解説　場面 13「閉ざされた扉」

"I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it were new raised from a basin.

「指示された所へ署名すると、弁護士は書類を持ち帰りました。お察しのとおり、この奇妙な出来事は私に深い印象を残しました。何度も考え、あらゆる角度から思い返しましたが、何一つ分かりませんでした。それでも漠然とした恐怖は振り払えませんでした。ただ、何週間も過ぎ、日常を乱すことが何も起きないうちに、その感覚は薄れていきました。しかし、おじには変化が見られました。以前にも増して酒をのみ、人付き合いを一層嫌うようになりました。大半の時間を内側から鍵を掛けた部屋で過ごしていましたが、時には酔って狂ったようになって外へ飛び出し、拳銃を手に庭を駆け回って、誰も怖くない、人間だろうと悪魔だろうと、柵の中の羊のように閉じ込められたりはしないと叫ぶのです。しかし、そうした興奮が去ると、魂の奥に巣くう恐怖にもう虚勢を張って耐えられない人のように、どたばたと家へ駆け込み、後ろの扉に鍵と横木を掛けました。そんなときには、寒い日でさえ、おじの顔が、たった今たらいから上げたように水気で光っているのを見たことがあります。