The Murder at the Vicarage-26
The 
Murder at the Vicarage
Chapter Twenty - Six
I was in a strange mood when I mounted the pulpit that night.
The church was unusually full. I cannot believe that it was the 
prospect of Hawes preaching which had attracted so many. Hawes＊s sermons are full and 
dogmatic. And if the news had got round that I was preaching instead, that would not have 
attracted them either. For my sermons are dull and scholarly. Neither, I am afraid, can I 
attribute it to devotion.
Everybody had come, I concluded, to see who else was there, and 
possibly to exchange a little gossip in the church porch afterward.
Haydock was in church, which is unusual, and also Lawrence Redding. 
And, to my surprise, beside Lawrence I saw the white, strained face of Hawes. Anne 
Protheroe was there, but she usually attends Evensong on Sundays, though I had hardly 
thought she would today. I was far more surprised to see Lettice. Church 每 going was 
compulsory on Sunday morning 每 Colonel Protheroe was adamant on that point 每 but I had 
never seen Lettice at evening service before.
Gladys Cram was there, looking rather blatantly young and healthy 
against a background of wizened spinsters, and I fancied that a dim figure at the end of 
the church, who had slipped in late, was Mrs. Lestrange.
I need hardly say that Mrs. Price Ridley, Miss Hartnell, Miss Wetherby, 
and Miss Marple were there in full force. All the village people were there, with hardly a 
single exception. I don＊t know when we have had such a crowded congregation.
Crowds are queer things. There was a magnetic atmosphere that night, 
and the first person to feel its influence was myself.
As a rule, I prepare my sermons beforehand. I am careful and 
conscientious over them, but no one is better aware than myself of their deficiencies.
Tonight I was of necessity preaching ex tempore, and as I looked 
down on the sea of upturned faces, a sudden madness entered my brain. I ceased to be in 
any sense a minister of God. I became an actor. I had an audience before me and I wanted 
to move that audience 每 and more, I felt the power to move it.
I am not proud of what I did that night. I am an utter disbeliever in 
the emotional revivalist spirit. Yet that night I acted the part of a raving, ranting 
evangelist.
I gave out my text slowly.
※I am come to call now the righteous but the sinners to repentance.§
I repeated it twice, and I heard my own voice, a resonant, ringing 
voice unlike the voice of the everyday Leonard Clement.
I saw Griselda from her front pew look up in surprise, and Dennis 
follow her example.
I held my breath for a moment or two, and then I let myself rip.
The congregation in that church were in a state of pent 每 up emotion, 
ripe to be played upon. I played upon them. I exhorted sinners to repentance. I lashed 
myself into a kind of emotional frenzy. Again and again I threw out a denouncing hand and 
reiterated the phrase:
※I am speaking to you.§
And each time, from different parts of the church, a kind of sighing 
gasp went up.
Mass emotion is a strange and terrible thing.
I finished up with those beautiful and poignant words 每 perhaps the 
most poignant words in the whole Bible: ※This very night shall thy soul be required 
of thee.§
It was a strange, brief possession. When I got back to the Vicarage I 
was my usual faded, indeterminate self. I found Griselda rather pale. She slipped her arm 
through mine.
※Len,§ she said. ※You were rather terrible tonight. I 每 I didn＊t 
like it. I＊ve never heard you preach like that before.§
※I don＊t suppose you ever will again,§ I said, sinking down 
wearily on the sofa. I was tired.
※What made you do it?§
※A sudden madness came over me.§
※Oh! It 每 it wasn＊t something special?§
※What do you mean 每 something special?§
※I wondered 每 that was all. You＊re very unexpected, Len. I never 
feel I really know you.§
We sat down to cold supper, Mary being out.
※There＊s a note for you in the hall,§ said Griselda. ※Get it, 
will you, Dennis?§
Dennis, who had been very silent, obeyed.
I took it and groaned. Across the top left 每 hand corner was written: 
By hand 每 urgent.
※This,§ I said, ※must be from Miss Marple. There＊s no one else 
left.§
I had been perfectly correct in my assumption.
Dear Mr. Clement,
I should so much like to have a little chat with you about one or two 
things that have occurred to me. I feel we should all try and help in elucidating this sad 
mystery. I will come over about half past nine, if I may, and tap on your study window. 
Perhaps dear Griselda would be so very kind as to run over here and cheer p my nephew. And 
Mr. Dennis, too, of course, if he cares to come. If I do not hear, I will expect them and 
will come over myself at the time I have stated. 
Yours very sincerely, Jane Marple
I handed the note to Griselda.
※Oh! We＊ll go,§ she said cheerfully. ※A glass or two of 
homemade liqueur is just what one needs on Sunday evening. I think it＊s Mary＊s blanc 
mange that is so frightfully depressing. It＊s like something out of a mortuary.§
Dennis seemed less charmed at the prospect.
※It＊s all very well for you,§ he grumbled. ※You can talk all 
this high 每 brow stuff about art and books. I always fell a perfect fool sitting and 
listening to you.§
※That＊s good for you,§ said Griselda serenely. ※It＊s puts you 
in your place. Anyway I don＊t think Mr. Raymond West is so frightfully clever as he 
pretends to be.§
※Very few of us are,§ I said.
I wondered very much what exactly it was that Miss Marple wished to 
talk over. Of all the ladies in my congregation, I consider her by far the shrewdest. Not 
only does she see and hear practically everything that goes on, but she draws amazingly 
neat and apposite deductions from the facts that come under her notice.
If I were at any time to set out on a career of deceit, it would be of 
Miss Marple that I should be afraid.
What Griselda called the Nephew Amusing Party started off at a little 
after nine, and while I was waiting for Miss Marple to arrive I amused myself by drawing 
up a kind of schedule of the facts connected with the crime. I arranged them so far as 
possible in chronological order. I am not a punctual person, but I am a neat one, and I 
like things jotted down in a methodical fashion.
As half past nine punctually, there was a little tap on the window, and 
I rose and admitted Miss Marple.
She had a very fine Shetland shawl thrown over her head and shoulders 
and was looking rather old and frail. She came in full of little fluttering remarks.
※So good of you to let me come 每 and so good of dear Griselda 每 
Raymond admires her so much 每 the perfect Greuze he always calls her. Shall I sit here? 
I am not taking your chair? Oh! Thank you. No, I won＊t have a footstool.§
I deposited the Shetland shawl on a chair and returned to take a chair 
facing my guest. We looked at each other, and a little deprecating smile broke out on her 
face.
※I feel that you must be wondering why 每 why I am to interested in 
all this. You may possibly think it＊s very unwomanly. No 每 please 每 I should like to 
explain if I may.§
She paused a moment, a pink color suffusing her cheeks.
※You see,§ she began at last, ※living alone as I do, in a rather 
out 每 of 每 the 每 way part of the world, one has to have a hobby. There is, of 
course, wool work, and Guides, and Welfare, and sketching, but my hobby is 每 and always 
has been 每 Human Nature. So varied 每 and so very fascinating. And, of course, in a 
small village, with nothing to distract one, one has such ample opportunity for becoming 
what I might call proficient in one＊s study. One begins to class people, quite 
definitely, just as though they were birds or flowers, group so and so, genus this, 
species that. Sometimes, of course, one makes mistakes, but less and less as time goes on. 
And then, too, one tests oneself. One takes a little problem 每 for instance the gill of 
picked shrimps that amused dear Griselda so much 每 a quite unimportant mystery, but 
absolutely incomprehensible unless one solves it right. And then there was that matter of 
the changed cough drops, and the butcher＊s wife＊s umbrella 每 the last absolutely 
meaningless, unless on the assumption that the greengrocer was not behaving at all nicely 
with the chemist＊s wife 每 which, of course, turned out to be the case. It is so 
fascinating, you know, to apply one＊s judgment and find that one is right.§
※You usually are, I believe,§ I said, smiling.
※That, I am afraid, is what has made me a little conceited,§ 
confessed Miss Marple. ※But I have always wondered whether, if some day a really big 
mystery came along, I should be able to do the same thing. I mean 每 just solve it 
correctly. Logically, it ought to be exactly the same thing. After all, a tiny working 
model of a torpedo is just the same as a real torpedo.§
※You mean it＊s all a question of relativity,§ I said slowly. ※it 
should be 每 logically, I admit. But I don＊t know whether it really is.§
※Surely it must be the same,§ said Miss Marple. ※The 每 what one 
used to cal the factors at school 每 are the same. There＊s money, and mutual attraction 
between people of an 每 er 每 opposite sex 每 and there＊s queerness, of course 每 so 
many people are a little queer, aren＊t they? - in fact, most people are when you know 
them well. And normal people do such astonishing things sometimes, and abnormal people are 
sometimes so very sane and ordinary. In fact, the only way is to compare people with other 
people you have known or come across. You＊d be surprised if you knew how very few 
distinct types there are in all.§
※You frighten me,§ I said. ※I fell I＊m being put under the 
microscope.§
※Of course, I wouldn＊t dream of saying any of this to Colonel 
Melchett 每 such an autocratic man, isn＊t he? 每 and poor Inspector Slack 每 well, he＊s 
exactly like the young lady in the boot shop who want to sell you patent leather because 
she＊s got it in your size, and doesn＊t take any notice of the fact that you want brown 
calf.§
That really is a very good description of Slack.
※But you, Mr. Clement, know, I＊m sure, quite as much about the 
crime as Inspector Slack. I thought, if we could work together＃§
※I wonder,§ I said. ※I think each one of us in his secret heart 
fancies himself as Sherlock Holmes.§
Then I told her of the three summonses I had received that afternoon. I 
told her of Anne＊s discovery of the picture with the slashed face. I also told her of 
Miss Cram＊s attitude at the police station, and I described Haydock＊s identification 
of the crystal I had picked up.
※Having found that myself,§ I finished up, ※I should like it to 
be important. But it＊s probably got nothing to do with the case.§
※I have been reading a lot of American detective stories from the 
library lately,§ said Miss Marple, ※hoping to find them helpful.§
※Was there anything in them about picric acid?§
※I＊m afraid no. I do remember reading a story once, though, in 
which a man was poisoned by picric acid and lanoline being rubbed on him as an ointment.§
※But as nobody has been poisoned here, that doesn＊t seem to enter 
into the question,§ I said.
Then I took up my schedule and handed it to her.
※I＊ve tried,§ I said, ※to recapitulate the facts of the case as 
clearly as possible.§
My Schedule
Thursday, 21st inst.
  
    
      
        12:30 p.m. Colonel Protheroe alters his appointment from six to six 
        fifteen. Overheard by half village very probably.
        12:45 p.m. Pistol seen in it＊s proper place. (But this is doubtful as 
        Mrs. Archer had previously said she could not remember.)
      
    
  
5:30 (approx.) Colonel and Mrs. Protheroe leave Old Hall for village in 
car.
5:30. Fake call put through to me from the North Lodge, Old Hall.
6:15 (or a minute or two earlier)
Colonel Protheroe arrives at Vicarage. Is shown into study by Mary.
  
    
      
        6:20. Mrs. Protheroe comes along back lane and across garden to study 
        window. Colonel Protheroe not visible.
        6:29. Call from Lawrence Redding＊s cottage put through to Mrs. Price 
        Ridley (according to exchange)
        6:30 每 6:35 Shot heard (accepting telephone call time as correct). 
        Lawrence Redding, Anne Protheroe, and Dr. Stone＊s evidence seem to point to its being 
        earlier, but Mrs. P.R. probably right.
      
    
  
6:45. Lawrence Redding arrives Vicarage and finds the body.
6:48 I meet Lawrence Redding.
6:49 Body discovered by me.
6:55 Haydock examines body.
  
    
      
        Note. The only two people who have no kind of alibi for 6:30 每 6:35 
        are Miss Cram and Mrs. Lestrange. Miss Cram says she was at the barrow, but no 
        confirmation. It seems reasonable, however, to dismiss her from case, as there seems 
        nothing to connect her with it. Mrs. Lestrange left Dr. Haydock＊s house sometime after 
        six to keep an appointment. Where was the appointment, and with whom? It be engaged with 
        me. It could hardly have been with Colonel Protheroe, as he expected to be engaged with 
        me. It is true that Mrs. Lestrange was near the spot at the time the crime was committed, 
        but it seems doubtful what motive she could have had for murdering him. She did not gain 
        by his death, and the Inspector＊s theory of blackmail I cannot accept. Mrs. Lestrange is 
        not that kind of woman. Also, it seems unlikely that she should have got hold of Lawrence 
        Redding＊s pistol.
        
      
    
  
※Very clear,§ said Miss Marple nodding her head in approval. ※Very 
clear, indeed. Gentleman always make such excellent memoranda.§
※You agree with what I have written?§ I asked.
※Oh, yes 每 you have put it all beautifully.§
I asked her the question then that I had been meaning to put all along.
※Miss Marple,§ I said. ※Whom do you suspect? You once said that 
there were seven people.§
※Quite that, I should think,§ said Miss Marple absently. ※I 
expect everyone of us suspects someone different. In fact, one can see they do.§
She didn＊t ask me whom I suspected.
※The point is,§ she said, ※that one must provide an explanation 
for everything. Each thing has got to be explained away satisfactorily. If you have a 
theory that fits every fact 每 well, then it must be the right one. But that＊s 
extremely difficult. If it wasn＊t for that note＃§
※The note?§ I said surprised.
※Yes, you remember, I told you. That note has worried me all along. 
It＊s wrong, somehow.§
※Surely,§ I said, ※that is explained now. It was written at six 
thirty 每 five, and another hand 每 the murderer＊s 每 put the misleading six 每 
twenty at the top. I think that is clearly established.§
※But even then,§ said Miss Marple, ※it＊s all wrong.§
※But why?§
※Listen＃§ Miss Marple leaned forward eagerly. ※Mrs. Protheroe 
passed my garden, as I told you, and she went as far as the study window and she looked in 
and she didn＊t see Colonel Protheroe.§
※Because he was writing at the desk,§ I said.
※And that＊s what＊s all wrong. That was twenty past six. We agreed 
that he wouldn＊t sit down to say he couldn＊t wait any longer until after half past six 
每 so, why was he sitting at the writing table then?§
※I never thought of that,§ I said slowly.
※Let us, dear Mr. Clement, just go over it again. Mrs. Protheroe 
comes to the window and she thinks the room is empty 每 she must have thought so, because 
other wise she would never have gone down to the studio to meet Mr. Redding. It wouldn＊t 
have been safe. The room must have been absolutely silent if she thought it was empty. And 
that leaves us three alternatives, doesn＊t it?§
※You mean＃§
※Well, the first alternative would be that Colonel Protheroe was dead 
already 每 but I don＊t think that＊s the most likely one. To begin with, he＊d only 
been there about five minutes, and she or I would have heard the shot; and, secondly, the 
same difficulty remains about his being at the writing table. The second alternative is, 
of course, that he was sitting at the writing table writing a note, but in tht case it 
must have been a different note altogether. It can＊t have been to say he couldn＊t 
wait. And the third＃§
※Yes?§ I said.
※Well, the third is, of course, that Mrs. Protheroe was right, and 
that the room was actually empty.§
※You mean that, after he had been shown in, he went out again and 
came back later?§
※Yes.§
※But why should he have done that?§
Miss Marple spread out her hands in a little gesture of bewilderment.
※That would mean looking at the case from an entirely different 
angle,§ I said.
※One so often has to do that 每 about everything. Don＊t you think 
so?§
I did not reply. I was going over carefully in my mind the three 
alternatives that Miss Marple had suggested.
With a slight sigh, the old lady rose to her feet.
※I must be getting back. I am very glad to have had this little chat 
每 though we haven＊t got very far, have we?§
※To tell you the truth,§ I said, as I fetched her shawl, ※the 
whole thing seems to me a bewildering maze.§
※Oh! I wouldn＊t say that. I think, on the whole, one theory fits 
nearly everything. That is, if you admit one coincidence 每 and I think one coincidence 
is allowable. More than one, of course, is unlikely.§
※Do you really think that?§ About the theory, I mean?§ I asked, 
looking at her.
※I admit that there is one flaw in my theory 每 one fact that I can＊t 
get over. Oh! If only that note had been something quite different＃§
She sighed and shook her head. She moved toward the window and absent 
每 mindedly reached up her hand and felt the rather depressed looking plant that stood in 
a stand.
※You know, dear Mr. Clement, this should be watered oftener. Poor 
thing, it needs it badly. Your maid should water it everyday, I suppose it is she who 
attends to it?§
※As much,§ I said, ※as she attends to anything.§
※A little raw at present,§ suggested Miss Marple.
※Yes,§ I said. ※And Griselda steadily refuses to attempt to cook 
her. Her idea is that only a thoroughly undesirable maid will remain with us. However, 
Mary herself gave us notice the other day.§
※Indeed. I always imagined she was very fond of you both.§
※I haven＊t noticed it,§ I said. ※But as a mater of fact, it was 
Lettice Protheroe who upset her. Mary came back from the inquest in rather a temperamental 
state and found Lettice here and 每 well, they had words.§
※Oh!§ said Miss Marple. She was just about to step through the 
window when she stopped suddenly, and a bewildering series of changes passed over her 
face.
※Oh, dear,§ she muttered to herself. ※I have been stupid. 
So that was it! Perfectly possible all the time.§
※I beg your pardon?§
She turned a worried face upon me.
※Nothing. An idea that has just occurred to me. I must go home and 
think things out thoroughly. Do you know, I believe I have been extremely stupid 每 
almost incredibly so.§
※I find that hard to believe,§ I said gallantly.
I escorted her through the window and across the lawn.
※Can you tell me what it is that has occurred to you so suddenly?§ 
I asked.
※I would rather not 每 just at present. You see, there is still a 
possibility that I may be mistaken. But I do not think so. Here we are at my garden gate. 
Thank you so much. Please do not come any further.§
※Is the note still a stumbling block?§ I asked as she passed 
through the gate and latched it behind her.
She looked at me abstractedly.
※The note? Oh! Of course that wasn＊t the real note. I never thought 
it was. Good night, Mr. Clement.§
She went rapidly up the path to the house, leaving me staring after 
her.
I didn＊t know what to think.
http://christie.soim.net
﹛﹛