Смерть на Ниле / Death on the Nile

After all, who was he to judge? Instead he said thoughtfully:

‘You know, I think you’re not far wrong there. Linnet asked him to come down and see what she’d done to the place, and he refused quite rudely.’

‘Of course. She ought to have known better than to ask him.’

‘And I believe he’s quite venomous about her – mutters things under his breath whenever he sees her. Can’t forgive her for having given him an absolutely top price for the worm-eaten family estate.’

‘And you can’t understand that?’ Mrs Allerton spoke sharply.

‘Frankly,’ said Tim calmly, ‘I can’t. Why live in the past? Why cling on to things that have been?’

‘What are you going to put in their place?’

He shrugged his shoulders.

‘Excitement, perhaps. Novelty. The joy of never knowing what may turn up from day to day. Instead of inheriting a useless tract of land, the pleasure of making money for yourself – by your own brains and skill.’

‘A successful deal on the Stock Exchange, in fact!’

He laughed:

‘Why not?’

‘And what about an equal loss on the Stock Exchange?’

‘That, dear, is rather tactless.

‘Well-’

He cut in smiling at her:

‘That’s settled. We’ve both always wanted to see Egypt.’

‘When do you suggest?’

‘Oh, next month. January’s about the best time there. We’ll enjoy the delightful society in this hotel a few weeks longer.’

‘Tim,’ said Mrs Allerton reproachfully. Then she added guiltily: ‘I’m afraid I promised Mrs Leech that you’d go with her to the police station.

Tim made a grimace.

‘About her ring? The blood-red ruby of the horseleech’s daughter? Does she still persist in thinking it’s been stolen? I’ll go if you like, but it’s a waste of time. She’ll only get some wretched chambermaid into trouble. I distinctly saw it on her finger when she went into the sea that day. It came off in the water and she never noticed.’

‘She says she is quite sure she took it off and left it on her dressing table.

‘Well, she didn’t. I saw it with my own eyes. The woman’s a fool. Any woman’s a fool who goes prancing into the sea in December, pretending the water’s quite warm just because the sun happens to be shining rather brightly at the moment. Stout women oughtn’t to be allowed to bathe anyway; they look so revolting in bathing dresses.’

Mrs Allerton murmured:

‘I really feel I ought to give up bathing.