“V ery glad to have met you,” said Lawrence. “Come to my place.”
We turned in at the little rustic1 gate, went up the path, and he drew a key from his pocket and inserted it in the lock.
“You keep the door locked now,” I observed.
“Yes.” He laughed rather bitterly. “Case of stable door when the steed is gone, eh? It is rather like that. You know,padre,” he held the door open and I passed inside, “there’s something about all this business that I don’t like. It’s toomuch of—how shall I put it—an inside job. Someone knew about that pistol of mine. That means that the murderer,whoever he was, must have actually been in this house—perhaps even had a drink with me.”
“Not necessarily,” I objected. “The whole village of St. Mary Mead2 probably knows exactly where you keep yourtoothbrush and what kind of tooth powder you use.”
“But why should it interest them?”
“I don’t know,” I said, “but it does. If you change your shaving cream it will be a topic of conversation.”
“They must be very hard up for news.”
“They are. Nothing exciting ever happens here.”
“Well, it has now—with a vengeance3.”
I agreed.
“And who tells them all these things anyway? Shaving cream and things like that?”
“Probably old Mrs. Archer4.”
“That old crone? She’s practically a half-wit, as far as I can make out.”
“That’s merely the camouflage5 of the poor,” I explained. “They take refuge behind a mask of stupidity. You’llprobably find that the old lady has all her wits about her. By the way, she seems very certain now that the pistol was inits proper place midday Thursday. What’s made her so positive all of a sudden?”
“I haven’t the least idea.”
“Do you think she’s right?”
“There again I haven’t the least idea. I don’t go round taking an inventory6 of my possessions every day.”
I looked round the small living room. Every shelf and table was littered with miscellaneous articles. Lawrencelived in the midst of an artistic7 disarray8 that would have driven me quite mad.
“It’s a bit of a job finding things sometimes,” he said, observing my glance. “On the other hand, everything ishandy—not tucked away.”
“Nothing is tucked away, certainly,” I agreed. “It might perhaps have been better if the pistol had been.”
“Do you know I rather expected the coroner to say something of the sort. Coroners are such asses9. I expected to becensured or whatever they call it.”
“By the way,” I asked, “was it loaded?”
Lawrence shook his head.
“I’m not quite so careless as that. It was unloaded, but there was a box of cartridges10 beside it.”
“It was apparently11 loaded in all six chambers12 and one shot had been fired.”
Lawrence nodded.
“And whose hand fired it? It’s all very well, sir, but unless the real murderer is discovered I shall be suspected ofthe crime to the day of my death.”
“Don’t say that, my boy.”
“But I do say it.”
He became silent, frowning to himself. He roused himself at last and said:
“But let me tell you how I got on last night. You know, old Miss Marple knows a thing or two.”
“She is, I believe, rather unpopular on that account.”
Lawrence proceeded to recount his story.
He had, following Miss Marple’s advice, gone up to Old Hall. There, with Anne’s assistance, he had had aninterview with the parlourmaid. Anne had said simply:
“Mr. Redding wants to ask you a few questions, Rose.”
Then she had left the room.
Lawrence had felt somewhat nervous. Rose, a pretty girl of twenty-five, gazed at him with a limpid14 gaze which hefound rather disconcerting.
“It’s—it’s about Colonel Protheroe’s death.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m very anxious, you see, to get at the truth.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I feel that there may be—that someone might—that—that there might be some incident—”
At this point Lawrence felt that he was not covering himself with glory, and heartily15 cursed Miss Marple and hersuggestions.
“I wondered if you could help me?”
“Yes, sir?”
Rose’s demeanour was still that of the perfect servant, polite, anxious to assist, and completely uninterested.
“Dash it all,” said Lawrence, “haven’t you talked the thing over in the servants’ hall?”
This method of attack flustered16 Rose slightly. Her perfect poise17 was shaken.
“In the servants’ hall, sir?”
“Or the housekeeper18’s room, or the bootboy’s dugout, or wherever you do talk? There must be some place.”
Rose displayed a very faint disposition19 to giggle20, and Lawrence felt encouraged.
“Look here, Rose, you’re an awfully21 nice girl. I’m sure you must understand what I’m feeling like. I don’t want tobe hanged. I didn’t murder your master, but a lot of people think I did. Can’t you help me in any way?”
I can imagine at this point that Lawrence must have looked extremely appealing. His handsome head thrown back,his Irish blue eyes appealing. Rose softened22 and capitulated.
“Oh, sir! I’m sure—if any of us could help in any way. None of us think you did it, sir. Indeed we don’t.”
“I know, my dear girl, but that’s not going to help me with the police.”
“The police!” Rose tossed her head. “I can tell you, sir, we don’t think much of that Inspector23. Slack, he callshimself. The police indeed.”
“All the same, the police are very powerful. Now, Rose, you say you’ll do your best to help me. I can’t help feelingthat there’s a lot we haven’t got yet. The lady, for instance, who called to see Colonel Protheroe the night before hedied.”
“Mrs. Lestrange?”
“Yes, Mrs. Lestrange. I can’t help feeling there’s something rather odd about that visit of hers.”
“Yes, indeed, sir, that’s what we all said.”
“You did?”
“Coming the way she did. And asking for the Colonel. And of course there’s been a lot of talk—nobody knowinganything about her down here. And Mrs. Simmons, she’s the housekeeper, sir, she gave it as her opinion that she was aregular bad lot. But after hearing what Gladdie said, well, I didn’t know what to think.”
“What did Gladdie say?”
“Oh, nothing, sir! It was just—we were talking, you know.”
Lawrence looked at her. He had the feeling of something kept back.
“I wonder very much what her interview with Colonel Protheroe was about.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I believe you know, Rose?”
“Me? Oh, no, sir! Indeed I don’t. How could I?”
“Look here, Rose. You said you’d help me. If you overheard anything, anything at all—it mightn’t seem important,but anything … I’d be so awfully grateful to you. After all, anyone might—might chance—just chance to overhearsomething.”
“But I didn’t, sir, really, I didn’t.”
“Then somebody else did,” said Lawrence acutely.
“Well, sir—”
“Do tell me, Rose.”
“I don’t know what Gladdie would say, I’m sure.”
“She’d want you to tell me. Who is Gladdie, by the way?”
“She’s the kitchenmaid, sir. And you see, she’d just stepped out to speak to a friend, and she was passing thewindow—the study window—and the master was there with the lady. And of course he did speak very loud, themaster did, always. And naturally, feeling a little curious—I mean—”
“Awfully natural,” said Lawrence, “I mean one would simply have to listen.”
“But of course she didn’t tell anyone—except me. And we both thought it very odd. But Gladdie couldn’t sayanything, you see, because if it was known she’d gone out to meet—a—a friend—well, it would have meant a lot ofunpleasantness with Mrs. Pratt, that’s the cook, sir. But I’m sure she’d tell you anything, sir, willing.”
“Well, can I go to the kitchen and speak to her?”
Rose was horrified24 by the suggestion.
“Oh, no, sir, that would never do! And Gladdie’s a very nervous girl anyway.”
At last the matter was settled, after a lot of discussion over difficult points. A clandestine25 meeting was arranged inthe shrubbery.
Here, in due course, Lawrence was confronted by the nervous Gladdie who he described as more like a shiveringrabbit than anything human. Ten minutes were spent in trying to put the girl at her ease, the shivering Gladysexplaining that she couldn’t ever—that she didn’t ought, that she didn’t think Rose would have given her away, thatanyway she hadn’t meant no harm, indeed she hadn’t, and that she’d catch it badly if Mrs. Pratt ever came to hear ofit.
Lawrence reassured26, cajoled, persuaded—at last Gladys consented to speak. “If you’ll be sure it’ll go no further,sir.”
“Of course it won’t.”
“And it won’t be brought up against me in a court of law?”
“Never.”
“And you won’t tell the mistress?”
“Not on any account.”
“If it were to get to Mrs. Pratt’s ears—”
“It won’t. Now tell me, Gladys.”
“If you’re sure it’s all right?”
“Of course it is. You’ll be glad some day you’ve saved me from being hanged.”
Gladys gave a little shriek27.
“Oh! Indeed, I wouldn’t like that, sir. Well, it’s very little I heard—and that entirely28 by accident as you might say—”
“I quite understand.”
“But the master, he was evidently very angry. ‘After all these years’—that’s what he was saying—‘you dare tocome here—’ ‘It’s an outrage—’ I couldn’t hear what the lady said—but after a bit he said, ‘I utterly29 refuse—utterly—’ I can’t remember everything—seemed as though they were at it hammer and tongs30, she wanting him to dosomething and he refusing. ‘It’s a disgrace that you should have come down here,’ that’s one thing he said. And ‘Youshall not see her—I forbid it—’ and that made me prick31 up my ears. Looked as though the lady wanted to tell Mrs.
Protheroe a thing or two, and he was afraid about it. And I thought to myself, ‘Well, now, fancy the master. Him soparticular. And maybe no beauty himself when all’s said and done. Fancy!’ I said. And ‘Men are all alike,’ I said tomy friend later. Not that he’d agree. Argued, he did. But he did admit he was surprised at Colonel Protheroe—himbeing a churchwarden and handing round the plate and reading the lessons on Sundays. ‘But there,’ I said, ‘that’s veryoften the worst.’ For that’s what I’ve heard my mother say, many a time.”
Gladdie paused out of breath, and Lawrence tried tactfully to get back to where the conversation had started.
“Did you hear anything else?”
“Well, it’s difficult to remember exactly, sir. It was all much the same. He said once or twice, ‘I don’t believe it.’
Just like that. ‘Whatever Haydock says, I don’t believe it.’”
“He said that, did he? ‘Whatever Haydock says?’”
“Yes. And he said it was all a plot.”
“You didn’t hear the lady speak at all?”
“Only just at the end. She must have got up to go and come nearer the window. And I heard what she said. Mademy blood run cold, it did. I’ll never forget it. ‘By this time tomorrow night, you may be dead,’ she said. Wicked theway she said it. As soon as I heard the news, ‘There,’ I said to Rose. ‘There!’”
Lawrence wondered. Principally he wondered how much of Gladys’s story was to be depended upon. True in themain, he suspected that it had been embellished32 and polished since the murder. In especial he doubted the accuracy ofthe last remark. He thought it highly possible that it owed its being to the fact of the murder.
He thanked Gladys, rewarded her suitably, reassured her as to her misdoings being made known to Mrs. Pratt, andleft Old Hall with a good deal to think over.
One thing was clear, Mrs. Lestrange’s interview with Colonel Protheroe had certainly not been a peaceful one, andit was one which he was anxious to keep from the knowledge of his wife.
I thought of Miss Marple’s churchwarden with his separate establishment. Was this a case resembling that?
I wondered more than ever where Haydock came in. He had saved Mrs. Lestrange from having to give evidence atthe inquest. He had done his best to protect her from the police.
How far would he carry that protection?
Supposing he suspected her of crime—would he still try and shield her?
She was a curious woman—a woman of very strong magnetic charm. I myself hated the thought of connecting herwith the crime in any way.
Something in me said, “It can’t be her!” Why?
And an imp13 in my brain replied: “Because she’s a very beautiful and attractive woman. That’s why.”
There is, as Miss Marple would say, a lot of human nature in all of us.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
rustic
|
|
| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
mead
|
|
| n.蜂蜜酒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
vengeance
|
|
| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
archer
|
|
| n.射手，弓箭手 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
camouflage
|
|
| n./v.掩饰，伪装 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
inventory
|
|
| n.详细目录，存货清单 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
artistic
|
|
| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
disarray
|
|
| n.混乱，紊乱，凌乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
asses
|
|
| n. 驴，愚蠢的人，臀部 adv. (常用作后置)用于贬损或骂人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
cartridges
|
|
| 子弹( cartridge的名词复数 )； （打印机的）墨盒； 录音带盒； （唱机的）唱头 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
chambers
|
|
| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
imp
|
|
| n.顽童 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
limpid
|
|
| adj.清澈的，透明的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
heartily
|
|
| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
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： |
|
|
|
|
17
poise
|
|
| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
housekeeper
|
|
| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
disposition
|
|
| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
giggle
|
|
| n.痴笑，咯咯地笑；v.咯咯地笑着说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
awfully
|
|
| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
softened
|
|
| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
inspector
|
|
| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
horrified
|
|
| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
clandestine
|
|
| adj.秘密的，暗中从事的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
reassured
|
|
| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
shriek
|
|
| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
utterly
|
|
| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
tongs
|
|
| n.钳；夹子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
prick
|
|
| v.刺伤，刺痛，刺孔；n.刺伤，刺痛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
embellished
|
|
| v.美化( embellish的过去式和过去分词 )；装饰；修饰；润色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |