“What’s the matter, Deb? You’re looking worried, my sweet.”
Deborah Beresford started, and then laughed, looking frankly1 into TonyMarsdon’s sympathetic brown eyes. She liked Tony. He had brains—wasone of the most brilliant beginners in the coding department—and wasthought likely to go far.
Deborah enjoyed her job, though she found it made somewhat strenu-ous demands on her powers of concentration. It was tiring, but it wasworthwhile and it gave her a pleasant feeling of importance. This was realwork—not just hanging about a hospital waiting for a chance to nurse.
She said:
“Oh, nothing. Just family! You know.”
“Families are a bit trying. What’s yours been up to?”
“It’s my mother. To tell the truth, I’m just a bit worried about her.”
“Why? What’s happened?”
“Well, you see, she went down to Cornwall to a frightfully trying oldaunt of mine. Seventy-eight and completely gaga.”
“Sounds grim,” commented the young man sympathetically.
“Yes, it was really very noble of Mother. But she was rather hipped2 any-way because nobody seemed to want her in this war. Of course, shenursed and did things in the last one—but it’s all quite different now, andthey don’t want these middle- aged3 people. They want people who areyoung and on the spot. Well, as I say, Mother got a bit hipped over it all,and so she went off down to Cornwall to stay with Aunt Gracie, and she’sbeen doing a bit in the garden, extra vegetable growing and all that.”
“Quite sound,” commented Tony.
“Yes, much the best thing she could do. She’s quite active still, youknow,” said Deborah kindly4.
“Well, that sounds all right.”
“Oh yes, it isn’t that. I was quite happy about her—had a letter only twodays ago sounding quite cheerful.”
“What’s the trouble, then?”
“The trouble is that I told Charles, who was going down to see his peoplein that part of the world, to go and look her up. And he did. And shewasn’t there.”
“Wasn’t there?”
“No. And she hadn’t been there! Not at all apparently5!”
Tony looked a little embarrassed.
“Rather odd,” he murmured. “Where’s—I mean—your father?”
“Carrot Top? Oh, he’s in Scotland somewhere. In one of those dreadfulMinistries where they file papers in triplicate all day long.”
“Your mother hasn’t gone to join him, perhaps?”
“She can’t. He’s in one of those area things where wives can’t go.”
“Oh—er—well, I suppose she’s just sloped off somewhere.”
Tony was decidedly embarrassed now—especially with Deborah’s largeworried eyes fixed6 plaintively8 upon him.
“Yes, but why? It’s so queer. All her letters—talking about Aunt Gracieand the garden and everything.”
“I know, I know,” said Tony hastily. “Of course, she’d want you to think—I mean—nowadays—well, people do slope off now and again if youknow what I mean—”
Deborah’s gaze, from being plaintive7, became suddenly wrathful.
“If you think Mother’s just gone off weekending with someone you’reabsolutely wrong. Absolutely. Mother and Father are devoted10 to eachother—really devoted. It’s quite a joke in the family. She’d never—”
Tony said hastily:
“Of course not. Sorry. I really didn’t mean—”
Deborah, her wrath9 appeased11, creased12 her forehead.
“The odd thing is that someone the other day said they’d seen Mother inLeahampton, of all places, and of course I said it couldn’t be her becauseshe was in Cornwall, but now I wonder—”
Tony, his match held to a cigarette, paused suddenly and the matchwent out.
“Leahampton?” he said sharply.
“Yes. Just the last place you could imagine Mother going off to. Nothingto do and all old Colonels and maiden13 ladies.”
“Doesn’t sound a likely spot, certainly,” said Tony.
He lit his cigarette and asked casually14:
“What did your mother do in the last war?”
Deborah answered mechanically:
“Oh, nursed a bit and drove a General—Army, I mean, not a bus. All theusual sort of things.”
“Oh, I thought perhaps she’d been like you—in the Intelligence.”
“Oh, Mother would never have had the head for this sort of work. I be-lieve, though, that she and Father did do something in the sleuthing line.
Secret papers and master spies—that sort of thing. Of course, the darlingsexaggerate it all a good deal and make it all sound as though it had beenfrightfully important. We don’t really encourage them to talk about itmuch because you know what one’s family is—the same old story overand over again.”
“Oh, rather,” said Tony Marsdon heartily15. “I quite agree.”
It was on the following day that Deborah, returning to her digs, waspuzzled by something unfamiliar16 in the appearance of her room.
It took her a few minutes to fathom17 what it was. Then she rang the belland demanded angrily of her landlady18 what had happened to the big pho-tograph that always stood on the top of the chest of drawers.
Mrs. Rowley was aggrieved19 and resentful.
She couldn’t say, she was sure. She hadn’t touched it herself. MaybeGladys—
But Gladys also denied having removed it. The man had been about thegas, she said hopefully.
But Deborah declined to believe that an employee of the Gas Co. wouldhave taken a fancy to and removed the portrait of a middle-aged20 lady.
Far more likely, in Deborah’s opinion, that Gladys had smashed the pho-tograph frame and had hastily removed all traces of the crime to the dust-bin.
Deborah didn’t make a fuss about it. Sometime or other she’d get hermother to send her another photo.
She thought to herself with rising vexation:
“What’s the old darling up to? She might tell me. Of course, it’s absolutenonsense to suggest, as Tony did, that she’s gone off with someone, but allthe same it’s very queer. .?.?.”
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收听单词发音
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1
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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2
hipped
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| adj.着迷的，忧郁的 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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5
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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7
plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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8
plaintively
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| adv.悲哀地，哀怨地 | |
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9
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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11
appeased
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| 安抚，抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 )； 绥靖（满足另一国的要求以避免战争） | |
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creased
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| （使…）起折痕，弄皱( crease的过去式和过去分词 )； （皮肤）皱起，使起皱纹； 皱皱巴巴 | |
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maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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14
casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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15
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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16
unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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17
fathom
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| v.领悟，彻底了解 | |
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landlady
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| n.女房东，女地主 | |
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19
aggrieved
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| adj.愤愤不平的，受委屈的；悲痛的；（在合法权利方面）受侵害的v.令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式)；令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式和过去分词) | |
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middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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