Nineteen
GOOD-BYES ARE SAID
T he coach was drawn¹ up in front of the Golden Boar on the following morning. Miss Marple had come down andwas saying good-bye to various friends. She found Mrs. Riseley-Porter in a state of high indignation.
“Really, girls nowadays,” she said. “No vigour². No stamina³.”
Miss Marple looked at her enquiringly.
“Joanna, I mean. My niece.”
“Oh dear. Is she not well?”
“Well, she says not. I can’t see anything much the matter with her. She says she’s got a sore throat, she feels shemight have a temperature coming on. All nonsense, I think.”
“Oh, I’m very sorry,” said Miss Marple. “Is there anything I can do? Look after her?”
“I should leave her alone, if I were you,” said Mrs. Riseley-Porter. “If you ask me, it’s all an excuse.”
Miss Marple looked enquiringly at her once more.
“Girls are so silly. Always falling in love.”
“Emlyn Price?” said Miss Marple.
“Oh, so you’ve noticed it too. Yes, they’re really getting to a stage of spooning about together. I don’t much carefor him anyway. One of these long-haired students, you know. Always going on demos or something like that. Whycan’t they say demonstration⁴ properly? I hate abbreviations. And how am I going to get along? Nobody to look afterme, collect my luggage, take it in, take it out. Really. I’m paying for this complete trip and everything.”
“I thought she seemed so attentive⁵ to you,” said Miss Marple.
“Well, not the last day or two. Girls don’t understand that people have to have a little assistance when they get tomiddle age. They seem to have some absurd idea—she and the Price boy—of going to visit some mountain or somelandmark. About a seven or eight mile walk there and back.”
“But surely if she has a sore throat and a temperature….”
“You’ll see, as soon as the coach is gone the sore throat will get better and the temperature will go down,” saidMrs. Riseley-Porter. “Oh dear, we’ve got to get on board now. Oh, good-bye, Miss Marple, it’s nice to have met you.

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