The House of The Seven Gables -- [La casa de los siete tejados]




XVI. Clifford′s Chamber

XVI. La habitación de Clifford

NEVER had the old house appeared so dismal to poor Hepzibah as when she departed on that wretched errand. There was a strange aspect in it. As she trode along the foot-worn passages, and opened one crazy door after another, and ascended the creaking staircase, she gazed wistfully and fearfully around. It would have been no marvel, to her excited mind, if, behind or beside her, there had been the rustle of dead people′s garments, or pale visages awaiting her on the landing-place above. Her nerves were set all ajar by the scene of passion and terror through which she had just struggled. Her colloquy with Judge Pyncheon, who so perfectly represented the person and attributes of the founder of the family, had called back the dreary past. It weighed upon her heart. Whatever she had heard, from legendary aunts and grandmothers, concerning the good or evil fortunes of the Pyncheons,--stories which had heretofore been kept warm in her remembrance by the chimney-corner glow that was associated with them,--now recurred to her, sombre, ghastly, cold, like most passages of family history, when brooded over in melancholy mood. The whole seemed little else but a series of calamity, reproducing itself in successive generations, with one general hue, and varying in little, save the outline. But Hepzibah now felt as if the Judge, and Clifford, and herself,--they three together,--were on the point of adding another incident to the annals of the house, with a bolder relief of wrong and sorrow, which would cause it to stand out from all the rest. Thus it is that the grief of the passing moment takes upon itself an individuality, and a character of climax, which it is destined to lose after a while, and to fade into the dark gray tissue common to the grave or glad events of many years ago. It is but for a moment, comparatively, that anything looks strange or startling,--a truth that has the bitter and the sweet in it. NUNCA la vieja casa le había parecido tan sórdida a Hepzibah como cuando la recorrió para ir a cumplir el desventurado encargo. Al avanzar por los pasillos y abrir las desvencijadas puertas, una tras otra, y al subir por la escalera crujiente, miraba medrosamente a su alrededor. Su excitada imaginación no se habría maravillado si hubiese oído el frufú de viejas sedas o visto los pálidos semblantes de los antepasados esperándola en el rellano. La escena de terror con la cual había tenido que luchar, le había alterado los nervios. El coloquio con el juez, que tan perfectamente representaba la figura y las cualidades del fundador de la familia, había evocado al muerto pasado que ahora pesaba sobre su corazón. Todas las historias que había oído contar a sus legendarias tías y abuelas se le presentaban con colores obscuros, fríos, fantasmales. El conjunto era una larga serie de calamidades, que se reproducían generación tras generación, con idénticos tonos sombríos y escasas variaciones de forma.


Hepzibah tenía la sensación de que el juez, Clifford y ella, los tres a la vez, estaban a punto de añadir otra historia a los anales familiares, más triste y dolorosa que las anteriores. La pena del momento es más honda y más aguda, pero poco a poco se diluye en las penas borrosas del pasado. Sólo durante un instante las cosas parecen sombrías o asombrosas. Y esta verdad tiene, a la par, mucho de amargo y mucho de dulce.
But Hepzibah could not rid herself of the sense of something unprecedented at that instant passing and soon to be accomplished. Her nerves were in a shake. Instinctively she paused before the arched window, and looked out upon the street, in order to seize its permanent objects with her mental grasp, and thus to steady herself from the reel and vibration which affected her more immediate sphere. It brought her up, as we may say, with a kind of shock, when she beheld everything under the same appearance as the day before, and numberless preceding days, except for the difference between sunshine and sullen storm. Her eyes travelled along the street, from doorstep to doorstep, noting the wet sidewalks, with here and there a puddle in hollows that had been imperceptible until filled with water. She screwed her dim optics to their acutest point, in the hope of making out, with greater distinctness, a certain window, where she half saw, half guessed, that a tailor′s seamstress was sitting at her work. Hepzibah flung herself upon that unknown woman′s companionship, even thus far off. Then she was attracted by a chaise rapidly passing, and watched its moist and glistening top, and its splashing wheels, until it had turned the corner, and refused to carry any further her idly trifling, because appalled and overburdened, mind. When the vehicle had disappeared, she allowed herself still another loitering moment; for the patched figure of good Uncle Venner was now visible, coming slowly from the head of the street downward, with a rheumatic limp, because the east wind had got into his joints. Hepzibah wished that he would pass yet more slowly, and befriend her shivering solitude a little longer. Anything that would take her out of the grievous present, and interpose human beings betwixt herself and what was nearest to her,--whatever would defer for an instant the inevitable errand on which she was bound,--all such impediments were welcome. Next to the lightest heart, the heaviest is apt to be most playful. Pero Hepzibah, no podía sustraerse a la impresión de que en aquel momento ocurría algo sin precedentes. Tenía los nervios en tensión. Instintivamente se detuvo frente a la ventana en arco y miró a la calle, para captar de una ojeada el mundo exterior, y así tomar ánimo para enfrentarse con su propio problema inmediato. Sintió sobresalto al ver que todo era igual que el día anterior y que los infinitos días anteriores del pasado, excepto que ahora la tempestad había borrado el brillo del sol.
Su mirada recorrió la calle, fijándose en las mojadas aceras, con baches visibles cuando los llenaba el agua. Aguzó la vista, con la esperanza de distinguir en cierta ventana la figura familiar de una costurera dedicada a su trabajo, y se sintió aliviada por la lejana presencia de aquella mujer.
Luego su vista se fijó en un calesín que pasaba, y siguió su techo brillante de lluvia hasta que dobló una esquina, dejándola de nuevo a solas con sus pensamientos. Cuando el vehículo hubo desaparecido, se permitió un descanso.
Apareció la figura del tío Venner, viniendo lentamente del extremo de la calle con paso reumático, pues el viento del este había penetrado en sus articulaciones. Hepzibah hubiera deseado que anduviese aún más despacio y que con su presencia mitigase durante unos breves instantes su espantosa soledad. Bienvenido todo lo que le apartase del penoso presente, todo lo que interpusiera seres humanos entre ella y lo que estaba cerca de ella, todo lo que aplazara por un instante el inevitable encargo... Cuanto más abrumado está el corazón, tanto más deseos de distancia experimenta.
Hepzibah had little hardihood for her own proper pain, and far less for what she must inflict on Clifford. Of so slight a nature, and so shattered by his previous calamities, it could not well be short of utter ruin to bring him face to face with the hard, relentless man who had been his evil destiny through life. Even had there been no bitter recollections, nor any hostile interest now at stake between them, the mere natural repugnance of the more sensitive system to the massive, weighty, and unimpressible one, must, in itself, have been disastrous to the former. It would be like flinging a porcelain vase, with already a crack in it, against a granite column. Never before had Hepzibah so adequately estimated the powerful character of her cousin Jaffrey,--powerful by intellect, energy of will, the long habit of acting among men, and, as she believed, by his unscrupulous pursuit of selfish ends through evil means. It did but increase the difficulty that Judge Pyncheon was under a delusion as to the secret which he supposed Clifford to possess. Men of his strength of purpose and customary sagacity, if they chance to adopt a mistaken opinion in practical matters, so wedge it and fasten it among things known to be true, that to wrench it out of their minds is hardly less difficult than pulling up an oak. Thus, as the Judge required an impossibility of Clifford, the latter, as he could not perform it, must needs perish. For what, in the grasp of a man like this, was to become of Clifford′s soft poetic nature, that never should have had a task more stubborn than to set a life of beautiful enjoyment to the flow and rhythm of musical cadences ! Indeed, what had become of it already ? Broken ! Blighted ! All but annihilated ! Soon to be wholly so ! Hepzibah tenía poco valor para soportar sus penas y mucho menos para sufrir la que tenía que infligir a Clifford. Quebrantado por largos años calamitosos, enfrentarle con el hombre que personificaba el destino doloroso de toda su vida, sería llevarle a la ruina. Aunque no hubieran existido recuerdos amargos ni intereses hostiles entre ellos, la simple presencia del juez resultaría desastrosa para Clifford. Sería como arrojar un jarrón de porcelana contra una columna de granito. Nunca, hasta ahora, Hepzibah se había dado cuenta del verdadero carácter de su primo Jaffrey, poderoso por su inteligencia, por la energía de su voluntad, habituado a alcanzar sus fines egoístas sin detenerse por escrúpulos de ninguna clase. La falsa ilusión que se hacía el juez de que Clifford poseía un valioso secreto aumentaba la dificultad de tratar con él.
Cuando hombres de firmeza y sagacidad adoptan una opinión errónea sobre asuntos prácticos, ligándola a otras que son verdaderas, resulta tan difícil hacerles ver su yerro como arrancar un roble. Así, pues, ya que el juez pedía a Clifford un imposible, Clifford tendría que pagar esta imposibilidad.
¿Qué iba a ser de la suave y poética naturaleza de Clifford en las garras de un hombre como el juez ? ¿Qué había sido ya de él, incapaz de comprender la vida de otra manera que como un chorro de rítmicas cadencias musicales ? Le destrozaría, le aniquilaría...
For a moment, the thought crossed Hepzibah′s mind, whether Clifford might not really have such knowledge of their deceased uncle′s vanished estate as the Judge imputed to him. She remembered some vague intimations, on her brother′s part, which--if the supposition were not essentially preposterous--might have been so interpreted. There had been schemes of travel and residence abroad, day-dreams of brilliant life at home, and splendid castles in the air, which it would have required boundless wealth to build and realize. Had this wealth been in her power, how gladly would Hepzibah have bestowed it all upon her iron-hearted kinsman, to buy for Clifford the freedom and seclusion of the desolate old house ! But she believed that her brother′s schemes were as destitute of actual substance and purpose as a child′s pictures of its future life, while sitting in a little chair by its mother′s knee. Clifford had none but shadowy gold at his command; and it was not the stuff to satisfy Judge Pyncheon ! Por un instante cruzó por la mente de Hepzibah la idea de si Clifford no poseería realmente el secreto de la supuesta fortuna de su tío muerto. Recordaba algunas insinuaciones de su hermano que, si la suposición no resultara absurda, hasta podrían hacerlo suponer: proyectos de viajes por el extranjero, sueños de una vida brillante, espléndidos castillos en el aire, cuya construcción hubiera requerido una riqueza fabulosa. Si esta riqueza estuviera en su poder, con qué alegría no la hubiera entregado ella, Hepzibah, a su implacable primo, comprando así la libertad, para Clifford, de recluirse en la desolada y solitaria mansión... Pero ella creía que los proyectos de su hermano eran simples ensueños infantiles, como los de los niños cuando están en el regazo de la madre. El oro de Clifford era puramente imaginario y el juez Pyncheon jamás se contentaría con él.
Was there no help in their extremity ? It seemed strange that there should be none, with a city round about her. It would be so easy to throw up the window, and send forth a shriek, at the strange agony of which everybody would come hastening to the rescue, well understanding it to be the cry of a human soul, at some dreadful crisis ! But how wild, how almost laughable, the fatality,--and yet how continually it comes to pass, thought Hepzibah, in this dull delirium of a world,--that whosoever, and with however kindly a purpose, should come to help, they would be sure to help the strongest side ! Might and wrong combined, like iron magnetized, are endowed with irresistible attraction.
There would be Judge Pyncheon,--a person eminent in the public view, of high station and great wealth, a philanthropist, a member of Congress and of the church, and intimately associated with whatever else bestows good name,--so imposing, in these advantageous lights, that Hepzibah herself could hardly help shrinking from her own conclusions as to his hollow integrity. The Judge, on one side ! And who, on the other ? The guilty Clifford ! Once a byword ! Now, an indistinctly remembered ignominy ! 		¡Qué fácil sería abrir la ventana y lanzar un grito de agonía a cuyo son todo el mundo acudiría, comprendiendo que era un grito salido del fondo del alma ! Pero, ¡qué grotesca fatalidad !, si esto sucediera, la gente ayudaría al más fuerte, pensó Hepzibah. El poder y el error mezclados, igual que el imán, atraen irresistiblemente.





Allí estaría el juez Pyncheon... persona eminente a los ojos del público, de gran posición y riqueza, un filántropo, miembro del Congreso y de la Iglesia, íntimamente asociado con todo lo que da buena fama... Allí estaba, en efecto, tan impresionante, visto bajo esa luz favorable, que la misma Hepzibah se estremecía. El juez a un lado, y al otro, ¿quién ? El culpable Clifford, antes un objeto de burla y ahora un viejo de ignominiosa historia...
Nevertheless, in spite of this perception that the Judge would draw all human aid to his own behalf, Hepzibah was so unaccustomed to act for herself, that the least word of counsel would have swayed her to any mode of action. Little Phoebe Pyncheon would at once have lighted up the whole scene, if not by any available suggestion, yet simply by the warm vivacity of her character. The idea of the artist occurred to Hepzibah. Young and unknown, mere vagrant adventurer as he was, she had been conscious of a force in Holgrave which might well adapt him to be the champion of a crisis. With this thought in her mind, she unbolted a door, cobwebbed and long disused, but which had served as a former medium of communication between her own part of the house and the gable where the wandering daguerreotypist had now established his temporary home. He was not there. A book, face downward, on the table, a roll of manuscript, a half-written sheet, a newspaper, some tools of his present occupation, and several rejected daguerreotypes, conveyed an impression as if he were close at hand. But, at this period of the day, as Hepzibah might have anticipated, the artist was at his public rooms. With an impulse of idle curiosity, that flickered among her heavy thoughts, she looked at one of the daguerreotypes, and beheld Judge Pyncheon frowning at her. Fate stared her in the face. She turned back from her fruitless quest, with a heartsinking sense of disappointment. In all her years of seclusion, she had never felt, as now, what it was to be alone. It seemed as if the house stood in a desert, or, by some spell, was made invisible to those who dwelt around, or passed beside it; so that any mode of misfortune, miserable accident, or crime might happen in it without the possibility of aid. In her grief and wounded pride, Hepzibah had spent her life in divesting herself of friends; she had wilfully cast off the support which God has ordained his creatures to need from one another; and it was now her punishment, that Clifford and herself would fall the easier victims to their kindred enemy. A pesar de su seguridad de que el juez recibiría la ayuda y el apoyo de todos, Hepzibah estaba tan poco acostumbrada a obrar por su cuenta que la menor palabra de consejo la hubiera puesto en acción. La pequeña Phoebe hubiese iluminado la situación, si no con una sugerencia, con la simple vivacidad de su carácter. Se le ocurrió consultar a Holgrave, en el cual, a pesar de su juventud y de su vagabundeo, entreveía una fuerza capaz de convertirle en su campeón, en una crisis. Con esta idea, abrió una puerta, desde hacía mucho tiempo cubierta de telarañas, que ponía en comunicación aquel piso con la buhardilla en que el daguerrotipista había instalado su hogar provisional. No estaba. En la mesa, un libro abierto, unos papeles a medio escribir, unos periódicos, varios daguerrotipos y algunos instrumentos de su actual oficio, daban la impresión de que el dueño de todos esos objetos no andaba lejos. Pero en aquella hora del día, como Hepzibah sabía muy bien, el artista se hallaba en su taller. Arrastrada por un impulso misterioso, contempló los daguerrotipos y vio en ellos el ceño fruncido del juez Pyncheon. El hado la miraba al rostro, implacablemente. Abandonó la buhardilla con una sensación de fracaso. Nunca, a lo largo de sus años de reclusión voluntaria, había sentido como ahora lo terrible que es estar sola. Parecía como si la casa se hallase en un desierto o como si un hechizo la hiciese invisible para los que pasaban por la calle, de modo que podía ocurrir cualquier desgracia, cualquier crimen o accidente, sin que nadie acudiera a ayudarla o a socorrerla... En su pena y en su orgullo herido, Hepzibah había pasado la vida apartándose de los amigos, desdeñando obstinadamente la ayuda que el Señor ordena a sus criaturas que se presten unas a otras. Ahora, como castigo, Clifford estaba destinado a ser una víctima de su pariente enemigo.
Returning to the arched window, she lifted her eyes,--scowling, poor, dim-sighted Hepzibah, in the face of Heaven !--and strove hard to send up a prayer through the dense gray pavement of clouds. Those mists had gathered, as if to symbolize a great, brooding mass of human trouble, doubt, confusion, and chill indifference, between earth and the better regions. Her faith was too weak; the prayer too heavy to be thus uplifted. It fell back, a lump of lead, upon her heart. It smote her with the wretched conviction that Providence intermeddled not in these petty wrongs of one individual to his fellow, nor had any balm for these little agonies of a solitary soul; but shed its justice, and its mercy, in a broad, sunlike sweep, over half the universe at once. Its vastness made it nothing. But Hepzibah did not see that, just as there comes a warm sunbeam into every cottage window, so comes a lovebeam of God′s care and pity for every separate need. Volvió a la ventana en arco y levantó los ojos, mirando con ceño, ¡pobre Hepzibah !, el cielo tempestuoso, sin ánimos para enviar una plegaria a través del espeso techo de nubes grises que simbolizan la enorme serie de desgracias, dudas, confusión y fría indiferencia entre la tierra y lo Alto. Su fe era demasiado débil y la plegaria demasiado pesada para que pudiese volar. Cayó, pues, cual un trozo de plomo, al fondo de su corazón, hiriéndola con la convicción desoladora de que la Providencia no se ocupa de las cuestiones mínimas entre los hombres ni tiene ningún bálsamo para las pequeñas agonías de un alma solitaria. Al contrario, diríase que derrama su justicia y su misericordia a ciegas, como la luz del sol, sobre la mitad del mundo, dejando desamparada a la otra mitad. De tan vasta como es, no sirve para nada... Hepzibah no veía que del mismo modo que cada ventana tiene su rayo de sol, así Dios envía un rayo de amor y piedad a cada alma en tribulación.
At last, finding no other pretext for deferring the torture that she was to inflict on Clifford,--her reluctance to which was the true cause of her loitering at the window, her search for the artist, and even her abortive prayer,--dreading, also, to hear the stern voice of Judge Pyncheon from below stairs, chiding her delay,--she crept slowly, a pale, grief-stricken figure, a dismal shape of woman, with almost torpid limbs, slowly to her brother′s door, and knocked ! Por fin, no encontrando otro pretexto para diferir la tortura que iba a infligir a Clifford -esto la había hecho vagar por la casa y hasta intentar una oración-, temiendo, además, oír la voz del juez regañando por su tardanza, se deslizó lentamente, pálida, triste, lúgubre, con paso torpe, hasta la puerta del cuarto de su hermano, y llamó.
There was no reply. No obtuvo respuesta.
And how should there have been ? Her hand, tremulous with the shrinking purpose which directed it, had smitten so feebly against the door that the sound could hardly have gone inward. She knocked again. Still no response ! Nor was it to be wondered at. She had struck with the entire force of her heart′s vibration, communicating, by some subtile magnetism, her own terror to the summons. Clifford would turn his face to the pillow, and cover his head beneath the bedclothes, like a startled child at midnight. She knocked a third time, three regular strokes, gentle, but perfectly distinct, and with meaning in them; for, modulate it with what cautious art we will, the hand cannot help playing some tune of what we feel upon the senseless wood. ¿Cómo era posible ? Su mano, temblando ante lo inminente, había golpeado tan débilmente que el sonido apenas debió oírse en el interior. Llamó otra vez y tampoco obtuvo respuesta. No había de qué maravillarse. Golpeó con toda su fuerza, comunicando a los golpes su propio terror. ¿Qué tenía de extraño que Clifford hundiera el rostro en la almohada y se cubriera la cabeza con las mantas, igual que un niño a media noche ? Llamó por tercera vez, con tres golpes suaves, pero perfectamente claros, y llenos de sentido, pues la mano, quieras que no, siempre reproduce lo que siente el corazón que la mueve.
Clifford returned no answer. Clifford seguía sin contestar.
"Clifford ! Dear brother !" said Hepzibah. "Shall I come in ?" -¡Clifford ! -dijo Hepzibah-. ¿Puedo entrar ?
A silence. Silencio.
Two or three times, and more, Hepzibah repeated his name, without result; till, thinking her brother′s sleep unwontedly profound, she undid the door, and entering, found the chamber vacant. How could he have come forth, and when, without her knowledge ? Was it possible that, in spite of the stormy day, and worn out with the irksomeness within doors he had betaken himself to his customary haunt in the garden, and was now shivering under the cheerless shelter of the summer-house ? She hastily threw up a window, thrust forth her turbaned head and the half of her gaunt figure, and searched the whole garden through, as completely as her dim vision would allow. She could see the interior of the summer-house, and its circular seat, kept moist by the droppings of the roof. It had no occupant. Clifford was not thereabouts; unless, indeed, he had crept for concealment (as, for a moment, Hepzibah fancied might be the case) into a great, wet mass of tangled and broad-leaved shadow, where the squash-vines were clambering tumultuously upon an old wooden framework, set casually aslant against the fence. This could not be, however; he was not there; for, while Hepzibah was looking, a strange grimalkin stole forth from the very spot, and picked his way across the garden. Twice he paused to snuff the air, and then anew directed his course towards the parlor window. Whether it was only on account of the stealthy, prying manner common to the race, or that this cat seemed to have more than ordinary mischief in his thoughts, the old gentlewoman, in spite of her much perplexity, felt an impulse to drive the animal away, and accordingly flung down a window stick. The cat stared up at her, like a detected thief or murderer, and, the next instant, took to flight. No other living creature was visible in the garden. Chanticleer and his family had either not left their roost, disheartened by the interminable rain, or had done the next wisest thing, by seasonably returning to it. Hepzibah closed the window. Hepzibah repitió la llamada dos o tres veces y más, sin resultado. Creyendo que su hermano dormía, abrió la puerta, entró y hallóse con la estancia vacía. ¿Dónde pudo haber ido Clifford y cómo, sin que ella lo viese ? ¿Era posible que, a pesar de lo tempestuoso del día, vencido por el aburrimiento, hubiese salido al jardín y ahora estuviera temblando en la glorieta ? Abrió apresuradamente una ventana, asomó la cabeza y escudriñó por el jardín todo lo que le permitía su débil vista. Podía ver el interior de la glorieta y su asiento circular. Estaba desierta. Clifford no se hallaba en el jardín, a no ser que, según sospechó un instante Hepzibah, se hubiese ocultado tras unas enredaderas que trepaban por un viejo marco de madera. Pero no podía ser, porque mientras la solterona miraba, un gato salió escapado de detrás del macizo, se detuvo dos veces para husmear y siguió hacia la ventana del salón. Si esto obedecía a las furtivas maneras de los miembros de su especie, o si llevaba algún mal propósito, es cosa que no sabemos, pero la vieja señora, a pesar de su perplejidad, sintió impulsos de ahuyentar al gato y a este fin fue a buscar una tranca. El animal se detuvo, como un ladrón o un asesino descubierto, y emprendió la huida. En el jardín no se veía ni un ser viviente. Cantaclaro y su familia permanecían en el gallinero descorazonados por la interminable lluvia, o bien habían hecho lo más sensato después de esto, es decir, regresar a su hogar apenas salidos de él. Hepzibah cerró la ventana.
But where was Clifford ? Could it be that, aware of the presence of his Evil Destiny, he had crept silently down the staircase, while the Judge and Hepzibah stood talking in the shop, and had softly undone the fastenings of the outer door, and made his escape into the street ? With that thought, she seemed to behold his gray, wrinkled, yet childlike aspect, in the old-fashioned garments which he wore about the house; a figure such as one sometimes imagines himself to be, with the world′s eye upon him, in a troubled dream. This figure of her wretched brother would go wandering through the city, attracting all eyes, and everybody′s wonder and repugnance, like a ghost, the more to be shuddered at because visible at noontide. To incur the ridicule of the younger crowd, that knew him not,--the harsher scorn and indignation of a few old men, who might recall his once familiar features ! To be the sport of boys, who, when old enough to run about the streets, have no more reverence for what is beautiful and holy, nor pity for what is sad,--no more sense of sacred misery, sanctifying the human shape in which it embodies itself,--than if Satan were the father of them all ! Goaded by their taunts, their loud, shrill cries, and cruel laughter,--insulted by the filth of the public ways, which they would fling upon him,--or, as it might well be, distracted by the mere strangeness of his situation, though nobody should afflict him with so much as a thoughtless word,--what wonder if Clifford were to break into some wild extravagance which was certain to be interpreted as lunacy ? Thus Judge Pyncheon′s fiendish scheme would be ready accomplished to his hands ! ¿Dónde estaría Clifford ? ¿Era posible que, sabedor de la presencia en la casa de su Genio Malo, se hubiera deslizado silenciosamente por la escalera, mientras Hepzibah y el juez hablaban en la tienda, y, abriendo la puerta, hubiese huido a la calle ? Le parecía verle, con su aspecto infantil, a pesar de las canas, con las anticuadas prendas de vestir que usaba en casa, como una de esas figuras que en una pesadilla uno se cree ser y a la que todo el mundo mira. Esa figura de su hermano vagaría por la ciudad, atrayendo las miradas de las gentes, para asombro y repugnancia de todos, como un fantasma tanto más escalofriante cuanto que resultaba visible a mediodía. Incurriría en las burlas de los jóvenes que no le conocían y en la indignación de los viejos que le reconocerían. Le molestarían los chiquillos que no reverencian la santidad ni la belleza ni se apiadan de lo que es triste, desposeídos de todo sentido de las desgracias que santifican la forma humana en que toman cuerpo, insolentes como si Satanás fuese el progenitor de todos ellos. Se reirían de él, le gritarían, le insultarían... Quizá ni eso, quizá nadie se fijaría en él ni le molestaría. ¿Qué tendría de particular que Clifford, sorprendido por aquel mundo extraño, cometiese alguna extravagancia que sin duda tomarían por locura ? Así, el propio Clifford llevaría a cabo el diabólico plan del juez Pyncheon.
Then Hepzibah reflected that the town was almost completely water-girdled. The wharves stretched out towards the centre of the harbor, and, in this inclement weather, were deserted by the ordinary throng of merchants, laborers, and sea-faring men; each wharf a solitude, with the vessels moored stem and stern, along its misty length. Should her brother′s aimless footsteps stray thitherward, and he but bend, one moment, over the deep, black tide, would he not bethink himself that here was the sure refuge within his reach, and that, with a single step, or the slightest overbalance of his body, he might be forever beyond his kinsman′s gripe ? Oh, the temptation ! To make of his ponderous sorrow a security ! To sink, with its leaden weight upon him, and never rise again ! Recordó que la ciudad estaba casi completamente rodeada de agua. Las olas rompían en el propio puerto, y con aquel tiempo despiadado, el muelle debía estar desierto, con los buques atracados silenciosos y solitarios. Si los pasos sin rumbo de su hermano le llevaban allí, podía inclinarse sobre el agua honda y obscura y pensar que le ofrecía un refugio seguro y que, con sólo dar un paso o balancear el cuerpo, se hallaría para siempre fuera del alcance de las garras de su respetable primo. ¡Qué tentación ! ¡Hacer de aquella pena una seguridad ! ¡Hundirse y no volver nunca a salir !
The horror of this last conception was too much for Hepzibah. Even Jaffrey Pyncheon must help her now She hastened down the staircase, shrieking as she went. El horror de esta idea venció a Hepzibah. Hasta el juez Jaffrey Pyncheon tenía que ayudarle, ahora. Bajó las escaleras presurosa, gritando:
"Clifford is gone !" she cried. "I cannot find my brother. Help, Jaffrey Pyncheon ! Some harm will happen to him !" -¡Clifford se ha ido !... ¡No lo encuentro por ninguna parte ! ¡Jaffrey, hemos de encontrarlo ! ¡Puede ocurrirle algo !
She threw open the parlor-door. But, what with the shade of branches across the windows, and the smoke-blackened ceiling, and the dark oak-panelling of the walls, there was hardly so much daylight in the room that Hepzibah′s imperfect sight could accurately distinguish the Judge′s figure. She was certain, however, that she saw him sitting in the ancestral arm-chair, near the centre of the floor, with his face somewhat averted, and looking towards a window. So firm and quiet is the nervous system of such men as Judge Pyncheon, that he had perhaps stirred not more than once since her departure, but, in the hard composure of his temperament, retained the position into which accident had thrown him. Abrió la puerta del salón. La sombra del follaje en la ventana y el artesonado de roble sumían la habitación en tanta penumbra que la defectuosa vista de Hepzibah apenas pudo distinguir la figura del juez. Lo vio, sin embargo, en el sillón ancestral, en el centro de la estancia, con el rostro inclinado hacia la ventana. Tan firme y tranquilo era el sistema nervioso del juez Pyncheon que puede que no se hubiese movido desde que se sentó, conservando, por su compostura habitual, el gesto en que le colocó el azar.
"I tell you, Jaffrey," cried Hepzibah impatiently, as she turned from the parlor-door to search other rooms, "my brother is not in his chamber ! You must help me seek him !" -¡Jaffrey ! -dijo Hepzibah impaciente, yendo a otras habitaciones a proseguir su busca-. No encuentro a Clifford. Ayúdame a buscarle.
But Judge Pyncheon was not the man to let himself be startled from an easy-chair with haste ill-befitting either the dignity of his character or his broad personal basis, by the alarm of an hysteric woman. Yet, considering his own interest in the matter, he might have bestirred himself with a little more alacrity. Pero el juez no era hombre que abandonara un sillón con prisa, que sentaría mal a su carácter solemne y a su cuerpo macizo, por la alarma de una mujer histérica.
"Do you hear me, Jaffrey Pyncheon ?" screamed Hepzibah, as she again approached the parlor-door, after an ineffectual search elsewhere. "Clifford is gone." -¿Me oyes Jaffrey Pyncheon ? -gritó Hepzibah, aproximándose otra vez al salón, después de una búsqueda inútil en el resto de la casa- ¡Clifford se ha ido !
At this instant, on the threshold of the parlor, emerging from within, appeared Clifford himself ! His face was preternaturally pale; so deadly white, indeed, that, through all the glimmering indistinctness of the passageway, Hepzibah could discern his features, as if a light fell on them alone. Their vivid and wild expression seemed likewise sufficient to illuminate them; it was an expression of scorn and mockery, coinciding with the emotions indicated by his gesture. As Clifford stood on the threshold, partly turning back, he pointed his finger within the parlor, and shook it slowly as though he would have summoned, not Hepzibah alone, but the whole world, to gaze at some object inconceivably ridiculous. This action, so ill-timed and extravagant,--accompanied, too, with a look that showed more like joy than any other kind of excitement,--compelled Hepzibah to dread that her stern kinsman′s ominous visit had driven her poor brother to absolute insanity. Nor could she otherwise account for the Judge′s quiescent mood than by supposing him craftily on the watch, while Clifford developed these symptoms of a distracted mind. En ese momento, emergió en el umbral la figura de Clifford. Su rostro estaba tan sobrenaturalmente lívido, tan mortalmente pálido que en la obscuridad del pasillo Hepzibah pudo distinguirlo, como si lo iluminase una luz interior. Había en él una expresión de desprecio y burla. Con el dedo señalaba el salón, como emplazando, no sólo a Hepzibah, sino al mundo entero, a que contemplara algún objeto sumamente ridículo. Esta acción, tan extemporánea y extravagante, acompañada de una mirada extrañamente alegre, obligaron a la solterona a pensar que la visita de su primo había turbado el juicio de Clifford. Y supuso que la inmovilidad del juez se debía a que estaba vigilando atentamente los síntomas alarmantes que Clifford mostraba.
"Be quiet, Clifford !" whispered his sister, raising her hand to impress caution. "Oh, for Heaven′s sake, be quiet !" -¡Estáte quieto ! -murmuró Hepzibah, levantando una mano en señal de aviso-. Por amor de Dios, estáte quieto.
"Let him be quiet ! What can he do better ?" answered Clifford, with a still wilder gesture, pointing into the room which he had just quitted. "As for us, Hepzibah, we can dance now !--we can sing, laugh, play, do what we will ! The weight is gone, Hepzibah ! It is gone off this weary old world, and we may be as light-hearted as little Phoebe herself." -¡Deja que esté quieto él ! ¿Qué otra cosa puede hacer ? -contestó Clifford, señalando el salón que acababa de abandonar-. ¡Ahora sí que podemos bailar, Hepzibah !... ¡Podemos cantar, reír, jugar y hacer lo que queramos ! ¡Nos hemos librado de nuestra carga, hermana, y podemos tener el corazón tan ligero como el de la pequeña Phoebe !
And, in accordance with his words, he began to laugh, still pointing his finger at the object, invisible to Hepzibah, within the parlor. She was seized with a sudden intuition of some horrible thing. She thrust herself past Clifford, and disappeared into the room; but almost immediately returned, with a cry choking in her throat. Gazing at her brother with an affrighted glance of inquiry, she beheld him all in a tremor and a quake, from head to foot, while, amid these commoted elements of passion or alarm, still flickered his gusty mirth. Comenzó a reír, señalando todavía con el dedo a un objeto del salón, invisible para Hepzibah. Esta tuvo la súbita intuición de una horrible desgracia. Apartó a Clifford y entró, pero volvió a salir al momento. Con un grito ahogado en la garganta dirigiendo a su hermano una mirada medrosa e interrogativa, le agarró del brazo, temblando de pies a cabeza, mientras él seguía dando muestras de alegría.
"My God ! what is to become of us ?" gasped Hepzibah. -¡Dios mío ! ¿Qué será de nosotros ? -balbuceó la vieja señora.
"Come !" said Clifford in a tone of brief decision, most unlike what was usual with him. "We stay here too long ! Let us leave the old house to our cousin Jaffrey ! He will take good care of it !" -Ven -contestó Clifford con tono decidido, distinto del que le era habitual-. Hemos permanecido aquí demasiado tiempo. Abandonemos en esta vieja casa al primo Jaffrey. Dejémosle, que ya cuidará de ella...
Hepzibah now noticed that Clifford had on a cloak,--a garment of long ago,--in which he had constantly muffled himself during these days of easterly storm. He beckoned with his hand, and intimated, so far as she could comprehend him, his purpose that they should go together from the house. There are chaotic, blind, or drunken moments, in the lives of persons who lack real force of character,--moments of test, in which courage would most assert itself,--but where these individuals, if left to themselves, stagger aimlessly along, or follow implicitly whatever guidance may befall them, even if it be a child′s. No matter how preposterous or insane, a purpose is a Godsend to them. Hepzibah had reached this point. Unaccustomed to action or responsibility,--full of horror at what she had seen, and afraid to inquire, or almost to imagine, how it had come to pass,--affrighted at the fatality which seemed to pursue her brother,--stupefied by the dim, thick, stifling atmosphere of dread which filled the house as with a death-smell, and obliterated all definiteness of thought,--she yielded without a question, and on the instant, to the will which Clifford expressed. For herself, she was like a person in a dream, when the will always sleeps. Clifford, ordinarily so destitute of this faculty, had found it in the tension of the crisis. Hepzibah se dio cuenta de que Clifford llevaba una capa, una prenda anticuada con la que se había arropado durante aquellos días de tormenta. Hizo un signo con la mano indicando que debían salir de la casa. En la vida de las personas de carácter débil existen momentos caóticos, de ceguera, febriles, momentos de prueba en los cuales el valor se afirma, pero en que los individuos se quedan abandonados a sí mismos, vacilan, o siguen al primer guía que encuentran, aunque sea un niño. Por loco o absurdo que parezca, una orden, en estos casos, resulta un don de Dios. Hepzibah se hallaba en este estado. Mujer no acostumbrada a la acción ni a asumir una responsabilidad, horrorizada por lo que acababa de ver y temerosa de preguntar y hasta de imaginar cómo había sucedido, temiendo que la fatalidad persiguiera una vez más a su hermano, pasmada por la atmósfera de terror que llenaba la casa de olor a muerto y borraba todo pensamiento definido, Hepzibah se sometió al instante a la voluntad de Clifford. Parecía una sonámbula. Clifford, hombre sin voluntad, había hallado ésta en el momento de la crisis.
"Why do you delay so ?" cried he sharply. "Put on your cloak and hood, or whatever it pleases you to wear ! No matter what; you cannot look beautiful nor brilliant, my poor Hepzibah ! Take your purse, with money in it, and come along !" -¿Por qué te retrasas ? -gritó bruscamente-. Ponte la capa y la capucha o lo que quieras. Poco importa lo que sea... Ya no puedes estar hermosa, pobre Hepzibah. Coge tu bolso con dinero y vamonos.
Hepzibah obeyed these instructions, as if nothing else were to be done or thought of. She began to wonder, it is true, why she did not wake up, and at what still more intolerable pitch of dizzy trouble her spirit would struggle out of the maze, and make her conscious that nothing of all this had actually happened. Of course it was not real; no such black, easterly day as this had yet begun to be; Judge Pyncheon had not talked with, her. Clifford had not laughed, pointed, beckoned her away with him; but she had merely been afflicted--as lonely sleepers often are--with a great deal of unreasonable misery, in a morning dream ! La solterona obedeció. Se preguntaba si no despertaría y si en el momento más intolerable de su pesadilla no se daría cuenta de que todo era un sueño. Por supuesto, todo eso no tenía realidad. Se hallaba simplemente afligida -como suele suceder a los soñadores solitarios- por un cúmulo de desgracias irrazonables, sumida en un sueño mañanero.
"Now--now--I shall certainly awake !" thought Hepzibah, as she went to and fro, making her little preparations. "I can bear it no longer I must wake up now !" -Ahora... ahora despertaré -pensó Hepzibah, yendo y viniendo de aquí para allá, al hacer sus rápidos preparativos-. No puedo soportarlo ni un momento más. Tengo que despertarme.
But it came not, that awakening moment ! It came not, even when, just before they left the house, Clifford stole to the parlor-door, and made a parting obeisance to the sole occupant of the room. Pero el momento de despertar no llegó. Ni siquiera cuando, antes de partir, Clifford abrió la puerta del salón y saludó al único ocupante de la estancia con una gran reverencia.
"What an absurd figure the old fellow cuts now !" whispered he to Hepzibah. "Just when he fancied he had me completely under his thumb ! Come, come; make haste ! or he will start up, like Giant Despair in pursuit of Christian and Hopeful, and catch us yet !" -¡Qué aspecto más absurdo tiene ! -murmuró a Hepzibah.- Justamente cuando se imaginaba tenerme entre sus garras... Vamos, vamos... ¡Aprisa ! o se levantará, como el Gigante Desesperación que perseguía al Cristiano en El Progreso del Peregrino, de Bunyan, y aún nos cogerá.
As they passed into the street, Clifford directed Hepzibah′s attention to something on one of the posts of the front door. It was merely the initials of his own name, which, with somewhat of his characteristic grace about the forms of the letters, he had cut there when a boy. The brother and sister departed, and left Judge Pyncheon sitting in the old home of his forefathers, all by himself; so heavy and lumpish that we can liken him to nothing better than a defunct nightmare, which had perished in the midst of its wickedness, and left its flabby corpse on the breast of the tormented one, to be gotten rid of as it might ! Llamó la atención de su hermana sobre una de las tablas de la puerta. Aparecían grabadas las iniciales de su propio nombre, con su gracia característica en la forma de las letras. Las había marcado en la madera cuando era un chiquillo. Los dos hermanos salieron, dejando al juez Pyncheon en el sillón de sus antepasados, y dueño absoluto de la casa. Sólo podemos comparar su figura maciza a una pesadilla, muerta en medio de sus vilezas, abandonando su lacio cadáver sobre el pecho de las víctimas atormentadas por ella, para que se libren de él como puedan.