Six（2）

II
“Miss Argyle? At the second desk there.”
Calgary stood for a moment watching her.
Neat, small, very quiet and efficient. She was wearing a dark blue dress,with white collar and cuffs¹. Her blue-black hair was coiled neatly² in herneck. Her skin was dark, darker than an English skin could ever be. Herbones, too, were smaller. This was the half-caste child that Mrs. Argyle hadtaken as a daughter into the family.
The eyes that looked up and met his were dark, quite opaque³. They wereeyes that told you nothing.
Her voice was low and sympathetic.
“Can I help you?”
“You are Miss Argyle? Miss Christina Argyle?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Calgary, Arthur Calgary. You may have heard—”
“Yes. I have heard about you. My father wrote to me.”
“I would like very much to talk to you.”
She glanced up at the clock.
“The library closes in half an hour. If you could wait until then?”
“Certainly. Perhaps you would come and have a cup of tea with mesomewhere?”
“Thank you.” She turned from him to a man who had come up behindhim. “Yes. Can I help you?”
Arthur Calgary moved away. He wandered round, examining the con-tents of the shelves, observant all the time of Tina Argyle. She remainedthe same, calm, competent, unperturbed. The half hour passed slowly forhim, but at last a bell rang and she nodded to him.
“I will meet you outside in a few minutes time.”
She did not keep him waiting. She wore no hat, merely a thick dark coat.
He asked her where they should go.
“I do not know Redmyn very well,” he explained.
“There is a tea place near the Cathedral. It is not good, but for thatreason it is less full than the others.”
Presently they were established at a small table, and a desiccated boredwaitress had taken their order with a complete lack of enthusiasm.
“It will not be a good tea,” said Tina apologetically, “but I thought thatperhaps you would like to be reasonably private.”
“That is so. I must explain my reasons for seeking you out. You see, Ihave met the other members of your family, including, I may say, yourbrother Jacko’s wife—widow. You were the only member of the family Ihad not met. Oh yes, and there is your married sister, of course.”
“You feel it necessary to meet us all?”
It was said quite politely—but there was a certain detachment about hervoice which made Calgary a little uncomfortable.
“Hardly as a social necessity,” he agreed dryly. “And it is not mere⁴ curi-osity.” (But wasn’t it?) “It is just that I wanted to express, personally, to allof you, my very deep regret that I failed to establish your brother’s inno-cence at the time of the trial.”
“I see….”
“If you were fond of him—Were you fond of him?”
She considered a moment; then said:
“No. I was not fond of Jacko.”
“Yet I hear from all sides that he had—great charm⁵.”
She said clearly, but without passion:
“I distrusted and disliked him.”
“You never had — forgive me — any doubts that he had killed yourmother?”
“It never occurred to me that there could be any other solution.”
The waitress brought their tea. The bread and butter was stale, the jama curious jellyfied substance, the cakes garish⁶ and unappetizing. The teawas weak.
He sipped⁷ his and then said:
“It seems—I have been made to understand—that this information Ihave brought, which clears your brother of the charge of murder, mayhave repercussions⁸ that will not be so agreeable⁹. It may bring fresh—anxi-eties to you all.”
“Because the case will have to be reopened?”
“Yes. You have already thought about that?”
“My father seems to think it is inevitable¹⁰.”
“I am sorry. I am really sorry.”
“Why are you sorry, Dr. Calgary?”
“I hate to be the cause of bringing fresh trouble upon you.”
“But would you have been satisfied to remain silent?”
“You are thinking in terms of justice?”
“Yes. Weren’t you?”
“Of course. Justice seemed to me to be very important. Now—I am be-ginning to wonder whether there are things that are more important.”
“Such as?”
His thoughts flew to Hester.
“Such as—innocence, perhaps.”
The opaqueness¹¹ of her eyes increased.
“What do you feel, Miss Argyle?”
She was silent for a moment or two, then she said:
“I am thinking of those words in Magna Carta. ‘To no man will we refusejustice.’”
“I see,” he said. “That is your answer….”

1 cuffs   

n.袖口( cuff的名词复数 )v.掌打，拳打( cuff的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• a collar and cuffs of white lace 带白色蕾丝花边的衣领和袖口
• The cuffs of his shirt were fraying. 他衬衣的袖口磨破了。

2 neatly   

adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地

参考例句：

• Sailors know how to wind up a long rope neatly.水手们知道怎样把一条大绳利落地缠好。
• The child's dress is neatly gathered at the neck.那孩子的衣服在领口处打着整齐的皱褶。

3 opaque   

adj.不透光的；不反光的，不传导的；晦涩的

参考例句：

• The windows are of opaque glass.这些窗户装着不透明玻璃。
• Their intentions remained opaque.他们的意图仍然令人费解。

4 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

5 charm   

vt.使着迷，使陶醉；n.招人喜欢之处，魅力

参考例句：

• With all imperfections the short play has a real charm.尽管有不少缺欠，这出小戏仍颇具魅力。
• He could resist her charm no longer.他再也抗拒不住她的魅力。

6 garish   

adj.华丽而俗气的，华而不实的

参考例句：

• This colour is bright but not garish.这颜色艳而不俗。
• They climbed the garish purple-carpeted stairs.他们登上铺着俗艳的紫色地毯的楼梯。

7 sipped   

v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He sipped his coffee pleasurably. 他怡然地品味着咖啡。
• I sipped the hot chocolate she had made. 我小口喝着她调制的巧克力热饮。 来自辞典例句

8 repercussions   

n.后果，反响( repercussion的名词复数 )；余波

参考例句：

• The collapse of the company will have repercussions for the whole industry. 这家公司的垮台将会给整个行业造成间接的负面影响。
• Human acts have repercussions far beyond the frontiers of the human world. 人类行为所产生的影响远远超出人类世界的范围。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 agreeable   

adj.符合的，一致的，欣然同意的，令人愉快的

参考例句：

• He was quite agreeable to accepting the plan.他乐意接受这项计划。
• I enjoyed an agreeable holiday this summer.今年夏天我度过了一个愉快的假期。

10 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

11 opaqueness   

[化] 不透明性，不透明度

参考例句：

• Saudi Arabia obscures its vulnerability by opaqueness. 沙特阿拉伯人以其神秘莫测来掩饰其脆弱。 来自辞典例句
• It has exposed the fragility of the foundations of private finance: opaqueness, hazard and sometimes fraud. 它暴露出了私人金融根基的脆弱性——不透明、冒险、甚至有时还有欺诈行为。 来自互联网