赫尔克里·波洛的丰功伟绩12

时间：2024-12-31 10:19:10

（单词翻译:单击）

III
Nibbling1 delicately at a scone2 and balancing a cup of tea on his knee, Hercule Poirot allowed
himself to become confidential3 with his hostess. Miss Leatheran had been kind enough to ask him
to tea and had thereupon made it her business to find out exactly what this exotic little foreigner
was doing in their midst.
For some time he parried her thrusts with dexterity—thereby whetting4 her appetite. Then,
when he judged the moment ripe, he leant forward:
“Ah, Miss Leatheran,” he said. “I can see that you are too clever for me! You have guessed
my secret. I am down here at the request of the Home Office. But please,” he lowered his voice,
“keep this information to yourself.”
“Of course—of course—” Miss Leatheran was flustered—thrilled to the core. “The Home
Office—you don’t mean—not poor Mrs. Oldfield?”
Poirot nodded his head slowly several times.
“We-ell!” Miss Leatheran breathed into that one word a whole gamut5 of pleasurable emotion.
Poirot said:
“It is a delicate matter, you understand. I have been ordered to report whether there is or is
not a sufficient case for exhumation6.”
Miss Leatheran exclaimed:
“You are going to dig the poor thing up. How terrible!”
If she had said “how splendid” instead of “how terrible” the words would have suited her
tone of voice better.
“What is your own opinion, Miss Leatheran?”
“Well, of course, M. Poirot, there has been a lot of talk. But I never listen to talk. There is
always so much unreliable gossip going about. There is no doubt that Doctor Oldfield has been
very odd in his manner ever since it happened, but as I have said repeatedly we surely need not put
that down to a guilty conscience. It might be just grief. Not, of course, that he and his wife were on
really affectionate terms. That I do know—on first-hand authority. Nurse Harrison, who was with
Mrs. Oldfield for three or four years up to the time of her death, has admitted that much. And I
have always felt, you know, that Nurse Harrison had her suspicions—not that she ever said
anything, but one can tell, can’t one, from a person’s manner?”
Poirot said sadly:
“One has so little to go upon.”
“Yes, I know, but of course, M. Poirot, if the body is exhumed7 then you will know.”
“Yes,” said Poirot, “then we will know.”
“There have been cases like it before, of course,” said Miss Leatheran, her nose twitching8
with pleasurable excitement. “Armstrong, for instance, and that other man—I can’t remember his
name—and then Crippen, of course. I’ve always wondered if Ethel Le Neve was in it with him or
not. Of course, Jean Moncrieffe is a very nice girl, I’m sure . . . I wouldn’t like to say she led him
on exactly—but men do get rather silly about girls, don’t they? And, of course, they were thrown
very much together!”
Poirot did not speak. He looked at her with an innocent expression of inquiry9 calculated to
produce a further spate10 of conversation. Inwardly he amused himself by counting the number of
times the words “of course” occurred.
“And, of course, with a postmortem and all that, so much would be bound to come out,
wouldn’t it? Servants and all that. Servants always know so much, don’t they? And, of course, it’s
quite impossible to keep them from gossiping, isn’t it? The Oldfields’ Beatrice was dismissed
almost immediately after the funeral—and I’ve always thought that was odd—especially with the
difficulty of getting maids nowadays. It looks as though Dr. Oldfield was afraid she might know
something.”
“It certainly seems as though there were grounds for an inquiry,” said Poirot solemnly.
Miss Leatheran gave a little shiver of reluctance11.
“One does so shrink from the idea,” she said. “Our dear quiet little village—dragged into the
newspapers—all the publicity12!”
“It appals13 you?” asked Poirot.
“It does a little. I’m old-fashioned, you know.”
“And, as you say, it is probably nothing but gossip!”
“Well—I wouldn’t like conscientiously14 to say that. You know, I do think it’s so true—the
saying that there’s no smoke without fire.”
“I myself was thinking exactly the same thing,” said Poirot.
He rose.
“I can trust your discretion15, Mademoiselle?”
“Oh, of course! I shall not say a word to anybody.”
Poirot smiled and took his leave.
On the doorstep he said to the little maid who handed him his hat and coat:
“I am down here to inquire into the circumstances of Mrs. Oldfield’s death, but I shall be
obliged if you will keep that strictly16 to yourself.”
Miss Leatheran’s Gladys nearly fell backward into the umbrella stand. She breathed
excitedly:
“Oh, sir, then the doctor did do her in?”
“You’ve thought so for some time, haven’t you?”
“Well, sir, it wasn’t me. It was Beatrice. She was up there when Mrs. Oldfield died.”
“And she thought there had been”—Poirot selected the melodramatic words deliberately—“
‘foul play?’ ”
Gladys nodded excitedly.
“Yes, she did. And she said so did Nurse that was up there, Nurse Harrison. Ever so fond of
Mrs. Oldfield Nurse was, and ever so distressed17 when she died, and Beatrice always said as how
Nurse Harrison knew something about it because she turned right round against the doctor
afterwards and she wouldn’t of done that unless there was something wrong, would she?”
“Where is Nurse Harrison now?”
“She looks after old Miss Bristow—down at the end of the village. You can’t miss it. It’s got
pillars and a porch.”

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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 nibbling 610754a55335f7412ddcddaf447d7d54     
v.啃，一点一点地咬（吃）( nibble的现在分词 )；啃出（洞），一点一点咬出（洞）；慢慢减少；小口咬
参考例句：
  • We sat drinking wine and nibbling olives. 我们坐在那儿，喝着葡萄酒嚼着橄榄。
  • He was nibbling on the apple. 他在啃苹果。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
2 scone chbyg     
n.圆饼，甜饼，司康饼
参考例句：
  • She eats scone every morning.她每天早上都吃甜饼。
  • Scone is said to be origined from Scotland.司康饼据说来源于苏格兰。
3 confidential MOKzA     
adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的
参考例句：
  • He refused to allow his secretary to handle confidential letters.他不让秘书处理机密文件。
  • We have a confidential exchange of views.我们推心置腹地交换意见。
4 whetting f6a66a8dcf99bf5eef3a41a09e9f6c3b     
v.（在石头上）磨（刀、斧等）( whet的现在分词 )；引起，刺激（食欲、欲望、兴趣等）
参考例句：
  • A battle is coming; the two armies are whetting their swords. 两兵就要交战了，双方都在磨刀霍霍地备战。 来自互联网
  • The smell is really whetting my appetite. 这味道真吊胃口。 来自互联网
5 gamut HzJyL     
n.全音阶，(一领域的)全部知识
参考例句：
  • The exhibition runs the whole gamut of artistic styles.这次展览包括了所有艺术风格的作品。
  • This poem runs the gamut of emotions from despair to joy.这首诗展现了从绝望到喜悦的感情历程。
6 exhumation 3e3356144992dae3dedaa826df161f8e     
n.掘尸，发掘；剥璐
参考例句：
  • The German allowed a forensic commission including prominent neutral experts to supervise part of the exhumation. 德国人让一个包括杰出的中立专家在内的法庭委员会对部分掘墓工作进行监督。 来自辞典例句
  • At any rate, the exhumation was repeated once and again. 无论如何，他曾经把尸体挖出来又埋进去，埋进去又挖出来。 来自互联网
7 exhumed 9d00013cea0c5916a17f400c6124ccf3     
v.挖出，发掘出( exhume的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句：
  • Marie Curie's remains were exhumed and interred in the Pantheon. 玛丽·居里的遗体被移出葬在先贤祠中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • His remains have been exhumed from a cemetery in Queens, New York City. 他的遗体被从纽约市皇后区的墓地里挖了出来。 来自辞典例句
8 twitching 97f99ba519862a2bc691c280cee4d4cf     
n.颤搐
参考例句：
  • The child in a spasm kept twitching his arms and legs. 那个害痉挛的孩子四肢不断地抽搐。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • My eyelids keep twitching all the time. 我眼皮老是跳。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
9 inquiry nbgzF     
n.打听，询问，调查，查问
参考例句：
  • Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
  • The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。
10 spate BF7zJ     
n.泛滥，洪水，突然的一阵
参考例句：
  • Police are investigating a spate of burglaries in the area.警察正在调查这一地区发生的大量盗窃案。
  • Refugees crossed the border in full spate.难民大量地越过了边境。
11 reluctance 8VRx8     
n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿
参考例句：
  • The police released Andrew with reluctance.警方勉强把安德鲁放走了。
  • He showed the greatest reluctance to make a reply.他表示很不愿意答复。
12 publicity ASmxx     
n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告
参考例句：
  • The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
  • He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。
13 appals c40fa5489794e8f8dbf1f2e6a586fe9c     
v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appal的第三人称单数 )
参考例句：
  • Mr Huckabee's weakness is that his protectionist and anti-corporate rhetoric appals economic conservatives. 哈克比先生的弱点在于他的贸易保护主义者和反公司的言论吓坏了经济保守派。 来自互联网
14 conscientiously 3vBzrQ     
adv.凭良心地；认真地，负责尽职地；老老实实
参考例句：
  • He kept silent,eating just as conscientiously but as though everything tasted alike. 他一声不吭，闷头吃着，仿佛桌上的饭菜都一个味儿。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • She discharged all the responsibilities of a minister conscientiously. 她自觉地履行部长的一切职责。 来自《简明英汉词典》
15 discretion FZQzm     
n.谨慎；随意处理
参考例句：
  • You must show discretion in choosing your friend.你择友时必须慎重。
  • Please use your best discretion to handle the matter.请慎重处理此事。
16 strictly GtNwe     
adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地
参考例句：
  • His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
  • The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。
17 distressed du1z3y     
痛苦的
参考例句：
  • He was too distressed and confused to answer their questions. 他非常苦恼而困惑，无法回答他们的问题。
  • The news of his death distressed us greatly. 他逝世的消息使我们极为悲痛。

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