高くて器量のよい娘が求めて当然のものを求めていた。自分を讃え、愛してくれる人を求めていた。ロマンスを紡ぐことのできる相手を求めていた。 ~~~ ローズ・アンド・ストーレイの共同経営者は彼女が必要としているものを察知したのか、それを補ってやろうとした。ドレスの垂れ具合がいいなどと、むかむかするようなお世辞を並べたものだから、ベルヴュー・ロッジが借金で手足もろともローズ・アンド・ストーレイに縛られているのでなければ二度と店には入らないところだった。この店は服地店であると同時に葬儀屋でもあり、ボンネットの小さな借金の他に、マーチンの葬儀費用もまだ支払いを済ませていなかった。中秋の赤い満月みたいな顔をした若い酪農家が市場に行く途中で叔母のところに立ち寄ったこともあった。ミス・ジョウリフに卵やバターを卸値で売り、アナスタシアを見かけるたびに、何ともうんざりするような笑顔を浮かべた。主任司祭の彼女に対する横柄さは我慢がならず、ミスタ・ヌートは親切だが、彼女を小さな子供のように扱う。ほっぺたを軽く撫でられ、十八歳の彼女が面食らうこともときどきあった。
The junior partner in Rose and Storey perhaps discerned her need, and tried to supply it. He paid her such odious compliments on the "hang of her things," that she would never have entered the shop again, were it not that Bellevue Lodge was bound hand and foot to Rose and Storey, for they were undertakers as well as milliners; and, besides, the little affair of the bonnets, the expenses of Martin's funeral, were still unsatisfied. There was a young dairy farmer, with a face like a red harvest moon, who stopped at her aunt's door on his way to market. He would sell Miss Joliffe eggs and butter at wholesale prices, and grinned in a most tiresome way whenever he caught sight of Anastasia. The Rector patronised her insufferably; and though old Mr Noot was kind, he treated her like a small child, and sometimes patted her cheek, which she felt to be disconcerting at eighteen.
そんなときにロマンスの王子がブランダマー卿となって登場した。黄色い葉が舞う風の強い秋の日の午後、玄関口ではじめて彼を見た瞬間、彼女は彼が王子であることを知ったのだ。話しかけてきたとき、彼も彼女を貴婦人と見抜いたことが分かった。それはことばにできないくらい嬉しくて感激的なことだった。そのときから賛嘆の念が育ちはじめ、恋い慕う人の禁欲さがいっそうその生育を早めた。彼はほとんどアナスタシアを見なかった。話しかけることもまれで、好奇のまなざしをむけることすらなかった。ましてウエストレイのように節度のない視線をむけたりはしない。それにもかかわらず賛嘆の念は大きくなった。彼は今まで見てきた男たちとは全然違う。今まで知り合った人々とはまったく違っている。どうしてそう思うのか説明はできなかったが、彼女にはそうだと分かっていた。どこへ行こうと彼についてまわる雰囲気――神が英雄を包む特殊な空気――きっとそれが彼女に彼は違うと教えたのだろう。
And then the Prince of Romance appeared in Lord Blandamer. The moment that she first saw him on the doorstep that windy autumn afternoon, when yellow leaves were flying, she recognised him for a prince. The moment that he spoke to her she knew that he recognised her for a lady, and for this she felt unspeakably glad and grateful. Since then the wonder had grown. It grew all the faster from the hero's restraint. He had seen Anastasia but little, he spoke but little to her, he never gave her even a glance of interest, still less such glances as Westray launched at her so lavishly. And yet the wonder grew. He was so different from other men she had seen, so different from all the other people she had ever met. She could not have told how she knew this, and yet she knew. It must have been an atmosphere which followed him wherever he went--that penumbra with which the gods wrap heroes--which told her he was different.
The gambits of the great game of love are strangely limited, and there is little variation in the after-play. If it were not for the personal share we take, such doings would lack interest by reason of their monotony, by their too close resemblance to the primeval type. This is why the game seems dull enough to onlookers; they shock us with the callousness with which they are apt to regard our ecstasies. This is why the straightforward game palls sometimes on the players themselves after a while; and why they are led to take refuge from dulness in solving problems, in the tangled irregularities of the knight's move.
アナスタシアは恋に落ちたことを指摘されたら、にっこり微笑んだだろう。それは冬の陽射しのようなかすかな微笑みだったかも知れないが、それでも微笑みには違いない。彼女が恋をするなどあり得ないことだった。もはや王様が乞食娘と結婚する時代ではないことを知っていたし、厳しくしつけられて育ったから、結婚を前提とせずに恋に陥るなどとんでもなかった。ミス・オースチンのヒロインは結婚の申しこみをしそうもない人には魅力を感じることすらみずからに禁じている。だからアナスタシアは恋に陥るわけにはいかなかった。確かに恋はしていなかったけれど、ブランダマー卿が彼女の興味をひいたことは事実だ。実を言えばあまりにも興味をひかれ、四六時中彼のことを考えていたくらいなのである。おかしなことに何を考えるにつけても彼の姿が絶えず浮かんでくる。どうしてこんなことになるのだろうと、彼女は不思議だった。もしかしたらこれは彼の力なのかも知れない――並みいる下々のものを支配しているのは彼が漂わす力、その傲慢ともいえる働きのせいではないか。しかもそれはみずからを制するときにもっとも強力に働くのである。彼女は堅く引き締まった身体や、縮れた鉄灰色の巻き毛や、灰色の目や、目鼻立ちのくっきりした厳しい顔を好んで思い浮かべた。そう、彼女は彼の顔が好きだった。なぜなら厳しさがあるから。行きたいと思うところに行こうとする決意を秘めているから。
Anastasia would have smiled if she had been told that she had fallen in love; it might have been a thin smile, pale as winter's sunshine, but she would have smiled. It was _impossible_ for her to fall in love, because she knew that kings no longer marry beggar-maids, and she was far too well brought up to fall in love, except as a preliminary to marriage. No heroine of Miss Austen would permit herself even to feel attraction to a quarter from which no offer of marriage was possible; therefore Anastasia could not have fallen in love. She certainly was not in the least in love, but it was true Lord Blandamer interested her. He interested her so much, in fact, as to be in her thoughts at all hours of the day; it was strange that no matter with what things her mind was occupied, his image should continually present itself. She wondered why this was; perhaps it was his power--she thought it was the feeling of his power, a very insolence of power that dominated all these little folk, and yet was most powerful in its restraint. She liked to think of the compact, close-knit body, of the curling, crisp, iron-grey hair, of the grey eyes, and of the hard, clear-cut face. Yes, she liked the face because it _was_ hard, because it had a resolute look in it that said he meant to go whither he wished to go.
彼に対する関心がひととおりでなかったことは間違いない。というのは、彼女はごく普通の会話のなかでもその名を口にすることをはばかったからである。声がうわずるのを抑えられそうにないと感じたのだ。他の人が彼の話をするのを彼女はいやがったが、しかしこれほど彼女を虜にしている話題もなかった。他の人が彼のことを話していると、ときどき妙な嫉妬心が湧いてきた。自分以外の人間には彼のことは話すことすら許されていないという感情である。そして心のなかでいささか軽蔑的な笑みを浮かべる。なにしろ彼女より彼のことを知り、理解できる人間はいないのだ。カランの人の話題を決定する権利がアナスタシアになかったことはたぶん幸いだった。さもなければこの当時、人々は話すことなど何もなくなっていただろう。他人がブランダマー卿のことを議論するなどもってのほかだが、それ以外のことを議論するのも同じようにもってのほかだと彼女は思っていたのだから。
There was no doubt she must have taken considerable interest in him, for she found herself dreading to pronounce his name even in the most ordinary conversation, because she felt it difficult to keep her voice at the dead level of indifference. She dreaded when others spoke of him, and yet there was no other subject that occupied her so much. And sometimes when they talked of him she had a curious feeling of jealousy, a feeling that no one had a right even to talk of him except herself; and she would smile to herself with a little scornful smile, because she thought that she knew more about him, could understand him better than them all. It was fortunate, perhaps, that the arbitrament of Cullerne conversation did not rest with Anastasia, or there would have been but little talking at this time; for if it seemed preposterous that others should dare to discuss Lord Blandamer, it seemed equally preposterous that they should take an interest in discussing anything else.
これは恋とは全然違う、ごく普通に興味をひかれているだけだ、と彼女は思った。誰だって――教育があって趣味の洗練された人なら誰だって――不思議な、強い個性に興味をひかれるものよ。彼のことならどんな細かいことにも興味を感じた。声には魅力があった。心を奪う低く澄んだ声は音楽的で、些細な発言すら重々しく響いた。「午後は雨になりましたね」とか「ミスタ・ウエストレイはご在宅ですか」と彼が言えば、そこにはミス・アナスタシア・ジョウリフ以外、どんなユダヤのカバラ学者も行間に読み取ることのできなかった深い謎がこめられているのだ。礼拝の最中でも思いは彼女と叔母が座るカラン大聖堂の家族席から遠く離れ、ふと気がつくと彼女の目はヴィニコウム修道院長の窓にかかる海緑色と銀色の雲形紋章を見ているのだった。洗礼者ヨハネの頭部に射す、澄んだ明るい黄色の輪光は、英雄がはじめてあらわれたあの日、レモン色に色褪せ、宙を舞っていたアカシアの木の葉を思い出させた。
She certainly was _not_ in love; it was only the natural interest, she told herself, that anyone--anyone with education and refinement--must take in a strange and powerful character. Every detail about him interested her. There was a fascination in his voice, there was a melody in his low, clear voice that charmed, and made even trifling remarks seem important. Did he but say it was a rainy afternoon, did he but ask if Mr Westray were at home, there was such mystery in his tone that no rabbinical cabalist ever read more between the lines than did Miss Anastasia Joliffe. Even in her devotions thought wandered far from the pew where she and her aunt sat in Cullerne Church; she found her eyes looking for the sea-green and silver, for the nebuly coat in Abbot Vinnicomb's window; and from the clear light yellow of the aureole round John Baptist's head, fancy called up a whirl of faded lemon-coloured acacia leaves, that were in the air that day the hero first appeared.
Yet, if heart wavered, head stood firm. He should never know her interest in him; no word, no changing colour should ever betray her; he should never guess that agitation sometimes scarcely left her breath to make so short a rejoinder as "Good-night."
For three Saturdays, then, Miss Joliffe the elder sat on guard at Bellevue Lodge; for three Saturday afternoons in succession, she sat and chafed as the hours of the Dorcas meeting came and went. But nothing happened; the heavens remained in their accustomed place, the minster tower stood firm, and then she knew that the churchwarden had been duped, that her own judgment had been right, that Lord Blandamer's only motive for coming to her house had been to see Mr Westray, and that now Mr Westray was gone Lord Blandamer would come no more. The fourth Saturday arrived; Miss Joliffe was brighter than her niece had seen her for a calendar month.
"I feel a good deal better, my dear, this afternoon," she said; "I think I shall be able to go to the Dorcas meeting. The room gets so close that I have avoided going of late, but I think I shall not feel it too much to-day. I will just change, and put on my bonnet; you will not mind staying at home while I am away, will you?" And so she went.
アナスタシアは一階の窓辺の席に座った。窓は開いていた。春の日はしだいに長くなり、日暮れ時になると柔らかなかぐわしい空気が漂った。彼女は胴着を作ろうと思い、裁縫箱を開けて横に置き、まわりに型紙やら、裏当てやら、鋏やら、木綿の糸巻きやら、ボタンやら、「仕事」をするのに必要な道具を型通り広げた。しかし裁縫仕事はしていなかった。こうした準備をしたまさにその原因であり動機であった胴着そのものは膝の上に置かれ、彼女の手もそこに置かれていた。窓辺の席に半ば座るような、半ばよりかかるような格好で腰かけ、春のほのかな香りを吸いこみ、家々のあいだからのぞく透明な黄色い空が日没とともにますます赤みを帯び、山吹色に染まっていくのを見ながら、心は空想の中を遠くをさまよっていた。
Anastasia sat in the window-seat of the lower room. The sash was open, for the spring days were lengthening, and a soft, sweet air was moving about sundown. She told herself that she was making a bodice; an open workbox stood beside her, and there was spread around just such a medley of patterns, linings, scissors, cotton-reels, and buttons as is required for the proper and ceremonious carrying on of "work." But she was not working. The bodice itself, the very cause and spring of all these preparations, lay on her lap, and there, too, had fallen her hands. She half sat, half lay back on the window-seat, roaming in fancy far away, while she drank in the breath of the spring, and watched a little patch of transparent yellow sky between the houses grow pinker and more golden, as the sunset went on.
そのとき一人の男が通りをこちらへやって来て、ベルヴュー・ロッジの正面階段を登りはじめた。しかし彼女にはその姿が見えなかった。田園が広がるほうから歩いてきたので、彼女の窓の前を通らなかったのだ。彼女の夢を最初に破ったのは玄関のベルの音だった。窓辺の席から降り立つと、叔母を中に入れようと急ぎ足になった。てっきりベルを鳴らしたのは、会合から帰ってきたミス・ジョウリフだと思いこんでいた。ドアを開けるのは手間がかかった。確かにベルヴュー・ロッジには泥棒を引きつけるようなものはなかったし、泥棒が来たとしてもきっと正面玄関から入ってくるようなことはなかっただろうが、それでもミス・ジョウリフは彼女が家を出たら、しっかりドアに鍵をかけなさいと言い張った。そうしておけば包囲攻撃されても持ちこたえられると言わんばかりだった。アナスタシアはいちばん上の差し錠を抜いて鎖をはずし鍵を開けた。下の差し錠を引き抜くのは少々やっかいで、彼女は大きな声で謝った。「待たせてごめんなさいね。この錠、とても固いのよ」しかしとうとう錠は外れた。重いドアを手前に開くと目の前にはブランダマー卿が立っていた。
Then a man came down the street and mounted the steps in front of Bellevue Lodge; but she did not see him, because he was walking in from the country, and so did not pass her window. It was the door-bell that first broke her dreams. She slid down from her perch, and hastened to let her aunt in, for she had no doubt that it was Miss Joliffe who had come back from the meeting. The opening of the front-door was not a thing to be hurried through, for though there was little indeed in Bellevue Lodge to attract burglars, and though if burglars came they would surely select some approach other than the main entrance, yet Miss Joliffe insisted that when she was from home the door should be secured as if to stand a siege. So Anastasia drew the top bolt, and slipped the chain, and unlocked the lock. There was a little difficulty with the bottom bolt, and she had to cry out: "I am sorry for keeping you waiting; this fastening _will_ stick." But it gave at last; she swung the heavy door back, and found herself face to face with Lord Blandamer.
第十八章 ~~~
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
They stood face to face, and looked at one another for a second. Anyone seeing those two figures silhouetted against the yellow sunset sky might have taken them for cousins, or even for brother and sister. They were both dressed in black, were both dark, and of nearly the same height, for though the man was not short, the girl was very tall.
The pause that Anastasia made was due to surprise. A little while ago it would have been a natural thing enough to open the door and find Lord Blandamer, but the month that had elapsed since last he came to Bellevue Lodge had changed the position. It seemed to her that she stood before him confessed, that he must know that all these weeks she had been thinking of him, had been wondering why he did not come, had been longing for him to come, that he must know the pleasure which filled her now because he was come back again. And if he knew all this, she, too, had learnt to know something, had learnt to know how great a portion of her thoughts he filled. This eating of the tree of knowledge had abashed her, for now her soul stood before her naked. Did it so stand naked before him too? She was shocked that she should feel this attraction where there could be no thought of marriage; she thought that she should die if he should ever guess that one so lowly had gazed upon the sun and been dazzled.
アナスタシアが束の間ことばを失ったのは驚きのせいだった。つい先日まで、ドアを開けてブランダマー卿を迎えるのはごく自然なことであったのに、ベルヴュー・ロッジに来なくなって一ヶ月経ったことが状況を一変させていた。彼の前に立ちながら、彼女は胸の内を告白させられてしまったような気がした。つまり、ここ何週間か、ずっと彼のことばかりを考えていたこと、どうして来ないのだろうといぶかっていたこと、来てくれることをこい願っていたこと、そして今、こうして戻ってきてくれてどれほど自分の心に悦びが満ち溢れているかということを。彼はこうしたことすべてを見て取っただろうが、彼女のほうも自覚したことがある。それは彼への思いが自分の心の大部分を占めているということだ。この知識の木の実を食べて彼女は頬を染めた。なにしろ魂が目の前に裸にされてさらけ出されたのだ。彼の目にも同じように裸の姿が見えているのだろうか。結婚など思いもよらぬ相手にここまで惹きつけられている自分を知り、彼女は衝撃を受けた。自分のように卑しい者が太陽を見つめ、目を眩まされてしまったなどと相手に知られたら、自分はもう生きてはいけないと思った。
The pause that Lord Blandamer made was not due to surprise, for he knew quite well that it would be Anastasia who opened the door. It was rather that pause which a man makes who has undertaken a difficult business, and hesitates for a moment when it comes to the touch. She cast her eyes down to the ground; he looked full at her, looked at her from head to foot, and knew that his resolution was strong enough to carry to a conclusion the affair on which he had come. She spoke first.
"I am sorry my aunt is not at home," and kept her right hand on the edge of the open door, feeling grateful for any support. As the words came out she was relieved to find that it was indeed she herself who was speaking, that it was her own voice, and that her voice sounded much as usual.
"I am sorry she is not in," he said, and he, too, spoke after all in just those same low, clear tones to which she was accustomed--"I am sorry she is not in, but it was _you_ that I came to see."
She said nothing; her heart beat so fast that she could not have spoken even in monosyllables. She did not move, but kept her hand still on the edge of the door, feeling afraid lest she should fall if she let it go.
"I have something I should like to say to you; may I come in?"
She hesitated for a moment, as he knew that she would hesitate, and then let him in, as he knew that she would let him in. He shut the heavy front-door behind them, and there was no talk now of turning locks or shooting bolts; the house was left at the mercy of any burglars who might happen to be thereabout.
アナスタシアが先に立って歩いた。ミスタ・シャーノールの住んでいた部屋に行かなかったのは、作りかけの服が散らかっているということもあるが、以前二人がミスタ・ウエストレイの部屋で出会ったという、もっとロマンチックな理由もあった。二人は玄関ホールを抜け階段を登った。アナスタシアが先になり彼が後ろからついてきた。長い階段のおかげで一時的な余裕が生まれたのが彼女にとっては幸いだった。二人が部屋に入ると、また卿がドアを閉めた。火はなく窓は開いていたが、彼女は燃えさかる竈の中にいるように感じた。卿は彼女の取り乱した様子に気がついていたが、見て見ぬふりをし、自分のせいで緊張している彼女を気の毒に思った。今まで六ヶ月のあいだアナスタシアは自分の気持ちを上手に隠そうとしすぎて、かえって心の中を手に取るように読み取られていた。卿ははかりごとの進み具合を見て、誇りも成功の喜びも感じず、またあざけるように面白がったり、良心に呵責を覚えることもなかった。ただ、周囲の事情から身に帯びざるを得なかった役目を厭わしく思いながら、それでもみずから定めた道程を最後まで歩ききろうとする固い決意を持って事態の進展を見つめていた。彼は今、劇がどこまで進行したのかを正確に把握していた。そしてアナスタシアがどんな要求をも受け入れるだろうということも分かっていた。
Anastasia led the way. She did not take him into Mr Sharnall's old room, partly because she had left half-finished clothes lying there, and partly from the more romantic reflection that it was in Westray's room that they had met before. They walked through the hall and up the stairs, she going first and he following, and she was glad of the temporary respite which the long flights secured her. They entered the room, and again he shut the door behind them. There was no fire, and the window was open, but she felt as if she were in a fiery furnace. He saw her distress, but made as if he saw nothing, and pitied her for the agitation which he caused. For the past six months Anastasia had concealed her feelings so very well that he had read them like a book. He had watched the development of the plot without pride, or pleasure of success, without sardonic amusement, without remorse; with some dislike for a role which force of circumstances imposed on him, but with an unwavering resolve to walk the way which he had set before him. He knew the exact point which the action of the play had reached, he knew that Anastasia would grant whatever he asked of her.
彼らは再び差しむかいに立っていた。娘には何もかもが夢のように思えた。自分が目覚めているのか眠っているのかすら判然としない。心が肉体の中にあるのか、肉体の外に出てしまったのかも分からない。すべてが夢のようだったが、それは嬉しい夢だった。もう過去や未来のことを考えたり心配したり気にすることはないのだ。ひたすらこの瞬間にのめりこみさえすればいい。この一ヶ月のあいだ、自分の心を占領していた人と一緒なのだ。彼は戻ってきてくれた。また会うことがあるだろうかと考える必要はない。今自分と一緒にいるのだから。彼がそこにいるのはよい目的のためなのか、悪い目的のためなのか、と心配する必要はない。目の前に立つ男の意志に自分をすっかり委ねてしまったのだから。彼女は彼の指輪の奴隷であり、その指輪の他の奴隷たちと同じように、奴隷であることをうれしがり、主人の命令に嬉々として従うのだった。
They were standing face to face again. To the girl it all seemed a dream; she did not know whether she was waking or sleeping; she did not know whether she was in the body or out of the body. It was all a dream, but it was a delightful dream; there was no bitterness of reflection now, no anxiety, no regard for past or future, only utter absorption in the present moment. She was with the man who had possessed her thoughts for a month past; he had come back to her. She had not to consider whether she should ever see him again; he was with her now. She had not to think whether he was there for good or evil, she had lost all volition in the will of the man who stood before her; she was the slave of his ring, rejoicing in her slavery, and ready to do his bidding as all the other slaves of that ring.
He was sorry for the feelings which he had aroused, sorry for the affection he had stirred, sorry for the very love of himself that he saw written in her face. He took her hand in his, and his touch filled her with an exquisite content; her hand lay in his neither lifelessly nor entirely passively, yet only lightly returning the light pressure of his fingers. To her the situation was the supreme moment of a life; to him it was passionless as the betrothal piece in a Flemish window.
"Anastasia," he said, "you guess what it is I have to tell you; you guess what it is that I have to ask you."
She heard him speaking, and his voice was as delightful music in her delightful dream; she knew that he was going to ask something of her, and she knew that she would give him anything and all that he asked.
"I know that you love me," he went on, with an inversion of the due order of the proposition, and an assumption that would have been intolerable in anyone else, "and you know that I love you dearly." It was a proper compliment to her perspicuity that she should know already that he loved her, but his mind smiled as he thought how insufficient sometimes are the bases of knowledge. "I love you dearly, and am come to ask you to be my wife."
彼の言うことは聞こえたし、理解もした。しかし彼が今頼んだことはまったく予想もしていなかった。驚きでわけが分からなくなり、喜びで頭がぼうっとなった。話すことも動くこともできない。力が抜けて声も出ない様子を見て、卿は彼女を引き寄せた。その仕草には衝動に駆られた恋人の性急な激しさはなかった。そっと引き寄せたのは、そうするのがその場にふさわしいと思ったからだ。彼女はしばらく彼の腕の中で下をむいて顔を隠していた。そのあいだ卿は彼女を見ていた、というより、彼女の頭を見ていた。彼の目はふさふさした暗褐色の髪の上をさまよった。ミセス・フリントはその髪を見て、あれは自然にウエーブしているのではなく、父親のばかばかしい主張に信憑性を与えるために、ブランダマー家の者らしく見せかけているのだと言った。彼は暗褐色の髪がウエーブし、絹のようなつややかさに光るのをじっと見つめていたが、やがて放心したように目を上げ、むかいの壁にかけられている大きな花の絵に視線を合わせた。
She heard what he said, and understood it; she had been prepared for his asking anything save this one thing that he had asked. The surprise of it overwhelmed her, the joy of it stunned her; she could neither speak nor move. He saw that she was powerless and speechless, and drew her closer to him. There was none of the impetuous eagerness of a lover in the action; he drew her gently towards him because it seemed appropriate to the occasion that he should do so. She lay for a minute in his arms, her head bent down, and her face hidden, while he looked not so much at her as above her. His eyes wandered over the mass of her dark-brown wavy hair that Mrs Flint said was not wavy by nature, but crimped to make her look like a Blandamer, and so bolster up her father's nonsensical pretensions. His eyes took full account of that wave and the silken fineness of her dark-brown hair, and then looked vaguely out beyond till they fell on the great flower-picture that hung on the opposite wall.
The painting had devolved upon Westray on Mr Sharnall's death, but he had not yet removed it, and Lord Blandamer's eyes rested on it now so fixedly, that he seemed to be thinking more of the trashy flowers and of the wriggling caterpillar, than of the girl in his arms. His mind came back to the exigencies of the situation.
"Will you marry me, Anastasia--will you marry me, dear Anstice?" The home name seemed to add a touch of endearment, and he used it advisedly. "Anstice, will you let me make you my wife?"
彼女は何も言わなかったが、両腕を彼の首に巻き付け、はじめてほんの少し顔を上げた。どんな男をも満足させるであろう同意のしるしだったが、ブランダマー卿には当然のことにすぎなかった。結婚の申しこみが受け入れられることを彼は片時も疑わなかったのだ。彼女がキスを求めて顔を上げたのだとしたら、その期待は満たされた。もちろん彼はキスをした。が、まるで舞台の上で男優が女優にするように軽く額にキスをしただけだった。その場に誰かが居合わせたなら、彼の目を見て、その心が肉体を遠く離れ、今取りかかっている行為よりももっと大切らしい人か物のことをしきりに考えていることに気づいただろう。だがアナスタシアには何も見えなかった。ただ結婚を申しこまれ、彼の腕の中にいることしか分からなかった。
She said nothing, but threw her arms about his neck, and raised her face a little for the first time. It was an assent that would have contented any man, and to Lord Blandamer it came as a matter of course; he had never for a moment doubted her acceptance of his offer. If she had raised her face to be kissed, her expectation was gratified; he kissed her indeed, but only lightly on the brow, as actor may kiss actress on the stage. If anyone had been there to see, they would have known from his eyes that his thoughts were far from his body, that they were busied with somebody or something, that seemed to him of more importance than the particular action in which he was now engaged. But Anastasia saw nothing; she only knew that he had asked her to marry him, and that she was in his arms.
He waited a moment, as if wondering how long the present position would continue, and what was the next step to take; but the girl was the first to relieve the tension. The wildest intoxication of the first surprise was passing off, and with returning capacity for reflection a doubt had arisen that flung a shadow like a cloud upon her joy. She disengaged herself from his arms that strove in orthodox manner to retain her.
"Don't," she said--"don't. We have been too rash. I know what you have asked me. I shall remember it always, and love you for it to my dying day, but it cannot be. There are things you must know before you ask me. I do not think you would ask me if you knew all."
For the first time he seemed a little more in earnest, a little more like a man living life, a little less like a man rehearsing a part that he had got by heart. This was an unexpected piece of action, an episode that was not in his acting edition, that put him for the moment at a loss; though he knew it could not in any way affect the main issues of the play. He expostulated, he tried to take her hand again.
"Tell me what it is, child, that is troubling you," he said; "there can be nothing, nothing under heaven that could make me wish to unsay what I have said, nothing that could make us wish to undo what we have done. Nothing can rob me now of the knowledge that you love me. Tell me what it is."
"I cannot tell you," she answered him. "It is something I cannot tell; don't ask me. I will write it. Leave me now--please leave me; no one shall know that you have been here, no one must know what has passed between us."
ドルカス会から帰ってきたミス・ジョウリフは少々がっかりした様子で、しかも機嫌が悪かった。いつものように何事もなく活動を終えたというわけではなかったのだ。三週つづけて休んだというのに誰も彼女の健康を気遣ってくれなかった。軽いお世辞を言ったり、陽気に世間話をしても実に素っ気なく「うん」とか「いいや」がかえってくるだけ。のけ者にされているような不愉快な気分だった。高潔な道徳家ミセス・フリントは明らかな意図を持って椅子をずらし、この気の毒な老婦人から遠ざかった。ミス・ジョウリフはとうとうみんなから見放され、相手になってくれたのはミセス・パーリンという大工のおかみさんだけだった。この人はあきれるほど太っていて頭が鈍く、何も分からずただにこにこしていることしかできない人である。ミス・ジョウリフは傷ついたあまり、ついうっかり寸法を間違え、冷えを防ぐ当て布と樟脳を入れるポケットがついた傑作ともいうべきネルのペチコートをまるまる駄目にしてしまった。
Miss Joliffe came back from the Dorcas meeting a little downhearted and out of humour. Things had not gone so smoothly as usual. No one had inquired after her health, though she had missed three meetings in succession; people had received her little compliments and cheery small-talk with the driest of negatives or affirmatives; she had an uncomfortable feeling that she was being cold-shouldered. That high moralist, Mrs Flint, edged her chair away from the poor lady of set purpose, and Miss Joliffe found herself at last left isolated from all, except Mrs Purlin, the builder's wife, who was far too fat and lethargic to be anything but ignorantly good-natured. Then, in a fit of pained abstraction, Miss Joliffe had made such a bad calculation as entirely to spoil a flannel petticoat with a rheumatic belt and camphor pockets, which she had looked upon as something of a _chef d'oeuvre_.
But when she got back to Bellevue Lodge her vexation vanished, and was entirely absorbed in solicitude for her niece.
アンスティスの様子がおかしかった。アンスティスはひどく具合が悪そうで、顔を真赤にし、頭痛がするとこぼした。ミス・ジョウリフは三週つづけて土曜日に具合の悪いふりをし、外出しない言い訳としたけれど、この四週目の土曜日、アナスタシアは仮病を使う必要は少しもなかった。実は先ほどの出来事に呆然となって、自分のことしか考えることができず、叔母の質問にも支離滅裂な答しか返せない有様だったのだ。ミス・ジョウリフは玄関のベルを鳴らしたが応答がなく、ドアが開けっ放しであることに気がついた。そしてついにはアナスタシアが窓を開け放ったままミスタ・ウエストレイの部屋にぽつねんと座っているのを見つけたのだった。寒気がするというのでミス・ジョウリフはさっそく彼女をベッドに寝かせた。
Anstice was unwell, Anstice was quite ill, quite flushed, and complaining of headache. If Miss Joliffe had feigned indisposition for three Saturdays as an excuse for not leaving the house, Anastasia had little need for simulation on this the fourth Saturday. She was, in effect, so dazed by the event which had happened, and so preoccupied by her own thoughts, that she could scarcely return coherent replies to her aunt's questions. Miss Joliffe had rung and received no answer, had discovered that the front-door was unlocked, and had at last found Anastasia sitting forlorn in Mr Westray's room with the window open. A chill was indicated, and Miss Joliffe put her to bed at once.
ベッドは応急処置の授業もその価値を否定しない救急療法である。しかも極めて安価という点で貧しい者のための治療手段といえる。もちろん貧しいといってもベッドを買うくらいの金がなければならないが。アナスタシアがミス・ブルティールか、せめてミセス・パーキンや嘘つきで争いの種をばらまくミセス・フリントであれば、ドクタ・エニファーがすぐに呼びにやられていただろう。しかし彼女はただのアナスタシアでしかなかったし、目の前には借金が幻のように浮かんできたから、とにかく医者を呼ぶ前に一晩寝て様子を見ようと叔母を何とかなだめすかした。そのあいだ、医者のなかでもかぎりなく治療に巧みで、かぎりなく安全なドクタ・ベッドが招じ入れられ、おまけに名医で名高い開業医ドクタ・ウエイト（註 ウエイトは「待つ」の意）が治療に参加してくれたのだった。暖かいネルの寝巻き、湯たんぽ、熱いミルク酒、寝室の暖炉の火といった療法が試みられ、九時にミス・ジョウリフが姪にキスをして就寝する頃には、突如原因不明の病に倒れたものの、患者は急速に回復するであろうと少しも案じられることはなかった。
Bed is a first aid that even ambulance classes have not entirely taught us to dispense with; it is, moreover, a poor man's remedy, being exceedingly cheap, if, indeed, the poor man is rich enough to have a bed at all. Had Anastasia been Miss Bulteel, or even Mrs Parkyn, or lying and mischief-making Mrs Flint, Dr Ennefer would have been summoned forthwith; but being only Anastasia, and having the vision of debt before her eyes, she prevailed on her aunt to wait to see what the night brought forth, before sending for the doctor. Meanwhile Dr Bed, infinitely cleverest and infinitely safest of physicians, was called in, and with him was associated that excellent general practitioner Dr Wait. Hot flannels, hot bottles, hot possets, and a bedroom fire were exhibited, and when at nine o'clock Miss Joliffe kissed her niece and retired for the night, she by no means despaired of the patient's speedy recovery from so sudden and unaccountable an attack.
アナスタシアは独りになった。また独りになれて彼女は心からほっとした。もっともそんな気持ちになるのは今出て行ったばかりの暖かい老人の思いやりに対して裏切りを働くことであり、恩知らずなことだと感じてはいた。老人の温かい心は彼女のことを深く気遣っているのだ。でも彼女はその心にむかって起きたことを打ち明けなかった！彼女は独りだった。ほんのしばらく安らかな気持ちで寝台の足もとの鉄柵のあいだから暖炉の火を見つめていた。この二年ほど寝室の暖炉に火を入れたことはなかったので、その珍しさにふさわしい喜びとともに彼女は贅沢を楽しんだ。眠くはなく、次第に落ち着きを取り戻し、書くと約束した手紙のことを考えることができるようになった。難しい手紙になりそうだったが、その中で克服不可能な障害を提出しなければならないと、彼女は闘志満々だった。ブランダマー卿のような地位の人でさえ、克服は絶望的と認めざるを得ないような障害を。そう、この手紙は素敵なロマンスの奥付、驚くべき悲劇のエピローグになるのだ。しかし実をいえば犠牲を要求していたのは彼女の良心であり、結局のところ一ポンドの肉が本当に切り取られることはないのだ、と心の底で分かっているからこそ、そんな手紙を書くのがいっそう楽しかったということなのである。
Anastasia was alone; what a relief to be alone again, though she felt that such a thought was treasonable and unkind to the warm old heart that had just left her, to that warm old heart which yearned so deeply to her, but with which she had not shared her story! She was alone, and she lay a little while in quiet content looking at the fire through the iron bars at the foot of her bedstead. It was the first bedroom fire she had had for two years, and she enjoyed the luxury with a pleasure proportionate to its rarity. She was not sleepy, but grew gradually more composed, and was able to reflect on the letter which she had promised to write. It would be difficult, and she assured herself with much vigour that it must raise insurmountable obstacles, that they were obstacles which one in Lord Blandamer's position must admit to be quite insurmountable. Yes, in this letter she would write the colophon of so wondrous a romance, the epilogue of so amazing a tragedy. But it was her conscience that demanded the sacrifice, and she took the more pleasure in making it, because she felt at heart that the pound of flesh might never really after all be cut.
我々は良心の犠牲者となり、厳格な社会的道徳通念に従うことを、どれほど心ゆくまで楽しむだろう、我々のことばを額面通りに受け取る嫌な人が誰もいない場合は！その贈り物は受け取れないと抗議したり、この金はすぐ返すなどと言えば、われわれはいとも簡単に道徳の高みに達することができる。ところが贈り物は結局いやがる我々の手に押しつけられ、借りた金は決して返済を迫られないのだ。アナスタシアについても同じようなことがいえる。彼女は、手紙で恋人に致命的な一撃を与えよと自分に語りかけ、もしかしたら本気でそれを信じていたのかも知れないが、パンドラの箱のようにその奥底には希望が隠されていたのである。ちょうど夢のなかで真に迫った危機に直面しても半覚醒状態の意識が、これは夢だ、と我々を支えることがあるようなものだ。
How thoroughly do we enjoy these sacrifices to conscience, these followings of honour's code severe, when we know that none will be mean enough to take us at our word! To what easily-gained heights of morality does it raise us to protest that we never could accept the gift that will eventually be forced into our reluctant hands, to insist that we regard as the shortest of loans the money which we never shall be called upon to repay. It was something of the same sort with Anastasia. She told herself that by her letter she would give the death-blow to her love, and perhaps believed what she told, yet all the while kept hope hidden at the bottom of the box, even as in the most real perils of a dream we sometimes are supported by the sub-waking sense that we _are_ dreaming.
その後しばらくして、彼女は寝室の暖炉の前に腰かけて手紙を書き出した。寝室の暖炉には独特の魔力がある。それも、夜な夜な金持ちの寝室を温室のように暖める暖炉ではなく、年に一二度しか火の入らない暖炉には。石炭が柵のあいだで輝き、赤い炎が煤まみれの煉瓦をちらちらと照らし、ミルク酒が薬罐台の上で湯気を立てている！ミルクやお茶、ココアやコーヒー、何の変哲もないありきたりの飲み物が寝室の火によって純化され、頭痛を治すネペンテス（註 昔ギリシア人が飲んだという薬）になり、恋の媚薬にならないだろうか。ああ、夢に満ちた瞬間よ。そのとき若者は明日の征服を思い、中年は昨日が永遠に過ぎ去ったことを忘れ、ぐちっぽい老人すら彼らなりの「名誉と奮闘」（註 テニスンの詩から）があると考えるのだ！
A little later Anastasia was sitting before her bedroom fire writing. It has a magic of its own--the bedroom fire. Not such a one as night by night warms hothouse bedrooms of the rich, but that which burns but once or twice a year. How the coals glow between the bars, how the red light shimmers on the black-lead bricks, how the posset steams upon the hob! Milk or tea, cocoa or coffee, poor commonplace liquids, are they not transmuted in the alembic of a bedroom fire, till they become nepenthe for a heartache or a philtre for romance? Ah, the romance of it, when youth forestalls to-morrow's conquest, when middle life forgets that yesterday is past for ever, when even querulous old age thinks it may still have its "honour and its toil"!
部屋着の代わりに着ていた青いおんぼろケープは大急ぎで手紙を書いている最中にずり落ちてきて、その下の白いナイトガウンをのぞかせた。下を見ると真鍮の炉格子にかけたはだかの足が火に照らされ、熱さのあまりつま先を丸め、上を見ると火明かりは豊満な曲線を照らし出していた。彼女の身体はふっくらとして娘盛りの色香があった。移ろいやすく、かけがえのない、真似しようとしても無惨なほど滑稽な失敗にしかならない、あの青春の盛りである。嘘つきで争いの種をばらまくミセス・フリントをねたませた豊かな黒髪は黒いリボンでまとめられ、椅子の背にだらりと垂れていた。書いたり、書き直したり、消したり、塗りつぶしたり、破ったりしていると、夜も深々と更けてきて、苦労が実るよりも先に文箱の中の数少ない紙がつきてしまうのではないかと不安になった。
An old blue cloak, which served the turn of dressing-gown, had fallen apart in the exigencies of composition, and showed underlying tracts of white nightgown. Below, the firelight fell on bare feet resting on the edge of the brass fender till the heat made her curl up her toes, and above, the firelight contoured certain generous curves. The roundness and the bloom of maidenhood was upon her, that bloom so transient, so irreplaceable, that renders any attempt to simulate it so profoundly ludicrous. The mass of dark hair, which turned lying-and-mischief-making Mrs Flint so envious, was gathered behind with a bow of black ribbon, and hung loosely over the back of her chair. She sat there writing and rewriting, erasing, blotting, tearing up, till the night was far spent, till she feared that the modest resources of the _papeterie_ would be exhausted before toil came to fruition.
It was finished at last, and if it was a little formal or high-flown, or stilted, is not a certain formality postulated on momentous occasions? Who would write that he was "delighted" to accept a bishopric? Who would go to a levee in a straw hat?
~~~ 親愛なるブランダマー卿（と手紙は始まった）
"Dear Lord Blandamer" (the letter ran),
人生経験のとぼしいわたしには、あなたへの手紙をどう書けばいいのかよく分かりません。あなたがおっしゃってくれたことには心から感謝申し上げます。あのことを思うと喜びがあふれ、今後も思い出すたびに喜びを感じるでしょう。わたしとの結婚など、考えてはいけない大きな理由がきっとたくさんあると思うのですが、あったとしても、それをわたしなどより十分承知の上で、無視なさったのですね。でもあなたの知るはずのない、結婚できない理由が一つあるのです。知るはずのないというのは、そのことを知っている人がほとんどいないからです。このことは親類縁者以外には知られたくありません。もしかしたらそもそも書くべきではないのかも知れません。しかしわたしには相談にする相手がいないのです。正しいことをしようと思っているのですが、もし間違ったことをしているなら、どうかお許しください。そして読み終わったときにこの手紙を焼き捨ててください。
"I do not know how I ought to write to you, for I have little experience of life to guide me. I thank you with all my heart for what you have told me. I am glad to think of it, and I always shall be. I believe there must be many strong reasons why you should not think of marrying me, yet if there are, you must know them far better than I, and you have disregarded them. But there is one reason that you cannot know, for it is known to very few; I hope it is known only to some of our own relations. Perhaps I ought not to write of it at all, but I have no one to advise me. I mean what is right, and if I am doing wrong you will forgive me, will you not? and burn this letter when you have read it.
わたしにはいま呼ばれている名を名乗る権利がないのです。市場に住んでいる従兄弟は別の名を名乗るべきだと考えていますが、わたしたちには本当の名前すら分からないのです。わたしの祖母がミスタ・ジョウリフと結婚したとき、彼女にはすでに二歳か三歳になる男の子がいました。この息子がわたしの父で、ミスタ・ジョウリフは彼を養子にしたのです。しかし祖母には結婚前の姓を名乗る権利しかありませんでした。それが何という姓なのかは分かりません。わたしの父はそれを生涯かけて調べだそうとし、もう少しで判明するというときに最後の病に倒れて亡くなりました。父は自分の血筋についておかしなことをよく語っていましたから、頭がどうかしていたに違いないと思います。たぶん、名前がないというこの不名誉が、わたしにとってもしばしばそうであるように、父にとっても苦痛だったのでしょう。けれどもそれがこんなにわたしを苦しめることになるとは思ってもいませんでした。
"I have no right to the name I am called by; my cousins in the Market Place think we should use some other, but we do not even know what our real name would be. When my grandmother married old Mr Joliffe, she had already a son two or three years old. This son was my father, and Mr Joliffe adopted him; but my grandmother had no right to any but her maiden name. We never knew what that was, though my father tried all his life to find it out, and thought he was very near finding out when he fell into his last illness. We think his head must have been affected, for he used to say strange things about his parentage. Perhaps the thought of this disgrace troubled him, as it has often troubled me, though I never thought it would trouble me so much as now.
"I have not told my aunt about what you have said to me, and no one else shall ever know it, but it will be the sweetest memory to me of all my life.
誠実なるあなたの友
"Your very sincere friend,
アナスタシア・ジョウリフ ~~~
"Anastasia Joliffe."
It was finished at last; she had slain all her hopes, she had slain her love. He would never marry her, he would never come near her again; but she had unburdened herself of her secret, and she could not have married him with that secret untold. It was three o'clock when she crept back again to bed. The fire had gone out, she was very cold, and she was glad to get back to her bed. Then Nature came to her aid and sent her kindly sleep, and if her sleep was not dreamless, she dreamt of dresses, and horses, and carriages, of men-servants, and maid-servants, of Lady Blandamer's great house of Fording, and of Lady Blandamer's husband.
Lord Blandamer also sat up very late that night. As he read before another bedroom fire he turned the pages of his book with the utmost regularity; his cigar never once went out. There was nothing to show that his thoughts wandered, nothing to show that his mind was in any way preoccupied. He was reading Eugenid's "Aristeia" of the pagans martyred under Honorius; and weighed the pros and cons of the argument as dispassionately as if the events of the afternoon had never taken place, as if there had been no such person as Anastasia Joliffe in the world.
アナスタシアの手紙は次の日の昼時に届いたが、彼は封を切るよりも先に昼食を済ませた。しかし封筒の垂れ蓋には赤くて太い「ベルヴュー・ロッジ」という文字が打ち出されていたから、どこから来たのものかは分かっていたはずである。マーチン・ジョウリフは何年も前に刻印の入った便箋と封筒を注文したことがあった。家系調査で質問状を送るとき、ただの便箋より刻印入りのほうが注意をひきやすい――これは立派な人物であることの証しなのだ、というのである。カランの人はこれを彼のろくでもない贅沢の一例と考えていた。レターヘッドのある便箋を使ってもおかしくないのはミセス・ブルティールと参事会員パーキンだけである。しかも司祭でさえレターヘッドは印刷するのであって浮き出しにはしない。マーチンはとっくの昔に手持ちの便箋と封筒を使い切っていたが、最初の注文の支払いが済んでいなかったので、二束目を注文することはなかった。しかしアナスタシアはこの運命的な封筒を六通ほど取っておいたのだ。学校に行っていた頃くすねたのだが、彼女にとっては今でも大切なよき家柄の名残であり、また多くの人がぼろ着を隠すためにその上に羽織りたいと思うパリューム（註 古代ギリシア・ローマの外衣）なのである。彼女がこの重大な機会にその一通を使用したのは、フォーディング宛の手紙を入れるのにふさわしく、便箋に使ったわら紙から注意を逸らしてくれるかも知れないと思ったからだ。
Anastasia's letter reached him the next day at lunch, but he finished his meal before opening it. Yet he must have known whence it came, for there was a bold "Bellevue Lodge" embossed in red on the flap of the envelope. Martin Joliffe had ordered stamped paper and envelopes years ago, because he said that people of whom he made genealogical inquiries paid more attention to stamped than to plain paper--it was a credential of respectability. In Cullerne this had been looked upon as a gross instance of his extravagance; Mrs Bulteel and Canon Parkyn alone could use headed paper with propriety, and even the rectory only printed, and did not emboss. Martin had exhausted his supply years ago, and never ordered a second batch, because the first was still unpaid for; but Anastasia kept by her half a dozen of these fateful envelopes. She had purloined them when she was a girl at school, and to her they were still a cherished remnant of gentility, that pallium under which so many of us would fain hide our rags. She had used one on this momentous occasion; it seemed a fitting cover for despatches to Fording, and might divert attention from the straw paper on which her letter was written.
Lord Blandamer had seen the Bellevue Lodge, had divined the genesis of the embossed inscription, had unravelled all Anastasia's thoughts in using it, yet let the letter lie till he had finished lunch. When he read it afterwards he criticised it as he might the composition of a stranger, as a document with which he had no very close concern. Yet he appreciated the effort which it must have cost the girl to write it, was touched by her words, and felt a certain grave compassion for her. But it was the strange juggle of circumstance, the Sophoclean irony of a position of which he alone held the key, that most impressed themselves upon his mood.
He ordered his horse, and took the road to Cullerne, but his agent met him before he had passed the first lodge, and asked some further instructions for the planting at the top of the park. So he turned and rode up to the great belt of beeches which was then being planted, and was so long engaged there that dusk forced him to abandon his journey to the town. He rode back to Fording at a foot-pace, choosing devious paths, and enjoying the sunset in the autumn woods. He would write to Anastasia, and put off his visit till the next day.
With him there was no such wholesale destruction of writing-paper as had attended Anastasia's efforts on the previous night. One single sheet saw his letter begun and ended, a quarter of an hour sufficed for committing his sentiments very neatly to writing; he flung off his sentences easily, as easily as Odysseus tossed his heavy stone beyond all the marks of the Phaeacians:
~~~ 愛しい人へ
"My dearest Child,
あなたの手紙を待ちわびて、どれほどつらく不安な時間を過ごしたか、申し上げるまでもないでしょう。その時間に終止符が打たれ、あたりは一面、曇り空のあとのように陽の光に包まれています。あなたの住所を記した封筒を見て、どれほど胸が高鳴り、どれほど勇んでわたしの指が封を切ったか、お話しせずとも分かっていただけると思います。今は幸せでいっぱいです。お手紙をいただいたこと、幾重にも幾重にも感謝します。率直さと優しさと真実に満ちた、あなたらしい手紙でした。心配なさらないでください。打ち明けていただいたことには羽毛ほどの重みもありません。過去の名前のことで悩むのはおやめください。これから新しい名前を持つのですから。わたしたちのあいだに横たわる障害物に目をつぶってくださったのはわたしではなく、あなたです。あなたはわたしたちの年の差を無視してくださったではありませんか。もうこの手紙を書く時間がありません。舌足らずの点はお許しいただき、これで意をつくしたものとお考えください。明日の朝、お目にかかるつもりです。
"I need not speak now of the weary hours of suspense which I passed in waiting for your letter. They are over, and all is sunshine after the clouds. I need not tell you how my heart beat when I saw an envelope with your address, nor how eagerly my fingers tore it open, for now all is happiness. Thank you, a thousand times thank you for your letter; it is like you, all candour, all kindness, and all truth. Put aside your scruples; everything that you say is not a featherweight in the balance; do not trouble about your name in the past, for you will have a new name in the future. It is not I, but you, who overlook obstacles, for have you not overlooked all the years that lie between your age and mine? I have but a moment to scribble these lines; you must forgive their weakness, and take for said all that should be said. I shall be with you to-morrow morning, and till then am, in all love and devotion,
あなたに献身的な愛を捧げる
"Yours,
ブランダマー ~~~
"Blandamer."
He did not even read it through before he sealed it up, for he was in a hurry to get back to Eugenid and to the "Aristeia" of the heathens martyred under Honorius.
二日後、ミス・ジョウリフは一週間の半ばだというのによそ行きのマントにボンネットという格好で市場へ行き、従兄弟の肉屋を訪ねた。彼女の服装はたちまち人目をひいた。そんな盛装をするのは教区で祝典かお祭りのあったときくらいなのだが、教区委員の家族が何も知らないところでそんなことが行われるはずがなかった。着ているものだけでなく、その着こなし方も実にしゃれていた。店の裏手の客間に入ると、椅子に腰かけていた肉屋のおかみと娘たちは、こんなに立派な服装の従姉妹は見たことがないと思った。彼女の晩年に翳りを与えていた、やつれて途方に暮れ、虐げられたような様子は払拭され、顔には落ち着きと満足が輝き、それが不思議なことに服装にまで伝わっていた。
Two days later, Miss Joliffe put on her Sunday mantle and bonnet in the middle of the week, and went down to the Market Place to call on her cousin the pork-butcher. Her attire at once attracted attention. The only justification for such extravagance would be some parish function or festivity, and nothing of that sort could be going on without the knowledge of the churchwarden's family. Nor was it only the things which she wore, but the manner in which she wore them, that was so remarkable. As she entered the parlour at the back of the shop, where the pork-butcher's lady and daughters were sitting, they thought that they had never seen their cousin look so well dressed. She had lost the pinched, perplexed, down-trodden air which had overcast her later years; there was in her face a serenity and content which communicated itself in some mysterious way even to her apparel.
"Cousin Euphemia looks quite respectable this morning," whispered the younger to the elder daughter; and they had to examine her closely before they convinced themselves that only a piece of mauve ribbon in her bonnet was new, and that the coat and dress were just the same as they had seen every Sunday for two years past.
「うなずいてみせたり、手招きしたり、満面の笑みに顔をほころばせたり」（註 ミルトンの詩から）しながら、ミス・ユーフィミアは腰を下ろした。「ちょっと寄ってみたの」と彼女は切り出したが、その文句にこめられた軽い、小生意気な調子に聞いている者はぎょっとした――「お知らせをしに、ちょっと寄っただけなの。あなたがたはいつもこの町でジョウリフを名乗る権利があるのはあなたがたのほうの家系だけだと口やかましく言っていたわね。否定はなさらないでしょう、マリア」と彼女は非難がましく教区委員の妻に言った。「いつもうちこそが本物のジョウリフだと言っていたじゃない。わたしとアンスティスだって使う権利があると思っていたのに、同じ名前を使うのを厭がっていたわよね。さあ、あなたの家族以外にジョウリフの名前を使う家が一つ減ったわよ。アンスティスがその名前を捨てますからね。ある方が彼女に別の名前を差し出してくださったの」
With "nods and becks and wreathed smiles" Miss Euphemia seated herself. "I have just popped in," she began, and the very phrase had something in it so light and flippant that her listeners started--"I have just popped in for a minute to tell you some news. You have always been particular, my dears, that no one except your branch had a right to the name of Joliffe in this town. You can't deny, Maria," she said deprecatingly to the churchwarden's wife, "that you have always held out that you were the real Joliffes, and been a little sore with me and Anstice for calling ourselves by what we thought we had a right to. Well, now there will be one less outside your family to use the name of Joliffe, for Anstice is going to give it up. Somebody has offered to find another name for her."
The real Joliffes exchanged glances, and thought of the junior partner in the drapery shop, who had affirmed with an oath that Anastasia Joliffe did as much justice to his goods as any girl in Cullerne; and thought again of the young farmer who was known for certain to let Miss Euphemia have eggs at a penny cheaper than anyone else.
"Yes, Anstice is going to change her name, so that will be one grievance the less. And another thing that will make matters straighter between us, Maria: I can promise the little bit of silver shall never go out of the family. You know what I mean--the teapot and the spoons marked with `J' that you've always claimed for yours by right. I shall leave them all back to you when my time comes; Anstice will never want such odds and ends in the station to which she's called now."
The real Joliffes looked at each other again, and thought of young Bulteel, who had helped Anastasia with the gas-standards when the minster was decorated at Christmas. Or was it possible that her affected voice and fine lady airs had after all caught Mr Westray, that rather good-looking and interesting young man, on whom both the churchwarden's daughters were not without hopes of making an impression?
Miss Joliffe enjoyed their curiosity; she was in a teasing and mischievous mood, to which she had been a stranger for thirty years.
「そうなのよ」と彼女は言った。「わたしは間違ったら間違ったって、はっきり認めるほうなの。ほんと、わたし間違ってたわ。眼鏡をかけなきゃだめね。目の前で起きていることも見えないみたいなんですもの――教えてもらっても分からないんですから。わたしがわざわざお知らせに来たのはね、マリアに皆さん、ブランダマー卿がベルヴュー・ロッジに来るのはアンスティスのためじゃないって教区委員に言ったこと、あれが全然間違いだったってことなのよ。御前様がいらっしゃったのはまさしく彼女に会うためだったみたいね。それが証拠に御前様は彼女と結婚なさるのよ。三週間後には彼女はブランダマー夫人。お別れを言いたいなら、さっそく今からわたしの家へお茶に来たほうがいいわ。あの子はもう荷造りして明日ロンドンに発ちますからね。マーチンの生前、アンスティスが通っていたカリスベリの学校からハワード先生が来て、彼女のお世話と嫁入り道具の調達をしてくださるの。ブランダマー卿がみんな按配してくれたわ。式を挙げたら大陸を長期旅行する予定よ。まあ、他に行くところもないでしょうけど」
"Yes," she said, "I am one that like to own up to it when I make a mistake, and I will state I _have_ made a mistake. I suppose I must take to spectacles; it seems I cannot see things that are going on under my very eyes--no, not even when they are pointed out to me. I've come round to tell you, Maria, one and all, that I was completely mistaken when I told the churchwarden that it was not on Anstice's account that Lord Blandamer has been visiting at Bellevue Lodge. It seems it was just for that he came, and the proof of it is he's going to marry her. In three weeks' time she will be Lady Blandamer, and if you want to say goodbye to her you'd better come back and have tea with me now, for she's packed her box, and is off to London to-morrow. Mrs Howard, who keeps the school in Carisbury where Anstice went in dear Martin's lifetime, will meet her and take charge of her, and get her trousseau. Lord Blandamer has arranged it all, and he is going to marry Anstice and take her for a long tour on the Continent, and I'm sure I don't know where else."
何もかも本当のことばかりだった。ブランダマー卿は一切を秘密にすることなく、カランに在住していた故マーチン・ジョウリフ氏《エスクワイア》の一人娘アナスタシアとの婚約はまもなくロンドンの新聞に発表された。ウエストレイが結婚を申しこむ前に逡巡と懸念を抱いたのは無理もないことである。家系や地位が有力とはいえない者に身分不相応な振る舞いはできず、こうした状況においては世間の意見が大きな役割を果たすものなのだ。自分よりも身分が下の者を娶るということは、自分を妻の身分までおとしめることになる。彼には妻を自分の地位まで引き上げる余力がないのである。ブランダマー卿の場合は違う。自分の力に絶大の自信を持ち、世間に挑戦状をたたきつけるような今回の結婚を、どちらかというと楽しんでいるようなふうがあった。
It was all true. Lord Blandamer made no secret of the matter, and his engagement to Anastasia, only child of the late Martin Joliffe, Esquire, of Cullerne, was duly announced in the London papers. It was natural that Westray should have known vacillation and misgiving before he made up his mind to offer marriage. It is with a man whose family or position are not strong enough to bear any extra strain, that public opinion plays so large a part in such circumstances. If he marries beneath him he falls to the wife's level, because he has no margin of resource to raise her to his own. With Lord Blandamer it was different: his reliance upon himself was so great, that he seemed to enjoy rather than not, the flinging down of a gauntlet to the public in this marriage.
Bellevue Lodge became a centre of attraction. The ladies who had contemned a lodging-house keeper's daughter courted the betrothed of a peer. From themselves they did not disguise the motive for this change, they did not even attempt to find an excuse in public. They simply executed their _volte face_ simultaneously and with most commendable regularity, and felt no more reluctance or shame in the process than a cat feels in following the man who carries its meat. If they were disappointed in not seeing Anastasia herself (for she left for London almost immediately after the engagement was made public), they were in some measure compensated by the extreme readiness of Miss Euphemia to discuss the matter in all its bearings. Each and every detail was conscientiously considered and enlarged upon, from the buttons on Lord Blandamer's boots to the engagement-ring on Anastasia's finger; and Miss Joliffe was never tired of explaining that this last had an emerald--"A very large emerald, my dear, surrounded by diamonds, green and white being the colours of his lordship's shield, what they call the nebuly coat, you know."
ベルヴュー・ロッジは注目の的になった。下宿の女主人の娘を軽蔑していたご婦人方は、貴族の婚約者のご機嫌を取りにそこを訪れた。彼らはこの変節の動機をみずからにごまかすことなく認め、他人に対しても言い訳したりしなかった。彼らはただ一斉に、実に見事に呼吸を合わせて回れ右をし、えさを運ぶ人間のあとを追う猫のように、そうすることに何のためらいも恥ずかしさも感じなかった。アナスタシアに会えずがっかりしたとはいうものの（彼女は婚約が発表された直後にロンドンに発った）、ミス・ユーフィミアがまことにこころよく事件をあらゆる角度から論じてくれたので、幾分かはその埋め合わせができた。ブランダマー卿の長靴のボタンからアナスタシアの指にはめられた婚約指輪に至るまで、ありとあらゆる細部が念入りに検証され詳述された。ミス・ジョウリフは指輪にはエメラルドがはめられていたと倦むことなく説明した――「とても大きなエメラルドで、まわりをダイヤが囲んでいるの。緑と白って、御前様の盾の色なのよ。ほら、雲形紋章っていうやつ」
A variety of wedding gifts found their way to Bellevue Lodge. "Great events, such as marriages and deaths, certainly do call forth the sympathy of our neighbours in a wonderful way," Miss Joliffe said, with all the seriousness of an innocent belief in the general goodness of mankind. "Till Anstice was engaged, I never knew, I am sure, how many friends I had in Cullerne." She showed "the presents" to successive callers, who examined them with the more interest because they had already seen most of them in the shop-windows of Cullerne, and so were able to appreciate the exact monetary outlay with which their acquaintances thought it prudent to conciliate the Fording interest. Every form of useless ugliness was amply represented among them-- vulgarity masqueraded as taste, niggardliness figured as generosity--and if Miss Joliffe was proud of them as she forwarded them from Cullerne, Anastasia was heartily ashamed of them when they reached her in London.
さまざまな結婚祝いがベルヴュー・ロッジに届いた。「結婚とかお葬式とか、大変なことがあると本当にご近所さんからありがたい同情が寄せられるものなのね」無邪気にも人間は皆善良である、などと真剣に考えながら、ミス・ジョウリフは言った。「アンスティスが結婚するまで、こんなにカランに友達がいたなんて思っても見なかった」彼女は次々と来る訪問者に「贈り物」を見せ、訪問者のほうはそれらを津々たる興味をもって眺めた。彼らはそのほとんどをカランの店の陳列窓で見ていたので、知り合いがフォーデングのひいきを得るためにいくらくらいの出費を賢明と判断したかが分り、いっそう興味深かったのである。そこにはありとあらゆる無駄な醜さがあった――趣味という仮面をかぶった俗悪、寛大という見せかけを持ったけちくささ――ミス・ジョウリフは鼻高々とそれらをカランから送り出したが、ロンドンで受け取ったアナスタシアは心底恥ずかしい思いをした。
"We must let bygones be bygones," said Mrs Parkyn to her husband with truly Christian forbearance, "and if this young man's choice has not fallen exactly where we could have wished, we must remember, after all, that he _is_ Lord Blandamer, and make the best of the lady for his sake. We must give her a present; in your position as Rector you could not afford to be left out. Everyone, I hear, is giving something."
"Well, don't let it be anything extravagant," he said, laying down his paper, for his interest was aroused by any question of expense. "A too costly gift would be quite out of place under the circumstances. It should be rather an expression of goodwill to Lord Blandamer than anything of much intrinsic value."
"Of course, of course. You may trust me not to do anything foolish. I have my eye on just the thing. There is a beautiful set of four salt-cellars with their spoons at Laverick's, in a case lined with puffed satin. They only cost thirty-three shillings, and look worth at least three pounds."
第十九章 ~~~
CHAPTER NINETEEN.
The wedding was quiet, and there being no newspapers at that time to take such matters for their province, Cullerne curiosity had to be contented with the bare announcement: "At Saint Agatha's-at-Bow, Horatio Sebastian Fynes, Lord Blandamer, to Anastasia, only child of the late Michael Joliffe, of Cullerne Wharfe." Mrs Bulteel had been heard to say that she could not allow dear Lord Blandamer to be married without her being there. Canon Parkyn and Mrs Parkyn felt that their presence also was required _ex-officio_, and Clerk Janaway averred with some redundancies of expletive that he, too, "must see 'em turned off." He hadn't been to London for twenty year. If 'twere to cost a sovereign, why, 'twas a poor heart that never made merry, and he would never live to see another Lord Blandamer married. Yet none of them went, for time and place were not revealed.
結婚式はひっそりと行われた。当時カランにはそうしたニュースを伝える新聞がなかったため、町の人は「ホレイシオ・セバスチャン・ファインズすなわちブランダマー卿とカラン・ウオーフの故マーチン・ジョウリフの一人娘アナスタシアはセント・アガサズ・アット・ボウ教会にて挙式」という素っ気ない発表で好奇心を満足させるしかなかった。ミセス・ブルティールは自分の立ち会いがなければブランダマー卿の結婚は認められないと言ったらしい。参事会員パーキンとミセス・パーキンも職権上、式に呼ばれるべきだと感じたし、教会事務員のジャナウエイはさかんに間投詞を差しはさみながら「お二人がめあわされるところを何としても見にゃならねえ」と断じた。ロンドンにはもう二十年も行ったことがなかったし、路銀に金貨一枚かかるとしたって、へっ、行かなきゃ男がすたりまさあ。それにブランダマー卿の結婚なんて生きているうちに二度と見るこたあないでしょうからなあ。けれども式には誰も出席しなかった。場所と日時が公表されなかったからである。
But Miss Joliffe was there, and on her return to Cullerne she held several receptions at Bellevue Lodge, at which only the wedding and the events connected with it were discussed. She was vested for these functions in a new dress of coffee-coloured silk, and what with a tea-urn hissing in Mr Sharnall's room, and muffins, toast, and sweet-cakes, there were such goings-on in the house, as had not been seen since the last coach rolled away from the old Hand of God thirty years before. The company were very gracious and even affectionate, and Miss Joliffe, in the exhilaration of the occasion, forgot all those cold-shoulderings and askance looks which had grieved her at a certain Dorcas meeting only a few weeks before.
ただ一人出席したミス・ジョウリフはカランに戻るとさっそくベルヴュー・ロッジで何度かお披露目の会を開いた。その席では結婚式とそれに付随する出来事ばかりが話題にされた。彼女はその場に合わせて新しいコーヒー色の絹のドレスを着、ミスタ・シャーノールの部屋では湯沸かしがしゅーしゅー音を立て、マフィンやトーストや砂糖たっぷりのケーキが並び、家のなかは大混雑、三十年前に神の手から最後の大型四輪馬車が走り去って以来の賑やかさとなった。集まった人々は非常に礼儀正しく、好意的ですらあり、その場の雰囲気に浮き立ったミス・ジョウリフはほんの数週間前、ドルカス会の集まりでのけ者にされたり、冷たい目で見られ、悲しい思いをしたことなどすっかり忘れた。
At these reunions many important particulars transpired. The wedding had been celebrated early in the morning at the special instance of the bride; only Mrs Howard and Miss Euphemia herself were present. Anstice had worn a travelling dress of dark-green cloth, so that she might go straight from the church to the station. "And, my dears," she said, with a glance of all-embracing benevolence, "she looked a perfect young peeress."
The kind and appreciative audience, who had all been expecting and hoping for the past six weeks, that some bolt might fall from the blue to rob Anastasia of her triumph, were so astonished at the wedding having finally taken place that they could not muster a sneer among them. Only lying-and-mischief-making Mrs Flint found courage for a sniff, and muttered something to her next neighbour about there being such things as mock marriages.
The honeymoon was much extended. Lord and Lady Blandamer went first to the Italian lakes, and thence, working their way home by Munich, Nuremburg, and the Rhine, travelled by such easy stages that autumn had set in when they reached Paris. There they wintered, and there in the spring was born a son and heir to all the Blandamer estates. The news caused much rejoicing in the domain; and when it was announced that the family were returning to Cullerne, it was decided to celebrate the event by ringing a peal from the tower of Saint Sepulchre's. The proposal originated with Canon Parkyn.
"It is a graceful compliment," he said, "to the nobleman to whose munificence the restoration is so largely due. We must show him how much stronger we have made our old tower, eh, Mr Westray? We must get the Carisbury ringers over to teach Cullerne people how such things should be done. Sir George will have to stand out of his fees longer than ever, if he is to wait till the tower tumbles down now. Eh, eh?"
"Ah, I do so dote on these old customs," assented his wife. "It is so delightful, a merry peal. I do think these good old customs should always be kept up." It was the cheapness of the entertainment that particularly appealed to her. "But is it necessary, my dear," she demurred, "to bring the ringers over from Carisbury? They are a sad drunken lot. I am sure there must be plenty of young men in Cullerne, who would delight to help ring the bells on such an occasion."
But Westray would have none of it. It was true, he said, that the tie-rods were fixed, and the tower that much the stronger; but he could countenance no ringing till the great south-east pier had been properly under-pinned.
His remonstrances found little favour. Lord Blandamer would think it so ungracious. Lady Blandamer, to be sure, counted for very little; it was ridiculous, in fact, to think of ringing the minster bells for a landlady's niece, but Lord Blandamer would certainly be offended.
"I call that clerk of the works a vain young upstart," Mrs Parkyn said to her husband. "I cannot think how you keep your temper with such a popinjay. I hope you will not allow yourself to be put upon again. You are so sweet-tempered and forbearing, that _everyone_ takes advantage of you."
「あの現場監督、若いくせにうぬぼれていて鼻持ちならないわ」とミセス・パーキンは夫に言った。「あんな気取り屋に我慢してちゃだめ。二度とつけいらせてはいけません。人がよすぎて甘やかすから、『みんな』つけこんでくるのよ」 ~~~ こんな具合にはっぱをかけられた彼は、とうとう、自分は人の指図を受けるような男ではない、鐘は鳴らさせるし、サー・ジョージに自分の意見を裏付けてもらうと、やけに豪胆なところを見せて彼女を納得させた。陽気な短い手紙を書くことで知られるサー・ジョージは平凡な洒落と古典風の比喩を適度に織り交ぜて、次のように書いてよこした。「感謝」が神殿の階《きざはし》を上がり、「婚姻」の祭壇に捧げものをしようとするとき、「思慮」は階の下で静かに彼女が降りてくるのを待たなければならない。
So she stirred him up till he assured her with considerable boldness that he was _not_ a man to be dictated to; the bells _should_ be rung, and he would get Sir George's views to fortify his own. Then Sir George wrote one of those cheery little notes for which he was famous, with a proper admixture of indifferent puns and a classic conceit: that when Gratitude was climbing the temple steps to lay an offering on Hymen's altar, Prudence must wait silent at the base till she came down.
Sir George should have been a doctor, his friends said; his manner was always so genial and reassuring. So having turned these happy phrases, and being overwhelmed with the grinding pressure of a great practice, he dismissed the tower of Saint Sepulchre from his mind, and left Rector and ringers to their own devices.
Thus on an autumn afternoon there was a sound in Cullerne that few of the inhabitants had ever heard, and the little town stopped its business to listen to the sweetest peal in all the West Country. How they swung and rung and sung together, the little bells and the great bells, from Beata Maria, the sweet, silver-voiced treble, to Taylor John, the deep-voiced tenor, that the Guild of Merchant Taylors had given three hundred years ago. There was a charm in the air like the singing of innumerable birds; people flung up their windows to listen, people stood in the shop-doors to listen, and the melody went floating away over the salt-marshes, till the fishermen taking up their lobster-pots paused in sheer wonder at a music that they had never heard before.
鐘自身も長い休息から解放されて喜んでいるようだった。彼らは夜明けの星のように共に歌い、神の子のように共に歓喜に叫んだ。彼らは往事のことを思い出した。ハーピンドン修道院長に枢機卿の赤帽子が授与されたときに鳴らされ、ヘンリー国王が修道院を解体して信仰を守ったときにも鳴らされ、メアリ女王がミサを復活して信仰を守ったときにも鳴らされ、エリザベス女王がフォーディングにむかう途中、市場を通り、刺繍の入った手袋を贈られたときも鳴らされた。足もとに広がる赤い屋根屋根の下で長きにわたって生と死がせめぎ合ったことを思い出し、数え切れないほどの誕生と結婚と葬式があったことを思い出した。彼らは夜明けの星のように共に歌い、神の子のように共に歓喜に叫び、喜びの声をあげた。
It seemed as if the very bells were glad to break their long repose; they sang together like the morning stars, they shouted together like the sons of God for joy. They remembered the times that were gone, and how they had rung when Abbot Harpingdon was given his red hat, and rung again when Henry defended the Faith by suppressing the Abbey, and again when Mary defended the Faith by restoring the Mass, and again when Queen Bess was given a pair of embroidered gloves as she passed through the Market Place on her way to Fording. They remembered the long counter-change of life and death that had passed under the red roofs at their feet, they remembered innumerable births and marriages and funerals of old time; they sang together like the morning stars, they shouted together like the sons of God for joy, they shouted for joy.
The Carisbury ringers came over after all; and Mrs Parkyn bore their advent with less misgiving, in the hope that directly Lord Blandamer heard of the honour that was done him, he would send a handsome donation for the ringers as he had already sent to the workhouse, and the old folk, and the school-children of Cullerne. The ropes and the cage, and the pins and the wheels, had all been carefully overhauled; and when the day came, the ringers stood to their work like men, and rang a full peal of grandsire triples in two hours and fifty-nine minutes.
There was a little cask of Bulteel's brightest tenpenny that some magician's arm had conjured up through the well-hole in the belfry floor: and Clerk Janaway, for all he was teetotaler, eyed the foaming pots wistfully as he passed them round after the work was done.
"Well," he said, "there weren't no int'rupted peal this time, were there? These here old bells never had a finer set of ringing-men under them, and I lay you never had a finer set of bells above your heads, my lads; now did 'ee? I've heard the bells swung many a time in Carisbury tower, and heard 'em when the Queen was set upon her throne, but, lor'! they arn't so deep-like nor yet so sweet as this here old ring. Perhaps they've grow'd the sweeter for lying by a bit, like port in the cellars of the Blandamer Arms, though I've heard Dr Ennefer say some of it was turned so like sherry, that no man living couldn't tell the difference."
ウエストレイは主任の裁定に対して忠実な部下らしくひれ伏した。鐘を鳴らしても安全であるというサー・ジョージの決定は若者の肩から責任の重みを取り去ったが、心の中から不安を消すことはなかった。ピールが鳴らされているあいだ、彼は聖堂を離れなかった。最初は釣り鐘室に入って鐘枠の梁にしがみつき、大きな口を開けた鐘が天をむいたり、勢いよく回転して下の暗闇のほうをむくのを見ていた。轟音に耳をつんざかれ、彼は鐘楼まで階段を下り、窓枠に腰かけて鐘突き男たちが上下動する様を見ていた。金属のかたまりが往復運動し、その負荷が塔にかかって落ち着きなく揺れるのは感じたが、その動きには何ら異常はなかった。漆喰がはげ落ちることも、特に注意をひくような何事も起こらなかった。そのあと聖堂まで降りて、再びオルガンのある張り出しへと階段を登った。そこからは後期ノルマン様式のアーチが巨大な曲線を描いて南袖廊の上に架かっているのが見えた。
Westray had bowed like loyal subaltern to the verdict of his Chief. Sir George's decision that the bells might safely be rung lifted the responsibility from the young man's shoulders, but not the anxiety from his mind. He never left the church while the peal was ringing. First he was in the bell-chamber steadying himself by the beams of the cage, while he marked the wide-mouthed bells now open heavenwards, now turn back with a rush into the darkness below. Then he crept deafened with the clangour down the stairs into the belfry, and sat on the sill of a window watching the ringers rise and fall at their work. He felt the tower sway restlessly under the stress of the swinging metal, but there was nothing unusual in the motion; there was no falling of mortar, nothing to attract any special attention. Then he went down into the church, and up again into the organ-loft, whence he could see the wide bow of that late Norman arch which spanned the south transept.
アーチの上からランタンまで、彼を大いに不安にさせたあの古い割れ目が、不吉な稲妻のようにジグザグ状に走っていた。その日は曇っていて、空一面に漂う重い雲のかたまりが聖堂内を暗くしていた。中でもいちばん暗い影が落ちていたのは、ランタンの内側を巡る石の通路の下側で、そこに最近塔の補強に使われた重い引っ張り鉄の一つを見て取ることができた。引っ張り鉄がそこにあるのだと思うとウエストレイは嬉しくなった。鳴鐘が塔にかける負担をそれらがことごとく吸収してくれればいいと願った。サー・ジョージの判断が正しく、彼、ウエストレイが間違っていればいいと願った。それでも彼は割れ目に一枚の紙を貼り付け、危険な動きが見られた場合は裂けて警告を発するよう事前に細工をしておいたのだった。
Above the arch ran up into the lantern the old fissure, zigzag like a baleful lightning-flash, that had given him so much anxiety. The day was overcast, and heavy masses of cloud drifting across the sky darkened the church. But where the shadows hung heaviest, under a stone gallery passage that ran round the inside of the lantern, could be traced one of those heavy tie-rods with which the tower had recently been strengthened. Westray was glad to think that the ties were there; he hoped that they might indeed support the strain which this bell-ringing was bringing on the tower; he hoped that Sir George was right, and that he, Westray, was wrong. Yet he had pasted a strip of paper across the crack, so that by tearing it might give warning if any serious movement were taking place.
張り出しの仕切りに寄りかかりながら、アーチが動いているしるしをはじめて見た午後のこと、オルガン奏者が「シャーノール変ニ長調」を弾いてくれた、あの午後のことを思い出した。あれからどれほど多くのことが起きただろう！彼はまさしくこの張り出しで起きた事件、シャーノールの死、悲しい人生に終止符を打った嵐の夜の奇怪な事故のことを考えた。あれはまったくおかしな事故だった。ハンマーを持った男につけられているなどと、気が触れたような想像に取り憑かれ、まさにこの張り出しで足鍵盤に致命傷を負わされたところを発見されたのだ！何ていろいろなことが起きたのだろう――アナスタシアへの求婚と拒絶、そして今そのために鐘が鳴らされている出来事！人生は何と変転きわまりないことか！何世代も時代を超えて、我慢強く、変わることなく立ちつづけてきた、頑として動かぬこの壁に比べれば、自分は、いや、人間というものはなんと短命な生き物だろう。しかし石でできた永遠の現実が、実はことごとくはかない人間によって造られたものであり、またはかない人間である彼が、石でできた永遠の現実を、粉々に崩れ落ちないように、今も忙しく支えようとしているのだと思うとふと笑みがこぼれてきた。
As he leant over the screen of the organ-loft, he thought of that afternoon when he had first seen signs of the arch moving, of that afternoon when the organist was playing "Sharnall in D flat." How much had happened since then! He thought of that scene which had happened in this very loft, of Sharnall's end, of the strange accident that had terminated a sad life on that wild night. What a strange accident it was, what a strange thing that Sharnall should have been haunted by that wandering fancy of a man following him with a hammer, and then have been found in this very loft, with the desperate wound on him that the pedal-note had dealt! How much had happened--his own proposal to Anastasia, his refusal, and now that event for which the bells were ringing! How quickly the scenes changed! What a creature of an hour was he, was every man, in face of these grim walls that had stood enduring, immutable, for generation after generation, for age after age! And then he smiled as he thought that these eternal realities of stone were all created by ephemeral man; that he, ephemeral man, was even now busied with schemes for their support, with anxieties lest they should fall and grind to powder all below.
聖堂の中では鐘の音がやや弱く遠ざかって聞こえた。重い石の屋根を通して届くため、荒々しさが和らげられ、いっそう耳に心地よかった。穹窿天井という弱音器がピールの音を抑えているのだ。低音を響かせるテイラー・ジョンがトレブル・ボブ・トリプルズの複雑な打順に従って奏鳴する仲間たちのあいだを移動していくのが聞こえたが、ウエストレイの耳には低音を響かせる低音鐘のうなり声よりはっきり聞こえる別の声があった。それは塔のアーチの叫び声、カランに来てからというもの耳について離れない小さな静かな声だった。「アーチは決して眠らない」とその声はいった。「アーチは決して眠らない。彼らはわれわれの上に背負いきれないほどの重荷を載せた。われわれはその重量を分散する。アーチは決して眠らない」
The bells sounded fainter and far off inside the church. As they reached his ears through the heavy stone roof they were more harmonious, all harshness was softened; the _sordino_ of the vaulting produced the effect of a muffled peal. He could hear deep-voiced Taylor John go striding through his singing comrades in the intricacies of the Treble Bob Triples, and yet there was another voice in Westray's ears that made itself heard even above the booming of the tenor bell. It was the cry of the tower arches, the small still voice that had haunted him ever since he had been at Cullerne. "The arch never sleeps," they said--"the arch never sleeps;" and again, "They have bound on us a burden too heavy to be borne; but we are shifting it. The arch never sleeps."
The ringers were approaching the end; they had been at their work for near three hours, the 5,040 changes were almost finished. Westray went down from the organ-loft, and as he walked through the church the very last change was rung. Before the hum and mutter had died out of the air, and while the red-faced ringers in the belfry were quaffing their tankards, the architect had made his way to the scaffolding, and stood face to face with the zigzag crack. He looked at it carefully, as a doctor might examine a wound; he thrust his hand like Thomas into the dark fissure. No, there was no change; the paper strip was unbroken, the tie-rods had done their work nobly. Sir George had been quite right after all.
彼が調べているとき、ごくかすかな音が聞こえた――囁くような、呟くような声。あまりにも弱々しくて聞き逃してしまいそうな音だった。しかし建築家の耳には雷鳴のように鳴り響いた。彼は正確にその正体を、その出所を知っていた。割れ目を見ると大きな紙切れが半分に裂けていた。それは些細な出来事だった。紙切れは完全に二つに裂けたのではなく、中程まで破れたに過ぎない。ウエストレイはそれから半時間あまり目を離さずにいたが、それ以上は何の変化も起きなかった。鐘突き男たちは塔を出て、小さな町はいつもの活動に戻った。教会事務員ジャナウエイが聖堂の反対側からやって来て、建築家が南袖廊のアーチの下、足場の高いところの横棒から身を乗り出しているのを見つけた。
And as he looked there was the very faintest noise heard--a whisper, a mutter, a noise so slight that it might have passed a hundred times unnoticed. But to the architect's ear it spoke as loudly as a thunderclap. He knew exactly what it was and whence it came; and looking at the crack, saw that the broad paper strip was torn half-way across. It was a small affair; the paper strip was not quite parted, it was only torn half-way through. Though Westray watched for an hour, no further change took place. The ringers had left the tower, the little town had resumed its business. Clerk Janaway was walking across the church, when he saw the architect leaning against a cross-pole of the scaffolding, on the platform high up under the arch of the south transept.
"I'm just a-locking up," he called out. "You've got your own key, sir, no doubt?"
Westray gave an almost imperceptible nod.
「今度は塔が倒れませんでしたなあ」教会事務員は話しつづけた。しかしウエストレイは返事をせず、じっと半分だけ裂けた紙片を見ていた。他のことは何も考えられなかった。一分後、老人も足場にあがって彼のそばに立った。梯子を登って息を切らしていた。「今度はピールが中断されませんでしたなあ。とうとう雲形紋章をやっつけましたよ。ブランダマー卿はお戻りになる。跡継ぎが生まれて一族は御安泰。雲形紋章からちょいと毒気がぬけちまったような気がしませんかい」しかしウエストレイは不機嫌で何も言わなかった。「おや、どうなすったんです。お加減が悪いんじゃないでしょうね」 ~~~ 「ほっといてくれませんか」建築家は突っ慳貪に言った。「ピールは中断されればよかったんだ。鐘なんか鳴らさなければよかったんだ。見てください」――彼は紙切れを指さした。
"Well, we haven't brought the tower down this time," the clerk went on. But Westray made no answer; his eyes were fixed on the little half-torn strip of paper, and he had no thought for anything else. A minute later the old man stood beside him on the platform, puffing after the ladders that he had climbed. "No int'rupted peal this time," he said; "we've fair beat the neb'ly coat at last. Lord Blandamer back, and an heir to keep the family going. Looks as if the neb'ly coat was losing a bit of his sting, don't it?" But Westray was moody, and said nothing. "Why what's the matter? You bain't took bad, be you?"
"Don't bother me now," the architect said sharply. "I wish to Heaven the peal _had_ been interrupted. I wish your bells had never been rung. Look there"--and he pointed at the strip of paper.
The clerk went closer to the crack, and looked hard at the silent witness. "Lor' bless you! that ain't nothing," he said; "'tis only just the jarring of the bells done that. You don't expect a mushet of paper to stand as firm as an anvil-stone, when Taylor John's a-swinging up aloft."
"Look you," Westray said; "you were in church this morning. Do you remember the lesson about the prophet sending his servant up to the top of a hill, to look at the sea? The man went up ever so many times and saw nothing. Last he saw a little cloud like a man's hand rising out of the sea, and after that the heaven grew black, and the storm broke. I'm not sure that bit of torn paper isn't the man's hand for this tower."
"Don't bother yourself," rejoined the clerk; "the man's hand showed the rain was a-coming, and the rain was just what they wanted. I never can make out why folks twist the Scripture round and make the man's hand into something bad. 'Twas a _good_ thing, so take heart and get home to your victuals; you can't mend that bit of paper for all your staring at it."
Westray paid no attention to his remarks, and the old man wished him good-night rather stiffly. "Well," he said, as he turned down the ladder, "I'm off. I've got to be in my garden afore dark, for they're going to seal the leek leaves to-night against the leek-show next week. My grandson took first prize last year, and his old grandad had to put up with eleventh; but I've got half a dozen leeks this season as'll beat any plant that's growed in Cullerne."
By the next morning the paper strip was entirely parted. Westray wrote to Sir George, but history only repeated itself; for his Chief again made light of the matter, and gave the young man a strong hint that he was making mountains of molehills, that he was unduly nervous, that his place was to diligently carry out the instructions he had received. Another strip of paper was pasted across the crack, and remained intact. It seemed as if the tower had come to rest again, but Westray's scruples were not so easily allayed this time, and he took measures for pushing forward the under-pinning of the south-east pier with all possible despatch.
第二十章 ~~~
CHAPTER TWENTY.
ウエストレイはアナスタシアにひかれ、あるいは好意を抱き、一時はその感情を愛だと思いこもうとしたが、それも消えてなくなった。心の平静を完全に回復し、結婚の申しこみを拒否された恥辱については、申しこんだときにすでに娘の心は決まっていたのだ、と割り引いて考えることにしていた。いずれにしろブランダマー卿がとてつもない競争相手であることは認めるにやぶさかでないが、同じスタート地点から競争を始めていたなら、彼にも勝ち目は十分あったと思っていた。ライバルには社会的地位と富があるが、こっちには疑いもなく若さと安定した人生と専門的な技術がある。しかしすでに他の男のものである心を自分のものにしようとするのは、水車にむかって槍を繰り出すようなものだ。こんなふうに不快な思いを次第に鎮め、仕事に集中して打ちこむようになった。
That inclination or predilection of Westray's for Anastasia, which he had been able to persuade himself was love, had passed away. His peace of mind was now completely restored, and he discounted the humiliation of refusal, by reflecting that the girl's affections must have been already engaged at the time of his proposal. He was ready to admit that Lord Blandamer would in any case have been a formidable competitor, but if they had started for the race at the same time he would have been quite prepared to back his own chances. Against his rival's position and wealth, might surely have been set his own youth, regularity of life, and professional skill; but it was a mere tilting against windmills to try to win a heart that was already another's. Thus disturbing influences were gradually composed, and he was able to devote an undivided attention to his professional work.
冬の日暮れが訪れる頃、彼は南袖廊の端にある巨大な窓の紋章を解明するという、性にあった暇つぶしを見つけた。そこに輝くさまざまな紋章をスケッチし、郷土史とドクタ・エニファーが貸してくれた小冊子を頼りに紋章の各部分に示される姻戚関係をほとんど突き止めることに成功した。すべてがブランダマー家の結婚に関係していた。ガラス画家ヴァン・リンジは第三代ブランダマー卿までの家系を窓いっぱいにガラスで描き、海緑色と銀色の雲形紋章は窓の上部に大きく出ているだけでなく、何度も繰り返し用いられていたのである。この調査に当たってマーチン・ジョウリフの書類が手元にあったのはありがたかった。建築家の調べ物に関連した情報が満載されていたのだ。なにしろマーチンは出版されたブランダマー家の家系図を入手し、手をつくして結婚と傍系親族のことを調べ上げ、それに補足訂正を施していたのである。
As the winter evenings set in, he found congenial occupation in an attempt to elucidate the heraldry of the great window at the end of the south transept. He made sketches of the various shields blazoned in it, and with the aid of a county history, and a manual which Dr Ennefer had lent him, succeeded in tracing most of the alliances represented by the various quarterings. These all related to marriages of the Blandamer family, for Van Linge had filled the window with glass to the order of the third Lord Blandamer, and the sea-green and silver of the nebuly coat was many times repeated, beside figuring in chief at the head of the window. In these studies Westray was glad to have Martin Joliffe's papers by him. There was in them a mass of information which bore on the subject of the architect's inquiries, for Martin had taken the published genealogy of the Blandamer family, and elaborated and corrected it by all kinds of investigation as to marriages and collaterals.
マーチンの妄想の話を聞き、少年たちに「雲形じいさん」と呼ばれていた、もうろくした老人というイメージがウエストレイの頭の中にでき上がっていたため、はじめて書類をひっくり返したとき、そこにあるのはせいぜい狂人のたわごとでしかないだろうと思っていた。しかしその多くがどれほど連関性のないばらばらのものに見えても、マーチンのメモは極めて興味深く、多かれ少なかれ一つの目的によって貫かれた一貫性のあるものであることが次第に判明してきたのである。果てしなくつづく家系図と、本から書き抜いた一族の歴史の断片、その他にマーチンが旅をしながら得たありとあらゆる個人的印象と経験も記録されていた。しかしこのすべての調査探索はたった一つの目的しか持っていない、と彼は明言している――つまり父の名を突き止めることだ。もっともどんな記録を見つけようとしていたのか、どこで、どんなふうに見つけようとしていたのか、文書、戸籍簿、銘刻、いずれの形で見つかると考えていたのかはどこにも書かれていないけれども。
The story of Martin's delusion, the idea of the doited grey-beard whom the boys called "Old Nebuly," had been so firmly impressed on Westray's mind, that when he first turned over the papers he expected to find in them little more than the hallucinations of a madman. But by degrees he became aware that however disconnected many of Martin's notes might appear, they possessed a good deal of interest, and the coherence which results from a particular object being kept more or less continuously in view. Besides endless genealogies and bits of family history extracted from books, there were recorded all kinds of personal impressions and experiences, which Martin had met with in his journeyings. But in all his researches and expeditions he professed to have but one object--the discovery of his father's name; though what record he hoped to find, or where or how he hoped to find it, whether in document or register or inscription, was nowhere set out.
自分こそフォーディングの正当な所有者であるという持論はオクスフォード時代に思いついて以来、彼に取り憑き、その後どんな目に遭おうとも払いのけることができなかったのは明らかだった。二親の片一方ははっきりと分かっている。母親は小地主のジョウリフと結婚し、有名な花と毛虫の絵を描き、そのほかいろいろ名誉になるとはいえないことをやらかしたソフィア・フラネリイだ。しかし父親は不透明なヴェールをかぶっていて、マーチンは生涯をかけてそれを引きはがそうとしたのだ。ウエストレイはこんな話を教会事務員のジャナウエイから十回以上も聞いていた。小地主のジョウリフがソフィアと教会に行ったとき、彼女は前の結婚でできた四歳の男の子を連れていた。前の「結婚」で、という点をマーチンはいつもそれが義務であるかのように強調した。それ以外の事情を考えることは自分自身の名誉を傷つけることだった。母親の名誉はどうでもいい。だいたい兵士や馬喰とくっついて自分の評判を無惨におとしめた母親の思い出など、守ったところで何になるというのだ？マーチンが必死になって事実関係を突き止めようとしたのは、この「前の結婚」だった。他の人々が頭を振って、そんな結婚は見つからない、ソフィアは妻でも未亡人でもなかったのだというものだから、なおさら必死だった。
It was evident that the old fancy that he was the rightful owner of Fording, which had been suggested to him in his Oxford days, had taken such hold of his mind that no subsequent experience had been able to dislodge it. Of half his parentage there was no doubt. His mother was that Sophia Flannery who had married Yeoman Joliffe, had painted the famous picture of the flowers and caterpillar, and done many other things less reputable; but over his father hung a veil of obscurity which Martin had tried all his life to lift. Westray had heard those early stories from Clerk Janaway a dozen times, how that when Yeoman Joliffe took Sophia to church she brought him a four-year-old son by a former marriage. By a former _marriage_ Martin had always stoutly maintained, as in duty bound, for any other theory would have dishonoured himself. With his mother's honour he had little concern, for where was the use of defending the memory of a mother who had made shipwreck of her own reputation with soldiers and horse-copers? It was this previous marriage that Martin had tried so hard to establish, tried all the harder because other folk had wagged their heads and said there was no marriage to discover, that Sophia was neither wife nor widow.
メモの終わりのほうになると、まるで手がかりが見つかったような――何かの手がかりが見つかったか、見つかったと思っているような書き方になった。このスリッパ探し（註 隠されたスリッパを探し出す子供の遊び）のゲームで彼は目的のものにどんどん近づいていると思っていたのだが、土壇場で死が彼の裏をかいたのだった。ウエストレイは、もう少しで謎が解けるというときにマーチンに最後が訪れてしまった、とミスタ・シャーノールが一度ならず語っていたことを思い出した。シャーノールもあと少しで幻の正体を突き止めることができたのに、あの嵐の晩、運命に足をすくわれたのではなかったか。書類をめくりながらウエストレイの心に様々な思いが浮かび、彼よりも前にこれをめくった人々のことをいろいろ考えた。この書類を書くために無駄な日々を費やし、家庭も家族もなおざりにした、頭はいいけれどろくでなしのマーチン。興奮した手で書類を握り、驚くべき秘密を暴いて自分の人生という暗い舞台に華々しい光を当てようとした老オルガン奏者。読み進むにつれてウエストレイはますます興味をそそられ、もともとブランダマー・ウインドウの紋章を研究するため始めたことなのに、すっかりこちらの調査にのめりこんでしまった。彼はマーチンに取り憑き、オルガン奏者をあれほど興奮させた幻を理解しはじめた。長い間、彼らが求めていた秘密を暴くのは自分の役目であり、自らの手の中にこそ、この奇怪極まりない物語の鍵が握られているのだと考えはじめた。
Towards the end of his notes it seemed as if he had found some clue--had found some clue, or thought that he had found it. In this game of hunt the slipper he had imagined that he was growing "hotter" and "hotter" till death balked him at the finish. Westray recollected Mr Sharnall saying more than once that Martin had been on the brink of solving the riddle when the end overtook him. And Sharnall, too, had he not almost grasped the Will-of-the-wisp when fate tripped _him_ on that windy night? Many thoughts came to Westray's mind as he turned these papers, many memories of others who had turned them before him. He thought of clever, worthless Martin, who had wasted his days on their writing, who had neglected home and family for their sake; he thought of the little organist who had held them in his feverish hands, who had hoped by some dramatic discovery to illumine the dark setting of his own life. And as Westray read, the interest grew with him too, till it absorbed the heraldry of the Blandamer window from which the whole matter had started. He began to comprehend the vision that had possessed Martin, that had so stirred the organist's feelings; he began to think that it was reserved for himself to make the long-sought discovery, and that he had in his own hand the clue to the strangest of romances.
One evening as he sat by the fire, with a plan in his hands and a litter of Martin's papers lying on a table at his side, there was a tap at the door, and Miss Joliffe entered. They were still close friends in spite of his leaving Bellevue Lodge. However sorry she had been at the time to lose her lodger, she recognised that the course he had taken was correct, and, indeed, obligatory. She was glad that he had seen his duty in this matter; it would have been quite impossible for any man of ordinary human feelings, to continue to live on in the same house under such circumstances. To have made a bid for Anstice's hand, and to have been refused, was a blow that moved her deepest pity, and she endeavoured in many ways to show her consideration for the victim. Providence had no doubt overruled everything for the best in ordaining that Anstice should refuse Mr Westray, but Miss Joliffe had favoured his suit, and had been sorry at the time that it was not successful. So there existed between them that curious sympathy, which generally exists between a rejected lover and a woman who has done her best to further his proposal. They had since met not unfrequently, and the year which had elapsed had sufficiently blunted the edge of Westray's disappointment, to enable him to talk of the matter with equanimity. He took a sad pleasure in discussing with Miss Joliffe the motives which might have conduced to so inexplicable a refusal, and in considering whether his offer would have been accepted if it had been made a little sooner or in another manner. Nor was the subject in any way distasteful to her, for she felt a reflected glory in the fact of her niece having first refused a thoroughly eligible proposal, and having afterwards accepted one transcendently better.
ある晩、図面を手にし、マーチンの書類を脇テーブルの上に散らかしたまま椅子に座って暖炉にあたっていると、ドアをノックする音がして、ミス・ジョウリフが入ってきた。ベルヴュー・ロッジを出たにもかかわらず、二人は今でも親しい友達だった。下宿人を失ったことは残念で仕方なかったが、彼の取った行動は正しいし、そうするのが義務ですらあると彼女は思った。こうした場合の作法を守ってくれたことはありがたかった。あのまま下宿に住みつづけることは普通の感覚の持ち主には不可能だっただろう。アナスタシアの手を取ろうとして拒絶されたことは彼にとって精神的打撃だったが、彼女はそれにすっかり同情をしてしまい、犠牲者に対してなにくれとなく配慮を見せようとした。アンスティスがミスタ・ウエストレイを拒絶したことはきっと天がよかれと定めたもうたことに違いないが、ミス・ジョウリフは彼の結婚の申しこみに好感を抱いていたから、それが不首尾に終わったことを当時は悲しんでいたのである。そういうわけで二人のあいだには不思議な気持ちのつながり、拒否された恋人と、彼の申しこみを一所懸命に応援した女性とのあいだによく存在するような気持ちのつながりがあった。以来二人はかなり頻繁に会い、一年がたつとウエストレイの失望も鈍磨し、冷静にその話ができるようになった。彼はあのような不可解な拒絶の理由をミス・ジョウリフと議論したり、申しこむのがもう少し早いか、別のやり方をしていたなら受け入れられただろうか、などと考えることにもの悲しい喜びを感じていた。彼女にとってもそれは不快な話題ではなかった。どこをとっても不足のない最初の申しこみを断り、そのあとで桁違いに好条件の申しこみを受け取った姪を持ち、自分まで栄光に包まれたような気がしていた。
"Forgive me, sir--forgive me, Mr Westray," she corrected herself, remembering that their relation was no longer one of landlady and lodger. "I am sorry to intrude on you so late, but it is difficult to find you in during the day. There is a matter that has been weighing lately on my mind. You have never taken away the picture of the flowers, which you and dear Mr Sharnall purchased of me. I have not hurried in the matter, feeling I should like to see you nicely settled in before it was moved, but now it is time all was set right, so I have brought it over to-night."
If her dress was no longer threadbare, it was still of the neatest black, and if she had taken to wearing every day the moss-agate brooch which had formerly been reserved for Sundays, she was still the very same old sweet-tempered, spontaneous, Miss Joliffe as in time past. Westray looked at her with something like affection.
"Sit down," he said, offering her a chair; "did you say you had brought the picture with you?" and he scanned her as if he expected to see it produced from her pocket.
"Yes," she said; "my maid is bringing it upstairs"--and there was just a suspicion of hesitation on the word "maid," that showed that she was still unaccustomed to the luxury of being waited on.
ベルヴュー・ロッジに住みつづけ、召使いを一人雇えるようにと、アナスタシアが差し出す生活費を、彼女はさんざん説得されたあげく、渋々受け取ることにしたのだった。ブランダマー卿が婚約から一週間以内にマーチンの借金をきれいに支払ってくれたときは、どれほど安堵したか分からないが、同時にこのような寛大さは彼女の心をいくつもの心配で満たすことになった。ブランダマー卿は一緒にフォーデングの屋敷に住むことを望んでいたが、思いやりがあり、よく気のつく彼は、そのような変化を彼女が好まないことを見て取るや、無理に勧めることを止めた。そういうわけで彼女はカランにとどまり、今ようやくその存在に気づいた無数の友人たちの訪問を厳かに受け、また聖堂での礼拝や集会、教区の仕事や他の特権を心ゆくまで楽しみながら日々を送っていた。
It was with great difficulty that she had been persuaded to accept such an allowance at Anastasia's hands, as would enable her to live on at Bellevue Lodge and keep a single servant; and if it brought her infinite relief to find that Lord Blandamer had paid all Martin's bills within a week of his engagement, such generosity filled her at the same time with a multitude of scruples. Lord Blandamer had wished her to live with them at Fording, but he was far too considerate and appreciative of the situation to insist on this proposal when he saw that such a change would be uncongenial to her. So she remained at Cullerne, and spent her time in receiving with dignity visits from the innumerable friends that she found she now possessed, and in the fullest enjoyment of church services, meetings, parish work, and other privileges.
「ご親切にありがとう、ミス・ジョウリフ」とウエストレイは言った。「絵のことを覚えていてくださるとは。でも」彼は絵のことを鮮明すぎるくらいはっきり思い出した。「あなたはいつもあの絵を大切になさっていましたね。それをベルヴュー・ロッジから奪ってしまうなんて、わたしにはできませんよ。共同所有者だったミスタ・シャーノールは亡くなって、わたしには半分しか権利がないんですけど、あれは贈り物としてあなたに差し上げます。いろいろ親切にしていただいた、ささやかなお礼のしるしです。実際、ひとかたならずお世話になりましたからね」彼はため息をついたが、それは結婚の申しこみの一件で、ミス・ジョウリフが好意を示してくれたことや、自分が悲しみにかきくれたことを相手に思い出させるためのものだった。
"It is very good of you, Miss Joliffe," Westray said; "it is very kind of you to think of the picture. But," he went on, with a too vivid recollection of the painting, "I know how much you have always prized it, and I could not bear to take it away from Bellevue Lodge. You see, Mr Sharnall, who was part owner with me, is dead; I am only making you a present of half of it, so you must accept that from me as a little token of gratitude for all the kindness you have shown me. You _have_ been very kind to me, you know," he said with a sigh, which was meant to recall Miss Joliffe's friendliness, and his own grief, in the affair of the proposal.
ミス・ジョウリフはとっさにその暗示を理解した。彼女の声は同情に満ちていた。「まあ、ミスタ・ウエストレイ、ご存じでしょうけど、わたしもあなたが望んだとおりに事が運べばいいのにって心から思っていましたのよ。でもこういうことは天の定めを理解するように努め、悲しみに耐えなければなりません。あの絵のことは、今回だけは、わたしの言う通りにしてくださいな。わたしたちが取り決めたように、そのうち遠からず絵をあなたから買い戻せる日が来ますわ。そのときは絵を返してくださると信じています。けど今はあなたのところになければなりません。それに、もし、わたしに何かがあったら、あれはあなたにしっかり保管しておいてほしいのです」
Miss Joliffe was quick to take the cue, and her voice was full of sympathy. "Dear Mr Westray, you know how glad I should have been if all could have happened as you wished. Yet we should try to recognise the ordering of Providence in these things, and bear sorrow with meekness. But about the picture, you must let me have my own way this once. There may come a time, and that before very long, when I shall be able to buy it back from you just as we arranged, and then I am sure you will let me have it. But for the present it must be with you, and if anything should happen to me I should wish you to keep it altogether."
ウエストレイはあくまで彼女が持っているように主張するつもりだった。けばけばしい花と緑の毛虫には、もう二度とつきまとわれたくはなかった。ところが、彼にはおかしなくらいよくあることなのだが、彼女が喋っているあいだに急に気が変わったのである。どんなことがあっても絵を手放すな、と異様なくらいしつこくミスタ・シャーノールに頼まれていたことを思い出したのだ。今ミス・ジョウリフが絵を持ってきたのも、摩訶不思議な力が働いたせいではないかと思われ、絵を突き返すのはシャーノールの信頼を裏切ることになりそうな気がした。そこで意地を張るのを止め、「じゃあ、本当にそれでいいのでしたら、しばらく預かることにしましょう。いつでも好きなときに持っていって構いませんよ」と言った。彼が話しているとき外の階段から何かに躓くような足音と重いものを落としたようなごつんという音が聞こえてきた。
Westray had meant to insist on her retaining the picture; he would not for a second time submit to be haunted with the gaudy flowers and the green caterpillar. But while she spoke, there fell upon him one of those gusty changes of purpose to which he was peculiarly liable. There came into his mind that strange insistence with which Sharnall had begged him at all hazards to retain possession of the picture. It seemed as if there might be some mysterious influence which had brought Miss Joliffe with it just now, and that he might be playing false to his trust with Sharnall if he sent it back again. So he did not remain obdurate, but said: "Well, if you really wish it, I will keep the picture for a time, and whenever you want it you can take it back again." While he was speaking there was a sound of stumbling on the stairs outside, and a bang as if something heavy had been let drop.
"It is that stupid girl again," Miss Joliffe said; "she is always tumbling about. I am sure she has broken more china in the six months she has been with me than was broken before in six years."
They went to the door, and as Westray opened it great red-faced and smiling Anne Janaway walked in, bearing the glorious picture of the flowers and caterpillar.
"What have you been doing now?" her mistress asked sharply.
"Very sorry, mum," said the maid, mingling some indignation with her apology, "this here gurt paint tripped I up. I'm sure I hope I haven't hurt un"--and she planted the picture on the floor against the table.
Miss Joliffe scanned the picture with an eye which was trained to detect the very flakiest chip on a saucer, the very faintest scratch upon a teapot.
"Dear me, dear me!" she said, "the beautiful frame is ruined; the bottom piece is broken almost clean off."
"Oh, come," Westray said in a pacifying tone, while he lifted the picture and laid it flat on the table, "things are not so bad as all that."
He saw that the piece which formed the bottom of the frame was indeed detached at both corners and ready to fall away, but he pushed it back into position with his hand till it stuck in its place, and left little damage apparent to a casual observer.
"See," he said, "it looks nearly all right. A little glue will quite repair the mischief to-morrow I am sure I wonder how your servant managed to get it up here at all--it is such a weight and size."
ウエストレイはミス・ジョウリフが帰ったあとも遅くまで仕事をつづけた。それが片付いたとき、大きな音で時を刻むマントルピースの上の時計はほとんど十二時を指していた。それからしばらく消えかけた火の前で椅子に腰かけ、ミスタ・シャーノールの思い出にふけった。絵を見て彼のことを思い出したのだが、そのうち黒くなった燃えさしが彼に寝る時間だと注意した。椅子から立ち上がろうとしたとき、後ろで何かが落ちる音し、振り返って見ると一時的に元通りはめこんであった額縁の下枠が、それ自身の重みでまた外れてしまい、床に落ちたのだった。今まで何度も思ったことだが、額縁は独特な帯状の模様が交錯している見事なものだった。こんな下手な絵が豪華な額に納まっているのは奇妙なことで、ときどき彼はソフィア・フラネリイが安売りでこの額縁を買い、あとでその中を埋めるために花の絵を塗りたくったのではないかと考えた。
As a matter of fact, Miss Joliffe herself had helped Ann to carry the picture as far as the Grands Mulets of the last landing. The final ascent she thought could be accomplished in safety by the girl alone, while it would have been derogatory to her new position of an independent lady to appear before Westray carrying the picture herself.
"Do not vex yourself," Westray begged; "look, there is a nail in the wall here under the ceiling which will do capitally for hanging it till I can find a better place; the old cord is just the right length." He climbed on a chair and adjusted the picture, standing back as if to admire it, till Miss Joliffe's complacency was fairly restored.
Westray was busied that night long after Miss Joliffe had left him, and the hands of the loud-ticking clock on the mantelpiece showed that midnight was near before he had finished his work. Then he sat a little while before the dying fire, thinking much of Mr Sharnall, whom the picture had recalled to his mind, until the blackening embers warned him that it was time to go to bed. He was rising from his chair, when he heard behind him a noise as of something falling, and looking round, saw that the bottom of the picture-frame, which he had temporarily pushed into position, had broken away again of its own weight, and was fallen on the floor. The frame was handsomely wrought with a peculiar interlacing fillet, as he had noticed many times before. It was curious that so poor a picture should have obtained a rich setting, and sometimes he thought that Sophia Flannery must have bought the frame at a sale, and had afterwards daubed the flower-piece to fill it.
The room had grown suddenly cold with the chill which dogs the heels of a dying fire on an early winter's night. An icy breath blew in under the door, and made something flutter that lay on the floor close to the broken frame. Westray stooped to pick it up, and found that he had in his hand a piece of folded paper.
それは古びて黄色くなった細長い紙で、一昔前から広げられぬままおかれていたため幾つもしわが寄っていた。印刷された文字もあれば手書きの文字もあった。それが結婚証明書であることは即座に分かった――法も予言者もしばしば判断の根幹にすえる、あの「結婚証明書」である（註 マタイ伝から）。印刷の細かな空白部分はことごとく書きこみで埋めつくされ、「千八百年三月十五日、セント・メダード・ウィジン教会にて、紳士ホレイシオ・セバスチャン・ファインズの息子、独身者ホレイシオ・セバスチャン・ファインズ二十二歳は、商人ジェイムズ・フラネリイの娘、未亡人ソフィア・フラネリイ二十一歳と結婚」したことが証人たちの型通りの宣誓とともに記されていた。その下には乱れた読みにくい字で、今はもう黄色に変色したインクの書きこみがあった。「千八百一年一月二日夜十二時十分過ぎ、マーチン誕生」。彼は紙をテーブルに置き、平らに伸ばした。目の前にあるのはマーチンが一生涯かかって探し、見つけられなかった母親の最初の結婚（唯一の本当の結婚）の証明書だった。マーチンが死の直前につかみかけていた嫡出の正統性のあかし、シャーノールもやはりあと少しでつかめると思っていたのに死に襲われてしまった手がかりだった。
He felt a curious reluctance in handling it. Those fantastic scruples to which he was so often a prey assailed him. He asked himself had he any right to examine this piece of paper? It might be a letter; he did not know whence it had come, nor whose it was, and he certainly did not wish to be guilty of opening someone else's letter. He even went so far as to put it solemnly on the table, like a skipper on whose deck the phantom whale-boat of the _Flying Dutchman_ has deposited a packet of mails. After a few minutes, however, he appreciated the absurdity of the situation, and with an effort unfolded the mysterious missive.
千八百年三月十五日、ソフィア・フラネリイは結婚特別許可により紳士ホレイシオ・セバスチャン・ファインズと結婚、千八百一年一月二日夜十二時十分にマーチンが生まれた。ホレイシオ・セバスチャン――この名前をウエストレイは何度も耳にした。この紳士ホレイシオ・セバスチャン・ファインズの息子、ホレイシオ・セバスチャン・ファインズとは誰だろう。彼の自問は形だけのものだった。答はちゃんと分かっていたのだ。目の前のこの書類は法的な証明とはならないかも知れないが、キリスト教国の法律家が束になっても、ソフィア・フラネリイが結婚した「紳士」が三年前に八十代でなくなったブランダマー卿に他ならないという彼の確信、直感を変えることはできなかっただろう。彼の目には黄ばんだ紙に揺るぎない権威が備わっているように見えたし、下の隅にのたくるような筆跡で書き留められたマーチンの出生日は、彼が得た情報ともぴたりと一致した。彼は寒さの中、再び椅子に腰かけ、テーブルに肘をついて頭を抱え、この命題に付随するいくつかの結論を引き出した。もしも先代のブランダマー卿が千八百年三月十五日にソフィア・フラネリイと結婚していたのなら、彼の二回目の結婚は無効ということになる。なぜならソフィアはそれ以後もずっと存命だったのだし、離婚手続きは取られなかったのだから。しかし二回目の結婚が無効であるなら、カラン湾で溺れ死んだ息子のブランダマー卿は非嫡出子であり、その孫で現在フォーディングという玉座に座っているブランダマー卿も非嫡出ということだ。マーチンの夢は正しかったのだ。わがままで、浪費家で、怠け者で、子供たちに「雲形じいさん」と呼ばれていたマーチンは結局気が狂っていたのではなく、本当にブランダマー卿だったのだ。
It was a long narrow piece of paper, yellowed with years, and lined with the creases of a generation; and had on it both printed and written characters. He recognised it instantly for a certificate of marriage-- those "marriage lines" on which so often hang both the law and the prophets. There it was with all the little pigeon-holes duly filled in, and set forth how that on "March 15, 1800, at the Church of Saint Medard Within, one Horatio Sebastian Fynes, bachelor, aged twenty-one, son of Horatio Sebastian Fynes, gentleman, was married to one Sophia Flannery, spinster, aged twenty-one, daughter of James Flannery, merchant," with witnesses duly attesting. And underneath an ill-formed straggling hand had added a superscription in ink that was now brown and wasted: "Martin born January 2, 1801, at ten minutes past twelve, night." He laid it on the table and folded it out flat, and knew that he had under his eyes that certificate of the first marriage (of the only true marriage) of Martin's mother, which Martin had longed all his life to see, and had not seen; that patent of legitimacy which Martin thought he had within his grasp when death overtook him, that clue which Sharnall thought that he had within his grasp when death overtook him also.
On March 15, 1800, Sophia Flannery was married by special licence to Horatio Sebastian Fynes, gentleman, and on January 2, 1801, at ten minutes past twelve, night, Martin was born. Horatio Sebastian--the names were familiar enough to Westray. Who was this Horatio Sebastian Fynes, son of Horatio Sebastian Fynes, gentleman? It was only a formal question that he asked himself, for he knew the answer very well. This document that he had before him might be no legal proof, but not all the lawyers in Christendom could change his conviction, his intuition, that the "gentleman" Sophia Flannery had married was none other than the octogenarian Lord Blandamer deceased three years ago. There was to his eyes an air of authenticity about that yellowed strip of paper that nothing could upset, and the date of Martin's birth given in the straggling hand at the bottom coincided exactly with his own information. He sat down again in the cold with his elbows on the table and his head between his hands while he took in some of the corollaries of the position. If the old Lord Blandamer had married Sophia Flannery on March 15, 1800, then his second marriage was no marriage at all, for Sophia was living long after that, and there had been no divorce. But if his second marriage was no marriage, then his son, Lord Blandamer, who was drowned in Cullerne Bay, had been illegitimate, and his grandson, Lord Blandamer, who now sat on the throne of Fording, was illegitimate too. And Martin's dream had been true. Selfish, thriftless, idle Martin, whom the boys called "Old Nebuly," had not been mad after all, but had been Lord Blandamer.
It all hung on this strip of paper, this bolt fallen from the blue, this message that had come from no one knew where. Whence _had_ it come? Could Miss Joliffe have dropped it? No, that was impossible; she would certainly have told him if she had any information of this kind, for she knew that he had been trying for months to unravel the tangle of Martin's papers. It must have been hidden behind the picture, and have fallen out when the bottom piece of the frame fell.
彼は絵に近づいた。けばけばしい、へたくそな花を生けた花瓶、机の上をのたくる緑の毛虫、しかし下の部分には今まで見たことのなかった何かがあった。枠が毀れてとれてしまった部分に細い筋となって別の絵がのぞいていた。花の絵は別の絵の上に塗り重ねられたようだった。まるでソフィア・フラネリイは画布を取り出しもせず、額縁の端まで稚拙な絵を描きこんだように思われた。この花がもっとできのいい絵を隠していることは疑う余地がなかった。それはきっと肖像画なのだろう。底の部分には茶色いビロードの上着と、茶色いビロードの胴着の真鍮のボタンすら見て取ることができた。彼は蝋燭を近くにかざして幾分なりとも輪郭がたどれはしまいか、背後に描かれているものの形が見定められはしまいかと花の絵をじっと見た。しかし絵の具は容赦なく塗りたくられ、覆いを見透かすことは難しかった。緑の毛虫さえ彼をあざ笑っているようだった。というのはよく見ると、ソフィアは微妙に色づかいを変えて頭の部分に二つの目とにやりと笑った口を茶目っ気たっぷりに描きこんでいたのだ。
He went to the picture. There was the vase of flaunting, ill-drawn flowers, there was the green caterpillar wriggling on the table-top, but at the bottom was something that he had never seen before. A long narrow margin of another painting was now visible where the frame was broken away; it seemed as if the flower-piece had been painted over some other subject, as if Sophia Flannery had not even been at the pains to take the canvas out, and had only carried her daub up to the edge of the frame. There was no question that the flowers masked some better painting, some portrait, no doubt, for enough was shown at the bottom to enable him to make out a strip of a brown velvet coat, and even one mother-of-pearl button of a brown velvet waistcoat. He stared at the flowers, he held a candle close to them in the hope of being able to trace some outline, to discover something of what lay behind. But the colour had been laid on with no sparing hand, the veil was impenetrable. Even the green caterpillar seemed to mock him, for as he looked at it closely, he saw that Sophia in her wantonness had put some minute touches of colour, which gave its head two eyes and a grinning mouth.
He sat down again at the table where the certificate still lay open before him. That entry of Martin's birth must be in the handwriting of Sophia Flannery, of faithless, irresponsible Sophia Flannery, flaunting as her own flowers, mocking as the face of her own caterpillar.
There was a dead silence over all, the utter blank silence that falls upon a country town in the early morning hours. Only the loud-ticking clock on the mantelpiece kept telling of time's passage till the carillon of Saint Sepulchre's woke the silence with New Sabbath. It was three o'clock, and the room was deadly cold, but that chill was nothing to the chill that was rising to his own heart. He knew it all now, he said to himself--he knew the secret of Anastasia's marriage, and of Sharnall's death, and of Martin's death.
第二十一章 ~~~
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
The foreman of the masons at work in the under-pinning of the south-east pier came to see Westray at nine o'clock the next morning. He was anxious that the architect should go down to the church at once, for the workmen, on reaching the tower shortly after daybreak, found traces of a fresh movement which had taken place during the night. But Westray was from home, having left Cullerne for London by the first train.
About ten of the same forenoon, the architect was in the shop of a small picture-dealer in Westminster. The canvas of the flowers and caterpillar picture lay on the counter, for the man had just taken it out of the frame.
"No," said the dealer, "there is no paper or any kind of lining in the frame--just a simple wood backing, you see. It is unusual to back at all, but it _is_ done now and again"--and he tapped the loose frame all round. "It is an expensive frame, well made, and with good gilding. I shouldn't be surprised if the painting underneath this daub turned out to be quite respectable; they would never put a frame like this on anything that wasn't pretty good."
"Do you think you can clean off the top part without damaging the painting underneath?"
"Oh dear, yes," the man said; "I've had many harder jobs. You leave it with me for a couple of days, and we'll see what we can make of it."
"Couldn't it be done quicker than that?" Westray said. "I'm in rather a hurry. It is difficult for me to get up to London, and I should rather like to be by, when you begin to clean it."
"Don't make yourself anxious," the other said; "you can leave it in my hands with perfect confidence. We're quite used to this business."
Westray still looked unsatisfied. The dealer gave a glance round the shop. "Well," he said, "things don't seem very busy this morning; if you're in such a hurry, I don't mind just trying a little bit of it now. We'll put it on the table in the back-room. I can see if anyone comes into the shop."
"Begin where the face ought to be," Westray said; "let us see whose portrait it is."
"No, no," said the dealer; "we won't risk the face yet. Let us try something that doesn't matter much. We shall see how this stuff peels off; that'll give us a guide for the more important part. Here, I'll start with the table-top and caterpillar. There's something queer about that caterpillar, beside the face some joker's fitted it up with. I'm rather shy about the caterpillar. Looks to me as if it was a bit of the real picture left showing through, though I don't very well see how a caterpillar would fit in with a portrait." The dealer passed the nail of his forefinger lightly over the surface of the picture. "It seems as if 'twas sunk. You can feel the edges of this heavy daubing rough all round it."
It was as he pointed out; the green caterpillar certainly appeared to form some part of the underlying picture. The man took out a bottle, and with a brush laid some solution on the painting. "You must wait for it to dry. It will blister and frizzle up the surface, then we can rub off the top gently with a cloth, and you'll see what you will see."
"The fellow who painted this table-top didn't spare his colours," said the dealer half an hour later, "and that's all the better for us. See, it comes off like a skin"--and he worked away tenderly with a soft flannel. "Well, I'm jiggered," he went on, "if here isn't another caterpillar higher up! No, it ain't a caterpillar; but if it ain't a caterpillar, what is it?"
There was indeed another wavy green line, but Westray knew what it was directly he saw it. "Be careful," he said; "they aren't caterpillars at all, but just part of a coat of arms--a kind of bars in an heraldic shield, you know. There will be another shorter green line lower down."
It was as he said, and in a minute more there shone out the silver field and the three sea-green bars of the nebuly coat, and below it the motto _Aut Fynes aut finis_, just as it shone in the top light of the Blandamer window. It was the middle bar that Sophia had turned into a caterpillar, and in pure wantonness left showing through, when for her own purposes she had painted out the rest of the picture. Westray's excitement was getting the better of him--he could not keep still; he stood first on one leg and then on another, and drummed on the table with his fingers.
The dealer put his hand on the architect's arm. "For God's sake keep quiet!" he said; "don't excite yourself. You needn't think you have found a gold mine. It ain't a ten thousand-guinea Vandyke. We can't see enough yet to say what it is, but I'll bet my life you never get a twenty-pound note for it."
But for all Westray's impatience, the afternoon was well advanced before the head of the portrait was approached. There had been so few interruptions, that the dealer felt called upon to extenuate the absence of custom by explaining more than once that it was a very dull season. He was evidently interested in his task, for he worked with a will till the light began to fail. "Never mind," he said; "I will get a lamp; now we have got so far we may as well go a bit further."
画商は建築家の腕に手を置いた。「頼むから静かに！」と彼は言った。「興奮しなさんな。金鉱を見つけたわけじゃないんだから。これは一万ギニーのヴァンダイクじゃないよ。どういう絵なのかまだ分からんが、二十ポンドもしないことは賭けてもいい」 ~~~ ウエストレイはもどかしくて仕方がなかった。ようやく肖像画の頭まで作業が進んだのは、午後も相当遅くなってからのことだった。邪魔が入ることはほとんどなく、画商は一度ならず、今は客足の少ない時期でね、などと言い訳する必要を感じたくらいだった。彼はいかにもこの仕事に興味をひかれた様子で、熱心に作業をつづけ、とうとう外は日が暮れはじめた。「大丈夫だよ」と彼は言った。「ランプを持ってくる。ここまで来たんだ、もうちょいやってしまおう」
It was a full-face picture, as they saw a few minutes afterwards. Westray held the lamp, and felt a strange thrill go through him, as he began to make out the youthful and unwrinkled brow. Surely he knew that high forehead--it was Anastasia's, and there was Anastasia's dark wavy hair above it. "Why, it's a woman after all," the dealer said. "No, it isn't; of course, how could it be with a brown velvet coat and waistcoat? It's a young man with curly hair."
Westray said nothing; he was too much excited, too much interested to say a word, for two eyes were peering at him through the mist. Then the mist lifted under the dealer's cloth, and the eyes gleamed with a startling brightness. They were light-grey eyes, clear and piercing, that transfixed him and read the very thoughts that he was thinking. Anastasia had vanished. It was Lord Blandamer that looked at him out of the picture.
They were Lord Blandamer's eyes, impenetrable and observant as to-day, but with the brightness of youth still in them; and the face, untarnished by middle age, showed that the picture had been painted some years ago. Westray put his elbows on the table and his head between his hands, while he gazed at the face which had thus come back to life. The eyes pursued him, he could not escape from them, he could scarcely spare a glance even for the nebuly coat that was blazoned in the corner. There were questions revolving in his mind for which he found as yet no answer. There was some mystery to which this portrait might be the clue. He was on the eve of some terrible explanation; he remembered all kinds of incidents that seemed connected with this picture, and yet could find no thread on which to string them. Of course, this head must have been painted when Lord Blandamer was young, but how could Sophia Flannery have ever seen it? The picture had only been the flowers and the table-top and caterpillar all through Miss Euphemia's memory, and that covered sixty years. But Lord Blandamer was not more than forty; and as Westray looked at the face he found little differences for which no change from youth to middle age could altogether account. Then he guessed that this was not the Lord Blandamer whom he knew, but an older one--that octogenarian who had died three years ago, that Horatio Sebastian Fynes, gentleman, who had married Sophia Flannery.
"It ain't a real first-rater," the dealer said, "but it ain't bad. I shouldn't be surprised if 'twas a Lawrence, and, anyway, it's a sight better than the flowers. Beats me to know how anyone ever came to paint such stuff as them on top of this respectable young man."
今と変わらない、謎めいた、油断のないブランダマー卿の目だったが、そこにはまだ若さの輝きがあった。顔に中年の翳りはなく、絵が中年になる数年前に描かれたものであることを示していた。今こうして蘇った顔に目を据えたまま、ウエストレイはテーブルに肘をつき、両手で頭を抱えた。目は彼を追いかけ、逃れることは不可能だった。絵の隅に配された雲形紋章を一瞥することさえできない。心の中にはまだ答の見つからない疑問が渦を巻いていた。この肖像画が手がかりになるかも知れないある謎が存在しているのだ。彼は恐るべき真相に到達しかけていた。この絵と関連のありそうな事件をことごとく思い起こしたが、それらをつなぐ糸が見つからない。この顔はブランダマー卿が若いときに描かれたものだ、それは間違いない。しかしソフィア・フラネリイがこの絵を見たなどということがありうるだろうか。ミス・ユーフィミアが思い出すかぎり、この絵は花と机と毛虫の絵でしかなかった。その期間は六十年になる。しかしブランダマー卿は四十をいくつか超えた年齢でしかない。ウエストレイは顔を見つめているうちに、若者が中年に移行したというだけでは説明できない小さな差異に幾つも気がつきはじめた。そこで彼は、これは彼の知っているブランダマー卿ではなく、先代のブランダマー卿――三年前に八十代で死に、ソフィア・フラネリイと結婚したあの紳士ホレイシオ・セバスチャン・ファインズなのだと推測した。
Westray was back in Cullerne the next evening. In the press of many thoughts he had forgotten to tell his landlady that he was coming, and he stood charing while a maid-of-all-work tried to light the recalcitrant fire. The sticks were few and damp, the newspaper below them was damp, and the damp coal weighed heavily down on top of all, till the thick yellow smoke shied at the chimney, and came curling out under the worsted fringe of the mantelpiece into the chilly room. Westray took this discomfort the more impatiently, in that it was due to his own forgetfulness in having sent no word of his return.
"Why in the world isn't the fire lit?" he said sharply. "You must have known I couldn't sit without a fire on a cold evening like this;" and the wind sang dismally in the joints of the windows to emphasise the dreariness of the situation.
"It ain't nothing to do with me," answered the red-armed, coal-besmeared hoyden, looking up from her knees; "it's the missus. `He was put out with the coal bill last time,' she says, `and I ain't going to risk lighting up his fire with coal at sixpence a scuttle, and me not knowing whether he's coming back to-night.'"
"Well, you might see at any rate that the fire was properly laid," the architect said, as the lighting process gave evident indications of failing for the third time.
"I do my best," she said in a larmoyant tone, "but I can't do everything, what with having to cook, and clean, and run up and down stairs with notes, and answer the bell every other minute to lords."
"Has Lord Blandamer been here?" asked Westray.
"Yes, he came yesterday and twice to-day to see you," she said, "and then he left a note. There 'tis"--and she pointed to the end of the mantelpiece.
Westray looked round, and saw an envelope edged in black. He knew the strong, bold hand of the superscription well enough, and in his present mood it sent something like a thrill of horror through him.
"You needn't wait," he said quickly to the servant; "it isn't your fault at all about the fire. I'm sure it's going to burn now."
The girl rose quickly to her feet, gave an astonished glance at the grate, which was once more enveloped in impotent blackness, and left the room.
An hour later, when the light outside was failing, Westray sat in the cold and darkening room. On the table lay open before him Lord Blandamer's letter:
親愛なるミスタ・ウエストレイ
"Dear Mr Westray,
昨日もお宅を訪問したのですが、あいにくお出かけのようでした。そこでこの伝言を残すことにします。ベルヴュー・ロッジのあなたの居間に、古い花の絵がかかっていましたが、わたしの妻があの絵に関心を示しています。彼女が愛着を覚えるのは、幼い頃の思い出があの絵に詰まっているからで、もちろん絵それ自体に価値があるからではありません。あれはミス・ジョウリフの所有物だと思っていたのですが、彼女に尋ねたところ、しばらく前にあなたに売ったため、今はあなたのものだということですね。あなたにとって特に価値のある絵とは思えませんし、慈善のおつもりでミス・ジョウリフからお買い取りになったのではないかと愚考します。もしもそうでしたら妻がこちらに飾りたいと思っていますので、引き取らせていただけるとありがたいのです。
"I called to see you yesterday, but was unfortunate in finding you absent from home, and so write these lines. There used to hang in your sitting-room at Bellevue Lodge an old picture of flowers which has some interest for my wife. Her affection for it is based on early associations, and not, of course, on any merits of the painting itself. I thought that it belonged to Miss Joliffe, but I find on inquiry from her that she sold it to you some little time ago, and that it is with you now. I do not suppose that you can attach any great value to it, and, indeed, I suspect that you bought it of Miss Joliffe as an act of charity. If this is so, I should be obliged if you would let me know if you are disposed to part with it again, as my wife would like to have it here.
"I am sorry to hear of fresh movement in the tower. It would be a bitter thought to me, if the peal that welcomed us back were found to have caused damage to the structure, but I am sure you will know that no expense should be spared to make all really secure as soon as possible.
誠実なるあなたの友
"Very faithfully yours,
ブランダマー ~~~
"Blandamer."
ウエストレイは意欲的で感受性が強く、今も若者らしい高揚や失望に振り回されていた。いろいろな考えが、うろたえてしまうほどの速度で次から次へと浮かんできた。それこそ引きも切らずつながって浮かんでくるものだから、順番に整理するいとまもなかった。興奮のあまり頭がくらくらした。僕は法の代理人となることを要請されたのだろうか。神に代わって罰を下すよう選ばれてしまったのだろうか。僕の手は罪人にいかずちを投げつけねばならない手なのだろうか。謎の解決はまっすぐ僕のところへやって来た。テーブルの上に開かれたこの手紙こそ、その間接証拠でなければ何だというのか！部屋を満たす暗闇の中でもう文面はよく読み取れなくなっていたが、しかしそれは証拠を握っているものには明白な有罪のしるしだった。
Westray was eager, impressionable, still subject to all the exaltations and depressions of youth. Thoughts crowded into his mind with bewildering rapidity; they trod so close upon each other's heels that there was no time to marshal them in order; excitement had dizzied him. Was he called to be the minister of justice? Was he chosen for the scourge of God? Was his the hand that must launch the bolt against the guilty? Discovery had come directly to him. What a piece of circumstantial evidence were these very lines that lay open on the table, dim and illegible in the darkness that filled the room! Yet clear and damning to one who had the clue.
This man that ruled at Fording was a pretender, enjoying goods that belonged to others, a shameless evil-doer, who had not stuck at marrying innocent Anastasia Joliffe, if by so stooping he might cover up the traces of his imposture. There was no Lord Blandamer, there was no title; with a breath he could sweep it all away like a house of cards. And was that all? Was there nothing else?
夜になった。ウエストレイは独り暗闇の中に座し、両肘をテーブルについて両手でじっと頭を抱えていた。暖炉に火はなく、灯りもついておらず、ただ遠くでかすかにちらつく街灯だけが暗さの感覚をもたらした。その青白く頼りない光が、別の晩のことを思い出させた。霧にぼやけた月明かりが聖セパルカ大聖堂の明かり層の窓から差しこんでいた晩のことだ。彼は再び幽霊の出そうな身廊を歩き、白い経帷子を着た巨人のような柱を通り過ぎ、塔を支える大アーチの下を進んでいくような気がした。もう一度螺旋階段の真暗闇を手探りし、もう一度オルガンのある張り出しにでて、袖廊の窓に輝く、不吉な銀と海緑色の雲形紋章を見た。張り出しの隅には悪霊たちがうごめき、シャーノールの薄い青ざめた影が両手をもみ合わせ、ハンマーを持った男に命乞いの叫びをあげた。するとそれまで彼に取り憑いていたおそろしい疑惑が事実となって暗闇から彼をじろりと見つめた。彼は寒さに震えながらはじかれたように立ち上がると蝋燭に火をつけた。
Night had fallen. Westray sat alone in the dark, his elbows on the table, his head still between his hands. There was no fire, there was no light, only the faint shimmer of a far-off street lamp brought a perception of the darkness. It was that pale uncertain luminosity that recalled to his mind another night, when the misty moon shone through the clerestory windows of Saint Sepulchre's. He seemed once more to be making his way up the ghostly nave, on past the pillars that stood like gigantic figures in white winding-sheets, on under the great tower arches. Once more he was groping in the utter darkness of the newel stair, once more he came out into the organ-loft, and saw the baleful silver and sea-green of the nebuly coat gleaming in the transept window. And in the corners of the room lurked presences of evil, and a thin pale shadow of Sharnall wrung its hands, and cried to be saved from the man with the hammer. Then the horrible suspicion that had haunted him these last days stared out of the darkness as a fact, and he sprung to his feet in a shiver of cold and lit a candle.
An hour, two hours, three hours passed before he had written an answer to the letter that lay before him, and in the interval a fresh vicissitude of mind had befallen him. He, Westray, had been singled out as the instrument of vengeance; the clue was in his hands; his was the mouth that must condemn. Yet he would do nothing underhand, he would take no man unawares; he would tell Lord Blandamer of his discovery, and give him warning before he took any further steps. So he wrote:
"My lord," and of the many sheets that were begun and flung away before the letter was finished, two were spoiled because the familiar address "Dear Lord Blandamer" came as it were automatically from Westray's pen. He could no longer bring himself to use those words now, even as a formality, and so he began:
~~~ 御前様
"My Lord,
ミス・ジョウリフから買い上げた絵画の件に関するお手紙、ただいま落手いたしました。この絵は特別の事情がないとしても、お渡ししてよいものか確信がありません。絵そのものに価値がないことは明らかですが、わたしにとっては親友ミスタ・シャーノール、聖セパルカ大聖堂のオルガン奏者の思い出の品なのです。わたしたちは共同で絵を購入し、彼が死んだときはわたしが一人で所有することになっていました。彼が死んだ奇怪な状況はお忘れではないでしょうし、わたしも忘れてはいません。親友だったミスタ・シャーノールがこの絵に深い関心を寄せていたことは、彼を知る人のあいだでもよく知られていました。これは見かけ以上に重要なものであると信じ、わたしにむかってもその点を強調していました。確かあなたの前でも一度そう言ったことがあると思います。
"I have just received your note about the picture bought by me of Miss Joliffe. I cannot say whether I should have been willing to part with it under ordinary circumstances. It had no apparent intrinsic value, but for me it was associated with my friend the late Mr Sharnall, organist of Saint Sepulchre's. We shared in its purchase, and it was only on his death that I came into sole possession of it. You will not have forgotten the strange circumstances of his end, and I have not forgotten them either. My friend Mr Sharnall was well-known among his acquaintances to be much interested in this picture. He believed it to be of more importance than appeared, and he expressed himself strongly to that effect in my presence, and once also, I remember, in yours.
早すぎる死が訪れなければ、偶然わたしが手に入れた秘密の真相を、彼もとっくの昔につかんでいたのではないでしょうか。花の絵はただ表面を覆うためのものに過ぎず、その下には紛れもなく先代のブランダマー卿の肖像画が隠されていたのです。そして画布の後ろからは彼に関する教会区記録登録証が見つかりました。それらをあなたにお渡しして、それで終わりとなればこんなに嬉しいことはありません。しかしこれらは過去の出来事を今までになかった角度から照らし出すものであり、わたしは義務としてこれらを保管し、いかなる個人にも引き渡すことができないのです。同時に絵と書類は、あなたがご覧になってみずからその重要性を判断なさりたいというのであれば、お見せしないわけにはいかないと感じます。わたしは上記の住所に住んでおり、来週の月曜日までならいつでもお会いすることができます。ただし月曜日を過ぎた場合は、この件に関しさらなる一歩を踏み出さなければならないと考えます。 ~~~
"But for his untimely death I think he would have long ago made the discovery to which chance has now led me. The flowers prove to be a mere surface painting which concealed what is undoubtedly a portrait of the late Lord Blandamer, and at the back of the canvas were found copies of certain entries in parish registers relating to him. I most earnestly wish that I could end here by making over these things to you, but they seem to me to throw so strange a light on certain past events that I must hold myself responsible for them, and can give them up to no private person. At the same time, I do not feel justified in refusing to let you see picture and papers, if you should wish to do so, and to judge yourself of their importance. I am at the above address, and shall be ready to make an appointment at any time before Monday next, after which date I shall feel compelled to take further steps in this matter."
Westray's letter reached Lord Blandamer the next morning. It lay at the bottom of a little heap of correspondence on the breakfast-table, like the last evil lot to leap out of the shaken urn, an Ephedrus, like that Adulterer who at the finish tripped the Conqueror of Troy. He read it at a glance, catching its import rather by intuition than by any slavish following of the written characters. If earth was darkness at the core, and dust and ashes all that is, there was no trace of it in his face. He talked gaily, he fulfilled the duties of a host with all his charm of manner, he sped two guests who were leaving that morning with all his usual courtesy. After that he ordered his horse, and telling Lady Blandamer that he might not be back to lunch, he set out for one of those slow solitary rides on the estate that often seemed congenial to his mood. He rode along by narrow lanes and bridle-paths, not forgetting a kindly greeting to men who touched their hats, or women who dropped a curtsey, but all the while he thought.
ウエストレイの手紙がブランダマー卿のもとに届いたのは翌朝のことだった。それは朝食テーブルの手紙の山のいちばん下に横たわっていた。まるでギリシアのうらない壺から最後に振り出された不吉な籤のように（註 ホラティウス「歌集」から）、暗殺者のように、あるいは土壇場でトロイの征服者（註 アガメムノンのこと）の足をすくった、あの姦通者のように。彼は一目で中身を読み取った。書かれた文字を卑屈に一つ一つ追うのではなく、直感的に意味を把握したのである。地球の核は暗闇で、万物は塵芥に過ぎない（註 テニスンの「イン・メモリアム」から）と心の中では思ったかも知れないが、それは表情には少しもあらわれなかった。彼は快活に語り、ありったけの魅力を振りまいてもてなし役としての義務を果たし、その日の朝発つ二人の客にいつものように礼をつくして別れの挨拶をした。そのあと馬の用意を命じ、ブランダマー夫人には昼食に戻らないかも知れないと告げ、独り馬に乗ってゆっくりと屋敷の中を巡った。彼はときどきそんな気分になるようだった。狭い小径や馬道に馬を進め、帽子に手をやる男や、膝を曲げてお辞儀する女に、丁寧に挨拶することを忘れなかったが、しかしそのあいだじゅうずっと物思いにふけっていたのである。
The letter had sent his memory back to another black day, more than twenty years before, when he had quarrelled with his grandfather. It was in his second year at Oxford, when as an undergraduate he first felt it his duty to set the whole world in order. He held strong views as to the mismanagement of the Fording estates; and as a scholar and man of the world, had thought it weakness to shirk the expression of them. The timber was being neglected, there was no thinning and no planting. The old-fashioned farmhouses were being let fall into disrepair, and then replaced by parsimonious eaveless buildings; the very grazing in the park was let, and fallow-deer and red-deer were jostled by sheep and common mongrel cows. The question of the cows had galled him till he was driven to remonstrate strongly with his grandfather. There had never been much love lost between the pair, and on this occasion the young man found the old man strangely out of sympathy with suggestions of reform.
手紙は二十年以上前、祖父と口論した、別の陰鬱な一日の記憶をたどらせた。オクスフォードに入学して二年目、学生として全世界に秩序を与えるのが自分の義務だとはじめて感じたときのことだった。フォーディングの地所のまずい管理運営に対しては、強い批判を抱いていた。学問を積み、広く世間を見てきた人間として、そのことを言わずにいることは怯懦であると考えた。森林は放置され、間引きも植樹も行われなかった。昔ながらの農家は修理されることなく荒廃し、しみったれたひさしのない建物に取って代わられた。庭園での放牧もずさんで、ダマジカやアカシカが羊や卑しい雑種の牛にこづき回されている。牛の問題には腹を据えかね、思わず祖父に激しく抗議した。二人のあいだに愛情などなかったが、それにしてもそのとき若者は、老人が奇妙なくらい改善を求める意見に反発することに気がついた。
"Thank you," old Lord Blandamer had said; "I have heard all you have to say. You have eased your mind, and now you can go back to Oxford in peace. I have managed Fording for forty years, and feel myself perfectly competent to manage it for forty years more. I don't quite see what concern you have in the matter. What business is it of yours?"
"You don't see what concern I have in it," said the reformer impetuously; "you don't know what business it is of mine? Why, damage is being done here that will take a lifetime to repair."
A man must be on good terms with his heir not to dislike the idea of making way for him, and the old lord flew into one of those paroxysms of rage which fell upon him more frequently in his later years.
"Now, look you," he said; "you need not trouble yourself any more about Fording, nor think you will be so great a sufferer by my mismanagement. It is by no means certain that I shall ever burden you with the place at all."
Then the young man was angry in his turn. "Don't threaten me, sir," he said sharply; "I am not a boy any longer to be cowed by rough words, so keep your threats for others. You would disgrace the family and disgrace yourself, if you left the property away from the title."
"Make your mind easy," said the other; "the property shall follow the title. Get away, and let me hear no more, or you may find both left away from you."
The words were lightly spoken, perhaps in mere petulance at being taken to task by a boy, perhaps in the exasperating pangs of gout; but they had a bitter sound, and sank deep into the heart of youth. The threat of the other possible heirs was new, and yet was not new to him. It seemed as if he had heard something of this before, though he could not remember where; it seemed as if there had always been some ill-defined, intangible suspicion in the air of Fording to make him doubt, since he came to thinking years, whether the title ever really would be his.
Lord Blandamer remembered these things well, as he walked his horse through the beech-leaves with Westray's letter in his breast-pocket. He remembered how his grandfather's words had sent him about with a sad face, and how his grandmother had guessed the reason. He wondered how she had guessed it; but she too, perhaps, had heard these threats before, and so came at the cause more easily. Yet when she had forced his confidence she had little comfort to give.
He could see her now, a stately woman with cold blue eyes, still handsome, though she was near sixty.
"Since we are speaking of this matter," she said with chilling composure, "let us speak openly. I will tell you everything I know, which is nothing. Your grandfather threatened me once, many years ago, as he has threatened you now, and we have never forgotten nor forgiven." She moved herself in her chair, and there came a little flush of red to her cheek. "It was about the time of your father's birth; we had quarrelled before, but this was our first serious quarrel, and the last. Your father was different from me, you know, and from you; he never quarrelled, and he never knew this story. So far as I was concerned I took the responsibility of silence, and it was wisest so." She looked sterner than ever as she went on. "I have never heard or discovered anything more. I am not afraid of your grandfather's intentions. He has a regard for the name, and he means to leave all to you, who have every right, unless, indeed, it may be, a legal right. There is one more thing about which I was anxious long ago. You have heard about a portrait of your grandfather that was stolen from the gallery soon after your father's birth? Suspicion fell upon no one in particular. Of course, the stable door was locked after the horse was gone, and we had a night-watchman at Fording for some time; but little stir was made, and I do not believe your grandfather ever put the matter in the hands of the police. It was a spiteful trick, he said; he would not pay whoever had done it the compliment of taking any trouble to recover the portrait. The picture was of himself; he could have another painted any day.
「この際ですから」と彼女はぞっとするような落ち着きを見せて言った。「何もかも話してしまいましょう。知っていることをみんな教えてあげる。といっても大した話ではないけれど。あなたのお祖父さんはずいぶん前に、今さっきあなたを脅したのと同じように、わたしを脅したことがありました。あのことは今でも忘れていないし許してもいません」彼女は椅子に座り直し、頬をわずかに紅潮させた。「あなたのお父さんが生まれた頃のことです。それまでもわたしたちは喧嘩することがありましたけど、深刻な喧嘩はあれが最初で最後でした。あなたのお父さんはわたしとも、あなたとも、気性が違っていたわね。決して喧嘩をしない人で、この話も知らなかった。わたしは黙っているのが自分の責任だと思っていました。そうするのがいちばん賢明だったのよ」話しながら彼女の顔は見たことがないくらい険しくなった。「それ以上のことはなにも見聞きしていません。お祖父さんの意向は心配しないでいいと思う。あの人は名声にこだわりを持っているから、全財産をあなたに残すでしょう。あなたにはあらゆる相続の権利があるもの。その、法的な問題がなければだけど。もう一つ前から気になっていることがあるの。お父さんが生まれてすぐに、陳列室からお祖父さんの肖像画が盗まれたことは聞いていますか。特に誰かが疑われたわけじゃありません。まあ、後の祭りなんだけれど、そのあと戸締まりが厳重になってね、しばらくはフォーディングに夜間警備員がいたのよ。でもほとんど騒ぎにはならなかったわ。お祖父さんは警察の手に委ねようともしなかった。悪質ないたずらだ、誰がやったのか知らないが、わざわざ肖像画を取り戻そうと手間をかけるほどのことはない、自分の肖像画だったから、また描かせればいい、などと言っていました。
"By whatever means that picture was removed, I have little doubt that your grandfather guessed what had become of it. Does it still exist? Was it stolen? Or did he have it taken away to prevent its being stolen? We must remember that, though we are quite in the dark about these people, there is nothing to prevent their being shown over the house like any other strangers." Then she drew herself up, and folded her hands in her lap, and he saw the great rings flashing on her white fingers. "That is all I know," she finished, "and now let us agree not to mention the subject again, unless one of us should discover anything more. The claim may have lapsed, or may have been compounded, or may never have existed; I think, anyhow, we may feel sure now that no move will be made in your grandfather's lifetime. My advice to you is not to quarrel with him; you had better spend your long vacations away from Fording, and when you leave Oxford you can travel."
どうやって絵を盗んだのか知りませんが、お祖父さんはきっとその行方についてなにか知っていたのだと思います。あの絵は今でもあるのかしら。あれは盗みだったのかしら。それともあの人が盗まれないように隠してしまったのかしら。盗んだ人たちがどういう連中なのか、皆目見当がつかないわ。なにせ誰にでも家のなかを見せていますからね」彼女は背筋を伸ばして両手を膝の上にそろえた。白い指に大きな指輪が光っているのが見えた。「わたしが知っているのはそれだけよ」と彼女は話しを終えた。「わたしたちのどちらかが新しい発見でもしないかぎり、もうこの話はしないことにしましょう。相続権の要求なんて、とっくに失効してるか、示談になっているか、もともとなかったか、分かりゃしませんよ。とにかくお祖父さんが生きているあいだはなにも起きないものと考えていいのじゃないかしら。わたしの忠告は、あの人と喧嘩しないこと。長期休暇がきたら、フォーディングを遠く離れたところで過ごしなさい。オクスフォードを卒業したら旅行に出たらいいわ」
So the young man went out from Fording, for a wandering that was to prove half as long as that of Israel in the wilderness. He came home for a flying visit at wide intervals, but he kept up a steady correspondence with his grandmother as long as she lived. Only once, and that in the last letter which he ever received from her, did she allude to the old distasteful discussion. "Up to this very day," she wrote, "I have found out nothing; we may still hope that there is nothing to find out."
こういうわけで若者はフォーディングを離れ、イスラエル人が荒野をさまよった、その半分ほどの期間をさまよい歩いたのである。家に帰るとしてもごくたまに、束の間、滞在するだけだった。しかし手紙は祖母が生きているあいだ定期的に送りつづけた。たった一度だけ、それも最後に受け取った手紙の中で、彼女は昔の不愉快な話題について言及していた。「今までのところなにも新しいことは見つかっていません。事実無根であったという期待はまだ捨てなくてもいいようです」 ~~~ 家族の名誉を守るために、国外追放に耐えているのだ、雲形紋章に泥を塗るような誘惑から祖父を遠ざけるために家を離れているのだ、と長いあいだ彼は考え、自分を慰めていた。家門を盲目的に尊ぶのはブランダマー家の伝統であり、青春の夢とともに旅に出た跡継ぎはテンプル騎士団員のように「仕え、守る」ことを誓い、雲形紋章に命を捧げたのである。
In all those long years he consoled himself by the thought that he was bearing expatriation for the honour of the family, that he was absenting himself so that his grandfather might find the less temptation to drag the nebuly coat in the mire. To make a fetish of family was a tradition with Blandamers, and the heir as he set out on his travels, with the romance of early youth about him, dedicated himself to the nebuly coat, with a vow to "serve and preserve" as faithfully as any ever taken by Templar.
年老いた卿はついに他界した。相続権を奪うという脅しは実行されず、遺言を残さず亡くなったために、孫がその継ぐべき地位を継いだ。戻ってきた新しいブランダマー卿はもはや若くなかった。命知らずの旅を幾年もつづけて顔つきは険しくなり、他人に頼らぬ強固な意志を備えていた。しかし出て行ったときと同じように、戻ってきたときも、彼のまわりにはロマンスが漂っていた。自然の女神は男でも女でも、いったんその人にロマンスを授けることにしたら、その人が一生を終えて死ぬまで、ふんだんにロマンスを与えるものである。病気だろうと健康だろうと、貧しかろうと豊かだろうと、中年だろうと老年だろうと、髪が抜け歯がなくなろうと、顔にしわが寄り手足が痛風に悩まされようと、烏の足跡ができ、二重顎になろうと、はたまた少しもロマンチックではない、人生でもっとも浅ましい境遇に陥ろうと、ロマンスは最後までつづくのだ。その価値はなにものにも代え難い。それは持てる者からなくなることはなく、持たざる者はいくら金を積んでも、どれほど必死の努力をしても、手に入れることができない――いや、それどころか、ロマンスというものをごくおぼろげに理解することすらできないのである。
Last of all the old lord passed away. He never carried out his threat of disinheritance, but died intestate, and thus the grandson came to his own. The new Lord Blandamer was no longer young when he returned; years of wild travel had hardened his face, and made his heart self-reliant, but he came back as romantic as he went away. For Nature, if she once endows man or woman with romance, gives them so rich a store of it as shall last them, life through, unto the end. In sickness or health, in poverty or riches, through middle age and old age, through loss of hair and loss of teeth, under wrinkled face and gouty limbs, under crow's-feet and double chins, under all the least romantic and most sordid malaisances of life, romance endures to the end. Its price is altogether above rubies; it can never be taken away from those that have it, and those that have it not, can never acquire it for money, nor by the most utter toil--no, nor ever arrive at the very faintest comprehension of it.
新しい卿はすばらしい決意を胸にいっぱい秘めてフォーディングに帰ってきた。放浪には飽き、結婚してこの地に住み着き、財産を享受しようと思っていた。人々のためになることをし、自分が持つ広大な地所を地主たちの模範にしてやろうと思っていた。ところが三週間も経たぬうちに、王位を狙う者がいること、カランには自分こそがブランダマー卿であると主張する夢想家がいることを知った。彼は一度だけこの負け犬の姿を通りで教えてもらったことがある――ブランダマー家の紋章を泥のなかをはいずり回ってまで追い回し、子供たちから雲形じいさんと呼ばれている老いぼれだった。あんな男と土地や屋敷や爵位など、すべてをかけて戦うことになるのか。しかし戦いが現実のものとなる可能性はあった。まもなくこの男が、祖母の生涯と自分の生涯につきまとう実体のない影、つまり本当の跡継ぎであることを知ったのだ。しかもマーチンは欠けている証拠をいつ掴むとも分からない。そのとき死がマーチンの希望に終止符を打ち、ブランダマー卿は再び自由になった。
The new lord had come back to Fording full of splendid purpose. He was tired of wandering; he would marry; he would settle down and enjoy his own; he would seek the good of the people, and make his great estates an example among landowners. And then within three weeks he had learned that there was a pretender to the throne, that in Cullerne there was a visionary who claimed to be the very Lord Blandamer. He had had this wretched man pointed out to him once in the street--a broken-down fellow who was trailing the cognisance of all the Blandamers in the mud, till the very boys called him Old Nebuly. Was he to fight for land, and house, and title, to fight for everything, with a man like that? And yet it might come to fighting, for within a little time he knew that this was the heir who had been the intangible shadow of his grandmother's life and of his own; and that Martin might stumble any day upon the proof that was lacking. And then death set a term to Martin's hopes, and Lord Blandamer was free again.
But not for long, for in a little while he heard of an old organist who had taken up Martin's role--a meddlesome busybody who fished in troubled waters, for the trouble's sake. What had such a mean man as this to do with lands, and titles, and coats of arms? And yet this man was talking under his breath in Cullerne of crimes, and clues, and retribution near at hand. And then death put a term to Sharnall's talk, and Lord Blandamer was free again.
前よりも長くつづく自由、いや、ついに永遠の自由を手にしたはずだった。彼は結婚し、結婚は彼の安全を保証した。跡継ぎが生まれ、雲形紋章は安泰だった。ところが今、彼を邪魔する新たな異議申し立て者があらわれた。自分はうようよ群がる龍の子供たちと戦っているのだろうか。新たな敵があらわれ出る場所は――比喩をもてあそぶような気分ではなかったので、彼は考えるのを止めた。この若い建築家、その食べ物も、カランでの給料も、彼、ブランダマー卿が大聖堂の工事に必要と思って出した金の中から支払われているこの男が、本当に「復讐者」なのだろうか。みずからが作りだした者に裏切られ、切り裂かれるのか。彼は皮肉なことの成り行きに微笑し、過去のことをくよくよ考えるのを止めた。後悔のかけらがあったとしても、それを圧し殺してしまった。現在を見つめ、状況をはっきりと見極めるつもりだった。
Free for a longer space, free this time finally for ever; and he married, and marriage set the seal on his security, and the heir was born, and the nebuly coat was safe. But now a new confuter had risen to balk him. Was he fighting with dragon's spawn? Were fresh enemies to spring up from the--The simile did not suit his mood, and he truncated it. Was this young architect, whose very food and wages in Cullerne were being paid for by the money that he, Lord Blandamer, saw fit to spend upon the church, indeed to be the avenger? Was his own creature to turn and rend him? He smiled at the very irony of the thing, and then he brushed aside reflections on the past, and stifled even the beginnings of regret, if, indeed, any existed. He would look at the present, he would understand exactly how matters stood.
Lord Blandamer came back to Fording at nightfall, and spent the hour before dinner in his library. He wrote some business letters which could not be postponed, but after dinner read aloud to his wife. He had a pleasant and well-trained voice, and amused Lady Blandamer by reading from the "Ingoldsby Legends," a new series of which had recently appeared.
彼が本を読むあいだアナスタシアは前のブランダマー夫人がやり残した壁掛けの制作に取り組んだ。先代の卿の妻はほとんど外出せず、庭の手入れや凝った刺繍をしてほとんどの時間を潰した。何年もかけてスチュアート王朝期に作られた、虫の食ったつづれ織りの断片を複製していたのだが、彼女の死によってそれらは未完成のまま残っていたのである。女中頭がこのやりかけの作品を見せて、それがどういうものか説明すると、アナスタシアはブランダマー卿に自分が制作をつづけてもよいだろうかと尋ねた。この思いつきは彼も気に入り、彼女は毎晩、心をこめてゆっくりと仕事を進め、ときどき最後のときが訪れるまで同じ手仕事にいそしんだ寂しい老婦人のことを思った。夫の祖母は、彼が親しく付き合った唯一の身内だったらしく、アナスタシアは画家のロレンスによって描かれ、細長い陳列室に飾られている娘時代の彼女の肖像画に強く興味をひかれた。この老婦人がもう一度仕事場に来ることがあるとしたら、きっと彼女はその後継者に満足しただろう。膝の上に着色した絹糸のかせを載せ、高い額の上に暗褐色の髪を波打たせたアナスタシアは凜とした姿で作業台に座っていたのである。深い山吹色のビロードのドレスは、ブランダマー家の昔の貴婦人が肖像画の額縁を抜け出してきたかのような印象を与えた。
Whilst he read Anastasia worked at some hangings, which had been left unfinished by the last Lady Blandamer. The old lord's wife had gone out very little, but passed her time for the most part with her gardens, and with curious needlework. For years she had been copying some moth-eaten fragments of Stuart tapestry, and at her death left the work still uncompleted. The housekeeper had shown these half-finished things and explained what they were, and Anastasia had asked Lord Blandamer whether it would be agreeable to him that she should go on with them. The idea pleased him, and so she plodded away evening by evening, very carefully and slowly, thinking often of the lonely old lady whose hands had last been busied with the same task. This grandmother of her husband seemed to have been the only relation with whom he had ever been on intimate terms, and Anastasia's interest was quickened by an excellent portrait of her as a young girl by Lawrence, which hung in the long gallery. Could the old lady have revisited for once the scene of her labours, she would have had no reason to be dissatisfied with her successor. Anastasia looked distinguished enough as she sat at her work-frame, with the skeins of coloured silks in her lap and the dark-brown hair waved on her high forehead; and a dress of a rich yellow velvet might have supported the illusion that a portrait of some bygone lady of the Blandamers had stepped down out of its frame.
That evening her instinct told her that something was amiss, in spite of all her husband's self-command. Something very annoying must have happened among the grooms, gardeners, gamekeepers, or other dependents; he had been riding about to set the matter straight, and it was no doubt of a nature that he did not care to mention to her.
第二十二章 ~~~
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
ウエストレイはつらく、落ちつかない一日を過ごした。気に染まない仕事に手をつけてしまい、その責任のあまりの重さに堪えきれなかったのである。彼をさいなむ不安は、医者から生きるか死ぬかの危険な手術が必要だと宣告された者が感じる不安と同じだった。こうした状況に雄々しく堪える能力は人によって差があるが、本質的に人間は誰でも臆病者である。外科医のメスがもうすぐ生死をかけた最後の戦いに彼を赴かせる、と知りつつ平気でいられる人はいない。ウエストレイの場合もそうだった。手にあまる仕事を引き受け、もしも彼に高潔な志と道徳的責任感がなければ泡を食って逃げ出していたところだ。朝聖堂に行き、仕事に集中しようとしたが、これからしようとしていることを意識から追い出すことはできなかった。石工頭は監督が上の空で、顔の表情がこわばっていることに気がついた。
Westray passed a day of painful restlessness. He had laid his hand to a repugnant business, and the burden of it was too heavy for him to bear. He felt the same gnawing anxiety, that is experienced by one whom doctors have sentenced to a lethal operation. One man may bear himself more bravely in such circumstances than another, but by nature every man is a coward; and the knowledge that the hour is approaching, when the surgeon's knife shall introduce him to a final struggle of life and death cannot be done away. So it was with Westray; he had undertaken a task for which he was not strong enough, and only high principle, and a sense of moral responsibility, kept him from panic and flight. He went to the church in the morning, and endeavoured to concentrate attention on his work, but the consciousness of what was before him would not be thrust aside. The foreman-mason saw that his master's thoughts were wandering, and noticed the drawn expression on his face.
In the afternoon his restlessness increased, and he wandered listlessly through the streets and narrow entries of the town, till he found himself near nightfall at that place by the banks of the Cull, where the organist had halted on the last evening of his life. He stood leaning over the iron railing, and looked at the soiled river, just as Mr Sharnall had looked. There were the dark-green tresses of duck-weed swaying to and fro in the shallow eddies, there was the sordid collection of broken and worthless objects that lay on the bottom, and he stared at them till the darkness covered them one by one, and only the whiteness of a broken dish still flickered under the water.
彼は重罪犯人のように元気なく部屋に戻り、早めに床に就いたのだが、夜が明けはじめるころまで眠りは訪れなかった。空が白みはじめるとともに不安な眠りにつき、大勢の傍聴人が見守るなか、証人席に着いている自分の夢を見た。被告人席には貴族の衣装をまとい、コロネットを頭にいただいたブランダマー卿が立っていた。全員の視線が彼、ウエストレイに注がれていた。激しい敵意と軽蔑をこめた視線だった。しかも峻厳な顔の裁判官によって中傷と誣告の罪を宣されているのはウエストレイのほうだった。傍聴席の人々は足をならし、彼に怒号を浴びせた。はっと目を覚ますと、彼の眠りを破ったのは、郵便屋が入り口のドアをノックする大きな音であることに気がついた。
Then he crept back to his room as if he were a felon, and though he went early to bed, sleep refused to visit him till the day began to break. With daylight he fell into a troubled doze, and dreamt that he was in a witness-box before a crowded court. In the dock stood Lord Blandamer dressed in full peer's robes, and with a coronet on his head. The eyes of all were turned upon him, Westray, with fierce enmity and contempt, and it was he, Westray, that a stern-faced judge was sentencing, as a traducer and lying informer. Then the people in the galleries stamped with their feet and howled against him in their rage; and waking with a start, he knew that it was the postman's sharp knock on the street-door, that had broken his slumber.
下に降りると恐れていた手紙がテーブルの上に載っていた。封を開けることには強い抵抗感があった。はたして筆跡は今でも同じだろうか、と彼はそんなことまで考えかけた。文字が震えているのではないか、インク自体も血のような赤ではないか、彼はまるでそんなことを恐れているかのようだった。ブランダマー卿はウエストレイの手紙に対して感謝を述べていた。もちろん絵と、あなたがおっしゃっていた当家に関わる書類を拝見させていただきたい。厚かましいお願いだが、フォーディングまで絵を持ってきてもらえないだろうか。お手数をかけて申し訳ないのだが、フォーディングの陳列室にはもう一枚絵があり、今回発見されたものと興味深い比較ができるであろうから。何時の汽車で来られるにしても、それに合わせて馬車をお出しする。ご都合さえよければフォーディングで一泊していっていただきたい。
The letter which he dreaded lay on the table when he came down. He felt an intense reluctance in opening it. He almost wondered that the handwriting was still the same; it was as if he had expected that the characters should be tremulous, or the ink itself blood-red. Lord Blandamer acknowledged Mr Westray's letter with thanks. He should certainly like to see the picture and the family papers of which Mr Westray spoke; would Mr Westray do him the favour of bringing the picture to Fording? He apologised for putting him to so much trouble, but there was another picture in the gallery at Fording, with which it might be interesting to compare the one recently discovered. He would send a carriage to meet any train; Mr Westray would no doubt find it more convenient to spend the night at Fording.
There was no expression of surprise, curiosity, indignation or alarm; nothing, in fact, except the utmost courtesy, a little more distant perhaps than usual, but not markedly so.
ブランダマー卿の返答にいかなる意図があるのか、ウエストレイには想像もつかなかった。いろいろな可能性は考えていた。詐欺師は逃げ出すかも知れないし、口を封じるために気前よく金を使うかも知れない。慈悲を求めて情熱的に懇願するかも知れないし、嘲笑・憤慨しながら否定するかも知れない。しかしさんざん想像を巡らしたにもかかわらず、こんな態度に出られるとは思ってもいなかった。手紙を出してから、はたしてそれが賢明な措置であっただろうかと、彼は疑問に思っていた。しかしそれ以外によさそうなやり方は考えつかなかった。犯罪者に警告を発するなど、おそよ馬鹿げた振る舞いであることは分かっていたが、しかしブランダマー卿には、自分に不利な証拠として使われる前に、自分の家族の肖像や書類を見るなにがしかの権利があるように思えたのだ。その機会を与えたことを後悔はしていない。もっともブランダマー卿が誘いにのってこなければいいがと、切望していたことも事実だったけれど。
Westray had been unable to conjecture what would be the nature of Lord Blandamer's answer. He had thought of many possibilities, of the impostor's flight, of lavish offers of hush-money, of passionate appeals for mercy, of scornful and indignant denial. But in all his imaginings he had never imagined this. Ever since he had sent his own letter, he had been doubtful of its wisdom, and yet he had not been able to think of any other course that he would have preferred. He knew that the step he had taken in warning the criminal was quixotic, and yet it seemed to him that Lord Blandamer had a certain right to see his own family portrait and papers, before they were used against him. He could not feel sorry that he had given the opportunity, though he had certainly hoped that Lord Blandamer would not avail himself of it.
だが、フォーディングに行くことはできない。どんなに正々堂々と戦うにしろそれは無理だ。その点だけははっきりしていた。すぐに断りの返事を書こうと紙を一枚取り出した。自分の家の番地、通りの名前、カラン、そして今度も「御前様」という格式張った呼びかけを使った。そこまではすらすらと運んだ。しかしその後は？何といって断ればいいのだろう。支障になりそうな仕事の約束とか大切な用事があるわけではない。自分の口から一週間は身体があいているから、面会の日取りはブランダマー卿が好きなように決めていいと言ったのだ。彼のほうから面会を申し出ておきながら、今更それを引っこめるのは自分勝手、卑劣の極みである。確かにこの面会のことは、考えれば考えるほど、尻ごみしたくなった。しかしもう避けることはできない。何だかんだ言っても、自分に課した任務のなかで一番容易な部分なのである。これは彼が最後まで演じなければならない悲劇の序幕に過ぎないのだ。ブランダマー卿が、彼の上に降りかかるべき、ありとあらゆる災いに値することは間違いないが、しかしそうはいっても彼、ウエストレイは、おのれの手中にある男の、このささやかな望みを拒否することができなかった。
But go to Fording he would not. That, at any rate, no fantastic refinement of fair play could demand of him. He knew his mind at least on this point; he would answer at once, and he got out a sheet of paper for his refusal. It was easy to write the number of his house, and the street, and Cullerne, and the formal "My lord," which he used again for the address. But what then? What reason was he to give for his refusal? He could allege no business appointment or other serious engagement as an obstacle, for he himself had said that he was free for a week, and had offered Lord Blandamer to make an appointment on any day. He himself had offered an interview; to draw back now would be mean and paltry in the extreme. It was true that the more he thought of this meeting the more he shrank from it. But it could not be evaded now. It was, after all, only the easiest part of the task that he had set before him, only a prolusion to the tragedy that he would have to play to a finish. Lord Blandamer deserved, no doubt, all the evil that was to fall on him; but in the meanwhile he, Westray, was incapable of refusing this small favour, asked by a man who was entirely at his mercy.
Then he wrote with a shrinking heart, but with yet another fixed purpose, that he would bring the picture to Fording the next day. He preferred not to be met at the station; he would arrive some time during the afternoon, but could only stay an hour at the most, as he had business which would take him on to London the same evening.
It was a fine Autumn day on the morrow, and when the morning mists had cleared away, the sun came out with surprising warmth, and dried the dew on the lawns of many-gardened Cullerne. Towards mid-day Westray set forth from his lodgings to go to the station, carrying under his arm the picture, lightly packed in lath, and having in his pocket those papers which had fallen out from the frame. He chose a route through back-streets, and walked quickly, but as he passed Quandrill's, the local maker of guns and fishing-rods, a thought struck him. He stopped and entered the shop.
"Good-morning," he said to the gunsmith, who stood behind the counter; "have you any pistols? I want one small enough to carry in the pocket, but yet something more powerful than a toy."
ミスタ・クワドリルは眼鏡を外した。
Mr Quandrill took off his spectacles.
"Ah," he said, tapping the counter with them meditatively. "Let me see. Mr Westray, is it not, the architect at the minster?"
"Yes," Westray answered. "I require a pistol for some experiments. It should carry a fairly heavy bullet."
"Oh, just so," the man said, with an air of some relief, as Westray's coolness convinced him that he was not contemplating suicide. "Just so, I see; some experiments. Well, in that case, I suppose, you would not require any special facilities for loading again quickly, otherwise I should have recommended one of these," and he took up a weapon from the counter. "They are new-fangled things from America, revolving pistols they call them. You can fire them four times running, you see, as quick as you like," and he snapped the piece to show how well it worked.
Westray handled the pistol, and looked at the barrels.
"Yes," he said, "that will suit my purpose very well, though it is rather large to carry in the pocket."
"Oh, you want it for the pocket," the gunmaker said with renewed surprise in his tone.
"Yes; I told you that already. I may have to carry it about with me. Still, I think this will do. Could you kindly load it for me now?"
"You are sure it's quite safe," said the gunmaker.
"I ought to ask _you_ that," Westray rejoined with a smile. "Do you mean it may go off accidentally in my pocket?"
"Oh no, it's safe enough that way," said the gunmaker. "It won't go off unless you pull the trigger." And he loaded the four barrels, measuring out the powder and shot carefully, and ramming in the wads. "You'll be wanting more powder and shot than this, I suppose," he said.
"Very likely," rejoined the architect, "but I can call for that later."
リチェット駅を出ると大型の有蓋馬車が待っていた。リチェット駅はフォーディングに行く人がときどき使う街道沿いの小さな駅だ。ここから屋敷まで七マイルほど馬車に揺られるのだが、彼はじっと考え事をしていたため、公園の入り口に馬車が停まるまで、まわりのことを何も意識しなかった。門番がかんぬきをはずすあいだ、彼はしばらく足止めされたのだが、そのとき自分が手のこんだ鉄細工や巨大な門の上の雲形紋章を見ていたことは後になって気がついた。彼はいま長い並木道を進んでいた。この道がもっと長ければいいのに、つきることがなければいいのに、と思ったとき、馬車がまたもや停まり、窓のむこう側から馬に乗ったブランダマー卿が話しかけてきた。
He found a heavy country fly waiting for him at Lytchett, the little wayside station which was sometimes used by people going to Fording. It is a seven-mile drive from the station to the house, but he was so occupied in his own reflections, that he was conscious of nothing till the carriage pulled up at the entrance of the park. Here he stopped for a moment while the lodge-keeper was unfastening the bolt, and remembered afterwards that he had noticed the elaborate iron-work, and the nebuly coat which was set over the great gates. He was in the long avenue now, and he wished it had been longer, he wished that it might never end; and then the fly stopped again, and Lord Blandamer on horseback was speaking to him through the carriage window.
There was a second's pause, while the two men looked each other directly in the eyes, and in that look all doubt on either side was ended. Westray felt as if he had received a staggering blow as he came face to face with naked truth, and Lord Blandamer read Westray's thoughts, and knew the extent of his discovery.
ブランダマー卿が最初に話しかけた。
Lord Blandamer was the first to speak.
"I am glad to see you again," he said with perfect courtesy, "and am very much obliged to you for taking this trouble in bringing the picture." And he glanced at the crate that Westray was steadying with his hand on the opposite seat. "I only regret that you would not let me send a carriage to Lytchett."
"Thank you," said the architect; "on the present occasion I preferred to be entirely independent." His words were cold, and were meant to be cold, and yet as he looked at the other's gentle bearing, and the grave face in which sadness was a charm; he felt constrained to abate in part the effect of his own remark, and added somewhat awkwardly: "You see, I was uncertain about the trains."
"I am riding back across the grass," Lord Blandamer said, "but shall be at the house before you;" and as he galloped off, Westray knew that he rode exceedingly well.
This meeting, he guessed, had been contrived to avoid the embarrassment of a more formal beginning. It was obvious that their terms of former friendship could no longer be maintained. Nothing would have induced him to have shaken hands, and this Lord Blandamer must have known.
As Westray stepped into the hall through Inigo Jones' Ionic portico, Lord Blandamer entered from a side-door.
"You must be cold after your long drive. Will you not take a biscuit and a glass of wine?"
Westray motioned away the refreshment which a footman offered him.
"No, thank you," he said; "I will not take anything." It was impossible for him to eat or drink in this house, and yet again he softened his words by adding: "I had something to eat on the way."
The architect's refusal was not lost upon Lord Blandamer. He had known before he spoke that his offer would not be accepted.
"I am afraid it is useless to ask you to stop the night with us," he said; and Westray had his rejoinder ready:
"No; I must leave Lytchett by the seven five train. I have ordered the fly to wait."
He had named the last train available for London, and Lord Blandamer saw that his visitor had so arranged matters, that the interview could not be prolonged for more than an hour.
"Of course, you _could_ catch the night-mail at Cullerne Road," he said. "It is a very long drive, but I sometimes go that way to London myself."
His words called suddenly to Westray's recollection that night walk when the station lights of Cullerne Road were seen dimly through the fog, and the station-master's story that Lord Blandamer had travelled by the mail on the night of poor Sharnall's death. He said nothing, but felt his resolution strengthened.
"The gallery will be the most convenient place, perhaps, to unpack the picture," Lord Blandamer said; and Westray at once assented, gathering from the other's manner that this would be a spot where no interruption need be feared.
They went up some wide and shallow stairs, preceded by a footman, who carried the picture.
"You need not wait," Lord Blandamer said to the man; "we can unpack it ourselves."
When the wrappings were taken off, they stood the painting on the narrow shelf formed by the top of the wainscot which lined the gallery, and from the canvas the old lord surveyed them with penetrating light-grey eyes, exactly like the eyes of the grandson who stood before him.
ブランダマー卿は一歩下がって男の顔をじっと眺めた。子供の頃の彼を怯えさせ、その後の人生を翳らせ、いま墓から蘇り彼を破滅させようとしている男。この男自身も窮地に追い詰められたことを理解しているのだろうか。今こそ最後の抵抗を試みなければならない。今はまだ彼とウエストレイだけの問題なのだから。他には秘密を知るものは誰もいない。彼はウエストレイの突拍子もない道義心をよく知っていたし、密かにそれを当てにもしていた。ウエストレイは次の月曜日まで「さらなる一歩を踏み出さない」と書いたのだから、その日まで秘密が漏れることはないだろうし、実際、秘密を聞いた者はまだ誰もいないとブランダマー卿は確信していた。ウエストレイを黙らせることができればすべてが保たれ、ウエストレイが喋ればすべてが失われる。武器や腕力が問題なら、戦いがいずれの勝利に帰するかは火を見るよりも明らかだった。ウエストレイはようやくこのことに気がついて外套の内側の胸ポケットをふくらませている拳銃を心から恥じた。襲いかかるつもりだったのなら、そんな武器を使う時間や余裕はまったくなかっただろうと彼はいま悟った。
Lord Blandamer stepped back a little, and took a long look at the face of this man, who had been the terror of his childhood, who had darkened his middle life, who seemed now to have returned from the grave to ruin him. He knew himself to be in a desperate pass. Here he must make the last stand, for the issue lay between him and Westray. No one else had learned the secret. He understood and relied implicitly on Westray's fantastic sense of honour. Westray had written that he would "take no steps" till the ensuing Monday, and Lord Blandamer was sure that no one would be told before that day, and that no one had been told yet. If Westray could be silenced all was saved; if Westray spoke, all was lost. If it had been a question of weapons, or of bodily strength, there was no doubt which way the struggle would have ended. Westray knew this well now, and felt heartily ashamed of the pistol that was bulging the breast-pocket on the inside of his coat. If it had been a question of physical attack, he knew now that he would have never been given time, or opportunity for making use of his weapon.
ブランダマー卿は北と南、東と西を旅してきた。世にも奇妙なことを目にし、おこない、生存者はたった一人という戦いに命を賭したこともある。しかし今は血と肉が問題となっているのではない――立ちむかわなければならない相手は原理原則、もしかしたら執行猶予を与えてくれるのではないかと彼が期待をかける原理原則そのものだった。彼は説得も賄賂も受け付けないウエストレイの節義とむかい合わなければならないのだ。見たことがなかったその絵を、彼はしばらくじっと眺めていたのだが、しかしそのあいだも彼の注意はずっと横に立つ男に集中していた。これが最後のチャンスだ――間違いは許されない。彼の魂、あるいは呼び名はともかく疑いもなく肉体ではないものが、相手を支配しようと、ウエストレイの魂に必死の闘争を挑んでいた。
Lord Blandamer had travelled north and south, east and west; he had seen and done strange things; he had stood for his life in struggles whence only one could come out alive; but here was no question of flesh and blood--he had to face principles, those very principles on which he relied for respite; he had to face that integrity of Westray which made persuasion or bribery alike impossible. He had never seen this picture before, and he looked at it intently for some minutes; but his attention was all the while concentrated on the man who stood beside him. This was his last chance--he could afford to make no mistake; and his soul, or whatever that thing may be called which is certainly not the body, was closing with Westray's soul in a desperate struggle for mastery.
Westray was not seeing the picture for the first time, and after one glance he stood aloof. The interview was becoming even more painful than he had expected. He avoided looking Lord Blandamer in the face, yet presently, at a slight movement, turned and met his eye.
「ええ、これは祖父ですよ」
"Yes, it is my grandfather," said the other.
There was nothing in the words, and yet it seemed to Westray as if some terrible confidence was being thrust upon him against his will; as if Lord Blandamer had abandoned any attempt to mislead, and was tacitly avowing all that might be charged against him. The architect began to feel that he was now regarded as a personal enemy, though he had never so considered himself. It was true that picture and papers had fallen into his hands, but he knew that a sense of duty was the only motive of any action that he might be taking.
"You promised, I think, to show me some papers," Lord Blandamer said.
Most painfully Westray handed them over; his knowledge of their contents made it seem that he was offering a deliberate insult. He wished fervently that he never had made any proposal for this meeting; he ought to have given everything to the proper authorities, and have let the blow fall as it would. Such an interview could only end in bitterness: its present result was that here in Lord Blandamer's own house, he, Westray, was presenting him with proofs of his father's illegitimacy, with proofs that he had no right to this house--no, nor to anything else.
ブランダマー卿にとってもそのような情報が年若い男に握られていることを知ったのは苦々しい瞬間であったはずだ。しかし普段より顔に赤みがさしていたとはいえ、自制心は試練に耐えて憤りを押さえつけた。意味のないことを言う時間も、する時間もないのだ。感情にとらわれている暇はない。あらゆる注意を目の前の男に集中させなければならない。彼は身じろぎもせず書類をじっくりと調べているようだった。実際、何回にもわたる慎重な調査も突き止めることのできなかった名前と場所と日付を読んでいた。しかしそのあいだも一心に次に打つ手を模索し、ウエストレイに考え、感じる時間を与えていたのだ。顔を上げるとまた二人の目が合った。今度はウエストレイが赤くなる番だった。
It was a bitter moment for Lord Blandamer to find such information in the possession of a younger man; but, if there was more colour in his face than usual, his self-command stood the test, and he thrust resentment aside. There was no time to say or do useless things, there was no time for feeling; all his attention must be concentrated on the man before him. He stood still, seeming to examine the papers closely, and, as a matter of fact, he did take note of the name, the place, and the date, that so many careful searchings had failed ever to find. But all the while he was resolutely considering the next move, and giving Westray time to think and feel. When he looked up, their eyes met again, and this time it was Westray that coloured.
"I suppose you have verified these certificates?" Lord Blandamer asked very quietly.
"Yes," Westray said, and Lord Blandamer gave them back to him without a word, and walked slowly away down the gallery.
ウエストレイは拳銃でほぼ一杯のポケットに書類をくしゃくしゃにして突っこんだ。書類を見えないところに片付けたとき、彼はほっとした。もうそんな物を手に持っていたくはなかったのだ。まるで敗北した戦士が武器を捨てたかのようだった。この書類を見てブランダマー卿は所有するものすべて、土地も命も家門の名誉も敵の手に明け渡したように思えた。弁解も否定も抵抗もせず、まして嘆願などするわけがなかった。ウエストレイはその場の支配を任され、彼がよかれと思うことを何でもやらなければならなかった。この事実は今までにもまして彼の目にはっきりと映った。秘密を握っているのは彼だけなのだ。それを公開する責任は彼にある。彼は呆けたように絵の前に立ち、絵の中からは先代のブランダマー卿が鋭く射抜くような目で彼を見返した。何も言うことができなかった。ブランダマー卿の後を追うことはできなかった。これで会見は本当に終わったのだろうかと思い、次に踏み出さなければならない一歩のことを考えて、嫌な気分になった。
Westray crushed the papers into his pocket where most of the room was taken up by the pistol; he was glad to get them out of his sight; he could not bear to hold them. It was as if a beaten fighter had given up his sword. With these papers Lord Blandamer seemed to resign into his adversary's hands everything of which he stood possessed, his lands, his life, the honour of his house. He made no defence, no denial, no resistance, least of all any appeal. Westray was left master of the situation, and must do whatever he thought fit. This fact was clearer to him now than it had ever been before, the secret was his alone; with him rested the responsibility of making it public. He stood dumb before the picture, from which the old lord looked at him with penetrating eyes. He had nothing to say; he could not go after Lord Blandamer; he wondered whether this was indeed to be the end of the interview, and turned sick at the thought of the next step that must be taken.
At the distance of a few yards Lord Blandamer paused, and looked round, and Westray understood that he was being invited, or commanded, to follow. They stopped opposite the portrait of a lady, but it was the frame to which Lord Blandamer called attention by laying his hand on it.
"This was my grandmother," he said; "they were companion pictures. They are the same size, the moulding on the frame is the same, an interlacing fillet, and the coat of arms is in the same place. You see?" he added, finding Westray still silent.
Westray was obliged to meet his look once more.
"I see," he said, most reluctantly. He knew now, that the unusual moulding and the size of the picture that hung in Miss Joliffe's house, must have revealed its identity long ago to the man who stood before him; that during all those visits in which plans for the church had been examined and discussed, Lord Blandamer must have known what lay hid under the flowers, must have known that the green wriggling caterpillar was but a bar of the nebuly coat. Confidences were being forced upon Westray that he could not forget, and could not reveal. He longed to cry out, "For God's sake, do not tell me these things; do not give me this evidence against yourself!"
また短い沈黙があり、ブランダマー卿がくるりとむきを変えた。彼はウエストレイも同じようにむきを変えるだろうと予想していたようだった。耳に聞こえてきそうな静寂の中、彼らは陳列室の柔らかい絨毯を踏みしめ、来た道を戻っていった。空気は運命の予感に満ち溢れ、ウエストレイは息が詰まりそうだった。心は制御を失い、思考は恐るべき混乱の中に呑みこまれていた。ただ一つ残っていたのは頑固な責任感だった。その責任とは義務のように証拠という長いくさりに輪をつなぎ足していくことではない。事件はいま動きを止めており、それを再び動き出させることが彼の唯一なすべきことであり、彼一人にしかできないことだった。耳の中で何週間か前の日曜日にカラン大聖堂で聞いた一節が繰り返されていた。「我神ならんや、爭《いかで》か殺すことをなし生すことをなしえん」。しかし義務は彼に進むことを命じ、結果は分かりきっていたが、彼は進まなければならなかった。彼は死刑執行人の役を演じるのだ。
There was another short pause, and then Lord Blandamer turned. He seemed to expect Westray to turn with him, and they walked back over the soft carpet down the gallery in a silence that might be heard. The air was thick with doom; Westray felt as if he were stifling. He had lost mental control, his thoughts were swallowed up in a terrible chaos. Only one reflection stood out, the sense of undivided responsibility. It was not as if he were adding a link, as in duty bound, to a long chain of other evidence: the whole matter was at rest; to set it in motion again would be his sole act, his act alone. There was a refrain ringing in his ears, a verse that he had heard read a few Sundays before in Cullerne Church, "Am I God, to kill and make alive? Am I God, to kill and make alive?" Yet duty commanded him to go forward, and go forward he must, though the result was certain: he would be playing the part of executioner.
彼がその運命を決する相手は一歩一歩静かに彼と歩調を合わせた。一人きりになれる時間がほんの少しあれば、乱れる心を整理することができるかも知れない。彼は他の絵の前に立ち止まり、見つめるふりをしたが、ブランダマー卿も立ち止まって彼を見た。ブランダマー卿に見られていることは知っていたが、視線を返そうとはしなかった。ブランダマー卿としてはただ客に失礼にならぬよう立ち止まっただけのようだった。ミスタ・ウエストレイは絵の中の何枚かに格別の興味を抱くかも知れず、もしも説明が必要ならすぐそれを提供できるよう気を配るのがもてなす者の役割である。ウエストレイはさらに一度か二度立ち止まったが、いつも結果は同じだった。自分の見ているのが肖像画なのか風景画なのか、それすら分からなかった。ただ、陳列室の途中の床に未完成の絵があって、表を壁にむけて立てかけてあることはぼんやりと意識した。
The man whose fate he must seal was keeping pace with him quietly, step by step. If he could only have a few moments to himself, he might clear his distracted thoughts. He paused before some other picture, feigning to examine it, but Lord Blandamer paused also, and looked at him. He knew Lord Blandamer's eye was upon him, though he refused to return the look. It seemed a mere act of courtesy on Lord Blandamer's part to stop. Mr Westray might be specially interested in some of the pictures, and, if any information was required, it was the part of the host to see that it was forthcoming. Westray stopped again once or twice, but always with the same result. He did not know whether he was looking at portraits or landscapes, though he was vaguely aware that half-way down the gallery, there stood on the floor what seemed to be an unfinished picture, with its face turned to the wall.
ウエストレイが立ち止まるとき以外、ブランダマー卿は右も左も見ずに、背中に回した両手を軽く組んだまま歩きつづけた。目を床にむけ、物思いを断ち切ろうとするそぶりも見せなかった。相手が何を考えているのか、理解することも推測することも、とうていできなかったが、その平静で決然とした態度には不本意ながらも感心せずにはいられなかった。ウエストレイは巨人の横にいる子供のような気分だった。しかし、それでも自分の義務を果たすということについては少しの疑問も抱いていなかった。だが何と難しい仕事だろう！なぜ愚かにもこんな絵と関わりを持ってしまったのだろう。なぜ自分のものでもない書類を読んだりしたのだろう。とりわけ分からないのは、疑惑を確かめるためにフォーディングにのりこんで来たことだ。関係もないのに、何だってこんな事を詮索しようとするのか？彼はまじめな人間なら探偵を演じることに対して感じる、口にできないような嫌悪感で一杯だった。他人に宛てた手紙の筆跡や消印を調べても構わないとする、けちで卑劣な考え方にさえ最大限の軽蔑を感じた。しかし彼は知ってしまった。しかも彼だけが知っている。この恐ろしい知識を捨て去ることはできない。
Except when Westray stopped, Lord Blandamer looked neither to the right nor to the left; he walked with his hands folded lightly behind him, and with his eyes upon the ground, yet did not feign to have his thoughts disengaged. His companion shrank from any attempt to understand or fathom what those thoughts could be, but admired, against his will, the contained and resolute bearing. Westray felt as a child beside a giant, yet had no doubt as to his own duty, or that he was going to do it. But how hard it was! Why had he been so foolish as to meddle with the picture? Why had he read papers that did not belong to him? Why, above all, had he come down to Fording to have his suspicions confirmed? What business was it of his to ferret out these things? He felt all the unutterable aversion of an upright mind for playing the part of a detective; all the sovereign contempt even for such petty meanness as allows one person to examine the handwriting or postmark of letters addressed to another. Yet he knew this thing, and he alone; he could not do away with this horrible knowledge.
陳列室の端にたどり着き、彼らはそろってむきを変え、ゆっくり黙っていま来た道を引き返した。時間はたちまち過ぎていった。ウエストレイはフォーディングに来る前に決断を下したのだから、いまさら思い悩むわけにはいかなかった。彼はやり遂げなければならなかった。ブランダマー卿と同じように彼にも逃れる道はないのだ。約束を守ろう。手紙に示した通り、月曜日に何もかもぶちまけるのだ。口火を切れば事件は彼の手を離れる。しかし、そのことを、横で静かに判決を待ちながら歩く男に、どう伝えたらよいのだろう。彼を不安なまま残すわけにはいかない。そんなことは臆病であり残酷だ。自分の意図をはっきり示さなければならない。しかしどのように？どんなことば遣いで？考える時間はなかった。彼らはまた表を壁にむけて立てかけてある絵のそばを通り過ぎた。
The end of the gallery was reached; they turned with one accord and paced slowly, silently back, and the time was slipping away fast. It was impossible for Westray to consider anything _now_, but he had taken his decision before he came to Fording; he must go through with it; there was no escape for _him_ any more than for Lord Blandamer. He would keep his word. On Monday, the day he had mentioned, he would speak, and once begun, the matter would pass out of his hands. But how was he to tell this to the man who was walking beside him, and silently waiting for his sentence? He could not leave him in suspense; to do so would be cowardice and cruelty. He must make his intention clear, but how? in what form of words? There was no time to think; already they were repassing that canvas which stood with its face to the wall.
緊張感、計り知れない沈黙がウエストレイの神経に重くのしかかった。もう一度考えをまとめようとしたが、ブランダマー卿のことばかり考えてしまう。手を背中で組み、指一本動かさない彼がどれほど落ち着いて見えることか。一体彼はどうするつもりなのだろう――高飛びするのか、自殺するのか、一歩も引かず最後のチャンスを賭けて裁判に出るのか。世間をわかす裁判になるだろう。おぞましいが避けることのできないいろいろなことがウエストレイの想像の中に浮かんできた。夢に見た、傍聴人でいっぱいの奇妙な法廷、被告人席に座っているブランダマー卿。この最後の光景は彼を嫌な気持ちにさせた。彼自身は証人席にいるだろう。忘れてしまいたい出来事が呼び起こされ、論じられ、長々と説明される。彼は記憶をたどり、陳述し、宣誓しなければならないだろう。しかしそれだけではない。まさに今日の午後起きたことも話さなければならないのだ。伏せておくことはできない。この屋敷の召使いたちはことごとく彼が絵を抱えてフォーディングに来たことを知っているだろう。「このまことに驚くべき会見」について反対尋問される声が聞こえるようだった。どう説明したらよいのだろう。どう説明しようと信頼を甚だしく裏切ることになる。それでも説明しなければならず、しかも被告人席のブランダマー卿に見守られながら証言することになるのだ。ブランダマー卿が被告人席から見守っている。そんなことは耐えられない。できることじゃない。そんなことをするくらいなら彼のほうが高飛びしたいくらいだ。彼はポケットをふくらませている拳銃でみずからの命を絶つことを考えた。
The suspense, the impenetrable silence, was telling upon Westray; he tried again to rearrange his thoughts, but they were centred only on Lord Blandamer. How calm he seemed, with his hands folded behind him, and never a finger twitching! What did _he_ mean to do--to fly, or kill himself, or stand his ground and take his trial on a last chance? It would be a celebrated trial. Hateful and inevitable details occurred to Westray's imagination: the crowded, curious court as he saw it in his dream, with Lord Blandamer in the dock, and this last thought sickened him. His own place would be in the witness-box. Incidents that he wished to forget would be recalled, discussed, dwelt on; he would have to search his memory for them, narrate them, swear to them. But this was not all. He would have to give an account of this very afternoon's work. It could not be hushed up. Every servant in the house would know how he had come to Fording with a picture. He heard himself cross-examined as to "this very remarkable interview." What account was he to give of it? What a betrayal of confidence it would be to give _any_ account. Yet he must, and his evidence would be given under the eyes of Lord Blandamer in the dock. Lord Blandamer would be in the dock watching him. It was unbearable, impossible; rather than this he would fly himself, he would use the pistol that bulged his pocket against his own life.
Lord Blandamer had noted Westray's nervous movements, his glances to right and left, as though seeking some way of escape; he saw the clenched hands, and the look of distress as they paced to and fro. He knew that each pause before a picture was an attempt to shake him off, but he would not be shaken off; Westray was feeling the grip, and must not have a moment's breathing space. He could tell exactly how the minutes were passing, he knew what to listen for, and could catch the distant sound of the stable clock striking the quarters. They were back at the end of the gallery. There was no time to pace it again; Westray must go now if he was to catch his train.
They stopped opposite the old lord's portrait; the silence wrapped Westray round, as the white fog had wrapped him round that night on his way to Cullerne Road. He wanted to speak, but his brain was confused, his throat was dry; he dreaded the sound of his own voice.
ブランダマー卿は時計を取り出した。
Lord Blandamer took out his watch.
"I have no wish to hurry you, Mr Westray," he said, "but your train leaves Lytchett in little over an hour. It will take you nearly that time to drive to the station. May I help you to repack this picture?"
His voice was clear, level, and courteous, as on the day when Westray had first met him at Bellevue Lodge. The silence was broken, and Westray found himself speaking quickly in answer:
"You invited me to stay here for the night. I have changed my mind, and will accept your offer, if I may." He hesitated for a moment, and then went on: "I shall be thankful if you will keep the picture and these documents. I see now that I have no business with them."
He took the crumpled papers from his pocket, and held them out without looking up.
また二人の上に沈黙が訪れ、ウエストレイの心臓は鼓動を止めた。その状態は、永遠とも思える一瞬の後、ブランダマー卿が短く「ありがとう」と言って書類を受け取り、少し離れた陳列室の隅に行くまでつづいた。たまたま窓の前に立っていた建築家は、横の壁にもたれかかり、何を見るともなく外に目をやった。やがてブランダマー卿が召使いに、ミスタ・ウエストレイがお泊まりになる、ワインを陳列室に持ってくるように、と指示する声が聞こえた。しばらくして召使いは盆にデカンターを載せて戻り、ブランダマー卿がウエストレイと自分のグラスに酒を満たした。おそらく彼は、どちらもそうした飲み物を必要としているのではないかと考えたのだろう。実のところ、その必要は自分よりも相手にとってもっと切実だった。ウエストレイは一時間前にこの屋根の下で飲み食いすることを拒否したことを思い出した。一時間前――何と短い時間のあいだに気持ちが変わってしまったことか。義務も原理原則もかなぐり捨てて！きっとこのグラスの赤ワインは悪魔の聖体に他ならず、これを飲むことで不正の片棒を担ぐことになるのだ。
Then silence fell on them again, and Westray's heart stood still; till after a second that seemed an eternity Lord Blandamer took the papers with a short "I thank you," and walked a little way further, to the end of the gallery. The architect leant against the side of a window opposite which he found himself, and, looking out without seeing anything, presently heard Lord Blandamer tell a servant that Mr Westray would stop the night, and that wine was to be brought them in the gallery. In a few minutes the man came back with a decanter on a salver, and Lord Blandamer filled glasses for Westray, and himself. He felt probably that both needed something of the kind, but to the other more was implied. Westray remembered that an hour ago he had refused to eat or drink under this roof. An hour ago--how his mood had changed in that short time! How he had flung duty and principle to the winds! Surely this glass of red wine was a very sacrament of the devil, which made him a partner of iniquity.
グラスを持ち上げ口につけたとき、窓から陽の光が斜めに差しこみ、ワインを血のような赤色に輝かせた。二人はグラスを持つ手を止め、庭園の木々の後ろに沈む真っ赤な太陽を見た。そのとき先代のブランダマー卿の絵に夕日があたり、雲形紋章の緑の横棒がウエストレイの眼前に踊るように照り映えた。まるで命を帯び、再び三匹ののたうつ毛虫になったかのようだった。そしてこの最後の場面の上演ぶりをじっと見つめるように、あの鋭い灰色の目が画布の中から覗いていた。ブランダマー卿はなみなみと注いだ杯にかけて誓いのことばを発し、ウエストレイも躊躇することなくそれに唱和した。忠誠を誓ってしまった彼は、後戻りしないことを示すためには毒すらあおるつもりだった。
As he raised the glass to his lips a slanting sunbeam shot through the window, and made the wine glow red as blood. The drinkers paused glass in hand, and glancing up saw the red sun setting behind the trees in the park. Then the old lord's picture caught the evening light, the green bars of the nebuly coat danced before Westray's eyes, till they seemed to live, to be again three wriggling caterpillars, and the penetrating grey eyes looked out from the canvas as if they were watching the enactment of this final scene. Lord Blandamer pledged him in a bumper, and Westray answered without hesitation, for he had given his allegiance, and would have drunk poison in token that there was to be no turning back now.
ブランダマー夫人は約束があってその晩は帰りが遅かった。ブランダマー卿は彼女に付き添って外出するつもりでいたが、あとになってから、ミスタ・ウエストレイが重要な用件でやってくると言い、彼女は一人で出かけたのだった。ブランダマー卿とウエストレイは二人だけで夕食の席に着き、建築家は相手の微妙な態度の変化から、知り合って以来はじめて主人が彼を同等の人間として扱っていることに気がついた。ブランダマー卿は気楽な興味深い会話をよどみなくつづけたが、建築の話題には決して近づこうとせず、それを避けていることすら気取られぬように振る舞った。夕食の後はウエストレイを書斎に連れて行き、古い本を見せたり、話術のかぎりをつくして彼をもてなし、くつろがせようとした。ウエストレイはその態度にしばし落ち着きを取り戻し、相手の礼儀に一生懸命応じようとしたのだが、しかし何をやっても味気なかった。彼には分かっていたのだ、真っ黒な「不安」がひたすら彼が一人になるのを待っていて、彼の存在をもう一度支配しようとしていることを。
An engagement kept Lady Blandamer from home that evening. Lord Blandamer had intended to accompany her, but afterwards told her that Mr Westray was coming on important business, and so she went alone. Only Lord Blandamer and Westray sat down to dinner, and some subtle change of manner made the architect conscious that for the first time since their acquaintance, his host was treating him as a real equal. Lord Blandamer maintained a flow of easy and interesting conversation, yet never approached the subject of architecture even near enough to seem to be avoiding it. After dinner he took Westray to the library, where he showed him some old books, and used all his art to entertain him and set him at his ease. Westray was soothed for a moment by the other's manner, and did his best to respond to the courtesy shown him; but everything had lost its savour, and he knew that black Care was only waiting for him to be alone, to make herself once more mistress of his being.
A wind which had risen after sunset began to blow near bed-time with unusual violence. The sudden gusts struck the library windows till they rattled again, and puffs of smoke came out from the fireplace into the room.
"I shall sit up for Lady Blandamer," said the host, "but I dare say you will not be sorry to turn in;" and Westray, looking at his watch, saw that it wanted but ten minutes of midnight.
In the hall, and on the staircase, as they went up, the wind blowing with cold rushes made itself felt still more strongly.
"It is a wild night," Lord Blandamer said, as he stopped for a moment before a barometer, "but I suspect that there is yet worse to come; the glass has fallen in an extraordinary way. I hope you have left all snug with the tower at Cullerne; this wind will not spare any weak places."
"I don't think it should do any mischief at Saint Sepulchre's," Westray answered, half unconsciously. It seemed as though he could not concentrate his thought even upon his work.
His bedroom was large, and chilly in spite of a bright fire. He locked the door, and drawing an easy-chair before the hearth, sat a long while in thought. It was the first time in his life that he had with deliberation acted against his convictions, and there followed the reaction and remorse inseparable from such conditions.
これほど深い憂鬱がまたとあるだろうか。はじめて経験するこの魂の日食ほど暗い夜があるだろうか。正義の本能を黙らせる、このはじめての抑圧ほど暗い夜が。彼は真実を隠すことに手を貸し、もう一人の男の悪事に協力した。その結果、節義という足がかりを失い、誇りを失い、自信を失ったのだ。ここまで来たら、かりに可能だとしても、決心を翻そうとは思わない。しかし、一生背負っていかなければならない罪の秘密が彼の身体にずしりとのしかかってきた。この重さを軽減するために何かをしなければならない。心の苦しみを和らげるために行動を取らなければならない。彼はうちひしがれた。中世であれば修道院がその救済手段になっていただろう。彼は罪を清めるためにすぐにでも犠牲を捧げ、大切なものを投げだす必要を感じた。そのとき何を犠牲にしなければならないのか、彼は悟った。カランでの仕事を辞めなければならない。自分にそう告げるだけの良心がまだ残っていたことに彼は感謝した。あの男の金で行われる仕事には、もはや従事することはできない。会社から解雇されることになろうとも、生計の道が断たれることになろうとも、カランでの仕事を辞めるのだ。彼はイングランドといえども彼とブランダマー卿を包みこむほど広くはないような気がした。罪の共謀者とはもはや会うわけにはいかない。目を合わせると相手の意志が彼の意志をさらなる悪へと強制するように思われ怖かった。明日さっそく辞職願いを書こう。これなら積極的な犠牲、痛々しいけれども更正へむけての確かな折り返し地点、ここから出発すればいつかは自尊心と心の平安をある程度は取り戻せると期待のできる転換点になるだろう。明日さっそくカランの仕事を辞任しよう。そう思ったときいちだんと激しい風が彼の部屋の窓を叩き、彼は聖セパルカ大聖堂の塔のまわりに組んだ足場を思い出した。ひどい夜だ。アーチの細い曲線は巨大な塔がその上で揺れているこんな夜でも持ちこたえてくれるだろうか。いや、明日辞任するわけにはいかない。それは職務から逃げ出すことだ。塔が安全になるまではそばにいなければならない。それこそが彼の第一の義務だ。それが済んだらすぐに辞任しよう。
Is there any depression so deep as this? is there any night so dark as this first eclipse of the soul, this _first_ conscious stilling of the instinct for right? He had conspired to obscure truth, he had made himself partaker in another man's wrong-doing, and, as the result, he had lost his moral foothold, his self-respect, his self-reliance. It was true that, even if he could, he would not have changed his decision now, yet the weight of a guilty secret, that he must keep all his life long, pressed heavily upon him. Something must be done to lighten this weight; he must take some action that would ease the galling of his thoughts. He was in that broken mood for which the Middle Ages offered the cloister as a remedy; he felt the urgent need of sacrifice and abnegation to purge him. And then he knew the sacrifice that he must make: he must give up his work at Cullerne. He was thankful to find that there was still enough of conscience left to him to tell him this. He could not any longer be occupied on work for which the money was being found by this man. He would give up his post at Cullerne, even if it meant giving up his connection with his employers, even if it meant the giving up of his livelihood. He felt as if England itself were not large enough to hold him and Lord Blandamer. He must never more see the associate of his guilt; he dreaded meeting his eyes again, lest the other's will should constrain his will to further wrong. He would write to resign his work the very next day; that would be an active sacrifice, a definite mark from which he might begin a painful retracing of the way, a turning-point from which he might hope in time to recover some measure of self-respect and peace of mind. He would resign his work at Cullerne the very next day; and then a wilder gust of wind buffeted the windows of his room, and he thought of the scaffolding on Saint Sepulchre's tower. What a terrible night it was! Would the thin bows of the tower arches live through such a night, with the weight of the great tower rocking over them? No, he could not resign to-morrow. It would be deserting his post. He must stand by till the tower was safe, _that_ was his first duty. After that he would give up his post at once.
Later on he went to bed, and in those dark watches of the night, that are not kept by reason, there swept over him thoughts wilder than the wind outside. He had made himself sponsor for Lord Blandamer, he had assumed the burden of the other's crime. It was he that was branded with the mark of Cain, and he must hide it in silence from the eyes of all men. He must fly from Cullerne, and walk alone with his burden for the rest of his life, a scapegoat in the isolation of the wilderness.
In sleep the terror that walketh in darkness brooded heavily on him. He was in the church of Saint Sepulchre, and blood dripped on him from the organ-loft. Then as he looked up to find out whence it came he saw the four tower arches falling to grind him to powder, and leapt up in his bed, and struck a light to make sure that there were no red patches on him. With daylight he grew calmer. The wild visions vanished, but the cold facts remained: he was sunk in his own esteem, he had forced himself into an evil secret which was no concern of his, and now he must keep it for ever.
いや、違う。僕は本当に自尊心を失ったのか。本当にそれほど罪深い秘密が存在するのか。すべては僕の頭が生み出したまぼろしではないのか。 ~~~ ウエストレイは居間でブランダマー夫人に出会った。ブランダマー卿は前の晩、彼女の帰りを広間で迎えた。顔は青ざめていたものの、彼女は夫が二言三言話しかけてくるよりも先に、それまでの数日間、彼の心に重く垂れこめていた心配の雲が、今はすっかり吹き払われてしまったことを見て取った。ミスタ・ウエストレイは用事のためこちらに来られたのだが、嵐が荒れ狂っているので一晩泊まっていくよう説得したのだ、彼はそう事情を説明した。建築家は偶然手に入れた絵を持ってきてくれた、先代のブランダマー卿の肖像画で何年も前にフォーディングから紛失したものだ、取り戻すことができたのは実に喜ばしい、ミスタ・ウエストレイのご尽力には大いに感謝しなければならない。
Westray found Lady Blandamer in the breakfast-room. Lord Blandamer had met her in the hall on her return the night before, and though he was pale, she knew before he had spoken half a dozen words, that the cloud of anxiety which had hung heavily on him for the last few days was past. He told her that Mr Westray had come over on business, and, in view of the storm that was raging, had been persuaded to remain for the night. The architect had brought with him a picture which he had accidentally come across, a portrait of the old Lord Blandamer which had been missing for many years from Fording. It was very satisfactory that it had been recovered; they were under a great obligation to Mr Westray for the trouble which he had taken in the matter.
その日までいろいろな事件に取り紛れてウエストレイはブランダマー夫人の存在を忘れかけていた。絵の発見以来、かりに彼女のことを思い浮かべることがあったとしても、それは深く傷つき苦しむ女の姿だった。しかし今朝、彼女は驚くほど輝かしい満足の表情を浮かべてあらわれ、つい昨日、彼はもう少しで彼女を絶望の淵にたたき落とすところだったのだと思い身震いした。結婚してから一年間、栄養に気を配った食事をしてきたせいだろう、顔も身体もふっくらしていたが、それまでずっと彼女の特徴だった優雅さは損なわれていなかった。彼女はそのあるべき地位に就いたのだと彼は思い、彼女の振る舞いの気高さを見て、どうしてその出生の真実にもっと早く気がつかなかったのだろうと不思議な気がした。彼女は再会を喜んでいる様子で、握手したときも以前の関係を忘れていないといったようにほほえみ、少しも当惑を見せなかった。彼女が彼のために食事を運んだり、手紙を持ってきたのだとは、とても信じられなかった。
In the events of the preceding days Westray had almost forgotten Lady Blandamer's existence, and since the discovery of the picture, if her image presented itself to his mind, it had been as that of a deeply wronged and suffering woman. But this morning she appeared with a look of radiant content that amazed him, and made him shudder as he thought how near he had been only a day before to plunging her into the abyss. The more careful nurture of the year that had passed since her marriage, had added softness to her face and figure, without detracting from the refinement of expression that had always marked her. He knew that she was in her own place, and wondered now that the distinction of her manner had not led him sooner to the truth of her birth. She looked pleased to meet him, and shook hands with a frank smile that acknowledged their former relations, without any trace of embarrassment. It seemed incredible that she should ever have brought him up his meals and letters.
She made a polite reference to his having restored to them an interesting family picture, and finding him unexpectedly embarrassed, changed the subject by asking him what he thought of her own portrait.
"I think you must have seen it yesterday," she went on, as he appeared not to understand. "It has only just come home, and is standing on the floor in the long gallery."
Lord Blandamer glanced at the architect, and answered for him that Mr Westray had not seen it. Then he explained with a composure that shed a calm through the room:
"It was turned to the wall. It is a pity to show it unhung, and without a frame. We must get it framed at once, and decide on a position for it. I think we shall have to shift several paintings in the gallery."
彼はスネイデルス（註 フランドルの画家）やワウウェルマン（註 オランダの画家）のことを語り、ウエストレイは申し訳ばかりの関心を示したが、実のところ昨日の恐るべき会見の際、時間を計るのに役立った、床に置かれた額なしの絵のことしか考えられなかった。彼はこう推測した。ブランダマー卿はみずから絵の表を壁にむけたのだろう、そうすることで闘争を有利に進めることができるかも知れない武器を意図的に放棄したのだ。ブランダマー卿はアナスタシアの肖像が敵の心に過去の記憶を呼びさまし、自分を援護することをわざと拒否したのだ。「このような加勢も、そのような守り手も必要なときではない」（註 ウェルギリウス「アエネーイス」から）といわんばかりに。
He talked of Snyders and Wouverman, and Westray made some show of attention, but could only think of the unframed picture standing on the ground, which had helped to measure the passing of time in the terrible interview of yesterday. He guessed now that Lord Blandamer had himself turned the picture with its face to the wall, and in doing so had deliberately abandoned a weapon that might have served him well in the struggle. Lord Blandamer must have deliberately foregone the aid of recollections such as Anastasia's portrait would have called up in his antagonist's mind. "Non tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis."
ウエストレイの憔悴した様子を主人は見逃さなかった。建築家はまるで幽霊の出る部屋で一夜を明かしたようなありさまで、ブランダマー卿は彼が感じている良心の呵責が容易に消えるようなものではないことや、それが墓の中でじっと静かに横たわっていそうにないことを知っていたから驚きはしなかった。彼はウエストレイの出発まで残されたわずかな時間を屋外で過ごすのがよいだろと思い、庭を散歩しましょう、と提案した。庭師の報告によると、昨夜の大風で植木にかなりの被害が出たようです、と彼は言った。南の芝地に生えていたヒマラヤ杉の梢が折れてしまったとか。ブランダマー夫人は、ぜひお供させてください、と言った。彼らがテラスの階段を下りているとき、乳母が赤ん坊の跡継ぎを彼女のところに抱いて連れてきた。 ~~~ 「あの大風は台風だったのでしょう」とブランダマー卿は言った。「吹きはじめたのも止んだのも突然でしたね」
Westray's haggard air had not escaped his host's notice. The architect looked as if he had spent the night in a haunted room, and Lord Blandamer was not surprised, knowing that the other's scruples had died hard, and were not likely to lie quiet in their graves. He thought it better that the short time which remained before Westray's departure should be spent out of the house, and proposed a stroll in the grounds. The gardener reported, he said, that last night's gale had done considerable damage to the trees. The top of the cedar on the south lawn had been broken short off. Lady Blandamer begged that she might accompany them, and as they walked down the terrace steps into the garden a nurse brought to her the baby heir.
"The gale must have been a cyclone," Lord Blandamer said. "It has passed away as suddenly as it arose."
The morning was indeed still and sunshiny, and seemed more beautiful by contrast with the turmoil of the previous night. The air was clear and cold after the rain, but paths and lawns were strewn with broken sticks and boughs, and carpeted with prematurely fallen leaves.
Lord Blandamer described the improvements that he was making or projecting, and pointed out the old fishponds which were to be restocked, the bowling-green and the ladies' garden arranged on an old-world plan by his grandmother, and maintained unchanged since her death. He had received an immense service from Westray, and he would not accept it ungraciously or make little of it. In taking the architect round the place, in showing this place that his ancestors had possessed for so many generations, in talking of his plans for a future that had only so recently become assured, he was in a manner conveying his thanks, and Westray knew it.
Lady Blandamer was concerned for Westray. She saw that he was downcast, and ill at ease, and in her happiness that the cloud had passed from her husband, she wanted everyone to be happy with her. So, as they were returning to the house, she began, in the kindness of her heart, to talk of Cullerne Minster. She had a great longing, she said, to see the old church again. She should so much enjoy it if Mr Westray would some day show her over it. Would he take much longer in the restorations?
They were in an alley too narrow for three to walk abreast. Lord Blandamer had fallen behind, but was within earshot.
Westray answered quickly, without knowing what he was going to say. He was not sure about the restorations--that was, they certainly were not finished; in fact, they would take some time longer, but he would not be there, he believed, to superintend them. That was to say, he was giving up his present appointment.
He broke off, and Lady Blandamer knew that she had again selected an unfortunate subject. She dropped it, and hoped he would let them know when he was next at leisure, and come for a longer visit.
"I am afraid it will not be in my power to do so," Westray said; and then, feeling that he had given a curt and ungracious answer to a kindly-meant invitation, turned to her and explained with unmistakable sincerity that he was giving up his connection with Farquhar and Farquhar. This subject also was not to be pursued, so she only said that she was sorry, and her eyes confirmed her words.
ブランダマー卿は今聞いた話に胸を痛めた。ファークワー・アンド・ファークワーのことも、ウエストレイの地位や将来性のことも多少は知っていた――それなりに収入があり、会社の中では出世するだろうと思われていることも。この決断は昨日の会見の結果として突然にくだされたものに違いなかった。ウエストレイは贖罪の山羊のように他人の罪を頭に負い、荒野に放たれようとしている。建築家は若くて未熟だ。ブランダマー卿は静かに彼と話がしたかった。おそらく自分がすべての費用を醵出しているカラン大聖堂の修復工事に、ウエストレイはこれ以上携わることができないと感じたのだろう。しかしなぜ一流の会社を辞めてしまうのか。健康状態がよくないとか、神経衰弱であるとか、肉体だけでなく精神の窮状からも逃れる道を切り開く医者の命令というやつを使えばいいではないか。スペインへ考古学の旅行に行ったり、地中海でヨットを乗り回したり、エジプトで冬を過ごしたり――これらはみんなウエストレイの好みに合うはずだ。非の打ち所なき薬草ネペンテスは道ばたのどこにでも見つけることができる。楽しいことをして忘れるべきなのだ。彼はウエストレイに、いつか忘れるだろう、あるいは思い出すことに慣れてしまうだろう、と安心させてやりたかった。時間は心の傷や肉体の傷を癒すように、良心の傷をも癒す、後悔は感情の中で最も長つづきしないものなのだ、と。しかしウエストレイはまだ忘れたくないのかも知れない。自分の主義に真向から反することをしたのだ。結果に対する責任を取るため、自尊心を回復する唯一の手段として、苦行者が馬巣織りのシャツを着るように、その責任を身にまとう決意なのかも知れない。何を言っても無駄だ。自発的であろうとそうでなかろうと、ウエストレイが罪滅ぼしをするつもりなら、それがいかなるものであれ、ブランダマー卿はひたすら傍観するしかないのである。彼の目的は達せられた。ウエストレイがそれに対してあがないの必要を感じているのなら、あがなわせてやらなければならない。ブランダマー卿には問いただすことも異議を唱えることもできないのだ。彼は代償を差し出すことさえできない。なぜならどのような代償も受け入れられることはないだろうから。
Lord Blandamer was pained at what he had heard. He knew Farquhar and Farquhar, and knew something of Westray's position and prospects--that he had a reasonable income, and a promising future with the firm. This resolve must be quite sudden, a result of yesterday's interview. Westray was being driven out into the wilderness like a scapegoat with another man's guilt on his head. The architect was young and inexperienced. Lord Blandamer wished he could talk with him quietly. He understood that Westray might find it impossible to go on with the restoration at Cullerne, where all was being done at Lord Blandamer's expense. But why sever his connection with a leading firm? Why not plead ill-health, nervous breakdown, those doctor's orders which have opened a way of escape from impasses of the mind as well as of the body? An archaeologic tour in Spain, a yachting cruise in the Mediterranean, a winter in Egypt--all these things would be to Westray's taste; the blameless herb nepenthe might anywhere be found growing by the wayside. He must amuse himself, and forget. He wished he could _assure_ Westray that he would forget, or grow used to remembering; that time heals wounds of conscience as surely as it heals heart-wounds and flesh-wounds; that remorse is the least permanent of sentiments. But then Westray might not yet wish to forget. He had run full counter to his principles. It might be that he was resolved to take the consequences, and wear them like a hair-shirt, as the only means of recovering his self-esteem. No; whatever penance, voluntary or involuntary, Westray might undergo, Lord Blandamer could only look on in silence. His object had been gained. If Westray felt it necessary to pay the price, he must be let pay it. Lord Blandamer could neither inquire nor remonstrate. He could offer no compensation, because no compensation would be accepted.
The little party were nearing the house when a servant met them.
"There is a man come over from Cullerne, my lord," he said. "He is anxious to see Mr Westray at once on important business."
"Show him into my sitting-room, and say that Mr Westray will be with him immediately."
ウエストレイは数分後広間でブランダマー卿に会った。
Westray met Lord Blandamer in the hall a few minutes later.
"I am sorry to say there is bad news from Cullerne," the architect said hurriedly. "Last night's gale has strained and shaken the tower severely. A very serious movement is taking place. I must get back at once."
"Do, by all means. A carriage is at the door. You can catch the train at Lytchett, and be in Cullerne by mid-day."
The episode was a relief to Lord Blandamer. The architect's attention was evidently absorbed in the tower. It might be that he had already found the blameless herb growing by the wayside.
The nebuly coat shone on the panel of the carriage-door. Lady Blandamer had noticed that her husband had been paying Westray special attention. He was invariably courteous, but he had treated this guest as he treated few others. Yet now, at the last moment, he had fallen silent; he was standing, she fancied, aloof. He held his hands behind him, and the attitude seemed to her to have some significance. But on Lord Blandamer's part it was a mark of consideration. There had been no shaking of hands up to the present; he was anxious not to force Westray to take his hand by offering it before his wife and the servants.
Lady Blandamer felt that there was something going on which she did not understand, but she took leave of Westray with special kindness. She did not directly mention the picture, but said how much they were obliged to him, and glanced for confirmation at Lord Blandamer. He looked at Westray, and said with deliberation:
"I trust Mr Westray knows how fully I appreciate his generosity and courtesy."
There was a moment's pause, and then Westray offered his hand. Lord Blandamer shook it cordially, and their eyes met for the last time.
第二十三章 ~~~
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
On the afternoon of the same day Lord Blandamer was himself in Cullerne. He went to the office of Mr Martelet, solicitor by prescriptive right to the family at Fording, and spent an hour closeted with the principal.
The house which the solicitor used for offices, was a derelict residence at the bottom of the town. It still had in front of it an extinguisher for links, and a lamp-bracket over the door of wasted iron scroll-work. It was a dingy place, but Mr Martelet had a famous county connection, and rumour said that more important family business was done here even than in Carisbury itself. Lord Blandamer sat behind the dusty windows.
"I think I quite understand the nature of the codicil," the solicitor said. "I will have a draft forwarded to your lordship to-morrow."
"No, no; it is short enough. Let us finish with it now," said his client. "There is no time like the present. It can be witnessed here. Your head clerk is discreet, is he not?"
"Mr Simpkin has been with me thirty years," the solicitor said deprecatingly, "and I have had no reason to doubt his discretion hitherto."
ブランダマー卿がミスタ・マーテレットの事務所を出たとき陽はだいぶ落ちていた。自分の長い影を前方の歩道に見ながら、彼は曲がりくねる通りを市場のほうへ歩いていった。家々の屋根の上には、夕日を受けてバラ色に輝く聖セパルカ大聖堂の巨大な塔が間近く聳えていた。カランはなんと朽ち果てた町なのだろう！通りにはなんと人影のないことか！確かに通りは奇妙なくらいがらんとしていた。こんなにさびしい様子は見たことがなかった。墓場のような沈黙があたりを支配している。彼は時計を取り出した。この小さな町の住人はお茶を飲んでいるのだろう、と彼は思い、明るい気持ちで、しかも生まれてこのかた味わったことのないような心の安らぎを感じながら歩きつづけた。
The sun was low when Lord Blandamer left Mr Martelet's office. He walked down the winding street that led to the market-place, with his long shadow going before him on the pavement. Above the houses in the near distance stood up the great tower of Saint Sepulchre's, pink-red in the sunset rays. What a dying place was Cullerne! How empty were the streets! The streets were certainly strangely empty. He had never seen them so deserted. There was a silence of the grave over all. He took out his watch. The little place is gone to tea, he thought, and walked on with a light heart, and more at his ease than he had ever felt before in his life.
通りの角を曲がると、突然大勢の人だかりが目に飛びこんできた。群衆は彼と大聖堂が見下ろす市場のあいだを埋めつくしていた。何か事件が起きて町中から人が集まってきたものらしい。近くによると、町の住人全員がそこに集められたような混雑だった。とりわけ人目を引いたのは尊大ぶった参事会員パーキンで、その横にはミセス・パーキンと、背の高い、撫で肩のミスタ・ヌートが立っていた。よく太った非国教徒の牧師、ひょうきんな丸顔のカトリックの司祭もいた。豚肉屋のジョウリフはワイシャツにエプロンといういでたちで道の真ん中に立ち、ジョウリフの妻と娘たちも店の前の階段に群がって市場のほうに首を伸ばしていた。郵便局長と局員と二人の配達員が郵便局から出て来ていた。ローズ・アンド・ストーレイ服地店の若い店員は男も女も全員大きな光り輝くウインドウの前にたむろしていた。その中には共同経営者の一人ミスタ・ストーレイの金髪の巻き毛もきらめいていた。もう少し先の方を見ると、修復工事に雇われていた石工や人夫の一団がおり、そのそばには教会事務員ジャナウエイが杖に寄りかかって立っていた。
He came round a bend in the street, and suddenly saw a great crowd before him, between him and the market-place over which the minster church watched, and knew that something must be happening, that had drawn the people from the other parts of the town. As he came nearer it seemed as if the whole population was there collected. Conspicuous was pompous Canon Parkyn, and by him stood Mrs Parkyn, and tall and sloping-shouldered Mr Noot. The sleek dissenting minister was there, and the jovial, round-faced Catholic priest. There stood Joliffe, the pork-butcher, in shirt-sleeves and white apron in the middle of the road; and there stood Joliffe's wife and daughters, piled up on the steps of the shop, and craning their necks towards the market-place. The postmaster and his clerk and two letter-carriers had come out from the post-office. All the young ladies and young gentlemen from Rose and Storey's establishment were herded in front of their great glittering shop-window, and among them shone the fair curls of Mr Storey, the junior partner, himself. A little lower down was a group of masons and men employed on the restorations, and near them Clerk Janaway leant on his stick.
Many of these people Lord Blandamer knew well by sight, and there was beside a great throng of common folk, but none took any notice of him.
There was something very strange about the crowd. Everyone was looking towards the market-place, and everyone's face was upturned as if they were watching a flight of birds. The square was empty, and no one attempted to advance further into it; nay, most stood in an alert attitude, as if prepared to run the other way. Yet all remained spellbound, looking up, with their heads turned towards the market-place, over which watched the minster church. There was no shouting, nor laughter, nor chatter; only the agitated murmur of a multitude of people speaking under their breath.
The single person that moved was a waggoner. He was trying to get his team and cart up the street, away from the market-place, but made slow progress, for the crowd was too absorbed to give him room. Lord Blandamer spoke to the man, and asked him what was happening. The waggoner stared for a moment as if dazed; then recognised his questioner, and said quickly:
"Don't go on, my lord! For God's sake, don't go on; the tower's coming down."
Then the spell that bound all the others fell on Lord Blandamer too. His eyes were drawn by an awful attraction to the great tower that watched over the market-place. The buttresses with their broad set-offs, the double belfry windows with their pierced screens and stately Perpendicular tracery, the open battlemented parapet, and clustered groups of soaring pinnacles, shone pink and mellow in the evening sun. They were as fair and wonderful as on that day when Abbot Vinnicomb first looked upon his finished work, and praised God that it was good.
But on this still autumn evening there was something terribly amiss with the tower, in spite of all brave appearances. The jackdaws knew it, and whirled in a mad chattering cloud round their old home, with wings flashing and changing in the low sunlight. And on the west side, the side nearest the market-place, there oozed out from a hundred joints a thin white dust that fell down into the churchyard like the spray of some lofty Swiss cascade. It was the very death-sweat of a giant in his agony, the mortar that was being ground out in powder from the courses of collapsing masonry. To Lord Blandamer it seemed like the sand running through an hour-glass.
そのとき群衆は一斉にうめき声をあげた。胸壁の下の、角に取り付けられていたガーゴイルの一つ、三世紀のあいだ身体を突き出し、墓地をにやにやと見下ろしていた悪魔の彫像の一つが壁から剥がれ落ち、下の墓地に粉々に砕け散ったのである。束の間の沈黙があり、それからまた傍観者たちのささやきが始まった。誰もが短く、一息にしゃべった。まるで言い切ってしまう前に最後の崩壊が起こるのではないかと恐れているかのようだった。教区委員のジョウリフは何かを待ち受けるような沈黙を差しはさみながら「われらがただなかに下されし天罰」などとつぶやいた。主任司祭はジョウリフが黙っているあいだ、反論するかのように「シロアムの櫓たふれて、壓し殺されし十三人」（註 ルカ伝から）などと言った。ミス・ジョウリフがときどき来てもらっている家政婦の老婆は両手を握りしめ、「ああ！何ていうことでしょう！何ていうことでしょう！」と言い、カトリックの司祭は低い声で何やら祈りを唱え、その合間に十字を切った。そのそばに立っていたブランダマー卿は、「ゆけよかし」とか「百合のごとく輝ける」とか臨終の祈りのことばを二言三言聞いた。それはヴィニコウム修道院長の塔が、その影のもとに暮らす人々の胸の中に、かけがえのないものとして生きていることを示していた。
Then the crowd gave a groan like a single man. One of the gargoyles at the corner, under the parapet, a demon figure that had jutted grinning over the churchyard for three centuries, broke loose and fell crashing on to the gravestones below. There was silence for a minute, and then the murmurings of the onlookers began again. Everyone spoke in short, breathless sentences, as though they feared the final crash might come before they could finish. Churchwarden Joliffe, with pauses of expectation, muttered about a "judgment in our midst." The Rector, in Joliffe's pauses, seemed trying to confute him by some reference to "those thirteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and slew them." An old charwoman whom Miss Joliffe sometimes employed wrung her hands with an "Ah! poor dear--poor dear!" The Catholic priest was reciting something in a low tone, and crossing himself at intervals. Lord Blandamer, who stood near, caught a word or two of the commendatory prayer for the dying, the "_Proficiscere_," and "_liliata rutilantium_," that showed how Abbot Vinnicomb's tower lived in the hearts of those that abode under its shadow.
And all the while the white dust kept pouring out of the side of the wounded fabric; the sands of the hour-glass were running down apace.
The foreman of the masons saw Lord Blandamer, and made his way to him.
"Last night's gale did it, my lord," he said; "we knew 'twas touch and go when we came this morning. Mr Westray's been up the tower since mid-day to see if there was anything that could be done, but twenty minutes ago he came sharp into the belfry and called to us, `Get out of it, lads--get out quick for your lives; it's all over now.' It's widening out at bottom; you can see how the base wall's moved and forced up the graves on the north side." And he pointed to a shapeless heap of turf and gravestones and churchyard mould against the base of the tower.
"Where is Mr Westray?" Lord Blandamer said. "Ask him to speak to me for a minute."
He looked round about for the architect; he wondered now that he had not seen him among the crowd. The people standing near had listened to Lord Blandamer's words. They of Cullerne looked on the master of Fording as being almost omnipotent. If he could not command the tower, like Joshua's sun in Ajalon, to stand still forthwith and not fall down, yet he had no doubt some sage scheme to suggest to the architect whereby the great disaster might be averted. Where was the architect? they questioned impatiently. Why was he not at hand when Lord Blandamer wanted him? Where was he? And in a moment Westray's name was on all lips.
And just then was heard a voice from the tower, calling out through the louvres of the belfry windows, very clear and distinct for all it was so high up, and for all the chatter of the jackdaws. It was Westray's voice:
"I am shut up in the belfry," it called; "the door is jammed. For God's sake! someone bring a crowbar, and break in the door!"
There was despair in the words, that sent a thrill of horror through those that heard them. The crowd stared at one another. The foreman-mason wiped the sweat off his brow; he was thinking of his wife and children. Then the Catholic priest stepped out.
"I will go," he said; "I have no one depending on me."
Lord Blandamer's thoughts had been elsewhere; he woke from his reverie at the priest's words.
"Nonsense!" said he; "I am younger than you, and know the staircase. Give me a lever." One of the builder's men handed him a lever with a sheepish air. Lord Blandamer took it, and ran quickly towards the minster.
石工頭がその背中に呼びかけた。
The foreman-mason called after him:
"There is only one door open, my lord--a little door by the organ."
"Yes, I know the door," Lord Blandamer shouted, as he disappeared round the church.
A few minutes later he had forced open the belfry door. He pulled it back towards him, and stood behind it on the steps higher up, leaving the staircase below clear for Westray's escape. The eyes of the two men did not meet, for Lord Blandamer was hidden by the door; but Westray was much overcome as he thanked the other for rescuing him.
"Run for your life!" was all Lord Blandamer said; "you are not saved yet."
The younger man dashed headlong down the steps, and then Lord Blandamer pushed the door to, and followed with as little haste or excitement as if he had been coming down from one of his many inspections of the restoration work.
ウエストレイは聖堂の中を駆け抜けたあと、歩道に横たわる漆喰の山と石の残骸の間を縫って進まなければならなかった。南袖廊のアーチの上から壁の表面が剥がれ落ち、落下の際に床をぶち抜いて地下納骨所にめりこんでいた。頭の上では黒い稲妻に似た、あの不吉な割れ目が、洞穴のような大きさに広がっていた。聖堂は不気味な声、奇怪なうめき声、うなり声に満ち、あたかも亡くなったすべての僧侶の魂がヴィニコウム修道院長の塔の崩壊を泣き悲しんでいるかのようだった。石が砕け、木材が折れる、鈍く重々しい、うなるような物音がしたが、建築家の耳にはそれを圧するようにアーチの叫び声が聞こえていた。「アーチは決して眠らない。決して。彼らはわれわれの上に背負いきれないほどの重荷を載せた。われわれはその重量を分散する。アーチは決して眠らない」
As Westray ran through the great church, he had to make his way through a heap of mortar and debris that lay upon the pavement. The face of the wall over the south transept arch had come away, and in its fall had broken through the floor into the vaults below. Above his head that baleful old crack, like a black lightning-flash, had widened into a cavernous fissure. The church was full of dread voices, of strange moanings and groanings, as if the spirits of all the monks departed were wailing for the destruction of Abbot Vinnicomb's tower. There was a dull rumbling of rending stone and crashing timbers, but over all the architect heard the cry of the crossing-arches: "The arch never sleeps, never sleeps. They have bound upon us a burden too heavy to be borne; we are shifting it. The arch never sleeps."
Outside, the people in the market-place held their breath, and the stream of white dust still poured out of the side of the wounded tower. It was six o'clock; the four quarters sounded, and the hour struck. Before the last stroke had died away Westray ran out across the square, but the people waited to cheer until Lord Blandamer should be safe too. The chimes began "Bermondsey" as clearly and cheerfully as on a thousand other bright and sunny evenings.
And then the melody was broken. There was a jangle of sound, a deep groan from Taylor John, and a shrill cry from Beata Maria, a roar as of cannon, a shock as of an earthquake, and a cloud of white dust hid from the spectators the ruin of the fallen tower:
エピローグ ~~~
EPILOGUE.
同じ日の夕方、英国海軍エニファー中尉はコルベット艦ソウルベイ号でイギリス海峡を渡り中国海ステーションにむかった。彼はブルティール家の次女と婚約していたため、恋人が住む古い町のそばを通るとき、そちらのほうに望遠鏡をむけた。彼は航海日誌に、空気は澄み、船は沿岸から六マイルしか離れていないのにカラン大聖堂の塔が見えなかったと記した。レンズを拭き、他の士官に呼びかけて昔からの航海目標がなくなっていることを確認した。彼らは白いものが濛々と立ちこめているのを見ただけである。それは煙なのかもしれないし、土埃なのかもしれないし、町にかかる霧なのかもしれなかった。あれは霧に違いない、きっと大気の異常現象で塔が見えなくなってるのだと彼らは言った。
On the same evening Lieutenant Ennefer, R.N., sailed down Channel in the corvette _Solebay_, bound for the China Station. He was engaged to the second Miss Bulteel, and turned his glass on the old town where his lady dwelt as he passed by. It was then he logged that Cullerne Tower was not to be seen, though the air was clear and the ship but six miles from shore. He rubbed his glass, and called some other officers to verify the absence of the ancient seamark, but all they could make out was a white cloud, that might be smoke or dust or mist hanging over the town. It must be mist, they said; some unusual atmospheric condition must have rendered the tower invisible.
It was not for many months afterwards that Lieutenant Ennefer heard of the catastrophe, and when he came up Channel again on his return four years later, there was the old seamark clear once more, whiter a little, but still the same old tower. It had been rebuilt at the sole charge of Lady Blandamer, and in the basement of it was a brass plate to the memory of Horatio Sebastian Fynes, Lord Blandamer, who had lost his own life in that place whilst engaged in the rescue of others.
The rebuilding was entrusted to Mr Edward Westray, whom Lord Blandamer, by codicil dictated only a few hours before his death, had left co-trustee with Lady Blandamer, and guardian of the infant heir.