Chapter 8 Mrs Griffin

‘I am so very pleased that you and your husband have come here to live,Mrs Beresford,’ said Mrs Griffin, as she poured out tea. ‘Sugar? Milk?’
She pressed forward a dish of sandwiches, and Tuppence helped her-self.
‘It makes so much difference, you know, in the country where one hasnice neighbours with whom one has something in common. Did you knowthis part of the world before?’
‘No,’ said Tuppence, ‘not at all. We had, you know, a good many differ-ent houses to go and view–particulars of them were sent to us by the es-tate agents. Of course, most of them were very often quite frightful¹. Onewas called Full of Old World Charm².’
‘I know,’ said Mrs Griffin, ‘I know exactly. Old world charm usuallymeans that you have to put a new roof on and that the damp is very bad.
And “thoroughly modernized”–well, one knows what that means. Lots ofgadgets one doesn’t want and usually a very bad view from the windowsof really hideous³ houses. But The Laurels⁴ is a charming house. I expect,though, you have had a good deal to do to it. Everyone has in turn.’
‘I suppose a lot of different people have lived there,’ said Tuppence.
‘Oh yes. Nobody seems to stay very long anywhere nowadays, do they?
The Cuthbertsons were here and the Redlands, and before that the Sey-mours. And after them the Joneses.’
‘We wondered a little why it was called The Laurels,’ said Tuppence.
‘Oh well, that was the kind of name people liked to give a house. Ofcourse, if you go back far enough, probably to the time of the Parkinsons, Ithink there were laurels. Probably a drive, you know, curling round and alot of laurels, including those speckled ones. I never liked speckledlaurels.’
‘No.’ said Tuppence, ‘I do agree with you. I don’t like them either. Thereseem to have been a lot of Parkinsons here,’ she added.
‘Oh yes. I think they occupied it longer than anyone else.’
‘Nobody seems able to tell one much about them.’
‘Well, it was a long time ago, you see, dear. And after the–well, I thinkafter the–the trouble you know, and there was some feeling about it and ofcourse one doesn’t wonder they sold the place.’

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