M iss Marple got out of the train at Market Kindle1 station. A kindly2 fellow passenger handed out her suitcase afterher, and Miss Marple, clutching a string bag, a faded leather handbag and some miscellaneous wraps, utteredappreciative twitters of thanks.
“So kind of you, I’m sure … So difficult nowadays—not many porters. I get so flustered3 when I travel.”
The twitters were drowned by the booming noise of the station announcer saying loudly but indistinctly that the3:18 was standing4 at Platform 1 and was about to proceed to various unidentifiable stations.
Market Kindle was a large empty windswept station with hardly any passengers or railway staff to be seen on it. Itsclaim to distinction lay in having six platforms and a bay where a very small train of one carriage was puffingimportantly.
Miss Marple, rather more shabbily dressed than was her custom (so lucky that she hadn’t given away the oldspeckledy), was peering around her uncertainly when a young man came up to her.
“Miss Marple?” he said. His voice had an unexpectedly dramatic quality about it, as though the utterance5 of hername were the first words of a part he was playing in amateur theatricals7. “I’ve come to meet you—from Stonygates.”
Miss Marple looked gratefully at him, a charming helpless looking old lady with, if he had chanced to notice it,very shrewd blue eyes. The personality of the young man did not quite match his voice. It was less important, onemight almost say insignificant8. His eyelids9 had a trick of fluttering nervously10.
“Oh, thank you,” said Miss Marple. “There’s just this suitcase.”
She noticed that the young man did not pick up her suitcase himself. He flipped11 a finger at a porter who wastrundling some packing cases past on a trolley12.
“Bring it out, please,” he said, and added importantly, “For Stonygates.”
The porter said cheerfully:
“Rightyho. Shan’t be long.”
Miss Marple fancied that her new acquaintance was not too pleased about this. It was as if Buckingham Palace hadbeen dismissed as no more important than 3 Laburnum Road.
He said, “The railways get more impossible every day!”
Guiding Miss Marple towards the exit, he said: “I’m Edgar Lawson. Mrs. Serrocold asked me to meet you. I helpMr. Serrocold in his work.”
There was again the faint insinuation that a busy and important man had, very charmingly, put important affairs onone side out of chivalry13 to his employer’s wife.
And again the impression was not wholly convincing—it had a theatrical6 flavour.
Miss Marple began to wonder about Edgar Lawson.
They came out of the station and Edgar guided the old lady to where a rather elderly Ford14 V.8 was standing.
He was just saying, “Will you come in front with me, or would you prefer the back?” when there was a diversion.
A new gleaming two-seater Rolls Bentley came purring into the station yard and drew up in front of the Ford. Avery beautiful young woman jumped out of it and came across to them. The fact that she wore dirty corduroy slacksand a simple aertex shirt open at the neck seemed somehow to enhance the fact that she was not only beautiful butexpensive.
“There you are, Edgar. I thought I wouldn’t make it in time. I see you’ve got Miss Marple. I came to meet her.”
She smiled dazzlingly at Miss Marple showing a row of lovely teeth in a sunburnt southern face. “I’m Gina,” she said.
“Carrie Louise’s granddaughter. What was your journey like? Simply foul15? What a nice string bag. I love string bags.
I’ll take it and the coats and then you can get in better.”
Edgar’s face flushed. He protested.
“Look here, Gina, I came to meet Miss Marple. It was all arranged….”
Again the teeth flashed in that wide, lazy smile.
“Oh I know, Edgar, but I suddenly thought it would be nice if I came along. I’ll take her with me and you can waitand bring her cases up.”
She slammed the door on Miss Marple, ran round to the other side, jumped in the driving seat, and they purredswiftly out of the station.
Looking back, Miss Marple noticed Edgar Lawson’s face.
“I don’t think, my dear,” she said, “that Mr. Lawson is very pleased.”
Gina laughed.
“Edgar’s a frightful16 idiot,” she said. “Always so pompous17 about things. You’d really think he mattered!”
Miss Marple asked, “Doesn’t he matter?”
“Edgar?” There was an unconscious note of cruelty in Gina’s scornful laugh. “Oh, he’s bats anyway.”
“Bats?”
“They’re all bats at Stonygates,” said Gina. “I don’t mean Lewis and Grandam and me and the boys—and not MissBellever, of course. But the others. Sometimes I feel I’m going a bit bats myself living there. Even Aunt Mildred goesout on walks and mutters to herself all the time—and you don’t expect a Canon’s widow to do that, do you?”
They swung out of the station approach and accelerated up the smooth-surfaced, empty road. Gina shot a swift,sideways glance at her companion.
“You were at school with Grandam, weren’t you? It seems so queer.”
Miss Marple knew perfectly18 what she meant. To youth it seems very odd to think that age was once young andpigtailed and struggled with decimals and English literature.
“It must,” said Gina with awe19 in her voice, and obviously not meaning to be rude, “have been a very long timeago.”
“Yes, indeed,” said Miss Marple. “You feel that more with me than you do with your grandmother, I expect?”
Gina nodded. “It’s cute of you saying that. Grandam, you know, gives one a curiously20 ageless feeling.”
“It is a long time since I’ve seen her. I wonder if I shall find her much changed.”
“Her hair’s grey, of course,” said Gina vaguely21. “And she walks with a stick because of her arthritis22. It’s got muchworse lately. I suppose that—” she broke off, and then asked, “Have you been to Stonygates before?”
“No, never. I’ve heard a great deal about it, of course.”
“It’s pretty ghastly really,” said Gina cheerfully. “A sort of Gothic monstrosity. What Steve calls Best VictorianLavatory period. But it’s fun, too, in a way. Only, of course, everything’s madly earnest, and you tumble overpsychiatrists everywhere underfoot. Enjoying themselves madly. Rather like scoutmasters, only worse. The youngcriminals are rather pets, some of them. One showed me how to diddle locks with a bit of wire and one angelic-facedboy gave me a lot of points about coshing people.”
Miss Marple considered this information thoughtfully.
“It’s the thugs I like best,” said Gina. “I don’t fancy the queers so much. Of course, Lewis and Dr. Maverick23 thinkthey’re all queers—I mean they think it’s repressed desires and disordered home life and their mothers getting off withsoldiers and all that. I don’t really see it myself because some people have had awful home lives and yet havemanaged to turn out quite all right.”
“I’m sure it is all a very difficult problem,” said Miss Marple.
Gina laughed, again showing her magnificent teeth.
“It doesn’t worry me much. I suppose some people have these sorts of urges to make the world a better place.
Lewis is quite dippy about it all—he’s going to Aberdeen next week because there’s a case coming up in the policecourt—a boy with five previous convictions.”
“The young man who met me at the station? Mr. Lawson. He helps Mr. Serrocold, he told me. Is he his secretary?”
“Oh Edgar hasn’t brains enough to be a secretary. He’s a case, really. He used to stay at hotels and pretend he wasa V.C. or a fighter pilot and borrow money and then do a flit. I think he’s just a rotter. But Lewis goes through aroutine with them all. Makes them feel one of the family and gives them jobs to do and all that to encourage theirsense of responsibility. I daresay we shall be murdered by one of them one of these days.” Gina laughed merrily.
Miss Marple did not laugh.
They turned in through some imposing24 gates where a commissionaire was standing on duty in a military mannerand drove up a drive flanked with rhododendrons. The drive was badly kept and the grounds seemed neglected.
Interpreting her companion’s glance, Gina said, “No gardeners during the war, and since we haven’t bothered. Butit does look rather terrible.”
They came round a curve and Stonygates appeared in its full glory. It was, as Gina had said, a vast edifice25 ofVictorian Gothic—a kind of temple to plutocracy26. Philanthropy had added to it in various wings and outbuildingswhich, while not positively27 dissimilar in style, had robbed the structure as a whole of any cohesion28 or purpose.
“Hideous, isn’t it?” said Gina affectionately. “There’s Grandam on the terrace. I’ll stop here and you can go andmeet her.”
Miss Marple advanced along the terrace towards her old friend.
From a distance, the slim little figure looked curiously girlish in spite of the stick on which she leaned and her slowand obviously rather painful progress. It was as though a young girl was giving an exaggerated imitation of old age.
“Jane,” said Mrs. Serrocold.
“Dear Carrie Louise.”
Yes, unmistakably Carrie Louise. Strangely unchanged, strangely youthful still, although, unlike her sister, sheused no cosmetics29 or artificial aids to youth. Her hair was grey, but it had always been of a silvery fairness and thecolour had changed very little. Her skin had still a rose leaf pink and white appearance, though now it was a crumpledrose leaf. Her eyes had still their starry30 innocent glance. She had the slender youthful figure of a girl and her head keptits eager birdlike tilt31.
“I do blame myself,” said Carrie Louise in her sweet voice, “for letting it be so long. Years since I saw you, Janedear. It’s just lovely that you’ve come at last to pay us a visit here.”
From the end of the terrace Gina called:
“You ought to come in, Grandam. It’s getting cold—and Jolly will be furious.”
Carrie Louise gave her little silvery laugh.
“They all fuss about me so,” she said. “They rub it in that I’m an old woman.”
“And you don’t feel like one.”
“No, I don’t, Jane. In spite of all my aches and pains—and I’ve got plenty. Inside I go on feeling just a chit likeGina. Perhaps everyone does. The glass shows them how old they are and they just don’t believe it. It seems only afew months ago that we were at Florence. Do you remember Fr?ulein Schweich and her boots?”
The two elderly women laughed together at events that had happened nearly half a century ago.
They walked together to a side door. In the doorway32 a gaunt, elderly lady met them. She had an arrogant33 nose, ashort haircut and wore stout34, well-cut tweeds.
She said fiercely:
“It’s absolutely crazy of you, Cara, to stay out so late. You’re absolutely incapable35 of taking care of yourself. Whatwill Mr. Serrocold say?”
“Don’t scold me, Jolly,” said Carrie Louise pleadingly. She introduced Miss Bellever to Miss Marple.
“This is Miss Bellever who is simply everything to me. Nurse, dragon, watchdog, secretary, housekeeper36, and veryfaithful friend.”
Juliet Bellever sniffed37, and the end of her big nose turned rather pink, a sign of emotion.
“I do what I can,” she said gruffly. “This is a crazy household. You simply can’t arrange any kind of plannedroutine.”
“Darling Jolly, of course you can’t. I wonder why you ever try. Where are you putting Miss Marple?”
“In the Blue Room. Shall I take her up?” asked Miss Bellever.
“Yes, please do, Jolly. And then bring her down to tea. It’s in the library today, I think.”
The Blue Room had heavy curtains of a rich, faded blue brocade that must have been, Miss Marple thought, aboutfifty years old. The furniture was mahogany, big and solid, and the bed was a vast mahogany fourposter. Miss Belleveropened a door into a connecting bathroom. This was unexpectedly modern, orchid38 in colouring and with muchdazzling chromium.
She observed grimly:
“John Restarick had ten bathrooms put into the house when he married Cara. The plumbing39 is about the only thingthat’s ever been modernized40. He wouldn’t hear of the rest being altered—said the whole place was a perfect periodpiece. Did you ever know him at all?”
“No, I never met him. Mrs. Serrocold and I have met very seldom though we have always corresponded.”
“He was an agreeable fellow,” said Miss Bellever. “No good, of course! A complete rotter. But pleasant to haveabout the house. Great charm. Women liked him far too much. That was his undoing41 in the end. Not really Cara’stype.”
She added, with a brusque resumption of her practical manner:
“The housemaid will unpack42 for you. Do you want a wash before tea?”
Receiving an affirmative answer, she said that Miss Marple would find her waiting at the top of the stairs.
Miss Marple went into the bathroom and washed her hands and dried them a little nervously on a very beautifulorchid coloured face towel. Then she removed her hat and patted her soft white hair into place.
Opening her door she found Miss Bellever waiting for her and was conducted down the big gloomy staircase andacross a vast dark hall and into a room where bookshelves went up to the ceiling and a big window looked out over anartificial lake.
Carrie Louise was standing by the window and Miss Marple joined her.
“What a very imposing house this is,” said Miss Marple. “I feel quite lost in it.”
“Yes, I know. It’s ridiculous, really. It was built by a prosperous iron master—or something of that kind. He wentbankrupt not long after. I don’t wonder really. There were about fourteen living rooms—all enormous. I’ve never seenwhat people can want with more than one sitting room. And all those huge bedrooms. Such a lot of unnecessary space.
Mine is terribly overpowering—and quite a long way to walk from the bed to the dressing43 table. And great heavy darkcrimson curtains.”
“You haven’t had it modernized and redecorated?”
Carrie Louise looked vaguely surprised.
“No. On the whole it’s very much as it was when I first lived here with Eric. It’s been repainted, of course, but theyalways do it the same colour. Those things don’t really matter, do they? I mean I shouldn’t have felt justified44 inspending a lot of money on that kind of thing when there are so many things that are so much more important.”
“Have there been no changes at all in the house?”
“Oh yes—heaps of them. We’ve just kept a kind of block in the middle of the house as it was—the Great Hall andthe rooms off and over. They’re the best ones and Johnnie—my second husband—was lyrical over them and said theyshould never be touched or altered—and, of course, he was an artist and a designer and he knew about these things.
But the East and West wings have been completely remodelled45. All the rooms partitioned off and divided up, so thatwe have offices, and bedrooms for the teaching staff, and all that. The boys are all in the College building—you cansee it from here.”
Miss Marple looked out towards where large red brick buildings showed through a belt of sheltering trees. Thenher eyes fell on something nearer at hand, and she smiled a little.
“What a very beautiful girl Gina is,” she said.
Carrie Louise’s face lit up.
“Yes, isn’t she?” she said softly. “It’s so lovely to have her back here again. I sent her to America at the beginningof the war—to Ruth. Did Ruth talk about her at all?”
“No. At least she did just mention her.”
Carrie Louise sighed.
“Poor Ruth! She was frightfully upset over Gina’s marriage. But I’ve told her again and again that I don’t blameher in the least. Ruth doesn’t realise, as I do, that the old barriers and class shibboleths46 are gone—or at any rate aregoing.
“Gina was doing war work—and she met this young man. He was a marine47 and had a very good war record. And aweek later they were married. It was all far too quick, of course, no time to find out if they were really suited to eachother—but that’s the way of things nowadays. Young people belong to their generation. We may think they’re unwisein many of their doings, but we have to accept their decisions. Ruth, though, was terribly upset.”
“She didn’t consider the young man suitable?”
“She kept saying that one didn’t know anything about him. He came from the middle west and he hadn’t anymoney—and naturally no profession. There are hundreds of boys like that everywhere—but it wasn’t Ruth’s idea ofwhat was right for Gina. However, the thing was done. I was so glad when Gina accepted my invitation to come overhere with her husband. There’s so much going on here—jobs of every kind, and if Walter wants to specialise inmedicine or get a degree or anything he could do it in this country. After all, this is Gina’s home. It’s delightful48 tohave her back, to have someone so warm and gay and alive in the house.”
Miss Marple nodded and looked out of the window again at the two young people standing near the lake.
“They’re a remarkably49 handsome couple, too,” she said. “I don’t wonder Gina fell in love with him!”
“Oh, but that—that isn’t Wally.” There was, quite suddenly, a touch of embarrassment50, or restraint, in Mrs.
Serrocold’s voice. “That’s Steve—the younger of Johnnie Restarick’s two boys. When Johnnie—when he went away,he’d no place for the boys in the holidays, so I always had them here. They look on this as their home. And Steve’shere permanently51 now. He runs our dramatic branch. We have a theatre, you know, and plays—we encourage all theartistic instincts. Lewis says that so much of this juvenile52 crime is due to exhibitionism; most of the boys have hadsuch a thwarted53, unhappy home life, and these hold-ups and burglaries make them feel heroes. We urge them to writetheir own plays and act in them and design and paint their own scenery. Steve is in charge of the theatre. He’s so keenand enthusiastic. It’s wonderful what life he’s put into the whole thing.”
“I see,” said Miss Marple slowly.
Her long distance sight was good (as many of her neighbours knew to their cost in the village of St. Mary Mead)and she saw very clearly the dark handsome face of Stephen Restarick as he stood facing Gina, talking eagerly. Gina’sface she could not see, since the girl had her back to them, but there was no mistaking the expression in StephenRestarick’s face.
“It isn’t any business of mine,” said Miss Marple, “but I suppose you realise, Carrie Louise, that he’s in love withher.”
“Oh no—” Carrie Louise looked troubled. “Oh no, I do hope not.”
“You were always up in the clouds, Carrie Louise. There’s not the least doubt about it.”
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1
kindle
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| v.点燃，着火 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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flustered
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| 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) | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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theatrical
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| adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的 | |
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theatricals
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| n.（业余性的）戏剧演出，舞台表演艺术；职业演员；戏剧的( theatrical的名词复数 )；剧场的；炫耀的；戏剧性的 | |
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insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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flipped
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| 轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥 | |
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trolley
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| n.手推车，台车；无轨电车；有轨电车 | |
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chivalry
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| n.骑士气概，侠义；（男人）对女人彬彬有礼，献殷勤 | |
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Ford
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| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
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foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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pompous
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的；夸大的；豪华的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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arthritis
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| n.关节炎 | |
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maverick
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| adj.特立独行的；不遵守传统的；n.持异议者，自行其是者 | |
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imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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plutocracy
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| n.富豪统治 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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cohesion
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| n.团结，凝结力 | |
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cosmetics
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| n.化妆品 | |
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starry
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| adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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tilt
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| v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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arrogant
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的 | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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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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orchid
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| n.兰花，淡紫色 | |
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plumbing
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| n.水管装置；水暖工的工作；管道工程v.用铅锤测量（plumb的现在分词）；探究 | |
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modernized
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| 使现代化，使适应现代需要( modernize的过去式和过去分词 )； 现代化，使用现代方法 | |
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undoing
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| n.毁灭的原因，祸根；破坏，毁灭 | |
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unpack
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| vt.打开包裹（或行李），卸货 | |
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dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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remodelled
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| v.改变…的结构[形状]( remodel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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shibboleths
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| n.（党派、集团等的）准则( shibboleth的名词复数 )；教条；用语；行话 | |
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marine
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| adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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juvenile
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| n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的 | |
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thwarted
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| 阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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