死亡约会 Part II Chapter 15（3）

‘I will conclude now with my study of the possibility of Raymond Boynton’s guilt¹. Thefollowing are the facts. He had been heard to discuss the possibility of taking Mrs Boynton’s life.

He was in a condition of great nervous excitement. He had—mademoiselle will forgive me’—hebowed apologetically to Sarah—‘just passed through a moment of great emotional crisis. That is,he had fallen in love. The exaltation of his feelings might lead him to act in one of several ways.

He might feel mellowed² and softened³ towards the world in general, including his stepmother—hemight feel the courage at last to defy her and shake off her influence—or he might find just theadditional spur to turn his crime from theory to practice. That is the psychology⁴! Let us nowexamine the facts.

‘Raymond Boynton left the camp with the others about three-fifteen. Mrs Boynton was thenalive and well. Before long Raymond and Sarah King had a tête-à-tête interview. Then he left her.

According to him, he returned to the camp at ten minutes to six. He went up to his mother,exchanged a few words with her, then went to his tent and afterwards down to the marquee. Hesays that at ten minutes to six, Mrs Boynton was alive and well.

‘But we now come to a fact which directly contradicts that statement. At half-past six MrsBoynton’s death was discovered by a servant. Miss King, who holds a medical degree, examinedher body and she swears definitely that at that time, though she did not pay any special attention tothe time when death had occurred, it had most certainly and decisively taken place at least an hour(and probably a good deal more) before six o’clock.

‘We have here, you see, two conflicting statements. Setting aside the possibility that Miss Kingmay have made a mistake—’

Sarah interrupted him. ‘I don’t make mistakes. That is, if I had, I would admit to it.’

Her tone was hard and clear.

Poirot bowed to her politely.

‘Then there are only two possibilities — either Miss King or Mr Boynton is lying! Let usexamine Raymond Boynton’s reasons for so doing. Let us assume that Miss King was notmistaken and not deliberately⁵ lying. What, then, was the sequence of events? Raymond Boyntonreturns to the camp, sees his mother sitting at the mouth of her cave, goes up to her and finds she isdead. What does he do? Does he call for help? Does he immediately inform the camp of what hashappened? No, he waits a minute or two, then passes on to his tent and joins his family in themarquee and says nothing. Such conduct is exceedingly curious, is it not?’

Raymond said in a nervous, sharp voice:

‘It would be idiotic⁶, of course. That ought to show you that my mother was alive and well asI’ve said. Miss King was flustered⁷ and upset and made a mistake.’

‘One asks oneself,’ said Poirot, calmly sweeping⁸ on, ‘whether there could possibly be a reasonfor such conduct? It seems, on the face of it, that Raymond Boynton cannot be guilty, since at theonly time he was known to approach his stepmother that afternoon she had already been dead forsome time. Now, supposing, therefore, that Raymond Boynton is innocent, can we explain hisconduct?

‘And I say, that on the assumption that he is innocent, we can! For I remember that fragment ofconversation I overheard. “You do see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed?” He comes backfrom his walk and finds her dead and at once his guilty memory envisages⁹ a certain possibility.

The plan has been carried out—not by him—but by his fellow planner. Tout¹⁰ simplement—hesuspects that his sister, Carol Boynton, is guilty.’

‘It’s a lie,’ said Raymond in a low, trembling voice.

Poirot went on: ‘Let us now take the possibility of Carol Boynton being the murderess. What isthe evidence against her? She has the same highly-strung temperament—the kind of temperamentthat might see such a deed coloured with heroism¹¹. It was she to whom Raymond Boynton wastalking that night in Jerusalem. Carol Boynton returned to the camp at ten minues past five.

According to her own story she went up and spoke¹² to her mother. No one saw her do so. The campwas deserted—the boys were asleep. Lady Westholme, Miss Pierce and Mr Cope were exploringcaves out of sight of the camp. There was no witness of Carol Boynton’s possible action. The timewould agree well enough. The case, then, against Carol Boynton is a perfectly¹³ possible one.’ Hepaused. Carol had raised her head. Her eyes looked steadily¹⁴ and sorrowfully into his.

‘There is one other point. 

 

1 guilt   

n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责

参考例句：

• She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
• Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。

2 mellowed   

（使）成熟( mellow的过去式和过去分词 )； 使色彩更加柔和，使酒更加醇香

参考例句：

• She's mellowed over the years. 这些年来他变得成熟了。
• The colours mellowed as the sun went down. 随着太阳的落去，色泽变得柔和了。

3 softened   

（使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰

参考例句：

• His smile softened slightly. 他的微笑稍柔和了些。
• The ice cream softened and began to melt. 冰淇淋开始变软并开始融化。

4 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

5 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

6 idiotic   

adj.白痴的

参考例句：

• It is idiotic to go shopping with no money.去买东西而不带钱是很蠢的。
• The child's idiotic deeds caused his family much trouble.那小孩愚蠢的行为给家庭带来许多麻烦。

7 flustered   

adj.慌张的；激动不安的v.使慌乱，使不安( fluster的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The honking of horns flustered the boy. 汽车喇叭的叫声使男孩感到慌乱。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She was so flustered that she forgot her reply. 她太紧张了，都忘记了该如何作答。 来自辞典例句

8 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

9 envisages   

想像，设想( envisage的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The board envisages that there will be a high profit. 董事会预期将会获得高额利润。
• The paper reviews and envisages the development trend of carbon electrode. 本文对炭电极的发展方向做了回顾与展望。

10 tout   

v.推销，招徕；兜售；吹捧，劝诱

参考例句：

• They say it will let them tout progress in the war.他们称这将有助于鼓吹他们在战争中的成果。
• If your case studies just tout results,don't bother requiring registration to view them.如果你的案例研究只是吹捧结果，就别烦扰别人来注册访问了。

11 heroism   

n.大无畏精神，英勇

参考例句：

• He received a medal for his heroism.他由于英勇而获得一枚奖章。
• Stories of his heroism resounded through the country.他的英雄故事传遍全国。

12 spoke   

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。

13 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

14 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。