Chapter Twenty-two

Twenty-two
P art of a letter from Gina Hudd to her aunt Mrs. Van Rydock:
—and so you see, darling Aunt Ruth, the whole thing has been just like a nightmare—especially the end of it. I’vetold you all about this funny young man Edgar Lawson. He always was a complete rabbit—and when the Inspectorbegan questioning him and breaking him down, he lost his nerve completely and scuttled² like a rabbit. Just lost hisnerve and ran—literally ran. Jumped out of the window and round the house and down the drive, and then there wasa policeman coming to head him off, and he swerved³ and ran full tilt⁴ for the lake. He leaped into a rotten old puntthat’s mouldered⁵ there for years and pushed off. Quite a mad, senseless thing to do, of course, but as I say he was justa panic-stricken rabbit. And then Lewis gave a great shout and said, “That punt’s rotten” and raced off to the lake,too. The punt went down and there was Edgar struggling in the water. He couldn’t swim. Lewis jumped in and swamout to him. He got to him, but they were both in difficulty because they’d got among the reeds. One of the Inspector¹’smen went in with a rope round him, but he got entangled⁶, too, and they had to pull him in. Aunt Mildred said “They’lldrown—they’ll drown—they’ll both drown …” in a silly sort of way, and Grandam just said “Yes.” I can’t describeto you just how she made that one word sound. Just “yes” and it went through you like—like a sword.
Am I being just silly and melodramatic? I suppose I am. But it did sound like that….
And then—when it was all over, and they’d got them out and tried artificial respiration⁷ (but it was no good), theInspector came to us and said to Grandam:
“I’m afraid, Mrs. Serrocold, there’s no hope.”
Grandam said very quietly:
“Thank you, Inspector.”
Then she looked at us all. Me, longing⁸ to help but not knowing how, and Jolly, looking grim and tender and readyto minister as usual, and Stephen, stretching out his hands, and funny old Miss Marple looking so sad, and tired, andeven Wally looking upset. All so fond of her and wanting to do something.
But Grandam just said, “Mildred.” And Aunt Mildred said, “Mother.” And they went away together into thehouse, Grandam looking so small and frail⁹ and leaning on Aunt Mildred. I never realised, until then, how fond of eachother they were. It didn’t show much, you know.
Gina paused and sucked the end of her fountain pen. She resumed:
About me and Wally—we’re coming back to the States as soon as we can….

1 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。

2 scuttled   

v.使船沉没( scuttle的过去式和过去分词 )；快跑，急走

参考例句：

• She scuttled off when she heard the sound of his voice. 听到他的说话声，她赶紧跑开了。
• The thief scuttled off when he saw the policeman. 小偷看见警察来了便急忙跑掉。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 swerved   

v.（使）改变方向，改变目的( swerve的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She swerved sharply to avoid a cyclist. 她猛地急转弯，以躲开一个骑自行车的人。
• The driver has swerved on a sudden to avoid a file of geese. 为了躲避一队鹅，司机突然来个急转弯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 tilt   

v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜

参考例句：

• She wore her hat at a tilt over her left eye.她歪戴着帽子遮住左眼。
• The table is at a slight tilt.这张桌子没放平，有点儿歪.

5 mouldered   

v.腐朽( moulder的过去式和过去分词 )；腐烂，崩塌

参考例句：

• The plans mouldered away in a forgotten corner of the office. 这些计划从未实施，像废纸一样被扔在办公室的角落里。 来自互联网

6 entangled   

adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The bird had become entangled in the wire netting. 那只小鸟被铁丝网缠住了。
• Some military observers fear the US could get entangled in another war. 一些军事观察家担心美国会卷入另一场战争。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 respiration   

n.呼吸作用；一次呼吸；植物光合作用

参考例句：

• They tried artificial respiration but it was of no avail.他们试做人工呼吸，可是无效。
• They made frequent checks on his respiration,pulse and blood.他们经常检查他的呼吸、脉搏和血液。

8 longing   

n.（for）渴望

参考例句：

• Hearing the tune again sent waves of longing through her.再次听到那首曲子使她胸中充满了渴望。
• His heart burned with longing for revenge.他心中燃烧着急欲复仇的怒火。

9 frail   

adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的

参考例句：

• Mrs. Warner is already 96 and too frail to live by herself.华纳太太已经九十六岁了，身体虚弱，不便独居。
• She lay in bed looking particularly frail.她躺在床上，看上去特别虚弱。