黑麦奇案36

时间：2025-10-10 08:33:59

（单词翻译:单击）

Chapter Twenty-One
I
Lance and Pat wandered round the well- kept grounds surrounding
Yewtree Lodge2.
“I hope I’m not hurting your feelings, Lance,” Pat murmured, “if I say
this is quite the nastiest garden I’ve ever been in.”
“It won’t hurt my feelings,” said Lance. “Is it? Really I don’t know. It
seems to have three gardeners working on it very industriously3.”
Pat said:
“Probably that’s what’s wrong with it. No expense spared, no signs of an
individual taste. All the right rhododendrons and all the right bedding out
done in the proper season, I expect.”
“Well, what would you put in an English garden, Pat, if you had one?”
“My garden,” said Pat, “would have hollyhocks, larkspurs and Canter-
bury bells, no bedding out and none of these horrible yews4.”
She glanced up at the dark yew1 hedges, disparagingly5.
“Association of ideas,” said Lance easily.
“There’s something awfully6 frightening about a poisoner,” said Pat. “I
mean it must be a horrid7, brooding revengeful mind.”
“So that’s how you see it? Funny! I just think of it as businesslike and
cold-blooded.”
“I suppose one could look at it that way.” She resumed, with a slight
shiver, “All the same, to do three murders … Whoever did it must be mad.”
“Yes,” said Lance, in a low voice. “I’m afraid so.” Then breaking out
sharply, he said: “For God’s sake, Pat, do go away from here. Go back to
London. Go down to Devonshire or up to the Lakes. Go to Stratford-on-
Avon or go and look at the Norfolk Broads. The police wouldn’t mind your
going—you had nothing to do with all this. You were in Paris when the old
man was killed and in London when the other two died. I tell you it wor-
ries me to death to have you here.”
Pat paused a moment before saying quietly:
“You know who it is, don’t you?”
“No, I don’t.”
“But you think you know … That’s why you’re frightened for me … I
wish you’d tell me.”
“I can’t tell you. I don’t know anything. But I wish to God you’d go away
from here.”
“Darling,” said Pat. “I’m not going. I’m staying here. For better, for
worse. That’s how I feel about it.” She added, with a sudden catch in her
voice: “Only with me it’s always for worse.”
“What on earth do you mean, Pat?”
“I bring bad luck. That’s what I mean. I bring bad luck to anybody I
come in contact with.”
“My dear adorable nitwit, you haven’t brought bad luck to me. Look
how after I married you the old man sent for me to come home and make
friends with him.”
“Yes, and what happened when you did come home? I tell you, I’m un-
lucky to people.”
“Look here, my sweet, you’ve got a thing about all this. It’s superstition8,
pure and simple.”
“I can’t help it. Some people do bring bad luck. I’m one of them.”
Lance took her by the shoulders and shook her violently. “You’re my Pat
and to be married to you is the greatest luck in the world. So get that into
your silly head.” Then, calming down, he said in a more sober voice: “But,
seriously, Pat, do be very careful. If there is someone unhinged round
here, I don’t want you to be the one who stops the bullet or drinks the hen-
bane.”
“Or drinks the henbane as you say.”
“When I’m not around, stick to that old lady. What’s-her-name Marple.
Why do you think Aunt Effie asked her to stay here?”
“Goodness knows why Aunt Effie does anything. Lance, how long are we
going to stay here?”
Lance shrugged9 his shoulders.
“Difficult to say.”
“I don’t think,” said Pat, “that we’re really awfully welcome.” She hesit-
ated as she spoke10 the words. “The house belongs to your brother now, I
suppose? He doesn’t really want us here, does he?”
Lance chuckled11 suddenly.
“Not he, but he’s got to stick us for the present at any rate.”
“And afterwards? What are we going to do, Lance? Are we going back to
East Africa or what?”
“Is that what you’d like to do, Pat?”
She nodded vigorously.
“That’s lucky,” said Lance, “because it’s what I’d like to do, too. I don’t
take much to this country nowadays.”
Pat’s face brightened.
“How lovely. From what you said the other day, I was afraid you might
want to stop here.”
A devilish glint appeared in Lance’s eyes.
“You’re to hold your tongue about our plans, Pat,” he said. “I have it in
my mind to twist dear brother Percival’s tail a bit.”
“Oh, Lance, do be careful.”
“I’ll be careful, my sweet, but I don’t see why old Percy should get away
with everything.”

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1 yew yew     
n.紫杉属树木
参考例句：
  • The leaves of yew trees are poisonous to cattle.紫杉树叶会令牛中毒。
  • All parts of the yew tree are poisonous,including the berries.紫杉的各个部分都有毒，包括浆果。
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 industriously f43430e7b5117654514f55499de4314a     
参考例句：
  • She paces the whole class in studying English industriously. 她在刻苦学习英语上给全班同学树立了榜样。
  • He industriously engages in unostentatious hard work. 他勤勤恳恳，埋头苦干。
4 yews 4ff1e5ea2e4894eca6763d1b2d3157a8     
n.紫杉( yew的名词复数 )
参考例句：
  • We hedged our yard with yews. 我们用紫杉把院子围起。 来自辞典例句
  • The trees grew more and more in groves and dotted with old yews. 那里的树木越来越多地长成了一簇簇的小丛林，还点缀着几棵老紫杉树。 来自辞典例句
5 disparagingly b42f6539a4881e0982d0f4b448940378     
adv.以贬抑的口吻，以轻视的态度
参考例句：
  • These mythological figures are described disparagingly as belonging only to a story. 这些神话人物被轻蔑地描述为“仅在传说中出现”的人物。 来自互联网
  • In his memoirs he often speaks disparagingly about the private sector. 在他的回忆录里面他经常轻蔑的谈及私营（商业）部门。 来自互联网
6 awfully MPkym     
adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地
参考例句：
  • Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
  • I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。
7 horrid arozZj     
adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的
参考例句：
  • I'm not going to the horrid dinner party.我不打算去参加这次讨厌的宴会。
  • The medicine is horrid and she couldn't get it down.这种药很难吃，她咽不下去。
8 superstition VHbzg     
n.迷信，迷信行为
参考例句：
  • It's a common superstition that black cats are unlucky.认为黑猫不吉祥是一种很普遍的迷信。
  • Superstition results from ignorance.迷信产生于无知。
9 shrugged 497904474a48f991a3d1961b0476ebce     
vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）
参考例句：
  • Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
  • She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
10 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。
11 chuckled 8ce1383c838073977a08258a1f3e30f8     
轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句：
  • She chuckled at the memory. 想起这件事她就暗自发笑。
  • She chuckled softly to herself as she remembered his astonished look. 想起他那惊讶的表情，她就轻轻地暗自发笑。

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