Смерть на Ниле / Death on the Nile

You are beautiful, Madame, you are rich, you are clever, intelligent – and you have charm. You could have exercised that charm or you could have restrained it. You had everything, Madame, that life can offer. Your friend’s life was bound up in one person. You knew that – but though you hesitated, you did not hold your hand. You stretched it out and, like King David, you took the poor man’s one ewe lamb.’

There was a silence. Linnet controlled herself with an effort and said in a cold voice:

‘All this is quite beside the point!’

‘No, it is not beside the point.

I am explaining to you just why the unexpected appearances of Mademoiselle de Bellefort have upset you so much. It is because though she may be unwomanly and undignified in what she is doing, you have the inner conviction that she has right on her side.’

‘That’s not true.’

Poirot shrugged his shoulders.

‘You refuse to be honest with yourself.’

‘Not at all.’

Poirot said gently:

‘I should say, Madame, that you have had a happy life, that you have been generous and kindly in your attitude towards others.

’

‘I have tried to be,’ said Linnet. The impatient anger died out of her face. She spoke simply – almost forlornly.

‘And that is why the feeling that you have deliberately caused injury to someone upsets you so much, and why you are so reluctant to admit the fact. Pardon me if I have been impertinent, but the psychology, it is the most important factor in a case.’

Linnet said slowly: ‘Even supposing what you say were true – and I don’t admit it, mind – what can be done about it now? One can’t alter the past; one must deal with things as they are.

’

Poirot nodded.

‘You have the clear brain. Yes, one cannot go back over the past. One must accept things as they are. And sometimes, Madame, that is all one can do – accept the consequences of one’s past deeds.’

‘You mean,’ said Linnet incredulously, ‘that I can do nothing – nothing?’

‘You must have courage, Madame; that is what it seems like to me.

’

Linnet said slowly:

‘Couldn’t you – talk to Jackie – to Miss de Bellefort? Reason with her?’

‘Yes, I could do that. I will do that if you would like me to do so. But do not expect much result. I fancy that Mademoiselle de Bellefort is so much in the grip of a fixed idea that nothing will turn her from it.’

‘But surely we can do something to extricate ourselves?’

‘You could, of course, return to England and establish yourselves in your own house.