Peril at End House - Agatha Christie [86]
‘I hope you will have happiness, Madame,’ said Poirot. gently. ‘You have suffered a great deal. And in spite of everything you have suffered, you have still the quality of mercy in your heart…’
‘I will look after her,’ said Lazarus. ‘My business is in a bad way, but I believe I shall pull through. And if I don’t—well, Frederica does not mind being poor—with me.’
She shook her head, smiling.
‘It is late,’ said Poirot, looking at the clock.
We all rose.
‘We have spent a strange night in this strange house,’ Poirot went on. ‘It is, I think, as Ellen says, an evil house…’
He looked up at the picture of old Sir Nicholas.
Then, with a sudden gesture, he drew Lazarus aside.
‘I ask your pardon, but, of all my questions, there is one still unanswered. Tell me, why did you offer fifty pounds for that picture? It would give me much pleasure to know—so as, you comprehend, to leave nothing unanswered.’
Lazarus looked at him with an impassive face for a minute or two. Then he smiled.
‘You see, M. Poirot,’ he said. ‘I am a dealer.’
‘Exactly.’
‘That picture is not worth a penny more than twenty pounds. I knew that if I offered Nick fifty, she would immediately suspect it was worth more and would get it valued elsewhere. Then she would find that I had offered her far more than it was worth. The next time I offered to buy a picture she would not have got it valued.’
‘Yes, and then?’
‘The picture on the far wall is worth at least five thousand pounds,’ said Lazarus drily.
‘Ah!’ Poirot drew a long breath.
‘Now I know everything,’ he said happily.
PERIL AT END HOUSE by Agatha Christie
Copyright © 1932 Agatha Christie Limited (a Chorion company)
“Essay by Charles Osborne” excerpted from The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie. Copyright © 1982, 1999 by Charles Osborne. Reprinted with permission.
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ePub edition edition published February 2004 ISBN 9780061749278
This e-book was set from the Agatha Christie Signature Edition published by HarperCollins Publishers, London.
First published in Great Britain by Collins 1932
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
About Agatha Christie
The Agatha Christie Collection
E-Book Extras
Chapter 1 The Majestic Hotel
Chapter 2 End House
Chapter 3 Accidents?
Chapter 4 There Must Be Something!
Chapter 5 Mr and Mrs Croft
Chapter 6 A Call Upon Mr Vyse
Chapter 7 Tragedy
Chapter 8 The Fatal Shawl
Chapter 9 A. to J.
Chapter 10 Nick’s Secret
Chapter 11 The Motive
Chapter 12 Ellen
Chapter 13 Letters
Chapter 14 The Mystery of the Missing Will
Chapter 15 Strange Behaviour