文档介绍：The Red House Mystery
The Red House Mystery
by . Milne
1
The Red House Mystery
TO JOHN VINE MILNE MY DEAR FATHER,
Like all really nice people, you have a weakness for detective stories,
and feel that there are not enough of them. So, after all that you have
done for me, the least that I can do for you is to write you one. Here it
is: with more gratitude and affection than I can well put down here.
.
2
The Red House Mystery
CHAPTER I
Mrs. Stevens is Frightened
In the drowsy heat of the summer afternoon the Red House was
taking its siesta. There was a lazy murmur of bees in the flower-borders,
a gentle cooing of pigeons in the tops of the elms. From distant lawns
came the whir of a mowing-machine, that most restful of all country
sounds; making ease the sweeter in that it is taken while others are
working.
It was the hour when even those whose business it is to attend to the
wants of others have a moment or two for themselves. In the
housekeeper's room Audrey Stevens, the pretty parlourmaid, re-trimmed
her best hat, and talked idly to her aunt, the cook-housekeeper of Mr. Mark
Ablett's bachelor home.
"For Joe?" said Mrs. Stevens placidly, her eye on the hat. Audrey
nodded. She took a pin from her mouth, found a place in the hat for it,
and said, "He likes a bit of pink."
"I don't say I mind a bit of pink myself," said her aunt. "Joe Turner
isn't the only one."
"It isn't everybody's colour," said Audrey, holding the hat out at arm's
length, and regarding it thoughtfully. "Stylish, isn't it?"
"Oh, it'll suit you all right, and it would have suited me at your age.
A bit too dressy for me now, though wearing better than some other people,
I daresay. I was never the one to pretend to be what I wasn't. If I'm
fifty-five, I'm fifty-five - that's what I say."
"Fifty-eight, isn't it, auntie?"
"I was just giving that as an example," said Mrs. Stevens with great
dignity.
Audrey threaded a needle, held her hand out