解説　場面 1「四年前の事件」

The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of this remarkable episode.

セント・サイモン卿の結婚と、その奇妙な結末は、不運な花婿が身を置く上流社会で、とうに関心の的ではなくなっていた。新しい醜聞がそれを覆い隠し、より刺激的な細部が、噂好きな人々をこの四年前の事件から遠ざけたのである。しかし、事の全容はいまだ一般には明かされておらず、友人シャーロック・ホームズが解決に大きく関わったと考える理由があるため、この注目すべき一件を少しも記さずして、彼の回想録が完全なものになるとは私には思えない。

It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and the jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's noble correspondent could be.

それは私自身の結婚を数週間後に控え、まだベイカー街でホームズと部屋を共にしていた頃のことで、午後の散歩から帰った彼を、卓上の一通の手紙が待っていた。天気が急に秋の強い風を伴う雨へ変わり、アフガニスタン従軍の記念として手足のどこかに持ち帰ったジェザイル銃の弾痕が、鈍く絶え間なく疼いていたため、私は一日中室内にいた。体を一脚の安楽椅子に、脚をもう一脚に載せ、新聞の雲で周囲を取り囲んでいた私は、ついにその日のニュースを浴び尽くして全部を脇へ放り、物憂く横たわったまま、卓上の封筒にある大きな紋章と組み文字を眺め、友人に手紙をよこした高貴な人物は誰だろうとぼんやり考えていた。