波洛圣诞探案记43

VI,There was a momentary ¹ pause. Strangely enough, all indignation and all rancour had died down.,Hercule Poirot held his audience under the spell of his personality. They watched him, fascinated,as he began slowly to speak.,“It is all there, you see. The dead man is the focus and centre of the mystery! We must probedeep into the heart and mind of Simeon Lee and see what we find there. For a man does not liveand die to himself alone. That which he has, he hands on—to those who come after him. .?.?.,“What had Simeon Lee to bequeath to his sons and daughter? Pride, to begin with—a pridewhich, in the old man, was frustrated ² in his disappointment over his children. Then there was thequality of patience. We have been told that Simeon Lee waited patiently for years in order torevenge himself upon someone who had done him an injury. We see that that aspect of histemperament was inherited by the son who resembled him least in face. David Lee also couldremember and continue to harbour resentment ⁴ through long years. In face, Harry ⁵ Lee was the onlyone of his children who closely resembled him. That resemblance is quite striking when weexamine the portrait of Simeon Lee as a young man. There is the same high-bridged aquiline ⁶ nose,the long sharp line of the jaw ⁷, the backward poise ⁸ of the head. I think, too, that Harry inheritedmany of his father’s mannerisms — that habit, for instance, of throwing back his head andlaughing, and another habit of drawing his finger along the line of his jaw.,“Bearing all these things in mind, and being convinced that the murder was committed by aperson closely connected with the dead man, I studied the family from the psychologicalstandpoint. That is, I tried to decide which of them were psychologically possible criminals. And,in my judgment ⁹, only two persons qualified ¹⁰ in that respect. They were Alfred Lee and Hilda Lee,David’s wife. David himself I rejected as a possible murderer. I do not think a person of hisdelicate susceptibilities could have faced the actual bloodshed of a cut throat. George Lee and hiswife I likewise rejected. Whatever their desires, I did not think they had the temperament ³ to take arisk. They were both essentially ¹¹ cautious. Mrs. Alfred Lee I felt sure was quite incapable ¹² of an actof violence. She has too much irony ¹³ in her nature. About Harry Lee I hesitated. He had a certaincoarse truculence ¹⁴ of aspect, but I was nearly sure that Harry Lee, in spite of his bluff ¹⁵ and hisbluster, was essentially a weakling. That, I now know, was also his father’s opinion. Harry, hesaid, was worth no more than the rest. That left me with two people I have already mentioned.,“And now having got so far I examined the circumstances of the crime itself. And the firstthing that arises—that strikes one in the face, as it were—is the extraordinary conditions underwhich that crime took place! Take your minds back to that room where Simeon Lee lay dead. Ifyou remember, there was both a heavy table and a heavy chair overturned, a lamp, crockery,glasses, etc. But the chair and the table were especially surprising. They were of solid mahogany.,It was hard to see how any struggle between that frail ²⁰ old man and his opponent could result in somuch solid furniture being overturned and knocked down. The whole thing seemed unreal. Andyet surely no one in their senses would stage such an effect if it had not really occurred—unlesspossibly Simeon Lee had been killed by a powerful man and the idea was to suggest that theassailant was a woman or somebody of weak physique.,“But such an idea was unconvincing in the extreme, since the noise of the furniture wouldgive the alarm and the murderer would thereby ²¹ have very little time to make his exit. It wouldsurely be to anyone’s advantage to cut Simeon Lee’s throat as quietly as possible.,“Another extraordinary point was the turning of the key in the lock from the outside. Again,there seemed no reason for such a proceeding ²². It could not suggest suicide, since nothing in thedeath itself accorded with suicide. It was not to suggest escape through the windows—for thosewindows were so arranged that escape that way was impossible! Moreover, once again, it involvedtime. Time which must be precious to the murderer!,“There was one other incomprehensible thing—a piece of rubber cut from Simeon Lee’sspongebag and a small wooden peg ²³ shown to me by Superintendent ²⁴ Sugden. These had beenpicked up from the floor by one of the persons who first entered the room. There again—thesethings did not make sense! They meant exactly nothing at all! Yet they had been there.,I caught a momentary glimpse of them.我瞥了他们一眼。,It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼 。