Three Act Tragedy Read Online Free PDF

detective. All I say is: I think he’d play it rather well.”
    “Possibly,” agreed Mr. Satterthwaite.
    The inflection of his voice showed his feelings clearly enough. Egg pounced on them and expressed them in words.
    “But your view is that ‘Death of a Clergyman’ isn’t a thriller. It’s merely ‘Regrettable Incident at a Dinner Party.’ Purely a social catastrophe. What did M. Poirot think? He ought to know.”
    “M. Poirot advised us to wait for the analysis of the cocktail; but in his opinion everything was quite all right.”
    “Oh, well,” said Egg, “he’s getting old. He’s a back number.” Mr. Satterthwaite winced. Egg went on, unconscious of brutality: “Come home and have tea with Mother. She likes you. She said so.”
    Delicately flattered, Mr. Satterthwaite accepted the invitation.
    On arrival Egg volunteered to ring up Sir Charles and explain the non-appearance of his guest.
    Mr. Satterthwaite sat down in the tiny sitting room with its faded chintzes and its well-polished pieces of old furniture. It was a Victorian room, what Mr. Satterthwaite called in his own mind a lady’s room, and he approved of it.
    His conversation with Lady Mary was agreeable, nothing brilliant, but pleasantly chatty. They spoke of Sir Charles. Did Mr. Satterthwaite know him well? Not intimately, Mr. Satterthwaite said. He had a financial interest in one of Sir Charles’s plays some years ago. They had been friends ever since.
    “He has great charm,” said Lady Mary, smiling. “I feel it as well as Egg. I suppose you’ve discovered that Egg is suffering badly from hero worship?”
    Mr. Satterthwaite wondered if, as a mother, Lady Mary was not made slightly uneasy by that hero worship. But it did not seem so.
    “Egg sees so little of the world,” she said, sighing. “We are so badly off. One of my cousins presented her and took her to a few things in town, but since then she has hardly been away from here, except for an occasional visit. Young people, I feel, should see plenty of people and places - especially people. Otherwise - well, propinquity is sometimes a dangerous thing.”
    Mr. Satterthwaite agreed, thinking of Sir Charles and the sailing, but that this was not what was in Lady Mary’s mind, she showed a moment or two later.
    “Sir Charles’s coming has done a lot for Egg. It has widened her horizon. You see, there are very few young people down here - especially men. I’ve always been afraid that Egg might marry someone simply from being thrown with one person only and seeing no one else.”
    Mr. Satterthwaite had a quick intuition.
    “Are you thinking of young Oliver Manders?”
    Lady Mary blushed in ingenuous surprise.
    “Oh, Mr. Satterthwaite, I don’t know how you knew! I was thinking of him. He and Egg were together a lot at one time, and I know I’m old-fashioned, but I don’t like some of his ideas.”
    “Youth must have its fling,” said Mr. Satterthwaite.
    Lady Mary shook her head.
    “I’ve been so afraid - it’s quite suitable, of course, I know all about him, and his uncle, who has recently taken him into his firm, is a very rich man; it’s not that - it’s silly of me - but - ”
    She shook her head, unable to express herself further.
    Mr. Satterthwaite felt curiously intimate. He said quietly and plainly:
    “All the same, Lady Mary, you wouldn’t like your girl to marry a man twice her own age.”
    Her answer surprised him.
    “It might be safer so. If you do that, at least you know where you are. At that age a man’s follies and sins are definitely behind him; they are not - still to come ... ”
    Before Mr. Satterthwaite could say any more, Egg rejoined them.
    “You’ve been a long time, darling,” said her mother.
    “I was talking to Sir Charles, my sweet. He’s all alone in his glory.” She turned reproachfully to Mr. Satterthwaite. “You didn’t tell me the house-party had flitted.”
    “They went back yesterday - all but Sir Bartholomew Strange. He was