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

�Pardon?’

�Just a couple of proverbs. Well, I must be off. Got a little business in the next street to see to—receiving stolen jewellery. I thought I’d just drop in on my way and put your mind at rest. Pity to let those grey cells function unnecessarily.’

With which words and a hearty laugh, Japp departed.

�He does not change much, the good Japp, eh?’ asked Poirot.

�He looks much older,’ I said. �Getting as grey as a badger,’ I added vindictively.

Poirot coughed and said:

�You know, Hastings, there is a little device—my hairdresser is a man of great ingenuity—one attaches it to the scalp and brushes one’s own hair over it—it is not a wig, you comprehend—but —’

�Poirot,’ I roared.

�Once and for all[35 - Once and for all – Раз и навсегда] I will have nothing to do with the beastly inventions of your confounded hairdresser. What’s the matter with the top of my head?’

�Nothing—nothing at all.’

�It’s not as though I were going bald.

’

�Of course not! Of course not!’

�The hot summers out there naturally cause the hair to fall out a bit. I shall take back a really good hair tonic.’

�Précisément.[36 - Précisément. (фр.) – Правильно.]’

�And, anyway, what business is it of Japp’s? He always was an offensive kind of devil. And no sense of humour. The kind of man who laughs when a chair is pulled away just as a man is about to sit down.’

�A great many people would laugh at that.

’

�It’s utterly senseless.’

�From the point of view of the man about to sit, certainly it is.’

�Well,’ I said, slightly recovering my temper. (I admit that I am touchy about the thinness of my hair.) �I’m sorry that anonymous letter business came to nothing.’

�I have indeed been in the wrong[37 - to be in the wrong – ошибаться] over that. About that letter, there was, I thought, the odour of the fish. Instead a mere stupidity.

Alas, I grow old and suspicious like the blind watch-dog who growls when there is nothing there.’

�If I’m going to co-operate with you, we must look about for some other “creamy” crime,’ I said with a laugh.

�You remember your remark of the other day? If you could order a crime as one orders a dinner, what would you choose?’

I fell in with[38 - to fall in with – поддержать, присоединиться] his humour.