V
Miss Morley had moved to the country. She was living in a small country cottage near Hertford.
The Grenadier greeted Poirot amicably¹. Since her brother’s death her face had perhaps grown
slightly grimmer, her carriage more upright, her general attitude towards life more unyielding. She
resented bitterly the slur² cast upon her brother’s professional name by the findings of the inquest.
Poirot, she had reason to believe, shared the view that the verdict of the Coroner’s inquest was
untrue. Hence the Grenadier unbent a little.
She answered his questions readily enough and with competence³. All Mr. Morley’s professional
papers had been carefully filed by Miss Nevill and had been handed over by her to Mr. Morley’s
successor. Some of the patients had transferred themselves to Mr. Reilly, others had accepted the
new partner, others again had gone to other dentists elsewhere.
Miss Morley, after she had given what information she could, said:
“So you have found that woman who was Henry’s patient—Miss Sainsbury Seale—and she was
murdered too.”
The “too” was a little defiant⁴. She stressed the word.
Poirot said:
“Your brother never mentioned Miss Sainsbury Seale particularly to you?”
“No, I don’t remember his doing so. He would tell me if he had had a particularly trying patient,
or if one of his patients had said something amusing he would pass it on to me, but we didn’t
usually talk about his work much. He was glad to forget it when the day was over. He was very
tired sometimes.”
“Do you remember hearing of a Mrs. Chapman amongst your brother’s patients?”
“Chapman? No, I don’t think so. Miss Nevill is really the person to help you over all this.”
“I am anxious to get in touch with her. Where is she now?”
“She has taken a post with a dentist in Ramsgate, I believe.”
“She has not married that young man Frank Carter yet?”
“No. I rather hope that will never come off. I don’t like that young man, M. Poirot. I really
don’t. There is something wrong about him. I still feel that he hasn’t really any proper moral
sense.”

分享到：