‘Perhaps that’s just expression, dear.’
‘Unpleasant young devil, I think. But she’s pretty enough.’
The subject of these remarks was walking slowly by Poirot’s side. Rosalie Otterbourne was twirling an unopened parasol, and her expression certainly bore out what Tim had just said. She looked both sulky and bad-tempered. Her eyebrows were drawn together in a frown, and the scarlet line of her mouth was drawn downward.
They turned to the left out of the hotel gate and entered the cool shade of the public gardens.
Hercule Poirot was prattling gently, his expression that of beatific good humour. He wore a white silk suit, carefully pressed, and a panama hat, and carried a highly ornamental fly whisk with a sham amber handle.
‘–it enchants me,’ he was saying. ‘The black rocks of Elephantine, and the sun, and the little boats on the river. Yes, it is good to be alive.’
He paused and then added: ‘You do not find it so, Mademoiselle?’
Rosalie Otterbourne said shortly: ‘It’s all right, I suppose. I think Assuan’s a gloomy sort of place. The hotel’s half empty, and everyone’s about a hundred–’
She stopped–biting her lip.
Hercule Poirot’s eyes twinkled.
‘It is true, yes, I have one leg in the grave.’
‘I–I wasn’t thinking of you,’ said the girl. ‘I’m sorry. That sounded rude.’
‘Not at all. It is natural you should wish for companions of your own age. Ah, well, there is one young man, at least.’
‘The one who sits with his mother all the time? I like her–but I think he looks dreadful–so conceited!’
Poirot smiled.
‘And I–am I conceited?’
‘Oh, I don’t think so.’
She was obviously uninterested–but the fact did not seem to annoy Poirot. He merely remarked with placid satisfaction:
‘My best friend says that I am very conceited.’
‘Oh, well,’ said Rosalie vaguely, ‘I suppose you have something to be conceited about. Unfortunately crime doesn’t interest me in the least.’
Poirot said solemnly, ‘I am delighted to learn that you have no guilty secret to hide.’
Just for a moment the sulky mask of her face was transformed as she shot him a swift questioning glance. Poirot did not seem to notice it as he went on:
‘Madame, your mother, was not at lunch today. She is not indisposed, I trust?’
‘This place doesn’t suit her,’ said Rosalie briefly. ‘I shall be glad when we leave.’
‘We are fellow passengers, are we not? We both make the excursion up to Wadi Half a and the Second Cataract?’
‘Yes.’
They came out from the shade of the gardens on to a dusty stretch of road bordered by the river. Five watchful bead-sellers, two vendors of postcards, three sellers of plaster scarabs, a couple of donkey boys and some detached but hopeful infantile riff-raff closed in upon them. ‘You want beads, sir? Very good, sir. Very cheap…’
‘Lady, you want scarab? Look–great queen–very lucky…’
‘You look, sir–real lapis. Very good, very cheap…’
‘You want ride donkey, sir? This very good donkey. This donkey Whiskey and Soda, sir…’
‘You want to go granite quarries, sir? This very good donkey. Other donkey very bad, sir, that donkey fall down…’
‘You want postcard–very cheap–very nice…’
‘Look, lady…Only ten piastres–very cheap–lapis–this ivory…’
‘This very good fly whisk–this all-amber…’
‘You go out in boat, sir? I got very good boat, sir…’
‘You go back to hotel, lady? This first-class donkey…’
Hercule Poirot made vague gestures to rid himself of this human cluster of flies. Rosalie stalked through them like a sleep-walker.
‘It’s best to pretend to be deaf and blind,’ she remarked.
The infantile riff-raffran alongside murmuring plaintively: ‘Bakshish? Bakshish? Hip hip hurrah–very good, very nice…’
Their gaily coloured rags trailed picturesquely, and the flies lay in clusters on their eyelids. They were the most persistent. The others fell back and launched a fresh attack on the next corner.
Now Poirot and Rosalie only ran the gauntlet of the shops–suave, persuasive accents here…
‘You visit my shop today, sir?’ ‘You want that ivory crocodile, sir?’ ‘You not been in my shop yet, sir? I show you very beautiful things.’
They turned into the fifth shop and Rosalie handed over several rolls of film–the object of the walk.
Then they came out again and walked towards the river’s edge.
One of the Nile steamers was just mooring. Poirot and Rosalie looked interestedly at the passengers.
‘Quite a lot, aren’t there?’ commented Rosalie.
She turned her head as Tim Allerton came up and joined them. He was a little out of breath as though he had been walking fast.
They stood there for a moment or two, and then Tim spoke.
‘An awful crowd as usual, I suppose,’ he remarked disparagingly, indicating the disembarking passengers.
‘They’re usually quite terrible,’ agreed Rosalie.
