mean. It is so hard to keep one's mind reverent when somebody is saying things through the nose.'
It was, Midge decided, a very Lucyish reception. It made her want to both laugh and cry.
'I'd love to be married from here, Lucy,' she said.
'Then that's settled, darling. Off-white satin, I think, and an ivory prayer book- not a bouquet. Bridesmaids?'
'No. I don't want a fuss. Just a very quiet wedding.'
'I know what you mean, darling-and I think perhaps you are right. With an Autumn wedding it's nearly always chrysanthemums-such an uninspiring flower, I always think. And unless one takes a lot of time to choose them carefully, bridesmaids never match properly and there's nearly always one terribly plain one who ruins the whole effect-but one has to have her because she's usually the bridegroom's sister. But, of course-' Lady Angkatell beamed. 'Edward hasn't got any sisters.'
'That seems to be one point in my favour,' said Edward, smiling.
'But children are really the worst at weddings,' went on Lady Angkatell, happily pursuing her own train of thought. 'Everyone says 'How sweet!' but, my dear, the anxiety! They step on the train, or else they howl for Nannie, and quite often they're sick. I always wonder how a girl can go up the aisle in a proper frame of mind, while she's so uncertain about what is happening behind her.'
'There needn't be anything behind me,' said Midge cheerfully. 'Not even a train. I can be married in a coat and skirt.'
'Oh, no. Midge, that's so like a widow. No, off-white satin and not from Madame Alfrege's.'
'Certainly not from Madame Alfrege's,' said Edward.
'I shall take you to Mireille,' said Lady Angkatell.
'My dear Lucy, I can't possibly afford Mireille.'
'Nonsense, Midge. Henry and I are going to give you your trousseau. And Henry, of course, will give you away. I do hope the band of his trousers won't be too tight. It's nearly two years since he last went to a wedding. And I shall wear-'
Lady Angkatell paused and closed her eyes.
'Yes, Lucy?'
'Hydrangea blue,' announced Lady Angkatell in a rapt voice. 'I suppose, Edward, you will have one of your own friends for best man; otherwise, of course, there is David. I cannot help feeling it would be frightfully good for David. It would give him poise, you know, and he would feel we all liked him. That, I am sure is very important with David. It must be so disheartening, you know, to feel you are clever and intellectual and yet nobody likes you any the better for it! But, of course, it would be rather a risk.
He would probably lose the ring, or drop it at the last minute. I expect it would worry Edward too much. But it would be nice in a way to keep it to the same people we've had here for the murder.'
Lady Angkatell uttered the last few words in the most conversational of tones.
'Lady Angkatell has been entertaining a few friends for a murder this Autumn,' Midge could not help saying.
'Yes,' said Lucy meditatively. 'I suppose it did sound like that. A party for the shooting… You know, when you come to think of it, that's just what it has been!'
Midge gave a faint shiver and said:
'Well, at any rate, it's over now.'
'It's not exactly over-the inquest was only adjourned. And that nice Inspector Grange has got men all over the place simply crashing through the chestnut woods and startling all the pheasants, and springing up like jacks-in- the-box in the most unlikely places.'
'What are they looking for?' asked Edward.
'The revolver that Christow was shot with?'
'I imagine that must be it. They even came to the house with a search warrant-the Inspector was most apologetic about it, quite shy-but, of course, I told him we should be delighted. It was really most interesting.
They looked absolutely everywhere. I followed them round, you know, and I suggested one or two places which even they hadn't thought of. But they didn't find anything. It was most disappointing. Poor Inspector Grange, he is growing quite thin and he pulls and pulls at that moustache of his. His wife ought to give him specially nourishing meals with all this worry he is having-but I have a vague idea that she must be one of those women who care more about having the linoleum really well-polished than in cooking a tasty little meal.
Which reminds me, I must go and see Mrs. Medway. Funny how servants cannot bear the police. Her cheese souffle last night was quite uneatable. Souffles and pastry always show if one is off balance. If it weren't for Gudgeon keeping them all together, I really believe half the servants would leave. Why don't you two go and have a nice walk and help the police look for the revolver?'
Hercule Poirot sat on the bench overlooking the chestnut groves above the pool. He had no sense of trespassing since Lady Angkatell had very sweetly begged him to wander where he would at any time. It was Lady Angkatell's sweetness which Hercule Poirot was considering at this moment.
From time to time he heard the cracking of twigs in the woods above or caught sight of a figure moving through the chestnut groves below him.
Presently, Henrietta came along the path from the direction of the lane. She stopped for a moment when she saw Poirot, then she came and sat down by him.
'Good morning, M. Poirot. I have just been to call upon you. But you were out. You look very Olympian. Are you presiding over the hunt? The Inspector seems very active. What are they looking for? The revolver?'
'Yes, Miss Savernake.'
'Will they find it, do you think?'
'I think so. Quite soon now, I should say?'
She looked at him inquiringly.
'Have you an idea, then, where it is?'
'No. But I think it will be found soon. It is time for it to be found.'
'You do say odd things, M. Poirot!'
'Odd things happen here. You have come back very soon from London, Mademoiselle.'
Her face hardened. She gave a short, bitter laugh.
'The murderer returns to the scene of the crime? That is the old superstition, isn't it? So you do think that I-did it! You don't believe me when I tell you that I wouldn't -that I couldn't kill anybody?'
Poirot did not answer at once. At last he said thoughtfully:
'It has seemed to me from the beginning that either this crime was very simple-so simple that it was difficult to believe its simplicity (and simplicity, Mademoiselle, can be strangely baffling) or else it was extremely complex- that is to say, we were contending against a mind capable of intricate and ingenious inventions, so that every time we seemed to be heading for the truth, we were actually being led on a trail that twisted away from the truth and led us to a point which -ended in nothingness. This apparent futility, this continual barrenness, is not real -it is artificial, it is planned. A very subtle and ingenious mind is plotting against us the whole time-and succeeding.'
'Well?' said Henrietta. 'What has that to do with me?'
'The mind that is plotting against us is a creative mind. Mademoiselle.'
'I see-that's where I come in?'
She was silent, her lips set together bitterly.
From her jacket pocket she had taken a pencil and now she was idly drawing the outline of a fantastic tree on the white painted wood of the bench, frowning down as she did so.
Poirot watched her. Something stirred in his mind-standing in Lady Angkatel's drawing-room on the afternoon of the crime, looking down at a pile of bridge markers, standing by a painted iron table in the pavilion the next morning and a question that he had put to Gudgeon.
He said:
'That is what you drew on your bridge marker-a tree.'
'Yes.' Henrietta seemed suddenly aware of what she was doing. 'Ygdrasil, M. Poirot.' She laughed.
'Why do you call it Ygdrasil?'
She explained the origin of Ygdrasil.
