Ackroyd was sitting as I had left him in the armchair before the fire. His head had fallen sideways, and clearly visible, just below the collar of his coat, was a shining piece of twisted metalwork. Parker and I advanced till we stood over the recumbent figure. I heard the butler draw in his breath with a sharp hiss. “Stabbed from be’ind,” he murmured. “’Orrible!
Already, at twenty-three minutes to one, Ratchett was dead – ” “And it was his murderer speaking!” finished M. Bouc impressively. Poirot.
What was the point of all the odd questions he was continually shooting at her, Iris? Wasn’t there something very queer about George lately? The odd fuddled look he had in the evenings! Lucilla attributed it to a glass or so too much of port. Lucilla would! No, there was something queer about George lately. He seemed to be labouring under a mixture of excitement interlarded with great spaces of complete apathy when he sunk in a coma.
That’s how they do it, these girls! Othello charmed Desdemona by telling her stories, but, oh, didn’t Desdemona charm Othello by the way she listened?
Many children, most children, I should say, suffer from over-attention on the part of their parents. There is too much love, too much watching over the child.
Murder, you see, is an amateur crime. I’m speaking of course of the kind of murder you have in mind – not gangster stuff. One feels, very often, as though these nice ordinary chaps had been overtaken, as it were, by murder, almost accidentally. They’ve been in a tight place, or they’ve wanted something very badly, money or a woman – and they’ve killed to get it. The brake that operates with most of us doesn’t operate with them.
Well, well. I know all we medicos hand these things out freely nowadays. Nobody tells young women who can’t sleep to count sheep, or get up and eat a biscuit, or write a couple of letters and then go back to bed. Instant remedies, that’s what people demand nowadays. Sometimes I think it’s a pity we give them to them. You’ve got to learn to put up with things in life. All very well to stuff a comforter into a baby’s mouth to stop it crying. Can’t go on doing that all a person’s life.
The guard looked from one to the other. His mind was soon made up. His training led him to despise foreigners, and to respect and admire well-dressed gentleman who travelled first class.
You have a great advantage as a writer, Monsieur,′ said Poirot. ‘You can relieve your feelings by expedient of the printed word. You have the power of the pen over your enemies.
Your conclusions are, I think, justified,” he said. “Ulick Norman Owen! In Miss Brent’s letter, though the signature of the surname is a mere scrawl the Christian names are reasonably clear-Una Nancy -in either case, you notice, the same initials. Ulick Norman OwenUna Nancy Owen-each time, that is to say, U. N. Owen. Or by a slight stretch of fancy, UNKNOWN!
Real evidence is usually vague and unsatisfactory. It has to be examined – sifted.
That’s different. She’s a woman, and women act in that silly way. I’m not saying she did it for a moment. She heard he was accused and she trumped up a story. I’m used to that sort of game. You wouldn’t believe the fool things I’ve known women do.
Dyspepsia is responsible for many a reputation for romantic melancholy or ungovernable rages.
To a historian that always is a difficulty. At what point in history does one particular portion of history begin.
Life was not a matter of safety – it must be hazarded to win the game.
People are so proud of their wickedness. Odd, isn’t it, that people who are good are never proud of it?
A woman should have a certain respect for herself and not submit to humiliation.
Death in the Clouds The.
Poirot. “You find out.
It’s second nature to make the best of yourself.