Chapter 4
Hercule Poirot found Jacqueline de Bellefort sitting on the rocks directly overlooking the Nile. He
had felt fairly certain that she had not retired¹ for the night and that he would find her somewhere
about the grounds of the hotel. She was sitting with her chin cupped in the palms of her hands, and
she did not turn her head or look round at the sound of his approach.
"Mademoiselle de Bellefort?" asked Poirot. "You permit that I speak to you for a little moment?"
Jacqueline turned her head slightly. A faint smile played round her lips.
"Certainly," she said. "You are Monsieur Hercule Poirot, I think? Shall I make a guess? You are
acting² for Mrs Doyle, who has promised you a large fee if you succeed in your mission."
Poirot sat down on the bench near her.
"Your assumption is partially³ correct," he said, smiling. "I have just come from Madame Doyle,
but I am not accepting any fee from her and, strictly⁴ speaking, I am not acting for her."
"Oh!"
Jacqueline studied him attentively⁵.
"Then why have you come?" she asked abruptly⁶.
Hercule Poirot's reply was in the form of another question.
"Have you ever seen me before, Mademoiselle?"
She shook her head.
"No, I do not think so."
"Yet I have seen you. I sat next to you once at Chez Ma Tante. You were there with Monsieur
Simon Doyle."
A strange mask-like expression came over the girl's face. She said, "I remember that evening..."
"Since then," said Poirot, "many things have occurred."
"As you say, many things have occurred."
Her voice was hard with an undertone of desperate bitterness.
"Mademoiselle, I speak as a friend. Bury your dead!"
She looked startled.
"What do you mean?"
"Give up the past! Turn to the future! What is done is done. Bitterness will not

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