thy Midlands.

结果，当人去楼空，康妮的情绪却没有好转。她仍拖着沉重的步履艰难前行，愤懑之情紧紧攫住她的下半身，没有半点摆脱的可能。时间似乎放慢了脚步，生活中充斥着莫名的痛苦，日子就这么平淡无奇地过着。只是康妮日渐消瘦，甚至女管家都注意到这一点，问她是否身体有恙。就连汤米·杜克斯都坚持认为她多半病了，可康妮却说自己没关系。特弗沙尔教堂下方的山坡上，耸立着惨白色的墓碑，卡拉拉（注：意大利托斯卡纳大区一城市，以出产白色及蓝灰色大理石闻名）大理石那奇异的色泽，如同假牙般令人生厌，每当在自家园林中望见这恐怖的景象，康妮总会感到不寒而栗。那些假牙似的阴森墓碑，竖满整个山岗，让康妮体验到毛骨悚然的感觉。她觉得，过不了多久，自己也将被埋葬在那里，在这污秽不堪的中英格兰，长眠在墓石与墓碑之下，与群鬼为伍。

She needed help, and she knew it: so she wrote a little CRI DU COEUR to her sister, Hilda. "I'm not well lately, and I don't know what's the matter with me.” Down posted Hilda from Scotland, where she had taken up her abode. She came in March, alone, driving herself in a nimble two-seater. Up the drive she came, tooting up the incline, then sweeping round the oval of grass, where the two great wild beech-trees stood, on the flat in front of the house.

她需要帮助，她清楚这一点，因此便给姐姐希尔达去信，吐露心声。“最近我感觉不太舒服，至于到底出了什么问题，我自己也不明白。”希尔达匆匆从苏格兰赶来，她早已迁居到那里。希尔达赶到拉格比时，已是初春时节，她独自驾着自己那辆轻巧的双座轿车。她顺着车道驶上山坡，喇叭嘟嘟作响，绕过有两株高大野山毛榉的椭圆形草坪，停在屋前的平地上。

Connie had