死亡约会 Part II Chapter 16（4）

 

 Continue, Mr Boynton.’

‘I hardly knew what I was doing…But as I got near, my brain seemed to clear. It flashed overme that I had only myself to blame! I’d been a miserable¹ worm! I ought to have defied mystepmother and cleared out years ago. And it came to me that it mightn’t be too late even now.

There she was, the old devil, sitting up like an obscene idol² against the red cliffs. I went right up tohave it out with her. I meant to tell her just what I thought and to announce that I was clearing out.

I had a wild idea I might get away at once that evening—clear out with Nadine and get as far asMa’an, anyway, that night.’

‘Oh, Lennox—my dear—’

It was a long, soft sigh.

He went on: ‘And then, my God—you could have struck me down with a touch! She was dead.

Sitting there—dead…I—I didn’t know what to do—I was dumb—dazed—everything I was goingto shout out at her bottled up inside me—turning to lead—I can’t explain…Stone—that’s what itfelt like—being turned to stone. I did something mechanically—I picked up her wrist-watch—itwas lying in her lap—and put it round her wrist—her horrid³ limp dead wrist…’

He shuddered⁴. ‘God—it was awful…Then I stumbled down, went into the marquee. I ought tohave called someone, I suppose—but I couldn’t. I just sat there, turning the pages—waiting…’

He stopped.

‘You won’t believe that—you can’t. Why didn’t I call someone? Tell Nadine? I don’t know.’

Dr Gerard cleared his throat.

‘Your statement is perfectly⁵ plausible⁶, Mr Boynton,’ he said. ‘You were in a bad nervouscondition. Two severe shocks administered in rapid succession would be quite enough to put youin the condition you have described. It is the Weissenhalter reaction—best exemplified in the caseof a bird that has dashed its head against a window. Even after its recovery it refrains instinctivelyfrom all action—giving itself time to readjust the nerve centres—I do not express myself well inEnglish, but what I mean is this: You could not have acted any other way. Any decisive action ofany kind would have been quite impossible for you! You passed through a period of mentalparalysis.’

He turned to Poirot.

‘I assure you, my friend, that is so!’

‘Oh, I do not doubt it,’ said Poirot. ‘There was a little fact I had already noted—the fact that MrBoynton had replaced his mother’s wrist-watch—that was capable of two explanations—it mighthave been a cover for the actual deed, or it might have been observed and misinterpreted by MrsBoynton. She returned only five minutes after her husband. She must therefore have seen thataction. When she got up to her mother-in-law and found her dead with a mark of a hypodermicsyringe on her wrist she would naturally jump to the conclusion that her husband had committedthe deed—that her announcement of her decision to leave him had produced a reaction in himdifferent from that for which she had hoped. Briefly⁷, Nadine Boynton believed that she hadinspired her husband to commit murder.’

He looked at Nadine. ‘That is so, madame?’

She bowed her head. Then she asked:

‘Did you really suspect me, M. Poirot?’

‘I thought you were a possibility, madame.’

She leaned forward.

‘And now? What really happened, M. Poirot?’

 

1 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

2 idol   

n.偶像，红人，宠儿

参考例句：

• As an only child he was the idol of his parents.作为独子，他是父母的宠儿。
• Blind worship of this idol must be ended.对这个偶像的盲目崇拜应该结束了。

3 horrid   

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。

4 shuddered   

v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动

参考例句：

• He slammed on the brakes and the car shuddered to a halt. 他猛踩刹车，车颤抖着停住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I shuddered at the sight of the dead body. 我一看见那尸体就战栗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 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。

6 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。

7 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。