Dance Me to the End of Love

Dance Me to the End of Love
Evening Mood painting
female nude reclining
flaming june painting
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
¡¡¡¡ "Oh--nothing!" ¡¡¡¡ "You are 'father', you know. That's what they call the man who gives you away." ¡¡¡¡ Jude could have said "Phillotson's age entitles him to be called that!" But he would not annoy her by such a cheap retort. ¡¡¡¡ She talked incessantly, as if she dreaded his indulgence in reflection, and before the meal was over both he and she wished they had not put such confidence in their new view of things, and had taken breakfast apart. What oppressed Jude was the thought that, having done a wrong thing of this sort himself, he was aiding and abetting the woman he loved in doing a like wrong thing, instead of imploring and warning her against it. It was on his tongue to say, "You have quite made up your mind?" ¡¡¡¡ After breakfast they went out on an errand together moved by a mutual thought that it was the last opportunity they would have of indulging in unceremonious companionship. By the irony of fate, and the curious trick in Sue's nature of tempting Providence at critical times, she took his arm as they walked through the muddy street-- a thing she had never done before in her life--and on turning the corner they found themselves close to a grey perpendicular church with a low-pitched roof--the church of St. Thomas.

Biblis painting

Biblis painting
William Bouguereau Biblis
Charity painting
Christ In The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee
Then Sue wrote to tell him the day fixed for the wedding; and Jude decided, after inquiry, that she should come into residence on the following Saturday, which would allow of a ten days' stay in the city prior to the ceremony, sufficiently representing a nominal residence of fifteen. ¡¡¡¡ She arrived by the ten o'clock train on the day aforesaid, Jude not going to meet her at the station, by her special request, that he should not lose a morning's work and pay, she said (if this were her true reason). But so well by this time did he know Sue that the remembrance of their mutual sensitiveness at emotional crises might, he thought, have weighed with her in this. When he came home to dinner she had taken possession of her apartment. ¡¡¡¡ She lived in the same house with him, but on a different floor, and they saw each other little, an occasional supper being the only meal they took together, when Sue's manner was something like that of a scared child. What she felt he did not know; their conversation was mechanical, though she did not look pale or ill. Phillotson came frequently, but mostly when Jude was absent. On the morning of the wedding, when Jude had given himself a holiday, Sue and her cousin had breakfast together for the first and last time during this curious interval; in his room--the parlour-- which he had hired for the period of Sue's residence. Seeing, as women do, how helpless he was in making the place comfortable, she bustled about.

madonna with the yarnwinder painting

madonna with the yarnwinder painting
Mother and Child
My Sweet Rose painting
Naiade oil painting
Nighthawks Hopper
"We have been doing such a funny thing!" said she, smiling candidly. "We've been to the church, rehearsing as it were. Haven't we, Jude?" ¡¡¡¡ "How?" said Phillotson curiously. ¡¡¡¡ Jude inwardly deplored what he thought to be unnecessary frankness; but she had gone too far not to explain all, which she accordingly did, telling him how they had marched up to the altar. ¡¡¡¡ Seeing how puzzled Phillotson seemed, Jude said as cheerfully as he could, "I am going to buy her another little present. Will you both come to the shop with me?" ¡¡¡¡ "No," said Sue, "I'll go on to the house with him"; and requesting her lover not to be a long time she departed with the schoolmaster. ¡¡¡¡ Jude soon joined them at his rooms, and shortly after they prepared for the ceremony. Phillotson's hair was brushed to a painful extent, and his shirt collar appeared stiffer than it had been for the previous twenty years. Beyond this he looked dignified and thoughtful, and altogether a man of whom it was not unsafe to predict that he would make a kind and considerate husband. That he adored Sue was obvious; and she could almost be seen to feel that she was undeserving his adoration.

jesus christ on the cross

jesus christ on the cross
klimt painting the kiss
leonardo da vinci self portrait
Madonna Litta
¡¡¡¡ "I know you do!" said Jude. ¡¡¡¡ "They are interesting, because they have probably never been done before. I shall walk down the church like this with my husband in about two hours, shan't I!" ¡¡¡¡ "No doubt you will!" ¡¡¡¡ "Was it like this when you were married?" ¡¡¡¡ "Good God, Sue--don't be so awfully merciless! ... There, dear one, I didn't mean it!" ¡¡¡¡ "Ah--you are vexed!" she said regretfully, as she blinked away an access of eye moisture. "And I promised never to vex you! ... I suppose I ought not to have asked you to bring me in here. Oh, I oughtn't! I see it now. My curiosity to hunt up a new sensation always leads me into these scrapes. Forgive me! ... You will, won't you, Jude?" ¡¡¡¡ The appeal was so remorseful that Jude's eyes were even wetter than hers as he pressed her hand for Yes. ¡¡¡¡ "Now we'll hurry away, and I won't do it any more!" she continued humbly; and they came out of the building, Sue intending to go on to the station to meet Phillotson. But the first person they encountered on entering the main street was the schoolmaster himself, whose train had arrived sooner than Sue expected. There was nothing really to demur to in her leaning on Jude's arm; but she withdrew her hand, and Jude thought that Phillotson had looked surprised.

girl with a pearl earring vermeer

girl with a pearl earring vermeer
Gustav Klimt Kiss painting
Head of Christ
Hylas and the Nymphs
¡¡¡¡ "That's the church," said Jude. ¡¡¡¡ "Where I am going to be married?" ¡¡¡¡ "Yes." ¡¡¡¡ "Indeed!" she exclaimed with curiosity. "How I should like to go in and see what the spot is like where I am so soon to kneel and do it." ¡¡¡¡ Again he said to himself, "She does not realize what marriage means!" ¡¡¡¡ He passively acquiesced in her wish to go in, and they entered by the western door. The only person inside the gloomy building was a charwoman cleaning. Sue still held Jude's arm, almost as if she loved him. Cruelly sweet, indeed, she had been to him that morning; but his thoughts of a penance in store for her were tempered by an ache: ¡¡¡¡ ... I can find no way How a blow should fall, such as falls on men, Nor prove too much for your womanhood! ¡¡¡¡ They strolled undemonstratively up the nave towards the altar railing, which they stood against in silence, turning then and walking down the nave again, her hand still on his arm, precisely like a couple just married. The too suggestive incident, entirely of her making, nearly broke down Jude. ¡¡¡¡ "I like to do things like this," she said in the delicate voice of an epicure in emotions, which left no doubt that she spoke the truth.

My Sweet Rose painting

My Sweet Rose painting
Naiade oil painting
Nighthawks Hopper
Nude on the Beach
One Moment in Time
Ah--you are vexed!" she said regretfully, as she blinked away an access of eye moisture. "And I promised never to vex you! ... I suppose I ought not to have asked you to bring me in here. Oh, I oughtn't! I see it now. My curiosity to hunt up a new sensation always leads me into these scrapes. Forgive me! ... You will, won't you, Jude?" ¡¡¡¡ The appeal was so remorseful that Jude's eyes were even wetter than hers as he pressed her hand for Yes. ¡¡¡¡ "Now we'll hurry away, and I won't do it any more!" she continued humbly; and they came out of the building, Sue intending to go on to the station to meet Phillotson. But the first person they encountered on entering the main street was the schoolmaster himself, whose train had arrived sooner than Sue expected. There was nothing really to demur to in her leaning on Jude's arm; but she withdrew her hand, and Jude thought that Phillotson had looked surprised. ¡¡¡¡ "We have been doing such a funny thing!" said she, smiling candidly. "We've been to the church, rehearsing as it were. Haven't we, Jude?" ¡¡¡¡ "How?" said Phillotson curiously. ¡¡¡¡ Jude inwardly deplored what he thought to be unnecessary frankness; but she had gone too far not to explain all, which she accordingly did, telling him how they had marched up to the altar. ¡¡¡¡ Seeing how puzzled Phillotson seemed, Jude said as cheerfully as he could, "I am going to buy her another little present. Will you both come to the shop with me?" ¡¡¡¡ "No," said Sue, "I'll go on to the house with him"; and requesting her lover not to be a long time she departed with the schoolmaster. ¡¡¡¡ Jude soon joined them at his rooms, and shortly after they prepared for the ceremony. Phillotson's hair was brushed to a painful extent.

leonardo da vinci self portrait

leonardo da vinci self portrait
Madonna Litta
madonna with the yarnwinder painting
Mother and Child
Again he said to himself, "She does not realize what marriage means!" ¡¡¡¡ He passively acquiesced in her wish to go in, and they entered by the western door. The only person inside the gloomy building was a charwoman cleaning. Sue still held Jude's arm, almost as if she loved him. Cruelly sweet, indeed, she had been to him that morning; but his thoughts of a penance in store for her were tempered by an ache: ¡¡¡¡ ... I can find no way How a blow should fall, such as falls on men, Nor prove too much for your womanhood! ¡¡¡¡ They strolled undemonstratively up the nave towards the altar railing, which they stood against in silence, turning then and walking down the nave again, her hand still on his arm, precisely like a couple just married. The too suggestive incident, entirely of her making, nearly broke down Jude. ¡¡¡¡ "I like to do things like this," she said in the delicate voice of an epicure in emotions, which left no doubt that she spoke the truth. ¡¡¡¡ "I know you do!" said Jude. ¡¡¡¡ "They are interesting, because they have probably never been done before. I shall walk down the church like this with my husband in about two hours, shan't I!" ¡¡¡¡ "No doubt you will!" ¡¡¡¡ "Was it like this when you were married?" ¡¡¡¡ "Good God, Sue--don't be so awfully merciless! ... There, dear one, I didn't mean it!"

Gustav Klimt Kiss painting

Gustav Klimt Kiss painting
Hylas and the Nymphs
jesus christ on the cross
klimt painting the kiss
¡¡¡¡ She talked incessantly, as if she dreaded his indulgence in reflection, and before the meal was over both he and she wished they had not put such confidence in their new view of things, and had taken breakfast apart. What oppressed Jude was the thought that, having done a wrong thing of this sort himself, he was aiding and abetting the woman he loved in doing a like wrong thing, instead of imploring and warning her against it. It was on his tongue to say, "You have quite made up your mind?" ¡¡¡¡ After breakfast they went out on an errand together moved by a mutual thought that it was the last opportunity they would have of indulging in unceremonious companionship. By the irony of fate, and the curious trick in Sue's nature of tempting Providence at critical times, she took his arm as they walked through the muddy street-- a thing she had never done before in her life--and on turning the corner they found themselves close to a grey perpendicular church with a low-pitched roof--the church of St. Thomas. ¡¡¡¡ "That's the church," said Jude. ¡¡¡¡ "Where I am going to be married?" ¡¡¡¡ "Yes." ¡¡¡¡ "Indeed!" she exclaimed with curiosity. "How I should like to go in and see what the spot is like where I am so soon to kneel and do it." ¡¡¡¡ Again he said to himself, "She does not realize what marriage means!"

female nude reclining

female nude reclining
flaming june painting
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
girl with a pearl earring vermeer
¡¡¡¡ She lived in the same house with him, but on a different floor, and they saw each other little, an occasional supper being the only meal they took together, when Sue's manner was something like that of a scared child. What she felt he did not know; their conversation was mechanical, though she did not look pale or ill. Phillotson came frequently, but mostly when Jude was absent. On the morning of the wedding, when Jude had given himself a holiday, Sue and her cousin had breakfast together for the first and last time during this curious interval; in his room--the parlour-- which he had hired for the period of Sue's residence. Seeing, as women do, how helpless he was in making the place comfortable, she bustled about. ¡¡¡¡ "What's the matter, Jude?" she said suddenly. ¡¡¡¡ He was leaning with his elbows on the table and his chin on his hands, looking into a futurity which seemed to be sketched out on the tablecloth. ¡¡¡¡ "Oh--nothing!" ¡¡¡¡ "You are 'father', you know. That's what they call the man who gives you away." ¡¡¡¡ Jude could have said "Phillotson's age entitles him to be called that!" But he would not annoy her by such a cheap retort.

Samson And Delilah

Samson And Delilah
Rembrandt Biblical Scene
Rembrandt The Jewish Bride
Return of the Prodigal Son
His offer of his lodging must have commended itself to Phillotson at any rate, for the schoolmaster sent him a line of warm thanks, accepting the convenience. Sue also thanked him. Jude immediately moved into more commodious quarters, as much to escape the espionage of the suspicious landlady who had been one cause of Sue's unpleasant experience as for the sake of room. ¡¡¡¡ Then Sue wrote to tell him the day fixed for the wedding; and Jude decided, after inquiry, that she should come into residence on the following Saturday, which would allow of a ten days' stay in the city prior to the ceremony, sufficiently representing a nominal residence of fifteen. ¡¡¡¡ She arrived by the ten o'clock train on the day aforesaid, Jude not going to meet her at the station, by her special request, that he should not lose a morning's work and pay, she said (if this were her true reason). But so well by this time did he know Sue that the remembrance of their mutual sensitiveness at emotional crises might, he thought, have weighed with her in this. When he came home to dinner she had taken possession of her apartment.

madonna with the yarnwinder painting

madonna with the yarnwinder painting
Mother and Child
My Sweet Rose painting
Naiade oil painting
¡¡¡¡ HE was a handy man at his trade, an all-round man, as artizans in country-towns are apt to be. In London the man who carves the boss or knob of leafage declines to cut the fragment of moulding which merges in that leafage, as if it were a degradation to do the second half of one whole. When there was not much Gothic moulding for Jude to run, or much window-tracery on the bankers, he would go out lettering monuments or tombstones, and take a pleasure in the change of handiwork. ¡¡¡¡ The next time that he saw her was when he was on a ladder executing a job of this sort inside one of the churches. There was a short morning service, and when the parson entered Jude came down from his ladder, and sat with the half-dozen people forming the congregation, till the prayer should be ended, and he could resume his tapping. He did not observe till the service was half over that one of the women was Sue, who had perforce accompanied the elderly Miss Fontover thither.

madonna with the yarnwinder painting

madonna with the yarnwinder painting
Mother and Child
My Sweet Rose painting
Naiade oil painting
¡¡¡¡ HE was a handy man at his trade, an all-round man, as artizans in country-towns are apt to be. In London the man who carves the boss or knob of leafage declines to cut the fragment of moulding which merges in that leafage, as if it were a degradation to do the second half of one whole. When there was not much Gothic moulding for Jude to run, or much window-tracery on the bankers, he would go out lettering monuments or tombstones, and take a pleasure in the change of handiwork. ¡¡¡¡ The next time that he saw her was when he was on a ladder executing a job of this sort inside one of the churches. There was a short morning service, and when the parson entered Jude came down from his ladder, and sat with the half-dozen people forming the congregation, till the prayer should be ended, and he could resume his tapping. He did not observe till the service was half over that one of the women was Sue, who had perforce accompanied the elderly Miss Fontover thither.

jesus christ on the cross

jesus christ on the cross
klimt painting the kiss
leonardo da vinci self portrait
Madonna Litta
¡¡¡¡ On one of these occasions the church clocks struck some small hour. It fell upon the ears of another person who sat bending over his books at a not very distant spot in the same city. Being Saturday night the morrow was one on which Jude had not set his alarm-clock to call him at his usually early time, and hence he had stayed up, as was his custom, two or three hours later than he could afford to do on any other day of the week. Just then he was earnestly reading from his Griesbach's text. At the very time that Sue was tossing and staring at her figures, the policeman and belated citizens passing along under his window might have heard, if they had stood still, strange syllables mumbled with fervour within--words that had for Jude an indescribable enchantment: inexplicable sounds something like these:-- ¡¡¡¡ "ALL HEMIN HEIS THEOS HO PATER, EX HOU TA PANTA, KAI HEMEIS EIS AUTON:" ¡¡¡¡ Till the sounds rolled with reverent loudness, as a book was heard to close:-- ¡¡¡¡ "KAI HEIS KURIOS IESOUS CHRISTOS, DI HOU TA PANTA KAI HEMEIS DI AUTOU!"

Dance Me to the End of Love

Dance Me to the End of Love
Evening Mood painting
female nude reclining
flaming june painting
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
¡¡¡¡ "Something you have been buying, Miss Bridehead?" she asked, regarding the enwrapped objects. ¡¡¡¡ "Yes--just something to ornament my room," said Sue. ¡¡¡¡ "Well, I should have thought I had put enough here already," said Miss Fontover, looking round at the Gothic-framed prints of saints, the Church-text scrolls, and other articles which, having become too stale to sell, had been used to furnish this obscure chamber. "What is it? How bulky!" She tore a little hole, about as big as a wafer, in the brown paper, and tried to peep in. "Why, statuary? Two figures? Where did you get them?" ¡¡¡¡ "Oh--I bought them of a travelling man who sells casts" ¡¡¡¡ "Two saints?" ¡¡¡¡ "Yes." ¡¡¡¡ "What ones?" ¡¡¡¡ "St. Peter and St.--St. Mary Magdalen." ¡¡¡¡ "Well--now come down to tea, and go and finish that organ-text, if there's light enough afterwards

William Bouguereau Biblis painting

Biblis painting
William Bouguereau Biblis
Charity painting
Christ In The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee ¡¡¡¡ Occasionally peeping inside the leaves to see that Venus's arm was not broken, she entered with her heathen load into the most Christian city in the country by an obscure street running parallel to the main one, and round a corner to the side door of the establishment to which she was attached. Her purchases were taken straight up to her own chamber, and she at once attempted to lock them in a box that was her very own property; but finding them too cumbersome she wrapped them in large sheets of brown paper, and stood them on the floor in a corner. ¡¡¡¡ The mistress of the house, Miss Fontover, was an elderly lady in spectacles, dressed almost like an abbess; a dab at Ritual, as become one of her business, and a worshipper at the ceremonial church of St. Silas, in the suburb of Beersheba before-mentioned, which Jude also had begun to attend. She was the daughter of a clergyman in reduced circumstances, and at his death, which had occurred several years before this date, she boldly avoided penury by taking over a little shop of church requisites and developing it to its present creditable proportions. She wore a cross and beads round her neck as her only ornament, and knew the Christian Year by heart. ¡¡¡¡ She now came to call Sue to tea, and, finding that the girl did not respond for a moment, entered the room just as the other was hastily putting a string round each parcel.

the Night Watch

the Night Watch
The Nut Gatherers
The Painter's Honeymoon
the polish rider
The Sacrifice of Abraham painting
The girl for whom he was beginning to nourish an extraordinary tenderness was at this time ensphered by the same harmonies as those which floated into his ears; and the thought was a delight to him. She was probably a frequenter of this place, and, steeped body and soul in church sentiment as she must be by occupation and habit, had, no doubt, much in common with him. To an impressionable and lonely young man the consciousness of having at last found anchorage for his thoughts, which promised to supply both social and spiritual possibilities, was like the dew of Hermon, and he remained throughout the service in a sustaining atmosphere of ecstasy. ¡¡¡¡ Though he was loth to suspect it, some people might have said to him that the atmosphere blew as distinctly from Cyprus as from Galilee. ¡¡¡¡ Jude waited till she had left her seat and passed under the screen before he himself moved. She did not look towards him, and by the time he reached the door she was half-way down the broad path. Being dressed up in his Sunday suit he was inclined to follow her and reveal himself. But he was not quite ready; and, alas, ought he to do so with the kind of feeling that was awakening in him?

The Jewel Casket

The Jewel Casket
The Kitchen Maid
The Lady of Shalott
the night watch by rembrandt
¡¡¡¡ He lingered awhile in the vestibule, and the service was some way advanced when he was put into a seat. It was a louring, mournful, still afternoon, when a religion of some sort seems a necessity to ordinary practical men, and not only a luxury of the emotional and leisured classes. In the dim light and the baffling glare of the clerestory windows he could discern the opposite worshippers indistinctly only, but he saw that Sue was among them. He had not long discovered the exact seat that she occupied when the chanting of the 119th Psalm in which the choir was engaged reached its second part, IN QUO CORRIGET, the organ changing to a pathetic Gregorian tune as the singers gave forth: ¡¡¡¡ Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? ¡¡¡¡ It was the very question that was engaging Jude's attention at this moment. What a wicked worthless fellow he had been to give vent as he had done to an animal passion for a woman, and allow it to lead to such disastrous consequences; then to think of putting an end to himself; then to go recklessly and get drunk. The great waves of pedal music tumbled round the choir, and, nursed on the supernatural as he had been, it is not wonderful that he could hardly believe that the psalm was not specially set by some regardful Providence for this moment of his first entry into the solemn building. And yet it was the ordinary psalm for the twenty-fourth evening of the month.

Sweet Nothings

Sweet Nothings
The Abduction of Psyche
The British Are Coming
The Broken Pitcher
¡¡¡¡ BUT under the various deterrent influences Jude's instinct was to approach her timidly, and the next Sunday he went to the morning service in the Cathedral church of Cardinal College to gain a further view of her, for he had found that she frequently attended there. ¡¡¡¡ She did not come, and he awaited her in the afternoon, which was finer. He knew that if she came at all she would approach the building along the eastern side of the great green quadrangle from which it was accessible, and he stood in a corner while the bell was going. A few minutes before the hour for service she appeared as one of the figures walking along under the college walls, and at sight of her he advanced up the side opposite, and followed her into the building, more than ever glad that he had not as yet revealed himself. To see her, and to be himself unseen and unknown, was enough for him at present.

Rembrandt The Jewish Bride

Rembrandt The Jewish Bride
Return of the Prodigal Son
Samson And Delilah
seated nude
Spring Breeze
From this moment the emotion which had been accumulating in his breast as the bottled-up effect of solitude and the poetized locality he dwelt in, insensibly began to precipitate itself on this half-visionary form; and he perceived that, whatever his obedient wish in a contrary direction, he would soon be unable to resist the desire to make himself known to her. ¡¡¡¡ He affected to think of her quite in a family way, since there were crushing reasons why he should not and could not think of her in any other. ¡¡¡¡ The first reason was that he was married, and it would be wrong. The second was that they were cousins. It was not well for cousins to fall in love even when circumstances seemed to favour the passion. The third: even were he free, in a family like his own where marriage usually meant a tragic sadness, marriage with a blood-relation would duplicate the adverse conditions, and a tragic sadness might be intensified to a tragic horror. ¡¡¡¡ Therefore, again, he would have to think of Sue with only a relation's mutual interest in one belonging to him; regard her in a practical way as some one to be proud of; to talk and nod to; later on, to be invited to tea by, the emotion spent on her being rigorously that of a kinsman and well-wisher. So would she be to him a kindly star, an elevating power, a companion in Anglican worship, a tender friend

Vermeer Girl with a Red Hat

Red Hat Girl
Red Nude painting
Regatta At Argenteuil
Vermeer Girl with a Red Hat
¡¡¡¡ His closeness to her was so suggestive that he trembled, and turned his face away with a shy instinct to prevent her recognizing him, though as she had never once seen him she could not possibly do so; and might very well never have heard even his name. He could perceive that though she was a country-girl at bottom, a latter girlhood of some years in London, and a womanhood here, had taken all rawness out of her. ¡¡¡¡ When she was gone he continued his work, reflecting on her. He had been so caught by her influence that he had taken no count of her general mould and build. He remembered now that she was not a large figure, that she was light and slight, of the type dubbed elegant. That was about all he had seen. There was nothing statuesque in her; all was nervous motion. She was mobile, living, yet a painter might not have called her handsome or beautiful. But the much that she was surprised him. She was quite a long way removed from the rusticity that was his. How could one of his cross-grained, unfortunate, almost accursed stock, have contrived to reach this pitch of niceness? London had done it, he supposed.

Hylas and the Nymphs

Hylas and the Nymphs
jesus christ on the cross
klimt painting the kiss
leonardo da vinci self portrait
"By why ask my view? I've got nothing to do with it?"
"I really came to ask you something quite different - but I don't quite know how to put it."
Dr. Quimper looked interested.
"I understand that not long ago – at Christmas-time, I think it was - Mr. Crackenthorpe had rather a bad turn of illness."
He saw a change at once in the doctor's face. It hardened.
"Yes."
"I gather a gastric disturbance of some kind?"
"Yes."
"This is difficult…. Mr. Crackenthorpe was boasting of his health, saying he intended to outlive most of his family. He referred to you - you'll excuse me, Doctor…"
"Oh, don't mind me. I'm not sensitive as to what my patients say about me!"

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
girl with a pearl earring vermeer
Gustav Klimt Kiss painting
Head of Christ
First, I've got you to thank, I believe, for advising Miss Crackenthorpe to come to me with the letter that purported to be from her brother's widow."
"Oh, that? Anything in it? I didn't exactly advise her to come. She wanted to. She was worried. All the dear little brothers were trying to hold her back, of course."
"Why should they?"
The doctor shrugged his shoulders.
"Afraid the lady might be proved genuine, I suppose."
"Do you think the letter was genuine?"
"No idea. Never actually saw it. I should say it was someone who knew the facts, just trying to make a touch. Hoping to work on Emma's feelings. They were dead wrong, there. Emma's no fool. She wouldn't take an unknown sister-in-law to her bosom without asking a few practical questions first."
He added with some curiosity:

Dance Me to the End of Love

Dance Me to the End of Love
Evening Mood painting
female nude reclining
flaming june painting
Craddock had to wait a few minutes whilst Quimper finished his evening surgery, and then the doctor came to him. He looked tired and depressed.
He offered Craddock a drink and when the latter accepted he mixed one for himself as well.
"Poor devils," he said as he sank down in a worn easy-chair. "So scared and so stupid - no sense. Had a painful case this evening. Woman sho ought to have come to me a year ago. If she'd come then, she might have been operated on successfully. Now it's too late. Makes me mad. The truth is people are an extraordinary mixture of heroism and cowardice. She's suffering agony, and borne it without a word, just because she was too scared to come and find out that what she feared might be true. At the other end of the scale are the people who come and waste my time because they've got a dangerous swelling causing them agony on their little finger which they think may be cancer and which turns out to be a common or garden chilblain! Well, don't remind me. I've blown off steam now. What did you want to see me about?"

Biblis painting

Biblis painting
Boulevard des Capucines
Charity painting
Christ In The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee
So granted Martine," said Craddock thoughtfully, "there is a motive of a kind. Martine's reappearance with a son would diminish the Crackenthorpe inheritance – though hardly to a point, one would think, to active murder. They're all very hard up –"
"Even Harold?" Lucy demanded incredulously.
"Even the prosperous-looking Harold Crackenthorpe is not the sober and conservative financier the appears to be. He's been plunging heavily and mixing himself up in some rather undesirable ventures. A large sum of money, soon, might avoid a crash."
"But if so –” said Lucy, and stopped.
"Yes, Miss Eyelesbarrow –"
"I know, dear," said Miss Marple. "The wrong murder, that's what you mean."
"Yes. Martine's death wouldn't do Harold - or any of the others - any good. Not until –"
"Not until Luther Crackenthorpe died. Exactly. That occurred to me. And Mr. Crackenthorpe, senior, I gather from his doctor, is a much better life than any outsider would imagine."
"He'll last for years," said Lucy. Then she frowned.
"Yes?" Craddock spoke encouragingly.
"He was rather ill at Christmas-time," said Lucy. "He said the doctor made a lot of fuss about it – ‘Anyone would have thought I'd been poisoned by the fuss he made.' That's what he said."
She looked inquiringly at Craddock.
"Yes," said Craddock. "That's really what I want to ask Dr. Quimper about."
"Well, I must go," said Lucy. "Heavens, it's late."
Miss Marple put down her knitting and picked up The Times with a half-done crossword puzzle.

A Greek Beauty

A Greek Beauty
A Lily Pond
Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
American Day Dream
Then she gave a slight shiver.
"One forgets," she said. "The boys have been having such fun that one almost thought of it all as a game. But it's not a game."
"No," said Miss Marple. "Murder isn't a game."
She was silent for a moment or two before she said:
"Don't the boys go back to school soon?"
"Yes, next week. They go tomorrow to James Stoddart-West's home for the last few days of the holidays."
"I'm glad of that," said Miss Marple gravely. "I shouldn't like anything to happen while they're there."
"You mean to old Mr. Crackenthorpe. Do you think he's going to be murdered next?"
"Oh, no," said Miss Marple. "He'll be all right. I meant to the boys."
"To the boys?"
"Well, to Alexander."
"But surely –"
"Hunting about, you know – looking for clues. Boys love that sort of things – but it might be very dangerous."
Craddock looked at her thoughtfully.
"You're not prepared to believe, are you, Miss Marple, that it's a case of an unknown woman murdered by an unknown man? You tie it up definitely connection, yes."
"I think there's a definite connection, yes."
"All we know about the murderer is that he's a tall dark man. That's what your friend says and all she can say. There are three tall dark men at Rutherford Hall. On the day of the inquest, you know, I came out to see the three brothers standing waiting on the pavement for the car to draw up. They had their backs to me and it was astonishing how, in their heavy overcoats, they looked all alike. Three tall dark men. And yet, actually, they're all three quite different types." He sighed. "It makes it very difficult."
"I wonder," murmured Miss Marple. "I have been wondering – whether it might perhaps be all much simpler than we suppose. Murders so often are quite simple - with an obvious rather sordid motive…."
"Do you believe in the mysterious Martine, Miss Marple?"
"I'm quite ready to believe that Edmund Crackenthorpe either married, or meant to marry, a girl called Martine. Emma Crackenthorpe showed you his letter, I understand, and from what I've seen of her and from what Lucy tells me, I should say Emma Crackenthorpe is quite incapable of making up a thing of that kind - indeed, why should she?"

Abstract Painting

Abstract Painting
"We can't stay here talking," said Harold irritably. "there's quite a crowd. And all those men with cameras."
At a sign from him, the chauffeur pulled away from the kerb. The boys waved cheerfully.
"All over so soon!" said Cedric. "That's what they think, the young innocents! It's just beginning."
"It's all very unfortunate. Most unfortunate," said Harold. "I suppose –"
He looked at Mr. Wimborne who compressed his thin lips and shook his head with distaste.
Abstract Painting
I hope," he said sententiously, "that the whole matter will soon be cleared up satisfactorily. The police are very efficient. However, the whole thing, as Harold says, has been most unfortunate."
He looked, as he spoke, at Lucy, and there was distinct disapproval in his glance. "If it had not been for this young woman," his eyes seemed to say, “poking about where she had no business to be - none of this would have happened."
This sentiment, or one closely resembling it, was voiced by Harold Crackenthorpe.
Abstract Painting

Rembrandt Painting

Rembrandt Painting
murmur went round: "That's them…."
Emma said sharply: "Let's get away."
The big hired Daimler drew up to the kerb. Emma got in and motioned to Lucy. Mr. Wimborne, Cedric and Harold followed. Bryan Eastley said: “I'll take Alfred with me in my little bus." The chauffeur shut the door and the Daimler prepared to roll away.
"Oh, stop!" cried Emma. "There are the boys!"
Rembrandt Painting
The boys, in spite of aggrieved protests, had been left behind at Rutherford Hall, but they now appeared grinning from ear to ear.
"We came on our bicycles," said Stoddart-West. "The policeman was very kind and let us in at the back of the hall. I hope you don't mind, Miss Crackenthorpe," he added politely.
"She doesn't mind," said Cedric, answering for his sister. "You're only young once. Your first inquest, I expect?"
"It was rather disappointing," said Alexander. "All over so soon."
Rembrandt Painting

The Singing Butler

The Singing Butler
The inquest was a purely formal affair. No one came forward to identify the dead woman. Lucy was called to give evidence of finding the body and medical evidence was given as to the cause of death - strangulation. The proceedings were then adjourned.
The Singing Butler
It was a cold blustery day when the Crackenthorpe family came out of the hall where the inquest had been held. There were five of them all told, Emma, Cedric, Harold, Alfred, and Bryan Eastley, the husband of the dead daughter Edith. There was also Mr. Wimborne, the senior partner of the firm of solicitors who dealt with the Crackenthorpes' legal affairs. He had come down specially from London at great inconvenience to attend the inquest. They all stood for a moment on the pavement, shivering. Quite a crowd had assembled; the piquant details of the "Body in the Sarcophagus" had been fully reported in both the London and the local Press.
The Singing Butler

Jack Vettriano Painting

Jack Vettriano Painting
"Yes, sir. And she's quite set and definite about the whole thing. Whether she's barmy or not, I don't know, but she sticks to her story – about what her friend saw and all the rest of it. As far as all that goes, I dare say it's just make-believe – sort of thing old ladies do make up, like seeing flying saucers at the bottom of the garden, and Russian agents in the lending library. But it seems quite clear that she did engage this young woman. The lady help, and told her to look for a body – which the girl did."
Jack Vettriano Painting
And found one," observed the Chief Constable. "Well, it's all a very remarkable story. Marple, Miss Jane Marple - the name seems familiar somehow…. Anyway, I'll get on to the Yard. I think you're right about its not being a local case - though we won't advertise the fact just yet. For the moment we'll tell the Press as little as possible."
Jack Vettriano Painting

Mary Cassatt painting

Mary Cassatt painting
Harold Crackenthorpe, he's something in the City - quite an important figure, I understand. Alfred - don't quite know what he does. Cedric - that's the one who lives abroad. Paints!" The inspector invested the word with its full quota of sinister significance. The Chief Constable smiled into his moustache.
"No reason, is there, to believe the Crackenthorpe family are connected with the crime in any way?" he asked.
Mary Cassatt painting
"Not apart from the fact that the body was found on the premises," said Inspector Bacon. "And of course it's just possible that this artist member of the family might be able to identify her. What beats me is this extraordinary rigmarole about the train."
"Ah, yes. You've been to see this old lady, this - er –” (he glanced at the memorandum lying on his desk) "Miss Marple?"Mary Cassatt painting

Edward Hopper Painting

Edward Hopper Painting
We'd better have the Yard in on it, is that what you think, Bacon?
The Chief Constable looked inquiringly at Inspector Bacon. The inspector was a big solid man - his expression was that of one utterly disgusted with humanity.
"The woman wasn't local, sir," he said. "there's some reason to believe - from her underclothing - that she might have been a foreigner. Of course," added Inspector Bacon hastily, "I'm not letting on about that yet awhile. We're keeping it up our sleeves until after the inquest."
Edward Hopper Painting
The Chief Constable nodded.
"The inquest will be purely formal, I suppose?"
"Yes, sir. I've seen the Coroner."
"And it's fixed for – when?"
"To-morrow. I understand the other members of the Crackenthorpe family will be here for it. There's just a chance one of them might be able to identify her. They'll all be here."
He consulted a list he held in his hand.
Edward Hopper Painting

Van Gogh Sunflower

Van Gogh Sunflower
Lucy said gently:
"Not, perhaps, until after you have interviewed Miss Marple and got her confirmation of it."
"I shall interview her all right. She must be cracked."
Lucy forbore to point out that to be proved right is not really a proof of mental incapacity. Instead she said:
"What are you proposing to tell Miss Crackenthorpe? About me, I mean?"
"Why do you ask?"
Van Gogh Sunflower
Well, as far as Miss Marple is concerned I've done my job, I've found the body she wanted found. But I'm still engaged by Miss Crackenthorpe, and there are two hungry boys in the house and probably some more of the family will soon be coming down after all this upset. She needs domestic help. If you go and tell her that I only took this post in order to hunt for dead bodies she'll probably throw me out. Otherwise I can get on with my job and be useful."
The inspector looked hard her.
Van Gogh Sunflower

Van Gogh Painting

Van Gogh Painting
"Now, Miss Eyelesbarrow, you went into the Long Barn to find some paint. Is that right? And after having found the paint you got a crowbar, forced up the lid of this sarcophagus and found the body. What were you looking for in the sarcophagus?"
"I was looking for a body," said Lucy.
"You were looking for a body – and you found one! Doesn't that seem to you a very extraordinary story?"
"Oh, yes, it is an extraordinary story. Perhaps you will let me explain it to you."
"I certainly think you had better do so."
Van Gogh Painting
Lucy gave him a precise recital of the events which had led up to her sensational discovery.
The inspector summed it up in an outraged voice.
"You were engaged by an elderly lady to obtain a post here and to search the house and grounds for a dead body? Is that right?"
"Yes."
"Who is this elderly lady?"
"Miss Jane Marple. She is at present living at 4 Madison Road."
The inspector wrote it down.
"You expect me to believe this story?"
Van Gogh Painting

Henri Matisse Painting

Henri Matisse Painting
After leading the police to the Long Barn, and giving a brief account of her actions, Lucy had retired into the background, but she was under no illusion that the police had finished with her.
She had just finished preparing potatoes for chips that evening when word was brought to her that Inspector Bacon required her presence. Putting aside the large bowl of cold water and salt in which the chips were reposing, Lucy followed the policeman to where the inspector awaited her. She sat down and awaited his questions composedly.
Henri Matisse Painting
She gave her name - and her address in London, and added of her own accord:
"I will give you some names and addresses of references if you want to know all about me."
The names were very good ones. An Admiral of the Fleet, the Provost of an Oxford College, and a Dame of the British Empire. In spite of himself Inspector Bacon was impressed.
Henri Matisse Painting

Marc Chagall Painting

Marc Chagall Painting
"On, sir, please, sir. You never know. We might know who she was. Oh, please, sir, do be a sport. It's not fair. Here's a murder, right in our own barn. It's the sort of chance that might never happen again. Do be a sport, sir."
"Who are you two?"
"I'm Alexander Eastley, and this is my friend James Stoddart-West."
"Have you ever seen a blonde woman wearing a light-coloured dyed squirrel coat anywhere about the place?"
"Well, I can't remember exactly, said Alexander astutely. If I were to have a look-"
Marc Chagall Painting
Take 'em in, Sanders," said Inspector Bacon to the constable who was standing by the barn door. "One's only young once!"
"Oh, sir, thank you, sir. Both boys were vociferous. It's very kind of you, sir."
Bacon turned away towards the house.
"And now," he said to himself grimly, "for Miss Lucy Eyelesbarrow!"
Marc Chagall Painting

William Bouguereau Birth of Venus Painting

William Bouguereau Birth of Venus Painting
Cabanel The Birth of Venus painting
No matter how ill I am, I've got to do my duty, haven't I?"
A very brief visit inside the Long Barn was, however, quite long enough. Mr. Crackenthorpe shuffled out into the air again with remarkable speed.
"Never saw her before in my life!" he said. "What's it mean? Absolutely disgraceful. It wasn't Florence – I remember now - it was Naples. A very fine specimen. And some fool of a woman has to come and get herself killed in it!"
He clutched at the folds of his overcoat on the left side.
The Birth of Venus
"Too much for me…. My heart…. Where's Emma? Doctor…."
Doctor Quimper took his arm.
"You'll be all right," he said. "I prescribe a little stimulant. Brandy."
They went back together towards the house.
"Sir. Please, sir."
Inspector Bacon turned. Two boys had arrived, breathless, on bicycles. Their faces were full of eager pleading.
"Please, sir, can we see the body?"
"No, you can't," said Inspector Bacon.
The Birth of Venus

Bouguereau William

Bouguereau William
The doctor stood by the sarcophagus and looked down with frank curiosity, professionally unmoved by what he had named the “unpleasantness."
"Never seen her before. No patient of mine. I don't remember ever seeing her about in Brackhampton. She must have been quite good-looking once - hm - somebody had it in for her all right."
They went out again into the air. Doctor Quimper glanced up at the building.
"Found in the - what do they call it? - the Long Barn - in a sarcophagus! Fantastic! Who found her?"
"Miss Lucy Eyelesbarrow."
Bouguereau William
"Oh, the latest lady help? What was she doing, poking about in sarcophagi?"
"That," said Inspector Bacon grimly, "is just what I am going to ask her. Now, about Mr. Crackenthorpe. Will you –?"
"I'll bring him along."
Mr. Crackenthorpe, muffled in scarves, came walking at a brisk pace, the doctor beside him.
"Disgraceful," he said. "Absolutely disgraceful! I brought back that sarcophagus from Florence in - let me see - it must have been in 1908 - or was it 1909?"
"Steady now," the doctor warned him. "This isn't going to be nice, you know."
Bouguereau William

Gustav Klimt Painting

Gustav Klimt Painting
"I'd like you to have a look, yes, Doctor. We want to get her identified. I suppose it's impossible for old Mr. Crackenthorpe? Too much of a strain?"
"Strain? Fiddlesticks. He’d never forgive you or me if you didn't let him have a peep. He's all agog. Most exciting thing that's happened to him for fifteen years or so - and it won't cost him anything!"
"There's nothing really much wrong with him then?"
Gustav Klimt Painting
"He's seventy-two," said the doctor. "That's all, really, that's the matter with him. He has odd rheumatic twinges - who doesn't? So he calls it arthritis. He has palpitations after meals - as well he may - he puts them down to ‘heart.' But he can always do anything he wants to do! I've plenty of patients like that. The ones who are really ill usually insist desperately that they're perfectly well. Come on, let's go and see this body of yours. Unpleasant, I suppose?"
"Johnstone estimates she's been dead between a fortnight and three weeks."
"Quite unpleasant, then."
Gustav Klimt Painting

Gustav Klimt The Kiss

Gustav Klimt The Kiss
That woman's the salt of the earth," said the doctor, looking after her. "A thousand pities she's never married. The penalty of being the only female in a family of men. The other sister got clear, married at seventeen, I believe. This one's quite a handsome woman really. She'd have been a success as a wife and a mother."
"Too devoted to her father, I suppose," said Inspector Bacon.
Gustav Klimt The Kiss
She's not really as devoted as all that - but she's got the instinct some women have to make their menfolk happy. She sees that her father likes being an invalid, so she lets him be an invalid. She's the same with her brothers. Cedric feels he's a good painter, whatshisname - Harold - knows how much she relies on his sound judgment - she lets Alfred shock her with his stories of his clever deals. Oh, yes, she's a clever woman - no fool. Well, do you want me for anything? Want me to have a look at your copse now Johnstone has done with it" (Johnstone was the police surgeon) "and see if it happens to be one of my medical mistakes?"
Gustav Klimt The Kiss

Modern Art Painting

Modern Art Painting
"I'm sorry, very sorry - to have asked this of you," said Inspector Bacon.
His hand under her arm, he led Emma Crackenthorpe out of the barn. Emma's face was very pale, she looked slick, but she walked firmly erect.
"I'm quite sure that I've never seen the woman before in my life."
"We're very grateful to you, Miss Crackenthorpe. That's all I wanted to know. Perhaps you'd like to lie down?"
"I must go to my father. I telephoned to Dr. Quimper as soon as I heard about this and the doctor is with him
Modern Art Painting
Dr. Quimper came out of the library as they crossed the hall. He was a tall genial man, with a casual off-hand cynical manner that his patients found very stimulating.
He and the inspector nodded to each other.
"Miss Crackenthorpe has performed an unpleasant task very bravely," said Bacon.
"Well done, Emma," said the doctor, patting her on the shoulder. "You can take things. I've always known that. Your father's all right. Just go in and have a word with him, and then go into the dining-room and get yourself a glass of brandy. That's a prescription."
Emma smiled at him gratefully and went into the library.
Modern Art Painting

Art Painting

Art Painting
It's not that at all," said Lucy. "I didn't want to speak before your father because I understand he is an invalid and it might give him a shock. You see, I've just discovered the body of a murdered woman in that big sarcophagus in the Long Barn."
Emma Crackenthorpe stared at her.
"In the sarcophagus? A murdered woman? It's impossible!"
"I'm afraid it's quite true. I've rung up the police. They will be here at any minute."
A slight flush came into Emma's cheek.
"You should have told me first – before notifying the police."
Art Painting
"I'm sorry," said Lucy.
"I didn't hear you ring up" – Emma's glance went to the telephone on the hall table.
"I rang up from the post office just down the road."
"But how extraordinary. Why not from here?"
Lucy thought quickly.
"I was afraid the boys might be about – might hear - if I rang up from the hall here."
"I see…. Yes…. I see…. They are coming – the police, I mean?"
"They're here now," said Lucy, as with a squeal of brake a car drew up at the front door and the front-door bell pealed through the house.
Art Painting

Famous painting

Famous painting
She paused in the hall for a moment, thinking.
Then she gave a brief sharp nod of the head and went to the library where Miss. Crackenthorpe was sitting helping her father to do The Times crossword.
"Can I speak to you a moment, Miss Crackenthorpe?"
Emma looked up, a shade of apprehension on her face. The apprehension was, Lucy thought, purely domestic. In such words do useful household staff announce their imminent departure.
"Well, speak up, girl, speak up," said old Mr. Crackenthorpe irritably.
Lucy said to Emma:
"I'd like to speak to you alone, please."
Famous painting
"Nonsense," said Mr. Crackenthorpe. "You say straight out here what you've got to say."
"Just a moment, father." Emma rose and went towards the door.
"All nonsense. It can wait," said the old man angrily.
"I'm afraid it can't wait," said Lucy.
Mr. Crackenthorpe said, "What impertinence!"
Emma came out into the hall, Lucy followed her and shut the door behind them.
"Yes?" said Emma. "What is it? If you think there's too much to do with the boys here, I can help you and –"
Famous painting

Famous artist painting

Famous artist painting
"Yes. A woman in a fur coat. It's in a stone sarcophagus in a kind of barn-cum-museum near the house. What do you want me to do? I ought to inform the police, I think."
"Yes. You must inform the police. At once."
"But what about the rest of it? About you? The first thing they'll want to know is why I was prying up a lid that weighs tons for apparently no reason. Do you want me to invent a reason? I can."
"No.I think, you know," said Miss Marple in her gentle serious voice, "that the only thing t do is to tell the exact truth."
Famous artist painting
About you?"
"About everything."
A sudden grin split the whiteness of Lucy's face.
"That will be quite simple for me," she said. "But I imagine they’ll find it quite hard to believe!"
She rang off, waited a moment, and then rang and got the police station.
"I have just discovered a dead body in a sarcophagus in the Long Barn at Rutherford Hall."
"What's that?"
Lucy repeated her statement and anticipating the next question gave her name.
She drove back, put the car away and entered the house.
Famous artist painting

Decorative painting

Decorative painting
A few minutes later Lucy, rather pale, left the barn, locked the door and put the key back on the nail.
She went rapidly to the stables, got out her car and drove down the back drive. She stopped at the post office at the end of the road. She went into the telephone box, put in the money and dialled.
"I want to speak to Miss Marple."
"She's resting, miss. It's Miss Eyelesbarrow, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"I'm not going to disturb her and that's flat, miss. She's an old lady and she needs her rest."
"You must disturb her. It's urgent."
Decorative painting
"Please do what I say at once."
When she chose, Lucy's voice could be as incisive as steel. Florence knew authority when she heard it.
Presently Miss Marple's voice spoke.
"Yes, Lucy?"
Lucy drew a deep breath.
"You were quite right," she said. "I've found it."
"A woman's body?"Decorative painting

Abstract Painting

Abstract Painting
Stodders?"
"Good-oh!" said Stoddart-West.
"He isn't really Australian," explained Alexander courteously. "But he's practising talking that way in case his people take him out to see the Test Match next year."
Encouraged by Lucy, they went off to get the clock golf set. Later, as she returned to the house, she found them setting it out on the lawn and arguing about the position of the numbers.
Abstract Painting
We don't want it like a clock," said Stoddart-West. "That's kid stuff. We want t make a course of it. Long holes and short ones. It's a pity the numbers are so rusty. You can hardly see them."
"They need a lick of white paint," said Lucy. "You might get some to-morrow and paint them."
"Good idea." Alexander's face lit up. "I say, I believe there are some old pots of paint in the Long Barn - left there by the painters last hols. Shall we see?"
"What's the Long Barn?" asked Lucy.
Alexander pointed to a long stone building a little way from the house near the back drive.
Abstract Painting

Rembrandt Painting

Rembrandt Painting
A golf ball," said Lucy promptly. "Several golf balls in fact. I've been practising golf shots most afternoons and I've lost quite a lot of balls. I thought that to-day I really must find some of them."
"We'll help you," said Alexander obligingly.
"That's very kind of you. I thought you were playing football."
"One can't go on playing footer," explained Stoddart-West. "One gets too hot. Do you play a lot of golf?"
"I'm quite fond of it. I don't get much opportunity."
"I suppose you don't. You do the cooking here, don't you?"
Rembrandt Painting
"Yes."
"Did you cook lunch to-day?"
"Yes. Was it all right?"
"Simply wizard," said Alexander. "We get awful meat at school, all dried up. I love beef that's pink and juicy inside. That treacle tart was pretty smashing, too."
"You must tell me what things you like best."
"Could we have apple meringue one day? It's my favourite thing."
"Of course."
Alexander sighed happily.
Rembrandt Painting

The Singing Butler

The Singing Butler
As the two boys left the table, Lucy heard Alexander say apologetically to his friend:
"You mustn't pay any attention to my grandfather. He's on a diet or something and that makes him rather peculiar. He's terribly mean, too. I think it must be a complex of some kind."
Stoddart-West said comprehendingly:
"I had an aunt who kept thinking she was going bankrupt. Really, she had oodles of money. Pathological, the doctor said. Have you got that football, Alex?"
The Singing Butler
After she had cleared away and washed up lunch, Lucy went out. She could hear the boys calling out in the distance on the lawn. She herself went in the opposite direction, down the front drive and from there she struck across to some clumped masses of rhododendron bushes. She began to hunt carefully, holding back the leaves and peering inside. She moved from clump to clump systematically, and was raking inside with a golf club when the polite voice of Alexander Eastley made her start.
"Are you looking for something, Miss Eyelesbarrow?"
The Singing Butler

Jack Vettriano Painting

Jack Vettriano Painting
The two boys arrived the following morning. They both had well-brushed hair, suspiciously angelic faces, and perfect manners. Alexander Eastley had fair hair and blue eyes, Stoddart-West was dark and spectacled.
They discoursed gravely during lunch on events in the sporting world, with occasional references to the latest space fiction. Their manner was that of elderly professors discussing Palaeolithic implements. In comparison with them, Lucy felt quite young.
The sirloin of beef vanished in no time and every crumb of treacle tart was consumed.
Mr. Crackenthorpe grumbled: “You two will eat me out of house and home."
Jack Vettriano Painting
Alexander gave him a blue-eyed reproving glance.
"We'll have bread and cheese if you can't afford meat, grandfather."
"Afford it? I can afford it. I don't like waste."
"We haven't waste any, sir," said Stoddart-West, looking down at his place which bore clear testimony of that fact.
"You boys both eat twice as much as I do."
"We're at the body-building stage," Alexander explained. "We need a big intake of proteins."
The old man grunted.
Jack Vettriano Painting

Mary Cassatt painting

Mary Cassatt painting
"No, I don't. Died in 1928, that's what I mean."
Lucy supposed that 1928 qualified as “before the war" though it was not the way she would have described it herself.
She said: "Well, I expect you'll be wanting to go on with your work. You mustn't let me keep you."
"Ar," said old Hillman without enthusiasm, "not much you can do this time of day. Light's too bad."
Lucy went back to the house, pausing to investigate a likely-looking copse of birch and azalea on her way.
She found Emma Crackenthorpe standing in the hall reading a letter. The afternoon post had just been delivered.
Mary Cassatt painting
My nephew will be here to-morrow – with a school-friend. Alexander's room is the one over the porch. The one next to it will do for James Stoddart-West. They’ll use the bathroom just opposite."
"Yes, Miss Crackenthorpe. I'll see the rooms are prepared."
"They'll arrive in the morning before lunch." She hesitated. "I expect they'll be hungry."
"I bet they will," said Lucy. "Roast beef, do you think? And perhaps treacle tart?"
"Alexander's very fond of treacle tart."
Mary Cassatt painting

Edward Hopper Painting

Edward Hopper Painting
Crackenthorpe's Fancies, that's what they are. The old gentleman started it, Mr. Crackenthorpe's father. A sharp one he was, by all accounts. Made his fortune, and built this place. Hard as nails, they say, and never forgot an injury. But with all that, he was open-handed. Nothing of the miser about him. Disappointed in both his sons, so the story goes. Give 'em an education and brought 'em up to be gentlemen – Oxford and all. But they were too much of gentlemen to want to go into the business. The younger one married an actress and then smashed himself up in a car accident when he'd been drinking. The elder one, our one here, his father never fancied so much. Abroad a lot, he was, bought a lot of heathen status and had them sent home. Wasn't so close with his money when he was young - come on, him more in middle age, it did. No, they never did hit it off, him and his father, so I've heard."
Edward Hopper Painting
Lucy digested this information with an air of polite interest. The old man leant against the wall and prepared to go on with his saga. He much preferred talking to doing any work.
"Died afore the war, the old gentleman did. Terrible temper he had. Didn't do to give him any sauce, he wouldn't stand for it."
"And after he died, this Mr. Crackenthorpe came and lived here?"
"Him and his family, yes. Nigh grown up they was by then."
"But surely…. Oh, I see, you mean the 1914 war."
Edward Hopper Painting

Van Gogh Sunflower

Van Gogh Sunflower
Lucy was careful to display no embarrassment.
"I expect you think I'm very nosy," she said cheerfully. "I was just wondering if something couldn't be made out of this place - growing mushrooms for the market, that sort of thing. Everything seems to have been let go terribly."
"That's the master, that is. Won't spend a penny. Ought to have two men and a boy here, I ought to keep the place proper, but won't hear of it, he won't. Had all I could do to made him get a motor mower. Wanted me to mow all that front grass by hands, he did."
Van Gogh Sunflower
But if the place could be made to pay – with repairs?"
"Won't get a place like this to pay - too far gone. And he wouldn't care about that, anyway. Only cares about saving. Knows well enough what’ll happen after he's gone – the young gentlemen'll sell up as fast as they can. Only waiting for him to pop off, they are. Going to come into a tidy lot of money when he dies, so I've heard."
"I suppose he's a very rich man?" said Lucy.
Van Gogh Sunflower

Van Gogh Painting

Van Gogh Painting
After tea, Lucy rose.
"I'll be getting back," she said. "As I've already told you, there's no one actually living in the Rutherford Hall who could be the man we're looking for. there's only an old man and a middle-aged woman, and an old deaf gardener."
"I didn't say he was actually living there," said Miss Marple. "All I mean is, that he's someone who knows Rutherford Hall very well. But we can go into that after you've found the body."
"You seem to assume quite confidently that I shall find it," said Lucy. "I don't feel nearly so optimistic."
"I'm sure you will succeed, my dear Lucy. You are such an efficient person."
"In some ways, but I haven't had any experience in looking for bodies."
Van Gogh Painting
I'm sure all it needs is a little common sense," said Miss Marple encouragingly.
Lucy looked at her, then laughed. Miss Marple smiled back at her.
Lucy set to work systematically the next morning.
She poked round outhouse, prodded the briars which wreathed the old pigsties, and was peering into the boiler room under the greenhouse when she heard a dry cough and turned to find old Hillman, the gardener, looking at her disapprovingly.
"You be careful you don't get a nasty fall, miss," he warned her. "Them steps isn't safe, and you was up in the loft just now and then floor there ain't safe neither."Van Gogh Painting

Henri Matisse Painting

Henri Matisse Painting
He couldn't bury it in the park. Too hard work and very noticeable. Somewhere where the earth was turned already?"
"The kitchen garden, perhaps, but that's very close to the gardener's cottage. He's old and deaf - but still it might be risky."
"Is there a dog?"
"No."
"Then in a shed, perhaps, or an outhouse?"
"That would be simpler and quicker…. There are a lot of unused old buildings; broken down pigsties, harness rooms, workshops that nobody ever goes near. Or he might perhaps thrust it into a clump of rhododendrons or shrubs somewhere."
Miss Marple nodded.
"Yes, I think that's much more probable."
Henri Matisse Painting
There was a knock on the door and the grim Florence came in with a tray.
"Nice for you to have a visitor," she said to Miss Marple, "I've made you my special scones you used to like."
"Florence always made the most delicious tea cakes," said Miss Marple.
Florence, gratified, creased her features into a totally unexpected smile and left the room.
"I think, my dear," said Miss Marple, "we won't talk any more about murder during tea. Such an unpleasant subject!"Henri Matisse Painting

Marc Chagall Painting

Marc Chagall Painting
It is exactly like that," said Lucy. "It's an anachronism out of the past. Bustling urban life goes on all around it, but doesn't touch it. The tradespeople deliver in the mornings and that's all."
"So we assume, as you said, that the murderer comes to Rutherford Hall that night. It is already dark when the body falls and no one is likely to discover it before the next day."
"No, indeed."
"The murderer would come – how? In a car? Which way?"
Lucy considered.
Marc Chagall Painting
There's a rough lane, alongside a factory wall. He'd probably come that way, turn in under the railway arch and along the back drive. Then he could climb the fence, go along at the foot of the embankment, find the body, and carry it back to the car."
"And then," continued Miss Marple. "He took it to some place he had already chosen beforehand. This was all thought out, you know. And I don't think, as I say, that he would take it away from Rutherford Hall, or if so, not very far. The obvious thing, I suppose, would be to bury it somewhere?" She looked inquiringly at Lucy.
"I suppose so," said Lucy considering. "But it wouldn't be quite as easy as it sounds."
Miss Marple agreed.
Marc Chagall Painting

William Bouguereau Birth of Venus Painting

William Bouguereau Birth of Venus Painting
Cabanel The Birth of Venus painting
Are you saying - do you mean - that this was a premeditated crime?"
"I didn't thing so at first," said Miss Marple. "One wouldn't - naturally. It seemed like a quarrel and a man losing control and strangling the girl and then being faced with the problem which he had to solve within a very few minutes. But it really is too much of a coincidence that he should kill the girl in a fit of passion, and then look out of the window and find the train was going round a curve exactly at a spot where he could tip the body out, and where he could be sure of finding his way later and removing it! If he’d just thrown her out there by chance, he'd have done no more about it, and the body would, long before now, have been found."
She paused. Lucy stared at her.
The Birth of Venus
"You know," said Miss Marple thoughtfully, "it's really quite a clever way to have planned a crime - and I think it was very carefully planned. There's something so anonymous about a train. If he'd killed her in the place where she lived, or was staying, somebody might have noticed him come or go. Or if he’d driven her out in the country somewhere, someone might have noticed the car and its number and make. But a train is full of strangers coming and going. In a non-corridor carriage, along with her, it was quite easy - especially if you realise that he knew exactly what he was going to do next. He knew – he must have known - all about Rutherford Hall – its geographical position, I mean, its queer isolation – an island bounded by railway lines."
The Birth of Venus

Bouguereau William

Bouguereau William
A faint flush of achievement came into Miss Marple's cheeks.
"Perhaps one ought not to feel so, she said, but it is rather gratifying to form a theory and get proof that it is correct!"
She fingered the small tuft of fur. "Elspeth said the woman was wearing a light-coloured fur coat. I suppose the compact was in the pocket of the coat and fell out as the body rolled down the slope. It doesn't seem distinctive in any way, but it may help. You didn't take all the fur?"
"No, I left half of it on the thorn bush."
Miss Marple nodded approval.
"Quite right. You are very intelligent, my dear. The police will want to check exactly."
"You are going to the police – with these things?"
Bouguereau William
"Well - not quite yet…." Miss Marple considered: “It would be better, I think, to find the body first. Don't you?"
"Yes, but isn't that rather a tall order? I mean, granting that your estimate is correct. The murderer pushed the body out of the train, then presumably got out himself at Brackhampton and at some time - probably that same night - came along and removed the body. But what happened after that? He may have taken it anywhere."
"Not anywhere," said Miss Marple. "I don't think you've followed the thing to its logical conclusion, my dear Miss Eyelesbarrow."
"Do call me Lucy. Why not anywhere?"
Bouguereau William

Gustav Klimt Painting

Gustav Klimt Painting
Miss Marple was occupying the back sitting-room which looked out on to a small tidy square of garden. It was aggressively clean with a lot of mats and doilies, a great many china ornaments, a rather big Jacobean suite and two ferns in pots. Miss Marple was sitting in a big chair by the fire busily engaged in crocheting.
Lucy came in and shut the door. She sat down in the chair facing Miss Marple.
"Well!" she said. "It looks as though you were right."
She produced her finds and gave details of their finding.
A faint flush of achievement came into Miss Marple's cheeks
Gustav Klimt Painting
Miss Marple was occupying the back sitting-room which looked out on to a small tidy square of garden. It was aggressively clean with a lot of mats and doilies, a great many china ornaments, a rather big Jacobean suite and two ferns in pots. Miss Marple was sitting in a big chair by the fire busily engaged in crocheting.
Lucy came in and shut the door. She sat down in the chair facing Miss Marple.
"Well!" she said. "It looks as though you were right."
She produced her finds and gave details of their finding.
A faint flush of achievement came into Miss Marple's cheeks
Gustav Klimt Painting

Gustav Klimt The Kiss

Gustav Klimt The Kiss
She began to hunt carefully down in the grass at the foot of the embankment just below the broken thorn bush. Presently her search was rewarded. She found a powder compact, a small cheap enamelled affair. She wrapped it in her handkerchief and put it in her pocket. She searched on but did not find anything more.
On the following afternoon, she got into her car and went to see her invalid aunt. Emma Crackenthorpe said kindly, "Don't hurry back. We shan't want you until dinner-time."
"Thank you, but I shall be back by six at the latest."
Gustav Klimt The Kiss
No.4 Madison Road was a small drab house in a small drab street. It had very clean Nottingham lace curtains, a shining white doorstep and a well-polished brass door handle. The door was opened by a tall, grim-looking woman, dressed in black with a large knob of iron-grey hair.
She eyed Lucy in suspicious appraisal as she showed her in to Miss Marple.
Gustav Klimt The Kiss

Modern Art Painting

Modern Art Painting
She began playing a series of shots. After five minutes or so, a ball, apparently sliced, pitched on the side of the railway embankment. Lucy went up and began to hunt about for it. She looked back towards the house. It was a long way away and nobody was in the least interested in what she was doing. She continued to hunt for the ball. Now and then she played shots from the embankment down into the grass. During the afternoon she searched about a third of the embankment. Nothing. She played her ball back towards the house.
Modern Art Painting
Then, on the next day, she came upon something. A thorn bush growing about half-way up the bank had been snapped off. Bits of it lay scattered about. Lucy examined the tree itself. Impaled on one of the thorns was a torn scrap of fur. It was almost the same colour as the wood, a pale brownish colour. Lucy looked at it for a moment, then she took a pair of scissors out of her pocket and snipped it carefully in half. The half she had snipped off she put in an envelope which she had in her pocket. She came down the steep slope searching about for anything else. She looked carefully at the rough grass of the field. She thought she could distinguish a kind of track which someone had made walking through the long grass. But it was very faint – not nearly so clear as her own tracks were. It must have been made some time ago and it was too sketchy for her to be sure that it was not merely imagination on her part.
Modern Art Painting

Art Painting

Art Painting
"All right, all right, say straight out that I ate too much! That's what you mean. And why did I eat too much? Because there was too much food on the table, far too much. Wasteful and extravagant. And that reminds me - you, young woman. Five potatoes you sent in for lunch - good-sized ones too. Two potatoes are enough for anybody. So don't send in more than four in future. The extra one was wasted to-day."
"It wasn't wasted, Mr. Crackenthorpe. I've planned to use it in a Spanish omelette to-night."
Art Painting
Urgh!" As Lucy went out of the room carrying the coffee tray she heard him say, "Slick young woman, that, always got all the answers. Cooks well, though – and she's a handsome kind of girl!"
Lucy Eyelesbarrow took a light iron out of the set of gold clubs she had had the forethought to bring with her, and strolled out into the park, climbing over the fencing.Art Painting

Art Painting

Art Painting
"All right, all right, say straight out that I ate too much! That's what you mean. And why did I eat too much? Because there was too much food on the table, far too much. Wasteful and extravagant. And that reminds me - you, young woman. Five potatoes you sent in for lunch - good-sized ones too. Two potatoes are enough for anybody. So don't send in more than four in future. The extra one was wasted to-day."
"It wasn't wasted, Mr. Crackenthorpe. I've planned to use it in a Spanish omelette to-night."
Art Painting
Urgh!" As Lucy went out of the room carrying the coffee tray she heard him say, "Slick young woman, that, always got all the answers. Cooks well, though – and she's a handsome kind of girl!"
Lucy Eyelesbarrow took a light iron out of the set of gold clubs she had had the forethought to bring with her, and strolled out into the park, climbing over the fencing.Art Painting

Famous painting

Famous painting
"I suppose it will be all right if I just practise a few iron shots in the park?" asked Lucy.
"Oh, yes, certainly. Are you fond of golf?"
"I'm not much good, but I like to keep in practise. It's a more agreeable form of exercise than just going for a walk."
"Nowhere to walk outside this," growled Mr. Crackenthorpe. "Nothing but pavements and miserable little band boxes of houses. Like to get hold of my land and build more of them. But they won't until I'm dead. And I'm not going to die to oblige anybody. I can tell you that! Not to oblige anybody!"
Emma Crackenthorpe said mildly:
Famous painting
"Now, father."
"I know what they think – and what they're waiting for. All of them. Cedric, and that sly fox Harold with his smug face. As for Alfred, I wonder he hasn't had a shot at bumping me off himself. Not sure he didn't, at Christmas-time. That was a very odd turn I had. Puzzled old Quimper. He asked me a lot of discreet questions."
"Everyone gets these digestive upsets now and again, father."
Famous painting

Famous artist painting

Famous artist painting
"Excuse me, can you tell me if there is a public telephone near here?"
"Post office just at the corner of the road."
Lucy thanked her and walked along until she came to the post office which was a combination shop and post office. There was telephone box at one side. Lucy went into it and made a call. She asked to speak to Miss Marple. A woman's voice spoke in a sharp bark.
Famous artist painting
She's resting. And I'm not going to disturb her! She needs her rest - she's an old lady. Who shall I say called?"
"Miss Eyelesbarrow. there's no need to disturb her. Just tell her that I've arrived and everything is going on well and that I'll let her know when I've any news."
She replaced the receiver and made her way back to Rutherford Hall.
Famous artist painting

Decorative painting

Decorative painting
She strolled round the gardens which would be the normal thing to do. The kitchen garden was sketchily cultivated with a few vegetables. The hot-houses were in ruins. The paths everywhere were overgrown with weeds. A herbaceous border near the house was the only thing that showed free of weeds and in good condition and Lucy suspected that that had been Emma's hand. The gardener was a very old man, somewhat deaf, who was only making a show of working. Lucy spoke to him pleasantly. He lived in a cottage adjacent to the big stableyard.
Leading out of the stableyard a back drive led through the park which
Decorative painting
Every few minutes a train thundered along the main line over the railway arch. Lucy watched the trains as they slackened speed going round the sharp curve that encircled the Crackenthorpe property. She passed under the railway arch and out into the lane. It seemed a little-used track. On the one side was the railway embankment, on the other was a high wall which enclosed some tall factory buildings. Lucy followed the lane until it came out into a street of small houses. She could hear a short distance away the busy hum of main road traffic. She glanced at her watch. A woman came out of a house nearby and Lucy stopped her.
Decorative painting

Rembrandt Painting

Rembrandt Painting
"Nevertheless，"continued Poirot，"in view of what has happened，thepolice there would like to have another look at the anonymous letter Ireceived.I have said that you and I will go down to Andover at once." My spirits revived a little.After all，sordid as this crime seemed to be，it was a crime，and it was a long time since I had had any association withcrime and criminals. I hardly listened to the next words Poirot said.But they were to comeback to me with significance later. "This is the beginning，"said Hercule Poirot.
Rembrandt Painting
We were received at Andover by Inspector Glen，a tall fair-haired manwith a pleasant smile. For the sake of concisenss I think I had better give a brief resume ofthe bare facts of the case. The crime was discovered by Police Constable Dover at 1am on the morningof the 22nd.When on his round he tried the door of the shop and found itunfastened，he entered and at first thought the place was empty.Directinghis torch over the counter，however，he caught sight of the huddled-up bodyof the old woman.When the police surgeon arrived on the spot it was elicitedthat the woman had been struck down by a heavy blow on the back of the head，probably while she was reaching down a packet of cigarettes from the shelfbehind the counter.Death must have occurred about nine to sever hourspreviously.
Rembrandt Painting

The Singing Butler

The Singing Butler
Mais oui......" "Yes，of course......" "But yes，we will come......" "Naturally......" "It may be as you say......" "Yes，I will bring it.A tout a l'heure then." He replaced the receiver and came across the room to me. "That was Japp speaking，Hastings." "Yes?" "He had just got back to the Yard.There was a message fromAndover......" "Andover?"I cried excitedly. Poirot said slowly: "An old woman of the name of Ascher who keeps a little tobacco andnewspaper shop has been found murdered."
The Singing Butler
I think I felt ever so slightly damped.My interest，quickened by thesound of Andover，suffered a faint check.I had expected somethingfantastic-out of the way!The murder of an old woman who kept a littletabacco shop seemed，somehow，sordid and uninteresting. Poirot continued in the same slow，grave voice: "The Andover police believe they can put their hand on the man who didit-"I felt a second throb of disappointment. "It seems the woman was on bad terms with her husband.He drinks and isby way of being rather a nasty customer.He's threatened to take her lifemore than once.
The Singing Butler

Jack Vettriano Painting

Jack Vettriano Painting
How can a crime be intime?" "Supposing，"murmured Poirot，"that four people sit down to play bridgeand one，the odd man out，sits in a chair by the fire. At the end of the evening the man by the fire is found dead.One of thefour，while he is dummy，has gone over and killed him，and intent on theplay of the hand，the other three have not noticed.Ah，there would be acrime for you!Which of the four was it?" "Well，"I said."I can't see any excitement in that!" Poirot threw me a glance of reproof.
Jack Vettriano Painting
"No，because there are no curiously twisted daggers，no blackmail，noemerald that is the stolen eye of a god，no untraceable Eastern poisons.Youhave the melodramatic soul，Hastings.You would like，not one murder，but aseries of murders." "I admit，"I said，"that a second murder in a book often cheers thingsup.If the murder happens in the first chapter，and you have to follow upeverybody's alibi until the last page but one-well，it does get a bittedious." The telephone rang and Poirot rose to answer. "Allo，"he said."Allo.Yes，it is Hercule Poirot speaking." He listened for a minute or two and then I saw his face change. His own side of the conversation was short and disjointed.
Jack Vettriano Painting

Van Gogh Sunflower

Van Gogh Sunflower
"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 touchyabout the thinness of my hair.)"I'm sorry that anonymous letter businesscame to nothing." "I have indeed been in the wrong over that. About that letter，there was，I thought，the odour of the fish.Instead amere stupidity. Alas，I grow old and suspicious like the blind watch-dog who growls whenthere 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.
Van Gogh Sunflower
"You remember your remark of the other day?If you could order a crime asone orders a dinner，what would you choose?" I fell in with his humour. "Let me see now.Let's review the menu. Robbery?Forgery?No，I think not.Rather too vegetarian.It must bemurder-red-blooded murder-with trimmings，of course." "Naturally.The hors d'oeuvres." "Who shall the victim be-man or woman?Man，I think.Some big-wig.Americanmillionaire.Prime Minister.Newspaper proprietor.Scene of the crime-well，what's wrong with the good old library?Nothing like it for atmosphere.
Van Gogh Sunflower