I t was Miss Somers’s turn to make the tea. Miss Somers was the newest and the most inefficient1 of the typists. Shewas no longer young and had a mild worried face like a sheep. The kettle was not quite boiling when Miss Somerspoured the water onto the tea, but poor Miss Somers was never quite sure when a kettle was boiling. It was one of themany worries that afflicted2 her in life.
She poured out the tea and took the cups round with a couple of limp, sweet biscuits in each saucer.
Miss Griffith, the efficient head typist, a grey-haired martinet3 who had been with Consolidated4 Investments Trustfor sixteen years, said sharply: “Water not boiling again, Somers!” and Miss Somers’s worried meek5 face went pinkand she said, “Oh dear, I did think it was boiling this time.”
Miss Griffith thought to herself: “She’ll last for another month, perhaps, just while we’re so busy . . . But really!
The mess the silly idiot made of that letter to Eastern Developments—a perfectly6 straightforward7 job, and always sostupid over the tea. If it weren’t so difficult to get hold of any intelligent typists—and the biscuit tin lid wasn’t shuttightly last time, either. Really—”
Like so many of Miss Griffith’s indignant inner communings the sentence went unfinished.
At that moment Miss Grosvenor sailed in to make Mr. Fortescue’s sacred tea. Mr. Fortescue had different tea, anddifferent china and special biscuits. Only the kettle and the water from the cloakroom tap were the same. But on thisoccasion, being Mr. Fortescue’s tea, the water boiled. Miss Grosvenor saw to that.
Miss Grosvenor was an incredibly glamorous8 blonde. She wore an expensively cut little black suit and her shapelylegs were encased in the very best and most expensive black-market nylons.
She sailed back through the typists’ room without deigning9 to give anyone a word or a glance. The typists mighthave been so many blackbeetles. Miss Grosvenor was Mr. Fortescue’s own special personal secretary; unkind rumouralways hinted that she was something more, but actually this was not true. Mr. Fortescue had recently married asecond wife, both glamorous and expensive, and fully10 capable of absorbing all his attention. Miss Grosvenor was toMr. Fortescue just a necessary part of the office décor—which was all very luxurious11 and very expensive.
Miss Grosvenor sailed back with the tray held out in front of her like a ritual offering. Through the inner office andthrough the waiting room, where the more important clients were allowed to sit, and through her own anteroom, andfinally with a light tap on the door she entered the holy of holies, Mr. Fortescue’s office.
It was a large room with a gleaming expanse of parquet12 floor on which were dotted expensive oriental rugs. It wasdelicately panelled in pale wood and there were some enormous stuffed chairs upholstered in pale buff leather. Behinda colossal13 sycamore desk, the centre and focus of the room, sat Mr. Fortescue himself.
Mr. Fortescue was less impressive than he should have been to match the room, but he did his best. He was a largeflabby man with a gleaming bald head. It was his affectation to wear loosely cut country tweeds in his city office. Hewas frowning down at some papers on his desk when Miss Grosvenor glided14 up to him in her swanlike manner.
Placing the tray on the desk at his elbow, she murmured in a low impersonal15 voice, “Your tea, Mr. Fortescue,” andwithdrew.
Mr. Fortescue’s contribution to the ritual was a grunt16.
Seated at her own desk again Miss Grosvenor proceeded with the business in hand. She made two telephone calls,corrected some letters that were lying there typed ready for Mr. Fortescue to sign and took one incoming call.
“Ay’m afraid it’s impossible just now,” she said in haughty17 accents. “Mr. Fortescue is in conference.”
As she laid down the receiver she glanced at the clock. It was ten minutes past eleven.
It was just then that an unusual sound penetrated18 through the almost soundproof door of Mr. Fortescue’s office.
Muffled19, it was yet fully recognizable, a strangled agonized20 cry. At the same moment the buzzer21 on Miss Grosvenor’sdesk sounded in a long-drawn frenzied22 summons. Miss Grosvenor, startled for a moment into complete immobility,rose uncertainly to her feet. Confronted by the unexpected, her poise23 was shaken. However, she moved towards Mr.
Fortescue’s door in her usual statuesque fashion, tapped and entered.
What she saw upset her poise still further. Her employer behind his desk seemed contorted with agony. Hisconvulsive movements were alarming to watch.
Miss Grosvenor said, “Oh dear, Mr. Fortescue, are you ill?” and was immediately conscious of the idiocy25 of thequestion. There was no doubt but that Mr. Fortescue was very seriously ill. Even as she came up to him, his body wasconvulsed in a painful spasmodic movement.
Words came out in jerky gasps26.
“Tea—what the hell—you put in the tea—get help—quick get a doctor—”
Miss Grosvenor fled from the room. She was no longer the supercilious27 blonde secretary—she was a thoroughlyfrightened woman who had lost her head.
She came running into the typists’ office crying out:
“Mr. Fortescue’s having a fit—he’s dying—we must get a doctor—he looks awful—I’m sure he’s dying.”
Reactions were immediate24 and varied28 a good deal.
Miss Bell, the youngest typist, said, “If it’s epilepsy we ought to put a cork29 in his mouth. Who’s got a cork?”
Nobody had a cork.
Miss Somers said, “At his age it’s probably apoplexy.”
Miss Griffith said, “We must get a doctor—at once.”
But she was hampered30 in her usual efficiency because in all her sixteen years of service it had never been necessaryto call a doctor to the city office. There was her own doctor but that was at Streatham Hill. Where was there a doctornear here?
Nobody knew. Miss Bell seized a telephone directory and began looking up Doctors under D. But it was not aclassified directory and doctors were not automatically listed like taxi ranks. Someone suggested a hospital—butwhich hospital? “It has to be the right hospital,” Miss Somers insisted, “or else they won’t come. Because of theNational Health, I mean. It’s got to be in the area.”
Someone suggested 999 but Miss Griffith was shocked at that and said it would mean the police and that wouldnever do. For citizens of a country which enjoyed the benefits of Medical Service for all, a group of quite reasonablyintelligent women showed incredible ignorance of correct procedure. Miss Bell started looking up Ambulances underA. Miss Griffith said, “There’s his own doctor—he must have a doctor.” Someone rushed for the private address book.
Miss Griffith instructed the office boy to go out and find a doctor—somehow, anywhere. In the private address book,Miss Griffith found Sir Edwin Sandeman with an address in Harley Street. Miss Grosvenor, collapsed31 in a chair,wailed in a voice whose accent was noticeably less Mayfair than usual, “I made the tea just as usual—really I did—there couldn’t have been anything wrong in it.”
“Wrong in it?” Miss Griffith paused, her hand on the dial of the telephone. “Why do you say that?”
“He said it—Mr. Fortescue—he said it was the tea—”
Miss Griffith’s hand hovered32 irresolutely33 between Welbeck and 999. Miss Bell, young and hopeful, said: “Weought to give him some mustard and water—now. Isn’t there any mustard in the office?”
There was no mustard in the office.
Some short while later Dr. Isaacs of Bethnal Green, and Sir Edwin Sandeman met in the elevator just as twodifferent ambulances drew up in front of the building. The telephone and the office boy had done their work.
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1
inefficient
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| adj.效率低的，无效的 | |
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afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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martinet
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| n.要求严格服从纪律的人 | |
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consolidated
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| a.联合的 | |
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meek
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| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
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6
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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7
straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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8
glamorous
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| adj.富有魅力的；美丽动人的；令人向往的 | |
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deigning
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| v.屈尊，俯就( deign的现在分词 ) | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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parquet
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| n.镶木地板 | |
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colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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14
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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15
impersonal
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| adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的 | |
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16
grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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17
haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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18
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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19
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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20
agonized
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| v.使（极度）痛苦，折磨( agonize的过去式和过去分词 )；苦斗；苦苦思索；感到极度痛苦 | |
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21
buzzer
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| n.蜂鸣器；汽笛 | |
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22
frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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23
poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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24
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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idiocy
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| n.愚蠢 | |
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26
gasps
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| v.喘气( gasp的第三人称单数 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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27
supercilious
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| adj.目中无人的，高傲的；adv.高傲地；n.高傲 | |
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28
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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29
cork
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| n.软木，软木塞 | |
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30
hampered
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| 妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31
collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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32
hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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33
irresolutely
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| adv.优柔寡断地 | |
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