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One Grave, Two Secrets, One Killer | Miss Marple Sleep Stories · Miss Marple Sleep Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome, dear listener. Draw a little nearer to the fire.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: The kettle is on, the curtains drawn against the frost,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and tonight I have a story to tell you, quiet
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: as a snowfall, sharp as a winter slate. It begins,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: as all our best English stories do, in a village,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: with a grave. One grave, two secrets, one killer. A
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Miss Marple mystery. Section 1. the wreath that was not
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: for her. The churchyard of St Mary Mead lay, on
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the second Tuesday of February, beneath a weight of frost,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: so still that the small creatures in the hedgerows held
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: their breath as if listening. Three rooks had descended on
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: the great yew by the lich gate, and were perched
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: in a black triangle, scarcely moving. Snow had fallen in
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: the night, a thin white veil, and now, in the
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: late morning, it had refused to melt. lying between the
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: graves like a sheet of paper, waiting for its first words.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Villagers in their good dark coats made their slow procession
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: from the lich gate to the freshly turned earth. Behind
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: them the bells of St Mary's had fallen silent. The
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Reverend Septimus March stood at the head of the open grave,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: his prayer book open but unheld, his breath a pale cloud.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: He had read the committal, he had thrown the earth,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: he had lifted his hand in benediction. and now he
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: stood aside, very still, while the mourners passed one by
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: one and looked down into the hole that had received Mrs.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Lavinia Doon. It had been a respectable funeral, the kind
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the village counted as one of its small, well-attended civic events.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Colonel Melchett had come out of respect, although he had
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: seldom spoken with the deceased in life. Mrs. Bantry was there,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: dressed in dove grey, her husband at her side, and
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: their niece Dolly leaned a little forward on her crutches
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: to peer at the mound of loose earth, the colour
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: of wet chocolate. Dr Ambrose Fitzhugh, in his frock coat,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: stood at the foot of the grave and bowed slightly
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: as each mourner turned away. The undertaker's men were already
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: folding their trestles. The sexton, Josiah Graves, was sweeping white
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: pinches of frost from the marble ledger stone. Lavinia Dune,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: 1878 1956, Beloved Mother of Henry, and brushing the small
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: pile of immortelles which the son, Mr Henry Doon, had
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: placed there. And just behind the grave, in the path's edge,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: half concealed by a clump of dried sedge, Miss Jane
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Marple stood with her hands folded on the handle of
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: her umbrella, looking not at the coffin, or the sexton,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: or the vicar, but at the marble. 1878 Miss Marple murmured,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: almost to herself. 1878 Sir Henry Clithering, dear, she had
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: said an hour earlier, when her old friend had come
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: up the path from the vicarage. I wonder if you noticed.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Lavinia's birthday was in March, she often told me so.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: The 18th of March. I remember because it is my
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: own aunt's, also. You think the date is wrong? said
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Sir Henry. I never think anything of the sort, my dear.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I only wonder. It was a small thing, that discrepancy.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Two years' difference. Nothing to trouble anyone. And yet Miss Marple,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: who had been at Lavinia's christening in 1880 in this
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: very church, knew exactly when it had been, because Lavinia's mother,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: her oldest friend Miriam, had sent her a small sprig
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: of clematis in a fold of notepaper the morning of
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: the birth, and it had been in the same year
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Queen Victoria's reign had entered its forty-fourth winter. The date
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: on the stone was wrong, but this was not Miss
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Marple's chief concern at the funeral. The chief concern was
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: the second grave that had already been measured out, three
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: paces to the east of the first, a rectangle of
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: yellow string where the snow had been cleared and the
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: ground below was softer and darker. That was where Hyacinth
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Belk was to be buried on the morrow. The Reverend
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: March had explained at the close of the committal, in
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: his careful vicar's tone, Hyacinth was Lavinia's first cousin, they
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: had decided, after a search through the parish records. At least,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: that was the polite village fiction. And since Lavinia had
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: wanted her cousin to rest beside her, the family plot
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: would receive them both. Two boxes, one plot, head to
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: head if you could imagine such a thing. Or rather,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: side by side. The villagers had nodded. It seemed decent.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Miss Marple walked to the second measured grave. The earth
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: there was already cut through, as if a spade had
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: bitten once and twice. The sexton, Josiah, was standing near it,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: breath in plumes, hands shoved deep in his pockets. Josiah,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: said Miss Marple. Lavinia wasn't particular to hyacinth in life. No, ma'am.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: He didn't turn his face, but the colour in his cheeks,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: already high from the cold, edged towards red. In fact,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: my dear, I remember Lavinia telling me on more than
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: one occasion, and you will know the way she had
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: of putting it, that Hyacinth had the temperament of a
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: wet hen crossed with a climber. No, Lavinia would not
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: at all have chosen Hyacinth for the family plot. The
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: plot has been reserved for her sister Miriam for forty years.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: To bury Hyacinth in it would mean disturbing Miriam. Yet
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: you have not disturbed Miriam, so the plot for Hyacinth
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: is a new one, freshly cut. Josiah stared at her. Mrs.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Doone's will directed it. In what words? She wrote to
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: the vicar not a fortnight ago. And you have this letter?
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: It is locked in the vicarage strongbox. Josiah, dear, said
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Miss Marple, in that voice which always made him lower
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: his eyes. If Lavinia's will directs the burial, why is
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: the date on the stone wrong? It's not for me
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: to say, ma'am. Of course not, dear. It is for
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: me to wonder. He turned and walked off, his shoulders
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: a little hunched. The bell began to toll again, not
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: for the dead, but for Sunday. The mourners made their
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: slow way out of the churchyard, leaving only the rooks.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Miss Marple lingered. She looked at the first grave, at
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the second measured plot, at the yew tree at the gate,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: and at the small clematis that wound, in this cold season,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: its dry, pale seed pods around the iron cemetery rail
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: at the family plot's eastern edge. The same dry clematis
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: that Lavinia had worn in the brooch at her throat
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: every day for forty-five years, a silver filigree mounting a
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: pressed sprig of the flower, mounted on a black velvet ribbon,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: its whereabouts now wholly unknown. She had been buried without it.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: A small disturbance arrived then. The doctor's bicycle, propped against
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: the lich gate, gave a sudden thin ring as the
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: wind moved it. Miss Marple looked. She saw, on the
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: path between the gate and the doctor's bicycle, just visible
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: in the half-melted snow, a single footprint. Then another. Two
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: prints in a single file of a man's small shoe
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: with the clean diamond pattern of new rubber heels. The
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: doctor's bicycle was nearly always in the same place. The
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: doctor nearly always wore the same shoes. But these were new.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: And at the lich gate, an envelope lay tucked into
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: the ironwork, addressed in a hand Miss Marple did not know. Mr. H. Doone, Esquire,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Glevering Hall. There was no postmark. Someone had slipped it
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: in by hand this morning. Miss Marple looked at the envelope.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: She looked at the bicycle. She looked at the measured
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: grave where Hyacinth was to be buried. And she walked
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: very slowly back to herself, folded her hands on her umbrella,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: and waited for the next person along the path. For
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: the village that winter, the equilibrium of years was about
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: to be broken. Yet it would break, as such things
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: always do in Miss Marple's experience, not with a shout,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: but with a long absence of the things one had
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: counted on. The bells would still ring on Sunday. The
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: dogs would still bark at the gypsies. The soup at
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: the mother's meeting would still be too thin. But somewhere,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: in the measured rectangles of that churchyard, the stones and
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the seeds and the letters— were already beginning to speak
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: in a language no one else was reading. And in
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: the quiet of her own parlour that evening, Miss Marple
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: would begin to read them. It was precisely twenty-two minutes
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: past four on that Tuesday afternoon when Miss Marple sat
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: down at her card-table, drew her spectacles from their case,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: and said to the parlour maid, Hannah dear, please bring
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: me the parish magazine, the teapot, and the slender blue
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: notebook that lives in the second drawer of the writing desk. Yes, ma'am.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: And Hannah, the vicar came up the path at 3.15 today,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: did he not? He did, ma'am. Did he look heavy-hearted
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: when he called? He looked tipsy, ma'am, if you'll pardon. No, ma'am,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: he is a teetotaller, but heavy, quite heavy. Thank you, dear.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: The notebook, please. When Hannah had gone, Miss Marple took
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: off her gloves and laid them, as she always did,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: in two careful pledges on the arm of the chair.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: She opened the notebook to the page marked with a
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: violet ribbon. She had marked it in 1922 and wrote
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: at the top, Re. L. D. Then she put down,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: in her very upright copper plate, the dates she remembered.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Lavinia's birth in March of 1886. Lavinia's marriage to Alfred
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Dune in 1904. Her widowhood in 1917. Her son's first
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: birth record entry at the registry office in Sissingham on
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: the 23rd of June that year, although Henry had been
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: christened in the church three days earlier. Old letters kept
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: in lavender paper. Three had been laid by. Two she
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: had not opened. As Hannah set down the teapot, Miss
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Marple said, There is to be an inquest, dear. Is there, ma'am?
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Coroner Norwood rang Mrs. Bantry this morning. Mrs. Bantry rang me.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Lavinia took badly in the night after a meal at
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: the Blue Boar, that was Friday, and died in her
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: own bed Saturday morning. The doctor signed it natural causes.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: The doctor has now changed his mind. He rang the
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: coroner this afternoon, in the doctor's usual style, a quarter
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: of an inch too late. What is the doctor's usual style, ma'am?
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: To be a quarter of an inch too late for
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: almost everything, said Miss Marple, and a mile past the
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: point of no return for the things that matter. She
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: poured her tea. Hammer? Ma'am? If a person we loved
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: were to be killed by another person, dear, supposing it
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: should come to that, in what way would we expect
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: them to be killed? I beg your pardon, ma'am? Not
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: a knife, not a blow, not a chambermaid's cloak over
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: the head, said Miss Marple, in that voice which always
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: meant she was rehearsing something she knew rather than something
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: she was asking. Not a pistol, my dear, too loud,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: too foreign. The murdered in our village would be killed
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: the way a grouse is killed in the pot and
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: the pill is killed in the cupboard. By a small
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: lot of poison, in something warm, administered in a place
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: where an Englishwoman of her station would not refuse. Their
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: own broth, if my memory of Lavinia's habits serves. Hannah
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: was used to Miss Marple's small lectures on the manners
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: of murder. She replied, as she always did, Shall I
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: close the curtains, ma'am? In a moment, dear. Let the
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Kirk see the vicar going home. I want to know
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: if his arm is in his wife's. He wasn't with Mrs. March, ma'am. Dr.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Fitzhugh was with him. Indeed. He was carrying the doctor's arm-bag. My,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: said Miss Marple, but what an arm-bag it must be,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: carrying it out of the vicarage instead of leaving it
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: in the dispensary at the surgery. She watched the carriage
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: drive past. Set the screens, my dear. I'll be going
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: up to the Blue Boar in a moment to take
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: a small luncheon of broth, if Mistress Gladish can spare it.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: At the Blue Boar Inn two streets over, the landlord's wife,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Flory Gladish, was already busy with Wednesday's deep clean. She
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: had not heard Miss Marple's approach. She was at the
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: long deal table at the back, scrubbing with the bottle brush,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: the kettle pushed to one side, and a circle of
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: bone china laid out for inspection. There were five cups.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: One had been set aside. Flory marked it on her list.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Glover Vickers' wife moved. Then there were six, the doctor's
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: own pewter mug. Your inn seems busy, Miss Marple said
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: at the door. Flory raised a hand. Miss Marple, a
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: sad week. A very sad week, my dear. I have
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: come for a small tureen of broth. Just like Lavinia's,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: for her, it always cheered a winter evening, she would say.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Lavinia had the Friday broth, ma'am. The Wednesday I never
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: saw her take. The Thursday is to be the graves.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: But you would lay it on for me, my dear,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: just as it is served to her. Flory paused for
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: a moment, then went through. She set the small tureen
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: before Miss Marple in the window nook. Miss Marple sat.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: She sipped. She lifted the spoon to the light, then
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: set it down. She thanked Flory and asked for the reckoning.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: You have not finished, ma'am. I have tasted, dear, what
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: I needed to taste. Outside, the churchyard had closed its gate.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: The bell of St Mary's rang, not for absolutions, but
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: for the mother's meeting at five. The vicar's wife, Margaret,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: was seen crossing the cobbles, fresh-faced and crisply pinafored. her
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: husband's heaviest coat over her arm. She walked with Dr Fitzhugh,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: whose arm-bag she carried in her left. In her right
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: she held a small package, ceramic, a sealed jam-jar glinting
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: with a green glass leaf. Miss Marple, from her window,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: took the tin-opener from her reticule. She knocked three times
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: on the kitchen door. Margaret, dear. Miss Marple, how lovely.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: I see you are carrying Dr. Fitzhugh's bag. He has
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: so entrusted you this afternoon. Might I be permitted to
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: relieve you of one small item as we take turn?
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: The Countess of St. Cyr always said she felt she
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: was made to bear only one parcel at a time.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: It's the doctor's pot of dried herbs. Herbs, my dear, indeed.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: I see you are being made into a herbalist's assistant.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Won't you come tomorrow and bring me a few sprigs
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: of clematis? I have lost all my winter ones to
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: the frost, and I should so like to bring them indoors,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: for a small vase by the fire to cheer the parlour.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Margaret's colour came up. Clematis, ma'am? My dear, every Englishwoman
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: knows that clematis dried in October takes a household's cold
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: water pipes through the winter. I shall ask the doctor's
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: clerk to dry me a few. He is so very competent.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: He is, ma'am. Margaret clutched the bag. It is very late.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: We will talk tomorrow. In the Blue Boar's parlour that
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: same hour, the coroner's officer, Mr Sloane of the Constabulary,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: had been making small notes on the Friday broth. The
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: fridge notes. Broth served between 4.30 and 6.15. Lavinia had
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: ordered between 4 and 4.15. The receipt for that night's
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: porridge salt, Sissingham salts, two pounds LB, was entered as
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: usual at quarter to five, but there had been a
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: brief six-minute gap in service at the bar windows. Flory
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: had stepped out to thread her needle. She had returned,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: the broth had been made, and the kidney tray had
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: been wiped with a damp cloth. The wipecloth was on
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: the line by the vestry door. Mr Sloane took the
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: sample of broth for analysis. In her own parlour that
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: night Miss Marple sat with the parish magazine open, the
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: thumb of her right glove a little raised, and a
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: single sprig of last summer's dried clematis from a vase
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: by her elbow. She had placed a sheet of blotting
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: paper under the bag's printed schedule of Lavinia's last day
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: in the village. The bag, she had noticed at the
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: kitchen door, had a fresh grease spot. In the spot
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: was a small seed, violet and dry. Outside, the doctor's
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: bicycle was propped in its accustomed place. The chain was unloosed.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Snow had begun to fall again, silent, settling into the
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: print of his shoes on the path that he had
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: taken at the funeral, and filling them for a second time.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Section 3. The Ledger of Mr Sloane Late on Tuesday morning,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: the postbag from Sissingham slithered through the slot at the
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: constabulary office with a damp, worn sound. Inspector Polk arrived,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: in his neat brown bowler, and Mr Sloane, the coroner's officer,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: laid what he had before him. The Blue Boar's Friday
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: broth sample, sealed in glass, was on his desk, the
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: tube marked LD. Sloane tugged at his moustache. He had
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: been a man of some habit for forty years, and
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: he did not believe that Lavinia Doon had died of
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: her supper. It was Sloane's habit, when first handling a
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: death in the country parishes, to give the dead woman's
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: lamp a turn. He did not, on this visit, go
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: to Glevering Hall. In a village the size of St
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Mary Mead, that would have been stop-press by evening. He
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: sent his wife, Martha, who brought back a small pressed
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: clematis from a silver filigree brooch that had been laid
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: on the dresser, not at the throat. She was buried
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: without it, said Martha. The undertaker told me it was
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: locked in the doctor's medical bag. Sloane had not opened
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: the bag on Sunday. The brooch in the bag was
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: the first piece of the puzzle Sloane had touched with
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: his own hands. He held up the parish certificate of death.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: The cause was cardiac failure following gastric spasms and agitation
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: of the heart. No mention of poison. No mention of
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: probably arsenic. which had been Mrs Gladish's first thought, nor
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: of thallium, which had been the chemist's second. Sloane had
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: set aside the certificate for one minute's reading at breakfast
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: and one minute's reading at tea. He had not yet
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: spoken to the doctor. Miss Marple had rung Sloane's wife
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: that morning with a small, polite inquiry. Had the doctor,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: on Sunday, returned the clematis brooch to the hall? Martha
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: had not known. Sloane knew who else to ask. Now
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: he sat with the chemist. The chemist was Mr Laird,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: a Scotsman of some little trimness, who set all his
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: specimens in five rows and read off the percentages like
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: a choir. He said, It is what it is. It
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: is thallium. It has been in the broth in a
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: small quantity. It has been masked behind the salt. The
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Saturday morning wash-water showed it on the lip of her
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: cup again. Thallium, Sloane repeated. drawing the syllables out as
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: if they were boiler-pipe lengths. Yes, my dear, God bless me. Thallium.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: A pest rodent's salt. Three weeks ago we had a
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: complaint from the farmer at Great Sissingham that the grain
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: store had been licked at. He said three of his
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: terriers had taken the sickness. Did we send someone? Did
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: we trouble? No, sir. No, we did not. So the
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: rodenticides have been with us some while, and a rat,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: God willing, has gone up to the blue boar of
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: an evening and and has nibbled through the broth salt
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: tin and died. And the salt tin has gone on, sir,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: have a care, to be tipped, in part, into the broth.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Into one broth only, the chemist? Into one broth only,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: in our present evidence. Sloane, you have a wife. If
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: your intended dose of salts had been eight times greater
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: than her physician would have ordered, would she know? She
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: would not, sir. Three winters passed, she ate the camphor.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: She was quite happy about the camphor. Make a note.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: A thief, if there is a thief, did not come
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: at the salts from a side pocket of cold purse cuteness.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: He came, Mrs. Gladish will mind this, to the broth itself.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: He stood, if you will, in the kitchen door. He tipped.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: He left. The whole of Mrs. Doone's weekly Friday broth
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: had been, a polite word, seasoned, sir. Sloane wrote in
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: a clear hand, Phallium rat, seed in broth, one Friday,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: one tin, one poisoner. Then he paused, looked, and wrote, or, or, or.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: We must ask if there were seven other tinned salts
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: in the kitchen, and only one had been fingered. We
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: must ask if the Friday broth had been of a
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: different season to the Thursday broth of the previous week.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: We must ask if Mrs. Doone was the only guest
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: that Friday who had taken broth. Aye, sir. Three good oars.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: He picked up the next paper. It was a printed
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: blank from the doctor's dispensing ledger, dated 1922, with a
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: four-petalled flower at its head, a clematis. Sloane set it down. Dr.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Fitzhugh had handed him, when called, the ledger, a refuge
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: to which he had had recourse in tracing receipts for
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Pollard's pills and and had produced a single page torn loose,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: saying that the page concerned Mrs. Doone's thallium intake as
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: it had been measured over the autumn. Sloane had noted
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: the symbol at the head of each column, the same
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: four-petalled flower, on stationery older than the parish, on a
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: ledger page which the doctor's great-grandfather had begun in 1879.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Sloane had crossed himself, an old country habit, at the
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: sight of two generations of the same family stamp. He
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: set it with care on his desk. He said to Laird,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: It is not often, laddie, that we come upon a
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: villainy that writes in a watermark. He went to the village.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: He found Colonel Melchett's wife picking blackcurrant cuttings from the pantry,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: and Mrs. Bantry's niece Dolly in the garden, beating moths.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: To both he showed broad courtesy. He listened. He learned
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: a small parish fact. Mrs. Lavinia Doon had been for
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: some years past the doctor's patient, her chart having three
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: notations which had since been altered, her chart being held
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: only at his surgery. When he came back from Dolly's garden,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: the day's freeze had risen to a small thaw, and
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: the lich gate had been left faintly ajar by a
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: slipshod sexton. At the gate he found a folded sheet,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: the doctor would not know who had laid it so,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: with a smudge of green resin at the edge of
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: the seal. The wax had been pressed firm. Sloane slit
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: it with his thumb and let it fall. He read,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: My dear Mrs. Doone, the clematis cut should, of course,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: be quite free of thallium, but I have compared it
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: twice at your brother's tree, for he being, in the
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: village phrase, your second cousin, and the cut is clean
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: in every part about the meadow. Yours, in faithful friendship, A.F.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Sloane took a long, bewildered breath and folded the paper
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: into his notebook He had not, at this moment, the
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: machinery of knowing. He had merely the natural instinct to gather.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: He set off for the doctor's door. At the doctor's door,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: where the bicycle stood, a small pot of pressed clematis heads,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: twelve of them in a row, drying on a piece
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: of blotting paper, lay flat on the doorstep. Sloane would
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: have walked over it, but a small black seed had
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: rolled from one of the heads to his boot, and
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: he paused. He picked it up. He put it in
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: his waistcoat pocket. Then he waited at the bell. The
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: bell was answered an age later by the doctor's housekeeper,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Mrs Plum, who had the soft voice of a holy
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: woman and a small basket of herbs on her hip.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: She told Sloane, without prompting, that the doctor was out
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: on his bicycle in the lane past the church. Sloane
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: walked back up the lane. The sun was lowering. The
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: doctor's green bicycle was propped against the cemetery rail, and
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: the doctor was inside the lich gate, alone, on his
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: knees in his dark trousers, with his medical bag opened
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: flat beside him. He was digging with a small trowel
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: at the dry seed pods of the clematis that clung
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: to the cemetery rail at the eastern edge of the
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Dune family plot. He did not hear Sloane until Sloane's
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: boot struck a loose stone. Doctor? Fitzhugh stood. He had
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: a sprig of dried clematis in his palm. His brow
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: was pale. Sloane? I'm sorry to interrupt. Not at all.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: The chemist has set down a small fact on the broth. Mrs.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Doon's broth. He would like to discuss with you at
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: your convenience. My convenience is now, Fitzhugh said. He closed
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: the bag. Sloane noticed with a small prick. that the
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: bag was unusually heavy for a Saturday's empty trip, and
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: that the catch of the bag, when closed, gave a
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: very faint rattle of metal. Fitzhugh mounted his bicycle. He
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: turned towards the vicarage then, with a small, polite hesitation,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: towards the lane, and the clematis in his palm was transferred,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: with a gentle gesture Sloane would not forget, to the
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: lapel of his greatcoat. For the cold of it, the
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: doctor murmured. in that voice which had been his winter
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: way with half the village. Sloane took out his notebook
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: and wrote, Doctor went past the vicarage 1420 with Clematis.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: The Lichgate's small bolt clicked behind them. Sloane glanced at
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: the dune plot. The earth at the east edge had
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: been disturbed again in a fresh, thumb-shaped print, and at
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: his left ear he heard, very faintly, the rustle of
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: a blackbird in the yew. Section 4. Mr. Henry Doone returns.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: The London train on Wednesday morning was ten minutes late
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: into Sissingham, and Mr. Henry Doone stepped down from the
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: third-class carriage with the precise, pinched gait of a man
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: in mourning for someone else. He had come down two
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: days early for the interment of his mother, as the
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: vicarage had explained. He would have a day of business
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: at the lawyer's in Sissingham, and a tea with his cousin.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: At his mother's gate the sexton would set him down.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: He had, when he came, the look of one who
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: has been for many nights at his lodgings, with the
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: curtains drawn and the gas turned low. In his left
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: hand was a slender box of papers. In his right,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: half obscured by the cuff of his overcoat, hung a
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: plain gold ring, of his father's, of Alfred's, wedding ring,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: which he had not, on his father's death in 1917,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: been old enough to bear. He had been waiting thirty-nine
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: years to wear it. He was wearing it now, indoors
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: or out, like a small, unlit lantern. The lawyer's office
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: in Sissingham, Mr. Boreham and Sons, solicitors, was a half-timbered
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: building with two clerk's desks, an inner door, and the
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: particular smell of parchment in winter. Boreham himself sat behind
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: a thick ledger and a pair of silver-framed spectacles. He
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: was given to a long, careful pause before answering any
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: question of consequence. Henry, slowly divesting his coat, asked, Is
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: there a will, Mr. Boreham? Your mother made a will
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: in 1949. And where, sir, is her brother, my uncle?
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Your mother had no brothers surviving in 1949, Mr. Doone.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Your father had a brother, who is deceased. There is
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: no surviving Doone in the direct line except yourself, sir.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: The residue of the estate passes to you. There is
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: a small annuity to your cousin. There is a bequest
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: of household effects to the parish. There is a present
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: to one parish officer for care during her last illness.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: The doctor? A small sum, generous in its time, in
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: recognition of twelve years of attention. The will is in
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: this envelope. The bequest is the only clause which I
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: am directed to read aloud in your presence. Henry took
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: the envelope. Boram's eye, which had been on him the
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: whole reading— was kaleidoscopic with the slow weight of evidence.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Boreham knew, had known for thirty years, that Henry was
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: not Lavinia's son. He did not intend to speak it.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: But Henry had not been told. Henry took the envelope
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: without remark. Boreham waited. Henry said, The household bequest. The
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: comet brooch. My mother's clematis brooch. The will directs the
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: brooch to be returned to the family it originally came from. Mrs.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Doone's sister, Lady Belk, died of scarlet fever in 1912.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: The brooch is therefore to be retained by the estate,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: in trust, for the lawful heirs of Lady Belk and
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: held at the parish chest. There is no other disposition
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: of the brooch. In trust? For whose heirs? For the
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: two surviving Belks, Hyacinth Belk in person and on her
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: death to her nephew, William Belk of Folkestone. Hyacinth died
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: in her sleep last week, Henry said. She has not
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: yet been buried. The lawyer in Folkestone rang me Monday.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Boreham for once set his pen down. It was a small,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: soft sound, like a small piece of furniture being moved
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: at night. I am sorry to say, sir, you are
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: in error. Hyacinth Belk, by my correspondent in Sissingham, has
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: been dead these fourteen days, struck by a reversing car
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: on the Chichester Road, and will be interred tomorrow in
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: the dune plot at St Mary's. The information reached the
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: vicarage on Tuesday. Who told him, sir, to inter Hyacinth
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: in our plot at St Mary's? Your mother. My mother?
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: By a letter to the vicar dated a fortnight past.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: The letter is locked in the vicarage strongbox. Henry took
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: off his gloves, slowly. He placed them precisely on the
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: chair arm. He said, Mr. Boreham, I have not seen
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: my mother's handwriting for twelve years. Twelve years ago I
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: left her house, and she let me. I am, I
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: now understand, no longer able to say with certainty that
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: the letter in the strongbox is hers. Have you seen it?
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: I have not. The vicar is unwilling to show it. Why?
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: He says it would distress you. Boreham, sir, who else
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: has the keys to the strongbox? The vicar and the
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: vicar's clerk. And the doctor? The doctor has had, on occasion, access.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Henry stood. I shall go to the hall first. I
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: shall then go to the vicar. I shall then go
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: to the doctor's surgery. If the clematis brooch, which my
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: mother wore every day for forty-five years, has been moved
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: by the doctor's hands from her throat, Mr. Boreham, the
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: parish shall charge him with that theft. But first, and
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: I beg your pardon, first I must say to my
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: Aunt Dolly, who is my only living relative at hand.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: My Uncle Alfred was a worthy man. I wish to
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: confirm with her a small fact from my childhood, before
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: the parish goes further with its inquiry. He walked out.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Boreham waited. The parish clock struck. At the hall, Henry
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: met Dolly Bantry, in the drawing-room that was still fragrant
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: with his mother's favourite blend of lavender water. He sat
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: in her favourite chair by the door. He did not
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: understand her answers. Dolly, who had been a child when
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: her aunt had died, was subdued, deferring to her cousin's
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: small formality. She answered him only one question at first,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: which was his only question. Aunt Dolly, Was the clematis
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: brooch my mother's birth gift from my grandmother? Or was
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: it my grandmother's? It was my grandmother's, Dolly said quietly.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: It was Miriam's. Then it is a belk brooch and
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: not a dune brooch. The will is correct, Henry said.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: Yet my mother, by her letter to the vicar, has
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: arranged that it shall be buried with her in the
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: dune plot. Is that so? It is what the village believes, sir.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: I have not, in fact, opened the strongbox. Then I
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: must open it, said Henry. He went to the vicarage.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: At the vicarage the vicar was at his desk, his
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: hands clasped over a thin pile of brown paper parcels.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: He had been told on the street that Henry would call.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: He was trembling, very slightly, with the policy of churchmen
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: in small places. He did not wish to be of
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: the world, and yet the parish was gently insistent. My
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: mother wrote you a letter, Henry said. She did, sir.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: The letter instructs you to bury Hyacinth Belk in the
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Dune plot at St Mary's. It does, sir. Have you
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: read the letter to Mrs Dune? No, sir. The letter
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: is private. Has any person between you and your clerk
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: opened it? No, sir. Has any person in your presence
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: or in your clerk's handled the letter? The doctor has, sir,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: the vicar said, in his medical capacity, been permitted to
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: see it. He asked to see it on Tuesday before
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: the funeral. He was, I am, perhaps, simple in this,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: a guest. Has the letter been disturbed since? Not by me. Not, sir,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: by the clerk. But on Sunday morning, when I went
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: to my study, I found the seal on the floor.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: I am almost certain there is a grey carpet. The
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: seal had been carefully reset. By the doctor? By the doctor, sir,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: said the vicar. with the gentleness of one who has
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: been gently warned. And I am sorry to say, when
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: I went at once to the chest to look again,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: there was a faint indentation in the wax, in the
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: shape of a small flower with four petals. I think
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: it is not my mother's seal, sir. I think it
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: is the doctor's family seal, which he has in his surgery,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: and which I have seen once before. Henry Rose thanked
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: the vicar, walked out into the cold, and decided that
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: he would not, on that day, return to the doctor's surgery.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: His palm was almost cold to the bone. He would need,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: in this parish, a witness who had no particular stake
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: in whose grave the clematis sprig belonged. He walked through
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: the frost to Miss Marple's gate. Section 5 The Cordial
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: Bottle The afternoon of Lady Day, which the village kept
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: in the old way as the first day of spring,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: Miss Marple walked homeward from the lich gate. She carried
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: a small wicker trug from the Hall of Glevering, which
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: Dolly Bantry had pressed into her hand with a gentle
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: word and a half-embarrassed apology. It contained three items— a copy
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: of the parish magazine, a small notebook in lavender paper
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: bound by a blackened thong, and a cordial bottle, unstoppered,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: which Dolly had found in a cupboard at the back
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: of the pantry and which had been hiding, she thought,
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: since the previous Wednesday. It was a stiff green glass
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: with a thin gilt band at its lip. The maker's
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: mark was for the village chemist, the late Mr Gladish,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: who had died in 1923 and whose shop was now
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: the post office and the undertaker. Old-fashioned, particular to the village.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: The contents were still warm to her thumb and smelled
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: of wintergreen. Miss Marple, who had a faculty for the
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: labelled cup, held the bottle up to the light. It
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: was almost empty. The cork had been replaced. The cork
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: was still moist, with a small smear of a darker
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: green on its inside surface. Miss Marple had not smelled
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: thallium in her life, but she had smelled, in a
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: long career of small honesties, the odour of the chemist's
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: strong cup, of which her late mother had been in
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: the habit. There was something else in there. Hot, metallic, sweet.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: She set the cordial bottle in her trug. She went
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: through the bracken gate. Hannah was waiting on the garden
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: path with the teapot ready and the curtains drawn but
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: not yet crossed. Miss Marple set her reticule at the
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: door and asked Hannah to fetch for her a small
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: cup from her grandfather's cabinet. Hannah, dear, the cabinet, draw three. Yes, ma'am.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: And the small cotton string book, draw one. Yes, ma'am.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: In a moment, dear, set a kettle on the hob.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: I will be ten minutes. In the parlour, Miss Marple
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: washed her hands at the basin, drew the string of
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: the cabinet book, and laid it open at the page marked,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: with her own violet ribbon, LD, 1922. She wrote at
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: the head, Lavinia Dune, 1878, correct, 1880, died February 5th, 1956,
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: the cordial bottle. Test of the cordial, found at Glevering
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Hall in the corner cupboard at the back of the pantry.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: behind the salts canister at three inches from the wall.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: The stopper was loose, but the cork had not been dislodged.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: The bottle was hot to the touch. The cork was moist.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: The contents smelled of wintergreen and something else. The contents
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: had been in their glass for some weeks. The cork
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: had been replaced not more than three days since. She paused,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: and with her glasses low on the bridge of her nose,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: wrote down, The cordials of Lavinia Doon were, in the
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: village habit of her speech, prescribed by her doctor. She
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: had not been a teetotaller, but she had been, in
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: her last five years, a woman of small spirits, and
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: the cordial was, on the doctor's instructions, a fortnight's allowance.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: The bottle was always at the cupboard in front row,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: and there was, by long custom, on its lip a label.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: She went and fetched the bottle from the trug. The
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: label was still on its lip. a thin printed rectangle
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: inscribed in the proper pen of a professional chemist, signed
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: at the foot with the small four-petalled stamp of Dr
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Ambrose Fitzhugh, M.D. Mistress Lavinia Doon. Cordial. To be mixed
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: with hot water at night. Four pennyweights of strong gin
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: to fourteen of cordial. One small cup. For sleep. Miss
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: Marple read it twice. She put the glass down. She said,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: Hannah dear, leave the teapot. I shall not be drinking.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: I shall be a quarter hour in the kitchen. Ma'am?
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: With the tin opener, dear, and one small pair of
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: scissors and a pair of clean kid gloves. Then bring
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: me the magnifying glass. Draw two. In the kitchen, with
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: the green glass bottle laid flat on her grandmother's deal table,
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: Miss Marple cut the cork out clean with a razor blade.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: She laid the cork on a saucer. At its inner end,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: A small ringwood splint held a thin vein of a dark,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: almost oily matter painted along its grain. She raised the
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: magnifying glass. The vein was the vein of a dried
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: bloom pressed into the cork. She tipped the contents into
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: a porcelain saucer and watched them settle. In the small puddle,
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: drained but still warm, was a crushed fragment of dried clematis,
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: four petals in tatters, a thin smudge of resin on
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: its black hair. She wrote, There are two cordials in
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: the village, made up by the doctor, and they have
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: two motives, and they are two secrets, and they meet
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: in one saliva cup. First motive, the cordial itself. The
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: cordial is mixed with hot water and with grain alcohol.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: The thallium in small quantity would be tasteless to a
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: woman who had eaten with the cordial a boiled sweet
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: and say, a violet, every night. The cold-pressed oil of
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: dried clematis in small quantity is toxic. Pressed into the
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: cork of the bottle, it would, on long standing, leach
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: into the cordial and form a slow, small, perfectly vectored dose, which,
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: taken at night in a cup of warm liquid, would
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: appear to the chemist and to the doctor, in a small,
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: urgent post-mortem, as a natural cardiac event in a woman
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: already in her seventy-fifth winter. SECOND MOTIVE The cork and
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: the clematis are not accidental. The doctor's seal is the clematis.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: His dispensing ledger uses a clematis watermark. His surgery has
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: a dozen pressed heads drying. His great-grandfather built up the
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: family stamp in 1879. His great-uncle was the steward at
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: the hall, and was, by the rural whisper of the time,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: Henry's natural father. Lavinia's brooch, which she wore every day,
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: was the birth gift of her sister Miriam, whose child
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: died in 1909 and who took her own life four
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: and twenty years later by thallium in 1933 in a
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: hotel in France. Now, the brooch in 1933 became the doctor's,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: not by theft, by inheritance. The steward had died in 1932,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: the doctor's family took the brooch as heirloom, the brooch
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: was pressed into the family seal, and the seal, in 1955,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: was placed by the doctor at the wax of the
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: vicarage letter. So they have both secrets, the doctor and Lavinia,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: and the only person at large who knows both is
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: the doctor. And the doctor, my dear, in a parish
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: where two secrets meet in one grave, is not the
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: same as the doctor who was at the funeral with
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: his head low and his eye on the vicar's wife.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: She reached for the tin opener. In the bottom of
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: the saucer, where the cordial had rested for a quarter hour,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: the small fragment of dried clematis had begun to release
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: very faintly an oily film. It was a colour she
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: had been familiar with since 1933, in a hotel in
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: a French village near Sissingham. She went to her cabinet.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: She wrote in the violet ribbon of LD 1922, The
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: two secrets in the one grave are these. First, the
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: marble is wrong. Lavinia falsified her birth and her brother's
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: to inherit a great-uncle's legacy. which had properly been for
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: Hyacinth Belk. The legacy is now in her estate and
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: reverts to Henry, except that, by the jointure, the brooch
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: reverts to her sister's line. The brother's line is the
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: doctor's line, through the steward. The doctor stands inside the
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: margin of Henry's small inheritance. Second, Henry is not a
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: dune by blood, he is a dune by marriage. The
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: brooch should, by the will, be returned to the Belk
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: line and held at the parish chest. The doctor is
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: Henry's uncle. The doctor must, for the steward's line, kill
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Lavinia before she sends the brooch to a proper solicitor,
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: and he did. Not on her Friday broth, on her
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: Friday cordial. She closed the cabinet. Hannah, who had not
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: heard a word of the cabinet, brought the teapot. Shall
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: I pour, ma'am? Not yet, dear. We have a small errand.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: The doctor's door is one street over. We shall leave
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: the bottle at his surgery, in exchange for the winter's
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: oranges he has been good enough to send. but we
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: shall not leave it at the door. We shall leave
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: it in his own hand. Yes, ma'am. And Hannah, dear,
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: after we come back, the green glass bottle is to
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: be placed, sealed, in the cabinet box. We must not
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: be seen with it. Yes, ma'am. And dear, while we
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: are out, I want no word of this to Mrs. Bantry,
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: who is a kind lady and will press me for
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: clematis and brooches and for the parish magazine at once.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: We are going for oranges. Yes, ma'am. and Hannah, who
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: had been at Miss Marple's elbow for eighteen years, murmured,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: The doctor's bicycle is in the lane, ma'am, with the
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: chain off the cog. Fiddle, dear, said Miss Marple. Let
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: us go. Section 6. The Tete-à-Tete at Dolly's It was
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: Lady Day by the calendar, and the village kept it
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: as the first of three days of Lenten darning, when
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: Dolly Bantry opened the green door of her aunt's house,
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: for the aunt was gone, to find her cousin Henry
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: in the passage with Miss Marple's small reticule at his
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: elbow and a half-peeled orange in his right hand. He
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: had not, she saw at once, come for company. He
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: had come for the clematis. The drawing-room was the same,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: in its half-glow. The lavender water by the mantle, the
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: high-boy with the photograph of the Uncle Alfred, a small
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: photograph of Lavinia as a girl of twenty, the dried
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: clematis wreath, a memorial of the funeral, pinned to the
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: ribbon of the parlour bell. The tea was set with
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: the bantry plate, four cups and saucers, the small russet teapot.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: Dolly had laid a place for Sir Henry Clithering, who
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: was on his way up from the station, a place
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: for the Colonel, who had fallen from the list of mourners,
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: a place for the Vicar, who would not come. There
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: was also a place for Miss Marple, who, when the
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: late morning post had been fetched, had written a polite
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: note to Dolly. My dear, I shall be there at
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: the half hour. Bring the photograph, the wreath, and, if
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: you will, the small black cloth pouch that you will
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: find in the silver drawer of the linen press. Henry
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: laid the orange down. He said, without preliminary, Aunt Dolly,
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: was my uncle an honest steward? No, Dolly said with
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: a small prim lift of her chin. No, she said
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: again after a pause, and laughed a little against her palm. Henry, dear, no.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: He was a very fine steward. He kept the books
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: at length for forty years. He never touched the family's packet.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: He was not an honest steward, in the sense your
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: mother meant, of self-denial. Your mother never set up a
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: high mark, but he was the kindest steward in three counties.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: He was, we would all say, the kindest man of
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: the parish. He was your mother's second cousin by marriage.
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: He was, by the family books, no relative of hers
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: at all. He was, however, by the books she kept
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: and the books I have, your father. My father. Yes, dear.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: Say on, Aunt Dolly. Your mother was married to him
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: in 1904. You were christened Henry in 1909, in the
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: church at St Mary's. The entry in the registry, the
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: entry which your mother's hand later amended, the amendment in
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: the margin is in her own hand, that the entry
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: which had been made by the bishop's register in 1918
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: was had been double-checked and found correct. The entry which
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: had been made by the bishop's register to support the
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: inheritance claim from her great-uncle in the year 1922 was
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: that she was born in 1878, two years earlier than
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: the parish register. Your mother had no brothers. The great-uncle's inheritance,
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: on the old entail of 1864, was for the only
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: surviving niece, born before 1880. Lavinia's elder sister died childless
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: in 1912. Lavinia's younger sister died of scarlet fever in
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: 1912 also. Hyacinth Belk was not, by the entail, eligible.
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: Hyacinth was a cousin. Lavinia, by falsifying the date of
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: her birth, claimed the inheritance. The date, my dear, the
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: date on the marble, is wrong. It is the same
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: date as the entry she had to invent. Henry set
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: his teacup down. He said, Then her elder sister, by
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: the entail, was Miriam. Miriam was the heir. Miriam died
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: in 1909 of childbirth. She died, not in childbirth, but
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: as a result of a particular act of medical attention,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: an abortion, administered by the doctor in Sissingham on the
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: 9th of January 1909. The doctor's name was Fitzhugh's great-uncle.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: The abortion was unsuccessful, and Miriam died of sepsis. How
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: do you know this, Henry? I have, my dear, in
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: my pocket, the second volume of Mr. Boreham's ledger for 1909.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: He handed it to me at the lawyer's office this morning.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: The ledger, which is in the parish chest, has, on
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: its inner page, the entry. The family of Miriam signed
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: a deed, under signature, attested by the steward, Alfred Dune,
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: disclaiming any inheritance by the unborn child. The deed was not,
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: by sound counsel, valid. The child, you, was born at
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: seven months. The child, you, died within a fortnight. The
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: death was reported. The birth was reported for Parrish as
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: the birth of Lavinia's own boy. The deed is mentioned
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: in the rector's terse note of the time. Lavinia, who
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: was twenty-four, took her sister Miriam's name as her own,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: and wore the clematis brooch of her sister every day
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: in her sister's place for forty-five years. And her husband?
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: Her husband, Alfred, stewarded the estate, and was, for the
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: year before his death, the doctor's medical student. The doctor's
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: family took him in. The doctor's family, in 1917, killed him.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: They set up, by then, the false medical certificate by
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: which Lavinia's sole heir, a boy of seven, would be
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: the doctor's relative. My dear, That is a very long stretch.
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: My dear, it is in the parish chest. Henry lifted
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: the photograph of his mother as a girl of twenty.
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: The brooch at the throat was the clematis. The girl
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: was dignified, slender, inscribed by an engraver's signature. The brooch
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: had been Miriam's. The girl had been called Mary Lavinia,
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: a goddaughter of the vicar's sister. She had never been
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: the heir of a great-uncle. The door opened. Sir Henry
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: Clithering came in, and the Colonel's wife, and the polite
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: echo of the hall behind them. Dolly rose. The day
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: was to be a long one, and Miss Marple had
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: not yet arrived. Dolly looked at the photograph of her
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: aunt and said, Set it back, my dear. She took
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: a small lump of sugar from the sugar bowl and
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: set it before the photograph, a custom of the bereaved.
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: Miss Marple arrived just after the half hour, in her
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: dark coat with the fur collar, two small heavy parcels
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: under her arm, one in stiff white paper, one in brown.
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: She sat at the head, where Henry had been. His
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: hat stood on the table. The ladies were silent. Dolly's
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: eyes went to the brown parcel. My dears, Miss Marple said,
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: I have brought two gifts. The first, for the parish,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: is a wreath of clematis. It is not, I fear,
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: in the first flushes. It is dried. But it is,
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: as lavenders are, more persistent, and I think the parish
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: will not object. The second is for you, Mr. Dune.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: I have carried it for some days. I think you
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: have a right to it. She opened the brown parcel.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: It was a small, black cloth pouch, tied with a
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: black thong. Inside was the clematis brooch, the silver filigree
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: mounting a pressed sprig of the flower, mounted on its
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: black velvet ribbon. The brooch was not the same one
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: Lavinia had worn. It was the other brooch. the one
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: that had been Miriam's, taken from the doctor's family silver
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: at the time of the abortive operation and pressed against
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: the doctor's family stamp. Miss Marple was showing it in
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: this small circle as evidence of two secrets held in
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: one grave. Henry took it. I have seen this before. Where,
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: my dear? In my mother's bedroom, on her dresser, on
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: the morning of her funeral. It was, then, locked in
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: the doctor's bag. Was it in the same brooch, my dear,
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: that Miss Marple spoke of at the churchyard, which Lavinia,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: was it not, wore every day of her life? If
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: we may have both brooches, one Miriam's, one Lavinia's, the
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: picture is a different one. They were, each, the gift
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: of an older sister to a younger one, two sisters,
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: both called by the family Lavinia, and the two brooches,
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: taken together, are gifts to each other. The doctor's family seal,
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: the clematis, was forged from the two. Sir Henry Clithering
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: lowered his head. Miss Marple, he said, you speak of
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: two brooches as of two halves of one thing. The doctor,
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: his brother, Alfred, the steward who took the operation, by
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: whose marriage Lavinia made Henry her own. These are not
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: two halves. They are the same man. Three halves, my dear,
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: said Miss Marple. The doctor, his brother Alfred, Lavinia, and Hyacinth. Hyacinth,
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: who was, by the French post-mortem at Bardouville, in March 1933,
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: but we must wait for the lawyer's dispatch on that point.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: It will arrive tomorrow. At the Lichgate that evening, Dolly's gardener, Mr. Sindon,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: was laying a fresh clod of earth at the eastern
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: side of the measured grave. He had been told to
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: do so by the vicar. The clod was a foot thick.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: He smoothed it. From the seed pods of the clematis,
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: the dry, pale winter pods that wound the cemetery rail,
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: a single black seed, blown by the wind, fell onto
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: the fresh earth. Clod of new earth covers clod of
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: dry clod, the village said, in such small, proper terms.
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: Section 7. The Second Grave Opened Thursday morning broke clear
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: and very cold, with an east wind that set the
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: vicar's weather-veins spinning as if called by name. the Reverend
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: Septimus March had shaken off his heavy heart of recent days.
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: Miss Marple had observed it in the careful way he
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: locked the vestry door, and the sexton, Josiah Graves, had
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: been at the cemetery since five, on his hands and knees,
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: marking out the second grave with a yard-line of white string.
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: Hyacinth Belk was to be interred at the half-past two,
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: the same unbroken custom of the parish. A single bell
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: at the gate, the curate's brief prayer, the mourners walking
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: backward in their black, the undertaker's men folding the trestles.
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: But this burial had a difference. The doctor had, the
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: evening before, written to the vicar a letter of two lines. R.V.
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: could not, on conscience, allow a second box to be
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: committed without a small witness. We'll attend with the chemist.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: The vicar had agreed. Sloane had been told. Inspector Polk
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: had been told. So the second grave, which Miss Marple
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: had measured on Tuesday, was to be opened by three gentlemen,
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: not one. The undertaker's cab was late. The bearers were
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: at the gate at twenty to two, their feathered hatbands
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: half stiff with the cold. They carried the coffin of
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: Hyacinth Belk, a slim oak box, freshly polished, with a
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: small silver plate at its head. Hyacinth Belk, Nay Doon, 1876-1956.
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: Beloved sister of Lavinia. The plate was wrong. Hyacinth was
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: not Lavinia's sister. Hyacinth was Lavinia's first cousin, twice removed.
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: The plate had been engraved by the doctor, who had
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: ordered it from Sims and Sons, Folkestone, on the Tuesday afternoon.
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: And the wording, sister, was, if lifted to the sunlight,
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: written in the small, four-petalled watermark that was the doctor's
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: family paper. Sloane took the plate into his hand. He
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: showed it to the vicar. Rector, this plate is not
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: parish plate. It is the doctor's. It is the same plate,
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: the vicar said, as was set on the family ledger. Sir,
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: with your permission, I will open the box. My dear Sloane,
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: on what authority? On my authority. On Inspector Polk's authority.
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: On the authority of the parish, in fact, for the
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: parish will demand it, sir. at the next vestry meeting,
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: when I shall call for the parish chest. The vicar
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: stepped back. Sloane took up the sexton's chisel. One tap,
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: two taps, and the lid of Hyacinth's coffin was loosened.
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: One further tap, and the lid was lifted. The interior
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: of the coffin was empty. The bearers drew a sharp breath.
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: The curate, who had been keeping a clean cuff distance,
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: looked up. The vicar said, Good God! Miss Marple, who
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: had been waiting on the path past the gate, came
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: forward at the curate's request. There is no English ceremony
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: like a sound mark for an Englishwoman listening to men
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: in an empty box, and stood, with cane in hand,
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: at the lip of the trench. She did not speak.
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: Mr Sloane, Miss Marple said very softly, where is Hyacinth's body?
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: She is at the funeral parlour at Sissingham, ma'am, in
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: the cold room. Is she properly interred? Not until three, ma'am.
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: And yet her box is open. Yes, ma'am. Mr. Sloan,
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: who ordered the plate? The doctor, ma'am, by his note.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: The doctor, sir, has had the plate engraved with the
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: words sister, which were not true, and with the family's
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: small flower, which is the doctor himself. The doctor's body
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: is not in the box. The doctor's note is, in
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: the legal sense, on a stationery he has used before. Josiah, dear. Yes, ma'am.
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: Tell me, was the doctor's plate sent through the post? No, ma'am,
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: he brought it himself. When did he bring it? On Tuesday,
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: the evening, in his bicycle. Was anyone with him? No, ma'am.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: Was the plate the first thing he set down at
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: the grave? Yes, ma'am. At seven o'clock, in the dark.
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: He worked by tallow. He said he would not sleep
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: if he hadn't done it. Did he take the plate
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: away with him? No, ma'am. He left it at the gate,
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: on the third bar. Was the plate still on the
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: third bar on Wednesday morning? No, ma'am. The sexton took
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: it inside at six. And the plate was set on
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: the box when? Just now, ma'am. The undertaker's men set
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: it on, when they brought the box in. The plate
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: was on the third bar on Tuesday night, on Wednesday
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: inside the vestry, and on Thursday just before the box
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: was opened. Between Tuesday night and Thursday morning, Mr. Sloan,
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: the doctor, has had the plate in his hands for
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: at least thirty-one hours. He has had the plate in
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: his hands, sir, with the box closed. He has had
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: the time of a parish thief, sir, to set the
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: plate at the box-head without anyone seeing, and to set
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: the panel of the box itself, for the panel at
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: the foot has been glued, very wet, with the doctor's
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: green wax, without anyone seeing. The internal fittings of the box, sir,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: will be found, on close inspection, to be those of
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: Lavinia Doone's coffin. Sloane bent down. He was a man
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: of six foot, stooped now, his moustache within an inch
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: of the wood. He touched the panel at the foot,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: and the touch of his fingers took a small, dark
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: smudge of green wax, very fresh, with a faint greasiness
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: to it. He lifted the smudge to his mouth. He
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: tasted it. Rosin, he said. Resin. The doctor pressed it
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: at his tallow. Miss Marple, from the path's edge, wrote
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: in her small notebook, Thursday, half-past two. The doctor set
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: the plate Tuesday, took the plate Wednesday, set the box Thursday.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: Two boxes, two plates, one cemetery. Two secrets, date of
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: birth and parentage, meet at the clematis. The plate is wrong.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: The box is wrong. The doctor's family seal, on the
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: plate and on the box, is the clematis. She went on,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: Mr Sloane, open the box of Lavinia Dune. The lid
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: is at the catacomb at the back of the cemetery.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: It has not yet been sealed. The plate on Lavinia's
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: box has been engraved by the parish. The plate on
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: Hyacinth's box has been engraved by the doctor. They were,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: the doctor told me Tuesday, both engraved at Sims and Sons.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: But the parish plate is third pattern. The doctor plate
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: is fourth pattern. They have been, sir, taken from two
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: boxes in two shops. The plate on Hyacinth's box was
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: a gift of a box's lid once carried by Lavinia's
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: elder sister in 1933 from France. The undertaker's man stepped forward. Ma'am,
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: I will open the second lid. The lid was raised.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: There was a smell in the catacomb which had not
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: been there earlier, a faint, very faint, cool sweetness of
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: pressed dockflowers. The contents of the second coffin, as it
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: lay in its cradle, were a small silver chain, a
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: sheet of green blotting paper, two pairs of scissors, a
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: folded envelope of black silk, a small black cloth pouch,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: the same that Dolly had received from Miss Marple the
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: day before. But in the pouch there was no brooch.
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: The brooch had, in the night, been moved to its
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: original sister at the doctor's surgery. Miss Marple took in
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: the inventory without comment. She said, Mr Sloane. Ma'am. Was
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: the doctor at his surgery this morning? He was, ma'am,
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: at eight. Did you see his bicycle? No, ma'am. It
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: is in the lane. The chain is unloosed. Sloane stared.
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: The curate, who had been at the gate for the
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: long twenty minutes, came forward. The day had been hijacked.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: Miss Marple said, Josiah, dear, help Mr Sloane to the
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: Sexton's shed. Winch the doctor's bicycle out of the lane.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: Let us not have the doctor's bicycle in our plant
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: for the burial. She paused and added, very quietly, And
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: let us not have the doctor's bicycle pressed against the clematis.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: The doctor, my dear, has an annual habit of pressing
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: clematis heads for his prescription cards. The clematis on his cards,
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: the clematis on his ledger, the clematis on his plate,
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: the clematis on his pocket, they are not the same
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: as the clematis of Miriam. they are the clematis of
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: the cemetery. She lifted, very tenderly, the small black cloth
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: pouch from the catacomb, and placed it in her reticule.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: The pouch was, like the rest of her, going home.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: The bell at the gate began to ring, and the
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: bell rang once, and twice, and three times, and was silent.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: Section 8 Miss Marple's Test Friday morning opened with a
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: wash of cold gold across the meadow by St Mary's,
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: and Miss Marple was, as she always was on the
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: days of her quiet tasks, in her apron before seven o'clock.
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: She had laid out on the deal table, in two
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: careful rows, twelve small sprigs of clematis, not the green
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: glossy sprigs of summer, but the dried seed pods of winter,
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: each tied with a number twelve silken thread. She had
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: with her the parish's printed list of mourners and well-wishers,
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: She had a plan. By nine o'clock, having drunk a
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: small dish of weak tea and a slice of bread
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: and butter, she sent Hannah to the village with twelve envelopes.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: Each envelope contained a single dried clematis seed pod, mounted
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: on a small slip of card, with a brief note.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: Dear friend, I am preparing a small wreath for the
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: mother's meeting, and I have not, this winter, been able
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: to gather clematis. If you have a sprig of dried
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: clematis in your pantry, be it but one head, please
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: send it to me at the cottage, for a small remembrance.
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: With thanks, you're obliged. J. M. The note was unsigned below.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: Twelve packets. Twelve recipients, picked by Miss Marple in such
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: a careful order that the twelfth packet reached Dr. Ambrose
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: Fitzhugh at quarter-past eleven, after the chemist's midday office closed.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: The recipients were Mrs. Flory Gladish, the blue boar, Mrs.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: Margaret March, the vicar's wife, Sir Henry Clithering, the Countess
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: of St. Cyr, an old friend from her girlhood in
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: the country, the Reverend Septimus March, Mr. Boreham, the curate Mr. Pye, Mr.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: Josiah Graves, the sexton, Mr. Sinden, the gardener, Mrs. Woolmer,
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: the postmistress, Colonel Melchett, and the doctor. Each sprig had
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: been gathered by Miss Marple at her grandfather's cottage, where
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: the family clematis had been cut down three years before,
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: and pressed for Miss Marple by her great-aunt in the
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: old fashion. The threads for the twelve sprigs were different.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: One was grey, one was black, one was green, one
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: was red. One had no thread at all. Hannah had
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: been told which packet which person was to receive. Miss
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: Marple had been told, by the chemist, the evening before,
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: what would happen if a person who has not dried
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: clematis in their pantry sends, under the polite cover of kindness,
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: a sprig back to the giver. The giver would, on inspection,
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: see that the sprig was not from the giver's stock,
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: would see, also, that the sprig had a particular resin,
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: the resin of the doctor's pressed clematis head, and would
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: see the colour of the thread. The doctor's stock of clematis,
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: in the doctor's dispensary, had been pressed with green thread.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: At five-thirty on Friday afternoon, Miss Marple sat at her parlour,
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: and Hannah, in three small heaps at her elbow, laid
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: down the twelve returns. Eleven of the returns were polite
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: little silver papers containing a single dried clematis head. The twelfth,
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: from the doctor, was a larger paper, neatly folded, with
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: a small sprig, pressed and dried, on a bright green thread.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: Miss Marple lifted the bright green thread. Hannah, dear. Ma'am.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: This is the doctor's clematis. Yes, ma'am. It is not
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: a dried head. It is a pressed head. of the
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: kind he presses for his prescription cards. And the green
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: thread is the doctor's medical stationery thread, in a grade
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: he carries from his great-grandfather's stock. We have, my dear,
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: twelve replies, of which eleven are as expected, and one
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: is the only reply that will help the parish to
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: its conclusion. She unrolled the paper on the doctor's reply.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: On its back, in a small hand that she recognised,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: was a note. Dear Miss Marple, of course. I have
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: many heads, gathered in October at the cemetery rail, and
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: dried by my own method. I enclose one. The resin,
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: in the preservation, is the village's old, and the resin will,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: I think, last another ten years. A.F. Miss Marple laid
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: the small sprig on the table. She said, Hannah, dear,
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: when I was a girl, my great-aunt pressed clematis for
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: the family. We took the green thread. We did not,
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: my dear, take the green thread from a doctor's stationery box.
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: There is, and the doctor is correct, a resin which lasts.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: But there is no green thread in our parish but
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: the doctor's, and the doctor has today confirmed, by his reply,
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: that he knows where the clematis of his dispensary is pressed,
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: and he has told us, my dear, that it is
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: pressed in October at the cemetery rail, by his own hand.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: There are, at his dispensary, twelve clematis heads, one for
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: each month of the year. The parish chest now has, sir,
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: his own confession. She took a small pair of scissors.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: She cut, from the doctor's pressed sprig, a single seed-pod.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: She set it on a card. She folded the card.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: Hannah dear, will you carry this card to Sir Henry
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: Clithering at the cottage by the church, and ask him,
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: if he will, to set it in the bench at
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: Evensong for the resurrection of Hyacinth Belk. At half-past six,
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: the curate went to the door of the doctor's surgery.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: Sloane was there. Inspector Polk was there. The polite knock
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: was answered by Mrs Plum. The curate said, We have
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: a small matter to lay before the doctor. Mrs Plum said,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: The doctor is at the cemetery. Sloane said, At the cemetery?
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: Mrs Plum said, He is, sir, at the cemetery, working
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: on the eastern edge of the dune plot. He has
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: told me he wished to reset the clematis rail, as
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: the packet of green thread has been delivered to him
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: by Hannah. Sloane went. Polk went. The curate went. By
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: seven o'clock they were at the lich gate, in the half-dark,
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: with the lanterns of the sexton and the lamps of
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: the vicarage. The doctor was on his knees at the
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: eastern rail. The green thread on the doctor's coat was
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: partly unrolled, uncut, along the lower rail of the cemetery.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: The doctor was using the thread, in his small, careful habit,
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: to mark the winter position of the seed-pods along the rail.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: Sloane took the doctor's arm. Doctor, by your courtesy, a
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: small matter. The doctor, on his knees, did not look up.
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: A small matter, sirs, is not the proper method of
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: administering a parish. The parish, sir, will speak with me
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: in the morning. It will not, sir. It will, Mr. Sloane,
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: for I have been for thirty years the doctor of
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: this parish, and I have earned the small right to
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: take my leisure in such matters as these. Good evening, sir.
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: Good evening, doctor. but I would have you for a moment.
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: The doctor, with a small, polite frown, looked up. He saw,
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: in Sloane's hand, the small card Miss Marple had set there.
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: He saw, in the curate's hand, the same card as
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: the curate had unfolded it for the bench. He saw,
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: in Paulk's hand, the bright green thread unravelled for an
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: inch and a half from the doctor's coat. He saw,
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: at the priest's bench, the doctor's sprig laid flat. He
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: looked at Sloane a long, quiet moment, and then at
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: the card. He said, Miss Marple has sent, I think,
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: a sprig of her own clematis. No, Doctor. And she
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: has set it on the bench for Evensong. Yes, Doctor. Then, sir,
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: I shall, if I may, take a small walk in
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: my own parish. He stood. He set his small, neat
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: black hat on his head. He walked with Sloane to
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: the Doctor's gate. By nine o'clock, Sloane had laid at
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: Sir Henry's bench the doctor's sprig, the curate's reply, Mrs
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: Plum's note of the doctor's movements, the doctor's medical stationery thread,
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: at the doctor's own discretion, and the ledger page from
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: the doctor's surgery. At nine-thirty, Miss Marple, in her parlour,
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: looked at the cabinet and said, Hannah, dear, the doctor,
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: by his reply, has confirmed the resin, the seed, the
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: green thread, and the pressed head. The doctor has, by
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: his own confession, told us, sirs, that the clematis of
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: the cemetery, the clematis of his dispensary, the clematis of
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: his plate, the clematis of his stationery, are the same plant.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: The doctor has, my dear, told us, by what he
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: has sent to me, that the plant he pressed in
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: his own dispensary, in October 1955, was, in every leaf
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: and in every seed, the clematis of the Doon family plot.
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: And Hannah said, Yes, ma'am. And the night drew on,
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: and the bell of St Mary's did not ring, and
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: the village was quiet, as if it had been waiting
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: all along for an Englishwoman to press a sprig against
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: the door of her small parlour and find the parish's secret,
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: cold and complete, in the doctor's own hand. Section 9.
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: The Quiet Assembly of Truth Saturday morning, after a thin
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: frost and a still night, The village drew its breath.
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: The mother's meeting took its tea in the vicarage parlour
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: at eleven, as it did every Saturday at eleven, and
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: the curate had been told by the vicar to look
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: away from any question about the cemetery. The mother's meeting,
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: in its small chorus of approval for scones and the
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: reverend's quiet way, did as it was bid. They did
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: not speak of the lich gate. They did not speak
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: of the second plate. They did not speak of the doctor.
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: But in Miss Marple's parlour, at the same hour, Fewer
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: than half a dozen persons sat with their teacups before them,
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: in a small assembly drawn, not by summons, but by
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: the lightest of written notes, by a kind lady who
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: had asked, of each of them, a small favour. The
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: first cup of Sir Henry Clithering sat at the head
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: of the table, a half-inch from his saucer. Boram, the lawyer,
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: sat opposite. Sloane, the coroner's officer, sat at the foot.
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: Mrs Plum, the doctor's housekeeper, sat at the right hand
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: of Miss Marple. Dolly Bantry sat at the left. The
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: Reverend's Septimus March sat a little further away, near the door,
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: his prayer-book open on his lap but unread. The curate
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: had been invited. He sent his regrets. Henry Doon had
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: been invited. He came at the end, in his dark overcoat,
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: his hat in his hand, his face at last pale
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: with the day. Hannah, dear, said Miss Marple, the silver tray,
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: if you please. Hannah set down the silver tray. On
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: it were the parish chest's twelve envelopes, the doctor's reply,
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: the silver filigree brooch, the small pressed clematis head in
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: green thread, the doctor's medical ledger, the parish certificate of death,
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: the chemist's laboratory report, the small blackcloth pouch, the bits
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: of the second grave's panel, the cold stone of the
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: eastern rail of the dune plot, and a piece of
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: cotton string from the doctor's dispensary. Lavinia's cord, brushed for
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: thirty-five winters, had been set with a single knot of
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: green wax into a small red box. Miss Marple, having
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: set the tray, drew her hands together and began. My dears,
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: she said, we have come here today, as we have
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: not in twenty years, to settle in this village whether
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: we have been wrong. We have not. We have been right.
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: We have not been wise. The village, sirs, has been
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: the proper keeper of two secrets. and the doctor, in
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: his haste, has been the only one who knew both,
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: and so he has been the only one who could kill.
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: She paused. Mr. Sloan, will you read the chemist's report, sir,
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: as you have it in your hand? It is here, ma'am. Thallium,
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: in the broth of Friday 5 February, in a quantity
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: consistent with deliberate admixture. No other poison indicated. The salt tin,
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: on inspection at Sims and Sons, Folkestone, was found to
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: be the doctor's stock. and the lot number matches his
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: September receipt at the chemist's. The receipt, sir, was signed
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: by the doctor on the 23rd of September, 1955. The
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: receipt was for rodenticide for the Vicarage Garden, which, by
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: the sexton, was never laid out. Sloane set the report down.
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: He said, Ma'am, for purposes of the parish, would you
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: be so kind as to ask Mr. Boreham, sir, for
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: the disposition of the great-uncle's entail? Boreham said very quietly,
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: Great Uncle Honourable Edward Darcy Doon, of Darcy Park, died
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: on the twelfth the curate nodded once, very gravely. Sloane
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: set his cap under his hat. Mrs Plum, with a
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: sigh like a small polite bell, set her teacup down.
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: At the Lichgate, late Saturday morning, the curate had set
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: a small wreath of dried clematis in the village's old way,
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: on the eastern rail of the Doon plot, with a
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: single pressed head at its centre. The head was the doctor's,
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: in green thread. Sloane and Pork had set the second plate,
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: by parish instruction, on Hyacinth's box. Miss Marple, before she
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: walked home by the Brackengate, had gone to the eastern
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: rail and had set, in a small glass jar, the
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: brooch in its black velvet ribbon with the doctor's pressed head.
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: She had stopped very briefly and had said, not for
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: the curate's hearing, tomorrow, sir, at the half-past two. Section 10.
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: The Reveal at the Cottage It is Sunday morning. The
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: bells of St Mary's, after thirty-six hours of deliberately held silence,
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: ring a single muffled tone, for a death that is
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: not yet a death, and a sin that is not
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: yet a sin, and the village holds still in its
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: pew-end stillness. Inside the small cottage at No. 4, the
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: lace curtains are drawn against the pale gold of the day,
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: and Miss Marple, white-haired, with the great silver tray before her,
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: sits at her card-table, her hands folded on the small
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: grey book which is her life-annotated ledger of deeds. She
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: is not alone. At the foot of her table sits
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: the curate. At the head, Sir Henry Clithering, Boram the lawyer,
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: Sloane the coroner's officer, Inspector Pulk, Henry Doon, Mrs Plum
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: the doctor's housekeeper, Dolly Bantry, and at the parlour door,
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: with his hat in his hand, the doctor. Miss Marple has,
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: in her life, given very few speeches. Today she gives one.
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: My dears, she says, I would have you listen for
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: an hour without interruption, and then I will take questions.
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: The first thing I shall set before the parish is this.
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: The lavenders at Glevering Hall were not the lavenders of
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: daily remembrance. They are the lavenders of Lavinia's sister, Miriam,
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: and they have been pressed into a wreath, and a
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: wreath in this parish is a memorial. That wreath has
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: been hanging on the ribbon of the bell-pull at Dolly
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: Bantry's cottage for thirty-six hours. It has not been taken down.
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: It has not been removed by the curate. It has
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: been left there in his quiet custom of his church.
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: She paused and drew out the second small cord, the
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: doctor's cord, from the red box. The second thing I
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: shall set before the parish, she says, is the green thread.
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: The doctor's green thread. for thirty-one October seasons, has been
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: pressed into every clematis head at his dispensary. The green
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: thread is the doctor's seal. It has been for thirty-three
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: years on every prescription card the doctor has written. It
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: has been, my dears, the doctor's family mark. She paused
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: and held up her hand. Now I shall speak of
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: two secrets and of one killer. Three things in three parts.
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: Secret the first, the date. Lavinia Doone was born in 1880,
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: not 1878. She, at the behest of her eldest sister Miriam,
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: falsified the date in order to claim her great-uncle's entail.
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: She was a Belk by birth, a Doone by marriage.
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: By the entail, the Darcy Park estate should have gone,
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: by right of birth, to Miriam, and then to Miriam's
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: eldest daughter. None. Lavinia, in 1922, set down on the
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: parish register, by her own hand and by the doctor's
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: great-uncle's witness, the false date of 1878, and took the estate.
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: Secret II. Henry's Parentage Henry is the issue of Miriam,
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: born of the steward Alfred Doone, who was, by family connection,
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: the doctor's own great-uncle. Miriam died in 1909 of a
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: botched operation. The steward married Lavinia in the same year.
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: Lavinia raised Henry. Lavinia wore, every day for 45 years,
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: the clematis brooch that was Miriam's 20th birthday gift. The
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: brooch is, by family right, both Miriam's and Lavinia's and Henry's.
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: The steward's line folded into the doctor's family. Killer, the one.
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: The doctor. Ambrose Fitzhugh, M.D. The doctor's great-uncle was the
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: steward who married Lavinia, and the doctor who administered the
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: operation on Miriam in 1909. The doctor, in 1955, learned
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: that Lavinia had arranged by safe hand for the brooch
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: to be sent to a London solicitor for the lawful
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: heirs of Belk's eldest surviving niece. The doctor knew that
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: this bequest had stripped his family of its heir's claim.
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: He knew the cordial would be administered on the Friday
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: by his own prescription, since the doctor's seal had been
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: on the bottle in the cupboard at Glevering Hall. He
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: added his own pressed clematis head to the cordial by
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: pressing the head into the cork at his surgery on
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: the Thursday evening. By such a small act, Mr. Pork,
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: by a small dose of thallium in a pressed clematis
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: head in the cork of a small bottle at the
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: cupboard of a small Englishwoman, Lavinia was poisoned. The poison
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: was not in the broth. The poison was in her cordial,
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: which she had taken at the inn in a small
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: cup with hot water and a violet sweet, on the
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: night of the Friday before her broth. She leaned forward.
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: The doctor, my dears, did not kill Lavinia in the broth.
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: The doctor killed her in the cordial. He was not
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: in the kitchen of the Blue Boar on Friday. He
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: was in the dispensary on Thursday, in his apron, with
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: his green wax and his pressed head. The cook, Mrs Gladish,
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: has been cleared, had nothing in her kitchen but six
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: minutes of rest in the kitchen garden. The doctor did
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: not know that thallium, in dried clematis head form, would
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: leave unmistakable traces of the pressed clematis, of the green thread,
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: of his own hand. He had assumed, and this was
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: his error, that his clematis in every stationery sheet, his
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: green wax in his seal, his small brown gown of
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: parish friendship, would hide the truth. The doctor was wrong.
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: He had his small flower on every prescription card for
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: thirty-three winters. He had his small flower pressed into the
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: cemetery rail in October by his own hand. He did
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: not know that clematis, pressed, in green wax, in the
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: cork of a cordial bottle, on a Thursday evening, would
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: draw itself out of the cork, into the cordial, and
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: into the Englishwoman's throat. He had forgotten that the cold-pressed
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: oil of Clematis, kept many years, blooms a thin resin
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: of the colour of his great-grandfather's stationery, and that the resin,
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: on the salt rim of a cup of hot water,
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: leaves a thin oily stripe of a hue the chemist
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: had observed only once. It was at that moment, with
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: the bell still ringing— that the curate set down the
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: wreath he had been holding. In his other hand was
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: the small black cloth pouch in which had been sitting
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: two brooches, the silver filigree clematis of Miriam's gift, and,
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: extracted from Hyacinth's second box, the same brooch in green
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: waxed mount that had been the doctor's seal. The curate,
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: with the air of one making an indelible vow, said,
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: Miss Marple, by your leave. By mine, my dear. Sloane stood.
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: Pork stood. Sir Henry stood. The doctor's eyes flickered. He said, Ma'am,
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: this is a misunderstanding. Doctor, this is not a misunderstanding.
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: This is your own press, your own seal, your own
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: clematis in the cork of a small bottle at Glevering Hall.
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: Your own hand on a Thursday evening with a green
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: wax thread pressed against the rind of Miriam's head. Your
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: own doctor. The doctor drew a breath and set his
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: medical bag flat on the table. I am, by the
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: parish's standard, a sinner. By my own standard, a thief.
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: I have not, however, killed Lavinia Doon. Doctor, said Miss Marple,
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: the dose was not clinical. It was the chemist's half-strength.
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: It is not your manner to give a clinical dose
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: on a Thursday in October. It is your manner to
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: give a small, very gentle, very medicinal dose of the
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: cold-pressed oil of clematis. the resin of which was not
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: noticed in 1933 at the Hotel du Parc, at Bar
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: du Ville, when an Englishwoman took her own life by thallium.
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: The same dose, my dear doctor. The same dose that
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: Miriam took upon her own death. She paused and looked
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: at Henry, who had not raised his hat. My dear Henry,
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: your mother was, in life, a belk, not a dune.
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: By marriage, a dune. By her sister's death, the holder
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: of a small pressed flower. The doctor, by the village's
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: proper accounting, is the steward Alfred's nephew, Lavinia's brother-in-law. The
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: curate stepped forward. Henry, pale, lifted his chin. Polk laid
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: his hand on the doctor's shoulder. Sloane laid his notebook
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: on the table. Doctor, I shall have to ask for
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: a word outside. The doctor drew himself upright. He set
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: his hat in place. Inspector, let us have, if you
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: will— One small cup of hot water first, for my head. Sir,
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: you shall have water. The doctor went to the door.
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: He turned and looked at Miss Marple. My dear, he said,
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: I have not killed Lavinia Doon, but I have given
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: her the same dose in 1956 that I gave her
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: sister in 1909. It was at that moment, and not before,
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: that Miss Marple closed her cabinet book. She stood. She
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: said to Henry, My dear, I am, sir, very sorry.
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: It will pass, ma'am. It will not, my dear, entirely.
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: The bell at St Mary's rang three times. The brooches
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: were set in a small parcel of black silk in
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: the safe at Glevering. The doctor's bicycle was wheeled to
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: the gate. His hat went to the curate, his apron
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: to his housekeeper. Miss Marple sat and said to Hannah, Hannah, dear,
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: the kettle. then the curtains. I shall sit this afternoon,
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: and not speak and not move, and I shall listen
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: for the bell. Yes, ma'am. Polk and Sloane went out,
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: very quietly, by the lane. Section 11. Aftermath. A single clematis.
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: The bells of St Mary Mead did not ring again
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: that week. The sky, on the Monday morning after, was
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: a low pewter ceiling pressed down over the chimneys. the
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: rooks in the yew sat hunched and quiet, and only
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: the soft dripping of thaw from the cemetery rail marked
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: the long, slow motion of the village back into its small,
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: unbroken habits. Miss Marple, in her parlour at No. 4,
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: with Hannah at the elbow and the kettle on the hob,
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: watched the postman cross the lane, watched the doctor's bicycle— no,
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: it was gone— watched Henry Doone cross from Glevering, his black
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: coat unbuttoned at the throat, his head at last unbowed.
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: He had come up the path with Dolly at his side,
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: and his hands were clean of gloves. He held in
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: his right the small parcel of black silk that the
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: curate had entrusted to him on Saturday, the two brooches,
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: the silver filigree of Miriam, and the green waxed mount
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: of the doctor's seal, and in his left a single
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: sprig of dried clematis, of the sort the village women
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: had pressed for their sisters in the old way. He
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: set it, without a word, on the small table by
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: Miss Marple's chair. The great-uncle's entail, he said. by which
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: I am one of two remaining heirs, the other, Boram
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: set down, being the doctor, now under magistrate's instruction at
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: the county, falls to the eldest niece of Miriam. That niece, ma'am,
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: is my aunt Dorothea, of Folkestone, in poor health. The
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: next is, by the same entail, of a person unknown
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: to me. The next after that is me. And the
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: eldest niece of the dovetail was Lavinia's eldest sister, Mary.
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: of no record except the parish register of Sissingham of 1866,
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: the year of Lavinia's mother-in-law's birth. Miss Marple set her
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: teacup down. She drew out the small violet ribbon of
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: her cabinet book. My dear Henry, she said, the eldest niece,
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: by Mary, was, in the parish register of Sissingham, 1866,
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: the eldest daughter of a vicar's sister. The eldest, by
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: a small chain of events, was Mary Anne's elder sister,
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: who had been disowned for an affair in 1858 with
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: the steward of Darcy Park, and who, on her deathbed
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: in 1866, took her sister's name, on receiving a small
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: pressed clematis at her ear. My dear, I shall not
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: press that story on the parish in this hour. The
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: elder niece is, by the copy of the parish register,
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: the elder sister's eldest daughter. That daughter was Eleanor Fitzhugh,
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: who married a surgeon in Sissingham. That surgeon was the
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: doctor's grandfather. The eldest niece's eldest son was the doctor's great-uncle, Alfred,
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: the steward, who married Lavinia, and who was also, my dear,
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: the doctor. Henry was very still. My dear Henry, said
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: Miss Marple, you are, by the entail, the one great-uncle's
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: great-niece's eldest's eldest's eldest's great-grandson, through Eleanor Fitzhugh. The doctor,
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: by the same entail, is that same one's, through his
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: own branch, nephew. The village, by this measure, has had
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: two lawful heirs unto the eleventh generation, and one of them,
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: my dear, has been a murderer, and the other, my dear,
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: has been a widow, and the other, my dear, is yourself.
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: She paused again and said more gently, My dear Henry,
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: this is a long and painful path, and I will not, sir,
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: press it further upon you. The will of 1949, is
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: in the parish chest. The doctor's arrest is in the
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: county record. The brooches are in the parish chest. The
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: clematis is in the cemetery rail, in the small jar
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: by the vicar. Henry set his gloves down. Ma'am, I
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: shall go home today. I shall, in the next month,
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: set the village church a subscription for its organ. I
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: shall set the brooches, in their black silk, in the
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: parish safe, where they belonged. until the eldest ancestor's proper
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: heir has declared herself. In the spring I shall, at Sissingham,
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: lay a wreath on the elder sister's grave, and I shall, ma'am,
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: by the small clematis in the jar at the cemetery,
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: be at peace. Miss Marple took his hand. She said,
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: My dear Henry, we have in our small way all
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: been wrong. We have in our small way all been right.
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: Lavinia was, by the village's small, proper accounting, an honest
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: woman of her class, until six Friday ago. Lavinia's sister
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: Miriam was, by Lavinia's accounting, the small sister who had
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: gone to France in 1933 and not returned. The doctor,
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: by his own accounting, was the small English doctor with
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: a habit of clematis, pressed at the cemetery rail. We have,
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: my dear, all been gossips ourselves, and have all been
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: properly punished for our gossip. The village will, ma'am, be
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: a small English village of gossips and of a small
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: English doctor's bitter clematis. And we, sir, will go on.
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: Henry rose. He held out his hand. He kissed Miss
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: Marples very gently and said, Ma'am. Dolly Bantry, who had
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: been in the kitchen, came in with a small bunch
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: of rosemary and thyme and said with a small bright tear,
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: Miss Marple, we thank you. My dear Dolly, said Miss Marple,
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: We have, as all villages must, of every English yard,
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: lost a great unkindness to a small kindness. We shall
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: be at peace again by the spring. Set the screens
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: at the door. She rose, she crossed the parlour, she
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: took the small sprig of clematis Henry had left at
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: her chair, and set it, very gently, in a small
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: glass jar of forced water on the parlour sill. From
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: the kitchen Hannah went up the stair with the kettle.
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: and Dolly's small boy, who was Henry's small cousin by
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: a sister of Lavinia's, married to an attorney of Folkestone,
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: ran to the gate with the curate's daughter, and ran
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: with a small shout, The bells! The bells! The bells
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: of St Mary's, which had not rung since Thursday, rang
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: out two clear peals for the village's silence to be
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: at an end. The bell at Glevering, which had been
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: silent for thirty-six hours, rang out its one low note.
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: The bell at the mother's meeting at number 12 rang
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: twice by the curate's daughter in her small piety. The
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: doctor's bicycle was gone. The doctor's small clay pot at
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: the dispensary was gone. The doctor's wagon lantern in the
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: lane was gone. The doctor's hat in the curate's safe
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: was gone. The village that afternoon was itself, small, English, ordinary,
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: broken in one place and stitched in another. The mother's
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: meeting sat at the vicar's table with their small tear,
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: and the bell rang out at vesper time for a
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: parish that had not been quite right for some weeks,
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: and was now, by the bell's small courtesy, on its
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: way back. The rooks had not gone. The rooks were
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: in the yew. Miss Marple sat in her parlour at
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: her card-table, and watched the small clematis on her sill
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: begin its quiet, very slow, unfurling leaf by leaf. She was,
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: as always, at ease with the village and at peace.
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: She would, in the coming year, by the smallest of
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: small acts, by the small green thread of the doctor's
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: seal and the silver filigree of Miriam's brooch, see that
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: the parish was at last restored. And, at the Lichgate
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: in the late afternoon, the curate with his prayer book
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: walked with Henry. The curate's small daughter was in his arms,
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: Sir Henry Clithering was at his elbow. The morning star
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: was setting very low over the cemetery rail. The ewe
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: was at rest. The bell stopped. The bell did not
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: ring again. The bell rang in the village for the
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: last time that day. And Miss Marple, in her small
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: parlour by the small clematis and the kettle and the
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: vicar's curate and the small broken parish of St Mary Mead,
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: drew the curtain. The End