Moving house is often thought of beforehand as an agreeable exercisewhich the movers are going to enjoy, but it does not always turn out as ex-pected.
Relations have to be reopened or adjusted with electricians, with build-ers, with carpenters, with painters, with wall-paperers, with providers ofrefrigerators, gas stoves, electric appliances, with upholsterers, makers1 ofcurtains, hangers-up of curtains, those who lay linoleum2, those who sup-ply carpets. Every day has not only its appointed task but usually some-thing between four and twelve extra callers, either long expected or thosewhose coming was quite forgotten.
But there were moments when Tuppence with sighs of relief announcedvarious finalities in different fields.
‘I really think our kitchen is almost perfect by now,’ she said. ‘Only Ican’t find the proper kind of flour bin3 yet.’
‘Oh,’ said Tommy, ‘does it matter very much?’
‘Well, it does rather. I mean, you buy flour very often in three-poundbags and it won’t go into these kinds of containers. They’re all so dainty.
You know, one has a pretty rose on it and the other’s got a sunflower andthey’ll not take more than a pound. It’s all so silly.’
At intervals4, Tuppence made other suggestions.
‘The Laurels5,’ she said. ‘Silly name for a house, I think. I don’t see whyit’s called The Laurels. It hasn’t got any laurels. They could have called itThe Plane Trees much better. Plane trees are very nice,’ said Tuppence.
‘Before The Laurels it was called Long Scofield, so they told me,’ saidTommy.
‘That name doesn’t seem to mean anything either,’ said Tuppence.
‘What is a Scofield, and who lived in it then?’
‘I think it was the Waddingtons.’
‘One gets so mixed,’ said Tuppence. ‘Waddingtons and then the Joneses,the people who sold it to us. And before that the Blackmores? And once, Isuppose the Parkinsons. Lots of Parkinsons. I’m always running into moreParkinsons.’
‘What way do you mean?’
‘Well, I suppose it’s that I’m always asking,’ said Tuppence. ‘I mean, if Icould find out something about the Parkinsons, we could get on with our–well, with our problem.’
‘That’s what one always seems to call everything nowadays. The prob-lem of Mary Jordan, is that it?’
‘Well, it’s not just that. There’s the problem of the Parkinsons and theproblem of Mary Jordan and there must be a lot of other problems too.
Mary Jordan didn’t die naturally, then the next thing the message saidwas, “It was one of us.” Now did that mean one of the Parkinson family ordid it mean just someone who lived in the house? Say there were two orthree Parkinsons, and some older Parkinsons, and people with differentnames but who were aunts to the Parkinsons or nephews and nieces to theParkinsons, and I suppose something like a housemaid and a parlour maidand a cook and perhaps a governess and perhaps–well, not an au pair girl,it would be too long ago for an au pair girl–but “one of us” must mean ahouse-holdful. Households were fuller then than they are now. Well, MaryJordan could have been a housemaid or a parlour maid or even the cook.
And why should someone want her to die, and not die naturally? I mean,somebody must have wanted her to die or else her death would have beennatural, wouldn’t it?–I’m going to another coffee morning the day after to-morrow,’ said Tuppence.
‘You seem to be always going to coffee mornings.’
‘Well, it’s a very good way of getting to know one’s neighbours and allthe people who live in the same village. After all, it’s not very big, this vil-lage. And people are always talking about their old aunts or people theyknew. I shall try and start on Mrs Griffin, who was evidently a great char-acter in the neighbourhood. I should say she ruled everyone with a rod ofiron. You know. She bullied6 the vicar and she bullied the doctor and Ithink she bullied the district nurse and all the rest of it.’
‘Wouldn’t the district nurse be helpful?’
‘I don’t think so. She’s dead. I mean, the one who would have been herein the Parkinsons’ time is dead, and the one who is here now hasn’t beenhere very long. No sort of interest in the place. I don’t think she even knewa Parkinson.’
‘I wish,’ said Tommy desperately7, ‘oh, how I wish that we could forget allthe Parkinsons.’
‘You mean, then we shouldn’t have a problem?’
‘Oh dear,’ said Tommy. ‘Problems again.’
‘It’s Beatrice,’ said Tuppence.
‘What’s Beatrice?’
‘Who introduced problems. Really, it’s Elizabeth. The cleaning help wehad before Beatrice. She was always coming to me and saying, “Ohmadam, could I speak to you a minute? You see, I’ve got a problem,” andthen Beatrice began coming on Thursdays and she must have caught it, Isuppose. So she had problems too. It’s just a way of saying something–butyou always call it a problem.’
‘All right,’ said Tommy. ‘We’ll admit that’s so. You’ve got a problem–I’vegot a problem–We’ve both got problems.’
He sighed, and departed.
Tuppence came down the stairs slowly, shaking her head. Hannibalcame up to her hopefully, wagging his tail and wriggling8 in hopes of fa-vours to come.
‘No, Hannibal,’ said Tuppence. ‘You’ve had a walk. You’ve had yourmorning walk.’
Hannibal intimated that she was quite mistaken, he hadn’t had a walk.
‘You are one of the worst liars9 among dogs I have ever known,’ said Tup-pence. ‘You’ve been for a walk with Father.’
Hannibal made his second attempt, which was to endeavour to show byvarious attitudes that any dog would have a second walk if only he had anowner who could see things in that light. Disappointed in this effort, hewent down the stairs and proceeded to bark loudly and make every pre-tence of being about to make a sharp snap bite at a tousled-haired girlwho was wielding10 a Hoover. He did not like the Hoover, and he objected toTuppence having a lengthy11 conversation with Beatrice.
‘Oh, don’t let him bite me,’ said Beatrice.
‘He won’t bite you,’ said Tuppence. ‘He only pretends he’s going to.’
‘Well, I think he’ll really do it one day,’ said Beatrice. ‘By the way,madam, I wonder if I could speak to you for a moment.’
‘Oh,’ said Tuppence. ‘You mean–’
‘Well, you see, madam, I’ve got a problem.’
‘I thought that was it,’ said Tuppence. ‘What sort of problem is it? And,by the way, do you know any family here or anyone who lived here at onetime called Jordan?’
‘Jordan now. Well, I can’t really say. There was the Johnsons, of course,and there was–ah yes, one of the constables12 was a Johnson. And so wasone of the postmen. George Johnson. He was a friend of mine.’ Shegiggled.
‘You never heard of a Mary Jordan who died?’
Beatrice merely looked bewildered–and she shook her head and wentback to the assault.
‘About this problem, madam?’
‘Oh yes, your problem.’
‘I hope you don’t mind my asking you, madam, but it’s put me in a queerposition, you see, and I don’t like–’
‘Well, if you can tell me quickly,’ said Tuppence. ‘I’ve got to go out to acoffee morning.’
‘Oh yes. At Mrs Barber’s isn’t it?’
‘That’s right,’ said Tuppence. ‘Now what’s the problem?’
‘Well, it’s a coat. Ever such a nice coat it was. At Simmonds it was, and Iwent in and tried it on and it seemed to me very nice, it did. Well, therewas one little spot on the skirt, you know, just round near the hem13 butthat didn’t seem to me would matter much. Anyway, well, it–er–’
‘Yes,’ said Tuppence, ‘it what?’
‘It made me see why it was so inexpensive, you see. So I got it. And sothat was all right. But when I got home I found there was a label on it andinstead of saying ?3.70 it was labelled ?6. Well, ma’am, I didn’t like to dothat, so I didn’t know what to do. I went back to the shop and I took thecoat with me–I thought I’d better take it back and explain, you see, that Ihadn’t meant to take it away like that and then you see the girl who sold itto me–very nice girl she is, her name is Gladys, yes, I don’t know what herother name is–but anyway she was ever so upset, she was, and I said,“Well, that’s all right, I’ll pay extra,” and she said, “No, you can’t do thatbecause it’s all entered up.” You see–you do see what I mean?’
‘Yes, I think I see what you mean,’ said Tuppence.
‘And so she said, “Oh you can’t do that, it will get me into trouble.”’
‘Why should it get her into trouble?’
‘Well, that’s what I felt. I mean to say, well, I mean it’d been sold to mefor less and I’d brought it back and I didn’t see why it could put her introuble. She said if there was any carelessness like that and they hadn’tnoticed the right ticket and they’d charged me the wrong price, as likely asnot she’d get the sack for it.’
‘Oh, I shouldn’t think that would happen,’ said Tuppence. ‘I think youwere quite right. I don’t see what else you could do.’
‘Well, but there it is, you see. She made such a fuss and she was begin-ning to cry and everything, so I took the coat away again and now I don’tknow whether I’ve cheated the shop or whether–I don’t really know whatto do.’
‘Well,’ said Tuppence, ‘I really think I’m too old to know what one oughtto do nowadays because everything is so odd in shops. The prices are oddand everything is difficult. But if I were you and you want to pay some-thing extra, well perhaps you’d better give the money to what’s-her-name–Gladys something. She can put the money in the till or somewhere.’
‘Oh well, I don’t know as I’d like to do that because she might keep it,you see. I mean, if she kept the money, oh well, I mean it wouldn’t be diffi-cult would it, because I suppose I’ve stolen the money and I wouldn’t havestolen it really. I mean then it would have been Gladys who stole it,wouldn’t it, and I don’t know that I trust her all that much. Oh dear.’
‘Yes,’ said Tuppence, ‘life is very difficult, isn’t it? I’m terribly sorry, Be-atrice, but I really think you’ve got to make up your own mind about this.
If you can’t trust your friend–’
‘Oh, she’s not exactly a friend. I only buy things there. And she’s ever sonice to talk to. But I mean, well, she’s not exactly a friend, you know. Ithink she had a little trouble once before the last place she was in. Youknow, they said she kept back money on something she’d sold.’
‘Well in that case,’ said Tuppence, in slight desperation, ‘I shouldn’t doanything.’
The firmness of her tone was such that Hannibal came into the consulta-tion. He barked loudly at Beatrice and took a running leap at the Hooverwhich he considered one of his principal enemies. ‘I don’t trust thatHoover,’ said Hannibal. ‘I’d like to bite it up.’
‘Oh, be quiet, Hannibal. Stop barking. Don’t bite anything or anyone,’
said Tuppence. ‘I’m going to be awfully14 late.’
She rushed out of the house.
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收听单词发音
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1
makers
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| n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式） | |
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2
linoleum
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| n.油布，油毯 | |
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3
bin
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| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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4
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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5
laurels
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| n.桂冠，荣誉 | |
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6
bullied
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| adj.被欺负了v.恐吓，威逼( bully的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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8
wriggling
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的现在分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）；蠕蠕 | |
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9
liars
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| 说谎者( liar的名词复数 ) | |
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10
wielding
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| 手持着使用（武器、工具等）( wield的现在分词 )； 具有； 运用（权力）； 施加（影响） | |
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11
lengthy
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| adj.漫长的，冗长的 | |
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12
constables
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| n.警察( constable的名词复数 ) | |
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13
hem
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| n.贴边，镶边；vt.缝贴边；(in)包围，限制 | |
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14
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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