解説　場面 215「あの日の事情」

She had learned something of the death of the convict, and she knew that the hound was being kept in the outhouse on the evening that Sir Henry was coming to dinner. She taxed her husband with his intended crime, and a furious scene followed in which he showed her for the first time that she had a rival in his love. Her fidelity turned in an instant to bitter hatred, and he saw that she would betray him. He tied her up, therefore, that she might have no chance of warning Sir Henry, and he hoped, no doubt, that when the whole countryside put down the baronet's death to the curse of his family, as they certainly would do, he could win his wife back to accept an accomplished fact and to keep silent upon what she knew. In this I fancy that in any case he made a miscalculation, and that, if we had not been there, his doom would none the less have been sealed. A woman of Spanish blood does not condone such an injury so lightly. And now, my dear Watson, without referring to my notes, I cannot give you a more detailed account of this curious case. I do not know that anything essential has been left unexplained."

彼女は脱獄囚の死についていくらか知り、サー・ヘンリーが夕食へ来る晩、猟犬が離れに置かれていることも知っていた。夫に企てている犯罪を問いただすと激しい争いになり、その中で彼は初めて、彼女には自分の愛を争う相手がいると明かした。彼女の忠誠は一瞬で激しい憎悪に変わり、彼は裏切られると悟った。そこでサー・ヘンリーへ警告する機会を与えないよう彼女を縛った。そして地方一帯が間違いなくするように、準男爵の死を一族の呪いのせいにすれば、起きてしまった事実を妻に受け入れさせ、知っていることを黙らせ、よりを戻せると期待したのだろう。この点では、いずれにしても彼は計算を誤ったと思う。私たちがいなくても、彼の破滅は同じように決まっていただろう。スペイン人の血を引く女性は、そのような仕打ちを簡単には許さない。さて親愛なるワトソン、記録を参照しなければ、この奇妙な事件についてこれ以上詳しく話すことはできない。重要なことは何も説明し残していないと思う」