よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 45: To My Sister's House
You've finished this scene
Notes on this scene
Ryder begins his confession, describing his terrified escape from the hotel to his sister's house on Brixton Road. The scene establishes this development clearly and closes before the next step begins, preserving the original passage's order and the limits of what the characters know at this point.
Japanese in this scene
- 寒い夜だったというのに
- In 寒い夜だったというのに, のに contrasts what follows with the result normally expected from the preceding clause.
- それから裏庭に出てパイプを吸い
- In それから裏庭に出てパイプを吸い, それから moves the account on to the next action in sequence.
- 姉はオークショットという男と結婚してブリクストン・ロードに住み
- In オークショットという男, name + という + noun identifies the man as ‘a man named Oakshott.’
- そこで
- Here そこで refers to the location just mentioned—‘there’ or ‘at that place’—rather than introducing a resulting action.
Background
- policeman / detective
- Victorian London police included uniformed constables who patrolled streets and plain-clothes detectives who investigated crimes. In Ryder's panic, every man seems to belong to one group or the other.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would be best to do.
ライダーは乾ききった唇を舌でなめた。「起こったとおりにお話しします、旦那」と彼は言った。「ホーナーが逮捕されると、私はすぐに石を持って逃げ出すのがいちばんだと思いました。警察がいつ私や私の部屋を調べようと思い立つか、分かったものではなかったからです。ホテルの中には、それを安全に隠しておける場所などありませんでした。私は何かの用事で出かけるふりをして、姉の家へ向かいました。姉はオークショットという男と結婚してブリクストン・ロードに住み、そこで市場に出す家禽を太らせていました。そこへ行く道すがら、出会う男がみな警官か刑事に見えました。寒い夜だったというのに、ブリクストン・ロードに着く前から顔に汗が流れ落ちていました。姉はどうしたのか、なぜそんなに顔色が悪いのかと尋ねましたが、私はホテルの宝石盗難事件で動転しているのだと答えておきました。それから裏庭に出てパイプを吸い、どうするのがいちばんよいかと考えをめぐらせました。