Round a turn of the rock garden Roger and Clemency1 came walkingbriskly towards us. Roger’s flapping tweeds suited him better than his Cityclothes. He looked eager and excited. Clemency was frowning.
“Hallo, you two,” said Roger. “At last! I thought they were never going toarrest that foul2 woman. What they’ve been waiting for, I don’t know. Well,they’ve pinched her now, and her miserable3 boyfriend—and I hope theyhang them both.”
Clemency’s frown increased. She said:
“Don’t be so uncivilized, Roger.”
“Uncivilized? Bosh! Deliberate cold- blooded poisoning of a helplesstrusting old man—and when I’m glad the murderers are caught and willpay the penalty you say I’m uncivilized! I tell you I’d willingly stranglethat woman myself.”
He added:
“She was with you, wasn’t she, when the police came for her? How didshe take it?”
“It was horrible,” said Sophia in a low voice. “She was scared out of herwits.”
“Serve her right.”
“Don’t be vindictive,” said Clemency.
“Oh, I know, dearest, but you can’t understand. It wasn’t your father. Iloved my father. Don’t you understand? I loved him!”
“I should understand by now,” said Clemency.
Roger said to her, half-jokingly:
“You’ve no imagination, Clemency. Suppose it had been I who had beenpoisoned—?”
I saw the quick droop4 of her lids, her half- clenched5 hands. She saidsharply: “Don’t say things like that even in fun.”
“Never mind, darling, we’ll soon be away from all this.”
We moved towards the house. Roger and Sophia walked ahead andClemency and I brought up the rear. She said:
“I suppose now—they’ll let us go?”
“Are you so anxious to get off?” I asked.
“It’s wearing me out.”
I looked at her in surprise. She met my glance with a faint desperatesmile and a nod of the head.
“Haven’t you seen, Charles, that I’m fighting all the time? Fighting formy happiness. For Roger’s. I’ve been so afraid the family would persuadehim to stop in England. That we’d go on tangled6 up in the midst of them,stifled with family ties. I was afraid Sophia would offer him an incomeand that he’d stay in England because it would mean greater comfort andamenities for me. The trouble with Roger is that he will not listen. He getsideas in his head—and they’re never the right ideas. He doesn’t know any-thing. And he’s enough of a Leonides to think that happiness for a womanis bound up with comfort and money. But I will fight for my happiness—Iwill. I will get Roger away and give him the life that suits him where hewon’t feel a failure. I want him to myself—away from them all—rightaway—”
She had spoken in a low hurried voice with a kind of desperation thatstartled me. I had not realized how much on edge she was. I had not real-ized, either, quite how desperate and possessive was her feeling for Roger.
It brought back to my mind that odd quotation7 of Edith de Haviland’s.
She had quoted the line “this side idolatry” with a peculiar8 intonation9. Iwondered if she had been thinking of Clemency.
Roger, I thought, had loved his father better than he would ever loveanyone else, better even than his wife, devoted10 though he was to her. Irealized for the first time how urgent was Clemency’s desire to get herhusband to herself. Love for Roger, I saw, made up her entire existence.
He was her child, as well as her husband and her lover.
A car drove up to the front door.
“Hallo,” I said. “Here’s Josephine back.”
Josephine and Magda got out of the car. Josephine had a bandage roundher head but otherwise looked remarkably11 well.
She said at once:
“I want to see my goldfish,” and started towards us and the pond.
“Darling,” cried Magda, “you’d better come in first and lie down a little,and perhaps have a little nourishing soup.”
“Don’t fuss, Mother,” said Josephine. “I’m quite all right, and I hate nour-ishing soup.”
Magda looked irresolute12. I knew that Josephine had really been fit to de-part from the hospital for some days, and that it was only a hint from Tav-erner that had kept her there. He was taking no chances on Josephine’ssafety until his suspects were safe under lock and key.
I said to Magda:
“I dare say fresh air will do her good. I’ll go and keep an eye on her.”
I caught Josephine up before she got to the pond.
“All sorts of things have been happening while you’ve been away,” Isaid.
Josephine did not reply. She peered with her shortsighted eyes into thepond.
“I don’t see Ferdinand,” she said.
“Which is Ferdinand?”
“The one with four tails.”
“That kind is rather amusing. I like that bright gold one.”
“It’s quite a common one.”
“I don’t much care for that moth-eaten white one.”
Josephine cast me a scornful glance.
“That’s a shebunkin. They cost a lot—far more than goldfish.”
“Don’t you want to hear what’s been happening, Josephine?”
“I expect I know about it.”
“Did you know that another will has been found and that your grand-father left all his money to Sophia?”
Josephine nodded in a bored kind of way.
“Mother told me. Anyway, I knew it already.”
“Do you mean you heard it in hospital?”
“No, I mean I knew that grandfather had left his money to Sophia. Iheard him tell her so.”
“Were you listening again?”
“Yes. I like listening.”
“It’s a disgraceful thing to do, and remember this, listeners hear no goodof themselves.”
Josephine gave me a peculiar glance.
“I heard what he said about me to her, if that’s what you mean.”
She added:
“Nannie gets wild if she catches me listening at doors. She says it’s notthe sort of thing a little lady does.”
“She’s quite right.”
“Pooh,” said Josephine. “Nobody’s a lady nowadays. They said so on theBrains Trust. They said it was ob-so-lete.” She pronounced the word care-fully13.
I changed the subject.
“You’ve got home a bit late for the big event,” I said. “Chief-InspectorTaverner has arrested Brenda and Laurence.”
I expected that Josephine, in her character of young detective, would bethrilled by this information, but she merely repeated in her maddeningbored fashion:
“Yes, I know.”
“You can’t know. It’s only just happened.”
“The car passed us on the road. Inspector14 Taverner and the detectivewith the suede15 shoes were inside with Brenda and Laurence, so of course Iknew they must have been arrested. I hope he gave them the proper cau-tion. You have to, you know.”
I assured her that Taverner had acted strictly16 according to etiquette17.
“I had to tell him about the letters,” I said apologetically. “I found thembehind the cistern18. I’d have let you tell him only you were knocked out.”
Josephine’s hand went gingerly to her head.
“I ought to have been killed,” she said with complacency. “I told you itwas about time for the second murder. The cistern was a rotten place tohide those letters. I guessed at once when I saw Laurence coming out ofthere one day. I mean he’s not a useful kind of man who does things withball taps, or pipes or fuses, so I knew he must have been hiding some-thing.”
“But I thought—” I broke off as Edith de Haviland’s voice called authorit-atively:
“Josephine, Josephine, come here at once.”
Josephine sighed.
“More fuss,” she said. “But I’d better go. You have to, if it’s Aunt Edith.”
She ran across the lawn. I followed more slowly.
After a brief interchange of words Josephine went into the house. Ijoined Edith de Haviland on the terrace.
This morning she looked fully her age. I was startled by the lines ofweariness and suffering on her face. She looked exhausted19 and defeated.
She saw the concern in my face and tried to smile.
“That child seems none the worse for her adventure,” she said. “Wemust look after her better in future. Still—I suppose now it won’t be neces-sary?”
She sighed and said:
“I’m glad it’s over. But what an exhibition! If you are arrested formurder, you might at least have some dignity. I’ve no patience with peoplelike Brenda who go to pieces and squeal20. No guts21, these people. LaurenceBrown looked like a cornered rabbit.”
An obscure instinct of pity rose in me.
“Poor devils,” I said.
“Yes—poor devils. She’ll have the sense to look after herself, I suppose? Imean the right lawyers—all that sort of thing.”
It was queer, I thought, the dislike they all had for Brenda, and theirscrupulous care for her to have all the advantages for defence.
Edith de Haviland went on:
“How long will it be? How long will the whole thing take?”
I said I didn’t know exactly. They would be charged at the police courtand presumably sent for trial. Three or four months, I estimated—and ifconvicted, there would be the appeal.
“Do you think they will be convicted?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t know exactly how much evidence the police have.
There are letters.”
“Love letters—They were lovers then?”
“They were in love with each other.”
Her face grew grimmer.
“I’m not happy about this, Charles. I don’t like Brenda. In the past, I’vedisliked her very much. I’ve said sharp things about her. But now—I dofeel that I want her to have every chance—every possible chance. Aristidewould have wished that. I feel it’s up to me to see that—that Brenda gets asquare deal.”
“And Laurence?”
“Oh, Laurence!” she shrugged22 her shoulders impatiently. “Men mustlook after themselves. But Aristide would never forgive us if—” She leftthe sentence unfinished.
Then she said:
“It must be almost lunch time. We’d better go in.”
I explained that I was going up to London.
“In your car?”
“Yes.”
“H’m. I wonder if you’d take me with you. I gather we’re allowed off thelead now.”
“Of course I will, but I believe Magda and Sophia are going up afterlunch. You’ll be more comfortable with them than in my two-seater.”
“I don’t want to go with them. Take me with you, and don’t say muchabout it.”
I was surprised, but I did as she asked. We did not speak much on theway to town. I asked her where I should put her down.
“Harley Street.”
I felt some faint apprehension23, but I didn’t like to say anything. She con-tinued:
“No, it’s too early. drop me at Debenhams. I can have some lunch thereand go to Harley Street afterwards.”
“I hope—” I began and stopped.
“That’s why I didn’t want to go up with Magda. She dramatizes things.
Lots of fuss.”
“I’m very sorry,” I said.
“You needn’t be. I’ve had a good life. A very good life.” She gave a sud-den grin. “And it’s not over yet.”
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
clemency
|
|
| n.温和，仁慈，宽厚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
foul
|
|
| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
miserable
|
|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
droop
|
|
| v.低垂，下垂；凋萎，萎靡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
clenched
|
|
| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
tangled
|
|
| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
quotation
|
|
| n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
peculiar
|
|
| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
intonation
|
|
| n.语调，声调；发声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
devoted
|
|
| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
remarkably
|
|
| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
irresolute
|
|
| adj.无决断的，优柔寡断的，踌躇不定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
fully
|
|
| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
inspector
|
|
| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
suede
|
|
| n.表面粗糙的软皮革 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
strictly
|
|
| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
etiquette
|
|
| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
cistern
|
|
| n.贮水池 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
exhausted
|
|
| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
squeal
|
|
| v.发出长而尖的声音；n.长而尖的声音 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
guts
|
|
| v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
shrugged
|
|
| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
apprehension
|
|
| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |