（外文电子版资料）Christie, Agatha - At Bertrams Hotel.docVIP

At Bertrams Hotel By Agatha Christie For Harry Smith because I appreciate the scientific way he reads my books 1 In the heart of the West End, there are many quiet pockets, unknown to almost all but taxi drivers who traverse them with expert knowledge, and arrive triumphantly thereby at Park Lane, Berkeley Square, or South Audley Street. If you turn off on an unpretentious street from the Park, and turn left and right once or twice, you will find yourself in a quiet street with Bertrams Hotel on the right-hand side. Bertrams Hotel has been there a long time. During the war, houses were demolished on the right of it, and a little farther down on the left of it, but Bertrams itself remained unscathed. Naturally it could not escape being, as house agents would say, scratched, bruised, and marked, but by the expenditure of only a reasonable amount of money it was restored to its original condition. By 1955 it looked precisely as it had looked in 1939--dignified, unostentatious, and quietly expensive. Such was Bertrams, patronized over a long stretch of years by the higher echelons of the clergy, dowager ladies of the aristocracy up from the country, girls on their way home for the holidays from expensive finishing schools. (So few places where a girl can stay alone in London but of course it is quite all right at Bertrams. We have stayed there for years.) There had, of course, been many other hotels on the model of Bertrams. Some still existed, but nearly all had felt the wind of change. They had had necessarily to modernize themselves, to cater for a different clientele. Bertrams, too, had had to change, but it had been done so cleverly that it was not at all apparent at the first casual glance. Outside the steps that led up to the big swing doors stood what at first sight appeared to be no less than a field marshal. Gold braid and medal ribbons adorned a broad and manly chest. His deportment was perfect. He received you with tender concern as you emerged with rheumati