赫尔克里·波洛的丰功伟绩16

时间：2024-12-31 10:20:31

（单词翻译:单击）

VII
Jean Moncrieffe said:
“I must ask you to forgive me, M. Poirot. I have been so angry with you—so terribly angry
with you. It seemed to me that you were making everything so much worse.”
Poirot said with a smile:
“So I was to begin with. It is like in the old legend of the Lernean Hydra1. Every time a head
was cut off, two heads grew in its place. So, to begin with, the rumours2 grew and multiplied. But
you see my task, like that of my namesake Hercules, was to reach the first—the original head.
Who had started this rumour3? It did not take me long to discover that the originator of the story
was Nurse Harrison. I went to see her. She appeared to be a very nice woman—intelligent and
sympathetic. But almost at once she made a bad mistake—she repeated to me a conversation
which she had overheard taking place between you and the doctor, and that conversation, you see,
was all wrong. It was psychologically most unlikely. If you and the doctor had planned together to
kill Mrs. Oldfield, you are both of you far too intelligent and level-headed to hold such a
conversation in a room with an open door, easily overheard by someone on the stairs or someone
in the kitchen. Moreover, the words attributed to you did not fit in at all with your mental makeup4.
They were the words of a much older woman and of one of a quite different type. They were
words such as would be imagined by Nurse Harrison as being used by herself in like
circumstances.
“I had, up to then, regarded the whole matter as fairly simple. Nurse Harrison, I realized, was
a fairly young and still handsome woman—she had been thrown closely with Doctor Oldfield for
nearly three years—the doctor had been very fond of her and grateful to her for her tact5 and
sympathy. She had formed the impression that if Mrs. Oldfield died, the doctor would probably ask
her to marry him. Instead of that, after Mrs. Oldfield’s death, she learns that Doctor Oldfield is in
love with you. Straightaway, driven by anger and jealousy6, she starts spreading the rumour that
Doctor Oldfield has poisoned his wife.
“That, as I say, was how I had visualized7 the position at first. It was a case of a jealous
woman and a lying rumour. But the old trite8 phrase ‘no smoke without fire’ recurred9 to me
significantly. I wondered if Nurse Harrison had done more than spread a rumour. Certain things
she said rang strangely. She told me that Mrs. Oldfield’s illness was largely imaginary—that she
did not really suffer much pain. But the doctor himself had been in no doubt about the reality of his
wife’s suffering. He had not been surprised by her death. He had called in another doctor shortly
before her death and the other doctor had realized the gravity of her condition. Tentatively I
brought forward the suggestion of exhumation10 . . . Nurse Harrison was at first frightened out of her
wits by the idea. Then, almost at once, her jealousy and hatred11 took command of her. Let them
find arsenic12—no suspicion would attach to her. It would be the doctor and Jean Moncrieffe who
would
suffer.
“There was only one hope. To make Nurse Harrison overreach herself. If there were a chance
that Jean Moncrieffe would escape, I fancied that Nurse Harrison would strain every nerve to
involve her in the crime. I gave instructions to my faithful Georges—the most unobtrusive of men
whom she did not know by sight. He was to follow her closely. And so—all ended well.”
Jean Moncrieffe said:
“You’ve been wonderful.”
Dr. Oldfield chimed in. He said:
“Yes, indeed. I can never thank you enough. What a blind fool I was!”
Poirot asked curiously13:
“Were you as blind, Mademoiselle?”
Jean Moncrieffe said slowly:
“I have been terribly worried. You see, the arsenic in the poison cupboard didn’t tally14. . . .”
Oldfield cried:
“Jean—you didn’t think—?”
“No, no—not you. What I did think was that Mrs. Oldfield had somehow or other got hold of
it—and that she was taking it so as to make herself ill and get sympathy and that she had
inadvertently taken too much. But I was afraid that if there was an autopsy15 and arsenic was found,
they would never consider that theory and would leap to the conclusion that you’d done it. That’s
why I never said anything about the missing arsenic. I even cooked the poison book! But the last
person I would ever have suspected was Nurse Harrison.”
Oldfield said:
“I too. She was such a gentle womanly creature. Like a Madonna.”
Poirot said sadly:
“Yes, she would have made, probably, a good wife and mother . . . Her emotions were just a
little too strong for her.” He sighed and murmured once more under his breath:
“The pity of it.”
Then he smiled at the happy-looking middle-aged16 man and the eager-faced girl opposite him.
He said to himself:
“These two have come out of its shadow into the sun . . . and I—I have performed the second
Labor17 of Hercules.”

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1 hydra Fcvzu     
n.水螅；难于根除的祸患
参考例句：
  • Let's knock down those hydras and drive them to the sea!让我们铲除祸根，把他们赶到大海去！
  • We may be facing a hydra that defies any easy solution.我们也许正面临一个无法轻易解决的难题。
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 rumour 1SYzZ     
n.谣言，谣传，传闻
参考例句：
  • I should like to know who put that rumour about.我想知道是谁散布了那谣言。
  • There has been a rumour mill on him for years.几年来，一直有谣言产生，对他进行中伤。
4 makeup 4AXxO     
n.组织；性格；化装品
参考例句：
  • Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
  • Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？
5 tact vqgwc     
n.机敏，圆滑，得体
参考例句：
  • She showed great tact in dealing with a tricky situation.她处理棘手的局面表现得十分老练。
  • Tact is a valuable commodity.圆滑老练是很有用处的。
6 jealousy WaRz6     
n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌
参考例句：
  • Some women have a disposition to jealousy.有些女人生性爱妒忌。
  • I can't support your jealousy any longer.我再也无法忍受你的嫉妒了。
7 visualized 052bbebb5da308bd361d83e229771079     
直观的，直视的
参考例句：
  • I had visualized scientists as bearded old men. 我曾经把科学家想像成长满胡子的老人。
  • "I visualized mangled and inadequate branches for my fires. 我想像中出现了砍得乱七八糟的树枝子，供不上壁炉烧的。 来自名作英译部分
8 trite Jplyt     
adj.陈腐的
参考例句：
  • The movie is teeming with obvious and trite ideas.这部电影充斥着平铺直叙的陈腐观点。
  • Yesterday,in the restaurant,Lorraine had seemed trite,blurred,worn away.昨天在饭店里，洛兰显得庸俗、堕落、衰老了。
9 recurred c940028155f925521a46b08674bc2f8a     
再发生，复发( recur的过去式和过去分词 )； 治愈
参考例句：
  • Old memories constantly recurred to him. 往事经常浮现在他的脑海里。
  • She always winced when he recurred to the subject of his poems. 每逢他一提到他的诗作的时候，她总是有点畏缩。
10 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
11 hatred T5Gyg     
n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨
参考例句：
  • He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
  • The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。
12 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。
13 curiously 3v0zIc     
adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地
参考例句：
  • He looked curiously at the people.他好奇地看着那些人。
  • He took long stealthy strides. His hands were curiously cold.他迈着悄没声息的大步。他的双手出奇地冷。
14 tally Gg1yq     
n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致
参考例句：
  • Don't forget to keep a careful tally of what you spend.别忘了仔细记下你的开支账目。
  • The facts mentioned in the report tally to every detail.报告中所提到的事实都丝毫不差。
15 autopsy xuVzm     
n.尸体解剖；尸检
参考例句：
  • They're carrying out an autopsy on the victim.他们正在给受害者验尸。
  • A hemorrhagic gut was the predominant lesion at autopsy.尸检的主要发现是肠出血。
16 middle-aged UopzSS     
adj.中年的
参考例句：
  • I noticed two middle-aged passengers.我注意到两个中年乘客。
  • The new skin balm was welcome by middle-aged women.这种新护肤香膏受到了中年妇女的欢迎。
17 labor P9Tzs     
n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦
参考例句：
  • We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
  • He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

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