THE GIRL HELEN
G iles and Gwenda had just finished breakfast on the morning after their return from Northumberland when MissMarple was announced. She came rather apologetically.
“I’m afraid this is a very early call. Not a thing I am in the habit of doing. But there was something I wanted toexplain.”
“We’re delighted to see you,” said Giles, pulling out a chair for her. “Do have a cup of coffee.”
“Oh no, no, thank you—nothing at all. I have breakfasted most adequately. Now let me explain. I came in whilstyou were away, as you kindly1 said I might, to do a little weeding—”
“Angelic of you,” said Gwenda.
“And it really did strike me that two days a week is not quite enough for this garden. In any case I think Foster istaking advantage of you. Too much tea and too much talk. I found out that he couldn’t manage another day himself, soI took it upon myself to engage another man just for one day a week—Wednesdays—today, in fact.”
Giles looked at her curiously2. He was a little surprised. It might be kindly meant, but Miss Marple’s actionsavoured, very faintly, of interference. And interference was unlike her.
He said slowly: “Foster’s far too old, I know, for really hard work.”
“I’m afraid, Mr. Reed, that Manning is even older. Seventy-five, he tells me. But you see, I thought employing him,just for a few odd days, might be quite an advantageous3 move, because he used, many years ago, to be employed atDr. Kennedy’s. The name of the young man Helen got engaged to was Afflick, by the way.”
“Miss Marple,” said Giles, “I maligned4 you in thought. You are a genius. You know I’ve got those specimens5 ofHelen’s handwriting from Kennedy?”
“I know. I was here when he brought them.”
“I’m posting them off today. I got the address of a good handwriting expert last week.”
“Let’s go into the garden and see Manning,” said Gwenda.
Manning was a bent6, crabbed-looking old man with a rheumy and slightly cunning eye. The pace at which he wasraking a path accelerated noticeably as his employers drew near.
“Morning, sir. Morning, m’am. The lady said as how you could do with a little extra help of a Wednesday. I’ll bepleased. Shameful7 neglected, this place looks.”
“I’m afraid the garden’s been allowed to run down for some years.”
“It has that. Remember it, I do, in Mrs. Findeyson’s time. A picture it were, then. Very fond of her garden she was,Mrs. Findeyson.”
Giles leaned easily against a roller. Gwenda snipped8 off some rose heads. Miss Marple, retreating a little up stage,bent to the bindweed. Old Manning leant on his rake. All was set for a leisurely9 morning discussion of old times andgardening in the good old days.
“I suppose you know most of the gardens round here, said Giles encouragingly.
“Ar, I know this place moderate well, I do. And the fancies people went in for. Mrs. Yule, up at Niagra, she had ayew hedge used to be clipped like a squirrel. Silly, I thought it. Peacocks is one thing and squirrels is another. ThenColonel Lampard, he was a great man for begonias—lovely beds of begonias he used to have. Bedding out now, that’sgoing out of fashion. I wouldn’t like to tell you how often I’ve had to fill up beds in the front lawns and turf ’em overin the last six years. Seems people ain’t got no eye for geraniums and a nice bit of lobelia edging no more.”
“You worked at Dr. Kennedy’s, didn’t you?”
“Ar. Long time ago, that were. Must have been 1920 and on. He’s moved now—given up. Young Dr. Brent’s up atCrosby Lodge10 now. Funny ideas, he has—little white tablets and so on. Vittapins he calls ’em.”
“I suppose you remember Miss Helen Kennedy, the doctor’s sister.”
“Ar, I remember Miss Helen right enough. Prettymaid, she was, with her long yellow hair. The doctor set a lot ofstore by her. Come back and lived in this very house here, she did, after she was married. Army gentleman fromIndia.”
“Yes,” said Gwenda. “We know.”
“Ar. I did ’ear—Saturday night it was—as you and your ’usband was some kind of relations. Pretty as a picter,Miss Helen was, when she first come back from school. Full of fun, too. Wanting to go everywhere—dances andtennis and all that. ’Ad to mark the tennis court, I ’ad—hadn’t been used for nigh twenty years, I’d say. And the shrubsovergrowing it cruel. ’Ad to cut ’em back, I did. And get a lot of whitewash11 and mark out the lines. Lot of work itmade—and in the end hardly played on. Funny thing I always thought that was.”
“What was a funny thing?” asked Giles.
“Business with the tennis court. Someone come along one night—and cut it to ribbons. Just to ribbons it was. Spite,as you might say. That was what it was—nasty bit of spite.”
“But who would do a thing like that?”
“That’s what the doctor wanted to know. Proper put out about it he was—and I don’t blame him. Just paid for it, hehad. But none of us could tell who’d done it. We never did know. And he said he wasn’t going to get another—quiteright, too, for if it’s spite one time, it would be spite again. But Miss Helen, she was rare and put out. She didn’t haveno luck, Miss Helen didn’t. First that net—and then her bad foot.”
“A bad foot?” asked Gwenda.
“Yes—fell over a scraper or somesuch and cut it. Not much more than a graze, it seemed, but it wouldn’t heal. Fairworried about it, the doctor was. He was dressing12 it and treating it, but it didn’t get well. I remember him saying ‘Ican’t understand it—there must have been something spectic—or some word like that—on that scraper. And anyway,’
he says, ‘what was the scraper doing out in the middle of the drive?’ Because that’s where it was when Miss Helen fellover it, walking home on a dark night. The poor maid, there she was, missing going to dances and sitting about withher foot up. Seemed as though there was nothing but bad luck for her.”
The moment had come, Giles thought. He asked casually13, “Do you remember somebody called Afflick?”
“Ar. You mean Jackie Afflick? As was in Fane and Watchman’s office?”
“Yes. Wasn’t he a friend of Miss Helen’s?”
“That were just a bit of nonsense. Doctor put a stop to it and quite right too. He wasn’t any class, Jackie Afflick.
And he was the kind that’s too sharp by half. Cut themselves in the end, that kind do. But he weren’t here long. Gothimself into hot water. Good riddance. Us don’t want the likes of he in Dillmouth. Go and be smart somewhere else,that’s what he were welcome to do.”
Gwenda said: “Was he here when that tennis net was cut up?”
“Ar. I see what you’re thinking. But he wouldn’t do a senseless thing like that. He were smart, Jackie Afflick were.
Whoever did that it was just spite.”
“Was there anybody who had a down on Miss Helen? Who would be likely to feel spiteful?”
Old Manning chuckled14 softly.
“Some of the young ladies might have felt spiteful all right. Not a patch on Miss Helen to look at, most of ’emweren’t. No, I’d say that was done just in foolishness. Some tramp with a grudge15.”
“Was Helen very upset about Jackie Afflick?” asked Gwenda.
“Don’t think as Miss Helen cared much about any of the young fellows. Just liked to enjoy herself, that’s all. Verydevoted some of them were—young Mr. Walter Fane, for one. Used to follow her round like a dog.”
“But she didn’t care for him at all?”
“Not Miss Helen. Just laughed—that’s all she did. Went abroad to foreign parts, he did. But he come back later.
Top one in the firm he is now. Never married. I don’t blame him. Women causes a lot of trouble in a man’s life.”
“Are you married?” asked Gwenda.
“Buried two, I have,” said old Manning. “Ar, well, I can’t complain. Smoke me pipe in peace where I likes now.”
In the ensuing silence, he picked up his rake again.
Giles and Gwenda walked back up the path towards the house and Miss Marple desisting from her attack onbindweed joined them.
“Miss Marple,” said Gwenda. “You don’t look well. Is there anything—”
“It’s nothing, my dear.” The old lady paused for a moment before saying with a strange kind of insistence16, “Youknow, I don’t like that bit about the tennis net. Cutting it to ribbons. Even then—”
She stopped. Giles looked at her curiously.
“I don’t quite understand—” he began.
“Don’t you? It seems so horribly plain to me. But perhaps it’s better that you shouldn’t understand. And anyway—perhaps I am wrong. Now do tell me how you got on in Northumberland.”
They gave her an account of their activities, and Miss Marple listened attentively17.
“It’s really all very sad,” said Gwenda. “Quite tragic18, in fact.”
“Yes, indeed. Poor thing—poor thing.”
“That’s what I felt. How that man must suffer—”
“He? Oh yes. Yes, of course.”
“But you meant—”
“Well, yes—I was thinking of her—of the wife. Probably very deeply in love with him, and he married her becauseshe was suitable, or because he was sorry for her, or for one of those quite kindly and sensible reasons that men oftenhave, and which are actually so terribly unfair.”
“I know a hundred ways of love,
And each one makes the loved one rue,”
quoted Giles softly.
Miss Marple turned to him.
“Yes, that is so true. Jealousy19, you know, is usually not an affair of causes. It is much more—how shall I say?—fundamental than that. Based on the knowledge that one’s love is not returned. And so one goes on waiting, watching,expecting … that the loved one will turn to someone else. Which, again, invariably happens. So this Mrs. Erskine hasmade life a hell for her husband, and he, without being able to help it, has made life a hell for her. But I think she hassuffered most. And yet, you know, I dare say he is really quite fond of her.”
“He can’t be,” cried Gwenda.
“Oh, my dear, you are very young. He has never left his wife, and that means something, you know.”
“Because of the children. Because it was his duty.”
“The children, perhaps,” said Miss Marple. “But I must confess that gentlemen do not seem to me to have a greatregard for duty in so far as their wives are concerned—public service is another matter.”
Giles laughed.
“What a wonderful cynic you are, Miss Marple.”
“Oh dear, Mr. Reed, I do hope not that. One always has hope for human nature.”
“I still don’t feel it can have been Walter Fane,” said Gwenda thoughtfully. “And I’m sure it wasn’t Major Erskine.
In fact I know it wasn’t.”
“One’s feelings are not always reliable guides,” said Miss Marple. “The most unlikely people do things—quite asensation there was in my own little village when the Treasurer20 of the Christmas Club was found to have put everypenny of the funds on a horse. He disapproved21 of horse racing22 and indeed any kind of betting or gambling23. His fatherhad been a Turf Agent and had treated his mother very badly—so, intellectually speaking, he was quite sincere. But hechanced one day to be motoring near Newmarket and saw some horses training. And then it all came over him—blooddoes tell.”
“The antecedents of both Walter Fane and Richard Erskine seem above suspicion,” said Giles gravely but with aslight amused twist to his mouth. “But then murder is by way of being an amateur crime.”
“The important thing is,” said Miss Marple, “that they were there. On the spot. Walter Fane was here in Dillmouth.
Major Erskine, by his own account, must actually have been with Helen Halliday very shortly before her death—andhe did not return to his hotel for some time that night.”
“But he was quite frank about it. He—”
Gwenda broke off. Miss Marple was looking at her very hard.
“I only want to emphasize,” said Miss Marple, “the importance of being on the spot.” She looked from one to theother of them.
Then she said, “I think you will have no trouble in finding out J. J. Afflick’s address. As proprietor24 of the DaffodilCoaches, it should be easy enough.”
Giles nodded. “I’ll get on to it. Probably in the telephone directory.” He paused. “You think we should go and seehim?”
Miss Marple waited for a moment or two, then she said: “If you do—you must be very careful. Remember whatthat old gardener just said—Jackie Afflick is smart. Please—please be careful….”
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1
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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2
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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advantageous
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| adj.有利的；有帮助的 | |
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4
maligned
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| vt.污蔑，诽谤（malign的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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6
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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7
shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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8
snipped
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| v.剪( snip的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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9
leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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10
lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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11
whitewash
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| v.粉刷，掩饰；n.石灰水，粉刷，掩饰 | |
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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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13
casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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16
insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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18
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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treasurer
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| n.司库，财务主管 | |
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disapproved
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| v.不赞成( disapprove的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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