Ten（3）

III
Tuppence was a little upset by Tommy’s unannounced absence, but shetried to reassure¹ herself. He might possibly have struck some hot trail andgone off upon it. The difficulties of communication with each other undersuch circumstances had been foreseen by them both, and they had agreedthat the other one was not to be unduly² perturbed³ by unexplained ab-sences. They had arranged certain contrivances between them for suchemergencies.
Mrs. Perenna had, according to Mrs. Sprot, been out last night. Thevehemence of her own denial of the fact only made that absence of hersmore interesting to speculate upon.
It was possible that Tommy had trailed her on her secret errand andhad found something worth following up.
Doubtless he would communicate with Tuppence in his special way, orelse turn up, very shortly.
Nevertheless, Tuppence was unable to avoid a certain feeling of uneasi-ness. She decided⁴ that in her role of Mrs. Blenkensop it would be perfectlynatural to display some curiosity and even anxiety. She went withoutmore ado in search of Mrs. Perenna.
Mrs. Perenna was inclined to be short with her upon the subject. Shemade it clear that such conduct on the part of one of her lodgers⁵ was notto be condoned⁶ or glossed⁷ over. Tuppence exclaimed breathlessly:
“Oh, but he may have met with an accident. I’m sure he must have done.
He’s not at all that sort of man—not at all loose in his ideas, or anything ofthat kind. He must have been run down by a car or something.”
“We shall probably soon hear one way or another,” said Mrs. Perenna.
But the day wore on and there was no sign of Mr. Meadowes.
In the evening, Mrs. Perenna, urged on by the pleas of her boarders,agreed extremely reluctantly to ring up the police.
A sergeant⁸ called at the house with a notebook and took particulars. Cer-tain facts were then elicited⁹. Mr. Meadowes had left Commander Hay-dock’s house at half-past ten. From there he had walked with a Mr. Wal-ters and a Dr. Curtis as far as the gate of Sans Souci, where he had saidgoodbye to them and turned into the drive.
From that moment, Mr. Meadowes seemed to have disappeared intospace.
In Tuppence’s mind, two possibilities emerged from this.
When walking up the drive, Tommy may have seen Mrs. Perenna com-ing towards him, have slipped into the bushes and then have followed her.
Having observed her rendezvous¹⁰ with some unknown person, he mightthen have followed the latter, whilst Mrs. Perenna returned to Sans Souci.
In that case, he was probably very much alive, and busy on a trail. Inwhich case the well-meant endeavours of the police to find him mightprove most embarrassing.
The other possibility was not so pleasant. It resolved itself into two pic-tures — one that of Mrs. Perenna returning “out of breath anddishevelled”—the other, one that would not be laid aside, a picture of Mrs.
O’Rourke standing¹¹ smiling in the window, holding a heavy hammer.
That hammer had horrible possibilities.
For what should a hammer be doing lying outside?
As to who had wielded¹² it, that was more difficult. A good deal dependedon the exact time when Mrs. Perenna had reentered the house. It was cer-tainly somewhere in the neighbourhood of half-past ten, but none of thebridge party happened to have noted¹³ the time exactly. Mrs. Perenna haddeclared vehemently¹⁴ that she had not been out except just to look at theweather. But one does not get out of breath just looking at the weather. Itwas clearly extremely vexing¹⁵ to her to have been seen by Mrs. Sprot. Withordinary luck the four ladies might have been safely accounted for as busyplaying bridge.
What had the time been exactly?
Tuppence found everybody extremely vague on the subject.
If the time agreed, Mrs. Perenna was clearly the most likely suspect. Butthere were other possibilities. Of the inhabitants of Sans Souci, three hadbeen out at the time of Tommy’s return. Major Bletchley had been out atthe cinema—but he had been to it alone, and the way that he had insistedon retailing¹⁶ the whole picture so meticulously¹⁷ might suggest to a suspi-cious mind that he was deliberately¹⁸ establishing an alibi¹⁹.
Then there was the valetudinarian²⁰ Mr. Cayley who had gone for a walkall round the garden. But for the accident of Mrs. Cayley’s anxiety over herspouse, no one might have ever heard of that walk and might have ima-gined Mr. Cayley to have remained securely encased in rugs like amummy in his chair on the terrace. (Rather unlike him, really, to risk thecontamination of the night air so long.)
And there was Mrs. O’Rourke herself, swinging the hammer, and smil-ing. .?.?.

1 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。

2 unduly   

adv.过度地，不适当地

参考例句：

• He did not sound unduly worried at the prospect.他的口气听上去对前景并不十分担忧。
• He argued that the law was unduly restrictive.他辩称法律的约束性有些过分了。

3 perturbed   

adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I am deeply perturbed by the alarming way the situation developing. 我对形势令人忧虑的发展深感不安。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mother was much perturbed by my illness. 母亲为我的病甚感烦恼不安。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 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。

5 lodgers   

n.房客，租住者( lodger的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He takes in lodgers. 他招收房客。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A good proportion of my lodgers is connected with the theaters. 住客里面有不少人是跟戏院子有往来的。 来自辞典例句

6 condoned   

v.容忍，宽恕，原谅( condone的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Terrorism can never be condoned. 决不能容忍恐怖主义。
• They condoned his sins because he repented. 由于他的悔悟，他们宽恕了他的罪。 来自辞典例句

7 glossed   

v.注解( gloss的过去式和过去分词 )；掩饰（错误）；粉饰；把…搪塞过去

参考例句：

• The manager glossed over the team's recent defeat. 经理对这个队最近的失败闪烁其词。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He glossed over his selfishness with a display of generosity. 他以慷慨大方的假象掩饰他的自私。 来自互联网

8 sergeant   

n.警官，中士

参考例句：

• His elder brother is a sergeant.他哥哥是个警官。
• How many stripes are there on the sleeve of a sergeant?陆军中士的袖子上有多少条纹？

9 elicited   

引出，探出( elicit的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Threats to reinstate the tax elicited jeer from the Opposition. 恢复此项征税的威胁引起了反对党的嘲笑。
• The comedian's joke elicited applause and laughter from the audience. 那位滑稽演员的笑话博得观众的掌声和笑声。

10 rendezvous   

n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇

参考例句：

• She made the rendezvous with only minutes to spare.她还差几分钟时才来赴约。
• I have a rendezvous with Peter at a restaurant on the harbour.我和彼得在海港的一个餐馆有个约会。

11 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

12 wielded   

手持着使用（武器、工具等）( wield的过去式和过去分词 )； 具有； 运用（权力）； 施加（影响）

参考例句：

• The bad eggs wielded power, while the good people were oppressed. 坏人当道，好人受气
• He was nominally the leader, but others actually wielded the power. 名义上他是领导者，但实际上是别人掌握实权。

13 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

14 vehemently   

adv. 热烈地

参考例句：

• He argued with his wife so vehemently that he talked himself hoarse. 他和妻子争论得很激烈，以致讲话的声音都嘶哑了。
• Both women vehemently deny the charges against them. 两名妇女都激烈地否认了对她们的指控。

15 vexing   

adj.使人烦恼的，使人恼火的v.使烦恼( vex的现在分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论

参考例句：

• It is vexing to have to wait a long time for him. 长时间地等他真使人厌烦。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Lately a vexing problem had grown infuriatingly worse. 最近发生了一个讨厌的问题，而且严重到令人发指的地步。 来自辞典例句

16 retailing   

n.零售业v.零售(retail的现在分词)

参考例句：

• career opportunities in retailing 零售业的职业机会
• He is fond of retailing the news. 他喜欢传播消息。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 meticulously   

adv.过细地，异常细致地；无微不至；精心

参考例句：

• The hammer's silvery head was etched with holy runs and its haft was meticulously wrapped in blue leather. 锤子头是纯银制成的，雕刻着神圣符文，而握柄则被精心地包裹在蓝色的皮革中。 来自辞典例句
• She is always meticulously accurate in punctuation and spelling. 她的标点和拼写总是非常精确。 来自辞典例句

18 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

19 alibi   

n.某人当时不在犯罪现场的申辩或证明；借口

参考例句：

• Do you have any proof to substantiate your alibi? 你有证据表明你当时不在犯罪现场吗？
• The police are suspicious of his alibi because he already has a record.警方对他不在场的辩解表示怀疑，因为他已有前科。

20 valetudinarian   

n.病人；健康不佳者

参考例句：

• She affected to be spunky about her ailments and afflictions,but she was in fact an utterly self-centered valetudinarian.她装做对自己的失调和苦恼若无其事, 但是实际上她是为自己的健康状况非常发愁的人。
• The valetudinarian alternated two hours of work with one hour of rest.那个体弱多病的人每工作两小时就要歇一小时。