'We shall never know. Madame is a lady who can keep her secrets. And I doubt very much if the police will ever find her.'
'Has Jack Renauld been-told?'
'Not yet.'
'It will be a terrible shock to him.'
'Naturally. And yet, do you know, Hastings, I doubt if his heart was ever seriously engaged. So far we have looked upon Bella Duven as a siren, and Marthe Daubreuil as the girl he really loved. But I think that if we reversed the terms we should come nearer to the truth. Marthe Daubreuil was very beautiful. She set herself to fascinate Jack, and she succeeded, but remember his curious reluctance to break with the other girl. And see how he was willing to go to the guillotine rather than implicate her. I have a little idea that when he learns the truth, he will be horrified-revolted, and his false love will wither away.'
'What about Giraud?'
'He has a case of the nerves, that one! He has been obliged to return to Paris.'
We both smiled.
Poirot proved a fairly true prophet. When at length the doctor pronounced Jack Renauld strong enough to hear the truth, it was Poirot who broke it to him. The shock was indeed terrific. Yet Jack rallied better than I could have supposed possible. His mother's devotion helped him to live through those difficult days. The mother and son were inseparable now.
There was a further revelation to come. Poirot had acquainted Mrs. Renauld with the fact that he knew her secret, and had represented to her that Jack should not be left in ignorance of his father's past.
'To hide the truth, never does it avail, madame! Be brave and tell him everything.'
With a heavy heart Mrs. Renauld consented, and her son learned that the father he had loved had been in actual fact a fugitive from justice. A halting question was promptly answered by Poirot.
'Reassure yourself, Monsieur Jack. The world knows nothing. As far as I can see, there is no obligation for me to take the police into my confidence. Throughout the case I have acted, not for them, but for your father. Justice overtook him at last, but no one need ever know that he and Georges Conneau were one and the same.'
There were, of course, various points in the case that remained puzzling to the police, but Poirot explained things in so plausible a fashion that all query about them was gradually stilled.
Shortly after we got back to London, I noticed a magnificent model of a foxhound adorning Poirot's mantelpiece.
In answer to my inquiring glance, Poirot nodded.
'Mais oui. I got my five hundred francs! Is he not a splendid fellow? I call him Giraud!'
A few days later Jack Renauld came to see us with a resolute expression on his face.
'Monsieur Poirot, I've come to say goodbye. I'm sailing for South America almost immediately. My father had large interests over the continent, and I mean to start a new life out there.'
'You go alone, Monsieur Jack?'
'My mother comes with me-and I shall keep Stonor on as my secretary. He likes out-of-the-way parts of the world.'
'No one else goes with you?'
Jack flushed. 'You mean?'
'A girl who loves you very dearly-who has been willing to lay down her life for you.'
'How could I ask her?' muttered the boy. 'After all that has happened, could I go to her and- Oh, what sort of a lame story could I tell?'
'Les femmes-they have a wonderful genius for manufacturing crutches for stories like that.'
'Yes, but- I've been such a damned fool.'
'So have all of us, one time and another,' observed Poirot philosophically.
But Jack's face had hardened. 'There's something else. I'm my father's son. Would anyone marry me, knowing that?'
'You are your father's son, you say. Hastings here will tell you that I believe in heredity-'
'Well, then-'
'Wait. I know a woman, a woman of courage and endurance, capable of great love, of supreme self- sacrifice-'
The boy looked up. His eyes softened. 'My mother!'
'Yes. You are your mother's son as well as your father's. Then go to Mademoiselle Bella. Tell her everything. Keep nothing back-and see what she will say!'
Jack looked irresolute.
'Go to her as a boy no longer, but a man-a man bowed by the fate of the Past, and the fate of Today, but looking forward to a new and wonderful life. Ask her to share it with you. You may not realize it, but your love for each other has been tested in the fire and not found wanting. You have both been willing to lay down your lives for each other.'
And what of Captain Arthur Hastings, humble chronicler of these pages?
There is some talk of his joining the Renaulds on a ranch across the seas, but for the end of this story I prefer to go back to a morning in the garden of the Villa Geneviève.
'I can't call you Bella,' I said, 'since it isn't your name. And Dulcie seems so unfamiliar. So it's got to be Cinderella. Cinderella married the Prince, you remember. I'm not a Prince, but-'
She interrupted me.
'Cinderella warned him I'm sure. You see, she couldn't promise to turn into a princess. She was only a little scullion after all-'
'It's the Prince's turn to interrupt,' I interpolated. 'Do you know what he said?'
'No?'
''Hell!' said the Prince-and kissed her.'
And I suited the action to the word.
