解説　場面 129「朝の廊下」

And yet he lied as he said it, for it chanced that after breakfast I met Mrs. Barrymore in the long corridor with the sun full upon her face. She was a large, impassive, heavy-featured woman with a stern set expression of mouth. But her telltale eyes were red and glanced at me from between swollen lids. It was she, then, who wept in the night, and if she did so her husband must know it. Yet he had taken the obvious risk of discovery in declaring that it was not so. Why had he done this? And why did she weep so bitterly? Already round this pale-faced, handsome, black-bearded man there was gathering an atmosphere of mystery and of gloom. It was he who had been the first to discover the body of Sir Charles, and we had only his word for all the circumstances which led up to the old man's death. Was it possible that it was Barrymore, after all, whom we had seen in the cab in Regent Street? The beard might well have been the same. The cabman had described a somewhat shorter man, but such an impression might easily have been erroneous. How could I settle the point forever? Obviously the first thing to do was to see the Grimpen postmaster and find whether the test telegram had really been placed in Barrymore's own hands. Be the answer what it might, I should at least have something to report to Sherlock Holmes.

だが、それは嘘だった。たまたま朝食後、長い廊下でバリモア夫人に会い、その顔に日がまともに当たったからだ。大柄で、無表情で、重々しい顔立ちの女で、口元には厳しく固まった表情があった。だが、隠しきれない目は赤く、腫れたまぶたの間から私を見た。ならば、夜中に泣いたのは彼女であり、そうなら夫も知っているはずだった。それなのに夫は、違うと断言して、明らかに露見しかねない危険を冒した。なぜ、そうしたのか。なぜ、彼女はあれほど激しく泣いたのか。すでに、この青白く整った顔と黒いひげの男の周りには、謎と暗さの雰囲気が集まりつつあった。チャールズ卿の遺体を最初に見つけたのも彼で、老人の死に至る事情は、すべて彼の言葉しか根拠がなかった。結局、リージェント街の馬車の中で見たのは、バリモアだった可能性はないだろうか。ひげは同じでも十分ありえた。御者はもう少し背の低い男と説明したが、そうした印象は容易に間違いうる。この点を、どうすれば完全に決着できるだろう。まずすべきなのは明らかに、グリンペンの郵便局長に会い、あの確認の電報が本当にバリモア本人の手に渡ったかを調べることだった。答えが何であれ、少なくともシャーロック・ホームズへ報告するものは得られるだろう。