Короткий английский текст для практики чтения и перевода.
«Anything of interest this morning, Miss Lemon?» he asked as he entered the room the following morning.
He trusted Miss Lemon. She was a woman without imagination, but she had an instinct. Anything that she mentioned as worth consideration was worth consideration. She was a born secretary.
«Nothing much, Mr. Poirot. There is just one letter that I thought might interest you. I have put it on the top of the pile.» «And what is that?» he took an interested step forward. «It’s from a man who wants you to investigate the disappearance of his wife’s Pekinese dog.»
Poirot paused with his foot in the air. He threw a glance of deep reproach at Miss Lemon. She did not notice it. She had begun to type.
She typed with the speed and precision of a quick-firing tank.
Poirot was shaken; shaken and disappointed. Miss Lemon, the efficient Miss Lemon, had let him down!’ A Pekinese dog. A Pekinese dog! And after the dream he had had last night. He had been leaving Buckingham Palace after being personally thanked when his valet had come in with his morning chocolate!
With disgust he picked up the topmost letter from a little pile on the side of the desk.
Yes, it was exactly as Miss Lemon had said. A city address…
The subject- the kidnapping o f a Pekinese dog. One of those bulgingeyed
pets of a rich woman. Nothing unusual about it. Nothing out of the way or — but yes, yes, in one small detail. Miss Lemon was right. In one small detail there was something unusual.
Hercule Poirot sat down. He read the letter slowly and carefully. It was not the kind of case he wanted, it was not the kind of case he had promised himself. It was not in any sense an important case, it was supremely unimportant. But unfortunately he was curious….
He raised his voice so as to be heard by Miss Lemon above the noise of her typing.
«Ring up this Sir Joseph Hoggin,» he ordered, «and make an appointment for me to see him at his office as he suggests.»
After «The Nemean Lion» by A. Christie