Agatha Christie - Dumb Witness / Безмолвный свидетель. Книга для чтения на английском языке

‘But it is profound what you say there—very profound! And Miss Ar undell was like that? Very alive. Very interested in life?’

‘Oh, yes, indeed, sir. Her health was poor, but her brain was as keen as anything. And as I was saying, she got over that illness of hers—surprised the nurse, it did. A stuck-up young thing she was, all starched collars and cuffs and the waiting on she had to have and tea at all hours.’

‘A fine recovery.’

‘Yes, indeed, sir. Of course, the mistress had to be very careful as to diet at first, everything boiled and steamed, no grease in the cooking, and she wasn’t allowed to eat eggs either. Very monotonous it was for her.’

‘Still the main thing is she got well.’

‘Yes, sir. Of course, she had her little turns [194] turn – (зд.) приступ . What I’d call bilious attacks [195] bilious attack – приступ разлития желчи . She wasn’t always very careful about her food after a time—but still they weren’t very serious until the last attack.’

‘Was it like her illness of two years before?’

‘Yes, just the same sort of thing, sir. That nasty jaundice—an awful yellow colour again—and the terrible sickness and all the rest of it. Brought it on [196] to bring on – навлекать herself I’m afraid she did, poor dear. Ate a lot of things she shouldn’t have done. That very evening she was took bad [197] to be taken bad – заболеть she’d had curry for supper and as you know, sir, curry’s rich and a bit oily.’

‘Her illness came on suddenly, did it?’

‘Well, it seemed so, sir, but Dr Grainger he said it had been working up for some time. A chill—the weather had been very changeable—and too rich feeding.’

‘Surely her companion—Miss Lawson was her companion was she not—could have dissuaded her from rich dishes?’

‘Oh, I don’t think Miss Lawson would have much say. Miss Arundell wasn’t one to take orders from anyone.’

‘Had Miss Lawson been with her during her previous illness?’

‘No, she came after that. She’d been with her about a year.’

‘I suppose she’d had companions before that?’

‘Oh, quite a number, sir.’

‘Her companions didn’t stay as long as her servants,’ said Poirot, smiling.

The woman flushed.

‘Well, you see, sir, it was different. Miss Arundell didn’t get out much and what with one thing and another—’ she paused.

Poirot eyed her for a minute then he said:

‘I understand a little the mentality of elderly ladies. They crave, do they not, for novelty. They get, perhaps, to the end of a person.’

‘Well, now, that’s very clever of you, sir. You’ve hit it exactly. When a new lady came Miss Arundell was always interested to start with—about her life and her childhood and where she’d been and what she thought about things, and then, when she knew all about her, well, she’d get— well, I suppose bored is the real word.’

‘Exactly. And between you and me, these ladies who go as companions, they are not usually very interesting—very amusing, eh?’

‘No, indeed, sir. They’re poor-spirited creatures, most of them. Downright foolish, now and then. Miss Arundell soon got through with them, so to speak. And then she’d make a change and have someone else.’

‘She must have been unusually attached to Miss Lawson, though.’

‘Oh, I don’t think so, sir.’

‘Miss Lawson was not in any way a remarkable woman?’

‘I shouldn’t have said so, sir. Quite an ordinary person.’

‘You liked her, yes?’

The woman shrugged her shoulders slightly.

‘There wasn’t anything to like or dislike. Fussy she was—a regular old maid and full of this nonsense about spirits.’

‘Spirits?’’ Poirot looked alert.

‘Yes, sir, spirits. Sitting in the dark round a table and dead people came back and spoke to you. Downright irreligious I call it—as if we didn’t know departed souls had their rightful place and aren’t likely to leave it.’

‘So Miss Lawson was a spiritualist! Was Miss Arundell a believer too?’

‘Miss Lawson would have liked her to be!’ snapped the other. There was a spice of satisfied malice in her tone.

‘But she wasn’t?’ Poirot persisted.

‘The mistress had too much sense.’ She snorted. ‘Mind you, I don’t say it didn’t amuse her. “I’m willing to be convinced,” she’d say. But she’d often look at Miss Lawson as much as to say [198] as much as to say – все равно что сказать , “My poor dear, what a fool you are to be so taken in [199] to be taken in – быть обманутым !”’

‘I comprehend. She did not believe in it, but it was a source of amusement to her.’

‘That’s right, sir. I sometimes wondered if she didn’t—well have a bit of quiet fun, so to speak, pushing the table and that sort of thing. And the others all as serious as death.’

‘The others?’

‘Miss Lawson and the two Miss Tripps.’

‘Miss Lawson was a very convinced spiritualist?’

‘Took it all for gospel, sir.’

‘And Miss Arundell was very attached to Miss Lawson, of course.’

It was the second time Poirot had made this certain remark and he got the same response.

‘Well, hardly that, sir.’

‘But surely,’ said Poirot. ‘If she left her everything. She did, did she not?’

The change was immediate. The human being vanished. The correct maid-servant returned. The woman drew herself up and said in a colourless voice that held reproof for familiarity in it:

‘The way the mistress left her money is hardly my business, sir.’

I felt that Poirot had bungled the job. Having got the woman in a friendly mood, he was now proceeding to throw away his advantage. He was wise enough to make no immediate attempt to recover lost ground [200] to recover lost ground – возвратить утраченные позиции . After a commonplace remark about the size and number of the bedrooms he went towards the head of the stairs.

Bob had disappeared, but as I came to the stair-head, I stumbled and nearly fell. Catching at the baluster to steady myself I looked down and saw that I had inadvertently placed my foot on Bob’s ball which he had left lying on the top of the stairs.

The woman apologized quickly.

‘I’m sorry, sir. It’s Bob’s fault. He leaves his ball there. And you can’t see it against the dark carpet. Death of someone some day it’ll be. The poor mistress had a nasty fall through it. Might easily have been the death of her.’

Poirot stopped suddenly on the stairs.

‘She had an accident you say?’

‘Yes, sir. Bob left his ball there, as he often did, and the mistress came out of her room and fell over it and went right down the stairs. Might have been killed.’

‘Was she much hurt?’

‘Not as much as you’d think. Very lucky she was, Dr Grainger said. Cut her head a little, and strained her back, and of course there were bruises and it was a nasty shock. She was in bed for about a week, but it wasn’t serious.’

‘Was this long ago?’

‘Just a week or two before she died.’

Poirot stooped to recover something he had dropped.

‘Pardon—my fountain pen [201] fountain pen – авторучка —ah, yes, there it is.’

He stood up again.

‘He is careless, this Master Bob,’ he observed.

‘Ah well, he don’t know no better, sir,’ said the woman in an indulgent voice. ‘Nearly human he may be, but you can’t have everything. The mistress, you see, usedn’t to sleep well at night and often she’d get up and wander downstairs and round and about the house.’