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Alittle more than half an hour into my solitary watch, I heard footsteps and a voice. The voice was a woman’s.
“Don’t worry about the letter, dear. I gave it to the lad quite safe.”
In another moment two persons, both women, passed within my range of view. They were walking straight towards the grave, and had their backs turned towards me.
One of the women was dressed in a bonnet and shawl. The other wore a long traveling- cloak of a dark blue color. A few inches of her gown were visible below the cloak. My heart beat fast as I noted the color—it was white.
“I’ll walk about a little while you’re here,” said the one in the shawl. She then turned, and advanced with her face towards me. It was the face of an elderly woman. She soon disappeared round the corner of the church.
I then watched as the woman in the cloak approached close to the grave, and stood looking at it for a little while. Then,taking a white linen cloth from under her cloak, she turned aside towards a brook that ran through the cemetery grounds.She dipped the cloth in the water, and returned to the grave,where she then proceeded to wipe the marble.
Walking quietly in the shadows, I managed to situate myself opposite her, so that my approach would not frighten her as much. She was so absorbed over her employment that she did not hear me coming until I was quite close. Then she looked up, started to her feet with a faint cry, and stood facing me in speechless terror.
“Don’t be frightened,” I said. “Surely you remember me.We met very late, and I helped you to find the way to London.I’m a friend.”
“Yes, I remember you,” she murmured . “How did you come here?” she asked.
“I told you I was going to Cumberland. I’ve been in Cumberland ever since—I’ve been staying at Limmeridge House.”
“At Limmeridge House!” Her pale face brightened as she repeated the words, her wandering eyes fixed on me with a sudden interest. “Ah, how happy you must have been!”
I took advantage of her newly aroused confi dence in me to observe her face. Truly, she and Miss Fairlie were very much alike. However, there was a difference between them. Anne Catherick’s features seemed to have lost the delicate beauty that Miss Fairlie’s complexion had retained. And yet, except for this,the two would be chance twins.
“Why’ve you come here?” I asked.
“Where should I go if not here?” she said. “The friend who was better than a mother to me is the only friend I have to visit at Limmeridge.”
The old grateful sense of Mrs. Fairlie’s kindness was evidently the ruling idea still in the poor creature’s mind. She resumed her cleaning at once.
“I’m very glad to have met you again,” I said. “I felt very uneasy about you after you left me in the cab. Two men came looking for you soon after.”
She instantly suspended her employment. Her face turned slowly towards me, once again, filled with terror.
“I heard them tell a policeman that you’d escaped from an asylum.”
She sprang to her feet as if my last words had set the pursuers on her track.
“You don’t think I ought to be back in the asylum, do you?”she said.
“Certainly not. I’m glad you escaped from it.”
“Good, good. After I left you, I went and found Mrs.Clements. She was a neighbor of ours once, in Hampshire. She liked me and took care of me when I was a little girl. Years ago,when she went away from us, she wrote down in my prayer book her new address in London, and she said, ‘If you’re ever in trouble, come to me.’”
“Had you no father or mother to take care of you?”
“Father?—I never saw him—I never heard mother speak of him.”
“And your mother?”
“I don’t get on well with her. Don’t ask me about mother.”
“Well, may I ask where you’re staying here?”
“Mrs. Clements and I are staying at the home of a relative of hers. It’s a place called Todd’s Corner.”
I knew this place well. It was a farm, and we often passed it on our little drives in the carriage.
“Is Miss Fairlie well and happy?” she then asked.
“Miss Fairlie was not very well or very happy this morning,” I said. “She received your letter.”
This last sentence literally petrifi ed her. The cloth she had been holding dropped from her hands, and her face turned pale.
“You needn’t fear Miss Fairlie,” I continued, “nor fear getting into trouble because of the letter. You can speak openly and honestly with her. She knows the man you write of is Sir Percival Glyde—”
The instant I pronounced that name, a scream burst from her that rang through the cemetery, and made my heart leap in me with terror. I felt certain now that he was the one responsible for her placement in the asylum.
The scream had reached other ears than mine. I soon heard the voice of her companion, the woman in the shawl, who I assumed to be Mrs. Clements.
In a moment the woman was at Anne Catherick’s side,and had put one arm around her. “What’s this man done to you?”
“Nothing,” the poor creature answered. “I’m only frightened.”
Mrs. Clements turned on me with a fearless indignation ,for which I respected her.
“I didn’t meant to frighten her,” I explained. “This isn’t the first time she’s seen me. Ask her yourself, and she’ll tell you that I’m a friend.”
I spoke distinctly, so that Anne Catherick might hear and understand me.
“Yes, yes,”she said，“he was good to me once—he helped me—” She whispered the rest into her friend’s ear.
“Strange, indeed!” said Mrs. Clements, with a look of perplexity . “Well, I’m sorry I spoke so rough to you, sir; but you must admit that appearances looked suspicious to a stranger.Now, let’s be off dear.”
“Try to forgive me,” I said, when Anne Catherick took her friend’s arm to go away.
Instead of replying, she returned to the grave, rested both hands tenderly on the marble cross, and kissed it.
“I’m better now,” she then said. “I forgive you.”
She joined her companion again, and they left the cemetery. I looked after Anne Catherick as she disappeared, until all trace of her had faded in the twilight, looked as anxiously and sorrowfully as if that was the last I was to see in this weary world of the woman in white.
lad /læd/ n. 少年；青年男子
range /reɪndʒ/ n. 范围
bonnet /ˈbɒnɪt/ n. 无边女帽；童帽
cloak /kləʊk/ n. 斗篷，宽大外衣
linen /ˈlɪnɪn/ adj. 亚麻布制的，亚麻的
brook /brʊk/ n. 小溪
proceed /prəˈsi:d/ vt. 进行；继续下去
situate /ˈsɪtjʊeɪt/ vt. 使位于，使处于
murmur /ˈmɜ:mə/ vi. 低声说，低语
arouse /əˈraʊz/ vt. 唤起，引起
confi dence /ˈkɒnfɪdəns/ n. 信心；信任
feature /ˈfi :tʃə/ n. 容貌
delicate /ˈdelɪkət/ adj. 精致的
retain /rɪˈteɪn/ vt. 保持，保留
resume /rɪˈzju:m/ vt. 再继续，重新开始
suspend /səˈspend/ vt. 中止；暂停
pursuer /pəˈsju:ə/ n. 追赶者
literally /ˈlɪtərəlɪ/ adv. 确实地，真地（表强调）；简直（用于夸张）
petrify /ˈpetrɪfaɪ/ vt. 吓呆
leap /li:p/ vi. 跳
assume /əˈsju:m/ vt. 假定，设想
indignation /ˌɪndɪɡˈneɪʃən/ n. 愤慨，义愤
perplexity /pəˈpleksətɪ/ n. 困惑
trace /treɪs/ n. 痕迹，踪迹
weary /ˈwɪərɪ/ adj. 疲倦的，厌倦的，令人厌烦的