Nurse Hopkins said sharply:
“She behaved very well. Nobody could say she led him on!”
Poirot said:
“Was she in love with him?”
Nurse Hopkins said sharply:
“No, she wasn’t.”
“But she liked him?”
“Oh, yes, she liked him well enough.”
“And I suppose, in time, something might have come of it?”
Nurse Hopkins admitted that.
“That may be. But Mary wouldn’t have done anything in a hurry. She told him down here he had no business to speak like that to her when he was engaged to Miss Elinor. And when he came to see her in London she said the same.”
Poirot asked with an air of engaging candour:
“What do you think yourself of Mr. Roderick Welman?”
Nurse Hopkins said:
“He’s a nice enough young fellow. Nervy, though. Looks as though he might be dyspeptic later on. Those nervy ones often are.”
“Was he very fond of his aunt?”
“I believe so.”
“Did he sit with her much when she was so ill?”
“You mean when she had that second stroke? The night before she died when they came down? I don’t believe he even went into her room!”
“Really.”
Nurse Hopkins said quickly:
“She didn’t ask for him. And, of course, we’d no idea the end was so near. There are a lot of men like that, you know: fight shy of a sickroom. They can’t help it. And it’s not heartlessness. They just don’t want to be upset in their feelings.”
Poirot nodded comprehendingly.
He said:
“Are you sure Mr. Welman did not go into his aunt’s room before she died?”
“Well not while I was on duty! Nurse O’Brien relieved me at 3 a.m., and she may have fetched him before the end; but, if so, she didn’t mention it to me.”
Poirot suggested:
“He may have gone into her room when you were absent?”
Nurse Hopkins snapped:
“I don’t leave my patients unattended, Mr. Poirot.”