Curtain

flintlike hardness.

Although Mrs Luttrell occasionally affected a faint brogue, she had no Irish blood. It was a mere affectation.

I inquired after my friend.

'Ah, poor little M. Poirot. The way he's been looking forward to your coming. It would melt a heart of stone. Terribly sorry I am for him, suffering the way he does.'

We were walking towards the house and she was peeling off her gardening gloves.

'And your pretty daughter, too,' she went on. 'What a lovely girl she is. We all admire her tremendously. But I'm old-fashioned, you know, and it seems to me a shame and a sin that a girl like that, that ought to be going to parties and dancing with young men, should spend her time cutting up rabbits and bending over a microscope all day. Leave that sort of thing to the frumps, I say.'

'Where is Judith?' I asked. 'Is she somewhere about?'

Mrs Luttrell made what children call 'a face.'

'Ah, the poor girl! She's cooped up in that studio place down at the bottom of the garden. Dr Franklin rents it from me and he's had it all fitted up. Hutches of guinea pigs he's got there, the poor creatures, and mice and rabbits. I'm not sure that I like all this science, Captain Hastings. Ah, here's my husband.'

Colonel Luttrell had just come round the corner of the house. He was a very tall, attenuated old man with a cadaverous face, mild blue eyes and a habit of irresolutely tugging at his little white moustache.

He had a vague, rather nervous manner.

'Ah, George, here's Captain Hastings arrived.'

Colonel Luttrell shook hands. 'You came by the five – er – forty, eh?'

'What else should he have come by?' said Mrs Luttrell sharply. 'And what does it matter anyway? Take him up and show him his room, George. And then maybe he'd like to go straight to M. Poirot – or would you rather have tea first?'

I assured her that I did not want tea and would prefer to go and greet my friend.

Colonel Luttrell said, 'Right. Come along. I expect – er-they'll have taken your things up already – eh, Daisy?'

Mrs Luttrell said tartly, 'That's your business, George, I've been gardening. I can't see to everything.'

'No, no, of course not. I – I'll see to it, my dear.'

I followed him up the front steps. In the doorway we encountered a grey-haired man, slightly built, who was hurrying out with a pair of field glasses. He limped, and had a boyish, eager face.

He said, stammering slightly, 'There's a pair of n-nesting birds down by the sycamore.'

As we went into the hall, Luttrell said, 'That's Stephen Norton. Nice fellow. Crazy about birds.'

In the hall itself, a very big man was standing by the table. He had obviously just finished telephoning. Looking up, he said, 'I'd like to hang, draw and quarter all contractors and builders. Never get anything done right, curse 'em.'

His wrath was so comical and so rueful that we both laughed. I felt attracted at once towards the man. He was very good-looking, though a man well over fifty, with a deeply tanned face. He looked as though he had led an out-of-door life, and he looked, too, the type of man that is becoming more and more rare – an Englishman of the old school, straightforward, fond of out-of-door life, and the kind of man who can command.

I was hardly surprised when Colonel Luttrell introduced him as Sir William Boyd Carrington. He had been, I knew, governor of a province in India, where he had been a signal success. He was also renowned as a first-class shot and big game hunter. The sort of man, I reflected sadly, that we no longer seemed to breed in these degenerate days.

'Aha,' he said, 'I'm glad to meet in the flesh that famous personage mon ami Hastings.' He laughed. 'The dear old Belgian fellow talks about you a lot, you know. And then, of course, we've got your daughter here. She's a fine girl.'

'I don't suppose Judith talks about me much,' I said, smiling.

'No, no, far too modern. These girls nowadays always seem embarrassed at having to admit to a father or mother at all.'

'Parents,' I said, 'are practically a disgrace.'

He laughed. 'Oh, well – I don't suffer that way. I've no children, worse luck. Your Judith is a very good- looking wench, but terribly highbrow. I find it rather alarming.' He picked up the telephone receiver again. 'Hope you don't mind, Luttrell, if I start damning your exchange to hell. I'm not a patient man.'

'Do 'em good,' said Luttrell.

He led the way upstairs and I followed him. He took me along the left wing of the house to a door at the end, and I realized that Poirot had chosen for me the room I had occupied before.

There were changes here. As I walked along the corridor, some of the doors were open and I saw that the old-fashioned large bedrooms had been partitioned off so as to make several smaller ones.

My own room, which had not been large, was unaltered save for the installation of hot and cold water, and part of it had been partitioned off to make a small bathroom. It was furnished in a cheap modern style which rather disappointed me. I should have preferred a style more nearly approximating the architecture of the house itself.

My luggage was in my room and the Colonel explained that Poirot's room was exactly opposite. He was about to take me there when a sharp cry of 'George' echoed up from the hall below.

Colonel Luttrell started like a nervous horse. His hand went to his lips.

'I – I – sure you're all right? Ring for what you want -'

'George.'

'Coming, my dear, coming.'

He hurried off down the corridor. I stood for a moment looking after him. Then, with my heart beating slightly faster, I crossed the corridor and rapped on the door of Poirot's room.

Chapter 2

Nothing is so sad, in my opinion, as the devastation wrought by age.

My poor friend. I have described him many times. Now to convey to you the difference. Crippled with arthritis, he propelled himself about in a wheelchair. His once plump frame had fallen in. He was a thin little man now. His face was lined and wrinkled. His moustache and hair, it is true, were still of a jet-black colour, but candidly, though I would not for the world have hurt his feelings by saying so to him, this was a mistake. There comes a moment when hair dye is only too painfully obvious. There had been a time when I had been surprised to learn that the blackness of Poirot's hair came out of a bottle. But now the theatricality was apparent and merely created the impression that he wore a wig and had adorned his upper lip to amuse the children!

Only his eyes were the same as ever, shrewd and twinkling, and now – yes, undoubtedly – softened with emotion:

'Ah, mon ami Hastings – mon ami Hastings…'

I bent my head and, as was his custom, he embraced me warmly.

'Mon ami Hastings!'

He leaned back, surveying me with his head a little on one side.

'Yes, just the same – the straight back, the broad shoulders, the grey of the hair – tres distingue. You know, my friend, you have worn well. Les femmes, they still take an interest in you? Yes?'

'Really, Poirot,' I protested. 'Must you -'

'But I assure you, my friend, it is a test – it is the test. When the very young girls come and talk to you kindly, oh, so kindly – it is the end! 'The poor old man,' they say; 'we must be nice to him. It must be so awful to be like that.' But you, Hastings – vous etes encore jeune. For you there are still possibilities. That is right, twist your moustache, hunch your shoulders – I see it is as I say – you would not look so self-conscious otherwise.'

I burst out laughing.

'You really are the limit, Poirot. And how are you yourself?'