PART THREE DECEMBER 24TH XII

XII

David Lee had himself well in hand. His demeanour was calm—almost unnaturally¹ so. He came

up to them, drew a chair forward and sat down, looking with grave interrogation at Colonel

Johnson.

The electric light touched the fair peak of hair that grew on his forehead and showed up the

sensitive modelling of the cheek bones. He looked absurdly young to be the son of that shrivelled

old man who lay dead upstairs.

“Yes, gentlemen,” he said, “what can I tell you?”

Colonel Johnson said:

“I understand, Mr. Lee, that there was a kind of family meeting held in your father’s room

this afternoon?”

“There was. But it was quite informal. I mean, it was not a family council or anything of that

kind.”

“What took place there?”

David Lee answered calmly:

“My father was in a difficult mood. He was an old man and an invalid², of course, one had to

make allowances for him. He seemed to have assembled us there in order to—well—vent his spite

upon us.”

“Can you remember what he said?”

David said quietly:

“It was really all rather foolish. He said we were no use—any of us—that there wasn’t a

single man in the family! He said Pilar (that is my Spanish niece) was worth two of any of us. He

said—” David stopped.

Poirot said:

“Please, Mr. Lee, the exact words, if you can.”

David said reluctantly:

“He spoke³ rather coarsely—said he hoped that somewhere in the world he had better sons—

even if they were born the wrong side of the blanket. . . .”

His sensitive face showed distaste for the words he was repeating. Superintendent⁴ Sugden

looked up, suddenly alert. Leaning forward, he said:

“Did your father say anything in particular to your brother, Mr. George Lee?”

“To George? I don’t remember. Oh, yes, I believe he told him he would have to cut down

expenses in future; he’d have to reduce his allowance. George was very upset, got as red as a

turkey cock. He spluttered and said he couldn’t possibly manage with less. My father said quite

coolly that he’d have to. He said he’d better get his wife to help him economize⁵. Rather a nasty

dig, that — George has always been the economical one — saves and stints⁶ on every penny.

Magdalene, I fancy, is a bit of a spender—she has extravagant⁷ tastes.”

Poirot said:

“So that she, too, was annoyed?”

“Yes. Besides, my father worded something else rather crudely—mentioned her as having

lived with a naval⁸ officer. Of course he really meant her father, but it sounded rather dubious⁹.

Magdalene went scarlet¹⁰. I don’t blame her.”

Poirot said:

“Did your father mention his late wife, your mother?”

The red blood ran in waves up David’s temples. His hands clenched¹¹ themselves on the table

in front of him, trembling slightly.

He said in a low choked voice:

“Yes, he did. He insulted her.”

Colonel Johnson said:

“What did he say?”

David said abruptly¹²:

“I don’t remember. Just some slighting reference.”

Poirot said softly:

“Your mother has been dead some years?”

David said shortly:

“She died when I was a boy.”

“She was not—perhaps—very happy in her life here?”

David gave a scornful laugh:

“Who could be happy with a man like my father? My mother was a saint. She died a

brokenhearted woman.”

Poirot went on:

“Your father was, perhaps, distressed¹³ by her death?”

David said abruptly:

“I don’t know. I left home.”

He paused and then said:

“Perhaps you may not be aware of the fact that when I came on this visit I had not seen my

father for nearly twenty years. So you see I can’t tell you very much about his habits or his

enemies or what went on here.”

Colonel Johnson asked:

“Did you know that your father kept a lot of valuable diamonds in the safe in his bedroom?”

David said indifferently:

“Did he? Seems a foolish sort of thing to do.”

Johnson said:

“Will you describe briefly¹⁴ your own movements last night?”

“Mine? Oh, I went away from the dinner table fairly quickly. It bores me, this sitting round

over port. Besides, I could see that Alfred and Harry¹⁵ were working up for a quarrel. I hate rows. I

slipped away and went to the music room and played the piano.”

Poirot asked:

“The music room, it is next to the drawing room, is it not?”

“Yes. I played there for some time—till—till the thing happened.”

“What did you hear exactly?”

“Oh! A far-off noise of furniture being overturned somewhere upstairs. And then a pretty

ghastly cry.” He clenched his hands again. “Like a soul in hell. God, it was awful!”

Johnson said:

“Were you alone in the music room?”

“Eh? No, my wife, Hilda, was there. She’d come in from the drawing room. We—we went

up with the others.”

He added quickly and nervously¹⁶:

“You don’t want me, do you, to describe what—what I saw there?”

Colonel Johnson said:

“No, quite unnecessary. Thank you, Mr. Lee, there’s nothing more. You can’t imagine, I

suppose, who would be likely to want to murder your father?”

David Lee said recklessly:

“I should think—quite a lot of people! I don’t know of anyone definite.”

He went out rapidly, shutting the door loudly behind him.

1 unnaturally   

adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地

参考例句：

• Her voice sounded unnaturally loud. 她的嗓音很响亮，但是有点反常。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Her eyes were unnaturally bright. 她的眼睛亮得不自然。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 invalid   

n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的

参考例句：

• He will visit an invalid.他将要去看望一个病人。
• A passport that is out of date is invalid.护照过期是无效的。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 superintendent   

n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长

参考例句：

• He was soon promoted to the post of superintendent of Foreign Trade.他很快就被擢升为对外贸易总监。
• He decided to call the superintendent of the building.他决定给楼房管理员打电话。

5 economize   

v.节约，节省

参考例句：

• We're going to have to economize from now on. 从现在开始，我们不得不节约开支。
• We have to economize on water during the dry season. 我们在旱季不得不节约用水。

6 stints   

n.定额工作( stint的名词复数 )；定量；限额；慷慨地做某事

参考例句：

• He stints himself in [of] sleep. 他节制睡眠。 来自辞典例句
• She never stints herself of money to buy books for her children. 她从不吝惜掏钱让子女们买书。 来自互联网

7 extravagant   

adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的

参考例句：

• They tried to please him with fulsome compliments and extravagant gifts.他们想用溢美之词和奢华的礼品来取悦他。
• He is extravagant in behaviour.他行为放肆。

8 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

9 dubious   

adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• What he said yesterday was dubious.他昨天说的话很含糊。
• He uses some dubious shifts to get money.他用一些可疑的手段去赚钱。

10 scarlet   

n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的

参考例句：

• The scarlet leaves of the maples contrast well with the dark green of the pines.深红的枫叶和暗绿的松树形成了明显的对比。
• The glowing clouds are growing slowly pale,scarlet,bright red,and then light red.天空的霞光渐渐地淡下去了，深红的颜色变成了绯红，绯红又变为浅红。

11 clenched   

v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He clenched his fists in anger. 他愤怒地攥紧了拳头。
• She clenched her hands in her lap to hide their trembling. 她攥紧双手放在腿上，以掩饰其颤抖。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 abruptly   

adv.突然地，出其不意地

参考例句：

• He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
• I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。

13 distressed   

痛苦的

参考例句：

• He was too distressed and confused to answer their questions. 他非常苦恼而困惑，无法回答他们的问题。
• The news of his death distressed us greatly. 他逝世的消息使我们极为悲痛。

14 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

15 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

16 nervously   

adv.神情激动地，不安地

参考例句：

• He bit his lip nervously,trying not to cry.他紧张地咬着唇，努力忍着不哭出来。
• He paced nervously up and down on the platform.他在站台上情绪不安地走来走去。