George was not a believer in modern innovations. The Abbey was inno-cent of anything so up to date as central heating. Consequently, when theladies entered the drawing room after dinner, the temperature of theroom was woefully inadequate1 to the needs of modern evening clothes.
The fire that burnt in the well-furnished steel grate became as a magnet.
The three women huddled2 round it.
“Brrrrrrrrrr!” said the Countess, a fine, exotic foreign sound.
“The days are drawing in,” said Lady Coote, and drew a flowered atro-city of a scarf closer about her ample shoulders.
“Why on earth doesn’t George have the house properly heated?” saidBundle.
“You English, you never heat your houses,” said the Countess.
She took out her long cigarette holder3 and began to smoke.
“That grate is old-fashioned,” said Lady Coote. “The heat goes up thechimney instead of into the room.”
“Oh!” said the Countess.
There was a pause. The Countess was so plainly bored by her companythat conversation became difficult.
“It’s funny,” said Lady Coote, breaking the silence, “that Mrs. Macatta’schildren should have mumps4. At least, I don’t mean exactly funny—”
“What,” said the Countess, “are mumps?”
Bundle and Lady Coote started simultaneously5 to explain. Finally,between them, they managed it.
“I suppose Hungarian children have it?” asked Lady Coote.
“Eh?” said the Countess.
“Hungarian children. They suffer from it?”
“I do not know,” said the Countess. “How should I?”
Lady Coote looked at her in some surprise.
“But I understood that you worked—”
“Oh, that!” The Countess uncrossed her legs, took her cigarette holderfrom her mouth and began to talk rapidly.
“I will tell you some horrors,” she said. “Horrors that I have seen. In-credible! You would not believe!”
And she was as good as her word. She talked fluently and with a graphicpower of description. Incredible scenes of starvation and misery6 werepainted by her for the benefit of her audience. She spoke7 of Buda Pesthshortly after the war and traced its vicissitudes8 to the present day. Shewas dramatic, but she was also, to Bundle’s mind, a little like a gramo-phone record. You turned her on, and there you were. Presently, just assuddenly, she would stop.
Lady Coote was thrilled to the marrow—that much was clear. She satwith her mouth slightly open and her large, sad, dark eyes fixed9 on theCountess. Occasionally, she interpolated a comment of her own.
“One of my cousins had three children burned to death. Awful, wasn’tit?”
The Countess paid no attention. She went on and on. And she finallystopped as suddenly as she had begun.
“There!” she said. “I have told you. We have money—but no organiza-tion. It is organization we need.”
Lady Coote sighed.
“I’ve heard my husband say that nothing can be done without regularmethods. He attributes his own success entirely10 to that. He declares hewould never have got on without them.”
She sighed again. A sudden fleeting11 vision passed before her eyes of aSir Oswald who had not got on in the world. A Sir Oswald who retained, inall essentials, the attributes of that cheery young man in the bicycle shop.
Just for a second it occurred to her how much pleasanter life might havebeen for her if Sir Oswald had not had regular methods.
By a quite understandable association of ideas she turned to Bundle.
“Tell me, Lady Eileen,” she said; “do you like that head gardener ofyours?”
“MacDonald? Well—” Bundle hesitated. “One couldn’t exactly like Mac-Donald,” she explained apologetically. “But he’s a first-class gardener.”
“Oh! I know he is,” said Lady Coote.
“He’s all right if he’s kept in his place,” said Bundle.
“I suppose so,” said Lady Coote.
She looked enviously12 at Bundle, who appeared to approach the task ofkeeping MacDonald in his place so lightheartedly.
“I’d just adore a high-toned garden,” said the Countess dreamily.
Bundle stared, but at that moment a diversion occurred. Jimmy Thesigerentered the room and spoke directly to her in a strange, hurried voice.
“I say, will you come and see those etchings now? They’re waiting foryou.”
Bundle left the room hurriedly, Jimmy close behind her.
“What etchings?” she asked, as the drawing room door closed behindher.
“No etchings,” said Jimmy. “I’d got to say something to get hold of you.
Come on, Bill is waiting for us in the library. There’s nobody there.”
Bill was striding up and down the library, clearly in a very perturbedstate of mind.
“Look here,” he burst out, “I don’t like this.”
“Don’t like what?”
“You being mixed up in this. Ten to one there’s going to be a roughhouse and then—”
He looked at her with a kind of pathetic dismay that gave Bundle awarm and comfortable feeling.
“She ought to be kept out of it, oughtn’t she, Jimmy?”
He appealed to the other.
“I’ve told her so,” said Jimmy.
“Dash it all, Bundle, I mean—someone might get hurt.”
Bundle turned round to Jimmy.
“How much have you told him?”
“Oh! everything.”
“I haven’t got the hang of it all yet,” confessed Bill. “You in that place inSeven Dials and all that.” He looked at her unhappily. “I say, Bundle, Iwish you wouldn’t.”
“Wouldn’t what?”
“Get mixed up in these sort of things.”
“Why not?” said Bundle. “They’re exciting.”
“Oh, yes—exciting. But they may be damnably dangerous. Look at poorold Ronny.”
“Yes,” said Bundle. “If it hadn’t been for your friend Ronny, I don’t sup-pose I should ever have got what you call ‘mixed up’ in this thing. But Iam. And it’s no earthly use your bleating13 about it.”
“I know you’re the most frightful14 sport, Bundle, but—”
“Cut out the compliments. Let’s make plans.”
To her relief, Bill reacted favourably15 to the suggestion.
“You’re right about the formula,” he said. “Eberhard’s got some sort offormula with him, or rather Sir Oswald has. The stuff has been tested outat his works—very secretly and all that. Eberhard has been down therewith him. They’re all in the study now—what you might call coming downto brass16 tacks17.”
“How long is Sir Stanley Digby staying?” asked Jimmy.
“Going back to town tomorrow.”
“H’m,” said Jimmy. “Then one thing’s quite clear. If, as I suppose, SirStanley will be taking the formula with him, any funny business there’sgoing to be will be tonight.”
“I suppose it will.”
“Not a doubt of it. That narrows the thing down very comfortably. Butthe bright lads will have to be their very brightest. We must come down todetails. First of all, where will the sacred formula be tonight? Will Eber-hard have it, or Sir Oswald Coote?”
“Neither. I understand it’s to be handed over to the Air Minister thisevening, for him to take to town tomorrow. In that case O’Rourke willhave it. Sure to.”
“Well, there’s only one thing for it. If we believe someone’s going tohave a shot at pinching that paper, we’ve got to keep watch tonight, Bill,my boy.”
Bundle opened her mouth as though to protest, but shut it again withoutspeaking.
“By the way,” continued Jimmy, “did I recognize the commissionairefrom Harrods in the hall this evening, or was it our old friend Lestradefrom Scotland Yard?”
“Scintillating, Watson,” said Bill.
“I suppose,” said Jimmy, “that we are rather butting18 in on his pre-serves.”
“Can’t be helped,” said Bill. “Not if we mean to see this thing through.”
“Then it’s agreed,” said Jimmy. “We divide the night into two watches?”
Again Bundle opened her mouth, and again shut it without speaking.
“Right you are,” agreed Bill. “Who’ll take first duty?”
“Shall we spin for it?”
“Might as well.”
“All right. Here goes. Heads you first and I second. Tails, vice19 versa.”
Bill nodded. The coin spun20 in the air. Jimmy bent21 to look at it.
“Tails,” he said.
“Damn,” said Bill. “You get first half and probably any fun that’s going.”
“Oh, you never know,” said Jimmy. “Criminals are very uncertain. Whattime shall I wake you? Three?”
“That’s about fair, I think.”
And now, at last, Bundle spoke:
“What about me?” she asked.
“Nothing doing. You go to bed and sleep.”
“Oh!” said Bundle. “That’s not very exciting.”
“You never know,” said Jimmy kindly22. “You may be murdered in yoursleep while Bill and I escape scot-free.”
“Well, there’s always that possibility. Do you know, Jimmy, I don’t halflike the look of that countess. I suspect her.”
“Nonsense,” cried Billy hotly. “She’s absolutely above suspicion.”
“How do you know?” retorted Bundle.
“Because I do. Why, one of the fellows at the Hungarian Embassyvouched for her.”
“Oh!” said Bundle, momentarily taken aback by his fervour.
“You girls are all the same,” grumbled23 Bill. “Just because she’s a jollygood-looking woman—”
Bundle was only too well-acquainted with this unfair masculine line ofargument.
“Well, don’t you go and pour confidences into her shell-pink ear,” she re-marked. “I’m going to bed. I was bored stiff with that drawing room andI’m not going back.”
She left the room. Bill looked at Jimmy.
“Good old Bundle,” he said. “I was afraid we might have trouble withher. You know how keen she is to be in everything. I think the way shetook it was just wonderful.”
“So did I,” said Jimmy. “It staggered me.”
“She’s got some sense, Bundle has. She knows when a thing’s plumb24 im-possible. I say, oughtn’t we to have some lethal25 weapons? Chaps usuallydo when they’re going on this sort of stunt26.”
“I have a bluenosed automatic,” said Jimmy with gentle pride. “It weighsseveral pounds and looks most dangerous. I’ll lend it to you when the timecomes.”
Bill looked at him with respect and envy.
“What made you think of getting that?” he said.
“I don’t know,” said Jimmy carelessly. “It just came to me.”
“I hope we shan’t go and shoot the wrong person,” said Bill with someanxiety.
“That would be unfortunate,” said Mr. Thesiger gravely.
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1
inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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holder
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| n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物 | |
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mumps
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| n.腮腺炎 | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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7
spoke
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| 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 | |
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8
vicissitudes
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| n.变迁，世事变化；变迁兴衰( vicissitude的名词复数 )；盛衰兴废 | |
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9
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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10
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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fleeting
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| adj.短暂的，飞逝的 | |
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12
enviously
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| adv.满怀嫉妒地 | |
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13
bleating
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| v.（羊，小牛）叫( bleat的现在分词 )；哭诉；发出羊叫似的声音；轻声诉说 | |
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14
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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15
favourably
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| adv. 善意地，赞成地 =favorably | |
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16
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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tacks
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| 大头钉( tack的名词复数 )； 平头钉； 航向； 方法 | |
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butting
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| 用头撞人（犯规动作） | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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23
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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plumb
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| adv.精确地，完全地；v.了解意义，测水深 | |
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lethal
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| adj.致死的；毁灭性的 | |
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stunt
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| n.惊人表演，绝技，特技；vt.阻碍...发育，妨碍...生长 | |
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