V LALA HUANG

 “No,” said Lala Huang, “I don't like London—not this part of London.”

 

“Where would you rather be?” asked Durham. “In China?”

 

Dusk had dropped its merciful curtain over Limehouse, and as the two paced slowly along West India Dock Road it seemed to the detective that a sort of glamour¹ had crept into the scene.

 

He was a clever man within his limitations, and cultured up to a point; but he was not philosopher enough to know that he viewed the purlieus of Limehouse through a haze² of Oriental mystery conjured³ up by the conversation of his companion. Temple bells there were in the clangour of the road cars. The smoke-stacks had a semblance⁴ of pagodas⁵. Burma she had conjured up before him, and China, and the soft islands where she had first seen the light. For as well as a streak⁶ of European, there was Kanaka blood in Lala, which lent her an appeal quite new to Durham, insidious⁷ and therefore dangerous.

 

“Not China,” she replied. “Somehow I don't think I shall ever see China again. But my father is rich, and it is dreadful to think that we live here when there are so many more beautiful places to live in.”

 

“Then why does he stay?” asked Durham with curiosity.

 

“For money, always for money,” answered Lala, shrugging her shoulders. “Yet if it is not to bring happiness, what good is it?”

 

“What good indeed?” murmured Durham.

 

“There is no fun for me,” said the girl pathetically. “Sometimes someone nice comes to do business, but mostly they are Jews, Jews, always Jews, and———” Again she shrugged⁸ eloquently⁹.

 

Durham perceived the very opening for which he had been seeking..

 

“You evidently don't like Jews,” he said endeavouring to speak lightly.

 

“No,” murmured the girl, “I don't think I do. Some are nice, though. I think it is the same with every kind of people—there are good and bad.”

 

“Were you ever in America?” asked Durham.

 

“No.”

 

“I was just thinking,” he explained, “that I have known several American Jews who were quite good fellows.”

 

“Yes?” said Lala, looking up at him naively¹⁰, “I met one not long ago. He was not nice at all.”

 

“Oh!” exclaimed Durham, startled by this admission, which he had not anticipated. “One of your father's customers?”

 

“Yes, a man named Cohen.”

 

“Cohen?”

 

“A funny little chap,” continued the girl. “He tried to make love to me.” She lowered her lashes¹¹ roguishly. “I knew all along he was pretending. He was a thief, I think. I was afraid of him.”

 

Durham did some rapid thinking, then:

 

“Did you say his name was Cohen?” he asked.

 

“That was the name he gave.”

 

“A man named Cohen, an American, was found dead in the river quite recently.”

 

Lala stopped dead and clutched his arm.

 

“How do you know?” she demanded.

 

“There was a paragraph in this morning's paper.”

 

She hesitated, then:

 

“Did it describe him?” she asked.

 

“No,” replied Durham, “I don't think it did in detail. At least, the only part of the description which I remember is that he wore a large and valuable diamond on his left hand.”

 

“Oh!” whispered Lala.

 

She released her grip of Durham's arm and went on.

 

“What?” he asked. “Did you think it was someone you knew?”

 

“I did know him,” she replied simply. “The man who was found drowned. It is the same. I am sure now, because of the diamond ring. What paper did you read it in? I want to read it myself.”

 

“I'm afraid I can't remember. It was probably the Daily Mail.”

 

“Had he been drowned?”

 

“I presume so—yes,” replied Durham guardedly.

 

Lala Huang was silent for some time while they paced on through the dusk. Then:

 

“How strange!” she said in a low voice.

 

“I am sorry I mentioned it,” declared Durham. “But how was I to know it was your friend?”

 

“He was no friend of mine,” returned the girl sharply. “I hated him. But it is strange nevertheless. I am sure he intended to rob my father.”

 

“And is that why you think it strange?”

 

“Yes,” she said, but her voice was almost inaudible.

 

They were come now to the narrow street communicating with the courtway in which the great treasure-house of Huang Chow was situated¹², and Lala stopped at the corner.

 

“It was nice of you to walk along with me,” she said. “Do you live in Limehouse?”

 

“No,” replied Durham, “I don't. As a matter of fact, I came down here to-night in the hope of seeing you again.”

 

“Did you?”

 

The girl glanced up at him doubtfully, and his distaste for the task set him by his superior increased with the passing of every moment. He was a man of some imagination, a great reader, and ambitious professionally. He appreciated the fact that Chief Inspector¹³ Kerry looked for great things from him, but for this type of work he had little inclination¹⁴.

 

There was too much chivalry¹⁵ in his make-up to enable him to play upon a woman's sentiments, even in the interests of justice. By whatever means the man Cohen had met his death, and whether or no the Chinaman Pi Lung had died by the same hand, Lala Huang was innocent of any complicity in these matters, he was perfectly¹⁶ well assured.

 

Doubts were to come later when he was away from her, when he had had leisure to consider that she might regard him in the light of a third potential rifler of her father's treasure-house. But at the moment, looking down into her dark eyes, he reproached himself and wondered where his true duty lay.

 

“It is so gray and dull and sordid¹⁷ here,” said the girl, looking down the darkened street. “There is no one much to talk to.”

 

“But you have your business interests to keep you employed during the day, after all.”

 

“I hate it all. I hate it all.”

 

“But you seem to have perfect freedom?”

 

“Yes. My mother, you see, was not Chinese.”

 

“But you wish to leave Limehouse?”

 

“I do. I do. Just now it is not so bad, but in the winter how I tire of the gray skies, the endless drizzling¹⁸ rain. Oh!” She shrank back into the shadow of a doorway¹⁹, clutching at Durham's arm. “Don't let Ah Fu see me.”

 

“Ah Fu? Who is Ah Fu?” asked Durham, also drawing back as a furtive²⁰ figure went slinking down the opposite side of the street.

 

“My father's servant. He let you in this morning.”

 

“And why must he not see you?”

 

“I don't trust him. I think he tells my father things.”

 

“What is it that he carries in his hand?”

 

“A birdcage, I expect.”

 

“A birdcage?”

 

“Yes!”

 

He caught the gleam of her eyes as she looked up at him out of the shadow.

 

“Is he, then, a bird-fancier?”

 

“No, no, I can't explain because I don't understand myself. But Ah Fu goes to a place in Shadwell regularly and buys young birds, always very young ones and very little ones.”

 

“For what or for whom?”

 

“I don't know.”

 

“Have you an aviary²¹ in your house?”

 

“No.”

 

“Do you mean that they disappear, these purchases of Ah Fu's?”

 

“I often see him carrying a cage of young birds, but we have no birds in the house.”

 

“How perfectly extraordinary!” muttered Durham.

 

“I distrust Ah Fu,” whispered the girl. “I am glad he did not see me with you.”

 

“Young birds,” murmured Durham absently. “What kind of young birds? Any particular breed?”

 

“No; canaries, linnets—all sorts. Isn't it funny?” The girl laughed in a childish way. “And now I think Ah Fu will have gone in, so I must say good night.”

 

But when presently Detective Durham found himself walking back along West India Dock Road, his mind's eye was set upon the slinking figure of a Chinaman carrying a birdcage.

1 glamour   

n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住

参考例句：

• Foreign travel has lost its glamour for her.到国外旅行对她已失去吸引力了。
• The moonlight cast a glamour over the scene.月光给景色增添了魅力。

2 haze   

n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊

参考例句：

• I couldn't see her through the haze of smoke.在烟雾弥漫中，我看不见她。
• He often lives in a haze of whisky.他常常是在威士忌的懵懂醉意中度过的。

3 conjured   

用魔术变出( conjure的过去式和过去分词 )； 祈求，恳求； 变戏法； （变魔术般地） 使…出现

参考例句：

• He conjured them with his dying breath to look after his children. 他临终时恳求他们照顾他的孩子。
• His very funny joke soon conjured my anger away. 他讲了个十分有趣的笑话，使得我的怒气顿消。

4 semblance   

n.外貌，外表

参考例句：

• Her semblance of anger frightened the children.她生气的样子使孩子们感到害怕。
• Those clouds have the semblance of a large head.那些云的形状像一个巨大的人头。

5 pagodas   

塔，宝塔( pagoda的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A dream is more romantic than scarlet pagodas by a silver sea. 梦中的风光比银白海洋旁边绯红的宝塔更加旖旎艳丽。
• Tabinshwehti placed new spires on the chief Mon pagodas. 莽瑞体在孟人的主要佛塔上加建了新的塔顶。

6 streak   

n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动

参考例句：

• The Indians used to streak their faces with paint.印第安人过去常用颜料在脸上涂条纹。
• Why did you streak the tree?你为什么在树上刻条纹？

7 insidious   

adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧

参考例句：

• That insidious man bad-mouthed me to almost everyone else.那个阴险的家伙几乎见人便说我的坏话。
• Organized crime has an insidious influence on all who come into contact with it.所有和集团犯罪有关的人都会不知不觉地受坏影响。

8 shrugged   

vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
• She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 eloquently   

adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地)

参考例句：

• I was toasted by him most eloquently at the dinner. 进餐时他口若悬河地向我祝酒。
• The poet eloquently expresses the sense of lost innocence. 诗人动人地表达了失去天真的感觉。

10 naively   

adv. 天真地

参考例句：

• They naively assume things can only get better. 他们天真地以为情况只会变好。
• In short, Knox's proposal was ill conceived and naively made. 总而言之，诺克斯的建议考虑不周，显示幼稚。

11 lashes   

n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥

参考例句：

• Mother always lashes out food for the children's party. 孩子们聚会时，母亲总是给他们许多吃的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Never walk behind a horse in case it lashes out. 绝对不要跟在马后面，以防它突然猛踢。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 situated   

adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的

参考例句：

• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。
• She is awkwardly situated.她的处境困难。

13 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

14 inclination   

n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好

参考例句：

• She greeted us with a slight inclination of the head.她微微点头向我们致意。
• I did not feel the slightest inclination to hurry.我没有丝毫着急的意思。

15 chivalry   

n.骑士气概，侠义；（男人）对女人彬彬有礼，献殷勤

参考例句：

• The Middle Ages were also the great age of chivalry.中世纪也是骑士制度盛行的时代。
• He looked up at them with great chivalry.他非常有礼貌地抬头瞧她们。

16 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

17 sordid   

adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的

参考例句：

• He depicts the sordid and vulgar sides of life exclusively.他只描写人生肮脏和庸俗的一面。
• They lived in a sordid apartment.他们住在肮脏的公寓房子里。

18 drizzling   

下蒙蒙细雨，下毛毛雨( drizzle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The rain has almost stopped, it's just drizzling now. 雨几乎停了，现在只是在下毛毛雨。
• It was drizzling, and miserably cold and damp. 外面下着毛毛细雨，天气又冷又湿，令人难受。

19 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

20 furtive   

adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的

参考例句：

• The teacher was suspicious of the student's furtive behaviour during the exam.老师怀疑这个学生在考试时有偷偷摸摸的行为。
• His furtive behaviour aroused our suspicion.他鬼鬼祟祟的行为引起了我们的怀疑。

21 aviary   

n.大鸟笼，鸟舍

参考例句：

• There are many different kinds of birds in the aviary.大鸟笼里有很多不同种类的鸟。
• There was also an aviary full of rare birds.那里面还有装满稀有鸟类的鸟舍。