She was as struck with the beauty of his plural1 pronoun as she had judged he might be with that of her own; but she knew now so well what she was about that she could almost play with him and with her new-born joy. “You say ‘about the time you speak of.’ But I don’t think you speak of an exact time — do you?”
He looked splendidly helpless. “That’s just what I want to find out. Don’t you keep the old ones? — can’t you look it up?”
Our young lady — still at Paddington — turned the question over. “It wasn’t delivered?”
“Yes, it was; yet, at the same time, don’t you know? it wasn’t.” He just hung back, but he brought it out. “I mean it was intercepted2, don’t you know? and there was something in it.” He paused again and, as if to further his quest and woo and supplicate3 success and recovery, even smiled with an effort at the agreeable that was almost ghastly and that turned the knife in her tenderness. What must be the pain of it all, of the open gulf4 and the throbbing5 fever, when this was the mere6 hot breath? “We want to get what was in it — to know what it was.”
“I see — I see.” She managed just the accent they had at Paddington when they stared like dead fish. “And you have no clue?”
“Not at all — I’ve the clue I’ve just given you.”
“Oh the last of August?” If she kept it up long enough she would make him really angry.
“Yes, and the address, as I’ve said.”
“Oh the same as last night?”
He visibly quivered, as with a gleam of hope; but it only poured oil on her quietude, and she was still deliberate. She ranged some papers. “Won’t you look?” he went on.
“I remember your coming,” she replied.
He blinked with a new uneasiness; it might have begun to come to him, through her difference, that he was somehow different himself. “You were much quicker then, you know!”
“So were you — you must do me that justice,” she answered with a smile. “But let me see. Wasn’t it Dover?”
“Yes, Miss Dolman — ”
“Parade Lodge7, Parade Terrace?”
“Exactly — thank you so awfully8 much!” He began to hope again. “Then you have it — the other one?”
She hesitated afresh; she quite dangled9 him. “It was brought by a lady?”
“Yes; and she put in by mistake something wrong. That’s what we’ve got to get hold of!” Heavens, what was he going to say? — flooding poor Paddington with wild betrayals! She couldn’t too much, for her joy, dangle10 him, yet she couldn’t either, for his dignity, warn or control or check him. What she found herself doing was just to treat herself to the middle way. “It was intercepted?”
“It fell into the wrong hands. But there’s something in it,” he continued to blurt11 out, “that may be all right. That is, if it’s wrong, don’t you know? It’s all right if it’s wrong,” he remarkably12 explained.
What was he, on earth, going to say? Mr. Buckton and the counter-clerk were already interested; no one would have the decency13 to come in; and she was divided between her particular terror for him and her general curiosity. Yet she already saw with what brilliancy she could add, to carry the thing off, a little false knowledge to all her real. “I quite understand,” she said with benevolent14, with almost patronising quickness. “The lady has forgotten what she did put.”
“Forgotten most wretchedly, and it’s an immense inconvenience. It has only just been found that it didn’t get there; so that if we could immediately have it — ”
“Immediately?”
“Every minute counts. You have,” he pleaded, “surely got them on file?”
“So that you can see it on the spot?”
“Yes, please — this very minute.” The counter rang with his knuckles15, with the knob of his stick, with his panic of alarm. “Do, do hunt it up!” he repeated.
“I dare say we could get it for you,” the girl weetly returned.
“Get it?” — he looked aghast. “When?”
“Probably by to-morrow.”
“Then it isn’t here?” — his face was pitiful.
She caught only the uncovered gleams that peeped out of the blackness, and she wondered what complication, even among the most supposable, the very worst, could be bad enough to account for the degree of his terror. There were twists and turns, there were places where the screw drew blood, that she couldn’t guess. She was more and more glad she didn’t want to. “It has been sent on.”
“But how do you know if you don’t look?”
She gave him a smile that was meant to be, in the absolute irony16 of its propriety17, quite divine. “It was August 23rd, and we’ve nothing later here than August 27th.”
Something leaped into his face. “27th — 23rd? Then you’re sure? You know?”
She felt she scarce knew what — as if she might soon be pounced18 upon for some lurid19 connexion with a scandal. It was the queerest of all sensations, for she had heard, she had read, of these things, and the wealth of her intimacy20 with them at Cocker’s might be supposed to have schooled and seasoned her. This particular one that she had really quite lived with was, after all, an old story; yet what it had been before was dim and distant beside the touch under which she now winced21. Scandal? — it had never been but a silly word. Now it was a great tense surface, and the surface was somehow Captain Everard’s wonderful face. Deep down in his eyes a picture, a scene — a great place like a chamber22 of justice, where, before a watching crowd, a poor girl, exposed but heroic, swore with a quavering voice to a document, proved an alibi23, supplied a link. In this picture she bravely took her place. “It was the 23rd.”
“Then can’t you get it this morning — or some time to-day?”
She considered, still holding him with her look, which she then turned on her two companions, who were by this time unreservedly enlisted24. She didn’t care — not a scrap25, and she glanced about for a piece of paper. With this she had to recognise the rigour of official thrift26 — a morsel27 of blackened blotter was the only loose paper to be seen. “Have you got a card?” she said to her visitor. He was quite away from Paddington now, and the next instant, pocket-book in hand, he had whipped a card out. She gave no glance at the name on it — only turned it to the other side. She continued to hold him, she felt at present, as she had never held him; and her command of her colleagues was for the moment not less marked. She wrote something on the back of the card and pushed it across to him.
He fairly glared at it. “Seven, nine, four — ”
“Nine, six, one” — she obligingly completed the number. “Is it right?” she smiled.
He took the whole thing in with a flushed intensity28; then there broke out in him a visibility of relief that was simply a tremendous exposure. He shone at them all like a tall lighthouse, embracing even, for sympathy, the blinking young men. “By all the powers — it’s wrong!” And without another look, without a word of thanks, without time for anything or anybody, he turned on them the broad back of his great stature29, straightened his triumphant30 shoulders, and strode out of the place.
She was left confronted with her habitual31 critics. “‘If it’s wrong it’s all right!’” she extravagantly32 quoted to them.
The counter-clerk was really awe-stricken. “But how did you know, dear?”
“I remembered, love!”
Mr. Buckton, on the contrary, was rude. “And what game is that, miss?”
No happiness she had ever known came within miles of it, and some minutes elapsed before she could recall herself sufficiently33 to reply that it was none of his business.
收听单词发音 |
1
plural
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| n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的 | |
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intercepted
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| 拦截( intercept的过去式和过去分词 )； 截住； 截击； 拦阻 | |
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supplicate
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| v.恳求；adv.祈求地，哀求地，恳求地 | |
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gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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dangled
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| 悬吊着( dangle的过去式和过去分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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dangle
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| v.(使)悬荡，(使)悬垂 | |
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blurt
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| vt.突然说出，脱口说出 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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benevolent
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| adj.仁慈的，乐善好施的 | |
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knuckles
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| n.（指人）指关节( knuckle的名词复数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝 | |
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irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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pounced
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| v.突然袭击( pounce的过去式和过去分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击） | |
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lurid
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| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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alibi
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| n.某人当时不在犯罪现场的申辩或证明；借口 | |
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enlisted
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| adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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25
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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thrift
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| adj.节约，节俭；n.节俭，节约 | |
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morsel
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| n.一口，一点点 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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extravagantly
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| adv.挥霍无度地 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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