END PIECES
I“T hat old lady gives me the creeps,” said Sir Andrew McNeil, when he had said good-bye and thanks to MissMarple.
“So gentle—and so ruthless,” said the Assistant Commissioner1.
Professor Wanstead took Miss Marple down to his car which was waiting, and then returned for a few final words.
“What do you think of her, Edmund?”
“The most frightening woman I ever met,” said the Home Secretary.
“Ruthless?” asked Professor Wanstead.
“No, no, I don’t mean that but—well, a very frightening woman.”
“Nemesis2,” said Professor Wanstead thoughtfully.
“Those two women,” said the P.P.D. man, “you know, the security agents who were looking after her, they gave amost extraordinary description of her that night. They got into the house quite easily, hid themselves in a smalldownstairs room until everyone went upstairs, then one went into the bedroom and into the wardrobe and the otherstayed outside the room to watch. The one in the bedroom said that when she threw open the door of the wardrobe andcame out, there was the old lady sitting up in bed with a pink fluffy3 shawl round her neck and a perfectly4 placid5 face,twittering away and talking like an elderly school marm. They said she gave them quite a turn.”
“A pink fluffy shawl,” said Professor Wanstead. “Yes, yes, I do remember—.”
“What do you remember?”
“Old Rafiel. He told me about her, you know, and then he laughed. He said one thing he’d never forget in all hislife. He said it was when one of the funniest scatterbrained old pussies6 he’d ever met came marching into his bedroomout in the West Indies, with a fluffy pink scarf round her neck, telling him he was to get up and do something toprevent a murder. And he said, ‘What on earth do you think you’re doing?’ And she said she was Nemesis. Nemesis!
He could not imagine anything less like it, he said. I like the touch of the pink woolly scarf,” said Professor Wanstead,thoughtfully, “I like that, very much.”
II
“Michael,” said Professor Wanstead, “I want to introduce you to Miss Jane Marple, who’s been very active on yourbehalf.”
The young man of thirty-two looked at the white-haired, rather dicky old lady with a slightly doubtful expression.
“Oh—er—” he said, “well, I guess I have heard about it. Thanks very much.”
He looked at Wanstead.
“It’s true, is it, they’re going to give me a free pardon or something silly like that?”
“Yes. A release will be put through quite soon. You’ll be a free man in a very short time.”
“Oh.” Michael sounded slightly doubtful.
“It will take a little getting used to, I expect,” said Miss Marple kindly7.
She looked at him thoughtfully. Seeing him in retrospect8 as he might have been ten years or so ago. Still quiteattractive—though he showed all the signs of strain. Attractive, yes. Very attractive, she thought he would have beenonce. A gaiety about him then, there would have been, and a charm. He’d lost that now, but it would come backperhaps. A weak mouth and attractively shaped eyes that could look you straight in the face, and probably had beenalways extremely useful for telling lies that you really wanted to believe. Very like—who was it?—she dived into pastmemories—Jonathan Birkin, of course. He had sung in the choir9. A really delightful10 baritone voice. And how fond thegirls had been of him! Quite a good job he’d had as a clerk in Messrs. Gabriel’s firm. A pity there had been that littlematter of the cheques.
“Oh,” said Michael. He said, with even more embarrassment11, “It’s been very kind of you, I’m sure, to take so muchtrouble.”
“I’ve enjoyed it,” said Miss Marple. “Well, I’m glad to have met you. Good-bye. I hope you’ve got a very goodtime coming to you. Our country is in rather a bad way just now, but you’ll probably find some job or other that youmight quite enjoy doing.”
“Oh yes. Thanks, thanks very much. I—I really am very grateful, you know.”
His tone sounded still extremely unsure about it.
“It’s not me you ought to be grateful to,” said Miss Marple, “you ought to be grateful to your father.”
“Dad? Dad never thought much of me.”
“Your father, when he was a dying man, was determined12 to see that you got justice.”
“Justice.” Michael Rafiel considered it.
“Yes, your father thought Justice was important. He was, I think, a very just man himself. In the letter he wrote measking me to undertake this proposition, he directed me to a quotation13:
‘Let Justice roll down like waters
And Righteousness like an everlasting14 stream.’”
“Oh! What’s it mean? Shakespeare?”
“No, the Bible—one has to think about it—I had to.”
Miss Marple unwrapped a parcel she had been carrying.
“They gave me this,” she said. “They thought I might like to have it—because I had helped to find out the truth ofwhat had really happened. I think, though, that you are the person who should have first claim on it—that is if youreally want it. But maybe you do not want it—”
She handed him the photograph of Verity15 Hunt that Clotilde Bradbury-Scott had shown her once in the drawingroom of The Old Manor16 House.
He took it—and stood with it, staring down on it … His face changed, the lines of it softened17, then hardened. MissMarple watched him without speaking. The silence went on for some little time. Professor Wanstead also watched—he watched them both, the old lady and the boy.
It came to him that this was in some way a crisis—a moment that might affect a whole new way of life.
Michael Rafiel sighed—he stretched out and gave the photograph back to Miss Marple.
“No, you are right, I do not want it. All that life is gone—she’s gone—I can’t keep her with me. Anything I do nowhas got to be new—going forward. You—” he hesitated, looking at her—“You understand?”
“Yes,” said Miss Marple—“I understand—I think you are right. I wish you good luck in the life you are now goingto begin.”
He said good-bye and went out.
“Well,” said Professor Wanstead, “not an enthusiastic young man. He could have thanked you a bit moreenthusiastically for what you did for him.”
“Oh, that’s quite all right,” said Miss Marple. “I didn’t expect him to do so. It would have embarrassed him evenmore. It is, you know,” she added, “very embarrassing when one has to thank people and start life again and seeeverything from a different angle and all that. I think he might do well. He’s not bitter. That’s the great thing. Iunderstand quite well why that girl loved him—”
“Well, perhaps he’ll go straight this time.”
“One rather doubts that,” said Miss Marple. “I don’t know that he’d be able to help himself unless—of course,” shesaid, “the great thing to hope for is that he’ll meet a really nice girl.”
“What I like about you,” said Professor Wanstead, “is your delightfully18 practical mind.”
III
“She’ll be here presently,” said Mr. Broadribb to Mr. Schuster.
“Yes. The whole thing’s pretty extraordinary, isn’t it?”
“I couldn’t believe it at first,” said Broadribb. “You know, when poor old Rafiel was dying, I thought this wholething was—well, senility or something. Not that he was old enough for that.”
The buzzer19 went. Mr. Schuster picked up the phone.
“Oh, she’s here, is she? Bring her up,” he said. “She’s come,” he said. “I wonder now. You know, it’s the oddestthing I ever heard in my life. Getting an old lady to go racketing round the countryside looking for she doesn’t knowwhat. The police think, you know, that that woman committed not just one murder but three. Three! I ask you! VerityHunt’s body was under the mound20 in the garden, just as the old lady said it was. She hadn’t been strangled and theface was not disfigured.”
“I wonder the old lady herself didn’t get done in,” said Mr. Broadribb. “Far too old to be able to take care ofherself.”
“She had a couple of detectives, apparently21, looking after her.”
“What, two of them?”
“Yes, I didn’t know that.”
Miss Marple was ushered22 into their room.
“Congratulations, Miss Marple,” said Mr. Broadribb, rising to greet her.
“Very best wishes. Splendid job,” said Mr. Schuster, shaking hands.
Miss Marple sat down composedly on the other side of the desk.
“As I told you in my letter,” she said, “I think I have fulfilled the terms of the proposition that was made to me. Ihave succeeded in what I was asked to do.”
“Oh I know. Yes, we’ve heard already. We’ve heard from Professor Wanstead and from the legal department andfrom the police authorities. Yes, it’s been a splendid job, Miss Marple. We congratulate you.”
“I was afraid,” said Miss Marple, “that I would not be able to do what was required of me. It seemed so verydifficult, almost impossible at first.”
“Yes indeed. It seems quite impossible to me. I don’t know how you did it, Miss Marple.”
“Oh well,” said Miss Marple, “it’s just perseverance23, isn’t it, that leads to things.”
“Now about the sum of money we are holding. It’s at your disposal at any time now. I don’t know whether youwould like us to pay it into your bank or whether you would like to consult us possibly as to the investment of it? It’squite a large sum.”
“Twenty thousand pounds,” said Miss Marple. “Yes, it is a very large sum by my way of thinking. Quiteextraordinary,” she added.
“If you would like an introduction to our brokers24, they could give you possibly some ideas about investing.”
“Oh, I don’t want to invest any of it.”
“But surely it would be—”
“There’s no point in saving at my age,” said Miss Marple. “I mean the point of this money—I’m sure Mr. Rafielmeant it that way—is to enjoy a few things that one thought one never would have the money to enjoy.”
“Well, I see your point of view,” said Mr. Broadribb. “Then your instructions would be that we pay this sum ofmoney into your bank?”
“Middleton’s Bank, 132 High Street, St. Mary Mead,” said Miss Marple.
“You have a deposit account, I expect. We will place it to your deposit account?”
“Certainly not,” said Miss Marple. “Put it into my current account.”
“You don’t think—”
“I do think,” said Miss Marple. “I want it in my current account.”
She got up and shook hands.
“You could ask your bank manager’s advice, you know, Miss Marple. It really is—one never knows when onewants something for a rainy day.”
“The only thing I shall want for a rainy day will be my umbrella,” said Miss Marple.
She shook hands with them both again.
“Thank you so much, Mr. Broadribb. And you too, Mr. Schuster. You’ve been so kind to me, giving me all theinformation I needed.”
“You really want that money put into your current account?”
“Yes,” said Miss Marple. “I’m going to spend it, you know. I’m going to have some fun with it.”
She looked back from the door and she laughed. Just for one moment Mr. Schuster, who was a man of moreimagination than Mr. Broadribb, had a vague impression of a young and pretty girl shaking hands with the vicar at agarden party in the country. It was, as he realized a moment later, a recollection of his own youth. But Miss Marplehad, for a minute, reminded him of that particular girl, young, happy, going to enjoy herself.
“Mr. Rafiel would have liked me to have fun,” said Miss Marple.
She went out of the door.
“Nemesis,” said Mr. Broadribb. “That’s what Rafiel called her. Nemesis. Never seen anybody less like Nemesis,have you?”
Mr. Schuster shook his head.
“It must have been another of Mr. Rafiel’s little jokes,” said Mr. Broadribb.
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commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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nemesis
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| n.给以报应者，复仇者，难以对付的敌手 | |
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fluffy
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| adj.有绒毛的，空洞的 | |
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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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placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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pussies
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| n.（粗俚） 女阴( pussy的名词复数 )；（总称）（作为性对象的）女人；（主要北美使用，非正式）软弱的；小猫咪 | |
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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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retrospect
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| n.回顾，追溯；v.回顾，回想，追溯 | |
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choir
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| n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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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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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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quotation
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| n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情 | |
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everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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verity
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| n.真实性 | |
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manor
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| n.庄园，领地 | |
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softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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delightfully
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| 大喜，欣然 | |
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buzzer
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| n.蜂鸣器；汽笛 | |
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mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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ushered
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| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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perseverance
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| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
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brokers
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| n.（股票、外币等）经纪人( broker的名词复数 )；中间人；代理商；（订合同的）中人v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的第三人称单数 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排… | |
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