Agatha Christie

“ If you read the papers carefully, you will find that often a nice respectable woman of that age leaves a husband she has lived with for twenty years, and sometimes a whole family of children as well, in order to link her life with that of a young man considerably her junior. You admire les femmes, Hastings; you prostrate yourself before all of them who are good-looking and have the good taste to smile upon you ”

“ Pengelley," announced our landlady, and withdrew discreetly.
Many unlikely people came to consult Poirot, but to my mind, the woman who stood nervously just inside the door, fingering her feather neckpiece, was the most unlikely of all. She was so extraordinarily commonplace-a thin, faded woman of about fifty, dressed in a braided coat and skirt, some gold jewellery at her neck, and with her grey hair surmounted by a singularly unbecoming hat. In a country town, you pass a hundred Mrs. Pengelleys in the street every day. ”

“ Pengelley's feelings towards her husband to be?"
"Loyalty struggling with fear," I suggested.
"Yet, ordinarily, a woman will accuse anyone in the world- but not her husband. She will stick to her belief in him through thick and thin."
"The 'other woman' complicates the matter." ”

“ I've nothing of my own."
"You see, madame, to be businesslike, we must be brutal. We must seek for a motive. Your husband, he would not poison you just pour passer le temps! Do you know of any reason why he should wish you out of the way?"
"There's the yellow-haired hussy who works for him," said Mrs. Pengelley, with a flash of temper. "My husband's a dentist, Monsieur Poirot, and nothing would do but he must have a smart girl, as he said, with bobbed hair and a white overall, to make his appointments and mix his fillings for him. ”

“ Our train for town left at eleven the following morning. Before we started for the station, Poirot expressed a wish to see Miss Freda Stanton, the niece mentioned to us by the dead woman. We found the house where she was lodging easily enough. With her was a tall, dark young man whom she introduced in some confusion as Mr. Jacob Radnor. Miss Freda Stanton was an extremely pretty girl of the old Cornish type-dark hair and eyes and rosy cheeks. There was a flash in those same dark eyes which told of a temper that it would not be wise to provoke. ”

“ They see a bottle of weed-killer on a shelf-and hey presto!-away goes their imagination with the bit between its teeth. I know Edward Pengelley-he wouldn't poison his grandmother's dog. And why should he poison his wife? Tell me that?"
"There is one thing, Monsieur le Docteur, that perhaps you do not know."
And, very briefly, Poirot outlined the main facts of Mrs. Pengelley's visit to him. No one could have been more astonished than Dr. Adams. His eyes almost started out of his head.
"God bless my soul!" he ejaculated. "The poor woman must have been mad. ”

“ Yes, affection may turn to hate, under the stimulus of jealousy. But hate would take her to the police-not to me. She would want an outcry-a scandal. No, no, let us exercise our little grey cells. Why did she come to me? ”

“ Pengelley was a man very well-to-do. You met his niece; she was inclined to smile upon you. But the small allowance that Pengelley might have given her upon her marriage was not enough for you. You must get rid of both the uncle and the aunt, then the money would come to her, since she was the only relative. How elev. erly you set about it! You made love to that plain middle-aged woman until she was your slave. You implanted in her doubts of her husband. ”

“ I've got my way to make-and I'm building up a good little business as a tailor and outfitter.
"Most of us are selfish, Mr. Radnor. Not all of us admit it so freely. I will do what you ask-but I tell you frankly you will not succeed in hushing it up."
"Why not?"
Poirot held up a finger. It was market day, and we were passing the market a busy hum came from within.
"The voice of the people that is why, Mr. Radnor. Ah, we must run, or we shall miss our train.
"Very interesting, is it not, Hastings?" said Poirot, as the train steamed out of the station. ”

“ Being a woman, she did not keep her suspicions to herself. She talked to her niece; doubtless she talked to other women friends. Your only difficulty was keeping up separate relations with the two women, and even that was not so difficult as it looked. You explained to the aunt that, to allay the suspicions of her husband, you had to pretend to pay court to the niece. And the younger lady needed little convinc ing—she would never seriously consider her aunt as a rival.
"But then Mrs. Pengelley made up her mind, without saying anything to you, to consult me. ”

“ It's quite possible that you might ferret out a case against him But I put it to you-what good is that? The poor woman is past help, and she'd have been the last person to want a scandal-why, she'd turn in her grave at the mere thought of it. ”

“ This town's a hotbed of gossip-a lot of scandal- mongering old women get together and invent God knows. what. They read these scurrilous rags of newspapers, and nothing will suit them but that someone in their town shall get poisoned too. ”