He had a book in his hand which I had lent him. ‘Thank you for lending me this,’ he said. ‘I enjoyed it.’ He put it down beside me. Then he sat down on the end of my bed, looked at me thoughtfully, and said that he wanted to marry me. No Victorian Miss exclaiming, ‘Oh, Mr Simpkins, this is so sudden!’ could have looked more completely taken aback than I did.
What are all these people, by the way?” “They’re people whose gardens verge on or touch the garden of the house where the murder was committed.” “Sounds like a French exercise,” said Beck. “Where is the dead body of my uncle? In the garden of the cousin of my aunt. What about Number 19 itself?” “A blind woman, a former school teacher, lives there. She works in an institute for the blind and she’s been thoroughly investigated by the local police.
There was a gay family from Caracas complete with children.
I don’t know, I’m sure,” said Mrs. Burch. She had said that three times already. Her natural distrust of foreign-looking gentlemen with black moustaches, wearing large fur-lined coats was not to be easily overcome.
A lot of additional pain and grief is caused by honesty,” remarked Hercule Poirot.
Everyone’s life has a tempo. Ruth’s was presto whereas Miss Marple’s was content to be adagio.
Miss Marple,′ said Sir Henry, “you frighten me. I hope you will never wish to remove me. Your plans would be too good.
Child’s evidence is always the best evidence there is. I’d rely on it every time. No good in court, of course. Children can’t stand being asked direct questions. They mumble or else look idiotic and say they don’t know. They’re at their best when they’re showing off.
Well, you know, bigamy is bigamy.
What do you call the unforgivable error?” “Overlooking the obvious.
Why not have told me the truth?” he countered. “In a place like this, all Ralph Paton’s doings were bound to be known. If your sister had not happened to pass through the wood that day somebody else would have done.
Eve. The Lee family reunion, never a lively affair, is interrupted.
But I’ve always found that those who talk most about blood have never actually seen it run.
Nick seems very well and gay.
Oh, Lord,” muttered Anthony, “what a lot of funny people it does take to make a world.
It is a theory of mine that one always gets what one wants. My.
England was in a funny state, a different state from what it had been. Or was it really always in the same state? Always underneath the smooth surface there was some black mud. There wasn’t clear water down to the pebbles, down to the shells, lying on the bottom of the sea. There was something moving, something sluggish somewhere, something that had to be found, suppressed.
Detective stories are mostly bunkum... But they amuse people... And they’re useful sometimes.
You will not give away a lady’s secret?
He has not got ’flu,’ said Hercule Poirot. ‘He has only a nasty cold. Everyone always thinks they have ’flu. It sounds more important. One gets more sympathy. The trouble with a catarrhal cold is that it is hard to glean the proper amount of sympathetic consideration from one’s friends.