Мертвая комната. Уровень 2 / The Dead Secret

Of the many defenses of the place, a heavy tower remained (from which the house derived its name of Porthgenna Tower).

The windows were broken in some places, and covered thickly with dirt and dust in others. Here, the shutters were closed – there, they were only half opened. The ivy, the vegetation, the spiders' webs, the rubbish of wood, bricks, plaster, broken glass, rags, and strips of soiled cloth lay beneath the windows.

Sarah Leeson strayed into the deserted northern garden. She stopped on an open patch of ground.

“What binds me to give the letter to my master at all?” she thought to herself. “My mistress died without my oath. Can she visit me from the other world? I can keep the promises[8 - keep the promises – сдержать обещания] I swore to observe, and do no more.”

She paused. Her superstitious fears were influencing her. She paused, and began to recall the terms of the solemn engagement.

What did she actually bind herself to do? Not to destroy the letter, and not to take it away with her if she left the house.

Beyond that, Mrs. Treverton's desire was to give the letter to her husband. But did Sarah take an oath? No.

As she arrived at that conclusion, she looked up. A faint flush of color flew into her cheeks, and she hastily advanced closer to the wall of the house.

The panes of the large window were yellow with dust and dirt. Below it was a heap of rubbish. Sarah glanced at the letter in her hand, and said to herself abruptly-

“I'll risk it!”

As the words fell from her lips, she hastened back to the inhabited part of the house.

She followed the passage on the kitchen-floor which led to the housekeeper's room. She entered it, and took a bunch of keys. She read “Keys of the North Rooms.”

She placed the keys on a writing-table near her, took up a pen, and rapidly added these lines on the blank side of the letter -

“If somebody finds this paper, I wish to say that I decided to hide it, because I dare not show this to my master, to whom it is addressed.

Though I am acting against my mistress's last wishes, I am not breaking the solemn engagement which she obliged me to make before her on her death-bed. That engagement forbids me to destroy this letter, or to take it away with me if I leave the house. I shall do neither – my purpose is to conceal it. Any hardship or misfortune will fall on myself.