If there was something else-something even servants did not hear of-she could not help believing that the father of the Large Family knew it-the gentleman she called Mr. Montmorency.
Mr. Montmorency went to see him often, and Mrs. Montmorency and all the little Montmorencys went, too, though less often.
He seemed particularly fond of the two elder little girls-the Janet and Nora who had been so alarmed (惊慌的) when their small brother Donald had given Sara his sixpence.
He had, in fact, a very tender (柔软的) place in his heart for all children, and particularly for little girls.
Janet and Nora were as fond of him as he was of them, and looked forward with the greatest pleasure to the afternoons when they were allowed to cross the square and make their well-behaved little visits to him.
They were extremely decorous (有礼貌的) little visits because he was an invalid (病人).
"He is a poor thing," said Janet, "and he says we cheer him up. We try to cheer him up very quietly."
Janet was the head of the family, and kept the rest of it in order.
It was she who decided when it was discreet (审慎的) to ask the Indian gentleman to tell stories about India, and it was she who saw when he was tired and it was the time to steal quietly away and tell Ram Dass to go to him.{1}
They were very fond of Ram Dass. He could have told any number of stories if he had been able to speak anything but Hindustani (印度斯坦语).
The Indian gentleman's real name was Mr. Carrisford, and Janet told Mr. Carrisford about the encounter with the little-girl-who-was-not-a-beggar.
He was very much interested, and all the more so when he heard from Ram Dass of the adventure of the monkey on the roof.
Ram Dass made for him a very clear picture of the attic and its desolateness (荒凉) -of the bare floor and broken plaster, the rusty, empty grate, and the hard, narrow bed.
"Carmichael," he said to the father of the Large Family, after he had heard this description, "I wonder how many of the attics in this square are like that one, and how many wretched (可怜的) little servant girls sleep on such beds, while I toss on my down pillows, loaded and harassed (疲倦的) by wealth that is, most of it-not mine."{2}
"My dear fellow," Mr. Carmichael answered cheerily, "the sooner you cease (停止) tormenting (折磨) yourself the better it will be for you. If you possessed all the wealth of all the Indies, you could not set right all the discomforts (不适) in the world, and if you began to refurnish (重新装备) all the attics in this square, there would still remain all the attics in all the other squares and streets to put in order. And there you are!" {3}
Mr. Carrisford sat and bit his nails as he looked into the glowing bed of coals in the grate.
"Do you suppose," he said slowly, after a pause-"do you think it is possible that the other child-the child I never cease thinking of, I believe-could be-could possibly be reduced to any such condition as the poor little soul next door?"
Mr. Carmichael looked at him uneasily. He knew that the worst thing the man could do for himself, for his reason and his health, was to begin to think in the particular way of this particular subject.
"If the child at Madame Pascal's school in Paris was the one you are in search of," he answered soothingly, "she would seem to be in the hands of people who can afford to take care of her.
They adopted her because she had been the favorite companion of their little daughter who died.
They had no other children, and Madame Pascal said that they were extremely well-to-do Russians."
"And the wretched woman actually did not know where they had taken her!" exclaimed Mr. Carrisford.
Mr. Carmichael shrugged his shoulders.
"She was a shrewd, worldly Frenchwoman, and was evidently only too glad to get the child so comfortably off her hands when the father's death left her totally unprovided for.
Women of her type do not trouble themselves about the futures of children who might prove burdens. The adopted parents apparently disappeared and left no trace (踪迹)."
"But you say 'if the child was the one I am in search of. You say 'if.' We are not sure. There was a difference in the name."
"Madame Pascal pronounced (发音) it as if it were Carew instead of Crewe-but that might be merely a matter of pronunciation.
The circumstances were curiously similar. An English officer in India had placed his motherless little girl at the school.
He had died suddenly after losing his fortune." Mr. Carmichael paused a moment, as if a new thought had occurred to him. "Are you sure the child was left at a school in Paris? Are you sure it was Paris?"
"My dear fellow," broke forth Carrisford, with restless bitterness, "I am sure of nothing. I never saw either the child or her mother.
Ralph Crewe and I loved each other as boys, but we had not met since our school days, until we met in India.
I was absorbed in the magnificent promise of the mines. He became absorbed, too.
The whole thing was so huge and glittering that we half lost our heads. When we met we scarcely spoke of anything else.
I only knew that the child had been sent to school somewhere. I do not even remember, now, how I knew it."
He was beginning to be excited. He always became excited when his still weakened brain was stirred by memories of the catastrophes (大灾难) of the past.
Mr. Carmichael watched him anxiously. It was necessary to ask some questions, but they must be put quietly and with caution.
"But you had reason to think the school was in Paris?"
"Yes," was the answer, "because her mother was a Frenchwoman, and I had heard that she wished her child to be educated in Paris. It seemed only likely that she would be there."
"Yes," Mr. Carmichael said, "it seems more than probable."
The Indian gentleman leaned forward and struck the table with a long, wasted hand.
"Carmichael," he said, "I must find her. If she is alive, she is somewhere. If she is friendless and penniless (身无分文的), it is through my fault.
How is a man to get back his nerve with a thing like that on his mind? This sudden change of luck at the mines has made realities of all our most fantastic dreams, and poor Crewe's child may be begging in the street!"{4}
"No, no," said Carmichael. "Try to be calm. Console yourself with the fact that when she is found you have a fortune to hand over to her."
"Why was I not man enough to stand my ground when things looked black?" Carrisford groaned (呻吟) in petulant misery.
"I believe I should have stood my ground if I had not been responsible for other people's money as well as my own.
Poor Crewe had put into the scheme (计划) every penny that he owned. He trusted me-he loved me. And he died thinking I had ruined him-I-Tom Carrisford, who played cricket (板球) at Eton with him. What a villain he must have thought me!"
"Don't reproach (责备) yourself so bitterly."
"I don't reproach myself because the speculation (投机买卖) threatened to fail-I reproach myself for losing my courage.
I ran away like a swindler (骗子) and a thief, because I could not face my best friend and tell him I had ruined him and his child."
The good-hearted father of the Large Family put his hand on his shoulder comfortingly.
"You ran away because your brain had given way under the strain of mental torture (折磨)," he said.
"You were half delirious (精神错乱的) already. If you had not been you would have stayed and fought it out. You were in a hospital, strapped down in bed, raving with brain fever, two days after you left the place. Remember that."
