At that momentwe were interrupted by the appearance of Madame Coutras, who had been payingvisits. She came in, like a ship in full sail, an imposing creature, tall andstout, with an ample bust and an obesity girthed in alarmingly bystraight-fronted corsets. She had a bold hooked nose and three chins. She heldherself upright. She had not yielded for an instant to the enervating charm ofthe tropics, but contrariwise was more active, more worldly, more decided thananyone in a temperate clime would have thought it possible to be. She wasevidently a copious talker, and now poured forth a breathless stream ofanecdote and comment. She made the conversation we had just had seem far awayand unreal.Presently Dr.Coutras turned to me."I stillhave in my bureau the picture that Strickland gave me, " he said."Would you like to see it?""Willingly."We got up, andhe led me on to the verandah which surrounded his house. We paused to look atthe gay flowers that rioted in his garden."For along time I could not get out of my head the recollection of the extraordinarydecoration with which Strickland had covered the walls of his house, " hesaid reflectively.I had beenthinking of it, too. It seemed to me that here Strickland had finally put thewhole expression of himself. Working silently, knowing that it was his lastchance, I fancied that here he must have said all that he knew of life and allthat he divined. And I fancied that perhaps here he had at last found peace.The demon which possessed him was exorcised at last, and with the completion ofthe work, for which all his life had been a painful preparation, rest descendedon his remote and tortured soul. He was willing to die, for he had fulfilledhis purpose."What wasthe subject?" I asked.这时候库特拉斯太太看朋友回来，我们的谈话暂时被打断了。库特拉斯太太象一只帆篷张得鼓鼓的小船，精神抖擞地闯了进来。她是个又高大又肥胖的女人，胸部膨脝饱满，却紧紧勒着束胸。她生着一个大鹰钩鼻，下巴耷拉着三圈肥肉，身躯挺得笔直。尽管热带气候一般总是叫人慵懒无力，对她却丝毫没有影响。相反地，库特拉斯太太又精神又世故，行动敏捷果断，在这种叫人昏昏欲睡的地带里，谁也想不到她有这么充沛的精力。此外，她显然还是个非常健谈的人；自踏进屋门的一分钟起，她就谈论这个、品评那个，话语滔滔不绝。我们刚才那场谈话在库特拉斯太太进屋以后显得非常遥远、非常不真实了。过了一会儿，库特拉斯医生对我说：“思特里克兰德给我的那幅画一直挂在我的书房①里。你要去看看吗？”①原文为法语。“我很想看看。”我们站起来，医生领着我走到室外环绕着这幢房子的阳台上。我们在外面站了一会儿，看了看他花园里争奇斗妍的绚烂的鲜花。“看了思特里克兰德用来装饰他房屋四壁的那些奇异的画幅，很久很久我老是忘不掉，”他沉思地说。我脑子里想的也正是这件事。看来思特里克兰德终于把他的内心世界完全表现出来了。他默默无言地工作着，心里非常清楚，这是他一生中最后一个机会了。我想思特里克兰德一定把他理解的生活、把他的慧眼所看到的世界用图象表示了出来。我还想，他在创作这些巨画时也许终于寻找到心灵的平静；缠绕着他的魔鬼最后被拔除了。他痛苦的一生似乎就是为这些壁画做准备，在图画完成的时候，他那远离尘嚣的受折磨的灵魂也就得到了安息。对于死他勿宁说抱着一种欢迎的态度，因为他一生追求的目的已经达到了。“他的画主题是什么？”我问。