Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Адаптированная книга

CHAPTER I. I GO TO STYLES

The intense interest aroused |поднялся| in the public by what was known at the time as |был известен в это время как| “The Styles Case” has now somewhat subsided |как будто поутих|. Nevertheless, in view of the world-wide notoriety which attended it |вследствие всемирной шумихи|, I have been asked |Меня попросили|, both by my friend Poirot and the family themselves, to write an account of the whole story. This, we trust, will effectually silence |здесь — успокоит| the sensational rumours which still persist |слухи… продолжают витать|.

I will therefore briefly set down the circumstances which led to my being connected with the affair |Здесь я кратко изложу обстоятельства, которые связали меня с этим делом|.

I had been invalided |ранен| home from the Front; and, after spending some months in a rather depressing Convalescent Home |название госпиталя|, was given a month’s sick leave |больничный|. Having no near relations or friends, I was trying to make up my mind |решить| what to do, when I ran across |встретился| John Cavendish. I had seen very little of him for some years. Indeed, I had never known him particularly well. He was a good fifteen years my senior |старше меня|, for one thing, though he hardly |едва ли| looked his forty-five years. As a boy, though, I had often stayed at Styles, his mother’s place in Essex.

We had a good yarn |болтовню| about old times, and it ended in his inviting me down to Styles to spend my leave there.

“The mater |мама| will be delighted to see you again — after all those years,” he added.

“Your mother keeps well?” I asked.

“Oh, yes. I suppose you know that she has married again?”