The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories (Hercule Poirot 21)

PROBLEM AT POLLENSA BAY

coursed pleasantly on the above-mentioned subjects.

Little by little she began to talk of Basil--of

how well he had done at school--"he was in the

First XI, you know"--of how everyone liked him,

of how proud his father would have been of the

boy had he lived, of how thankful she had been

that Basil had never been "wild." "Of course I

always urge him to be with young people, but he

really seems to prefer being with me."

She said it with a kind of nice modest pleasure

in the fact.

But for once Mr. Parker Pyne did not make the

usual tactful response he could usually achieve so

easily. He said instead:

"Oh! well, there seem to be plenty of young

people here--not in the hotel, but roundabout."

At that, he noticed, Mrs. Chester stiffened. She

said: Of course there were a lot of Artists. Perhaps

she was very old-fashioned--real art, of course,

was different, but a lot of young people just made

that sort of thing an excuse for lounging about

and doing nothing--and the girls drank a lot too

much.

On the following day Basil said to Mr. Parker

Pyne:

"I'm awfully glad you turned up here, sir--especially

for my mother's sake. She likes having

you to talk to in the evenings."