The A B C Murders / Убийство по алфавиту. Книга для чтения на английском языке

’

�But surely that’s a scientific impossibility!’

�Not at all.’

�But that’s very extraordinary. It seems against nature.’

�As usual, Hastings, you have the beautiful and unsuspicious mind. Years do not change that in you! You perceive a fact and mention the solution of it in the same breath without noticing that you are doing so!’

I stared at him, puzzled.

Without a word he walked into his bedroom and returned with a bottle in his hand which he handed to me.

I took it, for the moment uncomprehending.

It bore the words:

Revivit.—To bring back the natural tone of the hair. Revivit is not a dye. In five shades, Ash, Chestnut, Titian, Brown, Black.

�Poirot,’ I cried. �You have dyed your hair!’

�Ah, the comprehension comes to you!’

�So that’s why your hair looks so much blacker than it did last time I was back.’

�Exactly.’

�Dear me[7 - Dear me – Боже мой],’ I said, recovering from the shock.

�I suppose next time I come home I shall find you wearing false moustaches—or are you doing so now?’

Poirot winced. His moustaches had always been his sensitive point. He was inordinately proud of them. My words touched him on the raw[8 - to touch smb. on the raw – задеть за живое].

�No, no, indeed, mon ami[9 - mon ami (фр.) – мой друг]. That day, I pray the good God, is still far off.

The false moustache! Quelle horreur![10 - Quelle horreur! (фр.) – Какой ужас!]�

He tugged at them vigorously to assure me of their genuine character.

�Well, they are very luxuriant still,’ I said.

�N’est ce pas?[11 - N’est ce pas? (фр.) – Не правда ли?] Never, in the whole of London, have I seen a pair of moustaches to equal mine.’

A good job too, I thought privately. But I would not for the world have hurt Poirot’s feelings by saying so.

Instead I asked if he still practised his profession on occasion.

�I know,’ I said, �that you actually retired years ago—’

�C’est vrai.[12 - C’est vrai. (фр.) – Это правда.] To grow the vegetable marrows[13 - vegetable marrow – кабачок; тыква]! And immediately a murder occurs—and I send the vegetable marrows to promenade themselves to the devil.