雙語·面紗 第十九章

As soon as she could next morning she rang Townsend up at his office:

“Yes, what is it?”

“I want to see you.”

“My dear, I'm awfully busy. I'm a working man.”

“It's very important. Can I come down to the office?”

“Oh, no, I wouldn't do that if I were you.”

“Well, come here then.”

“I can't possibly get away. What about this afternoon? And don't you think it would be better if I didn't come to your house?”

“I must see you at once.”

There was a pause and she was afraid that she had been cut off.

“Are you there?” she asked anxiously.

“Yes, I was thinking. Has anything happened?”

“I can't tell you over the telephone.”

There was another silence before he spoke again.

“Well, look here, I can manager to see you for ten minutes at one if that'll do. You'd better go to Ku-Chou's and I'll come along as soon as I can.”

“The curio shop?” she asked in dismay.

“Well, we can't meet in the lounge at the Hong Kong Hotel very well,” he answered.

She noticed a trace of irritation in his voice.

“Very well. I'll go to Ku-Chou's.”

第二天上午，她在查理一上班時就往他辦公室打了一個電話。

“嗯，怎么了？”

“我想見你?！?/p>

“親愛的，我真的忙死了，我有很多工作要做。”

“事情很緊急，我能去你辦公室嗎？”

“哦，不行，我要是你，我就不會這樣做。”

“那好吧，那你來我這兒?！?/p>

“我不可能走得開，今天下午怎么樣？如果我不去你們家是不是更好點兒？”

“我必須馬上見到你。”

電話里出現(xiàn)了一陣停頓，她怕對方掛掉她的電話。

“你還在聽嗎？”她焦急地問道。

“我在聽，我在考慮，究竟發(fā)生什么事了？”

“我不能在電話里跟你說。”

在他再次開口前又是一陣沉默。

“好吧，你瞧，我會設法在一點鐘時抽出十分鐘見你，如果能行的話。你最好去那家名叫庫周的店鋪，我也會盡早趕過去的?！?/p>

“你是說那家古董店？”她有點兒驚愕地問道。

“是呀，我們總不能在香港酒店的大堂里見面吧?！彼卮鸬?。

她注意到他的聲音里透著懊惱和不耐煩。

“好吧，我會去庫周店的?！?/p>