黑麦奇案7
时间：2025-10-10 08:12:59
（单词翻译:单击）
Chapter Six
At the moment when Rex Fortescue had been drinking his last cup of tea,
Lance Fortescue and his wife had been sitting under the trees on the
Champs Elysées watching the people walking past.
“It’s all very well to say ‘describe him,’ Pat. I’m a rotten hand at descrip-
know. But you won’t mind that? You must be used to that more or less.”
“Oh, yes,” said Pat. “Yes—as you say—I’m acclimatized.”
She tried to keep a certain forlornness out of her voice. Perhaps, she re-
had been unfortunate?
She was a tall, long-legged girl, not beautiful but with a charm that was
with horses, she had acquired the look of a thoroughbred filly.
was to encounter crookedness in the financial world. Though for all that,
it seemed that her father-in-law, whom she had not yet met, was, as far as
the law was concerned, a pillar of rectitude. All these people who went
about boasting of “smart work” were the same—technically they always
managed to be within the law. Yet it seemed to her that her Lance, whom
she loved, and who had admittedly strayed outside the ringed fence in
earlier days, had an honesty that these successful practitioners7 of the
crooked lacked.
“I don’t mean,” said Lance, “that he’s a swindler—not anything like that.
But he knows how to put over a fast one.”
“Sometimes,” said Pat, “I feel I hate people who put over fast ones.” She
added: “You’re fond of him.” It was a statement, not a question.
Lance considered it for a moment, and then said in a surprised kind of
voice:
“Do you know, darling, I believe I am.”
Pat laughed. He turned his head to look at her. His eyes narrowed. What
a darling she was! He loved her. The whole thing was worth it for her
sake.
“In a way, you know,” he said, “it’s hell going back. City life. Home on
the 5:18. It’s not my kind of life. I’m far more at home among the down
and outs. But one’s got to settle down sometime, I suppose. And with you
to hold my hand the process may even be quite a pleasant one. And since
the old boy has come round, one ought to take advantage of it. I must say I
copybook. Percival, the good little boy. Mind you, Percy was always sly.
Yes, he was always sly.”
“I don’t think,” said Patricia Fortescue, “that I’m going to like your
brother Percival.”
“Don’t let me put you against him. Percy and I never got on—that’s all
there is to it. I blued my pocket money, he saved his. I had disreputable
but entertaining friends, Percy made what’s called ‘worthwhile contacts.’
Poles apart we were, he and I. I always thought him a poor fish, and he—
sometimes, you know, I think he almost hated me. I don’t know why ex-
actly… .”
“I think I can see why.”
“Can you, darling? You’re so brainy. You know I’ve always wondered—
it’s a fantastic thing to say—but—”
“Well? Say it.”
“I’ve wondered if it wasn’t Percival who was behind that cheque busi-
ness—you know, when the old man kicked me out—and was he mad that
he’d given me a share in the firm and so he couldn’t disinherit me! Be-
cause the queer thing was that I never forged that cheque—though of
course nobody would believe that after that time I swiped funds out of the
till and put it on a horse. I was dead sure I could put it back, and anyway it
was my own cash in a manner of speaking. But that cheque business—no.
I don’t know why I’ve got the ridiculous idea that Percival did that—but I
have, somehow.”
“But it wouldn’t have done him any good? It was paid into your ac-
count.”
“I know. So it doesn’t make sense, does it?”
Pat turned sharply towards him.
“You mean—he did it to get you chucked out of the firm?”
“I wondered. Oh well—it’s a rotten thing to say. Forget it. I wonder what
gooseberry eyes of his will pop right out of his head!”
“Does he know you are coming?”
“I shouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t know a damned thing! The old
man’s got rather a funny sense of humour, you know.”
“But what has your brother done to upset your father so much?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. Something must have made the old man
livid. Writing off to me the way he did.”
“When was it you got his first letter?”
“Must be four—no five months ago. A cagey letter, but a distinct holding
out of the olive branch. ‘Your elder brother has proved himself unsatis-
factory in many ways.’ ‘You seem to have sown your wild oats and settled
down.’ ‘I can promise you that it will be well worth your while financially.’
‘Shall welcome you and your wife.’ You know, darling, I think my marry-
ing you had a lot to do with it. The old boy was impressed that I’d married
into a class above me.”
Pat laughed.
“What? Into the aristocratic riff-raff?”
He grinned. “That’s right. But riff- raff didn’t register and aristocracy
did. You should see Percival’s wife. She’s the kind who says ‘Pass the pre-
serves, please’ and talks about a postage stamp.”
Pat did not laugh. She was considering the women of the family into
which she had married. It was a point of view which Lance had not taken
into account.
“And your sister?” she asked.
“Elaine—? Oh she’s all right. She was pretty young when I left home.
Sort of an earnest girl—but probably she’s grown out of that. Very intense
over things.”
It did not sound very reassuring10. Pat said:
“She never wrote to you—after you went away?”
“I didn’t leave an address. But she wouldn’t have, anyway. We’re not a
“No.”
He shot a quick look at her.
“Got the wind up? About my family? You needn’t. We’re not going to live
with them, or anything like that. We’ll have our own little place, some-
where. Horses, dogs, anything you like.”
“But there will still be the 5:18.”
“For me, yes. To and fro to the city, all togged up. But don’t worry, sweet
—there are rural pockets, even round London. And lately I’ve felt the sap
of financial affairs rising in me. After all, it’s in my blood—from both sides
of the family.”
“You hardly remember your mother, do you?”
“She always seemed to me incredibly old. She was old, of course. Nearly
fifty when Elaine was born. She wore lots of clinking things and lay on a
stiff. Tennyson’s ‘Idylls of the King.’ I suppose I was fond of her … She was
very—colourless, you know. I realize that, looking back.”
“You don’t seem to have been particularly fond of anybody,” said Pat
Lance grasped and squeezed her arm.
“I’m fond of you,” he said.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
crook
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| v.使弯曲；n.小偷，骗子，贼；弯曲(处) | |
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2
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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3
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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chestnut
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| n.栗树，栗子 | |
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5
crookedness
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| [医]弯曲 | |
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6
racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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7
practitioners
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| n.习艺者，实习者( practitioner的名词复数 )；从业者（尤指医师） | |
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8
blotting
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| 吸墨水纸 | |
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9
prodigal
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| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
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10
reassuring
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| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
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11
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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12
knights
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| 骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马 | |
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13
disapprovingly
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| adv.不以为然地，不赞成地，非难地 | |
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