The Mystery of the Blue Train quotes

And yet, in leaping to such a conclusion, an onlooker would have been wrong. For this man, negligible and inconspicuous as he seemed, played a prominent part in the destiny of the world.

In an Empire where rats ruled, he was the king of the rats.

Even now, an Embassy awaited his return. But he had business to do first—business of which the Embassy was not officially cognizant. His face gleamed white and sharp in the moonlight. There was the least hint of a curve in the thin nose.

“It’s a hard thing, Knighton,” he said, “how little one can do for those one loves.

I can buy a good portion of the earth for Ruth, if it would be any use to her, but it isn’t.

I can hang these things round her neck and give her a moment or two’s pleasure, maybe, but—”

Companions came and went with startling rapidity. They arrived full of hope and they usually left in tears. But from the moment Katherine Grey set foot in Little Crampton, ten years ago, perfect peace had reigned. No one knows how these things come about.

Snake-charmers, they say, are born, not made. Katherine Grey was born with the power of managing old ladies, dogs, and small boys, and she did it without any apparent sense of strain.

At twenty-three she had been a quiet girl with beautiful eyes. At thirty-three she was a quiet woman, with those same grey eyes, shining steadily out on the world with a kind of happy serenity that nothing could shake.

“

Saints I always imagined must have been difficult people. Katherine Grey is too human for a saint.

”

“

But in a way, being tied physically gives you lots of scope mentally. You’re always free to think.

I’ve had a lovely feeling always of mental freedom.”

“ ‘Soupir d’automne; that is truly the dress of Mademoiselle.’ ”

Autumn, yes, it was autumn for her. She who had never known spring or summer, and would never know them now.

Something she had lost never could be given to her again. These years of servitude in St. Mary Mead—and all the while life passing by.

“

What is important? What is not? One cannot say at this stage. But we must note each little fact carefully.

”

Lady Tamplin’s remorseless cross-examination was making her restive. Lenox, who was observant in her own way, noticed this, and offered to take Katherine upstairs to see her room. She left her there, remarking kindly before she went: “

You mustn’t mind Mother; she would make a few pennies’ profit out of her dying grandmother if she could.

”

“There is something queer about Derek. All that family are a bit potty—mad gamblers, you know. In the old days they used to gamble away their wives and their estates, and did most reckless things just for the love of it.

Derek would have made a perfect highwayman⁠—debonair and gay, just the right manner.

” She moved to the door. “Well, come down when you feel like it.”

It was bitter to Van Aldin that a daughter of his should be gulled by such a man, yet he was forced to admit that she was in good company—that other well-bred and intelligent women had succumbed just as easily to the Count’s fascination.

Men saw through him, women did not.

He sought now for a phrase that would allay any suspicion that his secretary might have felt.

“

Monsieur, if a doctor walks along the street and an accident happens, does he say, ‘I have retired from my profession, I will continue my walk,’ when there is someone bleeding to death at his feet?

If I had been already in Nice, and the police had sent to me and asked me to assist them, I should have refused. But this affair, the good God thrust it upon me.”

“

Not used to exploitation, are you? You have a lot to learn, Katherine.

”

He got up and stood looking down at her. Then he spoke in a low, distinct voice:

“You could, perhaps, love a thief, Mademoiselle, but not a murderer.”

He wheeled sharply away on that and left her sitting there.

He looked at Lenox a little sadly.

“You are young, Mademoiselle, but there are three things that cannot be hurried⁠—le bon Dieu, Nature, and old people.”

“Nonsense!” said Lenox. “You are not old.”

He looked at them in a self-satisfied way, and they both appeared to be duly impressed, though Lenox was biting her underlip, and the corners of Katherine’s mouth had a suspicious twitch.

“And I shall do it,” he said gravely. “Oh yes, I shall succeed.”

He had gone but a few steps when Katherine’s voice made him turn.

He raised a hand to heaven, and then settling himself back in his chair and shutting his eyelids, he murmured comfortably:

“And the other is Hercule Poirot.”

“I assure you, Monsieur, you are completely mistaken. Monsieur le Comte left Paris on Monday night—”

“I was wrong about that young man of yours. A man when he is making up to anybody can be cordial and gallant and full of little attentions and altogether charming.

But when a man is really in love he can’t help looking like a sheep.

Now, whenever that young man looked at you he looked like a sheep. I take back all I said this morning. It is genuine.”

“I agree with you, my friend; it is out of place there.”

“A woman should be calm and sympathetic, and a good cook,” said Mr. Aarons.

“Mirelle has not been long before the public, has she?” asked Poirot.

“Ah, but that is always so,” said Poirot quietly.

“A mirror shows the truth, but everyone stands in a different place for looking into the mirror.”

“My ideas may be absurd—they may be entirely different from yours, but—”