现代大学精读英语4 lesson two课文(外语教学出版社).docVIP

Lesson 2 Waiting for the Police I wonder where Mr Wainwrights gone? said Mrs Mayton. It didnt matter to her in the least where he had gone. All that mattered was that he paid his three guineas a week regularly for board and lodging. But life - and particularly evening life -was notoriously dull in her boarding-house, and every now and again one tried to whip up a little interest. `Did he go? asked Monty Smith. It didnt matter to him, either, but he was as polite as he was pale, and he always did his best to keep any ball rolling. `I thought I heard the front door close, answered Mrs Mayton. `Perhaps he went out to post a letter, suggested Miss Wicks, without pausing in her knitting. She had knitted for seventy years, and looked good for another seventy. `Or perhaps it wasnt him at all, added Bella Randall. Bella was the boarding-house lovely, but no one had taken advantage of the fact. ` You mean, it might have been someone else? inquired Mrs Mayton. `Yes, agreed Bella. They all considered the alternative earnestly. Mr Calthrop, coming suddenly out of a middle-aged doze, joined in the thinking without any idea what he was thinking. `Perhaps it was Mr Penbury, said Mrs Mayton, at last. `Hes always popping in and out. But it was not Mr Penbury, for that rather eccentric individual walked into the drawing-room a moment later. His arrival interrupted the conversation, and the company became silent. Penbury always had a chilling effect. He possessed a brain, and since no one understood it when he used it, it was resented. But Mrs Mayton never allowed more than three minutes to go by without a word; and so when the new silence had reached its allotted span, she turned to Penbury and asked: `Was that Mr Wainwnght who went out a little time ago? Penbury looked at her oddly. `What makes you ask that? he said. `Well, I was just wondering. `I see, answered Penbury slowly. The atmosphere seemed to tighten, but Miss Wicks went on knitting. `And are you all wondering? `We decid