弄假成真20

时间：2025-03-03 03:34:50

（单词翻译:单击）

Twenty
Hercule Poirot paused a moment at the big wrought1 iron gates. He looked ahead of him along the
curving drive. The last of the golden-brown leaves fluttered down from the trees. The cyclamen
were over.
Poirot sighed. He turned aside and rapped gently on the door of the little white pilastered lodge2.
After a few moments’ delay he heard footsteps inside, those slow hesitant footsteps. The door
was opened by Mrs. Folliat. He was not startled this time to see how old and frail3 she looked.
She said, “M. Poirot? You again?”
“May I come in?”
“Of course.”
He followed her in.
She offered him tea which he refused. Then she asked in a quiet voice:
“Why have you come?”
“I think you can guess, Madame.”
Her answer was oblique4.
“I am very tired,” she said.
“I know.” He went on, “There have now been three deaths, Hattie Stubbs, Marlene Tucker, old
Merdell.”
She said sharply:
“Merdell? That was an accident. He fell from the quay5. He was very old, half-blind, and he’d
been drinking in the pub.”
“It was not an accident. Merdell knew too much.”
“What did he know?”
“He recognized a face, or a way of walking, or a voice—something like that. I talked to him the
day I first came down here. He told me then all about the Folliat family—about your father-in-law
and your husband, and your sons who were killed in the war. Only—they were not both killed,
were they? Your son Henry went down with his ship, but your second son, James, was not killed.
He deserted6. He was reported at first, perhaps, Missing believed killed, and later you told everyone
that he was killed. It was nobody’s business to disbelieve that statement. Why should they?”
Poirot paused and then went on:
“Do not imagine I have no sympathy for you, Madame. Life has been hard for you, I know. You
can have had no real illusions about your younger son, but he was your son, and you loved him.
You did all you could to give him a new life. You had the charge of a young girl, a subnormal but
very rich girl. Oh yes, she was rich. You gave out that her parents had lost all their money, that she
was poor, and that you had advised her to marry a rich man many years older than herself. Why
should anybody disbelieve your story? Again, it was nobody’s business. Her parents and near
relatives had been killed. A firm of French lawyers in Paris acted as instructed by lawyers in San
Miguel. On her marriage, she assumed control of her own fortune. She was, as you have told me,
docile7, affectionate, suggestible. Everything her husband asked her to sign, she signed. Securities
were probably changed and re-sold many times, but in the end the desired financial result was
reached. Sir George Stubbs, the new personality assumed by your son, became a rich man and his
wife became a pauper8. It is no legal offence to call yourself ‘sir’ unless it is done to obtain money
under false pretences9. A title creates confidence—it suggests, if not birth, then certainly riches. So
the rich Sir George Stubbs, older and changed in appearance and having grown a beard, bought
Nasse House and came to live where he belonged, though he had not been there since he was a
boy. There was nobody left after the devastation10 of war who was likely to have recognized him.
But old Merdell did. He kept the knowledge to himself, but when he said to me slyly that there
would always be Folliats at Nasse House, that was his own private joke.
“So all had turned out well, or so you thought. Your plan, I fully11 believe, stopped there. Your
son had wealth, his ancestral home, and though his wife was subnormal she was a beautiful and
docile girl, and you hoped he would be kind to her and that she would be happy.”
Mrs. Folliat said in a low voice:
“That’s how I thought it would be—I would look after Hattie and care for her. I never dreamed
—”
“You never dreamed—and your son carefully did not tell you, that at the time of the marriage
he was already married. Oh, yes—we have searched the records for what we knew must exist.
Your son had married a girl in Trieste, a girl of the underground criminal world with whom he
concealed12 himself after his desertion. She had no mind to be parted from him, nor for that matter
had he any intention of being parted from her. He accepted the marriage with Hattie as a means to
wealth, but in his own mind he knew from the beginning what he intended to do.”
“No, no, I do not believe that! I cannot believe it…It was that woman—that wicked creature.”
Poirot went on inexorably:
“He meant murder. Hattie had no relations, few friends. Immediately on their return to England,
he brought her here. The servants hardly saw her that first evening, and the woman they saw the
next morning was not Hattie, but his Italian wife made up as Hattie and behaving roughly much as
Hattie behaved. And there again it might have ended. The false Hattie would have lived out her
life as the real Hattie though doubtless her mental powers would have unexpectedly improved
owing to what would vaguely13 be called ‘new treatment.’ The secretary, Miss Brewis, already
realized that there was very little wrong with Lady Stubbs’ mental processes.
“But then a totally unforeseen thing happened. A cousin of Hattie’s wrote that he was coming to
England on a yachting trip, and although that cousin had not seen her for many years, he would
not be likely to be deceived by an impostor.
“It is odd,” said Poirot, breaking off his narrative14, “that though the thought did cross my mind
that de Sousa might not be de Sousa, it never occurred to me that the truth lay the other way round
—that is to say, that Hattie was not Hattie.”
He went on:
“There might have been several different ways of meeting that situation. Lady Stubbs could
have avoided a meeting with a plea of illness, but if de Sousa remained long in England she could
hardly have continued to avoid meeting him. And there was already another complication. Old
Merdell, garrulous15 in his old age, used to chatter16 to his granddaughter. She was probably the only
person who bothered to listen to him, and even she dismissed most of what he said because she
thought him ‘batty.’ Nevertheless, some of the things he said about having seen ‘a woman’s body
in the woods,’ and ‘Sir George Stubbs being really Mr. James’ made sufficient impression on her
to make her hint about them tentatively to Sir George. In doing so, of course, she signed her own
death warrant. Sir George and his wife could take no chances of stories like that getting around. I
imagine that he handed her out small sums of hush17 money, and proceeded to make his plans.
“They worked out their scheme very carefully. They already knew the date when de Sousa was
due at Helmmouth. It coincided with the date fixed18 for the fête. They arranged their plan so that
Marlene should be killed and Lady Stubbs ‘disappear’ in conditions which should throw vague
suspicion on de Sousa. Hence the reference to his being a ‘wicked man’ and the accusation19: ‘he
kills people.’ Lady Stubbs was to disappear permanently20 (possibly a conveniently unrecognizable
body might be identified at some time by Sir George), and a new personality was to take her place.
Actually, ‘Hattie’ would merely resume her own Italian personality. All that was needed was for
her to double the parts over a period of a little more than twenty-four hours. With the connivance21
of Sir George, this was easy. On the day I arrived, ‘Lady Stubbs’ was supposed to have remained
in her room until just before teatime. Nobody saw her there except Sir George. Actually, she
slipped out, took a bus or a train to Exeter, and travelled from Exeter in the company of another
girl student (several travel every day this time of year) to whom she confided22 her story of the
friend who had eaten bad veal23 and ham pie. She arrives at the hostel24, books her cubicle25, and goes
out to ‘explore.’ By teatime, Lady Stubbs is in the drawing room. After dinner, Lady Stubbs goes
early to bed—but Miss Brewis caught a glimpse of her slipping out of the house a short while
afterwards. She spends the night in the hostel, but is out early, and is back at Nasse as Lady Stubbs
for breakfast. Again she spends a morning in her room with a ‘headache,’ and this time manages
to stage an appearance as a ‘trespasser’ rebuffed by Sir George from the window of his wife’s
room where he pretends to turn and speak to his wife inside that room. The changes of costume
were not difficult—shorts and an open shirt under one of the elaborate dresses that Lady Stubbs
was fond of wearing. Heavy white makeup26 for Lady Stubbs with a big coolie hat to shade her face;
a gay peasant scarf, sunburned complexion27, and bronze-red curls for the Italian girl. No one would
have dreamed that those two were the same woman.
“And so the final drama was staged. Just before four o’clock Lady Stubbs told Miss Brewis to
take a tea tray down to Marlene. That was because she was afraid such an idea might occur to
Miss Brewis independently, and it would be fatal if Miss Brewis should inconveniently28 appear at
the wrong moment. Perhaps, too, she had a malicious29 pleasure in arranging for Miss Brewis to be
at the scene of the crime at approximately the time it was committed. Then, choosing her moment,
she slipped into the empty fortune-telling tent, out through the back and into the summerhouse in
the shrubbery where she kept her hiker’s rucksack with its change of costume. She slipped through
the woods, called to Marlene to let her in, and strangled the unsuspecting girl then and there. The
big coolie hat she threw into the river, then she changed into her hiker dress and makeup,
packaged up her cyclamen georgette dress and high-heeled shoes in the rucksack—and presently
an Italian student from the youth hostel joined her Dutch acquaintance at the shows on the lawn,
and left with her by the local bus as planned. Where she is now I do not know. I suspect in Soho
where she doubtless has underworld affiliations30 of her own nationality who can provide her with
the necessary papers. In any case, it is not for an Italian girl that the police are looking, it is for
Hattie Stubbs, simple, subnormal, exotic.
“But poor Hattie Stubbs is dead, as you yourself, Madame, know only too well. You revealed
that knowledge when I spoke31 to you in the drawing room on the day of the fête. The death of
Marlene had been a bad shock to you—you had not had the least idea of what was planned; but
you revealed very clearly, though I was dense32 enough not to see it at the time, that when you
talked of ‘Hattie,’ you were talking of two different people—one a woman you disliked who
would be ‘better dead,’ and against whom you warned me ‘not to believe a word she said’—the
other a girl of whom you spoke in the past tense, and whom you defended with a warm affection. I
think, Madame, that you were very fond of poor Hattie Stubbs….”
There was a long pause.
Mrs. Folliat sat quite still in her chair. At last she roused herself and spoke. Her voice had the
coldness of ice.
“Your whole story is quite fantastic, M. Poirot. I really think you must be mad…All this is
entirely33 in your head, you have no evidence whatsoever34.”
Poirot went across to one of the windows and opened it.
“Listen, Madame. What do you hear?”
“I am a little deaf…What should I hear?”
“The blows of a pick axe…They are breaking up the concrete foundation of the Folly35…What a
good place to bury a body—where a tree has been uprooted36 and the earth is already disturbed. A
little later, to make all safe, concrete over the ground where the body lies, and, on the concrete,
erect37 a Folly…” He added gently: “Sir George’s Folly…The Folly of the owner of Nasse House.”
A long shuddering38 sigh escaped Mrs. Folliat.
“Such a beautiful place,” said Poirot. “Only one thing evil…The man who owns it….”
“I know.” Her words came hoarsely39. “I have always known…Even as a child he frightened
me…Ruthless…Without pity…And without conscience…But he was my son and I loved him…I
should have spoken out after Hattie’s death…But he was my son. How could I be the one to give
him up? And so, because of my silence—that poor silly child was killed…And after her, dear old
Merdell…Where would it have ended?”
“With a murderer it does not end,” said Poirot.
She bowed her head. For a moment or two she stayed so, her hands covering her eyes.
Then Mrs. Folliat of Nasse House, daughter of a long line of brave men, drew herself erect. She
looked straight at Poirot and her voice was formal and remote.
“Thank you, M. Poirot,” she said, “for coming to tell me yourself of this. Will you leave me
now? There are some things that one has to face quite alone….”

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1 wrought EoZyr     
v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的
参考例句：
  • Events in Paris wrought a change in British opinion towards France and Germany.巴黎发生的事件改变了英国对法国和德国的看法。
  • It's a walking stick with a gold head wrought in the form of a flower.那是一个金质花形包头的拐杖。
2 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。
3 frail yz3yD     
adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的
参考例句：
  • Mrs. Warner is already 96 and too frail to live by herself.华纳太太已经九十六岁了，身体虚弱，不便独居。
  • She lay in bed looking particularly frail.她躺在床上，看上去特别虚弱。
4 oblique x5czF     
adj.斜的，倾斜的，无诚意的，不坦率的
参考例句：
  • He made oblique references to her lack of experience.他拐弯抹角地说她缺乏经验。
  • She gave an oblique look to one side.她向旁边斜看了一眼。
5 quay uClyc     
n.码头，靠岸处
参考例句：
  • There are all kinds of ships in a quay.码头停泊各式各样的船。
  • The side of the boat hit the quay with a grinding jar.船舷撞到码头发出刺耳的声音。
6 deserted GukzoL     
adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的
参考例句：
  • The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
  • The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。
7 docile s8lyp     
adj.驯服的，易控制的，容易教的
参考例句：
  • Circus monkeys are trained to be very docile and obedient.马戏团的猴子训练得服服贴贴的。
  • He is a docile and well-behaved child.他是个温顺且彬彬有礼的孩子。
8 pauper iLwxF     
n.贫民，被救济者，穷人
参考例句：
  • You lived like a pauper when you had plenty of money.你有大把钱的时候，也活得像个乞丐。
  • If you work conscientiously you'll only die a pauper.你按部就班地干，做到老也是穷死。
9 pretences 0d462176df057e8e8154cd909f8d95a6     
n.假装( pretence的名词复数 )；作假；自命；自称
参考例句：
  • You've brought your old friends out here under false pretences. 你用虚假的名义把你的那些狐朋狗党带到这里来。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
  • There are no pretences about him. 他一点不虚伪。 来自辞典例句
10 devastation ku9zlF     
n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤
参考例句：
  • The bomb caused widespread devastation. 炸弹造成大面积破坏。
  • There was devastation on every side. 到处都是破坏的创伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》
11 fully Gfuzd     
adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地
参考例句：
  • The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
  • They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。
12 concealed 0v3zxG     
a.隐藏的，隐蔽的
参考例句：
  • The paintings were concealed beneath a thick layer of plaster. 那些画被隐藏在厚厚的灰泥层下面。
  • I think he had a gun concealed about his person. 我认为他当时身上藏有一支枪。
13 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。
14 narrative CFmxS     
n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的
参考例句：
  • He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
  • Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。
15 garrulous CzQyO     
adj.唠叨的，多话的
参考例句：
  • He became positively garrulous after a few glasses of wine.他几杯葡萄酒下肚之后便唠唠叨叨说个没完。
  • My garrulous neighbour had given away the secret.我那爱唠叨的邻居已把秘密泄露了。
16 chatter BUfyN     
vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战
参考例句：
  • Her continuous chatter vexes me.她的喋喋不休使我烦透了。
  • I've had enough of their continual chatter.我已厌烦了他们喋喋不休的闲谈。
17 hush ecMzv     
int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静
参考例句：
  • A hush fell over the onlookers.旁观者们突然静了下来。
  • Do hush up the scandal!不要把这丑事声张出去！
18 fixed JsKzzj     
adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的
参考例句：
  • Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
  • Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。
19 accusation GJpyf     
n.控告，指责，谴责
参考例句：
  • I was furious at his making such an accusation.我对他的这种责备非常气愤。
  • She knew that no one would believe her accusation.她知道没人会相信她的指控。
20 permanently KluzuU     
adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地
参考例句：
  • The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
  • The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。
21 connivance MYzyF     
n.纵容；默许
参考例句：
  • The criminals could not have escaped without your connivance.囚犯没有你的默契配合，是逃不掉的。
  • He tried to bribe the police into connivance.他企图收买警察放他一马。
22 confided 724f3f12e93e38bec4dda1e47c06c3b1     
v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等）
参考例句：
  • She confided all her secrets to her best friend. 她向她最要好的朋友倾吐了自己所有的秘密。
  • He confided to me that he had spent five years in prison. 他私下向我透露，他蹲过五年监狱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
23 veal 5HQy0     
n.小牛肉
参考例句：
  • She sauteed veal and peppers,preparing a mixed salad while the pan simmered.她先做的一道菜是青椒煎小牛肉，趁着锅还在火上偎着的机会，又做了一道拼盘。
  • Marinate the veal in white wine for two hours.把小牛肉用白葡萄酒浸泡两小时。
24 hostel f5qyR     
n.（学生）宿舍，招待所
参考例句：
  • I lived in a hostel while I was a student.我求学期间住在青年招待所里。
  • He says he's staying at a Youth Hostel.他说他现住在一家青年招待所。
25 cubicle POGzN     
n.大房间中隔出的小室
参考例句：
  • She studies in a cubicle in the school library.她在学校图书馆的小自习室里学习。
  • A technical sergeant hunches in a cubicle.一位技术军士在一间小屋里弯腰坐着。
26 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？
27 complexion IOsz4     
n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格
参考例句：
  • Red does not suit with her complexion.红色与她的肤色不协调。
  • Her resignation puts a different complexion on things.她一辞职局面就全变了。
28 inconveniently lqdz8n     
ad.不方便地
参考例句：
  • Hardware encrypting resists decryption intensely, but it use inconveniently for user. 硬件加密方法有较强的抗解密性，但用户使用不方便。
  • Even implementing the interest-deferral scheme for homeowners has proved inconveniently tricky. 甚至是对房主实行的推迟利息的方案，结果证明也是极不方便的。
29 malicious e8UzX     
adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的
参考例句：
  • You ought to kick back at such malicious slander. 你应当反击这种恶毒的污蔑。
  • Their talk was slightly malicious.他们的谈话有点儿心怀不轨。
30 affiliations eb07781ca7b7f292abf957af7ded20fb     
n.联系( affiliation的名词复数 )；附属机构；亲和性；接纳
参考例句：
  • She had affiliations of her own in every capital. 她原以为自己在欧洲各国首府都有熟人。 来自辞典例句
  • The society has many affiliations throughout the country. 这个社团在全国有很多关系。 来自辞典例句
31 spoke XryyC     
n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说
参考例句：
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
32 dense aONzX     
a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的
参考例句：
  • The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
  • The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。
33 entirely entirely     
ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地
参考例句：
  • The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
  • His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。
34 whatsoever Beqz8i     
adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么
参考例句：
  • There's no reason whatsoever to turn down this suggestion.没有任何理由拒绝这个建议。
  • All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,do ye even so to them.你想别人对你怎样，你就怎样对人。
35 folly QgOzL     
n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话
参考例句：
  • Learn wisdom by the folly of others.从别人的愚蠢行动中学到智慧。
  • Events proved the folly of such calculations.事情的进展证明了这种估计是愚蠢的。
36 uprooted e0d29adea5aedb3a1fcedf8605a30128     
v.把（某物）连根拔起( uproot的过去式和过去分词 )；根除；赶走；把…赶出家园
参考例句：
  • Many people were uprooted from their homes by the flood. 水灾令许多人背井离乡。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The hurricane blew with such force that trees were uprooted. 飓风强烈地刮着，树都被连根拔起了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
37 erect 4iLzm     
n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的
参考例句：
  • She held her head erect and her back straight.她昂着头，把背挺得笔直。
  • Soldiers are trained to stand erect.士兵们训练站得笔直。
38 shuddering 7cc81262357e0332a505af2c19a03b06     
v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动
参考例句：
  • 'I am afraid of it,'she answered, shuddering. “我害怕，”她发着抖，说。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
  • She drew a deep shuddering breath. 她不由得打了个寒噤，深深吸了口气。 来自飘（部分）
39 hoarsely hoarsely     
adv.嘶哑地
参考例句：
  • "Excuse me," he said hoarsely. “对不起。”他用嘶哑的嗓子说。
  • Jerry hoarsely professed himself at Miss Pross's service. 杰瑞嘶声嘶气地表示愿为普洛丝小姐效劳。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

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