But naturally it was not like that at all.
Now we can be brutal and impersonal and say what we think.
We have no longer to consider peoples feelings.
And that is where Nurse Leatheran is going to help us.
She is, I am sure, a very good observer.
Oh, I dont know about that, I said.
Dr Reilly handed me a plate of hot scones To fortify yourself, he said.
They were very good scones.
Come now, said M. Poirot in a friendly, chatty way.
You shall tell me, ma soeur, exactly what each member of the expedition felt towards Mrs Leidner.
I was only there a week, M. Poirot, I said.
Quite long enough for one of your intelligence.
A nurse sums up quickly. She makes her judgments and abides by them.
Come, let us make a beginning. Father Lavigny, for instance?
Well, there now, I really couldnt say.
He and Mrs Leidner seemed to like talking together.
But they usually spoke French and Im not very good at French myself though I learnt it as a girl at school.
Ive an idea they talked mainly about books.
They were, as you might say, companionable together yes?
Well, yes, you might put it that way.
But, all the same, I think Father Lavigny was puzzled by her and well almost annoyed by being puzzled, if you know what I mean.
And I told him of the conversation I had had with him out on the dig that first day when he had called Mrs Leidner a dangerous woman.
Now that is very interesting, M. Poirot said.
And she what do you think she thought of him?
Thats rather difficult to say, too.
It wasnt easy to know what Mrs Leidner thought of people.
Sometimes, I fancy, he puzzled her.
I remember her saying to Dr Leidner that he was unlike any priest she had ever known.
A length of hemp to be ordered for Father Lavigny, said Dr Reilly facetiously. My dear friend, said Poirot.
Have you not, perhaps, some patients to attend?
I would not for the world detain you from your professional duties.
Ive got a whole hospital of them, said Dr Reilly.
And he got up and said a wink was as good as a nod to a blind horse, and went out laughing.
That is better, said Poirot.
We will have now an interesting conversation tete-a-tete.
But you must not forget to eat your tea.
He passed me a plate of sandwiches and suggested my having a second cup of tea.
He really had very pleasant, attentive manners.
And now, he said, let us continue with your impressions.
Who was there who in your opinion did not like Mrs Leidner?
Well, I said, its only my opinion and I dont want it repeated as coming from me.
Naturally not.
But in my opinion little Mrs Mercado fairly hated her!
Ah!
And Mr Mercado?
He was a bit soft on her, I said.
I shouldnt think women, apart from his wife, had ever taken much notice of him.
And Mrs Leidner had a nice kind way of being interested in people and the things they told her.
It rather went to the poor mans head, I fancy.
And Mrs Mercado she was not pleased?