解説　場面 27「屋敷の奥へ」

"'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?'

「『何ですって、屋敷の中で漂白土を掘るのですか』

"'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us know what is wrong with it.'

「『違います、違います。ここでは圧縮するだけです。まあ、そのことはよいでしょう。機械を調べ、どこが悪いのか教えていただきたいだけです』

"We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at least a fellow-countryman.

「私たちは一緒に階段を上りました。大佐がランプを持って先に立ち、太った支配人と私があとに続きました。古い屋敷は迷路のようで、廊下、通路、狭い螺旋階段、低い小扉があり、何世代もの足で敷居がすり減っていました。一階より上には絨毯も家具の気配もなく、壁の漆喰は剥がれ、湿気が不健康な緑の染みとなって浮いていました。私はできるだけ平然を装いましたが、無視したとはいえ女性の警告を忘れてはおらず、二人の連れを注意深く見張りました。ファーガスンは不機嫌で無口な男でしたが、わずかな発言から少なくとも同国人だと分かりました。