4 MISS MA RPLE- Agatha Christie - short stories

man of the world, Sir Henry Clithering. There were two other people in the room, Dr. Pen&r, the elderly clergyman of the parish, and Mr. Petherick, the solicitor, a dried-up little man with eyeglasses which he looked over and not through. Miss Marple gave a brief moment of attention to all these people and returned to her knitting with a gentle smile upon her lips. Mr. Petherick gave the dry little cough with which he usually prefaced his remarks. "What is that you say, Raymond? Unsolved mysteries? Ha--and what about them?" "Nothing about them," said Joyce Lemprire. "Raymond just likes the sound of the words and of himself saying them." Raymond West threw her a glance of reproach at which she threw back her head and laughed. "He is a humbug, isn't he, Miss Marple?" she demanded. "You know that, I am sure." Miss Marple smiled gently at her but made no reply. "Life itself is an unsolved mystery," said the clergyman gravely. Raymond sat up in his chair and flung away his cigarette with an impulsive gesture. "That's not what I mean. I was not talking philosophy," he said. "I was thinking of actual bare prosaic facts, things that have happened and that no one has ever explained." "I know just the sort of thing you mean, dear," said Miss Marple. "For instance Mrs. Carruthers had a very strange experience yesterday morning. She bought two gills of pickled shrimps at Elliot's. She called at two other shops and when she got home she found she had not got the shrimps with her. She went back to the two shops she had visited but these shrimps had completely disappeared. Now that seems to me very remarkable."