You look gorgeous, he said simply, because she did. Hmmmm, she said, as if he hadn’t really answered her question. She closed the upstairs front door which had stood open all this time, and looked around the little room to see that it was all in a fit state to be left on its own for a while. Arthur’s eyes followed hers around, and while he was looking in the other direction she slipped something out of a drawer and into the canvas bag she was carrying. Arthur looked back at her. Ready? Did you know, she said with a slightly puzzled smile, that there’s something wrong with me? Her directness caught Arthur unprepared. Well, he said, I’d heard some vague sort of… I wonder how much you do know about me, she said. I you heard it from where I think you heard then that’s not it. Russell just sort of makes stuff up, because he can’t deal with what it really is. A pang of worry went through Arthur. Then what is it? he said. Can you tell me? Don’t worry, she said, it’s nothing bad at all. Just unusual. Very very unusual. She touched his hand, and then leant forward and kissed him briefly. I shall be very interested to know, she said, if you manage to work out what it is this evening. Arthur felt that if someone tapped him at that point he would have chimed, like the deep sustained rolling chime his grey fishbowl made when he flicked it with his thumbnail. “你看上去很光彩耀人。”他回答得很簡單，因爲她就是這樣。 “唔......”她說着，好像他沒有真正回答她的問題。 她把樓上常開的前門關上，然後環視這個小房間看看把它獨自留在這裏是否合適。阿瑟的目光跟隨着她，當他在看另一個方位時她從一個抽屜裏摸出了某樣東西放進了她拿着的帆布包。 阿瑟的目光轉回了她身上。 “準備好了？” “你知道嗎？”她帶着一絲令人迷惑的微笑說，“我身上有些不對勁的地方?” 她的直白讓阿瑟措手不及。 “好吧，”他說，“我模糊地聽說過一些......” “我在想你到底對我有多瞭解，”她說，“我知道你從哪兒聽到的，那不是真實情況。拉塞爾只是在胡扯，因爲他根本不能接受現實是什麼。” 一陣憂慮擊中了阿瑟。 “那麼到底是什麼呢？”他問。“你能告訴我麼？” “別擔心，”她說，“根本不是什麼壞事。只是不尋常。非常非常的不尋常。” 她摸着他的手，接着身體向前傾過去飛快地吻了他一下。 “我會很有興趣知道的，”她說，“如果你能夠在今晚想出來那是什麼。” 阿瑟感覺，如果現在有人在此時敲擊他，他就會鳴響，就好像他用指甲輕敲他的灰色魚缸所發出的那種低沉渾厚起伏的響聲一樣。
