复仇女神42
时间：2026-01-29 07:35:08
（单词翻译:单击）
III
“She’ll be here presently,” said Mr. Broadribb to Mr. Schuster.
“Yes. The whole thing’s pretty extraordinary, isn’t it?”
“I couldn’t believe it at first,” said Broadribb. “You know, when poor old
Rafiel was dying, I thought this whole thing was—well, senility or some-
thing. Not that he was old enough for that.”
The buzzer went. Mr. Schuster picked up the phone.
“Oh, she’s here, is she? Bring her up,” he said. “She’s come,” he said. “I
wonder now. You know, it’s the oddest thing I ever heard in my life. Get-
ting an old lady to go racketing round the countryside looking for she
doesn’t know what. The police think, you know, that that woman commit-
ted not just one murder but three. Three! I ask you! Verity Hunt’s body
was under the mound in the garden, just as the old lady said it was. She
hadn’t been strangled and the face was not disfigured.”
“I wonder the old lady herself didn’t get done in,” said Mr. Broadribb.
“Far too old to be able to take care of herself.”
“She had a couple of detectives, apparently, looking after her.”
“What, two of them?”
“Yes, I didn’t know that.”
Miss Marple was ushered into their room.
“Congratulations, Miss Marple,” said Mr. Broadribb, rising to greet her.
“Very best wishes. Splendid job,” said Mr. Schuster, shaking hands.
Miss Marple sat down composedly on the other side of the desk.
“As I told you in my letter,” she said, “I think I have fulfilled the terms of
the proposition that was made to me. I have succeeded in what I was
asked to do.”
“Oh I know. Yes, we’ve heard already. We’ve heard from Professor Wan-
stead and from the legal department and from the police authorities. Yes,
it’s been a splendid job, Miss Marple. We congratulate you.”
“I was afraid,” said Miss Marple, “that I would not be able to do what
was required of me. It seemed so very difficult, almost impossible at first.”
“Yes indeed. It seems quite impossible to me. I don’t know how you did
it, Miss Marple.”
“Oh well,” said Miss Marple, “it’s just perseverance, isn’t it, that leads to
things.”
“Now about the sum of money we are holding. It’s at your disposal at
any time now. I don’t know whether you would like us to pay it into your
bank or whether you would like to consult us possibly as to the invest-
ment of it? It’s quite a large sum.”
“Twenty thousand pounds,” said Miss Marple. “Yes, it is a very large
sum by my way of thinking. Quite extraordinary,” she added.
“If you would like an introduction to our brokers, they could give you
possibly some ideas about investing.”
“Oh, I don’t want to invest any of it.”
“But surely it would be—”
“There’s no point in saving at my age,” said Miss Marple. “I mean the
point of this money—I’m sure Mr. Rafiel meant it that way—is to enjoy a
few things that one thought one never would have the money to enjoy.”
“Well, I see your point of view,” said Mr. Broadribb. “Then your instruc-
tions would be that we pay this sum of money into your bank?”
“Middleton’s Bank, 132 High Street, St. Mary Mead,” said Miss Marple.
“You have a deposit account, I expect. We will place it to your deposit
account?”
“Certainly not,” said Miss Marple. “Put it into my current account.”
“You don’t think—”
“I do think,” said Miss Marple. “I want it in my current account.”
She got up and shook hands.
“You could ask your bank manager’s advice, you know, Miss Marple. It
really is—one never knows when one wants something for a rainy day.”
“The only thing I shall want for a rainy day will be my umbrella,” said
Miss Marple.
She shook hands with them both again.
“Thank you so much, Mr. Broadribb. And you too, Mr. Schuster. You’ve
been so kind to me, giving me all the information I needed.”
“You really want that money put into your current account?”
“Yes,” said Miss Marple. “I’m going to spend it, you know. I’m going to
have some fun with it.”
She looked back from the door and she laughed. Just for one moment
Mr. Schuster, who was a man of more imagination than Mr. Broadribb,
had a vague impression of a young and pretty girl shaking hands with the
vicar at a garden party in the country. It was, as he realized a moment
later, a recollection of his own youth. But Miss Marple had, for a minute,
reminded him of that particular girl, young, happy, going to enjoy herself.
“Mr. Rafiel would have liked me to have fun,” said Miss Marple.
She went out of the door.
“Nemesis,” said Mr. Broadribb. “That’s what Rafiel called her. Nemesis.
Never seen anybody less like Nemesis, have you?”
Mr. Schuster shook his head.
“It must have been another of Mr. Rafiel’s little jokes,” said Mr.
Broadribb.
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