A day or twolater Mrs. Strickland sent me round a note asking if I could go and see herthat evening after dinner. I found her alone. Her black dress, simple toausterity, suggested her bereaved condition, and I was innocently astonishedthat notwithstanding a real emotion she was able to dress the part she had toplay according to her notions of seemliness.

"You saidthat if I wanted you to do anything you wouldn't mind doing it, " sheremarked.

"It wasquite true. "

"Will yougo over to Paris and see Charlie?"

"I?"

I was takenaback. I reflected that I had only seen him once. I did not know what shewanted me to do.

"Fred isset on going. " Fred was Colonel MacAndrew. "But I'm sure he's notthe man to go. He'll only make things worse. I don't know who else to ask."

Her voicetrembled a little, and I felt a brute even to hesitate.

"But I'venot spoken ten words to your husband. He doesn't know me. He'll probably justtell me to go to the devil. "

"Thatwouldn't hurt you, " said Mrs. Strickland, smiling.

"What isit exactly you want me to do?"

She did notanswer directly.

没过一两天，思特里克兰德太太给我寄来一封短信，叫我当天晚上到她家去一趟。我发现只有她一个人在家。她穿着一身黑衣服，朴素得近乎严肃，使人想到她遭遇的不幸。尽管她悲痛的感情是真实的，却没忘记使自己的衣着合乎她脑子里的礼规叫她扮演的角色。我当时不谙世故，感到非常吃惊。

“你说过，要是我有事求你，你乐于帮忙，”她开口说。

“一点儿不错。”

“那么你愿意不愿意到巴黎去看看思特里克兰德是怎么个情况？”

“我？”

我吓了一跳。我想到自己只见过思特里克兰德一面。我不知道她想叫我去办什么事。

“弗雷德决心要去。”弗雷德就是麦克安德鲁上校。“但是我知道他肯定不是办这种事的人。他只会把事弄得更糟。我不知道该求谁去。”

她的声音有些颤抖，我觉得哪怕我稍微犹豫一下，也显得大没有心肝了。

“可是我同你丈夫说过不到十句话。他不认识我。没准儿他一句话就把我打发走了。”

“这对你也没有损害，”思特里克兰德太太笑着说。

“你究竟想叫我去做什么事？”

她并没有直接回答我的问话。