Three
THE YOUNG SOLICITOR¹
George Mayhew was cautious and non-committal.
He remembered the case, of course, but not at all clearly. His father had been in charge—he
himself had been only nineteen at the time.
Yes, the case had made a great stir. Because of Crale being such a well-known man. His
pictures were very fine—very fine indeed. Two of them were in the Tate. Not that that meant
anything.
Mr. Poirot would excuse him, but he didn’t see quite what Mr. Poirot’s interest was in the
matter. Oh, the daughter! Really? Indeed? Canada? He had always heard it was New Zealand.
George Mayhew became less rigid². He unbent.
A shocking thing in a girl’s life. He had the deepest sympathy for her. Really it would have
been better if she had never learned the truth. Still, it was no use saying that now.
She wanted to know? Yes, but what was there to know? There were the reports of the trial, of
course. He himself didn’t really know anything.
No, he was afraid there wasn’t much doubt as to Mrs. Crale’s being guilty. There was a certain
amount of excuse for her. These artists—difficult people to live with. With Crale, he understood, it
had always been some woman or other.
And she herself had probably been the possessive type of woman. Unable to accept facts.
Nowadays she’d simply have divorced him and got over it. He added cautiously:
“Let me see—er—Lady Dittisham, I believe, was the girl in the case.”
Poirot said that he believed that that was so.
“The newspapers bring it up from time to time,” said Mayhew. “She’s been in the divorce court
a good deal. She’s a very rich woman, as I expect you know. She was married to that explorer
fellow before Dittisham. She’s always more or less in the public eye. The kind of woman who
likes notoriety, I should imagine.”
“Or possibly a hero worshipper,” suggested Poirot.
The idea was upsetting to George Mayhew. He accepted it dubiously³.
“Well, possibly—yes, I suppose that might be so.”
He seemed to be turning the idea over in his mind.
Poirot said:
“Had your firm acted for Mrs. Crale for a long period of years?”
George Mayhew shook his head.
“On the contrary. Jonathan and Jonathan were the Crale

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