Nurse Hopkins said:
“Yes—yes, of course. At least—”
She hesitated, looked at Poirot, who was gazing at her in the most sympathetic manner.
“As a matter of fact,” said Nurse Hopkins, in a burst of confidence, “she wasn’t old Gerrard’s daughter at all. He told me so. Her father was a gentleman.”
Poirot murmured:
“I see… And her mother?”
Nurse Hopkins hesitated, bit her lip, and then went on:
“Her mother had been a lady’s maid to old Mrs. Welman. She married Gerrard after Mary was born.”
“As you say, quite a romance—a mystery romance.”
Nurse Hopkins’ face lit up.
“Wasn’t it? One can’t help taking an interest in people when one knows something that nobody else does about them. Just by chance I happened to find out a good deal. As a matter of fact, it was Nurse O’Brien who set me on the track; but that’s another story. But, as you say, it’s interesting knowing past history. There’s many a tragedy tha
t goes unguessed at. It’s a sad world.”
Poirot sighed and shook his head.
Nurse Hopkins said with sudden alarm:
“But I oughtn’t to have gone talking like this. I wouldn’t have a word of this get out for anything! After all, it’s nothing to do with the case. As far as the world is concerned, Mary was Gerrard’s daughter, and there mustn’t be a hint of anything else. Damaging her in the eyes of the world after she’s dead! He married her mother, and that’s enough.”
Poirot murmured:
“But you know, perhaps, who her real father was?”
Nurse Hopkins said reluctantly:
“Well, perhaps I do; but, then again, perhaps I don’t. That is, I don’t know anything. I could take a guess. Old sins have long shadows, as they say! But I’m not one to talk, and I shan’t say another word.”
Poirot tactfully retired from the fray and attacked another subject.
“There is something else—a delicate matter. But I am sure I can rely on your discretion.”
Nurse Hopkins bridled. A broad smile appeared on her homely face.
Poirot continued:
“I speak of Mr. Roderick Welman. He was, so I hear, attracted by Mary Gerrard.”
Nurse Hopkins said:
“Bowled over by her!”
“Although at the time he was engaged to Miss Carlisle?”
“If you ask me,” said Nurse Hopkins, “he was never really sweet on Miss Carlisle. Not what I’d call sweet on her.”
Poirot asked, using an old-fashioned term:
“Did Mary Gerrard—er—encourage his advances?”