解説　場面 26「屋敷の家族」

"I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their conversation I have gathered that they have been married about seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her father's young wife.

「私は雇い主の馬車で屋敷へ向かいました。ルーカッスルさんは相変わらず愛想がよく、その晩、奥様とお子さんに引き合わせてくださいました。ホームズさん、ベイカー街のお部屋で私たちが有力だと考えた推測は、事実ではありませんでした。ルーカッスル夫人は精神を病んではいません。口数の少ない、青白い顔の女性で、ご主人よりずっと若く、三十歳を越えてはいないと思います。一方、ご主人はどう見ても四十五歳以上です。二人の会話から、結婚して七年ほどになること、ご主人は再婚で、前の奥様との間の一人娘がフィラデルフィアへ行った例の娘であることが分かりました。ルーカッスルさんは二人きりのとき、娘が家を出たのは、継母に理由もなく反感を抱いていたからだと話してくださいました。娘は少なくとも二十歳にはなっていたはずですから、父親の若い妻と暮らすのが居心地の悪いことだったのは、十分に想像できます。