Ten II

II
Later that evening Dr. Stillingfleet made a telephone call.
“Quite a good operation kidnap,” he said. “She’s down at Kenway Court. Came like a lamb.
Can’t tell you much yet. The girl’s full of drugs. I’d say she’d been taking purple hearts, anddream bombs, and probably LSD…She’s been all hopped-up for some time. She says no, but Iwouldn’t trust much to what she says.”
He listened for a moment. “Don’t ask me! One will have to go carefully there. She gets the windup easy…Yes, she’s scared of something, or she’s pretending to be scared of something….
“I don’t know yet, I can’t tell. Remember people who take drugs are tricky¹. You can’t believewhat they say always. We haven’t rushed things and I don’t want to startle her….
“A father complex as a child. I’d say didn’t care much for her mother who sounds a grimwoman by all accounts—the self-righteous martyr² type. I’d say Father was a gay one, and couldn’tquite stand the grimness of married life—Know of anyone called Louise?…The name seemed tofrighten her—She was the girl’s first hate, I should say. She took Father away at the time the childwas five. Children don’t understand very much at that age, but they’re very quick to feelresentment of the person they feel was responsible. She didn’t see Father again until apparently³ afew months ago. I’d say she’d had sentimental⁴ dreams of being her father’s companion and theapple of his eye. She got disillusioned⁵ apparently. Father came back with a wife, a new youngattractive wife. She’s not called Louise, is she?…Oh well, I only asked. I’m giving you roughlythe picture, the general picture, that is.”
The voice at the other end of the wire said sharply, “What is that you say? Say it again.”
“I said I’m giving you roughly the picture.”
There was a pause.
“By the way, here’s one little fact might interest you. The girl made a rather ham-handedattempt to commit suicide. Does that startle you?…“Oh, it doesn’t…No, she didn’t swallow the aspirin⁶ bottle, or put her head in the gas oven. Sherushed into the traffic in the path of a Jaguar⁷ going faster than it should have done…I can tell you Ionly got to her just in time…Yes, I’d say it was a genuine impulse…She admitted it. Usual classicphrase—she ‘wanted to get out of it all.’”
He listened to a rapid flow of words, then he said: “I don’t know. At this stage, I can’t be sure—The picture presented is clear. A nervy girl, neurotic⁸ and in an overwrought state from takingdrugs of too many kinds. No, I couldn’t tell you definitely what kind. There are dozens of thesethings going about all producing slightly different effects. There can be confusion, loss of memory,aggression, bewilderment, or sheer fuzzleheadedness! The difficulty is to tell what the realreactions are as opposed to the reactions produced by drugs. There are two choices, you see. Eitherthis is a girl who is playing herself up, depicting⁹ herself as neurotic and nervy and claimingsuicidal tendencies. It could be actually so. Or it could be a whole pack of lies. I wouldn’t put itpast her to be putting up this story for some obscure reason of her own—wanting to give anentirely false impression of herself. If so, she’s doing it very cleverly. Every now and then, thereseems something not quite right in the picture she’s giving. Is she a very clever little actress actinga part? Or is she a genuine semi-moronic suicidal victim? She could be either…What did yousay?…Oh, the Jaguar!…Yes, it was being driven far too fast. You think it mightn’t have been anattempt at suicide? That the Jaguar was deliberately¹⁰ meaning to run her down?”
He thought for a minute or two. “I can’t say,” he said slowly. “It just could be so. Yes, it couldbe so, but I hadn’t thought of it that way. The trouble is, everything’s possible, isn’t it? Anyway,I’m going to get more out of her shortly. I’ve got her in a position where she’s semi-willing totrust me, so long as I don’t go too far too quickly, and make her suspicious. She’ll become moretrusting soon, and tell me more, and if she’s a genuine case, she’ll pour out her whole story to me—force it on me in the end. At the moment she’s frightened of something….
“If, of course, she’s leading me up the garden path we’ll have to find out the reason why. She’sat Kenway Court and I think she’ll stay there. I’d suggest that you keep someone with an eye on itfor a day or so and if she does attempt to leave, someone she doesn’t know by sight had betterfollow her.”

1 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

2 martyr   

n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲

参考例句：

• The martyr laid down his life for the cause of national independence.这位烈士是为了民族独立的事业而献身的。
• The newspaper carried the martyr's photo framed in black.报上登载了框有黑边的烈士遗像。

3 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

4 sentimental   

adj.多愁善感的，感伤的

参考例句：

• She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人，她相信姻缘命中注定。
• We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。

5 disillusioned   

a.不再抱幻想的，大失所望的，幻想破灭的

参考例句：

• I soon became disillusioned with the job. 我不久便对这个工作不再抱幻想了。
• Many people who are disillusioned in reality assimilate life to a dream. 许多对现实失望的人把人生比作一场梦。

6 aspirin   

n.阿司匹林

参考例句：

• The aspirin seems to quiet the headache.阿司匹林似乎使头痛减轻了。
• She went into a chemist's and bought some aspirin.她进了一家药店，买了些阿司匹林。

7 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。

8 neurotic   

adj.神经病的，神经过敏的；n.神经过敏者，神经病患者

参考例句：

• Nothing is more distracting than a neurotic boss. 没有什么比神经过敏的老板更恼人的了。
• There are also unpleasant brain effects such as anxiety and neurotic behaviour.也会对大脑产生不良影响，如焦虑和神经质的行为。

9 depicting   

描绘，描画( depict的现在分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• a painting depicting the Virgin and Child 一幅描绘童贞马利亚和圣子耶稣的画
• The movie depicting the battles and bloodshed is bound to strike home. 这部描写战斗和流血牺牲的影片一定会取得预期效果。

10 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。