The Woman in White / Женщина в белом. Уилки Коллинз

know I’m only a poor art teacher,” I began.

      “You must leave us, not because you are a teacher of drawing.”

      She waited a moment, turned her face full on me, and reaching across the table, laid her hand firmly on my arm.

      “Not because you are a teacher of drawing,” she repeated, “but because Laura Fairlie is engaged to be married. Her future husband is coming here on Monday with his lawyer. Our family lawyer, Mr. Gilmore, is coming here too. The two lawyers are going to draw up the marriage settlement between Laura and her husband. Once they have arranged this, a date for the wedding can be fixed.”

      The last word went like a bullet to my heart. I never moved and never spoke. Hopes! Betrothed, or not betrothed, she was equally far from me. Would other men have remembered that in my place? Not if they had loved her as I did.

      The pang passed, and nothing but the dull numbing pain of it remained. I felt Miss Halcombe’s hand again, tightening its hold on my arm – I raised my head and looked at her. Her large black eyes were rooted on me, watching the white change on my face, which I felt, and which she saw.

      “Crush it![30]” she said. “Here, where you first saw her, crush it! Don’t shrink under it like a woman. Tear it out; trample it under foot like a man! Are you yourself again?[31]”

      “Enough myself, Miss Halcombe, to ask your pardon and hers. Enough myself to be guided by your advice, and to prove my gratitude in that way, if I can prove it.”

      “It is an engagement of honour, not of love; her father sanctioned it on his deathbed, two years ago. Till you came here she was in the position of hundreds of other women, who marry men without love, and who learn to love them (when they don’t learn to hate!) after marriage, instead of before. Your absence and time will help us all three.”

      “Let me go today,” I said bitterly. “The sooner the better.[32] But what reason shall I give to Mr Fairlie as to why I’m going?”

      “No, not today,” she replied. “You must wait till tomorrow to explain tell Mr. Fairlie the sudden change in your plans. Wait until the post arrives tomorrow. Then tell Mr Fairlie you’ve received a letter from London and that you have to return there at once on urgent business.”

      I had just agreed to this plan when we heard footsteps. It was Laura’s maid.

      “Oh, Miss Marian,” said the girl. “Please can you come quickly to the house? Miss Laura is very upset by a letter she received this morning.”

      “It must be the same letter the gardener brought,” said Marian worriedly.

      We hurried back to the house.

      “We have arranged all that is necessary, Mr. Hartright,” she said. “We have understood each other, as friends should, and we may go back at once to the house. To tell you the truth, I am worried about Laura.”

      Her words felt like arrows shot into my heart. I could hardly move or speak.

      “May I know who the gentleman engaged to Miss Fairlie is?” I asked at last.

      She answered in a hasty, absent way —

      “A gentleman of large property in Hampshire.”

      Hampshire! Anne Catherick’s native place. Again, and yet again, the woman in white. There was a fatality in it.

      “And his name?” I said, as quietly and indifferently as I could.

      “Sir Percival Glyde.[33]”

      Sir Percival! I stopped suddenly, and looked at Miss Halcombe.

      “Sir Percival Glyde,” she repeated, imagining that I had not heard her former reply.

      “Knight, or Baronet?” I asked, with an agitation that I could hide no longer.

      She paused for a moment, and then answered, rather coldly —

      “Baronet, of course.”

      Baronet! Suddenly I was reminded of the woman in white. She had asked me if I knew any baronets and had told me of one who was cruel and wicked. Not a word more was said, on either side, as we walked back to the house. Miss Halcombe hastened immediately to her sister’s room, and I went to my studio.

      She was engaged to be married, and her future husband was Sir Percival Glyde. A man of the rank of Baronet, and the owner of property in Hampshire.

      There were hundreds of baronets in England, and dozens of landowners in Hampshire. I had not the shadow of a reason for connecting Sir Percival Glyde with the words that had been spoken to me by the woman in white. And yet, I did connect him with them.

      I had been engaged with the drawings little more than half an hour, when there was a knock at the door. It opened, on my answering; and, to my surprise, Miss Halcombe entered the room.

      Her manner was angry and agitated. She caught up a chair for herself before I could give her one, and sat down in it, close at my side. Marian was holding a letter in her hand and looking extremely angry and upset.

      “Mr. Hartright,” she said, “You saw me send the gardener on to the house, with a letter addressed, in a strange handwriting, to Miss Fairlie?”

      “Certainly.”

      “The letter is an anonymous letter – a vile attempt to injure Sir Percival Glyde in my sister’s estimation.[34] You are the only person in the house who can advise me. Mr. Fairlie, in his state of health and with his horror of difficulties and mysteries of all kinds, is not the right man. The clergyman is a good, weak man, who knows nothing out of the routine of his duties; and our neighbours are just the sort of comfortable acquaintances. I’d like you to read it. Tell me what you think, Mr. Hartright.”

      She gave me the letter. It began abruptly, without any preliminary form of address, as follows —

      “Do you believe in dreams? I hope, for your own sake, that you do. See what Scripture[35] says about dreams, and take the warning I send you before it is too late.

      Last night I dreamed about you, Miss Fairlie. You were standing in a church, waiting to be married. You looked so pretty and innocent in your beautiful white silk dress, and your long white lace veil, that the tears came into my eyes.

      Beside you stood the man who was going to be your husband. He was neither tall nor short – he was a little below the middle size. A light, active, high-spirited man – about five-and-forty years old. He had a pale face, and was bald over the forehead, but had dark hair on the rest of his head. His beard was shaven on his chin. His eyes were brown too, and very bright; his nose straight and handsome and delicate. Have I dreamt of the right man? You know best, Miss Fairlie and you can say if I was deceived or not.

      He had a slight cough, and when he put his hand up to his month, I could see a thin red mark on the back of his hand.

      I could see deep into this mans heart. It was as black as night, and on it were written, in the red flaming letters which are the handwriting of the fallen angel, ‘Without pity and without remorse. This man has done harm to many people, and he will do harm this woman by his side.’ Behind him, stood a devil laughing; and there behind you, stood an angel weeping. And I woke with my eyes full of tears and my heart beating – for I believe in dreams.

      Believe too, Miss Fairlie – I beg of you, for your own sake, believe as I do. Joseph and Daniel[36], and others in Scripture, believed in dreams. Inquire into the past life of that man, before you say the words that make you his miserable wife. Listen to my warning, Miss Fairlie, Miss Fairlie. Don’t marry this man. Your mother was my first, my best, my only friend.”

      There the extraordinary letter ended, without signature of any sort.

      “That

30

Crush it! – Покончите с этим!

31

Are you yourself again? – Вы пришли в себя?

32

The sooner the better. – Чем раньше, тем лучше.

33

Percival Glyde – Персиваль Глайд

34

in my sister’s estimation – в глазах моей сестры

35

Scripture – Священное Писание

36

Joseph and Daniel – Иосиф и Даниил (библейские персонажи)