POLYGONUM BALDSCHUANICUM
T he meal was conventional. A small joint1 of mutton, roast potatoes, followed by a plum tart2 with a small jug3 of creamand rather indifferent pastry4. There were a few pictures round the dining room wall, family pictures, Miss Marplepresumed, Victorian portraits without any particular merit, the sideboard was large and heavy, a handsome piece ofplum-coloured mahogany. The curtains were of dark crimson5 damask and at the big mahogany table ten people couldeasily have been seated.
Miss Marple chatted about the incidents of the tour in so far as she had been on it. As this, however, had only beenthree days, there was not very much to say.
“Mr. Rafiel, I suppose, was an old friend of yours?” said the eldest6 Miss Bradbury-Scott.
“Not really,” said Miss Marple. “I met him first when I was on a cruise to the West Indies. He was out there for hishealth, I imagine.”
“Yes, he had been very crippled for some years,” said Anthea.
“Very sad,” said Miss Marple. “Very sad indeed. I really admired his fortitude7. He seemed to manage to do somuch work. Every day, you know, he dictated8 to his secretary and was continually sending off cables. He did not seemto give in at all kindly9 to being an invalid10.”
“Oh no, he wouldn’t,” said Anthea.
“We have not seen much of him of late years,” said Mrs. Glynne. “He was a busy man, of course. He alwaysremembered us at Christmas very kindly.”
“Do you live in London, Miss Marple?” asked Anthea.
“Oh no,” said Miss Marple. “I live in the country. A very small place halfway11 between Loomouth and MarketBasing. About twenty-five miles from London. It used to be a very pretty old-world village but of course likeeverything else, it is becoming what they call developed nowadays.” She added, “Mr. Rafiel, I suppose, lived inLondon? At least I noticed that in the St. Honoré hotel register his address was somewhere in Eaton Square, I think, orwas it Belgrave Square?”
“He had a country house in Kent,” said Clotilde. “He used to entertain there, I think, sometimes. Business friends,mostly you know, or people from abroad. I don’t think any of us ever visited him there. He nearly always entertainedus in London on the rare occasions when we happened to meet.”
“It was very kind of him,” said Miss Marple, “to suggest to you that you should invite me here during the course ofthis tour. Very thoughtful. One wouldn’t really have expected a busy man such as he must have been to have had suchkindly thoughts.”
“We have invited before friends of his who have been on these tours. On the whole they are very considerate theway they arrange these things. It is impossible, of course, to suit everybody’s taste. The young ones naturally wish towalk, to make long excursions, to ascend12 hills for a view, and all that sort of thing. And the older ones who are not upto it, remain in the hotels, but hotels round here are not really at all luxurious13. I am sure you would have found today’strip and the one to St. Bonaventure tomorrow also, very fatiguing14. Tomorrow I believe there is a visit to an island, youknow, in a boat and sometimes it can be very rough.”
“Even going round houses can be very tiring,” said Mrs. Glynne.
“Oh, I know,” said Miss Marple. “So much walking and standing15 about. One’s feet get very tired. I suppose really Iought not to take these expeditions, but it is such a temptation to see beautiful buildings and fine rooms and furniture.
All these things. And of course some splendid pictures.”
“And the gardens,” said Anthea. “You like gardens, don’t you?”
“Oh yes,” said Miss Marple, “specially the gardens. From the description in the prospectus16 I am really lookingforward very much to seeing some of the really finely kept gardens of the historic houses we have still to visit.” Shebeamed round the table.
It was all very pleasant, very natural, and yet she wondered why for some reason she had a feeling of strain. Afeeling that there was something unnatural17 here. But what did she mean by unnatural? The conversation was ordinaryenough, consisting mainly of platitudes18. She herself was making conventional remarks and so were the three sisters.
The Three Sisters, thought Miss Marple once again considering that phrase. Why did anything thought of in threessomehow seem to suggest a sinister19 atmosphere? The Three Sisters. The Three Witches of Macbeth. Well, one couldhardly compare these three sisters to the three witches. Although Miss Marple had always thought at the back of hermind that the theatrical20 producers made a mistake in the way in which they produced the three witches. Oneproduction which she had seen, indeed, seemed to her quite absurd. The witches had looked more like pantomimecreatures with flapping wings and ridiculously spectacular steeple hats. They had danced and slithered about. MissMarple remembered saying to her nephew, who was standing her this Shakespearean treat, “You know, Raymond, mydear, if I were ever producing this splendid play I would make the three witches quite different. I would have themthree ordinary, normal old women. Old Scottish women. They wouldn’t dance or caper21. They would look at each otherrather slyly and you would feel a sort of menace just behind the ordinariness of them.”
Miss Marple helped herself to the last mouthful of plum tart and looked across the table at Anthea. Ordinary,untidy, very vague-looking, a bit scatty. Why should she feel that Anthea was sinister?
“I am imagining things,” said Miss Marple to herself. “I mustn’t do that.”
After luncheon22 she was taken on a tour of the garden. It was Anthea who was deputed to accompany her. It was,Miss Marple thought, rather a sad progress. Here, there had once been a well kept, though certainly not in any way anoutstanding or remarkable23, garden. It had had the elements of an ordinary Victorian garden. A shrubbery, a drive ofspeckled laurels24, no doubt there had once been a well kept lawn and paths, a kitchen garden of about an acre and ahalf, too big evidently for the three sisters who lived here now. Part of it was unplanted and had gone largely to weeds.
Ground elder had taken over most of the flower beds and Miss Marple’s hands could hardly restrain themselves frompulling up the vagrant25 bindweed asserting its superiority.
Miss Anthea’s long hair flapped in the wind, shedding from time to time a vague hairpin26 on the path or the grass.
She talked rather jerkily.
“You have a very nice garden, I expect,” she said.
“Oh, it’s a very small one,” said Miss Marple.
They had come along a grass path and were pausing in front of a kind of hillock that rested against the wall at theend of it.
“Our greenhouse,” said Miss Anthea, mournfully.
“Oh yes, where you had such a delightful27 grapevine.”
“Three vines,” said Anthea. “A Black Hamburg and one of those small white grapes, very sweet, you know. And athird one of beautiful muscats.”
“And a heliotrope28, you said.”
“Cherry Pie,” said Anthea.
“Ah yes, Cherry Pie. Such a lovely smell. Was there any bomb trouble round here? Did that—er—knock thegreenhouse down?”
“Oh no, we never suffered from anything of that kind. This neighbourhood was quite free of bombs. No, I’m afraidit just fell down from decay. We hadn’t been here so very long and we had no money to repair it, or to build it upagain. And in fact, it wouldn’t have been worth it really because we couldn’t have kept it up even if we did. I’m afraidwe just let it fall down. There was nothing else we could do. And now you see, it’s all grown over.”
“Ah that, completely covered by—what is that flowering creeper just coming into bloom?”
“Oh yes. It’s quite a common one,” said Anthea. “It begins with a P. Now what is the name of it?” she saiddoubtfully. “Poly something, something like that.”
“Oh yes. I think I do know the name. Polygonum Baldschuanicum. Very quick growing, I think, isn’t it? Veryuseful really if one wants to hide any tumbledown building or anything ugly of that kind.”
The mound29 in front of her was certainly thickly covered with the all-enveloping green and white flowering plant. Itwas, as Miss Marple well knew, a kind of menace to anything else that wanted to grow. Polygonum coveredeverything, and covered it in a remarkably30 short time.
“The greenhouse must have been quite a big one,” she said.
“Oh yes—we had peaches in it, too—and nectarines.” Anthea looked miserable31.
“It looks really very pretty now,” said Miss Marple in a consoling tone. “Very pretty little white flowers, aren’tthey?”
“We have a very nice magnolia tree down this path to the left,” said Anthea. “Once I believe there used to be a veryfine border here—a herbaceous border. But that again one cannot keep up. It is too difficult. Everything is too difficult.
Nothing is like it used to be—it’s all spoilt—everywhere.”
She led the way quickly down a path at right angles which ran along a side wall. Her pace had increased. MissMarple could hardly keep up with her. It was, thought Miss Marple, as though she were deliberately32 being steeredaway from the Polygonum mound by her hostess. Steered33 away as from some ugly or displeasing34 spot. Was sheashamed perhaps that the past glories no longer remained? The Polygonum certainly was growing with extraordinaryabandonment. It was not even being clipped or kept to reasonable proportions. It made a kind of flowery wilderness35 ofthat bit of the garden.
She almost looks as though she was running away from it, thought Miss Marple, as she followed her hostess.
Presently her attention was diverted to a broken down pigsty36 which had a few rose tendrils round it.
“My great-uncle used to keep a few pigs,” explained Anthea, “but of course one would never dream of doinganything of that kind nowadays, would one? Rather too noisome37, I am afraid. We have a few floribunda roses near thehouse. I really think floribundas are such a great answer to difficulties.”
“Oh, I know,” said Miss Marple.
She mentioned the names of a few recent productions in the rose line. All the names, she thought, were entirelystrange to Miss Anthea.
“Do you often come on these tours?”
The question came suddenly.
“You mean the tours of houses and of gardens?”
“Yes. Some people do it every year.”
“Oh I couldn’t hope to do that. They’re rather expensive, you see. A friend very kindly gave me a present of this tocelebrate my next birthday. So kind.”
“Oh. I wondered. I wondered why you came. I mean—it’s bound to be rather tiring, isn’t it? Still, if you usually goto the West Indies, and places like that….”
“Oh, the West Indies was the result of kindness, too. On the part of a nephew, that time. A dear boy. So verythoughtful for his old aunt.”
“Oh, I see. Yes, I see.”
“I don’t know what one would do without the younger generation,” said Miss Marple. “They are so kind, are theynot?”
“I—I suppose so. I don’t really know. I—we haven’t—any young relations.”
“Does your sister, Mrs. Glynne, have any children? She did not mention any. One never likes to ask.”
“No. She and her husband never had any children. It’s as well perhaps.”
“And what do you mean by that?” Miss Marple wondered as they returned to the house.
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1
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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2
tart
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| adj.酸的；尖酸的，刻薄的；n.果馅饼；淫妇 | |
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3
jug
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| n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂 | |
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4
pastry
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| n.油酥面团，酥皮糕点 | |
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5
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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6
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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7
fortitude
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| n.坚忍不拔；刚毅 | |
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8
dictated
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| v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布 | |
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9
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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10
invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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11
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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12
ascend
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| vi.渐渐上升，升高；vt.攀登，登上 | |
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13
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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14
fatiguing
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| a.使人劳累的 | |
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15
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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16
prospectus
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| n.计划书；说明书；慕股书 | |
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17
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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18
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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19
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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20
theatrical
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| adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的 | |
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21
caper
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| v.雀跃，欢蹦；n.雀跃，跳跃；续随子，刺山柑花蕾；嬉戏 | |
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22
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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23
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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24
laurels
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| n.桂冠，荣誉 | |
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25
vagrant
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| n.流浪者，游民；adj.流浪的，漂泊不定的 | |
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26
hairpin
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| n.簪,束发夹，夹发针 | |
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27
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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28
heliotrope
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| n.天芥菜；淡紫色 | |
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29
mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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30
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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31
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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32
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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33
steered
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| v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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34
displeasing
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| 不愉快的，令人发火的 | |
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35
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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36
pigsty
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| n.猪圈，脏房间 | |
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37
noisome
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| adj.有害的，可厌的 | |
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