A t the moment when Rex Fortescue had been drinking his last cup of tea, Lance Fortescue and his wife had beensitting under the trees on the Champs Elysées watching the people walking past.
“It’s all very well to say ‘describe him,’ Pat. I’m a rotten hand at descriptions. What do you want to know? TheGuvnor’s a bit of an old crook1, you know. But you won’t mind that? You must be used to that more or less.”
“Oh, yes,” said Pat. “Yes—as you say—I’m acclimatized.”
She tried to keep a certain forlornness out of her voice. Perhaps, she reflected, the whole world was really crooked—or was it just that she herself had been unfortunate?
She was a tall, long-legged girl, not beautiful but with a charm that was made-up of vitality2 and a warm-heartedpersonality. She moved well, and had lovely gleaming chestnut3 brown hair. Perhaps from a long association withhorses, she had acquired the look of a thoroughbred filly.
Crookedness4 in the racing5 world she knew about—now, it seemed, she was to encounter crookedness in thefinancial world. Though for all that, it seemed that her father-in-law, whom she had not yet met, was, as far as the lawwas concerned, a pillar of rectitude. All these people who went about boasting of “smart work” were the same—technically they always managed to be within the law. Yet it seemed to her that her Lance, whom she loved, and whohad admittedly strayed outside the ringed fence in earlier days, had an honesty that these successful practitioners6 of thecrooked lacked.
“I don’t mean,” said Lance, “that he’s a swindler—not anything like that. But he knows how to put over a fastone.”
“Sometimes,” said Pat, “I feel I hate people who put over fast ones.” She added: “You’re fond of him.” It was astatement, not a question.
Lance considered it for a moment, and then said in a surprised kind of voice:
“Do you know, darling, I believe I am.”
Pat laughed. He turned his head to look at her. His eyes narrowed. What a darling she was! He loved her. Thewhole thing was worth it for her sake.
“In a way, you know,” he said, “it’s hell going back. City life. Home on the 5:18. It’s not my kind of life. I’m farmore at home among the down and outs. But one’s got to settle down sometime, I suppose. And with you to hold myhand the process may even be quite a pleasant one. And since the old boy has come round, one ought to takeadvantage of it. I must say I was surprised when I got his letter . . . Percival, of all people, blotting7 his copybook.
Percival, the good little boy. Mind you, Percy was always sly. Yes, he was always sly.”
“I don’t think,” said Patricia Fortescue, “that I’m going to like your brother Percival.”
“Don’t let me put you against him. Percy and I never got on—that’s all there is to it. I blued my pocket money, hesaved his. I had disreputable but entertaining friends, Percy made what’s called ‘worthwhile contacts.’ Poles apart wewere, he and I. I always thought him a poor fish, and he—sometimes, you know, I think he almost hated me. I don’tknow why exactly. . . .”
“I think I can see why.”
“Can you, darling? You’re so brainy. You know I’ve always wondered—it’s a fantastic thing to say—but—”
“Well? Say it.”
“I’ve wondered if it wasn’t Percival who was behind that cheque business—you know, when the old man kickedme out—and was he mad that he’d given me a share in the firm and so he couldn’t disinherit me! Because the queerthing was that I never forged that cheque—though of course nobody would believe that after that time I swiped fundsout of the till and put it on a horse. I was dead sure I could put it back, and anyway it was my own cash in a manner ofspeaking. But that cheque business—no. I don’t know why I’ve got the ridiculous idea that Percival did that—but Ihave, somehow.”
“But it wouldn’t have done him any good? It was paid into your account.”
“I know. So it doesn’t make sense, does it?”
Pat turned sharply towards him.
“You mean—he did it to get you chucked out of the firm?”
“I wondered. Oh well—it’s a rotten thing to say. Forget it. I wonder what old Percy will say when he sees theProdigal returned. Those pale, boiled-gooseberry eyes of his will pop right out of his head!”
“Does he know you are coming?”
“I shouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t know a damned thing! The old man’s got rather a funny sense of humour, youknow.”
“But what has your brother done to upset your father so much?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. Something must have made the old man livid. Writing off to me the way he did.”
“When was it you got his first letter?”
“Must be four—no five months ago. A cagey letter, but a distinct holding out of the olive branch. ‘Your elderbrother has proved himself unsatisfactory in many ways.’ ‘You seem to have sown your wild oats and settled down.’
‘I can promise you that it will be well worth your while financially.’ ‘Shall welcome you and your wife.’ You know,darling, I think my marrying you had a lot to do with it. The old boy was impressed that I’d married into a class aboveme.”
Pat laughed.
“What? Into the aristocratic riff-raff?”
He grinned. “That’s right. But riff-raff didn’t register and aristocracy did. You should see Percival’s wife. She’s thekind who says ‘Pass the preserves, please’ and talks about a postage stamp.”
Pat did not laugh. She was considering the women of the family into which she had married. It was a point of viewwhich Lance had not taken into account.
“And your sister?” she asked.
“Elaine—? Oh she’s all right. She was pretty young when I left home. Sort of an earnest girl—but probably she’sgrown out of that. Very intense over things.”
It did not sound very reassuring8. Pat said:
“She never wrote to you—after you went away?”
“I didn’t leave an address. But she wouldn’t have, anyway. We’re not a devoted9 family.”
“No.”
He shot a quick look at her.
“Got the wind up? About my family? You needn’t. We’re not going to live with them, or anything like that. We’llhave our own little place, somewhere. Horses, dogs, anything you like.”
“But there will still be the 5:18.”
“For me, yes. To and fro to the city, all togged up. But don’t worry, sweet—there are rural pockets, even roundLondon. And lately I’ve felt the sap of financial affairs rising in me. After all, it’s in my blood—from both sides of thefamily.”
“You hardly remember your mother, do you?”
“She always seemed to me incredibly old. She was old, of course. Nearly fifty when Elaine was born. She wore lotsof clinking things and lay on a sofa and used to read me stories about knights10 and ladies which bored me stiff.
Tennyson’s ‘Idylls of the King.’ I suppose I was fond of her . . . She was very—colourless, you know. I realize that,looking back.”
“You don’t seem to have been particularly fond of anybody,” said Pat disapprovingly11.
Lance grasped and squeezed her arm.
“I’m fond of you,” he said.
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收听单词发音
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1
crook
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| v.使弯曲；n.小偷，骗子，贼；弯曲(处) | |
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2
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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3
chestnut
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| n.栗树，栗子 | |
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4
crookedness
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| [医]弯曲 | |
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5
racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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6
practitioners
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| n.习艺者，实习者( practitioner的名词复数 )；从业者（尤指医师） | |
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7
blotting
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| 吸墨水纸 | |
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8
reassuring
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| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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10
knights
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| 骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马 | |
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11
disapprovingly
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| adv.不以为然地，不赞成地，非难地 | |
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