Chapter 6 Mr Robinson（2）

II
What next was an appointment in an inexpensive restaurant in theneighbourhood of Tottenham Court Road.
‘Well I never!’ said an elderly man, leaping up from his seat where hewas sitting waiting. ‘Carroty Tom, on my life. Shouldn’t have known you.’
‘Possibly not,’ said Tommy. ‘Not much carrots left about me. It’s grey-haired Tom.’
‘Ah well, we’re all that. How’s your health?’
‘Much the same as I always was. Cracking. You know. Decomposing¹ bydegrees.’
‘How long is it since I’ve seen you? Two years? Eight years? Elevenyears?’
‘Now you’re going too far,’ said Tommy. ‘We met at the Maltese Cats din-ner last autumn, don’t you remember?’
‘Ah, so we did. Pity that broke up, you know. I always thought it would.
Nice premises², but the food was rotten. Well, what are you doing thesedays, old boy? Still in the espionage³-up-to-date do?’
‘No,’ said Tommy, ‘I’m nothing to do with espionage.’
‘Dear me. What a waste of your activities.’
‘And what about you, Mutton-Chop?’
‘Oh, I’m much too old to serve my country in that way.’
‘No espionage going on nowadays?’
‘Lots of it, I expect. But probably they put the bright boys on to it. Theones who come bursting out of universities needing a job badly. Whereare you now? I sent you a Christmas card this year. Well, I didn’t actuallypost it till January but anyway it came back to me with “Not known at thisaddress”.’
‘No. We’ve gone to the country to live now. Down near the sea. Hol-lowquay.’
‘Hollowquay. Hollowquay? I seem to remember something. Somethingin your line going on there once, wasn’t there?’
‘Not in my time,’ said Tommy. ‘I’ve only just got to hear of it since goingto live there. Legends of the past. At least sixty years ago.’
‘Something to do with a submarine, wasn’t it? Plans of a submarine soldto someone or other. I forget who we were selling to at that time. Mighthave been the Japanese, might have been the Russians–oh, and lots of oth-ers. People always seemed to meet enemy agents in Regent’s Park orsomewhere like that. You know, they’d meet someone like a third Secret-ary from an Embassy⁴. Not so many beautiful lady spies around as thereused to be once in fiction.’
‘I wanted to ask you a few things, Mutton-Chop.’
‘Oh? Ask away. I’ve had a very uneventful life. Margery–do you remem-ber Margery?’
‘Yes, of course I remember Margery. I nearly got to your wedding.’
‘I know. But you couldn’t make it or something, or took the wrong train,as far as I remember. A train that was going to Scotland instead ofSouthall. Anyway, just as well you didn’t. Nothing much came of it.’
‘Didn’t you get married?’
‘Oh yes, I got married. But somehow or other it didn’t take very well. No.
A year and a half and it was done with. She’s married again. I haven’t, butI’m doing very nicely. I live at Little Pollon. Quite a decent⁵ golf-coursethere. My sister lives with me. She’s a widow with a nice bit of money andwe get on well together. She’s a bit deaf so she doesn’t hear what I say, butit only means shouting a bit.’
‘You said you’d heard of Hollowquay. Was it really something to do withspying of some kind?’
‘Well, to tell you the truth, old boy, it’s so long ago that I can’t remembermuch about it. It made a big stir at the time. You know, splendid youngnaval officer absolutely above suspicion in every way, ninety per centBritish, rated about a hundred and five in reliability⁷, but nothing of thekind really. In the pay of–well, I can’t remember now who he was in thepay of. Germany, I suppose. Before the 1914 war. Yes, I think that was it.’
‘And there was a woman too, I believe, associated with it all,’ saidTommy.
‘I seem to remember hearing something about a Mary Jordan, I think itwas. Mind you, I am not clear about all this. Got into the papers and Ithink it was a wife of his–I mean of the above-suspicion naval⁶ officer. Itwas his wife who got in touch with the Russians and–no, no, that’s some-thing that happened since then. One mixes things up so–they all soundalike. Wife thought he wasn’t getting enough money, which meant, I sup-pose, that she wasn’t getting enough money. And so–well, why d’you wantto dig up all this old history? What’s it got to do with you after all thistime? I know you had something to do once with someone who was on theLusitania or went down with the Lusitania or something like that, didn’tyou? If we go back as far as that, I mean. That’s what you were mixed upin once, or your wife was mixed up in.’
‘We were both mixed up in it,’ said Tommy, ‘and it’s such a very longtime ago that I really can’t remember anything about it now.’
‘There was some woman associated with that, wasn’t there? Name likeJane Fish, or something like that, or was it Jane Whale?’
‘Jane Finn,’ said Tommy.
‘Where is she now?’
‘She’s married to an American.’
‘Oh, I see. Well, all very nice. One always seems to get talking aboutone’s old pals⁸ and what’s happened to them all. When you talk about oldfriends, either they are dead, which surprises you enormously becauseyou didn’t think they would be, or else they’re not dead and that surprisesyou even more. It’s a very difficult world.’
Tommy said yes it was a very difficult world and here was the waitercoming. What could they have to eat…The conversation thereafter⁹ wasgastronomic.

1 decomposing   

腐烂( decompose的现在分词 )； （使）分解； 分解（某物质、光线等）

参考例句：

• The air was filled with the overpowering stench of decomposing vegetation. 空气中充满了令人难以忍受的腐烂植物的恶臭。
• Heat was obtained from decomposing manures and hot air flues. 靠肥料分解和烟道为植物提供热量。

2 premises   

n.建筑物，房屋

参考例句：

• According to the rules,no alcohol can be consumed on the premises.按照规定，场内不准饮酒。
• All repairs are done on the premises and not put out.全部修缮都在家里进行，不用送到外面去做。

3 espionage   

n.间谍行为，谍报活动

参考例句：

• The authorities have arrested several people suspected of espionage.官方已经逮捕了几个涉嫌从事间谍活动的人。
• Neither was there any hint of espionage in Hanley's early life.汉利的早期生活也毫无进行间谍活动的迹象。

4 embassy   

n.大使馆，大使及其随员

参考例句：

• Large crowd demonstrated outside the British Embassy.很多群众在英国大使馆外面示威。
• He's a U.S. diplomat assigned to the embassy in London.他是美国驻伦敦大使馆的一名外交官。

5 decent   

adj.象样的，不错的，体面的，正派的，恰当的

参考例句：

• We want to raise our children to be decent men and women.我们盼望把孩子们培养成优秀人才。
• There isn't even a decent table in this room.这屋里连张像样的桌子也没有。

6 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

7 reliability   

n.可靠性，确实性

参考例句：

• We mustn't presume too much upon the reliability of such sources.我们不应过分指望这类消息来源的可靠性。
• I can assure you of the reliability of the information.我向你保证这消息可靠。

8 pals   

n.朋友( pal的名词复数 )；老兄；小子；（对男子的不友好的称呼）家伙

参考例句：

• We've been pals for years. 我们是多年的哥们儿了。
• CD 8 positive cells remarkably increased in PALS and RP(P CD8+细胞在再生脾PALS和RP内均明显增加(P 来自互联网

9 thereafter   

adv.此后，以后

参考例句：

• Thereafter they did not speak.此后他们就不再讲话了。
• On the opening day all tickets are a dollar, thereafter,they'll be two dollars.开张那天票价一元，以后两元。