I
After passing a troubled night, Hercule Poirot was up and about early on the next day. The
weather was perfect and he retraced2 his steps of last night.
The herbaceous borders were in full beauty and though Poirot himself leaned to a more orderly
type of flower arrangement—a neat arrangement of beds of scarlet3 geraniums such as are seen at
Ostend—he nevertheless realized that here was the perfection of the English garden spirit.
He pursued his way through a rose garden, where the neat layout of the beds delighted him—
and through the winding4 ways of an alpine5 rock garden, coming at last to the walled kitchen
gardens.
Here he observed a sturdy woman clad in a tweed coat and skirt, black browed, with short
cropped black hair who was talking in a slow, emphatic6 Scots voice to what was evidently the
head gardener. The head gardener, Poirot observed, did not appear to be enjoying the
conversation.
A sarcastic7 inflection made itself heard in Miss Helen Montressor’s voice, and Poirot escaped
nimbly down a side path.
A gardener who had been, Poirot shrewdly suspected, resting on his spade, began digging with
fervour. Poirot approached nearer. The man, a young fellow, dug with ardour, his back to Poirot
who paused to observe him.
“Good morning,” said Poirot amiably8.
A muttered “Morning, sir,” was the response, but the man did not stop working.
Poirot was a little surprised. In his experience a gardener, though anxious to appear zealously9 at
work as you approached, was usually only too willing to pause and pass the time of day when
directly addressed.
It seemed, he thought, a little unnatural10. He stood there for some minutes, watching the toiling11
figure. Was there, or was there not, something a little familiar about the turn of those shoulders?
Or could it be, thought Hercule Poirot, that he was getting into a habit of thinking that both voices
and shoulders were familiar when they were really nothing of the kind? Was he, as he had feared
last night, growing old?
He passed thoughtfully onward12 out of the walled garden and paused to regard a rising slope of
shrubbery outside.
Presently, like some fantastic moon, a round object rose gently over the top of the kitchen
garden wall. It was the egg- shaped head of Hercule Poirot, and the eyes of Hercule Poirot
regarded with a good deal of interest the face of the young gardener who had now stopped digging
and was passing a sleeve across his wet face.
“Very curious and very interesting,” murmured Hercule Poirot as he discreetly13 lowered his head
once more.
He emerged from the shrubbery and brushed off some twigs14 and leaves that were spoiling the
neatness of his apparel.
Yes, indeed, very curious and interesting that Frank Carter, who had a secretarial job in the
country, should be working as a gardener in the employment of Alistair Blunt.
Reflecting on these points, Hercule Poirot heard a gong in the distance and retraced his steps
towards the house.
On the way there he encountered his host talking to Miss Montressor who had just emerged
from the kitchen garden by the farther door.
Her voice rose clear and distinct:
“It’s verra kind of you, Alistairr, but I would preferr not to accept any invitations this week
while your Amerrican relations are with you!”
Blunt said:
“Julia’s rather a tactless woman, but she doesn’t mean—”
Miss Montressor said calmly:
“In my opinion her manner to me is verra insolent15, and I will not put up with insolence—from
American women or any others!”
Miss Montressor moved away, Poirot came up to find Alistair Blunt looking as sheepish as most
men look who are having trouble with their female relations. He said ruefully:
“Women really are the devil! Good morning, M. Poirot. Lovely day, isn’t it?”
They turned towards the house and Blunt said with a sigh: “I do miss my wife!”
In the dining room, he remarked to the redoubtable16 Julia:
“I’m afraid, Julia, you’ve rather hurt Helen’s feelings.”
Mrs. Olivera said grimly:
“The Scotch17 are always touchy18.”
Alistair Blunt looked unhappy.
Hercule Poirot said:
“You have a young gardener, I noticed, whom I think you must have taken on recently.”
“I daresay,” said Blunt. “Yes, Burton, my third gardener, left about three weeks ago, and we
took this fellow on instead.”
“Do you remember where he came from?”
“I really don’t. MacAlister engaged him. Somebody or other asked me to give him a trial, I
think. Recommended him warmly. I’m rather surprised, because MacAlister says he isn’t much
good. He wants to sack him again.”
“What is his name?”
“Dunning—Sunbury—something like that.”
“Would it be a great impertinence to ask what you pay him?”
“Not at all. Two pounds fifteen, I think it is.”
“Not more?”
“Certainly not more—might be a bit less.”
“Now that,” said Poirot, “is very curious.”
Alistair Blunt looked at him inquiringly.
But Jane Olivera, rustling19 the paper, distracted the conversation.
“A lot of people seem to be out for your blood, Uncle Alistair!”
“Oh, you’re reading the debate in the House. That’s all right. Only Archerton—he’s always
tilting20 at windmills. And he’s got the most crazy ideas of finance. If we let him have his way,
England would be bankrupt in a week.”
Jane said:
“Don’t you ever want to try anything new?”
“Not unless it’s an improvement to the old, my dear.”
“But you’d never think it would be. You’d always say, ‘This would never work’—without even
trying.”
“Experimentalists can do a lot of harm.”
“Yes, but how can you be satisfied with things as they are? All the waste and the inequality and
the unfairness. Something must be done about it!”
“We get along pretty well in this country, Jane, all things considered.”
Jane said passionately21:
“What’s needed is a new heaven and a new earth! And you sit there eating kidneys!”
She got up and went out by the french window into the garden.
Alistair looked mildly surprised and a little uncomfortable.
He said: “Jane has changed a lot lately. Where does she get all these ideas?”
“Take no notice of what Jane says,” said Mrs. Olivera. “Jane’s a very silly girl. You know what
girls are—they go to these queer parties in studios where the young men have funny ties and they
come home and talk a lot of nonsense.”
“Yes, but Jane was always rather a hard-boiled young woman.”
“It’s just a fashion, Alistair, these things are in the air!”
Alistair Blunt said:
“Yes, they’re in the air all right.”
He looked a little worried.
Mrs. Olivera rose and Poirot opened the door for her. She swept out frowning to herself.
Alistair Blunt said suddenly:
“I don’t like it, you know! Everybody’s talking this sort of stuff! And it doesn’t mean anything!
It’s all hot air! I find myself up against it the whole time—a new heaven and a new earth. What
does it mean? They can’t tell you themselves! They’re just drunk on words.”
He smiled suddenly, rather ruefully.
“I’m one of the last of the Old Guard, you know.”
Poirot said curiously22:
“If you were—removed, what would happen?”
“Removed! What a way of putting it!” His face grew suddenly grave. “I’ll tell you. A lot of
damned fools would try a lot of very costly23 experiments. And that would be the end of stability—
of common sense, of solvency24. In fact, of this England of ours as we know it …”
Poirot nodded his head. He was essentially25 in sympathy with the banker. He, too, approved of
solvency. And he began to realize with a new meaning just exactly what Alistair Blunt stood for.
Mr. Barnes had told him, but he had hardly taken it in then. Quite suddenly, he was afraid….
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收听单词发音
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1
delve
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| v.深入探究，钻研 | |
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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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3
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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4
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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alpine
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| adj.高山的；n.高山植物 | |
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6
emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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7
sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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8
amiably
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| adv.和蔼可亲地，亲切地 | |
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9
zealously
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| adv.热心地；热情地；积极地；狂热地 | |
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10
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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11
toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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12
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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13
discreetly
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| ad.(言行)审慎地，慎重地 | |
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14
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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15
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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16
redoubtable
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| adj.可敬的；可怕的 | |
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17
scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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18
touchy
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| adj.易怒的；棘手的 | |
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19
rustling
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| n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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20
tilting
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| 倾斜，倾卸 | |
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21
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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22
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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23
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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24
solvency
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| n.偿付能力，溶解力 | |
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25
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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