“It affords me, if I may say so, the greatest satisfaction,” continued the noble lord, “that in a collaboration3 like ours all the uninteresting and disagreeable routine work is done by you.”
Parker grunted again.
“Do you anticipate any difficulty about the warrant?” inquired Lord Peter.
Parker grunted a third time.
“I suppose you’ve seen to it that all this business is kept quiet?”
“Of course.”
“Of course.”
“And the police?”
“Yes.”
“Because, if you haven’t there’ll probably be nobody to arrest.”
“My dear Wimsey, do you think I’m a fool?”
“I had no such hope.”
Parker grunted finally and departed.
Lord Peter settled down to a perusal5 of his Dante. It afforded him no solace6. Lord Peter was hampered7 in his career as a private detective by a public-school 211 education. Despite Parker’s admonitions, he was not always able to discount it. His mind had been warped8 in its young growth by “Raffles” and “Sherlock Holmes,” or the sentiments for which they stand. He belonged to a family which had never shot a fox.
“I am an amateur,” said Lord Peter.
Nevertheless, while communing with Dante, he made up his mind.
In the afternoon he found himself in Harley Street. Sir Julian Freke might be consulted about one’s nerves from two till four on Tuesdays and Fridays. Lord Peter rang the bell.
“Have you an appointment, sir?” inquired the man who opened the door.
“No,” said Lord Peter, “but will you give Sir Julian my card? I think it possible he may see me without one.”
He sat down in the beautiful room in which Sir Julian’s patients awaited his healing counsel. It was full of people. Two or three fashionably dressed women were discussing shops and servants together, and teasing a toy griffon. A big, worried-looking man by himself in a corner looked at his watch twenty times a minute. Lord Peter knew him by sight. It was Wintrington, a millionaire, who had tried to kill himself a few months ago. He controlled the finances of five countries, but he could not control his nerves. The finances of five countries were in Sir Julian Freke’s capable hands. By the fireplace sat a soldierly-looking young man, of about Lord Peter’s own age. 212 His face was prematurely9 lined and worn; he sat bolt upright, his restless eyes darting10 in the direction of every slightest sound. On the sofa was an elderly woman of modest appearance, with a young girl. The girl seemed listless and wretched; the woman’s look showed deep affection, and anxiety tempered with a timid hope. Close beside Lord Peter was another younger woman, with a little girl, and Lord Peter noticed in both of them the broad cheekbones and beautiful grey, slanting11 eyes of the Slav. The child, moving restlessly about, trod on Lord Peter’s patent-leather toe, and the mother admonished12 her in French before turning to apologize to Lord Peter.
“Mais je vous en prie, madame,” said the young man, “it is nothing.”
“She is nervous, pauvre petite,” said the young woman.
“You are seeking advice for her?”
“Yes. He is wonderful, the doctor. Figure to yourself, monsieur, she cannot forget, poor child, the things she has seen.” She leaned nearer, so that the child might not hear. “We have escaped—from starving Russia—six months ago. I dare not tell you—she has such quick ears, and then, the cries, the tremblings, the convulsions—they all begin again. We were skeletons when we arrived—mon Dieu!—but that is better now. See, she is thin, but she is not starved. She would be fatter but for the nerves that keep her from eating. We who are older, we forget—enfin, on apprend à ne pas y penser—but these children! 213 When one is young, monsieur, tout14 ?a impressionne trop.”
Lord Peter, escaping from the thraldom15 of British good form, expressed himself in that language in which sympathy is not condemned16 to mutism.
“But she is much better, much better,” said the mother, proudly; “the great doctor, he does marvels17.”
“C’est un homme précieux,” said Lord Peter.
“Ah, monsieur, c’est un saint qui opère des miracles! Nous prions pour lui, Natasha et moi, tous les jours. N’est-ce pas, chérie? And consider, monsieur, that he does it all, ce grand homme, cet homme illustre, for nothing at all. When we come here, we have not even the clothes upon our backs—we are ruined, famished18. Et avec ?a que nous sommes de bonne famille—mais hélas! monsieur, en Russie, comme vous savez, ?a ne vous vaut que des insultes—des atrocités. Enfin! the great Sir Julian sees us, he says—‘Madame, your little girl is very interesting to me. Say no more. I cure her for nothing—pour ses beaux yeux,’ a-t-il ajouté en riant. Ah, monsieur, c’est un saint, un véritable saint! and Natasha is much, much better.”
“Madame, je vous en félicite.”
“And you, monsieur? You are young, well, strong—you also suffer? It is still the war, perhaps?”
“Ah, yes. So many good, brave, young men—”
“Sir Julian can spare you a few minutes, my lord, if you will come in now,” said the servant.
Lord Peter bowed to his neighbour, and walked 214 across the waiting-room. As the door of the consulting-room closed behind him, he remembered having once gone, disguised, into the staff-room of a German officer. He experienced the same feeling—the feeling of being caught in a trap, and a mingling20 of bravado21 and shame.
He had seen Sir Julian Freke several times from a distance, but never close. Now, while carefully and quite truthfully detailing the circumstances of his recent nervous attack, he considered the man before him. A man taller than himself, with immense breadth of shoulder, and wonderful hands. A face beautiful, impassioned and inhuman22; fanatical, compelling eyes, bright blue amid the ruddy bush of hair and beard. They were not the cool and kindly23 eyes of the family doctor, they were the brooding eyes of the inspired scientist, and they searched one through.
“Yes,” said Sir Julian, “yes. You had been working too hard. Puzzling your mind. Yes. More than that, perhaps—troubling your mind, shall we say?”
“I found myself faced with a very alarming contingency25.”
“Yes. Unexpectedly, perhaps.”
“Very unexpected indeed.”
“Yes. Following on a period of mental and physical strain.”
“Well—perhaps. Nothing out of the way.” 215
“Yes. The unexpected contingency was—personal to yourself?”
“It demanded an immediate26 decision as to my own actions—yes, in that sense it was certainly personal.”
“Quite so. You would have to assume some responsibility, no doubt.”
“A very grave responsibility.”
“Affecting others besides yourself?”
“Affecting one other person vitally, and a very great number indirectly27.”
“Yes. The time was night. You were sitting in the dark?”
“Not at first. I think I put the light out afterwards.”
“Quite so—that action would naturally suggest itself to you. Were you warm?”
“I think the fire had died down. My man tells me that my teeth were chattering28 when I went in to him.”
“Yes. You live in Piccadilly?”
“Yes.”
“Heavy traffic sometimes goes past during the night, I expect.”
“Oh, frequently.”
“Just so. Now this decision you refer to—you had taken that decision.”
“Yes.”
“Your mind was made up?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Yes.”
“Yes. It involved perhaps a period of inaction.”
“Of comparative inaction—yes.”
“Yes—of suspense, certainly.”
“Possibly of some danger?”
“I don’t know that that was in my mind at the time.”
“No—it was a case in which you could not possibly consider yourself.”
“If you like to put it that way.”
“Quite so. Yes. You had these attacks frequently in 1918?”
“Yes—I was very ill for some months.”
“Much less frequently.”
“Yes—when did the last occur?”
“About nine months ago.”
“Under what circumstances?”
“I was being worried by certain family matters. It was a question of deciding about some investments, and I was largely responsible.”
“Yes. You were interested last year, I think, in some police case?”
“Yes—in the recovery of Lord Attenbury’s emerald necklace.”
“That involved some severe mental exercise?”
“I suppose so. But I enjoyed it very much.”
“None.”
“No. You were interested, but not distressed34.”
“Exactly.”
“Yes. You have been engaged in other investigations35 of the kind?”
“Yes. Little ones.”
“With bad results for your health?”
“Not a bit of it. On the contrary. I took up these cases as a sort of distraction36. I had a bad knock just after the war, which didn’t make matters any better for me, don’t you know.”
“Ah! you are not married?”
“No.”
“No. Will you allow me to make an examination? Just come a little nearer to the light. I want to see your eyes. Whose advice have you had till now?”
“Sir James Hodges’.”
“Ah! yes—he was a sad loss to the medical profession. A really great man—a true scientist. Yes. Thank you. Now I should like to try you with this little invention.”
“What’s it do?”
“Well—it tells me about your nervous reactions. Will you sit here?”
“Now, Lord Peter, I’ll tell you about yourself in quite untechnical language—”
“Thanks,” said Peter, “that’s kind of you. I’m an awful fool about long words.” 218
“Yes. Are you fond of private theatricals38, Lord Peter?”
“Not particularly,” said Peter, genuinely surprised. “Awful bore as a rule. Why?”
“I thought you might be,” said the specialist, drily. “Well, now. You know quite well that the strain you put on your nerves during the war has left its mark on you. It has left what I may call old wounds in your brain. Sensations received by your nerve-endings sent messages to your brain, and produced minute physical changes there—changes we are only beginning to be able to detect, even with our most delicate instruments. These changes in their turn set up sensations; or I should say, more accurately39, that sensations are the names we give to these changes of tissue when we perceive them: we call them horror, fear, sense of responsibility and so on.”
“Yes, I follow you.”
“Very well. Now, if you stimulate40 those damaged places in your brain again, you run the risk of opening up the old wounds. I mean, that if you get nerve-sensations of any kind producing the reactions which we call horror, fear, and sense of responsibility, they may go on to make disturbance41 right along the old channel, and produce in their turn physical changes which you will call by the names you were accustomed to associate with them—dread of German mines, responsibility for the lives of your men, strained attention and the inability to distinguish small sounds through the overpowering noise of guns.” 219
“I see.”
“This effect would be increased by extraneous42 circumstances producing other familiar physical sensations—night, cold or the rattling43 of heavy traffic, for instance.”
“Yes.”
“Yes. The old wounds are nearly healed, but not quite. The ordinary exercise of your mental faculties44 has no bad effect. It is only when you excite the injured part of your brain.”
“Yes, I see.”
“Yes. You must avoid these occasions. You must learn to be irresponsible, Lord Peter.”
“My friends say I’m only too irresponsible already.”
“Very likely. A sensitive nervous temperament45 often appears so, owing to its mental nimbleness.”
“Oh!”
“Yes. This particular responsibility you were speaking of still rests upon you?”
“Yes, it does.”
“You have not yet completed the course of action on which you have decided?”
“Not yet.”
“You feel bound to carry it through?”
“Oh, yes—I can’t back out of it now.”
“No. You are expecting further strain?”
“A certain amount.”
“Do you expect it to last much longer?”
“Very little longer now.” 220
“Ah! Your nerves are not all they should be.”
“No?”
“No. Nothing to be alarmed about, but you must exercise care while undergoing this strain, and afterwards you should take a complete rest. How about a voyage in the Mediterranean46 or the South Seas or somewhere?”
“Thanks. I’ll think about it.”
“Meanwhile, to carry you over the immediate trouble I will give you something to strengthen your nerves. It will do you no permanent good, you understand, but it will tide you over the bad time. And I will give you a prescription47.”
“Thank you.”
Sir Julian got up and went into a small surgery leading out of the consulting-room. Lord Peter watched him moving about—boiling something and writing. Presently he returned with a paper and a hypodermic syringe.
“Here is the prescription. And now, if you will just roll up your sleeve, I will deal with the necessity of the immediate moment.”
Lord Peter obediently rolled up his sleeve. Sir Julian Freke selected a portion of his forearm and anointed it with iodine48.
The surgeon laughed.
“Not exactly,” he said. He pinched up a portion of flesh between his finger and thumb. “You’ve had this kind of thing before, I expect.” 221
“Oh, yes,” said Lord Peter. He watched the cool fingers, fascinated, and the steady approach of the needle. “Yes—I’ve had it before—and, d’you know—I don’t care frightfully about it.”
The silence was like a shock. The blue eyes did not waver; they burned down steadily50 upon the heavy white lids below them. Then these slowly lifted; the grey eyes met the blue—coldly, steadily—and held them.
When lovers embrace, there seems no sound in the world but their own breathing. So the two men breathed face to face.
“As you like, of course, Lord Peter,” said Sir Julian, courteously51.
“Afraid I’m rather a silly ass,” said Lord Peter, “but I never could abide52 these little gadgets53. I had one once that went wrong and gave me a rotten bad time. They make me a bit nervous.”
“In that case,” replied Sir Julian, “it would certainly be better not to have the injection. It might rouse up just those sensations which we are desirous of avoiding. You will take the prescription, then, and do what you can to lessen54 the immediate strain as far as possible.”
“Oh, yes—I’ll take it easy, thanks,” said Lord Peter. He rolled his sleeve down neatly55. “I’m much obliged to you. If I have any further trouble I’ll look in again.”
“Do—do—” said Sir Julian, cheerfully. “Only 222 make an appointment another time. I’m rather rushed these days. I hope your mother is quite well. I saw her the other day at that Battersea inquest. You should have been there. It would have interested you.”
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1
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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irritably
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| ad.易生气地 | |
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collaboration
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| n.合作，协作；勾结 | |
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muzzled
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| 给（狗等）戴口套( muzzle的过去式和过去分词 )； 使缄默，钳制…言论 | |
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5
perusal
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| n.细读，熟读；目测 | |
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solace
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| n.安慰；v.使快乐；vt.安慰(物)，缓和 | |
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hampered
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| 妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8
warped
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| adj.反常的；乖戾的；（变）弯曲的；变形的v.弄弯，变歪( warp的过去式和过去分词 )；使（行为等）不合情理，使乖戾， | |
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9
prematurely
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| adv.过早地，贸然地 | |
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10
darting
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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12
admonished
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| v.劝告( admonish的过去式和过去分词 )；训诫；（温和地）责备；轻责 | |
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13
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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14
tout
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| v.推销，招徕；兜售；吹捧，劝诱 | |
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thraldom
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| n.奴隶的身份，奴役，束缚 | |
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16
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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17
marvels
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| n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 )；令人惊奇的事物（或事例）；不平凡的成果；成就v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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18
famished
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| adj.饥饿的 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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20
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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bravado
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| n.虚张声势，故作勇敢，逞能 | |
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22
inhuman
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| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
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23
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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24
explicit
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| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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contingency
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| n.意外事件，可能性 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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27
indirectly
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| adv.间接地，不直接了当地 | |
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28
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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29
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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30
suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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31
recurred
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| 再发生，复发( recur的过去式和过去分词 )； 治愈 | |
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32
exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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34
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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35
investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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36
distraction
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| n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐 | |
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37
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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38
theatricals
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| n.（业余性的）戏剧演出，舞台表演艺术；职业演员；戏剧的( theatrical的名词复数 )；剧场的；炫耀的；戏剧性的 | |
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39
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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40
stimulate
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| vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋 | |
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41
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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42
extraneous
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| adj.体外的；外来的；外部的 | |
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43
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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44
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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45
temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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46
Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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47
prescription
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| n.处方，开药；指示，规定 | |
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48
iodine
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| n.碘，碘酒 | |
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49
bugs
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| adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误 | |
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50
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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51
courteously
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| adv.有礼貌地，亲切地 | |
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52
abide
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| vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受 | |
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53
gadgets
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| n.小机械，小器具（ gadget的名词复数 ） | |
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54
lessen
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| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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55
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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