Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie Read Free Book Online Page A

Poirot?’
    ‘Yes, madame, it is I myself.’
    ‘Have you done anything?’ said Mrs Oliver.
    ‘I beg your pardon – have I done what?’
    ‘Anything,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘What I asked you about yesterday.’
    ‘Yes, certainly. I have put things in motion. I have arranged to make certain enquiries.’
    ‘But you haven’t made them yet,’ said Mrs Oliver, who had a poor view of what the male view was of doing something.
    ‘And you, chère madame ?’
    ‘I have been very busy,’ said Mrs Oliver.
    ‘Ah! And what have you been doing, madame?’
    ‘Assembling elephants,’ said Mrs Oliver, ‘if that means anything to you.’
    ‘I think I can understand what you mean, yes.’
    ‘It’s not very easy, looking into the past,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘It is astonishing, really, how many people one does remember when one comes to look up names. My word, the silly things they write in birthday books sometimes, too. I can’t think why when I was about sixteen or seventeen or even thirty, I wanted people to write in my birthday book. There’s a sort of quotation from a poet for every particular day in the year. Some of them are terribly silly.’
    ‘You are encouraged in your search?’
    ‘Not quite encouraged,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘But I still think I’m on the right lines. I’ve rung up my goddaughter –’
    ‘Ah. And you are going to see her?’
    ‘Yes, she is coming to see me. Tonight between seven and eight, if she doesn’t run out on me. One never knows. Young people are very unreliable.’
    ‘She appeared pleased that you had rung her up?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ said Mrs Oliver, ‘not particularly pleased. She’s got a very incisive voice and – I remember now, the last time I saw her, that must be about six years ago, I thought then that she was rather frightening.’
    ‘Frightening? In what way?’
    ‘What I mean is that she was more likely to bully me than I would be to bully her.’
    ‘That may be a good thing and not a bad thing.’
    ‘Oh, do you think so?’
    ‘If people have made up their minds that they do not wish to like you, that they are quite sure they do not like you, they will get more pleasure out of making you aware of the fact and in that way will release more information to you than they would have done if they were trying to be amiable and agreeable.’
    ‘Sucking up to me, you mean? Yes, you have something there. You mean then they tell you things that they thought would please you. And the other way they’d be annoyed with you and they’d say things that they’d hope would annoy you. I wonder if Celia’s like that? I really remember her much better when she was five years old than at any other age. She had a nursery governess and she used to throw her boots at her.’
    ‘The governess at the child, or the child at the governess?’
    ‘The child at the governess, of course!’ said Mrs Oliver.
    She replaced the receiver and went over to the sofa to examine the various piled-up memories of the past. She murmured names under her breath.
    ‘Mariana Josephine Pontarlier – of course, yes, I haven’t thought of her for years – I thought she was dead. Anna Braceby – yes, yes, she lived in that part of the world – I wonder now –’
    Continuing all this, time passed – she was quite surprised when the bell rang. She went out herself to open the door.

Chapter 4
Celia
    A tall girl was standing on the mat outside. Just for a moment Mrs Oliver was startled looking at her. So this was Celia. The impression of vitality and of life was really very strong. Mrs Oliver had the feeling which one does not often get.
    Here, she thought, was someone who meant something. Aggressive, perhaps, could be difficult, could be almost dangerous perhaps. One of those girls who had a mission in life, who was dedicated to violence, perhaps, who went in for causes. But interesting. Definitely interesting.
    ‘Come in, Celia,’ she said. ‘It’s such a long time since I saw you. The last