Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen
I t was the wardrobe that worried Canon Pennyfather. It worried him before he was quite awake. Then he forgot it andhe fell asleep again. But when his eyes opened once more, there the wardrobe still was in the wrong place. He waslying on his left side facing the window and the wardrobe ought to have been there between him and the window onthe left wall. But it wasn’t. It was on the right. It worried him. It worried him so much that it made him feel tired. Hewas conscious of his head aching badly, and on top of that, to have the wardrobe in the wrong place. At this point oncemore his eyes closed.
There was rather more light in the room the next time he woke. It was not daylight yet. Only the faint light ofdawn. “Dear me,” said Canon Pennyfather to himself, suddenly solving the problem of the wardrobe. “How stupid Iam! Of course, I’m not at home.”
He moved gingerly. No, this wasn’t his own bed. He was away from home. He was—where was he? Oh, of course.
He’d gone to London, hadn’t he? He was in Bertram’s Hotel and—but no, he wasn’t in Bertram’s Hotel. In Bertram’sHotel his bed was facing the window. So that was wrong, too.
“Dear me, where can I be?” said Canon Pennyfather.
Then he remembered that he was going to Lucerne. “Of course,” he said to himself, “I’m in Lucerne.” He beganthinking about the paper he was going to read. He didn’t think about it long. Thinking about his paper seemed to makehis head ache so he went to sleep again.
The next time he woke his head was a great deal clearer. Also there was a good deal more light in the room. Hewas not at home, he was not at Bertram’s Hotel and he was fairly sure that he was not in Lucerne. This wasn’t a hotelbedroom at all. He studied it fairly closely. It was an entirely¹ strange room with very little furniture in it. A kind ofcupboard (what he’d taken for the wardrobe) and a window with flowered curtains through which the light came. Achair and a table and a chest of drawers. Really, that was about all.
“Dear me,” said Canon Pennyfather, “this is most odd. Where am I?”
He was thinking of getting up to investigate but when he sat up in bed his headache began again so he lay down.
“I must have been ill,” decided² Canon Pennyfather. “Yes, definitely I must have been ill.” He thought a minute ortwo and then said to himself, “As a matter of fact, I think perhaps I’m still ill. Influenza³, perhaps?” Influenza, peopleoften said, came on very suddenly. Perhaps—perhaps it had come on at dinner at the Athenaeum. Yes, that was right.
He remembered that he had dined at the Athenaeum.
There were sounds of moving about in the house. Perhaps they’d taken him to a nursing home. But no, he didn’tthink this was a nursing home. With the increased light it showed itself as a rather shabby and ill-furnished smallbedroom. Sounds of movement went on. From downstairs a voice called out, “Good-bye, ducks. Sausage and mashthis evening.”
Canon Pennyfather considered this. Sausage and mash⁴. The words had a faintly agreeable quality.
“I believe,” he said to himself, “I’m hungry.”
The door opened. A middle-aged⁵ woman came in, went across to the curtains, pulled them back a little and turnedtowards the bed.
“Ah, you’re awake now,” she said. “And how are you feeling?”
“Really,” said Canon Pennyfather, rather feebly, “I’m not quite sure.”
“Ah, I expect not. You’ve been quite bad, you know. Something hit you a nasty crack, so the doctor said. Thesemotorists! Not even stopping after they’d knocked you down.”
“Have I had an accident?” said Canon Pennyfather. “A motor accident?”
“That’s right,” said the woman. “Found you by the side of the road when we come home. Thought you was drunkat first.” She chuckled⁶ pleasantly at the reminiscence. “Then my husband said he’d better take a look. It may havebeen an accident, he said. There wasn’t no smell of drink or anything. No blood or anything neither. Anyway, thereyou was, out like a log. So my husband said, ‘We can’t leave him here lying like that,’ and he carried you in here.
See?”
“Ah,” said Canon Pennyfather, faintly, somewhat overcome by all these revelations. “A good Samaritan.”
“And he saw you were a clergyman so my husband said, ‘It’s all quite respectable.’ Then he said he’d better notcall the police because being a clergyman and all that you mightn’t like it. That’s if you was drunk, in spite of therebeing no smell of drink. So then we hit upon getting Dr. Stokes to come and have a look at you. We still call him Dr.
Stokes although he’s been struck off. A very nice man he is, embittered⁷ a bit, of course, by being struck off. It wasonly his kind heart really, helping⁸ a lot of girls who were no better than they should be. Anyway, he’s a good enoughdoctor and we got him to come and take a look at you. He says you’ve come to no real harm, says it’s mildconcussion. All we’d got to do was to keep you lying flat and quiet in a dark room. ‘Mind you,’ he said, ‘I’m notgiving an opinion or anything like that. This is unofficial. I’ve no right to prescribe or to say anything. By rights I daresay you ought to report it to the police, but if you don’t want to, why should you?’ Give the poor old geezer a chance,that’s what he said. Excuse me if I’m speaking disrespectful. He’s a rough and ready speaker, the doctor is. Now whatabout a drop of soup or some hot bread and milk?”
“Either,” said Canon Pennyfather faintly, “would be very welcome.”
He relapsed on to his pillows. An accident? So that was it. An accident, and he couldn’t remember a thing about it!
A few minutes later the good woman returned bearing a tray with a steaming bowl on it.
“You’ll feel better after this,” she said. “I’d like to have put a drop of whisky or a drop of brandy in it but thedoctor said you wasn’t to have nothing like that.”
“Certainly not,” said Canon Pennyfather, “not with concussion⁹. No. It would have been unadvisable.”
“I’ll put another pillow behind your back, shall I, ducks? There, is that all right?”
Canon Pennyfather was a little startled by being addressed as “ducks.” He told himself that it was kindly¹⁰ meant.
“Upsydaisy,” said the woman, “there we are.”
“Yes, but where are we?” said Canon Pennyfather. “I mean, where am I? Where is this place?”
“Milton St. John,” said the woman. “Didn’t you know?”
“Milton St. John?” said Canon Pennyfather. He shook his head. “I never heard the name before.”
“Oh well, it’s not much of a place. Only a village.”
“You have been very kind,” said Canon Pennyfather. “May I ask your name?”
“Mrs. Wheeling. Emma Wheeling.”
“You are most kind,” said Canon Pennyfather again. “But this accident now. I simply cannot remember—”
“You put yourself outside that, luv, and you’ll feel better and up to remembering things.”
“Milton St. John,” said Canon Pennyfather to himself, in a tone of wonder. “The name means nothing to me at all.
How very extraordinary!”

1 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。

2 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。

3 influenza   

n.流行性感冒，流感

参考例句：

• They took steps to prevent the spread of influenza.他们采取措施
• Influenza is an infectious disease.流感是一种传染病。

4 mash   

n.麦芽浆，糊状物，土豆泥；v.把…捣成糊状，挑逗，调情

参考例句：

• He beat the potato into a mash before eating it.他把马铃薯捣烂后再吃。
• Whiskey,originating in Scotland,is distilled from a mash of grains.威士忌源于苏格兰，是从一种大麦芽提纯出来的。

5 middle-aged   

adj.中年的

参考例句：

• I noticed two middle-aged passengers.我注意到两个中年乘客。
• The new skin balm was welcome by middle-aged women.这种新护肤香膏受到了中年妇女的欢迎。

6 chuckled   

轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She chuckled at the memory. 想起这件事她就暗自发笑。
• She chuckled softly to herself as she remembered his astonished look. 想起他那惊讶的表情，她就轻轻地暗自发笑。

7 embittered   

v.使怨恨，激怒( embitter的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• These injustices embittered her even more. 不公平使她更加受苦。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The artist was embittered by public neglect. 大众的忽视于那位艺术家更加难受。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

9 concussion   

n.脑震荡；震动

参考例句：

• He was carried off the field with slight concussion.他因轻微脑震荡给抬离了现场。
• She suffers from brain concussion.她得了脑震荡。

10 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。