巴斯克维尔的猎犬 华生医生日记摘录（7）

 

　　"Well, sir, I thought no more of the matter, and never would have done had it not been for mywife. Only a few weeks ago she was cleaning out Sir Charles's study -- it had never been touchedsince his death -- and she found the ashes of a burned letter in the back of the grate. The greaterpart of it was charred to pieces, but one little slip, the end of a page, hung together, and the writingcould still be read, though it was gray on a black ground. It seemed to us to be a postscript at theend of the letter and it said: 'Please, please, as you are a gentleman, burn this letter, and be at thegate by ten o clock. Beneath it were signed the initials L. L."“啊， 爵爷， 要不是因为我太太的关系， 我决不会想起这件事来的， 也许我永远也想不起来了呢。 刚刚几个礼拜以前， 在她清理查尔兹爵士的书房的时候——从他死以后还一碰也没碰过呢——在炉格后面发现了一封烧过的信纸的灰烬。 信已大部烧焦， 碎成小片， 只有信末的一小条还算完整， 字迹在黑地上显得灰白， 还可以看得出来。 看来很象是信末的附笔，写的是：‘您是一位君子， 请您千万将此信烧掉， 并在十点钟的时候到栅门那里去。’ 下面就是用Ｌ .Ｌ .这两个字头签的名。”

　　"Have you got that slip?"

　　“那张字条还在你那儿吗？ ”

　　"No, sir, it crumbled all to bits after we moved it."“没有了， 爵爷， 我们一动， 它就粉碎了。”

　　"Had Sir Charles received any other lettefs in the same writting?"“查尔兹爵士还收到过同样笔迹的信件吗？ ”

　　"Well, sir, I took no particular notice of his letters. I should not have noticed this one, only ithappened to come alone."

　　“噢， 爵爷， 我并没有特别注意他的信件。 只是因为这封信是单独寄来的， 所以我才注意到了它。”

　　"And you have no idea who L. L. is?"

　　“你也弄不清Ｌ .Ｌ .是谁吗？ ”

　　"No, sir. No more than you have. But I expect if we could lay our hands upon that lady weshould know more about Sir Charles's death."“弄不清， 爵爷， 我比您知道得并不多。 可是我想， 如果咱们能够找到那位女士的话，那么关于查尔兹爵士的死， 咱们就会多知道些情况了。”

　　"I cannot understand, Barrymore, how you came to conceal this important information."“我真莫名其妙， 白瑞摩， 这样重要的情况你怎么竟会秘而不宣？ ”

　　"Well, sir, it was immediately after that our own trouble came to us. And then again, sir, wewere both of us very fond of Sir Charles, as we well might be considering all that he has done forus. To rake this up couldn't help our poor master, and it's well to go carefully when there's a ladyin the case. Even the best of us --"

　　“噢， 爵爷， 那正是我们自己的烦恼刚刚到来之后。 还有就是， 爵爷， 我们两人都很敬爱查尔兹爵士， 我们不能不考虑到他对我们的厚意。 我们认为把这件事兜出来对我们那位可怜的主人并没有什么好处， 再加以这问题还牵连到一位女士， 当然就更该小心从事了。 即使是在我们当中最好的人……”