Mrs. Oliver prowled round her sitting room. She was very restless. An hour ago she had parcelledup a typescript that she had just finished correcting. She was about to send it off to her publisherwho was anxiously awaiting it and constantly prodding1 her about it every three or four days.
“There you are,” said Mrs. Oliver, addressing the empty air and conjuring2 up an imaginarypublisher. “There you are, and I hope you like it! I don’t. I think it’s lousy! I don’t believe youknow whether anything I write is good or bad. Anyway, I warned you. I told you it was frightful3.
You said ‘Oh! no, no, I don’t believe that for a moment.’
“You just wait and see,” said Mrs. Oliver vengefully. “You just wait and see.”
She opened the door, called to Edith, her maid, gave her the parcel and directed that it should betaken to the post at once.
“And now,” said Mrs. Oliver, “what am I going to do with myself?”
She began strolling about again. “Yes,” thought Mrs. Oliver, “I wish I had those tropical birdsand things back on the wall instead of these idiotic4 cherries. I used to feel like something in atropical wood. A lion or a tiger or a leopard5 or a cheetah6! What could I possibly feel like in acherry orchard7 except a bird scarer?”
She looked round again. “Cheeping like a bird, that’s what I ought to be doing,” she saidgloomily. “Eating cherries… I wish it was the right time of year for cherries. I’d like somecherries. I wonder now—” She went to the telephone. “I will ascertain8, Madam,” said the voice ofGeorge in answer to her inquiry9. Presently another voice spoke10.
“Hercule Poirot, at your service, Madame,” he said.
“Where’ve you been?” said Mrs. Oliver. “You’ve been away all day. I suppose you went downto look up the Restaricks. Is that it? Did you see Sir Roderick? What did you find out?”
“Nothing,” said Hercule Poirot.
“How dreadfully dull,” said Mrs. Oliver.
“No, I do not think it is really so dull. It is rather astonishing that I have not found outanything.”
“Why is it so astonishing? I don’t understand.”
“Because,” said Poirot, “it means either there was nothing to find out, and that, let me tell you,does not accord with the facts; or else something was being very cleverly concealed11. That, yousee, would be interesting. Mrs. Restarick, by the way, did not know the girl was missing.”
“You mean—she has nothing to do with the girl having disappeared?”
“So it seems. I met there the young man.”
“You mean the unsatisfactory young man that nobody likes?”
“That is right. The unsatisfactory young man.”
“Did you think he was unsatisfactory?”
“From whose point of view?”
“Not from the girl’s point of view, I suppose.”
“The girl who came to see me I am sure would have been highly delighted with him.”
“Did he look very awful?”
“He looked very beautiful,” said Hercule Poirot.
“Beautiful?” said Mrs. Oliver. “I don’t know that I like beautiful young men.”
“Girls do,” said Poirot.
“Yes, you’re quite right. They like beautiful young men. I don’t mean good-looking young menor smart-looking young men or well-dressed or well-washed looking young men. I mean theyeither like young men looking as though they were just going on in a Restoration comedy, or elsevery dirty young men looking as though they were just going to take some awful tramp’s job.”
“It seemed that he also did not know where the girl is now—”
“Or else he wasn’t admitting it.”
“Perhaps. He had gone down there. Why? He was actually in the house. He had taken thetrouble to walk in without anyone seeing him. Again why? For what reason? Was he looking forthe girl? Or was he looking for something else?”
“You think he was looking for something?”
“He was looking for something in the girl’s room,” said Poirot.
“How do you know? Did you see him there?”
“No, I only saw him coming down the stairs, but I found a very nice little piece of damp mud inNorma’s room that could have come from his shoe. It is possible that she herself may have askedhim to bring her something from that room—there are a lot of possibilities. There is another girl inthat house — and a pretty one — He may have come down there to meet her. Yes — manypossibilities.”
“What are you going to do next?” demanded Mrs. Oliver.
“Nothing,” said Poirot.
“That’s very dull,” said Mrs. Oliver disapprovingly12.
“I am going to receive, perhaps, a little information from those I have employed to find it;though it is quite possible that I shall receive nothing at all.”
“But aren’t you going to do something?”
“Not till the right moment,” said Poirot.
“Well, I shall,” said Mrs. Oliver.
“Pray, pray be very careful,” he implored13 her.
“What nonsense! What could happen to me?”
“Where there is murder, anything can happen. I tell that to you. I, Poirot.”
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1
prodding
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| v.刺，戳( prod的现在分词 )；刺激；促使；（用手指或尖物）戳 | |
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2
conjuring
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| n.魔术 | |
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3
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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4
idiotic
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| adj.白痴的 | |
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5
leopard
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| n.豹 | |
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cheetah
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| n.(动物)猎豹 | |
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7
orchard
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| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
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8
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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9
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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10
spoke
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| 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 | |
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11
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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12
disapprovingly
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| adv.不以为然地，不赞成地，非难地 | |
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13
implored
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| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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