解説　場面 54「仕事と暮らし」

"I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ served upon me for £ 25. I was at my wit's end where to get the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In ten days I had the money and had paid the debt.

「記事を書き、それ以上あまり考えずにいましたが、しばらく後、友人の手形の裏書人になり、二十五ポンドの支払いを求める令状を受けました。金をどう工面するか困り果てましたが、不意に思いついたのです。債権者に二週間の猶予を頼み、勤め先に休暇を願い出て、その間は姿を変え、シティで物乞いをしました。十日で金がたまり、借金を返しました。

"Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous work at £ 2 a week when I knew that I could earn as much in a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that my secret was safe in his possession.

「顔に少し色を塗り、帽子を地面に置いて座るだけで、一日に二ポンド稼げると知ってしまえば、週二ポンドのきつい仕事に落ち着くのがどれほど難しいか、お分かりでしょう。誇りと金との長い争いになりましたが、最後は金が勝ち、私は記者を辞めました。最初に選んだ街角で毎日座り、恐ろしい顔で同情を誘い、ポケットを銅貨で満たしたのです。秘密を知る者は一人だけでした。昔スワンダム横丁で下宿していた、いかがわしい店の主人です。そこで毎朝、みすぼらしい物乞いになって外へ出て、晩には立派な服の都会の紳士に戻ることができました。船員出身のその男には部屋代を十分払っていたので、彼が秘密を漏らす心配はないと分かっていました。