Chapter 3 Tommy and Tuppence Compare Notes

‘You look tired, Tuppence,’ said Tommy as at the close of dinner they wentinto the sitting-room¹ and Tuppence dropped into a chair, uttering severallarge sighs followed by a yawn.
‘Tired? I’m dead beat,’ said Tuppence.
‘What have you been doing? Not things in the garden, I hope.’
‘I have not been overworking myself physically,’ said Tuppence, coldly.
‘I’ve been doing like you. Mental research.’
‘Also very exhausting, I agree,’ said Tommy. ‘Where, particularly? Youdidn’t get an awful lot out of Mrs Griffin the day before yesterday, didyou?’
‘Well, I did get a good deal, I think. I didn’t get much out of the first re-commendation. At least, I suppose I did in a way.’
Opening her handbag, she tugged² at a notebook of rather tiresome³ size,and finally got it out.
‘I made various notes each time about things. I took some of the chinamenus along, for one thing.’
‘Oh. And what did that produce?’
‘Well, it’s not names that I write down so much as the things they say tome and tell me. And they were very thrilled at that china menu because itseemed it was one particular dinner that everyone had enjoyed very muchand they had had a wonderful meal–they hadn’t had anything like it be-fore, and apparently⁴ they had lobster⁵ salad for the first time. They’d heardof it being served after the joint⁶ in the richest and most fashionablehouses, but it hadn’t come their way.’
‘Oh,’ said Tommy, ‘that wasn’t very helpful.’
‘Well, yes it was, in a way, because they said they’d always rememberthat evening. So I said why would they always remember that evening andthey said it was because of the census⁷.’
‘What–a census?’

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