of the King"s Arms garage in his mind, "I cannot remember
where. I travel so much all over this country."
"Looking for a suitable house to buy for your refugees ?"
"Yes. There is so much to take into consideration, you
see. Priceneighbourhood--suitability for conversion."
"I suppose you"ll have to pull the house about a lot ? Lots of horrible part.i.tions."
"In the bedrooms, yes, certainly. But most of the ground
floor rooms we shall not touch." He paused before going on.
"Does it sadden you, Madame, that this old family mansion
of yours should go this way--to strangers ?"
"Of course not." Susan looked amused. "I think it"s an
excellent idea. It"s an impossible place for anybody to think
of living in as it is. And I"ve nothing to be sentimental about.
It"s not rny old home. My mother and father lived in Lond,on.
We just came here for Christmas sometimes. Actually Ive
always thought it quite hideous---an almost indecent temple to
wealth."
"The altars are different now. There is the building in, and the concealed lighting and the expensive simplicity. But
wealth still has its temples, Madame. I understand--I am not,
I hope, indiscreet--that you yourself are planning such an
ed"
edifice ? Everything d lxwand no expense spar .
Susan laughed.
"Hardly a temple--it"s just a place of business."
$8
"Perhaps the name does not matter But it will cost much money--that is true, is it not ?"
"Everything"s wickedly expensive nowadays. But the initial outlay will be worth while, I think." "Tell me something about these plans of yours. It amazes me to find a beautiful young woman so practical, so com petent.
In my young days--a long time ago, I admit--beautiful women thought only of their pleasures, of cosmetics, of la toilette."
"Women still think a great deal about their faces--that"s where I come in."
"Tell me."
And she had told him. Told him with a wealth of detail and with a great deal of unconscious self-revelation. He appreciated her business ac.u.men, her boldness of planning and her grasp of detail. A good bold planner, sweeping all side issues away. Perhaps a little ruthless as all those who plan boldly must be .... Watching her, he had said: "Yes, you will succeed. You will go ahead. How fortunate that you are not restricted, as so many are, by poverty. One cannot go far without the capital outlay. To have had these creative ideas and to have been frustrated by lack of means-- that would have been unbearable."
"I couldn"t have borne it! But I"d have raised money somehow or other--got someone to back me."
"Ahl of course. Your uncle, whose house this was, was rich. Even if he had not died, he would, as you express it, have "
staked" you."
"Oh no, he wouldn"t. Uncle Richard was a bit of a stickin-the-mud where women were concerned. If I"d been a man "A quick flash of anger swept across her face. "He made me very angry."
"I see--yes, I see..."
"The old shouldn"t stand in the way of the young. I---oh, I beg your pardon." "
Hercule Poirot laughed easily and twirled his moustache.
"I am old, yes. But I do not impede youth. There is no one who needs to wait for my death."
"What a horrid idea."
"But you are a realist, Madame. Let us admit without more ado that the world is full of the young--or even the middle-aged--who wait, patiently or impatiently, for the death of someone whose decease will give them if not affluence --then opportunity."
I39
"Opportunity I "Susan said, taking a deep breath. "That"s
what one needs."
Poirot who had been looking beyond her, said gaily:
"And here is your husband come to join our little discussion We talk, Mr. Banks, of opportunity. Opportunity the golden---opportunity, who must. be grasped with both hands.
How far in conscxence can one go ? Let us hear your views ?"
But he was not destined to hear the views of Gregory Banks on opportunity or .on anything else. In fact he had found it next to impossible to talk to Gregory Banks at all. Banks had a curious fluid quality. Whether by his own wish, or by that of his wife, he seemed to have no liking for t te-h-ttes or quiet discussions. No, "conversation"
with Gregory had failed.
Poirot had talked with Maude Abernethie--also about paint (the smell of) and how fortunate it had been that Timothy had been able to come to Enderby, and how kind it had been of Helen to extend a.n invitation to Miss Gilchrist also.
"For really she is most useful. Timothy so often feels like a snack--and one cannot ask too much of other people"s servants but there is a gas ring in a little room off the pantry, so that Miss Gilchrist can warm up Ovaltine or Benger"s there without disturbing, anybody. And she"s so willing about fetching things, she s quite willing to run up and down stairs a dozen times a day. Oh yes, I feel that it was really quite Providential that she should have lost her nerve about staying alone in the house as she did, though I admit it vexed me at the time."
"Lost her nerve ?" Poirot was interested.
He listened whilst Mande gave him an account of l [iss Gilchrist"s sudden collapse.
"She was frightened, you say ? And yet could ,n, of exactly say why ? That is interesting. Very interesting." "I put it down myself to delayed shock." "Perhaps."
"Once, during the war, when a bomb dropped about a mile away from us, I remember Timothy"
Poirot abstracted his mind from Timothy.
"Had anything p,,ar[.icular happened that day ? "he asked. "On what day ? Maude looked blank. "The day that Miss Gilchrist was upset."
"Oh, that--no, I don"t think so.
It seems to have been coming on ever since she left Lychett St. Mary, or so she said. She didn"t seem to mind when she was there."
x4o
And the result, Poirot thought, had been a piece of poisoned
wedding cake. Not so very surprising that Miss Gilchrist was
frightened after that And even when she had removed herself to the peaceful country round Stansfield Grange, the fear had lingered. More than lingered. Grown. Why grown ? Surely attending on an exacting hypochondriac like Timothy must be so exhausting that nervous fears would be likely to be swallowed up in exasperation ?
But something in that house had made Miss Gilchrist afraid. What ? Did she know herself ?
Finding himself alone with Miss Gilchrist for a brief s.p.a.ce before dinner, Poirot had sailed into the subject with an exaggerated foreign curiosity.
"Impossible, you comprehend, for me to mention the matter of murder to members of the family. But I am intrigued.