She got up.
"I must change. I'm sorry, Monsieur Poirot. I'm afraid I've been talking a lot of foolish nonsense."
Chapter 7
Mrs Allerton, looking quiet and distinguished in her simple black lace evening gown, descended two decks to the dining-room. At the door of it her son caught her up.
"Sorry, darling. I thought I was going to be late."
"I wonder where we sit." The saloon was dotted with little tables. Mrs Allerton paused till the steward, who was busy seating a party of people, could attend to them.
"By the way," she added, "I asked little Hercule Poirot to sit at our table."
"Mother, you didn't!" Tim sounded really taken aback and annoyed.
His mother stared at him in surprise. Tim was usually so easygoing. "My dear, do you mind?"
"Yes, I do. He's an unmitigated little bounder!"
"Oh, no, Tim! I don't agree with you."
"Anyway, what do we want to get mixed up with an outsider for? Cooped up like this on a small boat, that sort of thing is always a bore. He'll be with us morning, noon and night."
"I'm sorry, dear." Mrs Allerton looked distressed. "I thought really it would amuse you. After all, he must have had a varied experience. And you love detective stories."
Tim grunted.
"I wish you wouldn't have these bright ideas, Mother. We can't get out of it now, I suppose?"
"Really, Tim, I don't see how we can."
"Oh, well, we shall have to put up with it, I suppose."
The steward came to them at this minute and led them to a table. Mrs Allerton's face wore rather a puzzled expression as she followed him. Tim was usually so easy-going and good-tempered. This outburst was quite unlike him. It wasn't as though he had the ordinary Britisher's dislike - and mistrust - of foreigners. Tim was very cosmopolitan. Oh, well - she sighed. Men were incomprehensible! Even one's nearest and dearest had unsuspected reactions and feelings.
As they took their places, Hercule Poirot came quickly and silently into the dining-saloon. He paused with his hand on the back of the third chair.
"You really permit, Madame, that I avail myself of your kind suggestion?"
"Of course. Sit down, Monsieur Poirot."
"You are most amiable."
She was uneasily conscious that, as he seated himself, he shot a swift glance at Tim, and that Tim had not quite succeeded in masking a somewhat sullen expression.
Mrs Allerton set herself to produce a pleasant atmosphere. As they drank their soup, she picked up the passenger list which had been placed beside her plate. "Let's try and identify everybody," she suggested cheerfully. "I always think that's rather fun."
She began reading: "Mrs Allerton, Mr T. Allerton. That's easy enough! Miss de Bellefort. They've put her at the same table as the Otterbournes, I see. I wonder what she and Rosalie will make of each other. Who comes next? Dr Bessner. Dr Bessner? Who can identify Dr Bessner?"
She bent her glance on a table at which four men sat together.
"I think he must be the fat one with the closely shaved head and the moustache. A German, I should imagine. He seems to be enjoying his soup very much." Certain succulent noises floated across to them.
Mrs Allerton continued: "Miss Bowers? Can we make a guess at Miss Bowers? There are three or four women - No, we'll leave her for the present. Mr and Mrs Doyle. Yes, indeed, the lions of this trip. She really is very beautiful, and what a perfectly lovely frock she is wearing."
Tim turned round in his chair. Linnet and her husband and Andrew Pennington had been given a table in the corner. Linnet was wearing a white dress and pearls.
"It looks frightfully simple to me," said Tim. "Just a length of stuff with a kind of cord round the middle "
"Yes, darling," said his mother. "A very nice manly description of an eighty-guinea model."
"I can't think why women pay so much for their clothes," Tim said. "It seems absurd to me."
Mrs Allerton proceeded with her study of her fellow passengers.
"Mr Fanthorp must be one of the four at that table. The intensely quiet young man who never speaks. Rather a nice face, cautious but intelligent."
Poirot agreed.
"He is intelligent - yes. He does not talk, but he listens very attentively, and he also watches. Yes, he makes good use of his eyes. Not quite the type you would expect to find travelling for pleasure in this part of the world. I wonder what he is doing here."
"Mr Ferguson," read Mrs Allerton. "I feel that Ferguson must be our anti-capitalist friend. Mrs Otterbourne, Miss Otterbourne. We know all about them. Mr Pennington? Alias Uncle Andrew. He's a good-looking man, I think -"
"Now, Mother," said Tim.
"I think he's very good-looking in a dry sort of way," said Mrs Allerton. "Rather a ruthless jaw. Probably the kind of man one reads about in the paper, who operates on Wall Street - or is it in Wall Street? I'm sure he must be extremely rich. Next - Monsieur Hercule Poirot - whose talents are really being wasted. Can't you get up a crime for Monsieur Poirot, Tim?"
But her well-meant banter only seemed to annoy her son anew. He scowled and Mrs Allerton hurried on: "Mr Richetti. Our Italian archaeological friend. Then Miss Robson and last of all Miss Van Schuyler. The last's easy. The very ugly old American lady who obviously feels herself the queen of the boat and who is clearly going to be very exclusive and speak to nobody who doesn't come up to the most exacting standards! She's rather marvellous, isn't she, really? A kind of period piece. The two women with her must be Miss Bowers and Miss Robson - perhaps a secretary, the thin one with pince-nez, and a poor relation, the rather pathetic young woman who is obviously enjoying herself in spite of being treated like a black slave. I think Robson's the secretary woman and Bowers is the poor relation."
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