6-7Poirot, reading the English mind correctly, knew that he had said to himself: “Only some damned foreigner.”
The two English people exchanged a few short phrases and soon the girl went back to her compartment.
At lunch time they sat together again and completely ignored Poirot. Colonel Arbuthnot talked of India and asked the girl a few questions about Baghdad where she had been in a post as governess. They became friendlier and less stiff when they discovered that they had some mutual friends. The Colonel asked whether she was stopping in Stamboul. The girl said she was going straight through to England.
“I may say I’m very glad you are going right through, because I am,” said the Colonel, flushing a little.
“He is amorous, our Colonel,” thought Hercule Poirot humourously. “The train, it is as dangerous as a sea voyage!”
The Colonel accompanied Miss Debenham back to her compartment. Later, as the train passed through the magnificent scenery of the Taurus, all three passengers stood in the corridor admiring the view. Poirot was standing near the two English and heard the girl sigh and murmur:
“It’s so beautiful! I wish – I wish –”
“Yes?”
“I wish I could enjoy it!”
“I wish to Heaven you were out of all this,” Colonel Arbuthnot said.
“Hush, please! Hush!” said Miss Debenham.
The Colonel shot a slightly annoyed glance in Poirot’s direction and said, “But I don’t like the idea of your being a governess – running errands for tyrannical mothers and their tiresome brats.”
“Oh! I can assure you that it’s the parents who are afraid of being bullied by me,” she laughed.
“Quite an odd little comedy that I watch here,” said Poirot to himself thoughtfully.
Later he remembered that thought of his.
At about half-past eleven that night the train stopped at Konya. The two English travellers got out and walked up and down the snowy platform.
At first, M. Poirot stayed inside, watching the life of the station through a window. Ten minutes later, however, he decided to have some fresh air, too. He walked down the platform.There were two figures standing in the shadow of a traffic van. He recognized the voices. Arbuthnot was speaking.
“Mary — ”
The girl interrupted him.
“Not now. When it’s all over.
When it’s behind us — then — ”