Epilogue
“I think Grandam will be quite all right with Aunt Mildred,” said Gina. “Aunt Mildred seems much nicer now—notso peculiar¹, if you know what I mean?”
“I know what you mean,” said Miss Marple.
“So Wally and I will go back to the States in a fortnight’s time.”
Gina cast a look sideways at her husband.
“I shall forget all about Stonygates and Italy and all my girlish past and become a hundred percent American. Ourson will be always addressed as Junior. I can’t say fairer than that, can I, Wally?”
“You certainly cannot, Kate,” said Miss Marple.
Wally, smiling indulgently at an old lady who got names wrong, corrected her gently:
“Gina, not Kate.”
But Gina laughed.
“She knows what she’s saying! You see—she’ll call you Petruchio in a moment!”
“I just think,” said Miss Marple to Walter, “that you have acted very wisely, my dear boy.”
“She thinks you’re just the right husband for me,” said Gina.
Miss Marple looked from one to the other. It was very nice, she thought, to see two young people so much in love,and Walter Hudd was completely transformed from the sulky young man she had first encountered, into a good-humoured smiling giant….
“You two remind me,” she said, “of—”
Gina rushed forward and placed a hand firmly over Miss Marple’s mouth.
“No, darling,” she exclaimed. “Don’t say it. I’m suspicious of these village parallels. They’ve always got a sting inthe tail. You really are a wicked old woman, you know.”
Her eyes went misty².
“When I think of you, and Aunt Ruth and Grandam all being young together … how I wonder what you were alllike! I can’t imagine it somehow….”
“I don’t suppose you can,” said Miss Marple. “It was all a long time ago….”

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