"_Dear Katherine--Living among grand friends as you are doing now,
I don't suppose you will care to hear any of our news; but as I
always thought you were a sensible girl, perhaps you are a trifle
less swollen-headed than I suppose. Everything goes on much the
same here. There was great trouble about the new curate, who is
scandalously high. In my view, he is neither more nor less than a
Roman. Everybody has spoken to the Vicar about it, but you know
what the Vicar is--all Christian charity and no proper spirit. I
have had a lot of trouble with maids lately. That girl Annie was
no good--skirts up to her knees and wouldn't wear sensible woollen
stockings. Not one of them can bear being spoken to. I have had a
lot of pain with my rheumatism one way and another, and Dr. Harris
persuaded me to go and see a London specialist--a waste of three
guineas and a railway fare, as I told him; but by waiting until
Wednesday I managed to get a cheap return. The London doctor pulled
a long face and talked all round about and never straight out,
until I said to him, 'I'm a plain woman, Doctor, and I like things
to be plainly stated. Is it cancer, or is it not?' And then, of
course, he had to say it was. They say a year with care, and not
too much pain, though I am sure I can bear pain as well as any
other Christian woman. Life seems rather lonely at times, with most
of my friends dead or gone before. I wish you were in St. Mary
Mead, my dear, and that is a fact. If you hadn't come into this
money and gone off into grand society, I would have offered you
double the salary poor Jane gave you to come and look after me;
but there--there's no good wanting what we can't get. However, if
things should go ill with you--and that is always possible. I have
heard no end of tales of bogus noblemen marrying girls and getting
hold of their money and then leaving them at the church door. I
dare say you are too sensible for anything of the kind to happen to
you, but one never knows; and never having had much attention of
any kind it might easily go to your head now. So just in case, my
dear, remember there is always a home for you here; and though a
plain-spoken woman I am a warm-hearted one too.--Your affectionate
old friend,_
"_Amelia Viner._
"_P.S.--I saw a mention of you in the paper with your cousin,
Viscountess Tamplin, and I cut it out and put it with my cuttings.
I prayed for you on Sunday that you might be kept from pride and
vainglory._"
Katherine read this characteristic epistle through twice, then she laid
it down and stared out of her bedroom window across the blue waters
of the Mediterranean. She felt a curious lump in her throat. A sudden
wave of longing for St. Mary Mead swept over her. So full of familiar,
everyday, stupid little things--and yet--home. She felt very inclined
to lay her head down on her arms and indulge in a real good cry.
Lenox, coming in at the moment, saved her.
"Hello, Katherine," said Lenox. "I say--what is the matter?"
"Nothing," said Katherine, grabbing up Miss Viner's letter and
thrusting it into her handbag.
"You looked rather queer," said Lenox. "I say--I hope you don't mind--I
rang up your detective friend, M. Poirot, and asked him to lunch with
us in Nice. I said you wanted to see him, as I thought he might not
come for me."
"Did you want to see him then?" asked Katherine.
"Yes," said Lenox. "I have rather lost my heart to him. I never met a
man before whose eyes were really green like a cat's."
"All right," said Katherine. She spoke listlessly. The last few days
had been trying. Derek Kettering's arrest had been the topic of the
hour, and the Blue Train Mystery had been thrashed out from every
conceivable standpoint.
"I have ordered the car," said Lenox, "and I have told Mother some lie
or other--unfortunately I can't remember exactly what; but it won't
matter, as she never remembers. If she knew where we were going, she
would want to come too, to pump M. Poirot."
The two girls arrived at the Negresco to find Poirot waiting.
He was full of Gallic politeness, and showered so many compliments upon
the two girls that they were soon helpless with laughter; yet for all
that the meal was not a gay one. Katherine was dreamy and distracted,
and Lenox made bursts of conversation, interspersed by silences. As
they were sitting on the terrace sipping their coffee she suddenly
attacked Poirot bluntly.
"How are things going? You know what I mean?"
Poirot shrugged his shoulders. "They take their course," he said.
"And you are just letting them take their course?"
He looked at Lenox a little sadly.
"You are young, Mademoiselle, but there are three things that cannot be
hurried--_le bon Dieu_, Nature, and old people."
"Nonsense!" said Lenox. "You are not old."
"Ah, it is pretty what you say there."
"Here is Major Knighton," said Lenox.
Katherine looked round quickly and then turned back again.
"He is with Mr. Van Aldin," continued Lenox. "There is something I want
to ask Major Knighton about. I won't be a minute."
Left alone together, Poirot bent forward and murmured to Katherine:
"You are _distraite_, Mademoiselle; your thoughts, they are far away,
are they not?"
"Just as far as England, no farther."
Guided by a sudden impulse, she took the letter she had received that
morning and handed it across to him to read.
"That is the first word that has come to me from my old life; somehow
or other--it hurts."
He read it through and then handed it back to her. "So you are going
back to St. Mary Mead?" he said slowly.
"No, I am not," said Katherine; "why should I?"
"Ah," said Poirot, "it is my mistake. You will excuse me one little
minute."
He strolled across to where Lenox Tamplin was talking to Van Aldin and
Knighton. The American looked old and haggard. He greeted Poirot with a
curt nod but without any other sign of animation.
As he turned to reply to some observation made by Lenox, Poirot drew
Knighton aside.
"M. Van Aldin looks ill," he said.
"Do you wonder?" asked Knighton. "The scandal of Derek Kettering's
arrest has about put the lid on things, as far as he is concerned. He
is even regretting that he asked you to find out the truth."
"He should go back to England," said Poirot.
"We are going the day after to-morrow."
"That is good news," said Poirot.
He hesitated, and looked across the terrace to where Katherine was
sitting.
"I wish," he murmured, "that you could tell Miss Grey that."
"Tell her what?"
"That you--I mean that M. Van Aldin is returning to England."
Knighton looked a little puzzled, but he readily crossed the terrace
and joined Katherine.
Poirot saw him go with a satisfied nod of the head, and then joined
Lenox and the American. After a minute or two they joined the others.
Conversation was general for a few minutes, then the millionaire and
his secretary departed. Poirot also prepared to take his departure.
"A thousand thanks for your hospitality, Mesdemoiselles," he cried;
"it has been a most charming luncheon. _Ma foi_, I needed it!" He
swelled out his chest and thumped it. "I am now a lion--a giant. Ah,
Mademoiselle Katherine, you have not seen me as I can be. You have
seen the gentle, the calm Hercule Poirot; but there is another Hercule
Poirot. I go now to bully, to threaten, to strike terror into the
hearts of those who listen to me."
He looked at them in a self-satisfied way, and they both appeared to be
duly impressed, though Lenox was biting her under lip, and the corners
of Katherine's mouth had a suspicious twitch.
"And I shall do it," he said gravely. "Oh yes, I shall succeed."
He had gone but a few steps when Katherine's voice made him turn.
"M. Poirot, I--I want to tell you. I think you were right in what you
said. I am going back to England almost immediately."
Poirot stared at her very hard, and under the directness of his
scrutiny she blushed.
"I see," he said gravely.
"I don't believe you do," said Katherine.
"I know more than you think, Mademoiselle," he said quietly.
He left her, with an odd little smile upon his lips. Entering a waiting
car, he drove to Antibes.
Hippolyte, the Comte de la Roche's wooden-faced man-servant, was busy
at the Villa Marina polishing his master's beautiful cut table glass.
The Comte de la Roche himself had gone to Monte Carlo for the day.
Chancing to look out of the window, Hippolyte espied a visitor walking
briskly up to the hall door, a visitor of so uncommon a type that
Hippolyte, experienced as he was, had some difficulty in placing him.
Calling to his wife, Marie, who was busy in the kitchen, he drew her
attention to what he called _ce type là_.
"It is not the police again?" said Marie anxiously.
"Look for yourself," said Hippolyte.
Marie looked.
"Certainly not the police," she declared. "I am glad."
"They have not really worried us much," said Hippolyte. "In fact, but
for Monsieur le Comte's warning, I should never have guessed that
stranger at the wine-shop to be what he was."
The hall bell pealed and Hippolyte, in a grave and decorous manner,
went to open the door.
"M. le Comte, I regret to say, is not at home."
The little man with the large moustaches beamed placidly.
"I know that," he replied. "You are Hippolyte Flavelle, are you not?"
"Yes, Monsieur, that is my name."
"And you have a wife, Marie Flavelle?"
"Yes, Monsieur, but--"
"I desire to see you both," said the stranger, and he stepped nimbly
past Hippolyte into the hall.
"Your wife is doubtless in the kitchen," he said. "I will go there."
Before Hippolyte could recover his breath, the other had selected the
right door at the back of the hall and passed along the passage and
into the kitchen, where Marie paused open-mouthed to stare at him.
"_Voilà_," said the stranger, and sank into a wooden arm-chair; "I am
Hercule Poirot."
"Yes, Monsieur?"
"You do not know the name?"
"I have never heard it," said Hippolyte.
"Permit me to say that you have been badly educated. It is the name of
one of the great ones of this world."
He sighed and folded his hands across his chest.
Hippolyte and Marie were staring at him uneasily. They were at a loss
what to make of this unexpected and extremely strange visitor.
"Monsieur desires--" murmured Hippolyte mechanically.
"I desire to know why you have lied to the police."
"Monsieur!" cried Hippolyte; "I--lied to the police? Never have I done
such a thing."