As Emily walked briskly along the lane she noticed once more how thecharacter of the morning was changing. The mist was closing up andround.
“What an awful place to live in England is,” thought Emily. “If it isn’tsnowing or raining or blowing it’s misty1. And if the sun does shine it’s socold that you can’t feel your fingers or toes.”
She was interrupted in these reflections by a rather hoarse2 voice speak-ing rather close to her right ear.
“Excuse me,” it said, “but do you happen to have seen a bull terrier?”
Emily started and turned. Leaning over a gate was a tall thin man with avery brown complexion3, bloodshot eyes and grey hair. He was propped4 upwith a crutch5 one side, and was eyeing Emily with enormous interest. Shehad no difficulty in identifying him as Captain Wyatt, the invalid6 owner ofNo. 2 The Cottages.
“No, I haven’t,” said Emily.
“She’s got out,” said Captain Wyatt. “An affectionate creature, but an ab-solute fool. With all these cars and things—”
“I shouldn’t think many motors come up this lane,” said Emily.
“Charabancs do in the summer time,” said Captain Wyatt grimly. “It’sthe three and sixpenny morning run from Exhampton. Ascent7 of SittafordBeacon with a halt halfway8 up from Exhampton for light refreshments9.”
“Yes, but this isn’t summer time,” said Emily.
“All the same a charabanc came along just now. Reporters, I suppose,going to have a look at Sittaford House.”
“Did you know Captain Trevelyan well?” asked Emily.
She was of the opinion that the incident of the bull terrier had been amere subterfuge10 on Captain Wyatt’s part dictated11 by a very natural curios-ity. She was, she was well aware, the principal object of attention in Sitta-ford at present, and it was only natural that Captain Wyatt should wish tohave a look at her as well as everyone else.
“I don’t know about well,” said Captain Wyatt. “He sold me this cottage.”
“Yes,” said Emily encouragingly.
“A skinflint, that’s what he was,” said Captain Wyatt. “The arrangementwas that he was to do the place up to suit the purchaser’s taste, and justbecause I had the window sashes in chocolate picked out in lemon, hewanted me to pay half. Said the arrangement was for uniform colour.”
“You didn’t like him,” said Emily.
“I was always having rows with him,” said Captain Wyatt. “But I alwayshave rows with everyone,” he added as an afterthought. “In a place likethis you have to teach people to leave a man alone. Always knocking at thedoor and dropping in and chattering12. I don’t mind seeing people when Iam in the mood—but it has got to be my mood, not theirs. No good Trev-elyan giving me his Lord of the Manor13 airs and dropping in whenever hefelt like it. There’s not a soul in the place comes near me now,” he addedwith satisfaction.
“Oh!” said Emily.
“That’s the best of having a native servant,” said Captain Wyatt. “Theyunderstand orders. Abdul!” he roared.
A tall Indian in a turban came out of the cottage and waited attentively14.
“Come in and have something,” said Captain Wyatt. “And see my littlecottage.”
“I’m sorry,” said Emily, “but I have to hurry on.”
“Oh, no, you haven’t,” said Captain Wyatt.
“Yes, I have,” said Emily. “I’ve got an appointment.”
“Nobody understands the art of living nowadays,” said Captain Wyatt.
“Catching trains, making appointments, fixing times for everything—allnonsense. Get up with the sun, I say, have your meals when you feel likeit, and never tie yourself to a time or a date. I could teach people how tolive if they would listen to me.”
The results of this exalted15 way of living were not too hopeful, Emily re-flected. Anything more like a battered16 wreck17 of a man than Captain Wyattshe had never seen. However, feeling that his curiosity had been suffi-ciently satisfied for the time being, she insisted once more on her appoint-ment and went on her way.
Sittaford House had a solid oak front door, a neat bellpull, an immensewire mat, and a brilliantly polished brass18 letter box. It represented, asEmily could not fail to see, comfort and decorum. A neat and conventionalparlourmaid answered the bell.
Emily deduced the journalist evil had been before her as the parlour-maid said at once in a distant tone, “Mrs. Willett is not seeing anyone thismorning.”
“I have brought a note from Miss Percehouse,” said Emily.
This clearly altered matters. The parlourmaid’s face expressed inde-cision, then she shifted her ground.
“Will you come inside, please.”
Emily was ushered19 into what house agents describe as “a well-appointedhall,” and from there into a large drawing room. A fire was burningbrightly and there were traces of feminine occupation in the room. Someglass tulips, an elaborate workbag, a girl’s hat, and a Pierrot doll with verylong legs, were lying about. There were, she noticed, no photographs.
Having taken in all there was to see, Emily was warming her hands infront of the fire when the door opened and a girl about her own age camein. She was a very pretty girl, Emily noticed, smartly and expensivelydressed, and she also thought that she had never seen a girl in a greaterstate of nervous apprehension20. Not that this was apparent on the surface,however. Miss Willett was making a gallant21 appearance of being entirelyat her ease.
“Good morning,” she said advancing and shaking hands. “I’m so sorryMother isn’t down, but she’s spending the morning in bed.”
“Oh, I am sorry, I’m afraid I have come at an unfortunate time.”
“No, of course not. The cook is writing out the recipe for that cake now.
We are only too delighted for Miss Percehouse to have it. Are you stayingwith her?”
Emily reflected with an inward smile that this was perhaps the onlyhouse in Sittaford whose members were not exactly aware of who she wasand why she was there. Sittaford House had a definite regime of employ-ers and employed. The employed might know about her—the employersclearly did not.
“I am not exactly staying with her,” said Emily. “In fact, I’m at Mrs.
Curtis’s.”
“Of course the cottage is terribly small, and she has her nephew, Ronnie,with her, hasn’t she? I suppose there wouldn’t be room for you too. She’s awonderful person, isn’t she? So much character, I always think, but I amrather afraid of her really.”
“She’s a bully22, isn’t she?” agreed Emily cheerfully. “But it’s an awfultemptation to be a bully, especially if people won’t stand up to you.”
Miss Willett sighed.
“I wish I could stand up to people,” she said. “We’ve had the most awfulmorning absolutely pestered23 by reporters.”
“Oh, of course,” said Emily. “This is Captain Trevelyan’s house really,isn’t it?—the man who was murdered at Exhampton.”
She was trying to determine the exact cause of Violet Willett’s nervous-ness. The girl was clearly on the jump. Something was frightening her—and frightening her badly. She mentioned Captain Trevelyan’s namebluntly on purpose. The girl didn’t noticeably react to it in any way, butthen she was probably expecting some such reference.
“Yes, wasn’t it dreadful?”
“Do tell me—that’s if you don’t mind talking about it?”
“No—no—of course not—why should I?”
“There’s something very wrong with this girl,” thought Emily. “Shehardly knows what she’s saying. What has made her get the wind up thismorning particularly?”
“About that table-turning,” went on Emily. “I heard about it in a casualsort of way and it seemed to me so frightfully interesting—I mean so abso-lutely gruesome.”
“Girlish thrills,” she thought to herself, “that’s my line.”
“Oh, it was horrid24,” said Violet. “That evening—I shall never forget it!
We thought, of course, that it was somebody just fooling—only it seemed avery nasty kind of joke.”
“Yes?”
“I shall never forget when we turned the lights on—everybody looked soqueer. Not Mr. Duke and Major Burnaby—they are the stolid25 kind, theywould never like to admit that they were impressed by anything of thatkind. But you could see that Major Burnaby was really awfully26 rattled27 byit. I think that actually he believed in it more than anybody else. But Ithought poor little Mr. Rycroft was going to have a heart attack or some-thing, yet he must be used to that kind of thing because he does a lot ofpsychic research, and as for Ronnie, Ronnie Garfield you know—he lookedas though he had seen a ghost—actually seen one. Even Mother was aw-fully upset—more than I have ever seen her before.”
“It must have been most spooky,” said Emily. “I wish I had been there tosee.”
“It was rather horrid really. We all pretended that it was—just fun, youknow, but it didn’t seem like that. And then Major Burnaby suddenlymade up his mind to go over to Exhampton and we all tried to stop him,and said he would be buried in a snowdrift, but he would go. And therewe sat, after he had gone, all feeling dreadful and worried. And then, lastnight—no, yesterday morning, we got the news.”
“You think it was Captain Trevelyan’s spirit?” said Emily in an awedvoice. “Or do you think it was clairvoyance28 or telepathy?”
“Oh, I don’t know. But I shall never, never laugh at these things again.”
The parlourmaid entered with a folded piece of paper on a salver whichshe handed to Violet.
The parlourmaid withdrew and Violet unfolded the paper, glanced overit and handed it to Emily.
“There you are,” she said. “As a matter of fact you are just in time. Thismurder business has upset the servants. They think it’s dangerous to livein this out of the way part. Mother lost her temper with them yesterdayevening and has sent them all packing. They are going after lunch. We aregoing to get two men instead—a houseparlourman and a kind of butler-chauffeur. I think it will answer much better.”
“Servants are silly, aren’t they?” said Emily.
“It isn’t even as if Captain Trevelyan had been killed in this house.”
“What made you think of coming to live here?” asked Emily, trying tomake the question sound artless and girlishly natural.
“Oh, we thought it would be rather fun,” said Violet.
“Don’t you find it rather dull?”
“Oh, no, I love the country.”
But her eyes avoided Emily’s. Just for a moment she looked suspiciousand afraid.
She stirred uneasily in her chair and Emily rose rather reluctantly toher feet.
“I must be going now,” she said. “Thank you so much, Miss Willett. I dohope your mother will be all right.”
“Oh, she’s quite well really. It’s only the servants—and all the worry.”
“Of course.”
Adroitly29, unperceived by the other, Emily managed to discard her gloveson a small table. Violet Willett accompanied her to the front door and theytook leave of each other with a few pleasant remarks.
The parlourmaid who had opened the door to Emily had unlocked it, butas Violet Willett closed it behind her retreating guest Emily caught nosound of the key being turned. When she reached the gate, therefore, sheretraced her steps slowly.
Her visit had more than confirmed the theories she held about SittafordHouse. There was something queer going on here. She didn’t think VioletWillett was directly implicated—that is unless she was a very clever act-ress indeed. But there was something wrong, and that something musthave a connection with the tragedy. There must be some link between theWilletts and Captain Trevelyan, and in that link there might lie the clue tothe whole mystery.
She came up to the front door, turned the handle very gently and passedacross the threshold. The hall was deserted30. Emily paused, uncertain whatto do next. She had her excuse—the gloves left thoughtfully behind in thedrawing room. She stood stock-still listening. There was no sound any-where except a very faint murmur31 of voices from upstairs. As quietly aspossible Emily crept to the foot of the stairs and stood looking up. Then,very gingerly she ascended32 a step at a time. This was rather more risky33.
She could hardly pretend that her gloves had walked of their own accordto the first floor, but she had a burning desire to overhear something ofthe conversation that was going on upstairs. Modern builders never madetheir doors fit well, in Emily’s opinion. You could hear a murmur of voicesdown here. Therefore, if you reached the door itself you would hearplainly the conversation that was going on inside the room. Another step— one more again .?.?. Two women’s voices — Violet and her motherwithout doubt.
Suddenly there was a break in the conversation—a sound of a footstep.
Emily retreated rapidly.
When Violet Willett opened her mother’s door and came down the stairsshe was surprised to find her late guest standing34 in the hall peering abouther in a lost dog kind of way.
“My gloves,” she explained. “I must have left them. I came back forthem.”
“I expect they are in here,” said Violet.
They went into the drawing room and there, sure enough, on a littletable near where Emily had been sitting lay the missing gloves.
“Oh, thank you,” said Emily. “It’s so stupid of me. I am always leavingthings.”
“And you want gloves in this weather,” said Violet. “It’s so cold.” Onceagain they parted at the hall door, and this time Emily heard the key beingturned in the lock.
She went down the drive with plenty to think about, for, as that door onthe upper landing had opened, she had heard distinctly one sentencespoken in an older woman’s fretful and plaintive35 voice.
“My God,” the voice had wailed36, “I can’t bear it. Will tonight never come?”
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misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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crutch
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| n.T字形拐杖；支持，依靠，精神支柱 | |
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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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ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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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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refreshments
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| n.点心,便餐;(会议后的)简单茶点招 待 | |
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subterfuge
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| n.诡计；藉口 | |
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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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12
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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13
manor
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| n.庄园，领地 | |
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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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exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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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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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
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pestered
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| 使烦恼，纠缠( pester的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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clairvoyance
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| n.超人的洞察力 | |
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adroitly
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| adv.熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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risky
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| adj.有风险的，冒险的 | |
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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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plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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