《福尔摩斯探案集·铜山毛榉案》第27节
“And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. “I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had locked.
注释摘要
这一节是维奥莱特·亨特小姐叙事的转折点，从对外部事件的观察转入一个私人性的、令人毛骨悚然的发现。她讲述了一个看似不可能的事情：在自己卧室上锁的抽屉里，找到了另一束与她本人一模一样的头发。她先前在伦敦应雇主鲁卡索尔先生的要求剪掉了长发，并把剪下的发卷放在箱子底层。因需要更多储物空间，她试了试卧室里那个上了锁的抽屉，自己的钥匙恰好能打开，里面只放着一样东西——…