古墓之谜 6

Five,TELL YARIMJAH,I don’t mind admitting that my first impression on seeing Mrs. Leidner was one of downrightsurprise. One gets into the way of imagining a person when one hears them talked about. I’d got itfirmly into my head that Mrs.?Leidner was a dark, discontented kind of woman. The nervy kind,all on edge. And then, too, I’d expected her to be—well, to put it frankly—a bit vulgar.,She wasn’t a bit like what I’d imagined her! To begin with, she was very fair. She wasn’t aSwede, like her husband, but she might have been as far as looks went. She had that blondeScandinavian fairness that you don’t very often see. She wasn’t a young woman. Midway betweenthirty and forty, I should say. Her face was rather haggard, and there was some grey hair mingledwith the fairness. Her eyes, though, were lovely. They were the only eyes I’ve ever come acrossthat you might truly describe as violet. They were very large, and there were faint shadowsunderneath them. She was very thin and fragile-looking, and if I say that she had an air of intenseweariness and was at the same time very much alive, it sounds like nonsense—but that’s thefeeling I got. I felt, too, that she was a lady through and through. And that means something—even nowadays.,She put out her hand and smiled. Her voice was low and soft with an American drawl in it.,“I’m so glad you’ve come, nurse. Will you have some tea? Or would you like to go to yourroom first? ”,“This is Miss?Johnson—and Mr.?Reiter. Mrs.?Mercado. Mr.?Emmott. Father Lavigny. Myhusband will be in presently. Sit down here between Father Lavigny and Miss?Johnson.”,I did as I was bid and Miss?Johnson began talking to me, asking about my journey and so on.,I liked her. She reminded me of a matron I’d had in my probationer days whom we had alladmired and worked hard for.,She was getting on for fifty, I should judge, and rather mannish in appearance, with iron-greyhair cropped short. She had an abrupt ¹, pleasant voice, rather deep in tone. She had an ugly ruggedface with an almost laughably turned-up nose which she was in the habit of rubbing irritably ² whenanything troubled or perplexed ³ her. She wore a tweed coat and skirt made rather like a man’s. Shetold me presently that she was a native of Yorkshire.,Father Lavigny I found just a bit alarming. He was a tall man with a great black beard andpince-nez. I had heard Mrs.?Kelsey say that there was a French monk ⁴ there, and I now saw thatFather Lavigny was wearing a monk’s robe of some white woollen material. It surprised merather, because I always understood that monks ⁵ went into monasteries ⁶ and didn’t come out again.,His abrupt reply hurt our feelings.他粗鲁的回答伤了我们的感情。,He lost his temper and snapped irritably at the children. 他发火了，暴躁地斥责孩子们 。