《福尔摩斯探案集·歪唇男人》第3节
It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her husband’s trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it possible that we could bring him back to her? It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney’s medical adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to be.
注释摘要
这一段的核心，是华生如何被拉进这个夜晚的冒险。叙述的起点不是案情，而是一个重复发生的家庭不幸。凯特·惠特尼深夜来访，不是第一次了；华生作为医生、妻子作为旧日同窗，已经接过她不止一次的诉苦。这个背景让整件事从一开始就蒙上一层疲惫的、近乎日常的悲剧色彩——瘾君子反复失踪，家人反复求助，朋友反复安抚。 华生的叙述节奏在这里压得很稳。他没有急着冲向鸦片馆，而是先铺…