Nine CONCERNING MR. BASSINGTON-FFRENCH

Nine CONCERNING MR. BASSINGTON-FFRENCH
Frankie lost no time in setting to work. She attacked her father that sameevening.
“Father,” she said, “do you know any Bassington-ffrenches?”
Lord Marchington, who was reading a political article, did not quite takein the question.
“It’s not the French so much as the Americans,” he said severely¹. “Allthis tomfoolery and conferences—wasting the nation’s time and money—”
Frankie abstracted her mind until Lord Marchington, running like arailway train along an accustomed line, came, as it were, to a halt at a sta-tion.
“The Bassington-ffrenches,” repeated Frankie.
“What about ’em?” said Lord Marchington.
Frankie didn’t know what about them. She made a statement, knowingwell enough that her father enjoyed contradiction.
“They’re a Yorkshire family, aren’t they?”
“Nonsense—Hampshire. There’s the Shropshire branch, of course, andthen there’s the Irish lot. Which are your friends?”
“I’m not sure,” said Frankie, accepting the implication of friendship withseveral unknown people.
“Not sure? What do you mean? You must be sure.”
“People drift about so nowadays,” said Frankie.
“Drift—drift—that’s about all they do. In my days we asked people. Thenone knew where one was—fellow said he was the Hampshire branch—very well, your grandmother married my second cousin. It made a link.”
“It must have been too sweet,” said Frankie, “But there really isn’t timefor genealogical and geographical² research nowadays.”
“No—you’ve no time nowadays for anything but drinking these poison-ous cocktails³.”
Lord Marchington gave a sudden yelp⁴ of pain as he moved his gouty leg,which some free imbibing⁵ of the family port had not improved.
“Are they well off?” asked Frankie.
“The Bassington-ffrenches? Couldn’t say. The Shropshire lot have beenhard hit, I believe—death duties, and one thing or another. One of theHampshire ones married an heiress. An American woman.”
“One of them was down here the other day,” said Frankie. “Looking fora house, I believe.”
“Funny idea. What should anyone want with a house down here?”
That, thought Frankie, was the question.
On the following day she walked into the office of Messrs. Wheeler &Owen, House and Estate Agents.
Mr. Owen himself sprang up to receive her. Frankie gave him a gracioussmile and dropped into a chair.
“And what can we have the pleasure of doing for you, Lady Frances?
You don’t want to sell the Castle, I suppose. Ha! Ha!” Mr. Owen laughed athis own wit.
“I wish we could,” said Frankie. “No, as a matter of fact, I believe afriend of mine was down here the other day—a Mr. Bassington-ffrench.
He was looking for a house.”
“Ah! yes, indeed. I remember the name perfectly⁶. Two small f ’s.”
“That’s right,” said Frankie.
“He was making inquiries⁷ about various small properties with a view topurchase. He was obliged to return to town the next day, so could notview many of the houses, but I understand he is in no great hurry. Sincehe left, one or two suitable properties have come into the market and Ihave sent him on particulars, but have had no reply.”
“Did you write to London—or to the—er—country address?” inquiredFrankie.
“Let me see now.” He called to a junior clerk. “Frank, Mr. Bassington-ffrench’s address.”
“Roger Bassington-ffrench, Esq., Merroway Court, Staverley, Hants,” saidthe junior clerk glibly⁸.
“Ah!” said Frankie. “Then it wasn’t my Mr. Bassington- ffrench. Thismust be his cousin. I thought it was odd his being here and not looking meup.”
“Quite so—quite so,” said Mr. Owen intelligently.
“Let me see, it must have been the Wednesday he came to see you.”
“That’s right. Just before six-thirty. We close at six-thirty. I rememberparticularly because it was the day when that sad accident happened. Manfell over the cliff. Mr. Bassington-ffrench had actually stayed by the bodytill the police came. He looked quite upset when he came in here. Very sadtragedy, that, and high time something was done about that bit of path.
The Town Council have been criticized very freely, I can tell you, LadyFrances. Most dangerous. Why we haven’t had more accidents than wehave I can’t imagine.”
“Extraordinary,” said Frankie.
She left the office in a thoughtful mood. As Bobby had prophesied⁹, allMr. Bassington-ffrench’s actions seemed clear and above aboard. He wasone of the Hampshire Bassington-ffrenches, he had given his proper ad-dress, he had actually mentioned his part in the tragedy to the houseagent. Was it possible that, after all, Mr. Bassington-ffrench was the com-pletely innocent person he seemed?
Frankie had a qualm of doubt. Then she refused it.
“No,” she said to herself. “A man who wants to buy a little place wouldeither get here earlier in the day, or else stay over the next day. Youwouldn’t go into a house agent’s at six-thirty in the evening and go up toLondon the following day. Why make the journey at all? Why not write?”
No, she decided¹⁰, Bassington-ffrench was the guilty party.
Her next call was the police station.
Inspector¹¹ Williams was an old acquaintance, having succeeded in track-ing down a maid with a false reference who had absconded¹² with some ofFrankie’s jewellery.
“Good afternoon, Inspector.”
“Good afternoon, your Ladyship. Nothing wrong, I hope.”
“Not as yet, but I’m thinking of holding up a bank soon, because I’m get-ting so short of money.”
The inspector gave a rumbling¹³ laugh in acknowledgement of this witti-cism.
“As a matter of fact, I’ve come to ask questions out of sheer curiosity,”
said Frankie.
“Is that so, Lady Frances?”
“Now do tell me this, Inspector — the man who fell over the cliff —Pritchard, or whatever his name was—”
“Pritchard, that’s right.”
“He had only one photograph on him, didn’t he? Somebody told me hehad three!”
“One’s right,” said the inspector. “Photograph of his sister it was. Shecame down and identified him.”
“How absurd to say there were three!”
“Oh! That’s easy, your Ladyship. These newspaper reporters don’t mindhow much they exaggerate and as often as not they get the whole thingwrong.”
“I know,” said Frankie. “I’ve heard the wildest stories.” She paused amoment then drew freely on her imagination. “I’ve heard that his pocketswere stuffed with papers proving him to be a Bolshevik agent, and there’sanother story that his pockets were full of dope, and another again abouthis having pockets full of counterfeit¹⁴ bank notes.”
The inspector laughed heartily¹⁵.
“That’s a good one.”
“I suppose really he had just the usual things in his pockets?”
“And very few at that. A handkerchief, not marked. Some loose change,a packet of cigarettes and a couple of treasury¹⁶ notes—loose, not in a case.
No letters. We’d have had a job to identify him if it hadn’t been for thephoto. Providential, you might call it.”
“I wonder,” said Frankie.
In view of her private knowledge, she considered providential a singu-larly inappropriate word. She changed the conversation.
“I went to see Mr. Jones, the Vicar’s son, yesterday. The one who’s beenpoisoned. What an extraordinary thing that was.”
“Ah!” said the inspector. “Now that is extraordinary, if you like. Neverheard of anything like it happening before. A nice young gentlemanwithout an enemy in the world, or so you’d say. You know, Lady Frances,there are some queer customers going about. All the same, I never heardof a homicidal maniac¹⁷ who acted just this way.”
“Is there any clue at all to who did it?”
Frankie was all wide-eyed inquiry¹⁸.
“It’s so interesting to hear all this,” she added.
The inspector swelled¹⁹ with gratification. He enjoyed this friendly con-versation with an Earl’s daughter. Nothing stuck up or snobbish²⁰ aboutLady Frances.
“There was a car seen in the vicinity,” said the inspector. “Dark-blue Tal-bot saloon. A man on Lock’s Corner reported dark-blue Talbot, No. GG8282, passed going direction St. Botolph’s.”
“And you think?”
“GG 8282 is the number of the Bishop²¹ of Botolph’s car.”
Frankie toyed for a minute or two with the idea of a homicidal bishopwho offered sacrifices of clergymen’s sons, but rejected it with a sigh.
“You don’t suspect the Bishop, I suppose?” she said.
“We’ve found out that the Bishop’s car never left the Palace garage thatafternoon.”
“So it was a false number.”
“Yes. We’ve got that to go on all right.”
With expressions of admiration²², Frankie took her leave. She made nodamping remark, but she thought to herself:
“There must be a large number of dark-blue Talbots in England.”
On her return home she took a directory of Marchbolt from its place onthe writing table in the library and removed it to her own room. Sheworked over it for some hours.
The result was not satisfactory.
There were four hundred and eighty-two Evanses in Marchbolt.
“Damn!” said Frankie.
She began to make plans for the future.

1 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

2 geographical   

adj.地理的；地区(性)的

参考例句：

• The current survey will have a wider geographical spread.当前的调查将在更广泛的地域范围內进行。
• These birds have a wide geographical distribution.这些鸟的地理分布很广。

3 cocktails   

n.鸡尾酒( cocktail的名词复数 )；餐前开胃菜；混合物

参考例句：

• Come about 4 o'clock. We'll have cocktails and grill steaks. 请四点钟左右来，我们喝鸡尾酒，吃烤牛排。 来自辞典例句
• Cocktails were a nasty American habit. 喝鸡尾酒是讨厌的美国习惯。 来自辞典例句

4 yelp   

vi.狗吠

参考例句：

• The dog gave a yelp of pain.狗疼得叫了一声。
• The puppy a yelp when John stepped on her tail.当约翰踩到小狗的尾巴，小狗发出尖叫。

5 imbibing   

v.吸收( imbibe的现在分词 )；喝；吸取；吸气

参考例句：

• It was not long before the imbibing began to tell. 很快，喝酒喝得有效果了。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• The soil expands upon imbibing water. 土壤会由于吸水而膨胀。 来自辞典例句

6 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

7 inquiries   

n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending further inquiries. 他获得保释，等候进一步调查。
• I have failed to reach them by postal inquiries. 我未能通过邮政查询与他们取得联系。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 glibly   

adv.流利地，流畅地；满口

参考例句：

• He glibly professed his ignorance of the affair. 他口口声声表白不知道这件事。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He put ashes on his head, apologized profusely, but then went glibly about his business. 他表示忏悔，满口道歉，但接着又故态复萌了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

9 prophesied   

v.预告，预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She prophesied that she would win a gold medal. 她预言自己将赢得金牌。
• She prophesied the tragic outcome. 她预言有悲惨的结果。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 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。

11 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。

12 absconded   

v.（尤指逃避逮捕）潜逃，逃跑( abscond的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He absconded with the company funds. 他卷走公司的资金潜逃了。
• She absconded from every children's home they placed her in. 她被安置在哪家儿童收容所里，就从哪儿偷偷逃跑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 rumbling   

n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词

参考例句：

• The earthquake began with a deep [low] rumbling sound. 地震开始时发出低沉的隆隆声。
• The crane made rumbling sound. 吊车发出隆隆的响声。

14 counterfeit   

vt.伪造，仿造；adj.伪造的，假冒的

参考例句：

• It is a crime to counterfeit money.伪造货币是犯罪行为。
• The painting looked old but was a recent counterfeit.这幅画看上去年代久远，实际是最近的一幅赝品。

15 heartily   

adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很

参考例句：

• He ate heartily and went out to look for his horse.他痛快地吃了一顿，就出去找他的马。
• The host seized my hand and shook it heartily.主人抓住我的手，热情地和我握手。

16 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

17 maniac   

n.精神癫狂的人；疯子

参考例句：

• Be careful!That man is driving like a maniac!注意！那个人开车像个疯子一样！
• You were acting like a maniac,and you threatened her with a bomb!你像一个疯子，你用炸弹恐吓她！

18 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

19 swelled   

增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情）

参考例句：

• The infection swelled his hand. 由于感染，他的手肿了起来。
• After the heavy rain the river swelled. 大雨过后，河水猛涨。

20 snobbish   

adj.势利的，谄上欺下的

参考例句：

• She's much too snobbish to stay at that plain hotel.她很势利，不愿住在那个普通旅馆。
• I'd expected her to be snobbish but she was warm and friendly.我原以为她会非常势利，但她却非常热情和友好。

21 bishop   

n.主教，（国际象棋）象

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• Two years after his death the bishop was canonised.主教逝世两年后被正式封为圣者。

22 admiration   

n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕

参考例句：

• He was lost in admiration of the beauty of the scene.他对风景之美赞不绝口。
• We have a great admiration for the gold medalists.我们对金牌获得者极为敬佩。