伯特伦旅馆之谜16
时间：2026-01-04 07:42:23
（单词翻译:单击）
II
Mr. Bollard was serving a customer when the shop door opened. He
looked up to see the Honourable Elvira Blake entering.
“No,” she said to an assistant who came forward to her. “I’d rather wait
until Mr. Bollard is free.”
Presently Mr. Bollard’s customer’s business was concluded and Elvira
moved into the vacant place.
“Good morning, Mr. Bollard,” she said.
“I’m afraid your watch isn’t done quite as soon as this, Miss Elvira,” said
Mr. Bollard.
“Oh, it’s not the watch,” said Elvira. “I’ve come to apologize. A dreadful
thing happened.” She opened her bag and took out a small box. From it
she extracted the sapphire and diamond bracelet. “You will remember
when I came in with my watch to be repaired that I was looking at things
for a Christmas present and there was an accident outside in the street.
Somebody was run over I think, or nearly run over. I suppose I must have
had the bracelet in my hand and put it into the pocket of my suit without
thinking, although I only found it this morning. So I rushed along at once
to bring it back. I’m so terribly sorry, Mr. Bollard, I don’t know how I came
to do such an idiotic thing.”
“Why, that’s quite all right, Miss Elvira,” said Mr. Bollard, slowly.
“I suppose you thought someone had stolen it,” said Elvira.
Her limpid blue eyes met him.
“We had discovered its loss,” said Mr. Bollard. “Thank you very much,
Miss Elvira, for bringing it back so promptly.”
“I felt simply awful about it when I found it,” said Elvira. “Well, thank
you very much, Mr. Bollard, for being so nice about it.”
“A lot of strange mistakes do occur,” said Mr. Bollard. He smiled at her
in an avuncular manner. “We won’t think of it anymore. But don’t do it
again, though.” He laughed with the air of one making a genial little joke.
“Oh no,” said Elvira, “I shall be terribly careful in future.”
She smiled at him, turned and left the shop.
“Now I wonder,” said Mr. Bollard to himself, “I really do wonder….”
One of his partners, who had been standing near, moved nearer to him.
“So she did take it?” he said.
“Yes. She took it all right,” said Mr. Bollard.
“But she brought it back,” his partner pointed out.
“She brought it back,” agreed Mr. Bollard. “I didn’t actually expect that.”
“You mean you didn’t expect her to bring it back?”
“No, not if it was she who’d taken it.”
“Do you think her story is true?” his partner inquired curiously. “I
mean, that she slipped it into her pocket by accident?”
“I suppose it’s possible,” said Bollard, thoughtfully.
“Or it could be kleptomania, I suppose.”
“Or it could be kleptomania,” agreed Bollard. “It’s more likely that she
took it on purpose…But if so, why did she bring it back so soon? It’s curi-
ous—”
“Just as well we didn’t notify the police. I admit I wanted to.”
“I know, I know. You haven’t got as much experience as I have. In this
case, it was definitely better not.” He added softly to himself, “The thing’s
interesting, though. Quite interesting. I wonder how old she is? Seventeen
or eighteen I suppose. She might have got herself in a jam of some kind.”
“I thought you said she was rolling in money.”
“You may be an heiress and rolling in money,” said Bollard, “but at sev-
enteen you can’t always get your hands on it. The funny thing is, you
know, they keep heiresses much shorter of cash than they keep the more
impecunious. It’s not always a good idea. Well, I don’t suppose we shall
ever know the truth of it.”
He put the bracelet back in its place in the display case and shut down
the lid.
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