Read Online Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie - Free Book Online Page B

     be at Baalbek or Damascus. Raymond. She wondered what Raymond was doing. Strange how
     clearly she could see his face, its eagerness, its diffidence, its nervous tension... Oh!
     Hell, why go on thinking of people she would probably never see again? That scene the
     other day with the old woman - what could have possessed her to march up to the old lady
     and spurt out a lot of nonsense. Other people must have heard some of it. She fancied that
     Lady Westholme had been quite close by. Sarah tried to remember exactly what it was she
     had said. Something that probably sounded quite absurdly hysterical. Goodness, what a fool
     she had made of herself! But it wasn't her fault really - it was old Mrs. Boynton's. There
     was something about her that made you lose your sense of proportion.
    Dr. Gerard entered and plumped down in a chair, wiping his hot forehead. “Phew! That woman
     should be poisoned!” he declared.
    Sarah started. “Mrs. Boynton?”
    “Mrs. Boynton! No, I meant that Lady Westholme! It is incredible to me that she has had a
     husband for many years and that he has not already done so. What can he be made of, that
     husband?”
    Sarah laughed. “Oh, he's the 'huntin', fishin', shootin'' kind,” she explained.
    “Psychologically that is very sound! He appeases his lust to kill on the (so-called) lower
     creations.”
    “I believe he is very proud of his wife's activities.”
    The Frenchman suggested: “Because they take her a good deal away from home? That is
     understandable.” Then he went on. “What did you say just now? Mrs. Boynton? Undoubtedly it
     would be a very good idea to poison her, too. Undeniably the simplest solution of that
     family problem! In fact, a great many women would be better poisoned. All women who have
     grown old and ugly.” He made an expressive face.
    Sarah cried out, laughing: “Oh, you Frenchmen! You've got no use for any woman who isn't
     young and attractive.”
    Gerard shrugged his shoulders. “We are more honest about it, that is all. Englishmen, they
     do not get up in tubes and trains for ugly women - no, no.”
    “How depressing life is,” said Sarah with a sigh.
    “There is no need for you to sigh. Mademoiselle.”
    “Well, I feel thoroughly disgruntled today.”
    “Naturally.”
    “What do you mean - naturally?” snapped Sarah.
    “You could find the reason very easily if you examine your state of mind honestly.”
    “I think it's our fellow travelers who depress me,” said Sarah. “It's awful, isn't it, but
     I do hate women! When they're inefficient and idiotic like Miss Pierce, they infuriate me,
     and when they're efficient like Lady Westholme, they annoy me more still.”
    “It is, I should say, unavoidable that these two people should annoy you. Lady Westholme
     is exactly fitted to the life she leads and is completely happy and successful. Miss
     Pierce has worked for years as a nursery governess and has suddenly come into a small
     legacy which has enabled her to fulfill her lifelong wish and travel. So far, travel has
     lived up to her expectations. Consequently you, who have just been thwarted in obtaining
     what you want, naturally resent the existence of people who have been more successful in
     life than you are.”
    “I suppose you're right,” said Sarah gloomily. “What a horribly accurate mind reader you
     are. I keep trying to humbug myself and you won't let me.”
    At this moment the others returned. The guide seemed the most exhausted of the three. He
     was quite subdued and hardly exuded any information on the way to Amman. He did not even
     mention the Jews. For which everyone was profoundly grateful. His voluble and frenzied
     account of their iniquities had done much to try everyone's temper on the journey from
     Jerusalem.
    Now the road wound upward from the Jordan, twisting and turning with clumps of oleanders
     showing rose-colored flowers.
    They reached Amman late in the afternoon and