‘Did you — ever suspect him?’ asked Miss Marple.

‘No,’ said Carrie Louise. ‘Because I was puzzled by the poisoning. I knew Lewis would never poison me and yet that letter of Christian’s said definitely that someone was poisoning me — so I thought that everything I thought I knew about people must be wrong…’

Miss Marple said: ‘But when Alex and Ernie were found killed. You suspected then?’

‘Yes,’ said Carrie Louise. ‘Because I didn’t think anyone else but Lewis would have dared. And I began to be afraid of what he might do next…’

She shivered slightly.

‘I admired Lewis. I admired his — what shall I call it — his goodness? But I do see that if you’re — good, you have to be humble as well.’

Dr Galbraith said gently:

‘That, Carrie Louise, is what I have always admired in you — your humility.’

The lovely blue eyes opened wide in surprise.

‘But I’m not clever — and not particularly good. I can only admire goodness in other people.’

‘Dear Carrie Louise,’ said Miss Marple.

Epilogue

‘I think Grandam will be quite all right with Aunt Mildred,’ said Gina. ‘Aunt Mildred seems much nicer now — not so peculiar, if you know what I mean?’

‘I know what you mean,’ said Miss Marple.

‘So Wally and I will go back to the States in a fortnight’s time.’

Gina cast a look sideways at her husband.

‘I shall forget all about Stonygates and Italy and all my girlish past and become a hundred per cent American. Our son will be always addressed as Junior. I can’t say fairer than that, can I, Wally?’

‘You certainly cannot, Kate,’ said Miss Marple.

Wally, smiling indulgently at an old lady who got names wrong, corrected her gently:

‘Gina, not Kate.’

But Gina laughed.

‘She knows what she’s saying! You see — she’ll call you Petruchio in a moment!’

‘I just think,’ said Miss Marple to Walter, ‘that you have acted very wisely, my dear boy.’

‘She thinks you’re just the right husband for me,’ said Gina.

Miss Marple looked from one to the other. It was very nice, she thought, to see two young people so much in love, and Walter Hudd was completely transformed from the sulky young man she had first encountered into a good-humoured smiling giant…

‘You two remind me,’ she said, ‘of — ’

Gina rushed forward and placed a hand firmly over Miss Marple’s mouth.

‘No, darling,’ she exclaimed. ‘Don’t say it. I’m suspicious of these village parallels. They’ve always got a sting in the tail. You really are a wicked old woman, you know.’

Her eyes went misty.

‘When I think of you, and Aunt Ruth and Grandam all being young together…How I wonder what you were all like! I can’t imagine it somehow…’

‘I don’t suppose you can,’ said Miss Marple. ‘It was all a long time ago…’

E-Book Extras

The Marples

Essay by Charles Osborne

The Marples

The Murder at the Vicarage; The Thirteen Problems; The Body in the Library; The Moving Finger; A Murder Is Announced; They Do It with Mirrors; A Pocket Full of Rye; 4.50 from Paddington; The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side; A Caribbean Mystery; At Bertram’s Hotel; Nemesis; Sleeping Murder; Miss Marple’s Final Cases