Dr. Thomas leant back in his chair, and passed a long delicate hand overhis thick fair hair. He was a young man whose appearance was deceptive1.
Though he was over thirty, a casual glance would have put him down inthe early twenties if not in his teens. His shock of rather unruly fair hair,his slightly startled expression and his pink and white complexion2 gavehim an irresistibly3 schoolboyish appearance. Immature4 as he might look,though, the diagnosis5 he had just pronounced on Luke’s rheumatic kneeagreed almost precisely6 with that delivered by an eminent7 Harley Streetspecialist only a week earlier.
“Thanks,” said Luke. “Well, I’m relieved you think that electrical treat-ment will do the trick. I don’t want to turn a cripple at my age.”
Dr. Thomas smiled boyishly.
“Oh, I don’t think there’s any danger of that, Mr. Fitzwilliam.”
“Well, you’ve relieved my mind,” said Luke. “I was thinking of going tosome specialist chap—but I’m sure there’s no need now.”
Dr. Thomas smiled again.
“Go if it makes your mind easier. After all, it’s always a good thing tohave an expert’s opinion.”
“No, no, I’ve got full confidence in you.”
“Frankly, there is no complexity8 about the matter. If you take my advice,I am quite sure you will have no further trouble.”
“You’ve relieved my mind no end, doctor. Fancied I might be gettingarthritis and would soon be all tied up in knots and unable to move.”
Dr. Thomas shook his head with a slightly indulgent smile.
Luke said quickly:
“Men get the wind up pretty badly in these ways. I expect you find that?
I often think a doctor must feel himself a ‘medicine man’—a kind of magi-cian to most of his patients.”
“The element of faith enters in very largely.”
“I know. ‘The doctor says so’ is a remark always uttered with somethinglike reverence9.”
Dr. Thomas raised his shoulders.
“If one’s patients only knew!” he murmured humorously.
Then he said:
“You’re writing a book on magic, aren’t you, Mr. Fitzwilliam?”
“Now how did you know that?” exclaimed Luke, perhaps with some-what overdone10 surprise.
Dr. Thomas looked amused.
“Oh, my dear sir, news gets about very rapidly in a place like this. Wehave so little to talk about.”
“It probably gets exaggerated too. You’ll be hearing I’m raising the localspirits and emulating11 the Witch of Endor.”
“Rather odd you should say that.”
“Why?”
“Well, the rumour12 has been going round that you had raised the ghost ofTommy Pierce.”
“Pierce? Pierce? Is that the small boy who fell out of a window?”
“Yes.”
“Now I wonder how—of course—I made some remark to the solicitor13—what’s his name, Abbot.”
“Yes, the story originated with Abbot.”
“Don’t say I’ve converted a hard-boiled solicitor to a belief in ghosts?”
“You believe in ghosts yourself, then?”
“Your tone suggests that you do not, doctor. No, I wouldn’t say I actually‘believe in ghosts’—to put it crudely. But I have known curious phenom-ena in the case of sudden or violent death. But I’m more interested in thevarious superstitions14 pertaining15 to violent deaths—that a murdered man,for instance, can’t rest in his grave. And the interesting belief that theblood of a murdered man flows if his murderer touches him. I wonderhow that arose.”
“Very curious,” said Thomas. “But I don’t suppose many people remem-ber that nowadays.”
“More than you would think. Of course, I don’t suppose you have manymurders down here—so it’s hard to judge.”
Luke had smiled as he spoke16, his eyes resting with seeming carelessnesson the other’s face. But Dr. Thomas seemed quite unperturbed and smiledin return.
“No, I don’t think we’ve had a murder for—oh, very many years—cer-tainly not in my time.”
“No, this is a peaceful spot. Not conducive17 to foul18 play. Unless somebodypushed little Tommy What’s-his-name out of the window.”
Luke laughed. Again Dr. Thomas’s smile came in answer — a naturalsmile full of boyish amusement.
“A lot of people would have been willing to wring19 that child’s neck,” hesaid. “But I don’t think they actually got to the point of throwing him outof windows.”
“He seems to have been a thoroughly20 nasty child—the removal of himmight have been conceived as a public duty.”
“It’s a pity one can’t apply that theory fairly often.”
“I’ve always thought a few wholesale21 murders would be beneficial to thecommunity,” said Luke. “A club bore, for instance, should be finished offwith a poisoned liqueur brandy. Then there are the women who gush22 atyou and tear all their dearest friends to pieces with their tongues. Backbit-ing spinsters. Inveterate23 diehards who oppose progress. If they were pain-lessly removed, what a difference it would make to social life!”
Dr. Thomas’s smile lengthened24 to a grin.
“In fact, you advocate crime on a grand scale?”
“Judicious elimination,” said Luke. “Don’t you agree that it would be be-neficial?”
“Oh, undoubtedly25.”
“Ah, but you’re not being serious,” said Luke. “Now I am. I haven’t therespect for human life that the normal Englishman has. Any man who is astumbling block on the way of progress ought to be eliminated—that’show I see it!”
Running his hand through his short fair hair, Dr. Thomas said:
“Yes, but who is to be the judge of a man’s fitness or unfitness?”
“That’s the difficulty, of course,” Luke admitted.
“The Catholics would consider a Communist agitator26 unfit to live—theCommunist agitator would sentence the priest to death as a purveyor27 ofsuperstition, the doctor would eliminate the unhealthy man, the pacifistwould condemn28 the soldier, and so on.”
“You’d have to have a scientific man as judge,” said Luke. “Someonewith an unbiased but highly specialized29 mind — a doctor, for instance.
Come to that, I think you’d be a pretty good judge yourself, doctor.”
“Of unfitness to live?”
“Yes.”
Dr. Thomas shook his head.
“My job is to make the unfit fit. Most of the time it’s an uphill job, I’ll ad-mit.”
“Now just for the sake of argument,” said Luke. “Take a man like the lateHarry Carter—”
Dr. Thomas said sharply:
“Carter? You mean the landlord of the Seven Stars?”
“Yes, that’s the man. I never knew him myself, but my cousin, Miss Con-way, was talking about him. He seems to have been a really thoroughgo-ing scoundrel.”
“Well,” said the other, “he drank, of course. Ill-treated his wife, bulliedhis daughter. He was quarrelsome and abusive and had had a row withmost people in the place.”
“In fact, the world is a better place without him?”
“One might be inclined to say so, I agree.”
“In fact, if somebody had given him a push and sent him into the riverinstead of his kindly30 electing to fall in of his own accord, that personwould have been acting31 in the public interest?”
Dr. Thomas said drily:
“These methods that you advocate—did you put them into practice inthe—Mayang Straits, I think you said?”
Luke laughed.
“Oh, no, with me it’s theory—not practice.”
“No, I do not think you are the stuff of which murderers are made.”
Luke asked:
“Why not? I’ve been frank enough in my views.”
“Exactly. Too frank.”
“You mean that if I were really the kind of man who takes the law intohis own hands I shouldn’t go about airing my views?”
“That was my meaning.”
“But it might be a kind of gospel with me. I might be a fanatic32 on thesubject!”
“Even so, your sense of self-protection would be active.”
“In fact, when looking for a murderer, look out for a nice gentlewouldn’t-hurt-a-fly type of man.”
“Slightly exaggerated perhaps,” said Dr. Thomas, “but not far from thetruth.”
Luke said abruptly33:
“Tell me—it interests me—have you ever come across a man whom youbelieved might be a murderer?”
Dr. Thomas said sharply:
“Really—what an extraordinary question!”
“Is it? After all, a doctor must come across so many queer characters. Hewould be better able to detect—for instance—the signs of homicidal mania—in an early stage—before it’s noticeable.”
Thomas said rather irritably34:
“You have the general layman’s idea of a homicidal maniac—a man whoruns amok with a knife, a man more or less foaming35 at the mouth. Let metell you a homicidal lunatic may be the most difficult thing on this earth tospot. To all seeming he may be exactly like everyone else—a man, per-haps, who is easily frightened—who may tell you, perhaps, that he has en-emies. No more than that. A quiet, inoffensive fellow.”
“Is that really so?”
“Of course it’s so. A homicidal lunatic often kills (as he thinks) in self-de-fence. But of course a lot of killers36 are ordinary sane38 fellows like you andme.”
“Doctor, you alarm me! Fancy if you should discover later that I havefive or six nice quiet little killings39 to my credit.”
Dr. Thomas smiled.
“I don’t think it’s very likely, Mr. Fitzwilliam.”
“Don’t you? I’ll return the compliment. I don’t believe you’ve got five orsix murders to your credit either.”
Dr. Thomas said cheerfully:
“You’re not counting my professional failures.”
Both men laughed.
Luke got up and said good-bye.
“I’m afraid I’ve taken up a lot of your time,” he said apologetically.
“Oh, I’m not busy. Wychwood is a pretty healthy place. It’s a pleasure tohave a talk with someone from the outside world.”
“I was wondering—” said Luke and stopped.
“Yes?”
“Miss Conway told me when she sent me to you what a very—well—what a first-class man you were. I wondered if you didn’t feel rather bur-ied down here? Not much opportunity for talent.”
“Oh, general practice is a good beginning. It’s valuable experience.”
“But you won’t be content to stay in a rut all your life? Your late partner,Dr. Humbleby, was an unambitious fellow, so I’ve heard—quite contentwith his practice here. He’d been here for a good many years, I believe?”
“Practically a lifetime.”
“He was sound but old-fashioned, so I hear.”
Dr. Thomas said:
“At times he was difficult…Very suspicious of modern innovations, but agood example of the old school of physicians.”
“Left a very pretty daughter, I’m told,” said Luke in jocular fashion.
He had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Thomas’s pale pink countenance40 go adeep scarlet41.
“Oh—er—yes,” he said.
Luke gazed at him kindly. He was pleased at the prospect42 of erasing43 Dr.
Thomas from his list of suspected persons.
The latter recovered his normal hue44 and said abruptly:
“Talking about crime just now, I can lend you rather a good book as youare interested in the subject! Translation from the German. Kreuzhammeron Inferiority and Crime.”
“Thank you,” said Luke.
Dr. Thomas ran his finger along a shelf and drew out the book in ques-tion.
“Here you are. Some of the theories are rather startling—and of coursethey are only theories, but they are interesting. The early life of Menzheld,for instance, the Frankfurt butcher, as they called him, and the chapter onAnna Helm, the little nursemaid killer37, are really extremely interesting.”
“She killed about a dozen of her charges before the authorities tumbledto it, I believe,” said Luke.
Dr. Thomas nodded.
“Yes. She had a most sympathetic personality—devoted to children—and apparently45 quite genuinely heartbroken at each death. The psycho-logy is amazing.”
“Amazing how these people get away with it,” said Luke.
He was on the doorstep now. Dr. Thomas had come out with him.
“Not amazing really,” said Dr. Thomas. “It’s quite easy, you know.”
“What is?”
“To get away with it.” He was smiling again—a charming, boyish smile.
“If you’re careful. One just has to be careful—that’s all! But a clever man isextremely careful not to make a slip. That’s all there is to it.”
He smiled and went into the house.
Luke stood staring up the steps.
There had been something condescending46 in the doctor’s smile.
Throughout their conversation Luke had been conscious of himself as aman of full maturity47 and of Dr. Thomas as a youthful and ingenuousyoung man.
Just for a moment he felt the r?les reversed. The doctor’s smile had beenthat of a grown-up amused by the cleverness of a child.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
deceptive
|
|
| adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
complexion
|
|
| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
irresistibly
|
|
| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
immature
|
|
| adj.未成熟的，发育未全的，未充分发展的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
diagnosis
|
|
| n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
precisely
|
|
| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
eminent
|
|
| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
complexity
|
|
| n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
reverence
|
|
| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
overdone
|
|
| v.做得过分( overdo的过去分词 )；太夸张；把…煮得太久；（工作等）过度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
emulating
|
|
| v.与…竞争( emulate的现在分词 )；努力赶上；计算机程序等仿真；模仿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
rumour
|
|
| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
solicitor
|
|
| n.初级律师，事务律师 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
superstitions
|
|
| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
pertaining
|
|
| 与…有关系的，附属…的，为…固有的(to) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
conducive
|
|
| adj.有益的，有助的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
foul
|
|
| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
wring
|
|
| n.扭绞；v.拧，绞出，扭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
thoroughly
|
|
| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
wholesale
|
|
| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
gush
|
|
| v.喷，涌；滔滔不绝(说话)；n.喷，涌流；迸发 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
inveterate
|
|
| adj.积习已深的，根深蒂固的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
lengthened
|
|
| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
undoubtedly
|
|
| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
agitator
|
|
| n.鼓动者；搅拌器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
purveyor
|
|
| n.承办商，伙食承办商 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
condemn
|
|
| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
specialized
|
|
| adj.专门的，专业化的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
kindly
|
|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
acting
|
|
| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
fanatic
|
|
| n.狂热者，入迷者；adj.狂热入迷的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
abruptly
|
|
| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
irritably
|
|
| ad.易生气地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
foaming
|
|
| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
killers
|
|
| 凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
killer
|
|
| n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
sane
|
|
| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
killings
|
|
| 谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
countenance
|
|
| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
scarlet
|
|
| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
prospect
|
|
| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
erasing
|
|
| v.擦掉( erase的现在分词 )；抹去；清除 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
hue
|
|
| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
condescending
|
|
| adj.谦逊的,故意屈尊的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
maturity
|
|
| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |