Virginia Woolf
   
                            The Legacy


Файл с книжной полки Несененко Алексея
OCR: Несененко Алексей, апрель 2003

   
   "For Sissy Miller." Gilbert Clandon, taking up the pearl brooch 
that lay among a litter of rings and brooches on a little table in his 
wife's drawing-room, read the inscription: "For Sissy Miller, with my 
love."
   It was like Angela to have remembered even Sissy Miller, her 
secretary. Yet how strange it was, Gilbert Clandon thought once more, 
that she had left everything in such order - a little gift of some 
sort for every one of her friends. It was as if she had foreseen her 
death. Yet she had been in perfect health when she left the house that 
morning, six weeks ago; when she stepped off the kerb in Piccadilly 
and the car had killed her.
   He was waiting for Sissy Miller. He had asked her to come; he owed 
her, he felt, after all the years she had been with them, this token 
of consideration. Yes, he went on, as he sat there waiting, it was 
strange that Angela had left everything in such order. Every friend 
had been left some little token of her affection. Every ring, every 
necklace, every little Chinese box - she had a passion for little 
boxes - had a name on it. And each had some memory for him. This he 
had given her; this - the enamel dolphin with the ruby eyes - she had 
pounced upon one day in a back street in Venice. He could remember her 
little cry of delight. To him, of course, she had left nothing in 
particular, unless it were her diary. Fifteen little volumes, bound in 
green leather, stood behind him on her writing table. Ever since they 
were married, she had kept a diary. Some of their very few - he could 
not call them quarrels, say tiffs - had been about that diary. When he 
came in and found her writing, she always shut it or put her hand over 
it. "No, no, no," he could hear her say, "after I'm dead - perhaps." 
So she had left it him, as her legacy. It was the only thing they had 
not shared when she was alive. But he had always taken it for granted 
that she would outlive him. If only she had stopped one moment and had 
thought what she was doing, she would be alive now. But she had 
stepped straight off the kerb, the driver of the car had said at the 
inquest. She had given him no chance to pull up.... Here the sound of 
voices in the hall interrupted him.
   "Miss Miller, Sir," said the maid.
   She came in. He had never seen her alone in his life, nor, of 
course, in tears. She was terribly distressed, and no wonder. Angela 
had been much more to her than an employer. She had been a friend. To 
himself, he thought, as he pushed a chair for her and asked her to sit 
down, she was scarcely distinguishable from any other woman of her 
kind. There were thousands of Sissy Millers - drab little women in 
black carrying attache cases. But Angela, with her genius for 
sympathy, had discovered all sorts of qualities in Sissy Miller. She 
was the soul of discretion; so silent: so trustworthy, one could tell 
her anything, and so on.
   Miss Miller could not speak at first. She sat there dabbing her 
eyes with her pocket handkerchief. Then she made an effort.
   "Pardon me, Mr. Clandon," she said.
   He murmured. Of course he understood. It was only natural. He could 
guess what his wife had meant to her.
   "I've been so happy here," she said, looking round. Her eyes rested 
on the writing table behind him. It was here they had worked - she and 
Angela. For Angela had her share of the duties that fall to the lot of 
a prominent politician's wife. She had been the greatest help to him 
in his career. He had often seen her and Sissy sitting at that table - 
Sissy at the typewriter, taking down letters from her dictation. No 
doubt Miss Miller was thinking of that, too. Now all he had to do was 
to give her the brooch his wife had left her. A rather incongruous 
gift it seemed. It might have been better to have left her a sum of 
money, or even the typewriter. But there it was - "For Sissy Miller, 
with my love." And, taking the brooch, he gave it her with the little 
speech that he had prepared. He knew, he said, that she would value 
it. His wife had often worn it.... And she replied, as she took it 
almost as if she too had prepared a speech, that it would always be a 
treasured possession.... She had, he supposed, other clothes upon 
which a pearl brooch would not look quite so incongruous. She was 
wearing the little black coat and skirt that Deemed the uniform of her 
profession. Then he remembered - she was in mourning, of course. She, 
too, had had her tragedy - a brother, to whom she was devoted, had 
died only a week or two before Angela. In some accident was it? He 
could not remember - only Angela telling him. Angela, with her genius 
for sympathy, had been terribly upset. Meanwhile Sissy Miller had 
risen. She was putting on her gloves. Evidently she felt that she 
ought not to intrude. But he could not let her go without saying 
something about her future. What were her plans? Was there any way in 
which he could help her?
   She was gazing at the table, where she had sat at her typewriter, 
where the diary lay. And, lost in her memories of Angela, she did not 
at once answer his suggestion that he should help her. She seemed for 
a moment not to understand. So he repeated:
   "What are your plans, Miss Miller?"
   "My plans? Oh, that's all right, Mr. Clandon," she exclaimed. 
"Please don't bother yourself about me."
   He took her to mean that she was in no need of financial 
assistance. It would be better, he realized, to make any suggestion of 
kind in a letter. All he could do now was to say as he pressed hand, 
"Remember, Miss Miller, if there's any way in which I help you, it 
will be a pleasure...." Then he opened the door, a moment, on the 
threshold, as if a sudden thought had struck she stopped.
   "Mr. Clandon," she said, looking straight at him for the first 
time, and for the first time he was struck by the expression, 
sympathetic yet searching, in her eyes. "If at any time," she 
continued, "there's anything I can do to help you, remember, I shall 
feel it, for your wife's sake, a pleasure...."
   With that she was gone. Her words and the look that went with them 
were unexpected. It was almost as if she believed, or hoped, that he 
would need her. A curious, perhaps a fantastic idea occurred to him as 
he returned to his chair. Could it be, that during all those years 
when he had scarcely noticed her, she, as the novelists say, had 
entertained a passion for him? He caught his own reflection in the 
glass as he passed. He was over fifty; but he could not help admitting 
that he was still, as the looking-glass showed him, a very 
distinguished-looking man.
   "Poor Sissy Miller!" he said, half laughing. How he would have 
liked to share that joke with his wife! He turned instinctively to her 
diary. "Gilbert," he read, opening it at random,
   "looked so wonderful...." It was as if she had answered his 
question. Of course, she seemed to say, you're very attractive to 
women. Of course Sissy Miller felt that too. He read on. "How proud I 
am to be his wife!" And he had always been very proud to be her 
husband. How often, when they dined out somewhere, he had looked at 
her across the table and said to himself, She is the loveliest woman 
here! He read on. That first year he had been standing for Parliament. 
They had toured his constituency. "When Gilbert sat down the applause 
was terrific. The whole audience rose and sang: 'For he's a jolly good 
fellow.' I was quite overcome." He remembered that, too. She had been 
sitting on the platform beside him. He could still see the glance she 
cast at him, and how she had tears in her eyes. And then? He turned 
the pages. They had gone to Venice. He recalled that happy holiday 
after the election. "We had ices at Florians." He smiled - she was 
still such a child; she loved ices. "Gilbert gave me a most 
interesting account of the history of Venice. He told me that the 
Doges..." she had written it all out in her schoolgirl hand. One of 
the delights of travelling with Angela had been that she was so eager 
to learn. She was so terribly ignorant, she used to say, as if that 
were not one of her charms. And then - he opened the next volume - 
they had come back to London. "I was so anxious to make a good 
impression. I wore my wedding dress." He could see her now sitting 
next old Sir Edward; and making a conquest of that formidable old man, 
his chief. He read on rapidly, filling in scene after scene from her 
scrappy fragments. "Dined at the House of Commons.... To an evening 
party at the Lovegroves. Did I realize my responsibility, Lady L. 
asked me, as Gilbert's wife?" Then, as the years passed - he took 
another volume from the writing table - he had become
   more and more absorbed in his work. And she, of course, was more 
often alone.... It had been a great grief to her, apparently, that 
they had had no children. "How I wish/' one entry read, "that Gilbert 
had a son!" Oddly enough he had never much regretted that himself. 
Life had been so full, so rich as it was. That year he had been given 
a minor post in the government. A minor post only, but her comment 
was: "I am quite certain now that he will be Prime Minister!" Well, if 
things had gone differently, it might have been so. He paused here to 
speculate upon what might have been. Politics was a gamble, he 
reflected; but the game wasn't over yet. Not at fifty. He cast his 
eyes rapidly over more pages, full of the little trifles, the 
insignificant, happy, daily trifles that had made up her life.
   He took up another volume and opened it at random. "What a coward I 
am! I let the chance slip again. But it seemed selfish to bother him 
with my own affairs, when he has so much to think about. And we so 
seldom have an evening alone." What was the meaning of that? Oh, here 
was the explanation - it referred to her work in the East End. "I 
plucked up courage and talked to Gilbert at last. He was so kind, so 
good. He made no objection." He remembered that conversation. She had 
told him that she felt so idle, so useless. She wished to have some 
work of her own. She wanted to do something - she had blushed so 
prettily, he remembered, as she said it, sitting in that very chair - 
to help others. He had bantered her a little. Hadn't she enough to do 
looking after him, after her home? Still, if it amused her, of course 
he had no objection. What was it? Some district? Some committee? Only 
she must promise not to make herself ill. So it seemed that every 
Wednesday she went to Whitechapel. He remembered how he hated the 
clothes she wore on those occasions. But she had taken it very 
seriously, it seemed. The diary was full of references like this: "Saw 
Mrs. Jones.... She has ten children.... Husband lost his arm in an 
accident.... Did my best to find a job for Lily." He skipped on. His 
own name occurred less frequently. His interest slackened. Some of the 
entries conveyed nothing to him. For example: "Had a heated argument 
about socialism with B. M." Who was B. M.? He could not fill in the 
initials; some woman, he supposed, that she had met on one of her 
committees. "B. M. made a violent attack upon the upper classes.... I 
walked back after the meeting with B. M. and tried to convince him. 
But he is so narrow-minded." So B. M. was a man - no doubt one of 
those "intellectuals," as they call themselves, who are so violent, as 
Angela said, and so narrow-minded. She had invited him to come and see 
her apparently. "B. M. came to dinner. He shook hands with Minnie!" 
That note of exclamation gave another twist to his mental picture. B. 
M., it seemed, wasn't used to parlourmaids; he had shaken hands with 
Minnie. Presumably he was one of those tame working men who air their 
views in ladies' drawing-rooms. Gilbert knew the type, and had no 
liking for this particular specimen, whoever B. M. might be. Here he 
was again. "Went with B. M. to the Tower of London.... He said 
revolution is bound to come... He said we live in a Fool's Paradise." 
That was just the kind of thing B. M. would say - Gilbert could hear 
him. He could also see him quite distinctly - a stubby little man, 
with a rough beard, red tie, dressed as they always did in tweeds, who 
had never done an honest day's work in his life. Surely Angela had the 
sense to see through him? He read on. "B. M. said some very 
disagreeable things about -." The name was carefully scratched out. "I 
told him I would not listen to any more abuse of -" Again the name was 
obliterated. Could it have been his own name? Was that why Angela 
covered the page so quickly when he came in? The thought added to his 
growing dislike of B. M. He had had the impertinence to discuss him in 
this very room. Why had Angela never told him? It was very unlike her 
to conceal anything; she had been the soul of candour. He turned the 
pages, picking out every reference to B. M. "B. M. told me the story 
of his childhood. His mother went out charring.... When I think of it, 
I can hardly bear to go on living in such luxury.... Three guineas for 
one hat!" If only she had discussed the matter with him, instead of 
puzzling her poor little head about questions that were much too 
difficult for her to understand! He had lent her books. Karl Marx, The 
Coming Revolution. The initials B. M., B. M., B. M., recurred 
repeatedly. But why never the full name? There was an informality, an 
intimacy in the use of initials that was very unlike Angela. Had she 
called him B. M. to his face? He read on. "B. M. came unexpectedly 
after dinner. Luckily, I was alone." That was only a year ago. 
"Luckily" - why luckily? - "I was alone." Where had he been that 
night? He checked the date in his engagement book. It had been the 
night of the Mansion House dinner. And B. M. and Angela had spent the 
evening alone! He tried to recall that evening. Was she waiting up for 
him when he came back? Had the room looked just as usual? Were there 
glasses on the table? Were the chairs drawn close together? He could 
remember nothing - nothing whatever, nothing except his own speech at 
the Mansion House dinner. It became more and more inexplicable to him 
- the whole situation: his wife receiving an unknown man alone. 
Perhaps the next volume would explain. Hastily he reached for the last 
of the diaries - the one she had left unfinished when she died. There, 
on the very first page, was that cursed fellow again. "Dined alone 
with B. M.... He became very agitated. He said it was time we 
understood each other.... I tried to make him listen. But he would 
not. He threatened that if I did not..." the rest of the page was 
scored over. She had written "Egypt. Egypt. Egypt," over the whole 
page. He could not make out a single word; but there could he only one 
interpretation: the scoundrel had asked her to become his mistress. 
Alone in his room! The blood rushed to Gilbert Clandon's face. He 
turned the pages rapidly. What had been her answer? Initials had 
ceased. It was simply "he" now. "He came again. I told him I could not 
come to any decision.... I implored him to leave me." He had forced 
himself upon her in this very house. But why hadn't she told him? How 
could she have hesitated for an instant? Then: "I wrote him a letter." 
Then pages were left blank. Then there was this: "Now answer to my 
letter." Then more blank pages; and then this: "He has done what he 
threatened." After that - what came after that? He turned page after 
page. All were blank. But there, on the very day before her death, was 
this entry: "Have I the courage to do it too? " That was the end.
   Gilbert Clandon let the hook slide to the floor. He could see her 
in front of him. She was standing on the kerb in Piccadilly. Her eyes 
stared; her fists were clenched. Here came the car....
   He could not bear it. He must know the truth. He strode to the 
telephone.
   "Miss Miller!" There was silence. Then he heard someone moving in 
the room.
   "Sissy Miller speaking" - her voice at last answered him.
   "Who," he thundered, "is B. M.?"
   He could hear the cheap clock ticking on her mantelpiece; then a 
long drawn sigh. Then at last she said:
   "He was my brother."
   He was her brother; her brother who had killed himself. "Is there," 
he heard Sissy Miller asking, "anything that I can explain? "
   "Nothing!" he cried. "Nothing!"
   He had received his legacy. She had told him the truth. She had 
stepped off the kerb to rejoin her lover. She had stepped off the kerb 
to escape from him.