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Five Little Pigs :: Christie Agatha
Страница: 29 из 147He also stressed the point thatMiss Greer was a very young girl and that it was a very serious thing to drag a young girl through the divorce court. To this Mr Crale replied, with a chuckle (callous sort of brute he must have been): “That isn’t Elsa’s idea at all.She isn’t going to appear. We shall fix it up in the usual way.” ’
Poirot said: ‘Therefore even more imprudent of Miss Greer to have broken out the way she did.’
Superintendent Hale said:
‘Oh, you know what women are! Have to get at each other’s throats. It must have been a difficult situation anyhow. I can’t understand Mr Crale allowing it to happen. According to Mr Meredith Blake he wanted to finish his picture. Does that make sense to you?’
‘Yes, my friend, I think it does.’
‘It doesn’t to me. The man was asking for trouble!’
‘He was probaby seriously annoyed with his young woman for breaking out the way she did.’
‘Oh, he was. Meredith Blake said so. If he had to finish the picture I don’t see why he couldn’t have taken some photographs and worked from them. I know a chap-does watercolours of places-hedoes that.’
Poirot shook his head.
‘No-I can understand Crale the artist. You must realize, my friend, that at that moment, probably, his picture was all that mattered to Crale. However much he wanted to marry the girl, the picture came first. That’s why he hoped to get through her visit without its coming to an open issue. The girl, of course, didn’t see it that way. With women, love always comes first.’
‘Don’t I know it?’ said Superintendent Hale with feeling.
‘Men,’ continued Poirot, ‘and especially artists-are different.’
‘Art!’ said the Superintendent with scorn. ‘All this talk aboutArt! I neverhave understood it and I never shall! You should have seen that picture Crale was painting. All lopsided. He’d made the girl look as though she’d got toothache, and the battlements were all cock-eyed. Unpleasant looking, the whole thing. I couldn’t get it out of my mind for a long time afterwards. I even dreamt about it. And what’s more it affected my eyesight-I began to see battlements and walls and things all out of drawing. Yes, and women too!’
Poirot smiled. He said:
‘Although you do not know it, you are paying a tribute to the greatness of Amyas Crale’s art.’
‘Nonsense. Why can’t a painter paint something nice and cheerful to look at? Why go out of your way to look for ugliness?’
‘Some of us,mon cher, see beauty in curious places.
Poirot said: ‘Therefore even more imprudent of Miss Greer to have broken out the way she did.’
Superintendent Hale said:
‘Oh, you know what women are! Have to get at each other’s throats. It must have been a difficult situation anyhow. I can’t understand Mr Crale allowing it to happen. According to Mr Meredith Blake he wanted to finish his picture. Does that make sense to you?’
‘Yes, my friend, I think it does.’
‘It doesn’t to me. The man was asking for trouble!’
‘He was probaby seriously annoyed with his young woman for breaking out the way she did.’
‘Oh, he was. Meredith Blake said so. If he had to finish the picture I don’t see why he couldn’t have taken some photographs and worked from them. I know a chap-does watercolours of places-hedoes that.’
Poirot shook his head.
‘No-I can understand Crale the artist. You must realize, my friend, that at that moment, probably, his picture was all that mattered to Crale. However much he wanted to marry the girl, the picture came first. That’s why he hoped to get through her visit without its coming to an open issue. The girl, of course, didn’t see it that way. With women, love always comes first.’
‘Don’t I know it?’ said Superintendent Hale with feeling.
‘Men,’ continued Poirot, ‘and especially artists-are different.’
‘Art!’ said the Superintendent with scorn. ‘All this talk aboutArt! I neverhave understood it and I never shall! You should have seen that picture Crale was painting. All lopsided. He’d made the girl look as though she’d got toothache, and the battlements were all cock-eyed. Unpleasant looking, the whole thing. I couldn’t get it out of my mind for a long time afterwards. I even dreamt about it. And what’s more it affected my eyesight-I began to see battlements and walls and things all out of drawing. Yes, and women too!’
Poirot smiled. He said:
‘Although you do not know it, you are paying a tribute to the greatness of Amyas Crale’s art.’
‘Nonsense. Why can’t a painter paint something nice and cheerful to look at? Why go out of your way to look for ugliness?’
‘Some of us,mon cher, see beauty in curious places.