“好吧。” 马龙不高兴地说，“但我不会待很久。” 他戴上帽子，穿上大衣，徒劳地试图把领带弄直。他在接待室停了一下，说：“玛吉，回家吧。”

“Well,” Malone said crossly, “but I won’t stay long.” He put on his hat and overcoat and made an ineffectual effort to straighten his tie. He paused in the anteroom to say, “Maggie, go home.”

那个黑头发的女孩默默地、不赞成地看着他。

The black-haired girl looked at him silently and disapprovingly.

“别跟我说我应该待在办公室处理业务。这两天我们唯一的业务就是冯?弗拉纳根打来的电话。” 他带着海伦冲向电梯。

“And don’t tell me I ought to stay in the office and tend to business. The only business we’ve had in two days has been phone calls from von Flanagan.” He swept Helene out to the elevator.

在出租车上，他问：“莫娜?麦克莱恩有什么样的住家客人？”

In the taxi he asked, “What kind of house guests has Mona McClane?”

“各种各样的。一个叫洛特斯?艾伦的棕色头发小丫头。真的就叫洛特斯。完美的初次进入社交界的东方女子。迈克尔?文宁夫妇，刚从东方回来。你知道的文宁家族。他很无趣，但她很可爱。她有个女伴叫卢埃拉?怀特，看起来像个摔跤手教练，织毛衣像台机器，只织灰色毛衣。还有个年轻人叫彭德利?泰德韦尔。我让你自己去了解他。还有另一个年轻人，罗斯?麦克劳林，但我对他了解不多，因为他从新年起就一直在酗酒。哦，还有个叫图伊兹先生的人，我还没见过。他今天刚到。莫娜说她特别想让你见见他。”

“Assorted. A little brown-haired wench named Lotus Allen. Really named Lotus. The perfect Eastern debutante. Mr. and Mrs. Michael Venning, just back from the Orient. You know the Venning family, He’s very dull, but she’s rather sweet. She has a lady panion named Louella White who looks like a trainer for wrestlers and knits like a machine, nothing but gray sweaters. Then there’s a young man named Pendley Tidewell. I’ll let you find out about him for yourself. There’s another young man, Ross McLaurin, but I don’t know much about him because he’s been on a drunk since New Year’s. Oh, and a Mr. Tuesday, whom I haven’t met. He just came today. Mona said she especially wanted you to meet him.”

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“为什么？”

“Why?”

“我不知道。对我来说，他听起来挺神秘有趣的。”

“I don’t know. He sounds rather mysterious and interesting to me.”

马龙嘟囔了一声，望着窗外一月初那片沉闷的泥泞景色。这个下午除了莫娜?麦克莱恩，看起来没什么希望。他希望杰克也在。杰克，还有一夸脱黑麦威士忌。

Malone grunted, and stared out the window at a dreary vista of early January mud. The afternoon didn’t look promising, except for Mona McClane. He wished Jake were along. Jake, and a quart of rye.

出租车把他们送到湖滨大道麦克莱恩大厦的入口处，在马龙看来，这里总是像一个高档殡仪馆和一座 1880 年的政府大楼的结合体。海伦按了门铃，说：“我一个人的时候就用莫娜给住家客人的钥匙从侧门进去，但你是客人。”

The cab left them at the entrance of the McClane mansion on Lake Shore Drive that, to Malone, was always like a bination of a high-class undertaking parlor and an 1880 government building. Helene pushed the bell and said, “When I’m alone I use the key Mona gives her house guests and go in the side door, but you’re pany.”

一个整洁的黑人女仆打开门，告诉他们莫娜?麦克莱恩在客厅。

A trim colored maid opened the door and told them that Mona McClane was in the living room.

海伦说：“我要上楼去换衣服。你进去和莫娜聊聊。我马上下来。”

Helene said, “I’m going up to change my dress. Go on in and talk to Mona. I’ll be right down.”

她消失在装饰华丽的雕刻楼梯上。马龙在大厅里站了一会儿，望着她的背影。出于某种他无法解释的原因，他在这所房子里感到不自在和不开心。也许是因为他第一次来这里是在他们婚后几天，和杰克、海伦一起来的。现在海伦在这里，以为杰克还在百慕大，而杰克在这里，以为海伦在哈瓦那，他们俩都拒绝谈论对方。

She disappeared up the ornately carved and decorated stairway. Malone stood for a moment in the hall, looking after her. For some reason he could not explain, he felt unfortable and unhappy about being in this house. Perhaps it was that on his first visit he had e with Jake and Helene, a few days after their marriage. Now Helene was here, believing Jake still in Bermuda, and Jake was here, believing Helene to be in Havana, and each of them refusing to talk about the other.

或者也许是因为他上次来这所房子的时候，他就站在这个大厅里，看着一个凶手做了最后一次绝望而又失败的逃跑尝试。他告诉自己这就是原因，但他一直都知道不是这样。这可能是他骨子里的一种感觉，可能是多年来与那些违法的人接触而培养出的一种高度的洞察力，也可能是某种无法解释的预感，但不管是什么，他知道这座古老的麦克莱恩大厦还没有上演它的最后一场悲剧。

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Or perhaps it was because on his last visit to this house he had stood in this very hall and watched a murderer make a last, desperate, and unsuccessful break for escape. He told himself that was the reason, and all the time he knew that wasn’t it. It might have been a feeling in his bones, it might have been some heightened perception developed from years of contact with those who had broken the law, it might have been some inexplicable premonition, but whatever it was, he knew that the old McClane mansion had not yet given up its last tragedy.

他告诉自己，他是一个该死的迷信的爱尔兰人，然后他走进了客厅。

He was, he told himself, a damned superstitious Irishman, and he went on into the living room.