赫尔克里·波洛的丰功伟绩14

时间：2024-12-31 10:19:55

（单词翻译:单击）

V
Hercule Poirot walked along to the post office and put through a call to London.
The voice at the other end was petulant1.
“Must you go nosing out these things, my dear Poirot? Are you sure it’s a case for us? You
know what these country town rumours2 usually amount to—just nothing at all.”
“This,” said Hercule Poirot, “is a special case.”
“Oh well—if you say so. You have such a tiresome3 habit of being right. But if it’s all a
mare’s nest we shan’t be pleased with you, you know.”
Hercule Poirot smiled to himself. He murmured:
“No, I shall be the one who is pleased.”
“What’s that you say? Can’t hear.”
“Nothing. Nothing at all.”
He rang off.
Emerging into the post office he leaned across the counter. He said in his most engaging
tones:
“Can you by any chance tell me, Madame, where the maid who was formerly4 with
Dr. Oldfield—Beatrice her Christian5 name was—now resides?”
“Beatrice King? She’s had two places since then. She’s with Mrs. Marley over the Bank
now.”
Poirot thanked her, bought two postcards, a book of stamps and a piece of local pottery6.
During the purchase, he contrived7 to bring the death of the late Mrs. Oldfield into the
conversation. He was quick to note the peculiar8 furtive9 expression that stole across the
postmistress’s face. She said:
“Very sudden, wasn’t it? It’s made a lot of talk as you may have heard.”
A gleam of interest came into her eyes as she asked:
“Maybe that’s what you’d be wanting to see Beatrice King for? We all thought it odd the way
she was got out of there all of a sudden. Somebody thought she knew something—and maybe she
did. She’s dropped some pretty broad hints.”
Beatrice King was a short rather sly-looking girl with adenoids. She presented an appearance
of stolid10 stupidity but her eyes were more intelligent than her manner would have led one to
expect. It seemed, however, that there was nothing to be got out of Beatrice King. She repeated:
“I don’t know nothing about anything . . . It’s not for me to say what went on up there . . . I
don’t know what you mean by overhearing a conversation betwen the Doctor and
Miss Moncrieffe. I’m not one to go listening to doors, and you’ve no right to say I did. I don’t
know nothing.”
Poirot said:
“Have you ever heard of poisoning by arsenic11?”
A flicker12 of quick furtive interest came into the girl’s sullen13 face.
She said:
“So that’s what it was in the medicine bottle?”
“What medicine bottle?”
Beatrice said:
“One of the bottles of medicine what that Miss Moncrieffe made up for the Missus. Nurse
was all upset—I could see that. Tasted it, she did, and smelt14 it, and then poured it away down the
sink and filled up the bottle with plain water from the tap. It was white medicine like water,
anyway. And once, when Miss Moncrieffe took up a pot of tea to the Missus, Nurse brought it
down again and made it fresh—said it hadn’t been made with boiling water but that was just my
eye, that was! I thought it was just the sort of fussing way nurses have at the time—but I dunno—
it may have been more than that.”
Poirot nodded. He said:
“Did you like Miss Moncrieffe, Beatrice?”
“I didn’t mind her . . . A bit standoffish. Of course, I always knew as she was sweet on the
doctor. You’d only to see the way she looked at him.”
Again Poirot nodded his head. He went back to the inn.
There he gave certain instructions to George.

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1 petulant u3JzP     
adj.性急的，暴躁的
参考例句：
  • He picked the pen up with a petulant gesture.他生气地拿起那支钢笔。
  • The thing had been remarked with petulant jealousy by his wife.
2 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。
3 tiresome Kgty9     
adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的
参考例句：
  • His doubts and hesitations were tiresome.他的疑惑和犹豫令人厌烦。
  • He was tiresome in contending for the value of his own labors.他老为他自己劳动的价值而争强斗胜，令人生厌。
4 formerly ni3x9     
adv.从前，以前
参考例句：
  • We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
  • This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。
5 Christian KVByl     
adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒
参考例句：
  • They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
  • His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。
6 pottery OPFxi     
n.陶器，陶器场
参考例句：
  • My sister likes to learn art pottery in her spare time.我妹妹喜欢在空余时间学习陶艺。
  • The pottery was left to bake in the hot sun.陶器放在外面让炎热的太阳烘晒焙干。
7 contrived ivBzmO     
adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的
参考例句：
  • There was nothing contrived or calculated about what he said.他说的话里没有任何蓄意捏造的成分。
  • The plot seems contrived.情节看起来不真实。
8 peculiar cinyo     
adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的
参考例句：
  • He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
  • He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。
9 furtive kz9yJ     
adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的
参考例句：
  • The teacher was suspicious of the student's furtive behaviour during the exam.老师怀疑这个学生在考试时有偷偷摸摸的行为。
  • His furtive behaviour aroused our suspicion.他鬼鬼祟祟的行为引起了我们的怀疑。
10 stolid VGFzC     
adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的
参考例句：
  • Her face showed nothing but stolid indifference.她的脸上毫无表情，只有麻木的无动于衷。
  • He conceals his feelings behind a rather stolid manner.他装作无动于衷的样子以掩盖自己的感情。
11 arsenic 2vSz4     
n.砒霜，砷；adj.砷的
参考例句：
  • His wife poisoned him with arsenic.他的妻子用砒霜把他毒死了。
  • Arsenic is a poison.砒霜是毒药。
12 flicker Gjxxb     
vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现
参考例句：
  • There was a flicker of lights coming from the abandoned house.这所废弃的房屋中有灯光闪烁。
  • At first,the flame may be a small flicker,barely shining.开始时，光辉可能是微弱地忽隐忽现，几乎并不灿烂。
13 sullen kHGzl     
adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的
参考例句：
  • He looked up at the sullen sky.他抬头看了一眼阴沉的天空。
  • Susan was sullen in the morning because she hadn't slept well.苏珊今天早上郁闷不乐，因为昨晚没睡好。
14 smelt tiuzKF     
v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼
参考例句：
  • Tin is a comparatively easy metal to smelt.锡是比较容易熔化的金属。
  • Darby was looking for a way to improve iron when he hit upon the idea of smelting it with coke instead of charcoal.达比一直在寻找改善铁质的方法，他猛然想到可以不用木炭熔炼，而改用焦炭。

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