第二章

THE storm raged fiercely all that night, but nothing of particular note occurred. The next morning, however, when they came down to breakfast, they found the terrible stain of blood once again on the floor. 'I don't think it can be the fault of the Paragon Detergent, ' said Washington, 'for I have tried it with everything. It must be the ghost. ' He accordingly rubbed out the stain a second time, but the second morning it appeared again. The third morning also it was there, though the library had been locked up at night by Mr. Otis himself, and the key carried upstairs. The whole family were now quite interested; Mr. Otis began to suspect that he had been too dogmatic in his denial of the existence of ghosts, Mrs. Otis expressed her intention of joining the Psychical Society, and Washington prepared a long letter to Messrs. Myers and Podmore on the subject of the Permanence of Sanguineous Stains when connected with Crime. That night all doubts about the objective existence of phantasmata were removed for ever.

那晚暴风雨肆虐了一整夜，但没有出现任何异样。不过，他们在第二天下楼吃早餐时，发现地上又出现了那可怕的血迹。 “我觉得这不会是帕拉根清洁剂的问题，” 华盛顿说， “因为我用它清除过各种各样的污迹。一定是幽灵在作怪。” 于是他再次把血迹擦掉，但隔天早上血迹又出现了。尽管夜里奥蒂斯先生亲自锁好了书房的门，还把钥匙也带上了楼，但第三天早上那里又出现了血迹。现在全家人都对这件事产生了极大的兴趣；奥蒂斯先生开始怀疑自己否认幽灵的存在是否过于武断；奥蒂斯太太表示有意加入灵学研究会；而华盛顿则给迈尔斯先生和波德莫尔先生写了一封长信，讨论有关犯罪行为留下血迹的持久性的问题。那天晚上，他们对于幽灵是否客观存在的种种疑惑都一扫而空了。

The day had been warm and sunny; and, in the cool of the evening, the whole family went out for a drive. They did not return home till nine o'clock, when they had a light supper. The conversation in no way turned upon ghosts, so there were not even those primary conditions of receptive expectation which so often precede the presentation of psychical phenomena. The subjects discussed, as I have since learned from Mr. Otis, were merely such as form the ordinary conversation of cultured Americans of the better class, such as the immense superiority of Miss Fanny Davenport over Sarah Bernhardt as an actress; the difficulty of obtaining green corn, buckwheat cakes, and hominy, even in the best English houses; the importance of Boston in the development of the world-soul; the advantages of the baggage check system in railway travelling; and the sweetness of the New York accent as compared to the London drawl. No mention at all was made of the supernatural, nor was Sir Simon de Canterville alluded to in any way. At eleven o'clock the family retired, and by half-past all the lights were out. Some time after, Mr. Otis was awakened by a curious noise in the corridor, outside his room. It sounded like the clank of metal, and seemed to be coming nearer every moment. He got up at once, struck a match, and looked at the time. It was exactly one o'clock. He was quite calm, and felt his pulse, which was not at all feverish. The strange noise still continued, and with it he heard distinctly the sound of footsteps. He put on his slippers, took a small oblong phial out of his dressing-case, and opened the door. Right in front of him he saw, in the wan moonlight, an old man of terrible aspect. His eyes were as red burning coals; long grey hair fell over his shoulders in matted coils; his garments, which were of antique cut, were soiled and ragged, and from his wrists and ankles hung heavy manacles and rusty gyves.

那天阳光普照，温暖宜人；到了凉快的傍晚时分，一家人驾车去兜风。九点钟的时候他们才回家，接着吃了顿简单的晚餐。他们的谈话完全没有涉及到幽灵，因此也丝毫没有会见到幽灵的心理准备，而这通常就是灵异现象出现的前兆。我从奥蒂斯先生那里得知，他们当时谈论的话题，不过是美国上流社会有良好教养的人经常谈论的话题，比如：作为女演员，范妮•达文波特小姐比萨拉•伯恩哈特有优势多了；即使是英国条件最好的家庭，也很难吃到嫩玉米、荞麦饼和玉米粥；波士顿在世界精神发展中的价值；铁路行李检查系统的优点；与慢声慢气的伦敦口音比起来，纽约口音更加清新悦耳。没有人提起超自然事件，也完全没有谈到坎特维尔的西蒙爵士。到了晚上十一点，全家人都准备睡觉。十一点半的时候，全部的灯都熄灭了。过了一段时间，奥蒂斯先生被门外走廊里的怪声吵醒了。它听起来像是金属相击而发出的当啷声，而且好像越来越近。他立刻起身，划了根火柴看了下时间。正好是凌晨一点。他很冷静，量了量自己的脉搏，确认自己并没有焦躁不安。怪声还在继续，而且他清楚地听到里面还夹杂着脚步声。奥蒂斯先生穿上拖鞋，从梳妆盒里拿出一个椭圆形的小瓶子，然后打开房门。微弱的月光下，一个容貌骇人的老人就站在他的面前。老人的双眼像烧红的木炭；银灰色的长发披在肩上，缠成一卷一卷的；他穿着的衣服样式古老，又脏又破；他的手腕和脚踝都铐着沉重而且锈迹斑斑的镣铐。

'My dear sir, ' said Mr. Otis, 'I really must insist on your oiling those chains, and have brought you for that purpose a small bottle of the Tammany Rising Sun Lubricator. It is said to be completely efficacious upon one application, and there are several testimonials to that effect on the wrapper from some of our most eminent native divines. I shall leave it here for you by the bedroom candles, and will be happy to supply you with more should you require it. ' With these words the United States Minister laid the bottle down on a marble table, and, closing his door, retired to rest.

“亲爱的先生，” 奥蒂斯先生说， “我真的要坚持让您给这些链子上点油了，所以我为您拿来了一小瓶坦马尼旭日牌的润滑油。听说只要一次便会见效，包装上还有本国几位著名的牧师为其效用所作的证明。我会把它放在卧房的烛台边。如果您需要，我很乐意再给您多拿一些。” 说完这些话，美国公使就把小瓶子放在了一个大理石桌子上，然后关门去休息了。

For a moment the Canterville ghost stood quite motionless in natural indignation; then, dashing the bottle violently upon the polished floor, he fled down the corridor, uttering hollow groans, and emitting a ghastly green light. Just, however, as he reached the top of the great oak staircase, a door was flung open, two little white-robed figures appeared, and a large pillow whizzed past his head! There was evidently no time to be lost, so, hastily adopting the Fourth Dimension of Space as a means of escape, he vanished through the wainscoting, and the house became quite quiet.

这个坎特维尔的幽灵自然是被气得站在那里一动不动，接着，他狠狠地把小瓶子摔在光滑的地板上，顺着走廊飞奔，同时还发出低沉的呻吟声，身上泛着鬼气森森的绿光。然而，在他刚到大橡木楼梯顶部的时候，一扇门猛地被冲开了，出现两个穿白色长袍的小身影，接着一个大枕头嗖地一声飞过他的头顶！间不容瞬，他匆忙选择第四维空间作为逃跑的手段，钻进护墙板里消失了，继而房子又恢复了宁静。

On reaching a small secret chamber in the left wing, he leaned up against a moonbeam to recover his breath, and began to try and realise his position. Never, in a brilliant and uninterrupted career of three hundred years, had he been so grossly insulted. He thought of the Dowager Duchess, whom he had frightened into a fit as she stood before the glass in her lace and diamonds; of the four housemaids, who had gone off into hysterics when he merely grinned at them through the curtains of one of the spare bedrooms; of the rector of the parish, whose candle he had blown out as he was coming late one night from the library, and who had been under the care of Sir William Gull ever since, a perfect martyr to nervous disorders; and of old Madame de Tremouillac, who, having wakened up one morning early and seen a skeleton seated in an arm-chair by the fire reading her diary, had been confined to her bed for six weeks with an attack of brain fever, and, on her recovery, had become reconciled to the Church, and broken off her connection with that notorious sceptic Monsieur de Voltaire. He remembered the terrible night when the wicked Lord Canterville was found choking in his dressing-room, with the knave of diamonds half-way down his throat, and confessed, just before he died, that he had cheated Charles James Fox out of 50, 000pounds at Crockford's by means of that very card, and swore that the ghost had made him swallow it. All his great achievements came back to him again, from the butler who had shot himself in the pantry because he had seen a green hand tapping at the window pane, to the beautiful Lady Stutfield, who was always obliged to wear a black velvet band round her throat to hide the mark of five fingers burnt upon her white skin, and who drowned herself at last in the carp-pond at the end of the King's Walk. With the enthusiastic egotism of the true artist he went over his most celebrated performances, and smiled bitterly to himself as he recalled to mind his last appearance as' Red Ruben, or the Strangled Babe, 'his DEBUT as' Gaunt Gibeon, the Blood-sucker of Bexley Moor, 'and the FURORE he had excited one lovely June evening by merely playing ninepins with his own bones upon the lawn-tennis ground. And after all this, some wretched modern Americans were to come and offer him the Rising Sun Lubricator, and throw pillows at his head! It was quite unbearable. Besides, no ghosts in history had ever been treated in this manner. Accordingly, he determined to have vengeance, and remained till daylight in an attitude of deep thought.

这幽灵逃到了左侧耳房的一间小密室中，倚着一束月光平息自己的呼吸，开始思索自己的处境。在其三百年辉煌的、从未间断的幽灵生涯中，他从未受过这样大的侮辱。他想起那位公爵的遗孀，她在镜子前穿着蕾丝裙、戴着钻石时，被他吓得当场昏厥；还有那四个女仆，他只不过在一个空房间的窗帘后面向她们露齿一笑，她们就都被吓得歇斯底里的；他想起某天深夜，教区长从书房走出来时，他吹灭了教区长的蜡烛，自此教区长精神完全失常，一直由威廉•格尔先生照料；他还想到德特雷穆亚克老太太，她在一天清晨醒来时，看到一具骷髅正坐在壁炉旁的扶手椅上读她的日记，于是便脑膜炎发作，整整在床上躺了一个半月，康复后她不但同教会和解，并与恶名昭彰的怀疑论者伏尔泰先生断绝来往。幽灵又想起那个可怕的晚上，道德败坏的坎特维尔勋爵，在更衣室被一张方块J卡在喉咙而死，临死前他承认他就是用这张牌在克罗克福德家作弊、骗取查理•詹姆士•褔克斯五万英磅的，并咒骂说是幽灵强迫他吞下这张牌的。他的那些丰功伟绩，从男管家到斯塔特菲尔德夫人的事，都一样一样重现在他的眼前：那个男管家在餐具室饮弹自尽，只因看到一只绿色的手轻轻地敲着窗户玻璃；美丽的斯塔特菲尔德夫人不得不在脖子上围一条黑色的丝绒带，来遮掩烙在她雪白肌肤上的五个指印，而她最终还是在国王大道尽头的鲤鱼池跳水自尽。幽灵细数自己的远近闻名的种种事迹，沉溺于货真价实的艺术家狂热的自我陶醉中。他想到自己最后一次以 “红发鲁宾，或吊死的婴儿” 以及第一次以 “憔悴的吉比昂，或贝克斯利沼泽的吸血鬼” 的身份现身的情景；又想到一个美妙的六月的傍晚，他只不过在草地网球场上用自己的骨头玩九柱戏，就引起了一阵骚动，回想起这些，他不禁对自己一声苦笑。曾有过这么多辉煌的事迹，没想到一群可恶的现代美国人，竟然要送他旭日牌润滑油，还对着他的脑袋扔枕头！这太让人忍无可忍了。再者，从来没有人如此对待过幽灵。于是他决心报复，一直深思到天明。