Six（6）

VI
Tuppence arrived at the gates of Sans Souci at twenty minutes to two.
She turned off from the drive and went through the garden and into thehouse through the open drawing-room window. A smell of Irish stew¹ andthe clatter² of plates and murmur³ of voices came from afar. Sans Souci washard at work on its midday meal.
Tuppence waited by the drawing-room door until Martha, the maid, hadpassed across the hall and into the dining room, then she ran quickly upthe stairs, shoeless.
She went into her room, put on her soft felt bedroom slippers⁴, and thenwent along the landing and into Mrs. Perenna’s room.
Once inside she looked round her and felt a certain distaste sweep overher. Not a nice job, this. Quite unpardonable if Mrs. Perenna was simplyMrs. Perenna. Prying⁵ into people’s private affairs—Tuppence shook herself, an impatient terrier shake that was a reminis-cence of her girlhood. There was a war on!
She went over to the dressing⁷ table.
Quick and deft⁸ in her movements, she had soon gone through the con-tents of the drawers there. In the tall bureau, one of the drawers waslocked. That seemed more promising⁹.
Tommy had been entrusted¹⁰ with certain tools and had received somebrief instruction on the manipulation of them. These indications he hadpassed on to Tuppence.
A deft twist or two of the wrist and the drawer yielded.
There was a cash box containing twenty pounds in notes and some pilesof silver—also a jewel case. And there were a heap of papers. These lastwere what interested Tuppence most. Rapidly she went through them; ne-cessarily it was a cursory¹¹ glance. She could not afford time for more.
Papers relating to a mortgage on Sans Souci, a bank account, letters.
Time flew past; Tuppence skimmed through the documents, concentratingfuriously on anything that might bear a double meaning. Two letters froma friend in Italy, rambling¹², discursive¹³ letters, seemingly quite harmless.
But possibly not so harmless as they sounded. A letter from one SimonMortimer, of London—a dry businesslike letter containing so little of mo-ment that Tuppence wondered why it had been kept. Was Mr. Mortimernot so harmless as he seemed? At the bottom of the pile a letter in fadedink signed Pat and beginning “This will be the last letter I’ll be writing you,Eileen my darling—”
No, not that! Tuppence could not bring herself to read that! She refoldedit, tidied the letters on top of it and then, suddenly alert, pushed thedrawer to—no time to relock it—and when the door opened and Mrs. Per-enna came in, she was searching vaguely¹⁴ amongst the bottles on the wash-stand.
Mrs. Blenkensop turned a flustered¹⁵, but foolish face towards her host-ess.
“Oh, Mrs. Perenna, do forgive me. I came in with such a blinding head-ache, and I thought I would lie down on my bed with a little aspirin¹⁶, and Icouldn’t find mine, so I thought you wouldn’t mind—I know you musthave some because you offered it to Miss Minton the other day.”
Mrs. Perenna swept into the room. There was a sharpness in her voiceas she said:
“Why, of course, Mrs. Blenkensop, why ever didn’t you come and askme?”
“Well, of course, yes, I should have done really. But I knew you were allat lunch, and I do so hate, you know, making a fuss—”
Passing Tuppence, Mrs. Perenna caught up the bottle of aspirin from thewashstand.
“How many would you like?” she demanded crisply.
Mrs. Blenkensop accepted three. Escorted by Mrs. Perenna she crossedto her own room and hastily demurred¹⁷ to the suggestion of a hot-waterbottle.
Mrs. Perenna used her parting shot as she left the room.
“But you have some aspirin of your own, Mrs. Blenkensop. I’ve seen it.”
Tuppence cried quickly:
“Oh, I know. I know I’ve got some somewhere, but, so stupid of me, Isimply couldn’t lay my hands on it.”
Mrs. Perenna said with a flash of her big white teeth:
“Well, have a good rest until teatime.”
She went out, closing the door behind her. Tuppence drew a deepbreath, lying on her bed rigidly¹⁸ lest Mrs. Perenna should return.
Had the other suspected anything? Those teeth, so big and so white—thebetter to eat you with, my dear. Tuppence always thought of that whenshe noticed those teeth. Mrs. Perenna’s hands too, big cruel-looking hands.
She had appeared to accept Tuppence’s presence in her bedroom quitenaturally. But later she would find the bureau drawer unlocked. Wouldshe suspect then? Or would she think she had left it unlocked herself byaccident? One did do such things. Had Tuppence been able to replace thepapers in such a way that they looked much the same as before?
Surely, even if Mrs. Perenna did notice anything amiss she would bemore likely to suspect one of the servants than she would “Mrs. Blen-kensop.” And if she did suspect the latter, wouldn’t it be a mere¹⁹ case ofsuspecting her of undue²⁰ curiosity? There were people, Tuppence knew,who did poke²¹ and pry⁶.
But then, if Mrs. Perenna were the renowned²² German agent M., shewould be suspicious of counterespionage.
Had anything in her bearing revealed undue alertness?
She had seemed natural enough—only that one sharply pointed²³ remarkabout the aspirin.
Suddenly, Tuppence sat up on her bed. She remembered that her as-pirin, together with some iodine²⁴ and a bottle of soda²⁵ mints, were at theback of the writing-table drawer where she had shoved them when un-packing.
It would seem, therefore, that she was not the only person to snoop inother people’s rooms. Mrs. Perenna had got there first.

1 stew   

n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑

参考例句：

• The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
• There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。

2 clatter   

v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声

参考例句：

• The dishes and bowls slid together with a clatter.碟子碗碰得丁丁当当的。
• Don't clatter your knives and forks.别把刀叉碰得咔哒响。

3 murmur   

n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言

参考例句：

• They paid the extra taxes without a murmur.他们毫无怨言地交了附加税。
• There was a low murmur of conversation in the hall.大厅里有窃窃私语声。

4 slippers   

n. 拖鞋

参考例句：

• a pair of slippers 一双拖鞋
• He kicked his slippers off and dropped on to the bed. 他踢掉了拖鞋，倒在床上。

5 prying   

adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开

参考例句：

• I'm sick of you prying into my personal life! 我讨厌你刺探我的私生活！
• She is always prying into other people's affairs. 她总是打听别人的私事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 pry   

vi.窥(刺)探，打听；vt.撬动(开，起)

参考例句：

• He's always ready to pry into other people's business.他总爱探听别人的事。
• We use an iron bar to pry open the box.我们用铁棍撬开箱子。

7 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

8 deft   

adj.灵巧的，熟练的（a deft hand 能手）

参考例句：

• The pianist has deft fingers.钢琴家有灵巧的双手。
• This bird,sharp of eye and deft of beak,can accurately peck the flying insects in the air.这只鸟眼疾嘴快，能准确地把空中的飞虫啄住。

9 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

10 entrusted   

v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He entrusted the task to his nephew. 他把这任务托付给了他的侄儿。
• She was entrusted with the direction of the project. 她受委托负责这项计划。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 cursory   

adj.粗略的；草率的；匆促的

参考例句：

• He signed with only a cursory glance at the report.他只草草看了一眼报告就签了名。
• The only industry mentioned is agriculture and it is discussed in a cursory sentence.实业方面只谈到农业,而且只是匆匆带了一句。

12 rambling   

adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的

参考例句：

• We spent the summer rambling in Ireland. 我们花了一个夏天漫游爱尔兰。
• It was easy to get lost in the rambling house. 在布局凌乱的大房子里容易迷路。

13 discursive   

adj.离题的，无层次的

参考例句：

• His own toast was discursive and overlong,though rather touching.他自己的祝酒词虽然也颇为动人，但是比较松散而冗长。
• They complained that my writing was becoming too discursive.他们抱怨我的文章变得太散漫。

14 vaguely   

adv.含糊地，暖昧地

参考例句：

• He had talked vaguely of going to work abroad.他含糊其词地说了到国外工作的事。
• He looked vaguely before him with unseeing eyes.他迷迷糊糊的望着前面，对一切都视而不见。

15 flustered   

adj.慌张的；激动不安的v.使慌乱，使不安( fluster的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The honking of horns flustered the boy. 汽车喇叭的叫声使男孩感到慌乱。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She was so flustered that she forgot her reply. 她太紧张了，都忘记了该如何作答。 来自辞典例句

16 aspirin   

n.阿司匹林

参考例句：

• The aspirin seems to quiet the headache.阿司匹林似乎使头痛减轻了。
• She went into a chemist's and bought some aspirin.她进了一家药店，买了些阿司匹林。

17 demurred   

v.表示异议，反对( demur的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• At first she demurred, but then finally agreed. 她开始表示反对，但最终还是同意了。
• They demurred at working on Sundays. 他们反对星期日工作。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

18 rigidly   

adv.刻板地，僵化地

参考例句：

• Life today is rigidly compartmentalized into work and leisure. 当今的生活被严格划分为工作和休闲两部分。
• The curriculum is rigidly prescribed from an early age. 自儿童时起即已开始有严格的课程设置。

19 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。

20 undue   

adj.过分的；不适当的；未到期的

参考例句：

• Don't treat the matter with undue haste.不要过急地处理此事。
• It would be wise not to give undue importance to his criticisms.最好不要过分看重他的批评。

21 poke   

n.刺，戳，袋；vt.拨开，刺，戳；vi.戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• We never thought she would poke her nose into this.想不到她会插上一手。
• Don't poke fun at me.别拿我凑趣儿。

22 renowned   

adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的

参考例句：

• He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
• She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。

23 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

24 iodine   

n.碘，碘酒

参考例句：

• The doctor painted iodine on the cut.医生在伤口上涂点碘酒。
• Iodine tends to localize in the thyroid.碘容易集于甲状腺。

25 soda   

n.苏打水；汽水

参考例句：

• She doesn't enjoy drinking chocolate soda.她不喜欢喝巧克力汽水。
• I will freshen your drink with more soda and ice cubes.我给你的饮料重加一些苏打水和冰块。