Activity 4

"Mere digression," said Poirot. And you are to your

liking?

Faced with the silence of his host, he repeated the

question.

-Can you tell me if you are to your liking?

"What do you propose, Monsieur Poirot?" I don't

quite understand his thinking.

-I'll be frank with you. You have relations and are

planning to marry, Monsieur Harrison. I know Miss
Moly Deane. She is a charming and very pretty
young woman. You were previously engaged to
Claude Langton, whom you left for you.

Harrison nodded.

-I don't ask what the reasons were; Perhaps they are

justified, but don't any doubts that Langton has
forgotten or forgiven seem justified as well?
"Monsieur Poirot is wrong." I assure you that you
are wrong. Langton is a sportsman and has reacted
like a gentleman. He has been surprisingly honest
with me, and, not by much, has not failed to show
me appreciation.

-And doesn't that seem unusual? You use the word

"surprising" and yet you do not show that you are
surprised.

"I do not understand you, M. Poirot."

The detective's voice took on a new nuance as he

replied:

"I mean that a man can hide his hatred until the time
is right."

-Hate? Harrison shook his head and laughed.

"The English are very stupid," said Poirot. They

consider themselves capable of deceiving anyone
and that no one is capable of deceiving them. The
athlete, the gentleman, is a Don Quixote that no one
thinks badly about. But, sometimes, that same
athlete, whose courage leads him to sacrifice, thinks
the same of his peers and is wrong.

"You are warning me against Claude Langton,"

exclaimed Harrison. Now I understand that
intention of his that had me intrigued.

Poirot nodded, and Harrison abruptly rose to his

feet.

"Are you mad, Monsieur Poirot?" This is england!

Nobody reacts like that here. Rejected suitors do not
stab in the back or doom. You're wrong about
Langton! That boy wouldn't hurt a fly.