Title:A Caribbean Mystery (Miss Marple Mysteries)
Author(s): Agatha Christie
Publisher(s): Signet Books
Pages: 224
Year: 2000
Format: EPUB
Language: English
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The old lady was really taking it very well, he thought. Major Palgrave, he presumed, had probably come across the snapshot when taking something out of his wallet, and not even realising how it had come there, had torn it up as something of no importance. But of course it was of great importance to this old lady. Still, she seemed quite cheerful and philosophical about it.
Internally, however, Miss Marple was far from being either cheerful or philosophical. She wanted a little time in which to think things out, but she was also determined to use her present opportunities to the fullest effect. She engaged Dr. Graham in conversation with an eagerness which she did not attempt to conceal. That kindly man, putting down her flow of talk to the natural loneliness of an old lady, exerted himself to divert her mind from the loss of the snapshot, by conversing easily and pleasantly about life in St. Honore, and the various interesting places perhaps Miss Marple might like to visit. He hardly knew himself how the conversation drifted back to Major Palgrave$prime;s decease.
«It seems so sad,» said Miss Marple, «to think of anyone dying like this away from home. Though I gather, from what he himself told me, that he had no immediate family. It seems he lived by himself in London.»
«He travelled a fair amount, I believe,» said Dr. Graham. «At any rate in the winters. He didn$prime;t care for our English winters. Can$prime;t say I blame him.»
«No, indeed,» said Miss Marple. «And perhaps he had some special reason like a weakness of the lungs or something which made it necessary for him to winter abroad?»
«Oh no, I don$prime;t think so.»
«He had high blood pressure, I believe. So sad. Nowadays one hears so much of it.»
«He spoke about it to you, did he?»
«Oh no. No, he never mentioned it. It was somebody else who told me.»
«Ah, really.»
«I suppose,» went on Miss Marple, «that death was to be expected under those circumstances.»
«Not necessarily,» said Dr. Graham. «There are methods of controlling blood pressure nowadays.»
«His death seemed very sudden—but I suppose you weren$prime;t surprised.»
«Well I wasn$prime;t particularly surprised in a man of that age. But I certainly didn$prime;t expect it. Frankly, he always seemed to me in very good form, but I hadn$prime;t ever attended him professionally. I$prime;d never taken his blood pressure or anything like that.»
«Does one know—I mean, does a doctor know—when a man has high blood pressure just by looking at him?» Miss Marple inquired with a kind of dewy innocence.
«Not just by looking,» said the doctor, smiling. «One has to do a bit of testing.»
«Oh I see. That dreadful thing when you put a rubber band round somebody$prime;s arm and blow it up—I dislike it so much. But my doctor said that my blood pressure was really very good for my age.»
«Well that$prime;s good hearing,» said Dr. Graham.
«Of course, the Major was rather fond of Planters Punch,» said Miss Marple thoughtfully.
«Yes. Not the best thing with blood pressure—alcohol.»
«One takes tablets, doesn$prime;t one, or so I have heard?»
«Yes. There are several on the market. There was a bottle of one of them in his room—Serenite.»
«How wonderful science is nowadays,» said Miss Marple. «Doctors can do so much, can$prime;t they?»
«We all have one great competitor,» said Dr. Graham. «Nature, you know. And some of the good old-fashioned home remedies come back from time to time.»
«Like putting cobwebs on a cut?» said Miss Marple. «We always used to do that when I was a child.»