A Fine Italian Hand（13）

　　XIII
　　Angus MacWhirter sat on the terrace of the Easterhead Bay Hotel and stared across the river to the frowning height of Stark¹ Head opposite.
　　He was engaged at the moment in a careful stocktaking of his thoughts and emotions.
　　He hardly knew what it was that had made him choose to spend his last few days of leisure where he now was. Yet something had drawn³ him there. Perhaps the wish to test himself - to see if there remained in his heart any of the old despair.
　　Mona? How little he cared now! She was married to the other man. He had passed her in the street one day without feeling any emotion. He could remember his grief and bitterness when she left him, but they were past now and gone.
　　He was recalled from these thoughts by an impact of wet dog and the frenzied⁴ appeal of a newly-made friend. Miss Diana Brinton, aged² thirteen.
　　"Oh, come away, Don. Come away. Isn't it awful? He's rolled on some fish or something down on the beach. You can smell him yards away. The fish was awfully⁵ dead, you know!"MacWhirter's nose confirmed this assumption.
　　"In a sort of crevice⁶ on the rocks," said Miss Brinton. "I took him into the sea and tried to wash it off, but it doesn't seem to have done much good."MacWhirter agreed. Don, a wire-haired terrier of amiable⁷ and loving disposition⁸, was looking hurt by the tendency of his friends to keep him firmly at arm's length.
　　"Sea water's no good," said MacWhirter. "Hot water and soap's the only thing." "I know. But that's not so jolly easy in a hotel. We haven't got a private bath."In the end MacWhirter and Diana surreptitiously entered by the side door with Don on a lead, and smuggling⁹ him up to MacWhirter's bathroom, a thorough cleansing¹⁰ took place and both MacWhirter and Diana got very wet. Don was very sad when it was all over. That disgusting smell of soap again - just when he had found a really nice perfume such as any other dog would envy. Oh, well, it was always the same with humans - they had no decent sense of smell.
　　The little incident had left MacWhirter in a more cheerful mood. He took the bus into Saltington, where he had left a suit to be cleaned.
　　The girl in charge of the 24-Hour Cleaners looked at him vacantly. "MacWhirter, did you say? I'm afraid it isn't ready yet.""It should be." He had been promised that suit the day before, and even that would have been 48 and not 24 hours. A woman might have said all this. MacWhirter merely scowled¹¹.
　　"There's not been time yet," said the girl, smiling indifferently. "Nonsense."The girl stopped smiling. She snapped: "Anyway, it's not done."Then I'll take it away as it is," said MacWhirter.
　　"Nothing's been done to it," the girl warned him.
　　"I'll take it away."
　　"I dare say we might get it done by to-morrow as a special favour.""I'm not in the habit of asking for special favours. Just give me the suit, please."Giving him a bad-tempered¹² look, the girl went into the back room. She returned with a clumsily done-up parcel, which she pushed across the counter.
　　MacWhirter took it and went out.
　　He felt, quite ridiculously, as though he had won a victory. Actually it merely meant that he would have to have the suit cleaned elsewhere!
　　He threw the parcel on his bed when he returned to the hotel and looked at it with annoyance¹³. Perhaps he could get it sponged and pressed in the hotel. It was not really too bad - perhaps it didn't actually need cleaning?
　　He undid¹⁴ the parcel and gave vent¹⁵ to an expression of annoyance. Really, the 24-Hour Cleaners were too inefficient¹⁶ for words. This wasn't his suit. It wasn't even the same colour! It had been a dark blue suit he had left with them. Impertinent, inefficient muddlers.
　　He glanced irritably¹⁷ at the label. It had the name MacWhirter, all right. Another MacWhirter? Or some stupid interchange of labels?
　　Staring down vexedly at the crumpled¹⁸ heap, he suddenly sniffed¹⁹.
　　Surely he knew that smell - a particularly unpleasant smell ... connected somehow with a dog. Yes, that was it. Diana and her dog. Absolutely and literally²⁰ stinking²¹ fish!
　　He bent²² down and examined the suit. There it was, a discoloured patch on the shoulder of the coat. On the shoulder -Now that, thought MacWhirter, is really very curious ...
　　Anyway, next day, he would have a few grim words with the girl at the 24-Hour Cleaners. Gross mismanagement!

1 stark   

adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地

参考例句：

• The young man is faced with a stark choice.这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
• He gave a stark denial to the rumor.他对谣言加以完全的否认。

2 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

3 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

4 frenzied   

a.激怒的；疯狂的

参考例句：

• Will this push him too far and lead to a frenzied attack? 这会不会逼他太甚，导致他进行疯狂的进攻？
• Two teenagers carried out a frenzied attack on a local shopkeeper. 两名十几岁的少年对当地的一个店主进行了疯狂的袭击。

5 awfully   

adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地

参考例句：

• Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
• I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。

6 crevice   

n.(岩石、墙等)裂缝；缺口

参考例句：

• I saw a plant growing out of a crevice in the wall.我看到墙缝里长出一棵草来。
• He edged the tool into the crevice.他把刀具插进裂缝里。

7 amiable   

adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的

参考例句：

• She was a very kind and amiable old woman.她是个善良和气的老太太。
• We have a very amiable companionship.我们之间存在一种友好的关系。

8 disposition   

n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署

参考例句：

• He has made a good disposition of his property.他已对财产作了妥善处理。
• He has a cheerful disposition.他性情开朗。

9 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

10 cleansing   

n. 净化(垃圾) adj. 清洁用的 动词cleanse的现在分词

参考例句：

• medicated cleansing pads for sensitive skin 敏感皮肤药物清洗棉
• Soap is not the only cleansing agent. 肥皂并不是唯一的清洁剂。

11 scowled   

怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He scowled his displeasure. 他满脸嗔色。
• The teacher scowled at his noisy class. 老师对他那喧闹的课堂板着脸。

12 bad-tempered   

adj.脾气坏的

参考例句：

• He grew more and more bad-tempered as the afternoon wore on.随着下午一点点地过去，他的脾气也越来越坏。
• I know he's often bad-tempered but really,you know,he's got a heart of gold.我知道他经常发脾气，但是，要知道，其实他心肠很好。

13 annoyance   

n.恼怒，生气，烦恼

参考例句：

• Why do you always take your annoyance out on me?为什么你不高兴时总是对我出气？
• I felt annoyance at being teased.我恼恨别人取笑我。

14 Undid   

v. 解开, 复原

参考例句：

• The officer undid the flap of his holster and drew his gun. 军官打开枪套盖拔出了手枪。
• He did wrong, and in the end his wrongs undid him. 行恶者终以其恶毁其身。

15 vent   

n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄

参考例句：

• He gave vent to his anger by swearing loudly.他高声咒骂以发泄他的愤怒。
• When the vent became plugged,the engine would stop.当通风口被堵塞时，发动机就会停转。

16 inefficient   

adj.效率低的，无效的

参考例句：

• The inefficient operation cost the firm a lot of money.低效率的运作使该公司损失了许多钱。
• Their communication systems are inefficient in the extreme.他们的通讯系统效率非常差。

17 irritably   

ad.易生气地

参考例句：

• He lost his temper and snapped irritably at the children. 他发火了，暴躁地斥责孩子们。
• On this account the silence was irritably broken by a reproof. 为了这件事，他妻子大声斥责，令人恼火地打破了宁静。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

18 crumpled   

adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• She crumpled the letter up into a ball and threw it on the fire. 她把那封信揉成一团扔进了火里。
• She flattened out the crumpled letter on the desk. 她在写字台上把皱巴巴的信展平。

19 sniffed   

v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；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

参考例句：

• When Jenney had stopped crying she sniffed and dried her eyes. 珍妮停止了哭泣，吸了吸鼻子，擦干了眼泪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dog sniffed suspiciously at the stranger. 狗疑惑地嗅着那个陌生人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

21 stinking   

adj.臭的，烂醉的，讨厌的v.散发出恶臭( stink的现在分词 )；发臭味；名声臭；糟透

参考例句：

• I was pushed into a filthy, stinking room. 我被推进一间又脏又臭的屋子里。
• Those lousy, stinking ships. It was them that destroyed us. 是的！就是那些该死的蠢猪似的臭飞船！是它们毁了我们。 来自英汉非文学 - 科幻

22 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。