‘Lots of Parkinsons,’ said Tuppence as they ate. ‘A long way back but anamazing lot of them. Old ones, young ones and married ones. Burstingwith Parkinsons. And Capes1, and Griffins and Underwoods and Over-woods. Curious to have both of them, isn’t it?’
‘I had a friend called George Underwood,’ said Tommy.
‘Yes, I’ve known Underwoods, too. But not Overwoods.’
‘Male or female?’ said Thomas, with slight interest.
‘A girl, I think it was. Rose Overwood.’
‘Rose Overwood,’ said Tommy, listening to the sound of it. ‘I don’t thinksomehow it goes awfully2 well together.’ He added, ‘I must ring up thoseelectricians after lunch. Be very careful, Tuppence, or you’ll put your footthrough the landing upstairs.’
‘Then I shall be a natural death, or an unnatural3 death, one of the two.’
‘A curiosity death,’ said Tommy. ‘Curiosity killed the cat.’
‘Aren’t you at all curious?’ asked Tuppence.
‘I can’t see any earthly reason for being curious. What have we got forpudding?’
‘Treacle tart4.’
‘Well, I must say, Tuppence, it was a delicious meal.’
‘I’m very glad you liked it,’ said Tuppence.
‘What is that parcel outside the back door? Is it that wine we ordered?’
‘No,’ said Tuppence, ‘it’s bulbs.’
‘Oh,’ said Tommy, ‘bulbs.’
‘Tulips,’ said Tuppence. ‘I’ll go and talk to old Isaac about them.’
‘Where are you going to put them?’
‘I think along the centre path in the garden.’
‘Poor old fellow, he looks as if he might drop dead any minute,’ saidTommy.
‘Not at all,’ said Tuppence. ‘He’s enormously tough, is Isaac. I’ve dis-covered, you know, that gardeners are like that. If they’re very goodgardeners they seem to come to their prime when they’re over eighty, butif you get a strong, hefty-looking young man about thirty-five who says,“I’ve always wanted to work in a garden,” you may be quite sure that he’sprobably no good at all. They’re just prepared to brush up a few leavesnow and again and anything you want them to do they always say it’s thewrong time of year, and as one never knows oneself when the right timeof year is, at least I don’t, well then, you see, they always get the better ofyou. But Isaac’s wonderful. He knows about everything.’ Tuppence added,‘There ought to be some crocuses as well. I wonder if they’re in the parcel,too. Well, I’ll go out and see. It’s his day for coming and he’ll tell me allabout it.’
‘All right,’ said Tommy, ‘I’ll come out and join you presently.’
Tuppence and Isaac had a pleasant reunion. The bulbs were unpacked,discussions were held as to where things would show to best advantage.
First the early tulips, which were expected to rejoice the heart at the endof February, then a consideration of the handsome fringed parrot tulips,and some tulips called, as far as Tuppence could make out, viridiflora,which would be exceptionally beautiful with long stems in the month ofMay and early June. As these were of an interesting green pastel colour,they agreed to plant them as a collection in a quiet part of the gardenwhere they could be picked and arranged in interesting floral arrange-ments in the drawing-room, or by the short approach to the house throughthe front gate where they would arouse envy and jealousy5 among callers.
They must even rejoice the artistic6 feelings of tradesmen delivering jointsof meat and crates7 of grocery.
At four o’clock Tuppence produced a brown teapot full of good strongtea in the kitchen, placed a sugar basin full of lumps of sugar and a milkjug by it, and called Isaac in to refresh himself before departing. She wentin search of Tommy.
I suppose he’s asleep somewhere, thought Tuppence to herself as shelooked from one room into another. She was glad to see a head sticking upon the landing out of the sinister8 pit in the floor.
‘It’s all right now, ma’am,’ said the electrician, ‘no need to be careful anymore. It’s all fixed9.’ He added that he was starting work on a different por-tion of the house on the following morning.
‘I do hope,’ said Tuppence, ‘that you will really come.’ She added, ‘Haveyou seen Mr Beresford anywhere?’
‘Aye, your husband, you mean? Yes, he’s up on an upper floor, I think.
Dropping things, he was. Yes, rather heavy things, too. Must have beensome books, I think.’
‘Books!’ said Tuppence. ‘Well I never!’
The electrician retreated down into his own personal underworld in thepassage and Tuppence went up to the attic10 converted to the extra book lib-rary at present devoted11 to children’s books.
Tommy was sitting on the top of a pair of steps. Several books werearound him on the floor and there were noticeable gaps in the shelves.
‘So there you are,’ said Tuppence, ‘after pretending you weren’t interes-ted or anything. You’ve been looking at lots of books, haven’t you? You’vedisarranged a lot of the things that I put away so neatly12.’
‘Well, I’m sorry about that,’ said Tommy, ‘but, well I thought I’d perhapsjust have a look round.’
‘Did you find any other books that have got any underlined things inthem in red ink?’
‘No. Nothing else.’
‘How annoying,’ said Tuppence.
‘I think it must have been Alexander’s work, Master Alexander Parkin-son,’ said Tommy.
‘That’s right,’ said Tuppence. ‘One of the Parkinsons, the numerous Par-kinsons.’
‘Well, I think he must have been rather a lazy boy, although of course, itmust have been rather a bother doing that underlining and all. But there’sno more information re Jordan,’ said Tommy.
‘I asked old Isaac. He knows a lot of people round here. He says hedoesn’t remember any Jordans.’
‘What are you doing with that brass13 lamp you’ve got by the front door?’
asked Tommy, as he came downstairs.
‘I’m taking it to the White Elephant Sale,’ said Tuppence.
‘Why?’
‘Oh, because it’s always been a thorough nuisance. We bought it some-where abroad, didn’t we?’
‘Yes, I think we must have been mad. You never liked it. You said youhated it. Well, I agree. And it’s awfully heavy too, very heavy.’
‘But Miss Sanderson was terribly pleased when I said that they couldhave it. She offered to fetch it but I said I’d run it down to them in the car.
It’s today we take the thing.’
‘I’ll run down with it if you like.’
‘No, I’d rather like to go.’
‘All right,’ said Tommy. ‘Perhaps I’d better come with you and just carryit in for you.’
‘Oh, I think I’ll find someone who’ll carry it in for me,’ said Tuppence.
‘Well, you might or you might not. Don’t go and strain yourself.’
‘All right,’ said Tuppence.
‘You’ve got some other reason for wanting to go, haven’t you?’
‘Well, I just thought I’d like to chat a bit with people,’ said Tuppence.
‘I never know what you’re up to, Tuppence, but I know the look in youreye when you are up to something.’
‘You take Hannibal for a walk,’ said Tuppence. ‘I can’t take him to theWhite Elephant Sale. I don’t want to get into a dog-fight.’
‘All right. Want to go for a walk, Hannibal?’
Hannibal, as was his habit, immediately replied in the affirmative. Hisaffirmatives and his negatives were always quite impossible to miss. Hewriggled his body, wagged his tail, raised one paw, put it down again andcame and rubbed his head hard against Tommy’s leg.
‘That’s right,’ he obviously said, ‘that’s what you exist for, my dear slave.
We’re going out for a lovely walk down the street. Lots of smells, I hope.’
‘Come on,’ said Tommy. ‘I’ll take the lead with me, and don’t run into theroad as you did the last time. One of those awful great “long vehicles” wasnearly the end of you.’
Hannibal looked at him with the expression of ‘I’m always a very gooddog who’ll do exactly what I am told.’ False as the statement was, it oftensucceeded in deceiving even those people who were in closest contactwith Hannibal.
Tommy put the brass lamp into the car, murmuring it was rather heavy.
Tuppence drove off in the car. Having seen her turn the corner, Tommyattached the lead to Hannibal’s collar and took him down the street. Thenhe turned up the lane towards the church, and removed Hannibal’s leadsince very little traffic came up this particular road. Hannibal acknow-ledged the privilege by grunting14 and sniffing15 in various tufts of grass withwhich the pavement next to the wall was adorned16. If he could have usedhuman language it was clear that what he would have said was: ‘Deli-cious! Very rich. Big dog here. Believe it’s that beastly Alsatian.’ Lowgrowl. ‘I don’t like Alsatians. If I see the one again that bit me once I’ll bitehim. Ah! Delicious, delicious. Very nice little bitch here. Yes–yes–I’d like tomeet her. I wonder if she lives far away. Expect she comes out of thishouse. I wonder now.’
‘Come out of that gate, now,’ said Tommy. ‘Don’t go into a house thatisn’t yours.’
Hannibal pretended not to hear.
‘Hannibal!’
Hannibal redoubled his speed and turned a corner which led towardsthe kitchen.
‘Hannibal!’ shouted Tommy. ‘Do you hear me?’
‘Hear you, Master?’ said Hannibal. ‘Were you calling me? Oh yes, ofcourse.’
A sharp bark from inside the kitchen caught his ear. He scampered17 outto join Tommy. Hannibal walked a few inches behind Tommy’s heel.
‘Good boy,’ said Tommy.
‘I am a good boy, aren’t I?’ said Hannibal. ‘Any moment you need me todefend you, here I am less than a foot away.’
They had arrived at a side gate which led into the churchyard. Hanni-bal, who in some way had an extraordinary knack18 of altering his sizewhen he wanted to, instead of appearing somewhat broad- shouldered,possibly a somewhat too plump dog, he could at any moment make him-self like a thin black thread. He now squeezed himself through the bars ofthe gate with no difficulty at all.
‘Come back, Hannibal,’ called Tommy. ‘You can’t go into the church-yard.’
Hannibal’s answer to that, if there had been any, would have been, ‘I amin the churchyard already, Master.’ He was scampering19 gaily20 round thechurchyard with the air of a dog who has been let out in a singularlypleasant garden.
‘You awful dog!’ said Tommy.
He unlatched the gate, walked in and chased Hannibal, lead in hand.
Hannibal was now at the far corner of the churchyard, and seemed tohave every intention of trying to gain access through the door of thechurch, which was slightly ajar. Tommy, however, reached him in timeand attached the lead. Hannibal looked up with the air of one who had in-tended this to happen all along. ‘Putting me on the lead, are you?’ he said.
‘Yes, of course, I know it’s a kind of prestige. It shows that I am a veryvaluable dog.’ He wagged his tail. Since there seemed nobody to opposeHannibal walking in the churchyard with his master, suitably secured ashe was by a stalwart lead, Tommy wandered round, checking perhapsTuppence’s researches of a former day.
He looked first at a worn stone monument more or less behind a littleside door into the church. It was, he thought, probably one of the oldest.
There were several of them there, most of them bearing dates in the eight-een-hundreds. There was one, however, that Tommy looked at longest.
‘Odd,’ he said, ‘damned odd.’
Hannibal looked up at him. He did not understand this piece of Master’sconversation. He saw nothing about the gravestone to interest a dog. Hesat down, looked up at his master enquiringly.
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收听单词发音
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1
capes
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| 碎谷； 斗篷( cape的名词复数 )； 披肩； 海角； 岬 | |
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2
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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tart
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| adj.酸的；尖酸的，刻薄的；n.果馅饼；淫妇 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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crates
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| n. 板条箱, 篓子, 旧汽车 vt. 装进纸条箱 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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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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attic
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| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
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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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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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grunting
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| 咕哝的，呼噜的 | |
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15
sniffing
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| n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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scampered
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| v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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knack
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| n.诀窍，做事情的灵巧的，便利的方法 | |
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scampering
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| v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的现在分词 ) | |
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gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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