"No, I'm not a regular player.
It's a good game, though."
"You prefer it to poker?"
"I do personally.
Poker's too much of a gamble."
Poirot said thoughtfully, "I do not think Mr. Shaitana played any game - any card game, that is."
"There's only one game that Shaitana played consistently," said Despard grimly.
"And that?"
"A low-down game."
Poirot was silent for a minute then he said,
"Is it that you know that?
Or do you just think it?"
Despard went brick red.
"Meaning one oughtn't to say things without giving chapter and verse?
I suppose that's true.
Well, it's accurate enough.
I happen to know.
On the other hand I'm not prepared to give chapter and verse.
Such information as I've got came to me privately."
"Meaning a woman or women are concerned?"
"Yes. Shaitana, like the dirty dog he was, preferred to deal with women."
"You think he was a blackmailer?
That is interesting."
Despard shook his head.
"No, no, you've misunderstood me.
In a way, Shaitana was a blackmailer, but not the common or garden sort.
He wasn't after money.
He was a spiritual blackmailer, if there can be such a thing."
"And he got out of it - what?"
"He got a kick out of it.
That's the only way I can put it.
He got a thrill out of seeing people quail and flinch.
I suppose it made him feel less of a louse and more of a man.
And it's a very effective pose with women.
He'd only got to hint that he knew everything, and they'd start telling him a lot of things that perhaps he didn't know.
That would tickle his sense of humor.
Then he'd strut about in his Mephistophelean attitude of
'I know everything!
I am the great Shaitana!'
The man was an ape!"
"So you think that he frightened Miss Meredith that way," said Poirot slowly.
"Miss Meredith?" Despard stared. "I wasn't thinking of her.
She isn't the kind to be afraid of a man like Shaitana."
"Pardon.
You meant Mrs. Lorrimer."
"No, no, no.
You misunderstood me. I was speaking generally.
It wouldn't be easy to frighten Mrs. Lorrimer.
And she's not the kind of woman who you can imagine having a guilty secret.
No, I was not thinking of anyone in particular."