It was after that that he insisted on this school idea."
"Sending her to school?"
"Yes. I don't mean he wasn't fond of her, but he found her a bit of a nuisance sometimes.
And I think - I've always thought -"
"Yes?"
"That he was a bit jealous.
Caroline, you see, was a slave to Angela. In a way, perhaps, Angela came first with her - and Amyas didn't like that.
There was a reason for it, of course. I won't go into that, but -"
Poirot interrupted.
"The reason being that Caroline Crale reproached herself for an action that had disfigured the girl."
Blake exclaimed,
"Oh, you know that?
I wasn't going to mention it. All over and done with.
But, yes, that was the cause of her attitude, I think.
She always seemed to feel that there was nothing too much she could do - to make up, as it were."
Poirot nodded thoughtfully.
"And Angela?" he asked. "Did she bear a grudge against her half sister?"
"Oh, no; don't run away with that idea.
Angela was devoted to Caroline.
She never gave that old business a thought, I'm sure.
It was just Caroline who couldn't forgive herself."
"Did Angela take kindly to the idea of boarding school?"
"No, she didn't.
She was furious with Amyas.
Caroline took her side, but Amyas had absolutely made his mind up about it. In spite of a hot temper, Amyas was an easy man in most respects, but when he really got his back up everyone had to give in. Both Caroline and Angela knuckled under."
"She was to go to school - when?"
"The autumn term - they were getting her kit together I remember.
I suppose, if it hadn't been for the tragedy she would have gone off a few days later.
There was some talk of her packing on the morning of that day."
"And the governess?" Poirot asked.
"What do you mean - the governess?"
"How did she like the idea?
It deprived her of a job did it not?"
"Yes - well, I suppose it did in a way.
Little Carla used to do a few lessons, but of course she was only - what? Six or thereabouts. She had a nurse.
They wouldn't have kept Miss Williams on for her.
Yes, that's the name - Williams.
Funny how things come back to you when you talk them over."
"Yes, indeed. You are back now - are you not? - in this past.
You relive the scenes - the words that people said their gestures, the expressions on their faces?"
Meredith Blake said slowly:
"In a way - yes, but there are gaps, you know - great chunks missed out.
I remember for instance, the shock it was to me when I first learned that Amyas was going to leave Caroline, but I can't remember whether it was he who told me or Elsa.
I do remember arguing with Elsa on the subject - trying to show her, I mean, that it was a pretty rotten thing to do. And she only laughed at me in that cool way of hers and said I was old-fashioned.
Well, I dare say I am old-fashioned, but I still think I was right.
Amyas had a wife and child - he ought to have stuck to them."
"But Miss Greer thought that point of view out of date?"
"Yes.
Mind you, sixteen years ago, divorce wasn't looked on quite so much as a matter of course as it is now.
But Elsa was the kind of girl who went in for being modern. Her point of view was that when two people weren't happy together it was better to make a break.