Twenty-four COLIN LAMB’S NARRATIVE II

II
It was a quarter past twelve when I rang the bell at 62, Wilbraham Crescent. Mrs. Ramsay openedthe door. She hardly raised her eyes to look at me.
“What is it?” she said.
“Can I speak to you for a moment? I was here about ten days ago. You may not remember.”
She lifted her eyes to study me further. A faint frown appeared between her eyebrows¹.
“You came—you were with the police inspector², weren’t you?”
“That’s right, Mrs. Ramsay. Can I come in?”
“If you want to, I suppose. One doesn’t refuse to let the police in. They’d take a very poor viewof it if you did.”
She led the way into the sitting room, made a brusque gesture towards a chair and sat downopposite me. There had been a faint acerbity³ in her voice, but her manner now resumed⁴ alistlessness which I had not noted⁵ in it previously⁶.
I said:
“It seems quiet here today … I suppose your boys have gone back to school?”
“Yes. It does make a difference.” She went on, “I suppose you want to ask some morequestions, do you, about this last murder? The girl who was killed in the telephone box.”
“No, not exactly that. I’m not really connected with the police, you know.”
She looked faintly surprised.
“I thought you were Sergeant—Lamb, wasn’t it?”
“My name is Lamb, yes, but I work in an entirely⁷ different department.”
The listlessness vanished from Mrs. Ramsay’s manner. She gave me a quick, hard, direct stare.
“Oh,” she said, “well, what is it?”
“Your husband is still abroad?”
“Yes.”
“He’s been gone rather a long time, hasn’t he, Mrs. Ramsay? And gone rather a long way?”
“What do you know about it?”
“Well, he’s gone beyond the Iron Curtain, hasn’t he?”
She was silent for a moment or two, and then she said in a quiet, toneless voice:
“Yes. Yes, that’s quite right.”
“Did you know he was going?”
“More or less.” She paused a minute and then said, “He wanted me to join him there.”
“Had he been thinking of it for some time?”
“I suppose so. He didn’t tell me until lately.”
“You are not in sympathy with his views?”
“I was once, I suppose. But you must know that already … You check up pretty thoroughly⁸ onthings like that, don’t you? Go back into the past, find out who was a fellow traveller, who was aparty member, all that sort of thing.”
“You might be able to give us information that would be very useful to us,” I said.
She shook her head.
“No. I can’t do that. I don’t mean that I won’t. You see, he never told me anything definite. Ididn’t want to know. I was sick and tired of the whole thing! When Michael told me that he wasleaving this country, clearing out, and going to Moscow, it didn’t really startle⁹ me. I had to decidethen, what I wanted to do.”
“And you decided¹⁰ you were not sufficiently¹¹ in sympathy with your husband’s aims?”
“No, I wouldn’t put it like that at all! My view is entirely personal. I believe it always is withwomen in the end, unless of course one is a fanatic¹². And then women can be very fanatical, but Iwasn’t. I’ve never been anything more than mildly left-wing.”
“Was your husband mixed up in the Larkin business?”
“I don’t know. I suppose he might have been. He never told me anything or spoke¹³ to me aboutit.”
She looked at me suddenly with more animation¹⁴.
“We’d better get it quite clear, Mr. Lamb. Or Mr. Wolf in Lamb’s clothing, or whatever youare. I loved my husband, I might have been fond enough of him to go with him to Moscow,whether I agreed with what his politics were or not. He wanted me to bring the boys. I didn’t wantto bring the boys! It was as simple as that. And so I decided I’d have to stay with them. Whether Ishall ever see Michael again or not I don’t know. He’s got to choose his way of life and I’ve got tochoose mine, but I did know one thing quite definitely. After he talked about it to me. I wanted theboys brought up here in their own country. They’re English. I want them to be brought up asordinary English boys.”
“I see.”
“And that I think is all,” said Mrs. Ramsay, as she got up.
There was now a sudden decision in her manner.
“It must have been a hard choice,” I said gently. “I’m very sorry for you.”
I was, too. Perhaps the real sympathy in my voice got through to her. She smiled very slightly.
“Perhaps you really are … I suppose in your job you have to try and get more or less underpeople’s skins, know what they’re feeling and thinking. It’s been rather a knockout blow for me,but I’m over the worst of it … I’ve got to make plans now, what to do, where to go, whether tostay here or go somewhere else. I shall have to get a job. I used to do secretarial work once.
Probably I’ll take a refresher course in shorthand¹⁵ and typing.”
“Well, don’t go and work for the Cavendish Bureau,” I said.
“Why not?”
“Girls who are employed there seem to have rather unfortunate things happen to them.”
“If you think I know anything at all about that, you’re wrong. I don’t.”
I wished her luck and went. I hadn’t learnt anything from her. I hadn’t really thought I should.
But one has to tidy up the loose ends.

1 eyebrows   

眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Eyebrows stop sweat from coming down into the eyes. 眉毛挡住汗水使其不能流进眼睛。
• His eyebrows project noticeably. 他的眉毛特别突出。

2 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。

3 acerbity   

n.涩，酸，刻薄

参考例句：

• His acerbity to his daughter came home to roost.他对女儿的刻薄得到了恶报。
• The biggest to amino acerbity demand still is animal feed additive.对氨基酸需求量最大的仍是动物饲料添加剂。

4 resumed   

v.重新开始( resume的过去式和过去分词 )；重新获得；重新占用；恢复

参考例句：

• Play resumed quickly after the stoppage. 比赛中断后不久又继续进行。
• The violinist resumed playing after the intermission. 幕间休息之后，那小提琴手又重新开始演奏。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

6 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

7 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

8 thoroughly   

adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地

参考例句：

• The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
• The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。

9 startle   

v.（突然受）惊吓，使吃惊，吓得一跳

参考例句：

• Sorry,I didn't mean to startle you.对不起，我不是故意想吓你一跳的。
• I hope I didn't startle you.但愿我没有吓着您。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

11 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

12 fanatic   

n.狂热者，入迷者；adj.狂热入迷的

参考例句：

• Alexander is a football fanatic.亚历山大是个足球迷。
• I am not a religious fanatic but I am a Christian.我不是宗教狂热分子，但我是基督徒。

13 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

14 animation   

n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作

参考例句：

• They are full of animation as they talked about their childhood.当他们谈及童年的往事时都非常兴奋。
• The animation of China made a great progress.中国的卡通片制作取得很大发展。

15 shorthand   

n.速记，速记法

参考例句：

• The reporters took down the speech in shorthand.记者们迅速记下讲话的内容。
• Instead of writing her shorthand by hand,she could use a machine.她可以不用手，而使用一种带键盘的机器进行速记。