解説　場面 31「ある夕方の訪問」

"I can well remember driving up to his house in the evening some three weeks before the fatal event. He chanced to be at his hall door. I had descended from my gig and was standing in front of him, when I saw his eyes fix themselves over my shoulder and stare past me with an expression of the most dreadful horror. I whisked round and had just time to catch a glimpse of something which I took to be a large black calf passing at the head of the drive. So excited and alarmed was he that I was compelled to go down to the spot where the animal had been and look around for it. It was gone, however, and the incident appeared to make the worst impression upon his mind. I stayed with him all the evening, and it was on that occasion, to explain the emotion which he had shown, that he confided to my keeping that narrative which I read to you when first I came. I mention this small episode because it assumes some importance in view of the tragedy which followed, but I was convinced at the time that the matter was entirely trivial and that his excitement had no justification.

「亡くなる三週間ほど前の夕方、馬車で卿の家を訪ねた時のことを、よく覚えています。卿はたまたま館の玄関にいました。私は二輪馬車から降りて卿の前に立っていたのですが、卿の目が私の肩越しの一点にくぎづけになり、私を通り越して、ひどく恐ろしげな表情で見つめるのに気づきました。私は素早く振り向き、車道の入口を通り過ぎる、大きな黒い子牛と思われるものを、かろうじてちらりと見ました。卿があまりにも興奮しておびえたので、私はその動物がいた所まで行って、辺りを捜さなければなりませんでした。しかし、もう姿はなく、この出来事は卿の心に最悪の印象を与えたようでした。私はその晩ずっと一緒にいました。卿が、見せた動揺の理由を説明しようと、先ほど来た時に読んだあの物語を私に預けたのは、その時のことです。この小さな出来事を話すのは、その後の悲劇を考えると、ある程度の重要さを帯びるからですが、当時は私も、まったく些細なことで、卿の興奮には根拠がないと確信していました。