Nemesis - Agatha Christie [36]
‘Oh, I know,’ said Miss Marple.
She mentioned the names of a few recent productions in the rose line. All the names, she thought, were entirely strange to Miss Anthea.
‘Do you often come on these tours?’
The question came suddenly.
‘You mean the tours of houses and of gardens?’
‘Yes. Some people do it every year.’
‘Oh I couldn’t hope to do that. They’re rather expensive, you see. A friend very kindly gave me a present of this to celebrate my next birthday. So kind.’
‘Oh. I wondered. I wondered why you came. I mean — it’s bound to be rather tiring, isn’t it? Still, if you usually go to the West Indies, and places like that…’
‘Oh, the West Indies was the result of kindness, too. On the part of a nephew, that time. A dear boy. So very thoughtful for his old aunt.’
‘Oh, I see. Yes, I see.’
‘I don’t know what one would do without the younger generation,’ said Miss Marple. ‘They are so kind, are they not?’
‘I — I suppose so. I don’t really know. I — we haven’t — any young relations.’
‘Does your sister, Mrs Glynne, have any children? She did not mention any. One never likes to ask.’
‘No. She and her husband never had any children. It’s as well perhaps.’
‘And what do you mean by that?’ Miss Marple wondered as they returned to the house.
Chapter 10
‘Oh! Fond, Oh! Fair,
The Days That Were’
I
At half past eight the next morning there was a smart tap on the door, and in answer to Miss Marple’s ‘Come in’ the door was opened and an elderly woman entered, bearing a tray with a teapot, a cup and a milk jug and a small plate of bread and butter.
‘Early morning tea, ma’am,’ she said cheerfully. ‘It’s a nice day, it is. I see you’ve got your curtains drawn back already. You’ve slept well then?’
‘Very well indeed,’ said Miss Marple, laying aside a small devotional book which she had been reading.
‘Well, it’s a lovely day, it is. They’ll have it nice for going to the Bonaventure Rocks. It’s just as well you’re not doing it. It’s cruel hard on the legs, it is.’
‘I’m really very happy to be here,’ said Miss Marple. ‘So kind of Miss Bradbury-Scott and Mrs Glynne to issue this invitation.’
‘Ah well, it’s nice for them too. It cheers them up to have a bit of company come to the house. Ah, it’s a sad place nowadays, so it is.’
She pulled the curtains at the window rather more fully, pushed back a chair and deposited a can of hot water in the china basin.
‘There’s a bathroom on the next floor,’ she said, ‘but we think it’s better always for someone elderly to have their hot water here, so they don’t have to climb the stairs.’
‘It’s very kind of you, I’m sure — you know this house well?’
‘I was here as a girl — I was the housemaid then. Three servants they had — a cook, a housemaid — a parlour-maid — kitchen maid too at one time. That was in the old Colonel’s time. Horses he kept too, and a groom. Ah, those were the days. Sad it is when things happen the way they do. He lost his wife young, the Colonel did. His son was killed in the war and his only daughter went away to live on the other side of the world. Married a New Zealander she did. Died having a baby and the baby died too. He was a sad man living alone here, and he let the house go — it wasn’t kept up as it should have been. When he died he left the place to his niece Miss Clotilde and her two sisters, and she and Miss Anthea came here to live — and later Miss Lavinia lost her husband and came to join them — ’ she sighed and shook her head. ‘They never did much to the house — couldn’t afford it — and they let the garden go as well — ’
‘It all seems a great pity,’ said Miss Marple.
‘And such nice ladies as they all are, too — Miss Anthea is the scatty one, but Miss Clotilde went to university and is very brainy — she talks three languages — and Mrs Glynne, she’s a very nice lady indeed. I thought when she came to join them as things might go better. But