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HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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First published in Great Britain by Heinemann 1947
Copyright © 1947 Rosalind Hicks Charitable Trust. All rights reserved.
Cover by ninataradesign.com © HarperCollins 2017
Agatha Christie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780008131463
Ebook Edition © June 2017 ISBN: 9780007534951
Version: 2018-04-11
The moment of the rose and the moment of the yew tree are of equal duration
T. S. ELIOT
Contents
I was in Paris when Parfitt, my man, came to me and said that a lady had called to see me. She said, he added, that it was very important.
I had formed by then the habit of never seeing people without an appointment. People who call to see you about urgent business are nearly invariably people who wish for financial assistance. The people who are in real need of financial assistance, on the other hand, hardly ever come and ask for it.
I asked Parfitt what my visitor’s name was, and he proffered a card. The card said: Catherine Yougoubian—a name I had never heard of and which, frankly, I did not much fancy. I revised my idea that she needed financial assistance and deduced instead that she had something to sell—probably one of those spurious antiques which command a better price when they are brought by hand and forced on the unwilling buyer with the aid of voluble patter.
I said I was sorry that I could not see Madame Yougoubian, but she could write and state her business.
Parfitt inclined his head and withdrew. He is very reliable—an