Adventure

Clara Lemarchant

Hercule Poirot looked with interest and appreciation at the young woman
who was being ushered into the room.
There had been nothing distinctive in the letter she had written.
It had been a mere request for an appointment, with no hint of what lay
behind that request.
It had been brief and business-like.
Only the firmness of the writing had indicated that Clara Lemarchant
was a young woman.

    And now she was in the flesh - a tall, slender young woman
in the early twenties.

The Kind of Young Woman that One Definitely Looked at Twice.

Her clothes were good, an expensive well-cut coat and skirt
and luxurious furs.
Her head was well posed on her shoulders, she had a square brow,
a sensitively cut nose and a determined chin.

She looked very much alive.

It was her aliveness , more than her beauty,
which struck the predominant note.

Before her entrance, Hercule Poirot had been feeling old - now

He Felt Rejuvenated - Alive - Keen!

As he came forward to greed Her, he was aware of her dark grey eyes
studying him attentively.
She was very earnest in that scrutiny.

    She sat down and accepted the cigarette that he offered her.
After it was lit she sat for a minute or two smoking,
still looking at him with that earnest, thought gaze.

Poirot said gently:

'Yes, it has to be decided, does it not?'

She started. 'I beg your pardon?'

Her voice was attractive, with a faint, agreeable  huskiness in it.

'You are making up your mind, are you not', whether I am a mountebank,
or the man you need?'

She smiled. She said:

'Well, yes - something of that kind. You see, M. Poirot, you - you don't look exactly the way I pictured you.'

'And I'm old, am I not? Older then you imagined?'

'Yes, that too' She hesitated. 'I'm being frank, you see.
I want - I've got to have - the Best.'

'Rest assured.' said Hercule Poirot. 'I AM the Best!'

Carla said: 'You're not modest. All the same, I'm inclined to take you at your word.

                Agatha Christie  Five Little Pigs