Eleven（3）

III
Tuppence was just emerging from the local lending library with whathad been recommended to her as a “nice book” clasped under her armwhen she was startled by a voice saying:
“Mrs. Beresford.”
She turned abruptly¹ to see a tall dark young man with an agreeable butslightly embarrassed smile.
He said:
“Er—I’m afraid you don’t remember me?”
Tuppence was thoroughly² used to the formula. She could have predictedwith accuracy the words that were coming next.
“I—er—came to the flat with Deborah one day.”
Deborah’s friends! So many of them, and all, to Tuppence, looking singu-larly alike! Some dark like this young man, some fair, an occasional red-haired one—but all cast in the same mould—pleasant, well-mannered,their hair, in Tuppence’s view, just slightly too long. (But when this washinted, Deborah would say, “Oh, Mother, don’t be so terribly 1916. I can’tstand short hair.”)
Annoying to have run across and been recognised by one of Deborah’syoung men just now. However, she could probably soon shake him off.
“I’m Anthony Marsdon,” explained the young man.
Tuppence murmured mendaciously³, “Oh, of course,” and shook hands.
Tony Marsdon went on:
“I’m awfully⁴ glad to have found you, Mrs. Beresford. You see, I’m work-ing at the same job as Deborah, and as a matter of fact something ratherawkward has happened.”
“Yes?” said Tuppence. “What is it?”
“Well, you see, Deborah’s found out that you’re not down in Cornwall asshe thought, and that makes it a bit awkward, doesn’t it, for you?”
“Oh, bother,” said Tuppence, concerned. “How did she find out?”
Tony Marsdon explained. He went on rather diffidently:
“Deborah, of course, has no idea of what you’re really doing.”
He paused discreetly⁵, and then went on:
“It’s important, I imagine, that she shouldn’t know. My job, actually, israther the same line. I’m supposed to be just a beginner in the coding de-partment. Really my instructions are to express views that are mildly Fas-cist—admiration of the German system, insinuations that a working alli-ance with Hitler wouldn’t be a bad thing—all that sort of thing—just to seewhat response I get. There’s a good deal of rot going on, you see, and wewant to find out who’s at the bottom of it.”
“Rot everywhere,” thought Tuppence.
“But as soon as Deb told me about you,” continued the young man, “Ithought I’d better come straight down and warn you so that you can cookup a likely story. You see, I happen to know what you are doing and thatit’s of vital importance. It would be fatal if any hint of who you are gotabout. I thought perhaps you could make it seem as though you’d joinedCaptain Beresford in Scotland or wherever he is. You might say that you’dbeen allowed to work with him there.”
“I might do that, certainly,” said Tuppence thoughtfully.
Tony Marsdon said anxiously:
“You don’t think I’m butting⁶ in?”
“No, no, I’m very grateful to you.”
Tony said rather inconsequentially:
“I’m—well—you see—I’m rather fond of Deborah.”
Tuppence flashed him an amused quick glance.
How far away it seemed, that world of attentive⁸ young men and Debwith her rudeness to them that never seemed to put them off. This youngman was, she thought, quite an attractive specimen⁹.
She put aside what she called to herself “peacetime thoughts” and con-centrated on the present situation.
After a moment or two she said slowly:
“My husband isn’t in Scotland.”
“Isn’t he?”
“No, he’s down here with me. At least he was! Now—he’s disappeared.”
“I say, that’s bad—or isn’t it? Was he on to something?”
Tuppence nodded.
“I think so. That’s why I don’t think that his disappearing like this isreally a bad sign. I think, sooner or later, he’ll communicate with me—inhis own way.” She smiled a little.
Tony said, with some slight embarrassment¹⁰:
“Of course, you know the game well, I expect. But you ought to be care-ful.”
Tuppence nodded.
“I know what you mean. Beautiful heroines in books are always easilydecoyed away. But Tommy and I have our methods. We’ve got a slogan,”
she smiled. “Penny plain and tuppence coloured.”
“What?” The young man stared at her as though she had gone mad.
“I ought to explain that my family nickname is Tuppence.”
“Oh, I see.” The young man’s brow cleared. “Ingenious—what?”
“I hope so.”
“I don’t want to butt⁷ in—but couldn’t I help in any way?”
“Yes,” said Tuppence thoughtfully. “I think perhaps you might.”

1 abruptly   

adv.突然地，出其不意地

参考例句：

• He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
• I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。

2 thoroughly   

adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地

参考例句：

• The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
• The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。

3 mendaciously   

参考例句：

4 awfully   

adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地

参考例句：

• Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
• I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。

5 discreetly   

ad.(言行)审慎地，慎重地

参考例句：

• He had only known the perennial widow, the discreetly expensive Frenchwoman. 他只知道她是个永远那么年轻的寡妇，一个很会讲排场的法国女人。
• Sensing that Lilian wanted to be alone with Celia, Andrew discreetly disappeared. 安德鲁觉得莉莲想同西莉亚单独谈些什么，有意避开了。

6 butting   

用头撞人（犯规动作）

参考例句：

• When they were talking Mary kept butting in. 当他们在谈话时，玛丽老是插嘴。
• A couple of goats are butting each other. 两只山羊在用角互相顶撞。

7 butt   

n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶

参考例句：

• The water butt catches the overflow from this pipe.大水桶盛接管子里流出的东西。
• He was the butt of their jokes.他是他们的笑柄。

8 attentive   

adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的

参考例句：

• She was very attentive to her guests.她对客人招待得十分周到。
• The speaker likes to have an attentive audience.演讲者喜欢注意力集中的听众。

9 specimen   

n.样本，标本

参考例句：

• You'll need tweezers to hold up the specimen.你要用镊子来夹这标本。
• This specimen is richly variegated in colour.这件标本上有很多颜色。

10 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。