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Five Little Pigs :: Christie Agatha
Страница: 20 из 147How did she come to do what she did? That is the really vital question. I knew her, you know, before she married. Caroline Spalding, she was. A turbulent unhappy creature. Very alive. Her mother was left a widow early in life and Caroline was devoted to her mother. Then the mother married again-there was another child. Yes-yes, very sad, very painful. These young, ardent, adolescent jealousies.’
‘She was jealous?’
‘Passionately so. There was a regrettable incident. Poor child, she blamed herself bitterly afterwards. But you know, M. Poirot, these things happen. There is an inability to put on the brakes. It comes-it comes with maturity.’
Poirot said:
‘What happened?’
‘She struck the child-the baby-flung a paperweight at her. The child lost the sight of one eye and was permanently disfigured.’
Mr Jonathan sighed. He said:
‘You can imagine the effect a simple question on that point had at the trial.’
He shook his head:
‘It gave the impression that Caroline Crale was a woman of ungovernable temper. That was not true. No, that was not true.’
He paused and then resumed:
‘Caroline Spalding came often to stay at Alderbury. She rode well, and was keen. Richard Crale was fond of her. She waited on Mrs Crale and was deft and gentle-Mrs Crale also liked her. The girl was not happy at home. She was happy at Alderbury. Diana Crale, Amyas’s sister, and she were by way of being friends. Philip and Meredith Blake, boys from the adjoining estate, were frequently at Alderbury. Philip was always a nasty, money-grubbing little brute. I must confess I have always had a distaste for him. But I am told that he tells a very good story and that he has the reputation of being a staunch friend. Meredith was what my contemporaries used to call Namby Pamby. Liked botany and butterflies and observing birds and beasts. Nature study they call it nowadays. Ah, dear-all the young people were a disappointment to their parents. None of them ran true to type-huntin’, shootin’, fishin’. Meredith preferred watching birds and animals to shooting or hunting them, Philip definitely preferred town to country and went into the business of money-making. Diana married a fellow who wasn’t a gentleman-one of the temporary officers in the war. And Amyas, strong, handsome, virile Amyas, blossomed into being a painter, of all things in the world. It’s my opinion that Richard Crale died of the shock.
‘And in due course Amyas married Caroline Spalding. They’d always fought and sparred, but it was a love match all right. They were both crazy about each other. And they continued to care.
‘She was jealous?’
‘Passionately so. There was a regrettable incident. Poor child, she blamed herself bitterly afterwards. But you know, M. Poirot, these things happen. There is an inability to put on the brakes. It comes-it comes with maturity.’
Poirot said:
‘What happened?’
‘She struck the child-the baby-flung a paperweight at her. The child lost the sight of one eye and was permanently disfigured.’
Mr Jonathan sighed. He said:
‘You can imagine the effect a simple question on that point had at the trial.’
He shook his head:
‘It gave the impression that Caroline Crale was a woman of ungovernable temper. That was not true. No, that was not true.’
He paused and then resumed:
‘Caroline Spalding came often to stay at Alderbury. She rode well, and was keen. Richard Crale was fond of her. She waited on Mrs Crale and was deft and gentle-Mrs Crale also liked her. The girl was not happy at home. She was happy at Alderbury. Diana Crale, Amyas’s sister, and she were by way of being friends. Philip and Meredith Blake, boys from the adjoining estate, were frequently at Alderbury. Philip was always a nasty, money-grubbing little brute. I must confess I have always had a distaste for him. But I am told that he tells a very good story and that he has the reputation of being a staunch friend. Meredith was what my contemporaries used to call Namby Pamby. Liked botany and butterflies and observing birds and beasts. Nature study they call it nowadays. Ah, dear-all the young people were a disappointment to their parents. None of them ran true to type-huntin’, shootin’, fishin’. Meredith preferred watching birds and animals to shooting or hunting them, Philip definitely preferred town to country and went into the business of money-making. Diana married a fellow who wasn’t a gentleman-one of the temporary officers in the war. And Amyas, strong, handsome, virile Amyas, blossomed into being a painter, of all things in the world. It’s my opinion that Richard Crale died of the shock.
‘And in due course Amyas married Caroline Spalding. They’d always fought and sparred, but it was a love match all right. They were both crazy about each other. And they continued to care.