【英文原著类】THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES(斯代尔斯的怪事).pdf

THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES
THE MYSTERIOUS
AFFAIR AT STYLES
AGATHA CHRISTIE
1
THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES
CHAPTER I. I GO TO STYLES
The intense interest aroused in the public by what was known at the
time as "The Styles Case" has now somewhat subsided. Nevertheless, in
view of the world-wide notoriety which attended it, I have been asked,
both by my friend Poirot and the family themselves, to write an account of
the whole story. This, we trust, will effectually silence the sensational
rumours which still persist.
I will therefore briefly set down the circumstances which led to my
being connected with the affair.
I had been invalided home from the Front; and, after spending some
months in a rather depressing Convalescent Home, was given a month's
sick leave. Having no near relations or friends, I was trying to make up
my mind what to do, when I ran across John Cavendish. I had seen very
little of him for some years. Indeed, I had never known him particularly
well. He was a good fifteen years my senior, for one thing, though he
hardly looked his forty-five years. As a boy, though, I had often stayed at
Styles, his mother's place in Essex.
We had a good yarn about old times, and it ended in his inviting me
down to Styles to spend my leave there.
"The mater will be delighted to see you again--after all those years,"
he added.
"Your mother keeps well?" I asked.
"Oh, yes. I suppose you know that she has married again?"
I am afraid I showed my surprise rather plainly. Mrs. Cavendish,
who had married John's father when he was a widower with two sons, had
been a handsome woman of middle-age as I remembered her. She
certainly could not be a day less than seventy now. I recalled her as an
energetic, autocratic personality, somewhat inclined to charitable and
social notoriety, with a fondness for opening bazaars and playing the Lady
Bountiful. She was a most generous woman, and possessed a
considerable fortune of her own.