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Five Little Pigs :: Christie Agatha
Страница: 51 из 147I remember, for instance, the shock it was to me when I first learned that Amyas was going to leave Caroline-but I can’t rememberwhether 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 Iam 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‘But Miss Greer thought that point of view out of date?’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. She said that Amyas and Caroline never stopped having rows and that it was far better for the child that she shouldn’t be brought up in an atmosphere of disharmony.’
‘And her argument did not impress you?’
Meredith Blake said slowly:
‘I felt, all the time, that she didn’t really know what she was talking about. She was rattling these things off-things she’d read in books or heard from her friends-it was like a parrot. She was-it’s a queer thing to say-pathetic somehow. So young and so self-confident.’ He paused. ‘There is something about youth, M. Poirot, that is-that can be-terribly moving.’
Hercule Poirot said, looking at him with some interest: ‘I know what you mean…’
Blake went on, speaking more to himself than to Poirot.
‘That’s partly, I think, why I tackled Crale. He was nearly twenty years older than the girl. It didn’t seem fair.’
Poirot murmured:
‘Alas-how seldom one makes any effect. When a person has determined on a certain course-it is not easy to turn them from it.’
Meredith Blake said:
‘That is true enough.’ His tone was a shade bitter. ‘I certainly did no good by my interference. But then, I am not a very convincing person. I never have been.’
Poirot threw him a quick glance. He read into that slight acerbity of tone the dissatisfaction of a sensitive man with his own lack of personality. And he acknowledged to himself the truth of what Blake had just said. Meredith Blake was not the man to persuade any one into or out of any course. His well-meaning attempts would always be set aside-indulgently usually, without anger, but definitely set aside. They would not carry weight. He was essentially an ineffective man.
‘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. She said that Amyas and Caroline never stopped having rows and that it was far better for the child that she shouldn’t be brought up in an atmosphere of disharmony.’
‘And her argument did not impress you?’
Meredith Blake said slowly:
‘I felt, all the time, that she didn’t really know what she was talking about. She was rattling these things off-things she’d read in books or heard from her friends-it was like a parrot. She was-it’s a queer thing to say-pathetic somehow. So young and so self-confident.’ He paused. ‘There is something about youth, M. Poirot, that is-that can be-terribly moving.’
Hercule Poirot said, looking at him with some interest: ‘I know what you mean…’
Blake went on, speaking more to himself than to Poirot.
‘That’s partly, I think, why I tackled Crale. He was nearly twenty years older than the girl. It didn’t seem fair.’
Poirot murmured:
‘Alas-how seldom one makes any effect. When a person has determined on a certain course-it is not easy to turn them from it.’
Meredith Blake said:
‘That is true enough.’ His tone was a shade bitter. ‘I certainly did no good by my interference. But then, I am not a very convincing person. I never have been.’
Poirot threw him a quick glance. He read into that slight acerbity of tone the dissatisfaction of a sensitive man with his own lack of personality. And he acknowledged to himself the truth of what Blake had just said. Meredith Blake was not the man to persuade any one into or out of any course. His well-meaning attempts would always be set aside-indulgently usually, without anger, but definitely set aside. They would not carry weight. He was essentially an ineffective man.