Chapter 6 Mr Robinson（1）

Chapter 6 Mr Robinson

‘I wonder what Tuppence is doing now,’ said Tommy, sighing.
‘Excuse me, I didn’t quite hear what you said.’
Tommy turned his head to look at Miss Collodon more closely. Miss Col-lodon was thin, emaciated¹, had grey hair which was slowly passingthrough the stage of recovering from a peroxide rinse² designated to makeher look younger (which it had not done). She was now trying variousshades of artistic³ grey, cloudy smoke, steel blue and other interestingshades suitable for a lady between sixty and sixty-five, devoted⁴ to the pur-suit of research. Her face represented a kind of ascetic⁵ superiority and asupreme confidence in her own achievements.
‘Oh, it was nothing really, Miss Collodon,’ said Tommy. ‘Just–just some-thing I was considering, you know. Just thinking of.’
And what is it, I wonder, thought Thomas, being careful this time not toutter the words aloud, that she can be doing today. Something silly, I bet.
Half killing⁶ herself in that extraordinary, obsolete⁷ child’s toy that’ll cometo pieces carrying her down the hill, and she’ll probably end up with abroken something or other. Hips⁸, it seems to be nowadays, though I don’tsee why hips are more vulnerable than anything else. Tuppence, hethought, would at this moment be doing something silly or foolish or, ifnot that, she would be doing something which might not be silly or foolishbut would be highly dangerous. Yes, dangerous. It was always difficultkeeping Tuppence out of danger. His mind roved vaguely⁹ over various in-cidents in the past. Words of a quotation¹⁰ came into his mind, and he spokethem aloud:
‘Postern of Fate…
Pass not beneath, O Caravan¹¹, or pass not singing.
Have you heard
That silence where the birds are dead, yet somethingpipeth like a bird?’
Miss Collodon responded immediately, giving Tommy quite a shock ofsurprise.
‘Flecker,’ she said. ‘Flecker. It goes on:
“Death’s Caravan…Disaster’s Cavern¹², Fort of Fear.”’
Tommy stared at her, then realized that Miss Collodon had thought hewas bringing her a poetic¹³ problem to be researched, full information onwhere a certain quotation came from and who the poet had been who haduttered it. The trouble with Miss Collodon was that her research coveredsuch a broad field.
‘I was just wondering about my wife,’ said Tommy apologetically.
‘Oh,’ said Miss Collodon.
She looked at Tommy with a rather new expression in her eye. Maritaltrouble in the home, she was deducing. She would presently probably of-fer him the address of a marriage advice bureau wherein he might seekadjustment in his matrimonial affairs and troubles.
Tommy said hurriedly, ‘Have you had any success with that enquiry Ispoke to you about the day before yesterday?’
‘Oh yes. Not very much trouble in that. Somerset House is very useful,you know, in all those things. I don’t think, you know, that there is likely tobe anything particular that you want there, but I’ve got the names and ad-dresses of certain births, marriages and deaths.’
‘What, are they all Mary Jordans?’
‘Jordan, yes. A Mary. A Maria and a Polly Jordan. Also a Mollie Jordan. Idon’t know if any of them are likely to be what you want. Can I pass this toyou?’
She handed him a small typewritten sheet.
‘Oh, thank you. Thank you very much.’
‘There are several addresses, too. The ones you asked me for. I have notbeen able to find out the address of Major Dalrymple. People change theiraddresses constantly nowadays. However, I think another two days oughtto get that information all right. This is Dr Heseltine’s address. He is atpresent living at Surbiton.’
‘Thanks very much,’ said Tommy. ‘I might start on him, anyway.’
‘Any more queries¹⁴?’
‘Yes. I’ve got a list here of about six. Some of them may not be in yourline.’
‘Oh well,’ said Miss Collodon, with complete assurance, ‘I have to makethings my line, you know. You can easily find out first just where you canfind out, if that isn’t a rather foolish way of speech. But it does explainthings, you know. I remember–oh, quite a long time ago, when I was firstdoing this work, I found how useful Selfridge’s advice bureau was. Youcould ask them the most extraordinary questions about the most ex-traordinary things and they always seemed to be able to tell you some-thing about it or where you could get the information quickly. But ofcourse they don’t do that sort of thing nowadays. Nowadays, you know,most enquiries that are made are–well, you know, if you want to commitsuicide, things like that. Samaritans. And legal questions about wills and alot of extraordinary things for authors, of course. And jobs abroad and im-migration problems. Oh yes, I cover a very wide field.’
‘I’m sure you do,’ said Tommy.
‘And helping¹⁵ alcoholics¹⁶. A lot of societies there are who specialize inthat. Some of them are much better than others. I have quite a list–com-prehensive–and some most reliable–’
‘I’ll remember it,’ Tommy said, ‘if I find myself shaping that way anytime. It depends how far I get today.’
‘Oh, I’m sure, Mr Beresford, I don’t see any signs of alcoholic¹⁷ difficultiesin you.’
‘No red nose?’ said Tommy.
‘It’s worse with women,’ said Miss Collodon. ‘More difficult, you know,to get them off it, as you might say. Men do relapse, but not so notably¹⁸. Butreally, some women, they seem quite all right, quite happy drinking lem-onade in large quantities and all that, and then some evening, in themiddle of a party–well, it’s all there again.’
In turn, she looked at her watch.
‘Oh dear, I must go on to my next appointment. I have to get to UpperGrosvenor Street.’
‘Thank you very much,’ said Tommy, ‘for all you’ve done.’
He opened the door politely, helped Miss Collodon on with her coat,went back into the room and said,
‘I must remember to tell Tuppence this evening that our researches sofar have led me to impress a research agent with the idea that my wifedrinks and our marriage is breaking up because of it. Oh dear, what next!’

1 emaciated   

adj.衰弱的，消瘦的

参考例句：

• A long time illness made him sallow and emaciated.长期患病使他面黄肌瘦。
• In the light of a single candle,she can see his emaciated face.借着烛光，她能看到他的被憔悴的面孔。

2 rinse   

v.用清水漂洗，用清水冲洗

参考例句：

• Give the cup a rinse.冲洗一下杯子。
• Don't just rinse the bottles. Wash them out carefully.别只涮涮瓶子，要仔细地洗洗里面。

3 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

4 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

5 ascetic   

adj.禁欲的；严肃的

参考例句：

• The hermit followed an ascetic life-style.这个隐士过的是苦行生活。
• This is achieved by strict celibacy and ascetic practices.这要通过严厉的独身生活和禁欲修行而达到。

6 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

7 obsolete   

adj.已废弃的，过时的

参考例句：

• These goods are obsolete and will not fetch much on the market.这些货品过时了，在市场上卖不了高价。
• They tried to hammer obsolete ideas into the young people's heads.他们竭力把陈旧思想灌输给青年。

8 hips   

abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的

参考例句：

• She stood with her hands on her hips. 她双手叉腰站着。
• They wiggled their hips to the sound of pop music. 他们随着流行音乐的声音摇晃着臀部。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 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。

10 quotation   

n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情

参考例句：

• He finished his speech with a quotation from Shakespeare.他讲话结束时引用了莎士比亚的语录。
• The quotation is omitted here.此处引文从略。

11 caravan   

n.大蓬车；活动房屋

参考例句：

• The community adviser gave us a caravan to live in.社区顾问给了我们一间活动住房栖身。
• Geoff connected the caravan to the car.杰弗把旅行用的住屋拖车挂在汽车上。

12 cavern   

n.洞穴，大山洞

参考例句：

• The cavern walls echoed his cries.大山洞的四壁回响着他的喊声。
• It suddenly began to shower,and we took refuge in the cavern.天突然下起雨来，我们在一个山洞里避雨。

13 poetic   

adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的

参考例句：

• His poetic idiom is stamped with expressions describing group feeling and thought.他的诗中的措辞往往带有描写群体感情和思想的印记。
• His poetic novels have gone through three different historical stages.他的诗情小说创作经历了三个不同的历史阶段。

14 queries   

n.问题( query的名词复数 )；疑问；询问；问号v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的第三人称单数 )；询问

参考例句：

• Our assistants will be happy to answer your queries. 我们的助理很乐意回答诸位的问题。
• Her queries were rhetorical,and best ignored. 她的质问只不过是说说而已，最好不予理睬。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

16 Alcoholics   

n.嗜酒者，酒鬼( alcoholic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Many alcoholics go on drinking sprees that continue for days at a time. 许多酒鬼一次要狂饮好几天。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Do you have a copy of the Alcoholics Anonymous book? 你手上有戒酒匿名会的书吗？ 来自互联网

17 alcoholic   

adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者

参考例句：

• The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
• Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。

18 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。