In leaving the room Poirot almost cannoned1 into a tall figure outside the door.
He said: “I beg your pardon, Mademoiselle.”
Jane Olivera drew apart a little.
She said. “Do you know what I think of you, M. Poirot?”
“Eh bien—Mademoiselle—”
She did not give time to finish. The question, indeed, had but a rhetorical value. All that it meant
was that Jane Olivera was about to answer it herself.
“You’re a spy, that’s what you are! A miserable2, low, snooping spy, nosing round and making
trouble!”
“I assure you, Mademoiselle—”
“I know just what you’re after! And I know now just what lies you tell! Why don’t you admit it
straight out? Well, I’ll tell you this—you won’t find out anything—anything at all! There’s
nothing to find out! No one’s going to harm a hair on my precious uncle’s head. He’s safe enough.
He’ll always be safe. Safe and smug and prosperous—and full of platitudes3! He’s just a stodgy4
John Bull, that’s what he is—without an ounce of imagination or vision.”
She paused, then, her agreeable, husky voice deepening, she said venomously: “I loathe5 the
sight of you—you bloody6 little bourgeois7 detective!”
She swept away from him in a whirl of expensive model drapery.
Hercule Poirot remained, his eyes very wide open, his eyebrows8 raised and his hand
thoughtfully caressing9 his moustaches.
The epithet10 bourgeois was, he admitted, well-applied to him. His outlook on life was essentially11
bourgeois, and always had been, but the employment of it as an epithet of contempt by the
exquisitely12 turned out Jane Olivera gave him, as he expressed it to himself, furiously to think.
He went, still thinking, into the drawing room.
Mrs. Olivera was playing patience.
She looked up as Poirot entered, surveyed him with the cold look she might have bestowed13
upon a black beetle14 and murmured distantly:
“Red knave15 on black queen.”
Chilled, Poirot retreated. He reflected mournfully:
“Alas, it would seem that nobody loves me!”
He strolled out of the window into the garden. It was an enchanting16 evening with a smell of
night-scented stocks in the air. Poirot sniffed17 happily and strolled along a path that ran between
two herbaceous borders.
He turned a corner and two dimly-seen figures sprang apart.
It would seem that he had interrupted a pair of lovers.
Poirot hastily turned and retraced18 his steps.
Even out here, it would seem, his presence was de trop.
He passed Alistair Blunt’s window and Alistair Blunt was dictating19 to Mr. Selby.
There seemed definitely only one place for Hercule Poirot.
He went up to his bedroom.
He pondered for some time on various fantastic aspects of the situation.
Had he or had he not made a mistake in believing the voice on the telephone to be that of Mrs.
Olivera? Surely the idea was absurd!
He recalled the melodramatic revelations of quiet little Mr. Barnes. He speculated on the
mysterious whereabouts of Mr. Q.X.912, alias20 Albert Chapman. He remembered, with a spasm21 of
annoyance22, the anxious look in the eyes of the maidservant, Agnes—
It was always the same way—people would keep things back! Usually quite unimportant things,
but until they were cleared out of the way, impossible to pursue a straight path.
At the moment the path was anything but straight!
And the most unaccountable obstacle in the way of clear thinking and orderly progress was
what he described to himself as the contradictory23 and impossible problem of Miss Sainsbury
Seale. For, if the facts that Hercule Poirot had observed were true facts—then nothing whatever
made sense!
Hercule Poirot said to himself, with astonishment24 in the thought:
“Is it possible that I am growing old?”
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1
cannoned
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vi.与…猛撞(cannon的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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2
miserable
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adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
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3
platitudes
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n.平常的话,老生常谈,陈词滥调( platitude的名词复数 );滥套子 | |
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4
stodgy
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adj.易饱的;笨重的;滞涩的;古板的 | |
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5
loathe
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v.厌恶,嫌恶 | |
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6
bloody
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adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染 | |
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bourgeois
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adj./n.追求物质享受的(人);中产阶级分子 | |
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8
eyebrows
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眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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9
caressing
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爱抚的,表现爱情的,亲切的 | |
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10
epithet
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n.(用于褒贬人物等的)表述形容词,修饰语 | |
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11
essentially
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adv.本质上,实质上,基本上 | |
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exquisitely
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adv.精致地;强烈地;剧烈地;异常地 | |
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13
bestowed
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赠给,授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
beetle
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n.甲虫,近视眼的人 | |
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15
knave
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n.流氓;(纸牌中的)杰克 | |
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enchanting
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a.讨人喜欢的 | |
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sniffed
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v.以鼻吸气,嗅,闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 );抽鼻子(尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气);抱怨,不以为然地说 | |
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18
retraced
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v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 );回忆;回顾;追溯 | |
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19
dictating
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v.大声讲或读( dictate的现在分词 );口授;支配;摆布 | |
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20
alias
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n.化名;别名;adv.又名 | |
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21
spasm
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n.痉挛,抽搐;一阵发作 | |
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22
annoyance
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n.恼怒,生气,烦恼 | |
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23
contradictory
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adj.反驳的,反对的,抗辩的;n.正反对,矛盾对立 | |
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astonishment
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n.惊奇,惊异 | |
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