made it her business to find out exactly

what this exotic little foreigner was doing

in their midst.

For some time he parried her thrusts

with dexterity--thereby whetting her

appetite. Then, when he judged the moment

ripe, he leant forward:

"Ah, Miss Leatheran," he said. "I can

see that you are too clever for me! You

have guessed my secret. I am down here at

the request of the Home Office. But

please," he lowered his voice, ^keep this

information to yourself'."

"Of course --of course --" Miss

Leatheran was fluttered--thrilled to the

core. "The Home Office--you don't

mean --not poor Mrs. Oldfield ?"

Poirot nodded his head slowly several

times.

"We-ell!" Miss Leatheran breathed into

that one word a whole gamut of pleasurable

emotion.

Poirot said:

"It is a delicate matter, you understand.

I have been ordered to report whether

75

there is or is not a sufficient case for exhumation.55

Miss Leatheran exclaimed:

"You are going to dig the poor thing up.

How terrible!"

If she had said "how splendid" instead

of "how terrible" the words would have

suited her tone of voice better.

"What is your own opinion. Miss

Leatheran ?"

'Well, of course, M. Poirot, there has

been a lot of talk. But I never listen to talk. There is always so much unreliable gossip going about. There is no doubt that

Doctor Oldfield has been very odd in his

manner ever since it happened, but as I

have said repeatedly we surely need not

put that down to a guilty conscience. It

might be just grief. Not, of course, that

he and his wife were on really affectionate

terms. That I do know--on first hand

authority. Nurse Harrison, who was with

Mrs. Oldfield for three or four years up

to the time of her death, has admitted that much. And I have always felt, you know, that Nurse Harrison had her suspicions --not that she ever said anything, but one can tell, can't one, from a person's manner

?"

76

Poirot said sadly:

"One has so little to go upon.33

"Yes, I know, but of course, M. Poirot, if the body is exhumed then you will know"

"Yes," said Poirot, "then we will know."

"There have been cases like it before,

of course," said Miss Leatheran, her nose

twitching with pleasurable excitement.

"Armstrong, for instance, and that other

man --I can't remember his name --and

then Crippen, of course. I've always wondered

if Ethel Le Neve was in it with him

or not. Of course, Jean Moncrieffe is a

very nice girl, I'm sure ... I wouldn't like

to say she led him on exactly --but men

do get rather silly about girls, don't they ?

And, of course, they were thrown very

much together!"

Poirot did not speak. He looked at her

with an innocent expression of inquiry

calculated to produce a further spate of

conversation. Inwardly he amused himself

by counting the number of times the words

"of course" occurred.

"And, of course, with a postmortem and all that, so much would be bound to come out, wouldn't it? Servants and all