よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 34: The Hurried Gentleman
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Notes on this scene
A man matching Norton’s description arrives and goes straight into the house. Through the windows Holmes sees him pacing and gesticulating, though Adler remains out of sight. Norton leaves in great haste, ordering stops at Gross and Hankey’s and St. Monica’s Church, and offering extra payment for a rapid journey.
Japanese in this scene
- に違いなかった
- に違いない expresses a confident inference: “must be.” The past form reports Holmes’s certainty at the time.
- 窓越しに
- Noun + 越しに means through or across something. Holmes sees the man through the window.
- 着けたら
- 着ける is the potential form of 着く. たら makes arrival within the stated time a condition for the reward.
Background
- Hansom cab
- A hansom cab was a light, fast two-wheeled cab for two passengers, with its driver seated high behind them. In Victorian London it could be hailed in the street like a modern taxi, and it appears repeatedly in Holmes stories.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
"I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached—evidently the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly at home.
「まだあれこれ考えをめぐらせていると、一台の二輪辻馬車がブライオニー荘に乗りつけ、一人の紳士が飛び降りた。際立った美男子で、浅黒く、鷲鼻で、口ひげを生やしている。噂に聞いた男に違いなかった。彼はひどく急いでいる様子で、御者に待っているよう怒鳴ると、扉を開けた女中の脇をすり抜け、まるで自分の家のような態度で入っていった。
"He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if you do it in twenty minutes!'
「彼は三十分ほど家の中にいた。居間の窓越しに、行ったり来たりしながら、興奮した様子で話し、腕を振り回している姿がちらちらと見えた。彼女の姿はまったく見えなかった。やがて彼は出てきたが、入るときよりもいっそう慌てた様子だった。馬車に乗り込みながら、彼はポケットから金時計を取り出して食い入るように見つめ、『全速力でやってくれ』と叫んだ。『まずリージェント街のグロス・アンド・ハンキーへ、それからエッジウェア通りの聖モニカ教会だ。二十分で着けたら半ギニーやるぞ！』