SEVEN, EIGHT, LAY THEM STRAIGHT 5

V
Miss Morley had moved to the country. She was living in a small country cottage near Hertford.
The Grenadier greeted Poirot amicably¹. Since her brother’s death her face had perhaps grown
slightly grimmer, her carriage more upright, her general attitude towards life more unyielding. She
resented bitterly the slur² cast upon her brother’s professional name by the findings of the inquest.
Poirot, she had reason to believe, shared the view that the verdict of the Coroner’s inquest was
untrue. Hence the Grenadier unbent a little.
She answered his questions readily enough and with competence³. All Mr. Morley’s professional
papers had been carefully filed by Miss Nevill and had been handed over by her to Mr. Morley’s
successor. Some of the patients had transferred themselves to Mr. Reilly, others had accepted the
new partner, others again had gone to other dentists elsewhere.
Miss Morley, after she had given what information she could, said:
“So you have found that woman who was Henry’s patient—Miss Sainsbury Seale—and she was
murdered too.”
The “too” was a little defiant⁴. She stressed the word.
Poirot said:
“Your brother never mentioned Miss Sainsbury Seale particularly to you?”
“No, I don’t remember his doing so. He would tell me if he had had a particularly trying patient,
or if one of his patients had said something amusing he would pass it on to me, but we didn’t
usually talk about his work much. He was glad to forget it when the day was over. He was very
tired sometimes.”
“Do you remember hearing of a Mrs. Chapman amongst your brother’s patients?”
“Chapman? No, I don’t think so. Miss Nevill is really the person to help you over all this.”
“I am anxious to get in touch with her. Where is she now?”
“She has taken a post with a dentist in Ramsgate, I believe.”
“She has not married that young man Frank Carter yet?”
“No. I rather hope that will never come off. I don’t like that young man, M. Poirot. I really
don’t. There is something wrong about him. I still feel that he hasn’t really any proper moral
sense.”
Poirot said:
“Do you think it is possible that he could have shot your brother?”
Miss Morley said slowly:
“I do feel perhaps that he would be capable of it—he has a very uncontrollable temper. But I
don’t really see that he had any motive—nor opportunity for that matter. You see, it wasn’t as
though Henry had succeeded in persuading Gladys to give him up. She was sticking to him in the
most faithful way.”
“Could he have been bribed⁵, do you think?”
“Bribed? To kill my brother? What an extraordinary idea!”
A nice-looking dark-haired girl brought in the tea at this moment. As she closed the door behind
her again, Poirot said:
“That girl was with you in London, was she not?”
“Agnes? Yes, she was house-parlourmaid. I let the cook go—she didn’t want to come to the
country anyway—and Agnes does everything for me. She is turning into quite a nice little cook.”
Poirot nodded.
He knew very accurately⁶ the domestic arrangements of 58, Queen Charlotte Street. They had
been thoroughly⁷ gone into at the time of the tragedy. Mr. Morley and his sister had occupied the
two top floors of the house as a maisonette. The basement had been shut up altogether except for a
narrow passage leading from the area to the back yard where a wire cage ran up to the top floor
with the tradesmen’s deliveries and where a speaking tube was installed. Therefore the only
entrance to the house was by the front door which it was Alfred’s business to answer. This had
enabled the police to be sure that no outsider could have entered the house on that particular
morning.
Both cook and house-parlourmaid had been with the Morleys for some years and bore good
characters. So, although it was theoretically possible that one or the other of them might have crept
down to the second floor and shot her master, the possibility had never been taken seriously into
account. Neither of the two had appeared unduly⁸ flustered⁹ or upset at being questioned, and there
certainly seemed no possible reason for connecting either of them with his death.
Nevertheless, as Agnes handed Poirot his hat and stick on leaving, she asked him with an
unusually nervous abruptness¹⁰:
“Does—does anyone know anything more about the master’s death, sir?”
Poirot turned to look at her. He said:
“Nothing fresh has come to light.”
“They’re still quite sure as he did shoot himself because he’d made a mistake with that drug?”
“Yes. Why do you ask?”
Agnes pleated her apron¹¹. Her face was averted¹². She said rather indistinctly:
“The—the mistress doesn’t think so.”
“And you agree with her, perhaps?”
“Me? Oh, I don’t know nothing, sir. I only—I only wanted to be sure.”
Hercule Poirot said in his most gentle voice:
“It would be a relief to you to feel beyond any possible doubt that it was suicide?”
“Oh, yes, sir,” Agnes agreed quickly, “it would indeed.”
“For a special reason, perhaps?”
Her startled eyes met his. She shrank back a little.
“I—I don’t know anything about it, sir. I only just asked.”
“But why did she ask?” Hercule Poirot demanded of himself, as he walked down the path to the
gate.
He felt sure that there was an answer to that question. But as yet he could not guess what it was.
All the same, he felt a step nearer.

1 amicably   

adv.友善地

参考例句：

• Steering according to the wind, he also framed his words more amicably. 他真会看风使舵，口吻也马上变得温和了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The couple parted amicably. 这对夫妻客气地分手了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 slur   

v.含糊地说；诋毁；连唱；n.诋毁；含糊的发音

参考例句：

• He took the remarks as a slur on his reputation.他把这些话当作是对他的名誉的中伤。
• The drug made her speak with a slur.药物使她口齿不清。

3 competence   

n.能力，胜任，称职

参考例句：

• This mess is a poor reflection on his competence.这种混乱情况说明他难当此任。
• These are matters within the competence of the court.这些是法院权限以内的事。

4 defiant   

adj.无礼的，挑战的

参考例句：

• With a last defiant gesture,they sang a revolutionary song as they were led away to prison.他们被带走投入监狱时，仍以最后的反抗姿态唱起了一支革命歌曲。
• He assumed a defiant attitude toward his employer.他对雇主采取挑衅的态度。

5 bribed   

v.贿赂( bribe的过去式和过去分词 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂

参考例句：

• They bribed him with costly presents. 他们用贵重的礼物贿赂他。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He bribed himself onto the committee. 他暗通关节，钻营投机挤进了委员会。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

7 thoroughly   

adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地

参考例句：

• The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
• The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。

8 unduly   

adv.过度地，不适当地

参考例句：

• He did not sound unduly worried at the prospect.他的口气听上去对前景并不十分担忧。
• He argued that the law was unduly restrictive.他辩称法律的约束性有些过分了。

9 flustered   

adj.慌张的；激动不安的v.使慌乱，使不安( fluster的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The honking of horns flustered the boy. 汽车喇叭的叫声使男孩感到慌乱。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She was so flustered that she forgot her reply. 她太紧张了，都忘记了该如何作答。 来自辞典例句

10 abruptness   

n. 突然，唐突

参考例句：

• He hid his feelings behind a gruff abruptness. 他把自己的感情隐藏在生硬鲁莽之中。
• Suddenly Vanamee returned to himself with the abruptness of a blow. 伐那米猛地清醒过来，象挨到了当头一拳似的。

11 apron   

n.围裙；工作裙

参考例句：

• We were waited on by a pretty girl in a pink apron.招待我们的是一位穿粉红色围裙的漂亮姑娘。
• She stitched a pocket on the new apron.她在新围裙上缝上一只口袋。

12 averted   

防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移

参考例句：

• A disaster was narrowly averted. 及时防止了一场灾难。
• Thanks to her skilful handling of the affair, the problem was averted. 多亏她对事情处理得巧妙，才避免了麻烦。