There was a silence. Linnet controlled herself with an effort and said in a cold voice, "All this is quite beside the point!"
"No, it is not beside the point. I am explaining to you just why the unexpected appearances of Mademoiselle de Bellefort have upset you so much. It is because, though she may be unwomanly and undignified in what she is doing, you have the inner conviction that she has right on her side."
"That's not true!"
Poirot shrugged his shoulders.
"You refuse to be honest with yourself."
"Not at all."
Poirot said gently, "I should say, Madame, that you have had a happy life, that you have been generous and kindly in your attitude toward others."
"I have tried to be," said Linnet. The impatient anger died out of her face. She spoke simply - almost forlornly.
"And that is why the feeling that you have deliberately caused injury to someone upsets you so much, and why you are so reluctant to admit the fact. Pardon me if I have been impertinent, but the psychology, it is the most important fact in a case."
Linnet said slowly: "Even supposing what you say were true - and I don't admit it, mind - what can be done about it now? One can't alter the past; one must deal with things as they are."
Poirot nodded.
"You have the clear brain. Yes, one cannot go back over the past. One must accept things as they are. And sometimes, Madame, that is all one can do - accept the consequences of one's past deeds."
"You mean," asked Linnet incredulously, "that I can do nothing - nothing?"
"You must have courage, Madame; that is what it seems like to me."
Linnet said slowly:
"Couldn't you - talk to Jackie - to Miss de Bellefort? Reason with her?"
"Yes, I could do that. I will do that if you would like me to do so. But do not expect much result. I fancy that Mademoiselle de Bellefort is so much in the grip of a fixed idea that nothing will turn her from it."
"But surely we can do something to extricate ourselves?"
"You could, of course, return to England and establish yourself in your own house."
"Even then, I suppose, Jacqueline is capable of planting herself in the village, so that I should see her every time I went out of the grounds."
"True."
"Besides," said Linnet slowly, "I don't think that Simon would agree to run away."
"What is his attitude in this?"
"He's furious - simply furious."
Poirot nodded thoughtfully.
Linnet said appealingly, "You will - talk to her?"
"Yes, I will do that. But it is my opinion that I shall not be able to accomplish anything."
Linnet said violently: "Jackie is extraordinary! One can't tell what she will do!"
"You spoke just now of certain threats she had made. Would you tell me what those threats were?"
Linnet shrugged her shoulders.
"She threatened to - well - kill us both. Jackie can be rather - Latin sometimes."
"I see."
Poirot's tone was grave.
Linnet turned to him appealingly.
"You will act for me?"
"No, Madame." His tone was firm. "I will not accept a commission from you. I will do what I can in the interests of humanity. That, yes. There is here a situation that is full of difficulty and danger. I will do what I can to clear it up - but I am not very sanguine as to my chance of success."
Linnet Doyle said slowly, "But you will not act for me?"
"No, Madame," said Hercule Poirot.
Chapter 4
Hercule Poirot found Jacqueline de Bellefort sitting on the rocks directly overlooking the Nile. He had felt fairly certain that she had not retired for the night and that he would find her somewhere about the grounds of the hotel. She was sitting with her chin cupped in the palms of her hands, and she did not turn her head or look round at the sound of his approach.
"Mademoiselle de Bellefort?" asked Poirot. "You permit that I speak to you for a little moment?"
Jacqueline turned her head slightly. A faint smile played round her lips.
"Certainly," she said. "You are Monsieur Hercule Poirot, I think? Shall I make a guess? You are acting for Mrs Doyle, who has promised you a large fee if you succeed in your mission."
Poirot sat down on the bench near her.
"Your assumption is partially correct," he said, smiling. "I have just come from Madame Doyle, but I am not accepting any fee from her and, strictly speaking, I am not acting for her."
"Oh!"
Jacqueline studied him attentively.
"Then why have you come?" she asked abruptly.
Hercule Poirot's reply was in the form of another question.
"Have you ever seen me before, Mademoiselle?"
She shook her head.
"No, I do not think so."
"Yet I have seen you. I sat next to you once at Chez Ma Tante. You were there with Monsieur Simon Doyle."
A strange mask-like expression came over the girl's face. She said, "I remember that evening..."
"Since then," said Poirot, "many things have occurred."
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