破镜谋杀案5

时间：2025-10-20 07:48:16

（单词翻译:单击）

Three
I
“I’m glad to be back,” said Mrs. Bantry. “Although, of course, I’ve had a
wonderful time.”
Miss Marple nodded appreciatively, and accepted a cup of tea from her
friend’s hand.
When her husband, Colonel Bantry, had died some years ago, Mrs.
Bantry had sold Gossington Hall and the considerable amount of land at-
tached to it, retaining for herself what had been the East Lodge1, a charm-
ing porticoed little building replete2 with inconvenience, where even a
gardener had refused to live. Mrs. Bantry had added to it the essentials of
modern life, a built-on kitchen of the latest type, a new water supply from
the main, electricity, and a bathroom. This had all cost her a great deal,
but not nearly so much as an attempt to live at Gossington Hall would
have done. She had also retained the essentials of privacy, about three
quarters of an acre of garden nicely ringed with trees, so that, as she ex-
plained. “Whatever they do with Gossington I shan’t really see it or
worry.”
For the last few years she had spent a good deal of the year travelling
about, visiting children and grandchildren in various parts of the globe,
and coming back from time to time to enjoy the privacies of her own
home. Gossington Hall itself had changed hands once or twice. It had been
run as a guest house, failed, and been bought by four people who had
shared it as four roughly divided flats and subsequently quarrelled. Fi-
nally the Ministry3 of Health had bought it for some obscure purpose for
which they eventually did not want it. The Ministry had now resold it—
and it was this sale which the two friends were discussing.
“I have heard rumours4, of course,” said Miss Marple.
“Naturally,” said Mrs. Bantry. “It was even said that Charlie Chaplin and
all his children were coming to live here. That would have been wonder-
ful fun; unfortunately there isn’t a word of truth in it. No, it’s definitely
Marina Gregg.”
“How very lovely she was,” said Miss Marple with a sigh. “I always re-
member those early films of hers. Bird of Passage with that handsome Joel
Roberts. And the Mary, Queen of Scots film. And of course it was very sen-
timental, but I did enjoy Comin’ thru the Rye. Oh dear, that was a long time
ago.”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Bantry. “She must be—what do you think? Forty-five?
Fifty?”
Miss Marple thought nearer fifty.
“Has she been in anything lately? Of course I don’t go very often to the
cinema nowadays.”
“Only small parts, I think,” said Mrs. Bantry. “She hasn’t been a star for
quite a long time. She had that bad nervous breakdown5. After one of her
divorces.”
“Such a lot of husbands they all have,” said Miss Marple. “It must really
be quite tiring.”
“It wouldn’t suit me,” said Mrs. Bantry. “After you’ve fallen in love with
a man and married him and got used to his ways and settled down com-
fortably—to go and throw it all up and start again! It seems to me mad-
ness.”
“I can’t presume to speak,” said Miss Marple with a little spin-sterish
cough, “never having married. But it seems, you know, a pity.”
“I suppose they can’t help it really,” said Mrs. Bantry vaguely6. “With the
kind of lives they have to live. So public, you know. I met her,” she added.
“Marina Gregg, I mean, when I was in California.”
“What was she like?” Miss Marple asked with interest.
“Charming,” said Mrs. Bantry. “So natural and unspoiled.” She added
thoughtfully, “It’s like a kind of livery really.”
“What is?”
“Being unspoiled and natural. You learn how to do it, and then you have
to go on being it all the time. Just think of the hell of it—never to be able to
chuck something, and say, ‘Oh, for the Lord’s sake stop bothering me.’ I
dare say that in sheer self-defence you have to have drunken parties or or-
gies.”
“She’s had five husbands, hasn’t she?” Miss Marple asked.
“At least. An early one that didn’t count, and then a foreign Prince or
Count, and then another film star, Robert Truscott, wasn’t it? That was
built up as a great romance. But it only lasted four years. And then Isidore
Wright, the playwright7. That was rather serious and quiet, and she had a
baby—apparently she’d always longed to have a child—she’s even half-ad-
opted8 a few strays—anyway this was the real thing. Very much built up.
Motherhood with a capital M. And then, I believe, it was an imbecile, or
queer or something—and it was after that, that she had this breakdown
and started to take drugs and all that, and threw up her parts.”
“You seem to know a lot about her,” said Miss Marple.
“Well, naturally,” said Mrs. Bantry. “When she bought Gossington I was
interested. She married the present man about two years ago, and they
say she’s quite all right again now. He’s a producer—or do I mean a direc-
tor? I always get mixed. He was in love with her when they were quite
young, but he didn’t amount to very much in those days. But now, I be-
lieve, he’s got quite famous. What’s his name now? Jason—Jason some-
thing—Jason Hudd, no Rudd, that’s it. They’ve bought Gossington because
it’s handy for”—she hesitated—“Elstree?” she hazarded.
Miss Marple shook her head.
“I don’t think so,” she said. “Elstree’s in North London.”
“It’s the fairly new studios. Hellingforth—that’s it. Sounds so Finnish, I
always think. About six miles from Market Basing. She’s going to do a film
on Elizabeth of Austria, I believe.”
“What a lot you know,” said Miss Marple. “About the private lives of film
stars. Did you learn it all in California?”
“Not really,” said Mrs. Bantry. “Actually I get it from the extraordinary
magazines I read at my hairdresser’s. Most of the stars I don’t even know
by name, but as I said because Marina Gregg and her husband have
bought Gossington, I was interested. Really the things those magazines
say! I don’t suppose half of it is true—probably not a quarter. I don’t be-
lieve Marina Gregg is a nymphomaniac, I don’t think she drinks, pobably
she doesn’t even take drugs, and quite likely she just went away to have a
nice rest and didn’t have a nervous breakdown at all!—but it’s true that
she is coming here to live.”
“Next week, I heard,” said Miss Marple.
“As soon as that? I know she’s lending Gossington for a big fête on the
twenty-third in aid of the St. John Ambulance Corps9. I suppose they’ve
done a lot to the house?”
“Practically everything,” said Miss Marple. “Really it would have been
much simpler, and probably cheaper, to have pulled it down and built a
new house.”
“Bathrooms, I suppose?”
“Six new ones, I hear. And a palm court. And a pool. And what I believe
they call picture windows, and they’ve knocked your husband’s study and
the library into one to make a music room.”
“Arthur will turn in his grave. You know how he hated music. Tone
deaf, poor dear. His face, when some kind friend took us to the opera!
He’ll probably come back and haunt them.” She stopped and then said ab-
ruptly, “Does anyone ever hint that Gossington might be haunted?”
Miss Marple shook her head.
“It isn’t,” she said with certainty.
“That wouldn’t prevent people saying it was,” Mrs. Bantry pointed10 out.
“Nobody ever has said so.” Miss Marple paused and then said, “People
aren’t really foolish, you know. Not in villages.”
Mrs. Bantry shot her a quick look. “You’ve always stuck to that, Jane.
And I won’t say that you’re not right.”
She suddenly smiled.
“Marina Gregg asked me, very sweetly and delicately, if I wouldn’t find
it very painful to see my old home occupied by strangers. I assured her
that it wouldn’t hurt me at all. I don’t think she quite believed me. But
after all, as you know, Jane, Gossington wasn’t our home. We weren’t
brought up there as children — that’s what really counts. It was just a
house with a nice bit of shooting and fishing attached, that we bought
when Arthur retired11. We thought of it, I remember, as a house that would
be nice and easy to run! How we can ever have thought that, I can’t ima-
gine! All those staircases and passages. Only four servants! Only! Those
were the days, ha ha!” She added suddenly: “What’s all this about your
falling down? That Knight12 woman ought not to let you go out by yourself.”
“It wasn’t poor Miss Knight’s fault. I gave her a lot of shopping to do and
then I—”
“Deliberately gave her the slip? I see. Well, you shouldn’t do it, Jane. Not
at your age.”
“How did you hear about it?”
Mrs. Bantry grinned.
“You can’t keep any secrets in St. Mary Mead13. You’ve often told me so.
Mrs. Meavy told me.”
“Mrs. Meavy?” Miss Marple looked at sea.
“She comes in daily. She’s from the Development.”
“Oh, the Development.” The usual pause happened.
“What were you doing in the Development?” asked Mrs. Bantry, curi-
ously.
“I just wanted to see it. To see what the people were like.”
“And what did you think they were like?”
“Just the same as everyone else. I don’t quite know if that was disap-
pointing or reassuring14.”
“Disappointing, I should think.”
“No. I think it’s reassuring. It makes you—well—recognize certain types
—so that when anything occurs—one will understand quite well why and
for what reason.”
“Murder, do you mean?”
Miss Marple looked shocked.
“I don’t know why you should assume that I think of murder all the
time.”
“Nonsense, Jane. Why don’t you come out boldly and call yourself a
criminologist and have done with it?”
“Because I am nothing of the sort,” said Miss Marple with spirit. “It is
simply that I have a certain knowledge of human nature—that is only nat-
ural after having lived in a small village all my life.”
“You probably have something there,” said Mrs. Bantry thoughtfully,
“though most people wouldn’t agree, of course. Your nephew Raymond al-
ways used to say this place was a complete backwater.”
“Dear Raymond,” said Miss Marple indulgently. She added: “He’s always
been so kind. He’s paying for Miss Knight, you know.”
The thought of Miss Knight induced a new train of thought and she
arose and said: “I’d better be going back now, I suppose.”
“You didn’t walk all the way here, did you?”
“Of course not. I came in Inch.”
This somewhat enigmatic pronouncement was received with complete
understanding. In days very long past, Mr. Inch had been the proprietor15 of
two cabs, which met trains at the local station and which were also hired
by the local ladies to take them “calling,” out to tea parties, and occasion-
ally, with their daughters, to such frivolous16 entertainments as dances. In
the fulness of time Inch, a cheery red- faced man of seventy odd, gave
place to his son—known as “young Inch” (he was then aged17 forty-five)
though old Inch still continued to drive such elderly ladies as considered
his son too young and irresponsible. To keep up with the times, young
Inch abandoned horse vehicles for motor cars. He was not very good with
machinery18 and in due course a certain Mr. Bardwell took over from him.
The name Inch persisted. Mr. Bardwell in due course sold out to Mr.
Roberts, but in the telephone book Inch’s Taxi Service was still the official
name, and the older ladies of the community continued to refer to their
journeys as going somewhere “in Inch,” as though they were Jonah and
Inch was a whale.

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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 lodge q8nzj     
v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆
参考例句：
  • Is there anywhere that I can lodge in the village tonight?村里有我今晚过夜的地方吗？
  • I shall lodge at the inn for two nights.我要在这家小店住两个晚上。
2 replete BBBzd     
adj.饱满的，塞满的；n.贮蜜蚁
参考例句：
  • He was replete with food and drink.他吃喝得饱饱的。
  • This immense space may be replete with happiness and glory.这巨大的空间可能充满了幸福和光荣。
3 ministry kD5x2     
n.(政府的)部；牧师
参考例句：
  • They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
  • We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。
4 rumours ba6e2decd2e28dec9a80f28cb99e131d     
n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传
参考例句：
  • The rumours were completely baseless. 那些谣传毫无根据。
  • Rumours of job losses were later confirmed. 裁员的传言后来得到了证实。
5 breakdown cS0yx     
n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌
参考例句：
  • She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
  • The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。
6 vaguely BfuzOy     
adv.含糊地，暖昧地
参考例句：
  • He had talked vaguely of going to work abroad.他含糊其词地说了到国外工作的事。
  • He looked vaguely before him with unseeing eyes.他迷迷糊糊的望着前面，对一切都视而不见。
7 playwright 8Ouxo     
n.剧作家，编写剧本的人
参考例句：
  • Gwyn Thomas was a famous playwright.格温·托马斯是著名的剧作家。
  • The playwright was slaughtered by the press.这位剧作家受到新闻界的无情批判。
8 opted 9ec34da056d6601471a0808ebc89b126     
v.选择，挑选( opt的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句：
  • She was co-opted onto the board. 她获增选为董事会成员。
  • After graduating she opted for a career in music. 毕业后她选择了从事音乐工作。
9 corps pzzxv     
n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组
参考例句：
  • The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
  • When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。
10 pointed Il8zB4     
adj.尖的，直截了当的
参考例句：
  • He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
  • She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。
11 retired Njhzyv     
adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的
参考例句：
  • The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
  • Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。
12 knight W2Hxk     
n.骑士，武士；爵士
参考例句：
  • He was made an honourary knight.他被授予荣誉爵士称号。
  • A knight rode on his richly caparisoned steed.一个骑士骑在装饰华丽的马上。
13 mead BotzAK     
n.蜂蜜酒
参考例句：
  • He gave me a cup of mead.他给我倒了杯蜂蜜酒。
  • He drank some mead at supper.晚饭时他喝了一些蜂蜜酒。
14 reassuring vkbzHi     
a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的
参考例句：
  • He gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. 他轻拍了一下她的肩膀让她放心。
  • With a reassuring pat on her arm, he left. 他鼓励地拍了拍她的手臂就离开了。
15 proprietor zR2x5     
n.所有人；业主；经营者
参考例句：
  • The proprietor was an old acquaintance of his.业主是他的一位旧相识。
  • The proprietor of the corner grocery was a strange thing in my life.拐角杂货店店主是我生活中的一个怪物。
16 frivolous YfWzi     
adj.轻薄的；轻率的
参考例句：
  • This is a frivolous way of attacking the problem.这是一种轻率敷衍的处理问题的方式。
  • He spent a lot of his money on frivolous things.他在一些无聊的事上花了好多钱。
17 aged 6zWzdI     
adj.年老的，陈年的
参考例句：
  • He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
  • He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。
18 machinery CAdxb     
n.(总称)机械，机器；机构
参考例句：
  • Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗？
  • Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。

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