"The Professor Liskeard,33 the Countess

announced. "He who knows everything

about the past and who gave me the

valuable hints for the decorations here.53

The Archaeologist shuddered slightly.

"If I'd known what you meant to do!33

he murmured. "The result is so appalling.33

Poirot observed the frescoes more

closely. On the wall facing him Orpheus

and his jazz band played, while Eurydice

looked hopefully towards the grill. On the

opposite wall Osiris and Isis seemed to be

throwing an Egyptian underworld boating

party. On the third wall some bright young

people were enjoying mixed bathing in a

state of Nature.

"The Country of the Young,33 explained

the Countess and added in the same breath,

completing her introductions: "And this

is my little Alice.33

430

Poirot bowed to the second occupant of

the table, a severe-looking girl in a check

coat and skirt. She wore horned-rimmed

glasses.

"She is very, very clever," said Countess

Rossakoff. "She has a degree and she is a

psychologist and she knows all the reasons

why lunatics are lunatics! It is not, as you

might think, because they are mad! No, there are all sorts of other reasons! I find that very peculiar."

The girl called Alice smiled kindly but

a little disdainfully. She asked the Professor

in a firm voice if he would like

to dance. He appeared flattered but dubious.

"My dear young lady, I fear I only

waltz."

"This is a waltz," said Alice patiently.

They got up and danced. They did not

dance well.

The Countess Rossakoff sighed. Following

out a train of thought of her own, she

murmured, "And yet she is not really bad-looking. ..."

"She does not make the most of herself,"

said Poirot judicially.

"Frankly," cried the Countess, "I cannot

431

understand the young people of nowadays.

They do not try any more to please - always, in my youth, I tried --the colours that suited me--a little padding in the

frocks --the corset laced tight round the

waist --the hair, perhaps, a more interesting

shade --"

She pushed back the heavy Titian

tresses from her forehead--it was undeniable

that she, at least, was still trying

and trying hard!

"To be content with what Nature has

given you, that --that is stupid I It is also

arrogant! The little Alice she writes pages

of long words about Sex, but how often, I

ask you, does a man suggest to her that they

should go to Brighton for the weekend?

It is all long words and work, and the

welfare of the workers, and the future of

the world. It is very worthy, but I ask you,

is it gay ? And look, I ask you, how drab

these young people have made the world!

It is all regulations and prohibitions! Not

so when I was young."

"That reminds me, how is your son,

Madame ?" At the last moment he substituted

"son", for "little boy", remembering

that twenty years had passed.

432

The Countess's face lit up with enthusiastic