"Yes?" queried Anne kindly.
"Silk hose, now, are silk hose a welcome present to receive?"
"Yes, indeed. It's always nice to be given hose."
"You relieve my mind.
I will ask my favor.
I have obtained some different colors. There are, I think, about fifteen or sixteen pairs. Could you be so amiable as to look through them and set aside half a dozen pairs that seem to you the most desirable?"
"Certainly I will," said Anne, laughing as she rose.
Poirot directed her toward a table in an alcove - a table whose contents were strangely at variance, had she but known it, with the well-known order and neatness of Hercule Poirot. There were hose piled up in untidy heaps, some fur-lined gloves, calendars, and boxes of bonbons.
"I send oft my parcels very much а l'avance," Poirot explained. "See, mademoiselle, here are the hose. Select me, I pray of you, six pairs."
He turned, intercepting Rhoda who was following him.
"As for mademoiselle here, I have a little treat for her. A treat that would be no treat to you, I fancy, Mademoiselle Meredith."
"What is it?" cried Rhoda.
He lowered his voice.
"A knife, mademoiselle, with which twelve people once stabbed a man.
It was given me as a souvenir by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons Lits."
"Horrible," cried Anne.
"Ooh! let me see," said Rhoda.
Poirot led her through into the other room talking as he went.
"It was given me by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons Lits because -" They passed out of the room.
They returned three minutes later.
Anne came toward them.
"I think these six are the nicest, Monsieur Poirot.
Both these are very good evening shades, and this lighter color would be nice when summer comes and it's daylight in the evening."
"Mille remerciments, mademoiselle."
He offered them more sirop which they refused and finally accompanied them to the door, still talking genially.
When they had finally departed he returned to the room and went straight to the littered table.
The pile of hose still lay in a confused heap.
Poirot counted the six selected pairs and then went on to count the others.
He had bought nineteen pairs.
There were now only seventeen.
He nodded his head slowly.
Chapter 24 ELIMINATION OF THREE MURDERERS?
On arrival in London, Superintendent Battle came straight to Poirot.
Anne and Rhoda had then been gone an hour or more.
Without more ado, the superintendent recounted the result of his researches in Devonshire.
"We're on to it - not a doubt of it," he finished. "That's what Shaitana was aiming at, with his 'domestic accident' business.
But what gets me is the motive.
Why did she want to kill the woman?"
"I think I can help you there, my friend."
"Go ahead, Monsieur Poirot."
"This afternoon I conducted a little experiment.
I induced mademoiselle and her friend to come here.
I put to them my usual questions as to what there was in the room that night."
Battle looked at him curiously.
"You're very keen on that question."
"Yes, it's useful.
It tells me a good deal.
Mademoiselle Meredith was suspicious. Very suspicious.
She takes nothing for granted that young lady.
So that good dog, Hercule Poirot, he does one of his best tricks.