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The Haunted Hotel-Part13_WILKIE COLLINS (1824-1899)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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'This is the very person,' she said, 'whom your lawyer thought



likely to help him, when he was trying to trace the lost courier.'

'You don't mean the English maid who was with Lady Montbarry



at Venice?'

'My dear! don't speak of Montbarry's horrid widow by the name



which is my name now. Stephen and I have arranged to call her by

her foreign title, before she was married. I am "Lady Montbarry,"



and she is "the Countess." In that way there will be no confusion.--

Yes, Mrs. Rolland was in my service before she became the Countess's maid.



She was a perfectly trustworthy person, with one defect that obliged

me to send her away--a sullentemper which led to perpetual complaints



of her in the servants' hall. Would you like to see her?'

Agnes accepted the proposal, in the faint hope of getting some



information for the courier's wife. The complete defeat of every attempt

to trace the lost man had been accepted as final by Mrs. Ferrari.



She had deliberately arrayed herself in widow's mourning;

and was earning her livelihood in an employment which the unwearied



kindness of Agnes had procured for her in London. The last chance

of penetrating the mystery of Ferrari's disappearance seemed to rest



now on what Ferrari's former fellow-servant might be able to tell.

With highly-wrought expectations, Agnes followed her friend into the room



in which Mrs. Rolland was waiting.

A tall bony woman, in the autumn of life, with sunken eyes and



iron-grey hair, rose stiffly from her chair, and saluted the ladies

with stern submission as they opened the door. A person of



unblemished character, evidently--but not without visible drawbacks.

Big bushy eyebrows, an awfully deep and solemn voice, a harsh



unbending manner, a complete absence in her figure of the undulating

lines characteristic of the sex, presented Virtue in this excellent



person under its least alluringaspect. Strangers, on a first

introduction to her, were accustomed to wonder why she was not a man.



'Are you pretty well, Mrs. Rolland?'

'I am as well as I can expect to be, my lady, at my time of life.'



'Is there anything I can do for you?'

'Your ladyship can do me a great favour, if you will please



speak to my character while I was in your service. I am offered

a place, to wait on an invalid lady who has lately come to live



in this neighbourhood.'

'Ah, yes--I have heard of her. A Mrs. Carbury, with a very pretty niece



I am told. But, Mrs. Rolland, you left my service some time ago.

Mrs. Carbury will surely expect you to refer to the last mistress



by whom you were employed.'

A flash of virtuousindignation irradiated Mrs. Rolland's sunken eyes.



She coughed before she answered, as if her 'last mistress'

stuck in her throat.



'I have explained to Mrs. Carbury, my lady, that the person I last served--

I really cannot give her her title in your ladyship's presence!--



has left England for America. Mrs. Carbury knows that I quitted

the person of my own free will, and knows why, and approves of my



conduct so far. A word from your ladyship will be amply sufficient

to get me the situation.'



'Very well, Mrs. Rolland, I have no objection to be your reference,

under the circumstances. Mrs. Carbury will find me at home to-morrow



until two o'clock.'

'Mrs. Carbury is not well enough to leave the house, my lady.



Her niece, Miss Haldane, will call and make the inquiries, if your

ladyship has no objection.'



'I have not the least objection. The pretty niece carries

her own welcome with her. Wait a minute, Mrs. Rolland.



This lady is Miss Lockwood--my husband's cousin, and my friend.

She is anxious to speak to you about the courier who was in the late



Lord Montbarry's service at Venice.'

Mrs. Rolland's bushy eyebrows frowned in stern disapproval of



the new topic of conversation. 'I regret to hear it, my lady,'

was all she said.



'Perhaps you have not been informed of what happened after you

left Venice?' Agnes ventured to add. 'Ferrari left the palace secretly;



and he has never been heard of since.'

Mrs. Rolland mysteriously closed her eyes--as if to exclude some vision






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