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第10章

the turn of the screw-第10章

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the dead one would keep awhile!and of the months he had continuously

passed at Bly; which; added up; made a formidable stretch。

The limit of this evil time had arrived only when; on the dawn of a

winter's morning; Peter Quint was found; by a laborer going to early work;

stone dead on the road from the village:  a catastrophe explained

superficially at leastby a visible wound to his head; such a wound

as might have been producedand as; on the final evidence; HAD been

by a fatal slip; in the dark and after leaving the public house;

on the steepish icy slope; a wrong path altogether; at the bottom of

which he lay。  The icy slope; the turn mistaken at night and in liquor;

accounted for muchpractically; in the end and after the inquest and

boundless chatter; for everything; but there had been matters in his life

strange passages and perils; secret disorders; vices more than suspected

that would have accounted for a good deal more。



I scarce know how to put my story into words that shall be

a credible picture of my state of mind; but I was in these days

literally able to find a joy in the extraordinary flight of

heroism the occasion demanded of me。  I now saw that I had been

asked for a service admirable and difficult; and there would

be a greatness in letting it be seenoh; in the right quarter!

that I could succeed where many another girl might have failed。

It was an immense help to meI confess I rather applaud myself

as I look back!that I saw my service so strongly and so simply。

I was there to protect and defend the little creatures in

the world the most bereaved and the most lovable; the appeal

of whose helplessness had suddenly become only too explicit;

a deep; constant ache of one's own committed heart。

We were cut off; really; together; we were united in our danger。

They had nothing but me; and Iwell; I had THEM。  It

was in short a magnificent chance。  This chance presented

itself to me in an image richly material。  I was a screen

I was to stand before them。  The more I saw; the less they would。

I began to watch them in a stifled suspense; a disguised

excitement that might well; had it continued too long;

have turned to something like madness。  What saved me;

as I now see; was that it turned to something else altogether。

It didn't last as suspenseit was superseded by horrible proofs。

Proofs; I say; yesfrom the moment I really took hold。



This moment dated from an afternoon hour that I happened

to spend in the grounds with the younger of my pupils alone。

We had left Miles indoors; on the red cushion of a deep

window seat; he had wished to finish a book; and I had been

glad to encourage a purpose so laudable in a young man whose

only defect was an occasional excess of the restless。

His sister; on the contrary; had been alert to come out;

and I strolled with her half an hour; seeking the shade;

for the sun was still high and the day exceptionally warm。

I was aware afresh; with her; as we went; of how;

like her brother; she contrivedit was the charming thing

in both childrento let me alone without appearing to drop

me and to accompany me without appearing to surround。

They were never importunate and yet never listless。

My attention to them all really went to seeing them amuse

themselves immensely without me:  this was a spectacle they seemed

actively to prepare and that engaged me as an active admirer。

I walked in a world of their inventionthey had no occasion whatever

to draw upon mine; so that my time was taken only with being;

for them; some remarkable person or thing that the game of

the moment required and that was merely; thanks to my superior;

my exalted stamp; a happy and highly distinguished sinecure。

I forget what I was on the present occasion; I only remember

that I was something very important and very quiet and that Flora

was playing very hard。  We were on the edge of the lake; and; as we

had lately begun geography; the lake was the Sea of Azof。



Suddenly; in these circumstances; I became aware that; on the

other side of the Sea of Azof; we had an interested spectator。

The way this knowledge gathered in me was the strangest thing

in the worldthe strangest; that is; except the very much

stranger in which it quickly merged itself。  I had sat down with

a piece of workfor I was something or other that could sit

on the old stone bench which overlooked the pond; and in this

position I began to take in with certitude; and yet without

direct vision; the presence; at a distance; of a third person。

The old trees; the thick shrubbery; made a great and pleasant shade;

but it was all suffused with the brightness of the hot; still hour。

There was no ambiguity in anything; none whatever; at least;

in the conviction I from one moment to another found myself

forming as to what I should see straight before me and across

the lake as a consequence of raising my eyes。  They were attached

at this juncture to the stitching in which I was engaged;

and I can feel once more the spasm of my effort not to move them

till I should so have steadied myself as to be able to make up

my mind what to do。  There was an alien object in viewa figure

whose right of presence I instantly; passionately questioned。

I recollect counting over perfectly the possibilities;

reminding myself that nothing was more natural; for instance;

then the appearance of one of the men about the place; or even

of a messenger; a postman; or a tradesman's boy; from the village。

That reminder had as little effect on my practical

certitude as I was consciousstill even without looking

of its having upon the character and attitude of our visitor。

Nothing was more natural than that these things should be

the other things that they absolutely were not。



Of the positive identity of the apparition I would assure myself

as soon as the small clock of my courage should have ticked out the

right second; meanwhile; with an effort that was already sharp enough;

I transferred my eyes straight to little Flora; who; at the moment;

was about ten yards away。  My heart had stood still for an instant

with the wonder and terror of the question whether she too would see;

and I held my breath while I waited for what a cry from her; what some

sudden innocent sign either of interest or of alarm; would tell me。

I waited; but nothing came; then; in the first placeand there is

something more dire in this; I feel; than in anything I have to relate

I was determined by a sense that; within a minute; all sounds from her

had previously dropped; and; in the second; by the circumstance that;

also within the minute; she had; in her play; turned her back to the water。

This was her attitude when I at last looked at herlooked with the confirmed

conviction that we were still; together; under direct personal notice。

She had picked up a small flat piece of wood; which happened to have in it

a little hole that had evidently suggested to her the idea of sticking

in another fragment that might figure as a mast and make the thing a boat。

This second morsel; as I watched her; she was very markedly and intently

attempting to tighten in its place。  My apprehension of what she was doing

sustained me so that after some seconds I felt I was ready for more。

Then I again shifted my eyesI faced what I had to face。







                           VII





I got hold of Mrs。 Grose as soon after this as I could; and I can

give no intelligible account of how I fought out the interval。

Yet I still hear myself cry as I fairly threw myself into her arms:

〃They KNOWit's too monstrous:  they know; they know!〃



〃And what on earth?〃 I felt her incredulity as she held me。



〃Why; all that WE knowand heaven knows what else besides!〃

Then; as she released me; I made it out to her; made it out perhaps only

now with full coherency even to myself。  〃Two hours ago; in the garden〃

I could scarce articulate〃Flora SAW!〃



Mrs。 Grose took it as she might have taken a

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