Chapter 24 A Broken Finger-Nail

"What now?" cried Fournier. "You are still preoccupied¹ with this girl who inherits? Decidedly, it is the id閑 fixe you have there."
"Not at all - not at all," said Poirot. "But there must be in all things order and method. One must finish with one thing before proceeding² to the next."
He looked round.
"Here is Mademoiselle Jane. Suppose that you commence dejeuner. I will join you as soon as I can."
Fournier acquiesced³ and he and Jane went into the dining room.
"Well?" said Jane with curiosity. "What is she like?"
"She is a little over medium height, dark with a matte complexion⁴, a pointed⁵ chin -"
"You're talking exactly like a passport," said Jane. "My passport description is simply insulting, I think. It's composed of mediums and ordinary. Nose, medium; mouth, ordinary. How do they expect you to describe a mouth? Forehead, ordinary, chin, ordinary."
"But not ordinary eyes," said Fournier.
"Even they are gray, which is not a very exciting color."
"And who has told you, mademoiselle, that it is not an exciting color?" said the Frenchman, leaning across the table.
Jane laughed. "Your command of the English language," she said, "is highly efficient. Tell me more about Anne Morisot. Is she pretty?"
"Assez bien," said Fournier cautiously. "And she is not Anne Morisot. She is Anne Richards. She is married."
"Was the husband there too?"
"No."
"Why not, I wonder?"
"Because he is in Canada or America."
He explained some of the circumstances of Anne's life. Just as he was drawing his narrative⁶ to a close, Poirot joined them.
He looked a little dejected.
"Well, mon cher?" inquired Fournier.
"I spoke

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