よみうち英語Read the classics by typingNotes Scene 10: Her Sister Julia
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Notes on this scene
Having described her stepfather's way of life, Helen reaches the central part of her story. She recalls the closed and lonely household she shared with her sister Julia and Julia's engagement to a man met at their aunt's home. When Holmes asks about Julia, Helen begins recounting what happened two years earlier.
Japanese in this scene
- なりはじめていました
- 〜はじめていました marks a change already in progress: Julia's hair had begun turning white before her death, just as Helen's is now.
- 姉が亡くなったのはちょうど二年前
- ちょうど makes the time exact: Julia died precisely two years before Helen tells the story.
- おわかりいただけるでしょう
- いただけるでしょう politely asks the listener to grant understanding: ‘You can understand, I hope.’
- ときどき
- ときどき gives the limited frequency of the sisters' escapes from home: they were occasionally allowed short visits to their aunt near Harrow.
Background
- half-pay officer
- A half-pay officer remained connected to the armed forces while inactive or retired and received reduced pay. Julia's fiancé is a respectable former major in this position.
Full text: original English and Japanese translation
"You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already begun to whiten, even as mine has."
「お話ししたことからおわかりでしょうが、かわいそうな姉のジュリアと私には、暮らしの中にこれといった楽しみがありませんでした。使用人は誰もうちに居つかず、長いあいだ私たちが家の仕事をすべて自分たちでこなしていました。姉は亡くなったときまだ三十歳でしたのに、髪はもう白くなりはじめていました、ちょうど私の髪がそうであるように」
"Your sister is dead, then?"
「では、お姉さんは亡くなっているのですね？」
"She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event occurred which has deprived me of my only companion."
「姉が亡くなったのはちょうど二年前で、あなたにお話ししたいのは、その死のことなのです。そんな暮らしでは、同じ年ごろや身分の人に会う機会などまずなかったことは、おわかりいただけるでしょう。ただ、母の妹で未婚の叔母、ホノーリア・ウェストフェイルがハロウの近くに住んでいて、私たちはときどき、この叔母の家へ短い滞在を許されていました。ジュリアは二年前のクリスマスにそこへ行き、退役して半給をもらっている海兵隊の少佐と出会って、婚約しました。義父は姉が帰ってきて婚約を知ると、結婚に何の異議も唱えませんでした。けれども、式の日取りまであと二週間もないという頃に、私からたった一人の話し相手を奪う、あの恐ろしい出来事が起こったのです」