chapter 23

A low-swung Jaguar¹ swept around the hill in front of me and slowed down so as not to bathe me in the granite² dust from the half mile of neglected paving at the entrance to Idle Valley, It seemed they wanted it left that way to discourage the Sunday drivers spoiled by drifting along on superhighways. I caught a glimpse of a bright scarf and a pair of sun goggles³. A hand waved at me casually⁴, neighbor to neighbor. Then the dust slid across the road and added itself to the white film already well spread over the scrub and the sunbaked grass. Then I was around the outcrop and the paving started up in proper shape and everything was smooth and cared for. Live oaks clustered towards the road, as if they were curious to see who went by, and sparrows with rosy⁶ heads hopped⁷ about pecking at things only a sparrow would think worth pecking at. Then there were a few cottonwoods but no eucalyptus⁸. Then a thick growth of Carolina poplars screening a white house. Then a girl walking a horse along the shoulder of the road. She had levis on and a loud shirt and she was chewing on a twig⁹. The horse looked hot but not lathered¹⁰ and the girl was crooning to him gently. Beyond a fieldstone wall a gardener was guiding a power lawnmower over a huge undulating lawn that ended far back in the portico¹¹ of a Williamsburg Colonial mansion¹², the large de luxe size. Somewhere someone was playing left-handed exercises on a grand piano. Then all this wheeled away and the glisten¹³ of the lake showed hot and bright and I began to watch numbers on gateposts. I had seen the Wades¹⁴' house only once and in the dark. It wasn't as big as it had looked by night. The driveway was full of cars, so I parked on the side of the road and walked in. A Mexican butler in a white coat opened the door for me. He was a slender neat goodlooking Mexican and his coat fitted him elegantly and he looked like a Mexican who was getting fifty a week and not killing¹⁶ himself with hard work. He said: 'Buenas tardes, se.or," and grinned as if he had put one over. "Su nombre de Usted, por favor?" "Marlowe," I said, "and who are you trying to upstage, Candy? We talked on the phone, remember?" He grinned and I went in. It was the same old cocktail¹⁷ party, everybody talking too loud, nobody listening, everybody hanging on for dear life to a mug of the juice, eyes very bright, cheeks flushed or pale and sweaty according to the amount of alcohol consumed and the capacity of the individual to handle it. Then Eileen Wade¹⁵ materialized beside me in a pale blue something which did her no harm. She had a glass in her hand but it didn't look as if it was more than a prop⁵. "I'm so glad you could come," she said gravely. "Roger wants to see you in his study. He hates cocktail parties. He's working." "With this racket going on?" "It never seems to bother him, Candy will get you a drink—or if you'd rather go to the bar—" "I'll do that," I said. "Sorry about the other night." She smiled. "I think you apologized already. It was nothing." "The hell it was nothing." She kept the smile long enough to nod and turn and walk away. I spotted¹⁸ the bar over in the corner by some very large french windows. It was one of those things you push around. I was halfway¹⁹ across the room, trying not to bump anybody, when a voice said: "Oh, Mr. Marlowe." I turned and saw Mrs. Loring on a couch beside a prissy-looking man in rimless²⁰ cheaters with a smear²¹ on his chin that might have been a goatee. She had a drink in her hand and looked bored. He sat still with his arms folded and scowled²². I went over there. She smiled at me and gave me her hand. "This is my husband, Dr. Loring. Mr. Philip Marlowe, Edward." The guy with the goatee gave me a brief look and a still briefer nod. He didn't move otherwise. He seemed to be saving his energy for better things. "Edward is very tired," Linda Loring said. "Edward is always very tired." "Doctors often are," I said. "Can I get you a drink, Mrs. Loring? Or you, Doctor?" "She's had enough," the man said without looking at either of us. "I don't drink. The more I see of people who do, the more glad I am that I don't." "Come back, little Sheba," Mrs. Loring said dreamily. ETc swung around and did a take. I got away from there and made it to the bar. In the company of her husband Linda Loring seemed like a different person. There was an edge to her voice and a'sneer in her expression which she hadn't used on me even when she was angry. Candy was behind the bar. He asked me what I would drink. "Nothing right now, thanks. Mr. Wade wants to see me," "Es muy occupado, se.or. Very busy." I didn't think I was going to like Candy. When I just looked at him he added: "But I go see. De pronto, se.or." He threaded his way delicately through the mob and was back in no time at all. "Okay, chum, let's go," he said cheerfully. I followed him across the room the long way of the house. He opened a door, I went through, he shut it behind me, and a lot of the noise was dimmed. It was a corner room, big and cool and quiet, with french windows and roses outside and an airconditioner set in a window to one side. I could see the lake, and I could see Wade lying flat out on a long blond leather couch. A big bleached²³ wood desk had a typewriter on it and there was a pile of yellow paper beside the typewriter. "Good of you to come, Marlowe," he said lazily. "Park yourself. Did you have a drink or two?" "Not yet." I sat down and looked at him. He still looked a bit pale and pinched. "How's the work going?" "Fine, except that I get tired too quick. Pity a four-day drunk is so painful to get over. I often do my best work after one. In my racket it's so easy to tighten²⁴ up and get all stiff and wooden. Then the stuff is no good. When it's good it comes easy. Anything you have read or heard to the contrary is a lot of mishmash?' "Depends who the writer is, maybe," I said. "It didn't come easy to Flaubert, and his stuff is good." "Okay," Wade said, sitting up. "So you have read Flaubert, so that makes you an intellectual, a critic, a savant of the literary world." He rubbed his forehead. "I'm on the wagon²⁵ and I hate it. I hate everybody with a drink in his hand. I've got to go out there and smile at those creeps, Every damn one of them knows I'm an alcoholic²⁶. So they wonder what I'm running away from. Some Freudian bastard²⁷ has made that a commonplace. Every ten-year-old kid knows it by now. If I had a ten-year-old kid, which God forbid, the brat²⁸ would be asking me, 'What are you running away from when you get drunk, Daddy?" "The way I got it, all this was rather recent," I said. "It's got worse, but I was always a hard man with a bottle. When you're young and in hard condition you can absorb a lot of punishment. When you are pushing forty you don't snap back the same way." I leaned back and lit a cigarette. "What did you want to see me about?" 'What do you think I'm running away from, Marlowe?" "No idea. I don't have enough information, Besides, everybody is running away from something." "Not everybody gets drunk. What are you running away from? Your youth or a guilty conscience or the knowledge that you're a small time operator in a small time business?" "I get it," I said. "You need somebody to insult. Fire away, chum. When it begins to hurt I'll let you know." He grinned and rumpled²⁹ his thick curly hair. He speared his chest with a forefinger³⁰. "You're looking right at a small time operator in a small time business, Marlowe. All writers are punks and I am one of the punkest. I've written twelve best sellers, and if I ever finish that stack of magoozium on the desk there I may possibly have written thirteen. And not a damn one of them worth the powder to blow it to hell. I have a lovely home in a highly restricted residential³¹ neighborhood that belongs to a highly restricted multimillionaire. I have a lovely wife who loves me and a lovely publisher who loves me and I love me the best of all. I'm an egotistical son of a bitch, a literary prostitute or pimp — choose your own word—and an all-round heel. So what can you do for me?" "Well, what?" "Why don't you get sore?" "Nothing to get sore about. I'm just listening to you hate yourself. It's boring but it doesn't hurt my feelings." He laughed roughly. "I like you," he said, "Let's have a drink." "Not in here, chum. Not you and me alone. I don't care to watch you take the first one. Nobody can stop you and I don't guess anyone would try. But I don't have to help." He stood up. "We don't have to drink in here. Let's go outside and glance at a choice selection of the sort of people you get to know when you make enough lousy money to live where they live," "Look," I said. "Shove it. Knock it off. They're no different from anybody else." "Yeah," he said tightly, "but they ought to be. If they're not, what use are they? They're the dass of the county and they're no better than a bunch of truckdrivers full of cheap whiskey. Not as good." "Knock it off," I said again. "You want to get boiled, get boiled. But don't take it out on a crowd that can get boiled without having to lie up with Dr. Verringer or get loose in the head and throw their wives down the stairs." "Yeah," he said, and he was suddenly calm and thoughtful. "You pass the test, chum. How about coming to live here for a while? You could do me a lot of good just being here." "I don't see how." "But I do. Just by being here. Would a thousand a month interest you? I'm dangerous when I'm drunk. I don't want to be dangerous and I don't want to be drunk " "I couldn't stop you." "Try it for three months. I'd finish the damn book and then go far off for a while. Lie up some place in the Swiss mountains and get clean." "The book, huh? Do you have to have the money?" "No. I just have to finish something I started. If I don't I'm through. I'm asking you as a friend. You did more than that for Lennox." I stood up and walked over close to him and gave him a hard stare. "I got Lennox killed, mister. I got him killed." "Phooey. Don't go soft on me, Marlowe." He put the edge of his hand against his throat. "I'm up to here in the soft babies." "Soft?" I asked. "Or just kind?" He stepped back and stumbled against the edge of the couch, but didn't lose his balance. "The hell with you," he said smoothly³². "No deal. I don't blame you, of course. There's something I want to know, that I have to know. You don't know what it is and I'm not sure I know myself. All I'm positive of is that there is something, and I have to know it." "About who? Your wife?" He moved his lips one over the other. "I think it's about me," he said. "Let's go get that drink." He walked to the door and threw it open and we went out. If he had been trying to make me uncomfortable, he had done a first dass job.

1 jaguar   

n.美洲虎

参考例句：

• He was green with envy when he saw my new Jaguar car.看见我那辆美洲虎牌新车，他非常妒忌。
• Should you meet a jaguar in the jungle,just turn slowly,walk away.But slowly,never look back.你在丛林中若碰上美洲虎，就慢慢转身走开，可一定要慢，切莫回头看。

2 granite   

adj.花岗岩，花岗石

参考例句：

• They squared a block of granite.他们把一块花岗岩加工成四方形。
• The granite overlies the older rocks.花岗岩躺在磨损的岩石上面。

3 goggles   

n.护目镜

参考例句：

• Skiers wear goggles to protect their eyes from the sun.滑雪者都戴上护目镜使眼睛不受阳光伤害。
• My swimming goggles keep steaming up so I can't see.我的护目镜一直有水雾，所以我看不见。

4 casually   

adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地

参考例句：

• She remarked casually that she was changing her job.她当时漫不经心地说要换工作。
• I casually mentioned that I might be interested in working abroad.我不经意地提到我可能会对出国工作感兴趣。

5 prop   

vt.支撑；n.支柱，支撑物；支持者，靠山

参考例句：

• A worker put a prop against the wall of the tunnel to keep it from falling.一名工人用东西支撑住隧道壁好使它不会倒塌。
• The government does not intend to prop up declining industries.政府无意扶持不景气的企业。

6 rosy   

adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的

参考例句：

• She got a new job and her life looks rosy.她找到一份新工作，生活看上去很美好。
• She always takes a rosy view of life.她总是对生活持乐观态度。

7 hopped   

跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花

参考例句：

• He hopped onto a car and wanted to drive to town. 他跳上汽车想开向市区。
• He hopped into a car and drove to town. 他跳进汽车，向市区开去。

8 eucalyptus   

n.桉树，桉属植物

参考例句：

• Eucalyptus oil is good for easing muscular aches and pains.桉树油可以很好地缓解肌肉的疼痛。
• The birds rustled in the eucalyptus trees.鸟在桉树弄出沙沙的响声。

9 twig   

n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解

参考例句：

• He heard the sharp crack of a twig.他听到树枝清脆的断裂声。
• The sharp sound of a twig snapping scared the badger away.细枝突然折断的刺耳声把獾惊跑了。

10 lathered   

v.（指肥皂）形成泡沫( lather的过去式和过去分词 )；用皂沫覆盖；狠狠地打

参考例句：

• I lathered my face and started to shave. 我往脸上涂了皂沫，然后开始刮胡子。
• He's all lathered up about something. 他为某事而兴奋得不得了。 来自辞典例句

11 portico   

n.柱廊，门廊

参考例句：

• A large portico provides a suitably impressive entrance to the chapel.小教堂入口处宽敞的柱廊相当壮观。
• The gateway and its portico had openings all around.门洞两旁与廊子的周围都有窗棂。

12 mansion   

n.大厦，大楼；宅第

参考例句：

• The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
• The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。

13 glisten   

vi.（光洁或湿润表面等）闪闪发光，闪闪发亮

参考例句：

• Dewdrops glisten in the morning sun.露珠在晨光下闪闪发光。
• His sunken eyes glistened with delight.他凹陷的眼睛闪现出喜悦的光芒。

14 wades   

（从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• A lumi wields a golden morningstar with trained ease as it wades into melee. 光民熟练地挥舞钉头锤加入战团。

15 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

16 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

17 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

18 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

19 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

20 rimless   

adj.无边的

参考例句：

• Among the guests was a quiet, agreeable man with rimless glasses locking like a college professor. 宾客中有一个沉静和蔼的人戴着无边眼镜，看起来象大学教授。 来自辞典例句
• Heyward's aquiline, austere face showed concentration; behind rimless glasses his grey eyes were cool. 海沃德那长着鹰钩鼻子的严峻的脸上露出十分专注的神情，无框眼镜的后面，一双褐色的眼睛闪着寒光。 来自辞典例句

21 smear   

v.涂抹；诽谤，玷污；n.污点；诽谤，污蔑

参考例句：

• He has been spreading false stories in an attempt to smear us.他一直在散布谎言企图诽谤我们。
• There's a smear on your shirt.你衬衫上有个污点。

22 scowled   

怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He scowled his displeasure. 他满脸嗔色。
• The teacher scowled at his noisy class. 老师对他那喧闹的课堂板着脸。

23 bleached   

漂白的，晒白的，颜色变浅的

参考例句：

• His hair was bleached by the sun . 他的头发被太阳晒得发白。
• The sun has bleached her yellow skirt. 阳光把她的黄裙子晒得褪色了。

24 tighten   

v.(使)变紧；(使)绷紧

参考例句：

• Turn the screw to the right to tighten it.向右转动螺钉把它拧紧。
• Some countries tighten monetary policy to avoid inflation.一些国家实行紧缩银根的货币政策，以避免通货膨胀。

25 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

26 alcoholic   

adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者

参考例句：

• The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
• Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。

27 bastard   

n.坏蛋，混蛋；私生子

参考例句：

• He was never concerned about being born a bastard.他从不介意自己是私生子。
• There was supposed to be no way to get at the bastard.据说没有办法买通那个混蛋。

28 brat   

n.孩子；顽童

参考例句：

• He's a spoilt brat.他是一个被宠坏了的调皮孩子。
• The brat sicked his dog on the passer-by.那个顽童纵狗去咬过路人。

29 rumpled   

v.弄皱，使凌乱( rumple的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She rumpled his hair playfully. 她顽皮地弄乱他的头发。
• The bed was rumpled and strewn with phonograph records. 那张床上凌乱不堪，散放着一些唱片。 来自辞典例句

30 forefinger   

n.食指

参考例句：

• He pinched the leaf between his thumb and forefinger.他将叶子捏在拇指和食指之间。
• He held it between the tips of his thumb and forefinger.他用他大拇指和食指尖拿着它。

31 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

32 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。