Bryan1984

“Miss Halcombe’s light is out. The rooms next door are empty. The only window with a light in is my wife’s, so now we may talk. We are at a serious crisis in our refunds, Percival, and we must decide about the future tonight.”
“It’s a worse crisis that you think.” growled Sir Percival
“Listen, Percival. This is our situation. We both came to this house in need of money, and the only way of getting it was with the help of your wife. Now what did I tell you? I told you never to lose your temper with her, and especially never with her sister, Miss Halcombe. And have you remembered this? Not once, your mad temper lost your wife’s signature, lost the ready money, made Miss. Halcombe write to the lawyer for the first time.”
“First time? Has she written again?”
“Yes, she has written again today.”
“What? How does he know that? Did he follow me to the hotel? But even if he did, he couldn’t have seen the letters. They went straight from my hands to Fanny’s dress. So how does he know?”
“You are lucky,” the Count continues, “that you have me in the house to undo the harm that you do. Lucky that I said no when you were mad enough to make your wife a prisoner and keep her from Miss. Halcombe. Can’t you see that Miss. Halcombe has the courage and understanding of a man? How I admire that woman! But she stands like a rock between us and that pretty little wife of yours. Now the money, we haven’t obtained the loan, a horribly expensive loan by signing a document promising to repay it in three months. When the time comes, is there really no way to repay the money except by the help of your wife?”
“None!”
“What money do you actually get from your wife at present?”
“Only the income from her twenty thousand pounds”
“Do you expect any more from your wife?”
“Absolutely nothing! Except in the case of her death”
“Aha… in the case of her death”
A pause, it has begun to rain and already I felt wet and cold.
Sir Percival again, “If she leaves no children, I’ll get her twenty thousand pounds.”
“Percival, do you care about your wife?”
“Fosco, that’s a very direct question.”
“Let’s say your wife dies before the end of the summer.”
“Forget it, Fosco!”
“You would gain twenty thousand pounds.”
“Speak for yourself as well as for me, Fosco. You would also gain my wife’s death would be ten thousand pounds in your wife’s pocket.”
“Percival, here is the position. If your wife lives, you pay that debt with her signature on the document. If your wife dies, you pay the debt with her death.”
The light in Madam Fosco’s room goes out, and the front roof is now sunk in darkness. The rain continues. I listen with my every nerve in my body, memorizing word after word.
“Percival, you must now leave this matter in my hands. I have more than two months to find the solution, so let’s not talk about it anymore. Let me help you with your other difficulty, the difficulty that seems to have the name of Anne Catherick.”
“Look, Fosco! We may be friends but we still have our secrets. This does not concern you. Please don’t ask me about it.”
“My friend, I can respect the secret, so I won’t ask you to tell me. But can I help you all the same?”
“If I don’t find Anne Catherick, I am a lost man. Both she and her mother know this, this secret. It could ruin me, Fosco. Anne Catherick has spoken to my wife, and I am sure she’s told her.”
“But is your wife surely it’s in her interest to keep it secret?”
“If she loved me, that would be true. But she is in love with someone she met before we married, a drawing teacher called Walter Hartright, and who helped Anne Catherick escape from the asylum; Hartright, who saw her again in Cumberland; Hartright, he knows the secret, and my wife knows the secret. If they get together, they will use it against me.”
“Yes, yes I see. Where is Mr. Hartright?”
“Out of the country, he sailed for America.”
“Don’t worry then. I will deal with him if he ever comes back, depend on it（请放心）. But first we must find Anne Cathercik. What about her mother? Can she be trusted?”
“It’s inherent trust not to tell anyone the secret.”
“Good! Now how will I recognize Anne Catherick?”
“Easily! She’s the pale sickly likeness of my wife.”
A noise of a cheer pushed back. The Count has jumped to his feet and is walking about. He seems amazed. “What? Are she and your wife related to each other?”
“Not at all!”
“And yet so alike, Wow! I will know her when I see her.”
“What the devil you laughing about, Fosco?”
“Just a thought, my good friend. Just a thought! But enough for tonight. You will pay the debt, and find Anne Catherick, I promise you. You can put your mind at rest, Percival.”
Not another word is spoken. I hear the library door closed. I am wet to the skin, stiff and aching with the cold. At first, I can’t move, but slowly painfully I crept back to my window and climbed in. As I fell on the floor, I hear the clock struck a quarter past one. Time passes, somehow I managed to get up and put on dry clothes. I am burning, hot and shivering with cold. I know I must write down what I have heard, so I find paper and pen and write without stopping. The fever rises in me burning, burning. I open the window for cool air. Eight o’clock, bright sunshine which ___ my eyes, my head aches; my bones ache; my skin burns, and I can not stop shivering. I lie down to sleep. My writing finished. And in my fever I see Count Fosco come into my room and read the pages I have written. He smiles. I am helpless, unable to move, speak, breath, and I sink into the long black night of illness.
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