AgathaChristie-TheManInTheBrownSuit

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by The Man In The Brown Suit (lit)


  on the island. Before me, on the rough

  wooden table, is the letter that Suzanne

  wrote me.

  dear babes in the wood-dear lunatics

  IN love,

  I'm not surprised—not at all. All the time

  we've been talking Paris and frocks I felt that

  it wasn't a bit real—that you'd vanish into the

  blue some day to be married over the tongs in

  the good old gipsy fashion. But you are a

  couple of lunatics! This idea of renouncing a

  vast fortune is absurd. Colonel Race wanted

  to argue the matter, but I have persuaded him

  to leave the argument to time. He can

  administer the estate for Harry—and none

  better. Because, after all, honeymoons don't

  last for ever—you're not here, Anne, so I can

  safely say that without having you fly out at

  me like a little wild-cat—Love in the

  wilderness will last a good while, but one day

  you will suddenly begin to dream of houses in

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  Park Lane, sumptuous furs, Paris frocks, the

  largest thing in motors and the latest thing in

  perambulators, French maids and Norland

  nurses! Oh, yes, you will!

  But have your honeymoon, dear lunatics,

  and let it be a long one. And think of me

  sometimes, comfortably putting on weight

  amidst the fleshpots!

  Your loving friend,

  suzanne blair.

  P.S.—I am sending you an assortment of

  frying-pans as a wedding present, and an

  enormous terrine of pate de foie gras to remind

  you of me.

  There is another letter that I sometimes

  read. It came a good while after the other and

  was accompanied by a bulky parcel. It

  appeared to be written from somewhere in

  Bolivia.

  my dear anne beddingfield,

  I can't resist writing to you, not so much

  for the pleasure it gives me to write, as for the

  enormous pleasure I know it will give you to

  hear from me. Our friend Race wasn't quite

  as clever as he thought himself, was he?

  I think I shall appoint you my literary

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  executor. I'm sending you my diary. There's

  nothing in it that would interest Race and his

  crowd, but I fancy that there are passages in it

  which may amuse you. Make use of it in any

  way you like. I suggest an article for the Daily

  Budget, "Criminals I have met." I only

  stipulate that I shall be the central figure.

  By this time I have no doubt that you are

  no longer Anne Beddingfield, but Lady

  Eardsley, queening it in Park Lane. I should

  just like to say that I bear you no malice whatever.

  It is hard, of course, to have to begin all

  over again at my time of life, but, entre nous, I

  had a little reserve fund carefully put aside

  for such a contingency. It has come in very

  usefully and I am getting together a nice little

  connection. By the way, if you ever come

  across the funny friend of yours, Arthur

  Minks, just tell him that I haven't forgotten

  him, will you? That will give him a nasty jar.

  On the whole I think I have displayed a

  most Christian and forgiving spirit. Even to

  Pagett. I happened to hear that he--or rather

  Mrs. Pagett--had brought a sixth child into

  the world the other day. England will be

  entirely populated by Pagetts soon. I sent the

  child a silver mug, and, on a post card, declared my willingness to act as godfather. I

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  can see Pagett taking both mug and post card

  straight to Scotland Yard without a smile on

  his face!

  Bless you, liquid eyes. Some day you will

  see what a mistake you have made in not

  marrying me.

  Yours ever,

  eustace pedler.

  Harry was furious. It is the one point on

  which he and I do not see eye to eye. To him,

  Sir Eustace was the man who tried to murder

  me and whom he regards as responsible for

  the death of his friend. Sir Eustace's attempts

  on my life have always puzzled me. They are

  not in the picture, so to speak. For I am sure

  that he always had a genuinely kindly feeling

  towards me.

  Then why did he twice attempt to take my

  life? Harry says "because he's a damned

  scoundrel," and seems to think that settles

  the matter. Suzanne was more discriminating.

  I talked it over with her, and she

  put it down to a "fear complex." Suzanne

  goes in rather for psycho-analysis. She

  pointed out to me that Sir Eustace's whole

  life was actuated by a desire to be safe and

  comfortable. He had an acute sense of self404

  preservation. And the murder of Nadina

  removed certain inhibitions. His actions did

  not represent the state of his feeling towards

  me, but were the result of his acute fears for

  his own safety. I think Suzanne is right. As

  for Nadina, she was the kind of woman who

  deserved to die. Men do all sorts of

  questionable things in order to get rich, but

  women shouldn't pretend to be in love when

  they aren't for ulterior motives.

  I can forgive Sir Eustace easily enough, but

  I shall never forgive Nadina. Never, never

  never!

  The other day I was unpacking some tins

  that were wrapped in bits of an old Daily

  Budget, and I suddenly came upon the words,

  "The Man in the Brown Suit." How long

  ago it seemed! I had, of course, severed my

  connection with the Daily Budget long ago—I

  had done with it sooner than it had done with

  me. my romantic wedding was given a

  halo of publicity.

  My son is lying in the sun, kicking his legs.

  There's a "man in a brown suit" if you like.

  He's wearing as little as possible, which is the

  best costume for Africa, and is as brown as a

  berry. He's always burrowing in the earth. I

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  think he takes after Papa. He'll have that

  same mania for Pleistocene clay.

  Suzanne sent me a cable when he was born:

  "Congratulations and love to the latest

  arrival on Lunatics' Island. Is his head

  dolichocephalic or brachycephalic?"

  I wasn't going to stand that from Suzanne.

  I sent her a reply of one word, economical

  and to the point:

  "Platycephalic!"

  A

  THE END

  Books by Agatha Christie in the

  Ulverscroft Large Print Series:

  POCKET FULL OF RYE

  ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE

  CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS

  THE PALE HORSE

  4.50 FROM PADDINGTON

  MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS

  THEY CAME TO BAGHDAD

  A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED

  MURDER IS EASY

  THE MIRROR CRACK'D FROM SIDE TO SIDE

  THEY DO IT WITH MIRRORS

  CROOKED HOUSE

  DEAD MAN'S FOLLY

  DEATH IN THE CLOUDS

  A CARIBBEAN MYSTERY />
  THIRD GIRL

  AT BERTRAM'S HOTEL

  THE HOUND OF DEATH

  AFTER THE FUNERAL

  THE THIRTEEN PROBLEMS

  DESTINATION UNKNOWN

  MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA

  THE CLOCKS

  CARDS ON THE TABLE

  LORD EDGWARE DIES

  THE MOVING FINGER

  DEATH COMES AS THE END

  DEATH ON THE NILE

  EVIL UNDER THE SUN

  TAKEN AT THE FLOOD

  THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY

  ENDLESS NIGHT

  TOWARDS ZERO

  THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD

  DUMB WITNESS

  ONE, TWO, BUCKLE MY SHOE

  THE SITTAFORD MYSTERY

  WHY DIDN'T THEY ASK EVANS?

  THE BIG FOUR

  THE HOLLOW

  THREE ACT TRAGEDY

  APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH

  SAD CYPRESS

  THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN

  NEMESIS

  CURTAIN

  THE MURDER ON THE LINKS

  THE MYSTERIOUS MR. QUIN

  SLEEPING MURDER

  THE LABOURS OF HERCULES

  PARKER PYNE INVESTIGATES

  PERIL AT END HOUSE

  SPARKLING CYANIDE

  THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE

  THE ABC MURDERS

  FIVE LITTLE PIGS

  THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS

  THE SEVEN DIALS MYSTERY

  THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT

  Nonfiction AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY (2 volumes)

  This book is published under the

  auspices of the

  ULVERSCROFT FOUNDATION,

  a registered charity, whose primary object is

  to assist those who experience difficulty in

  reading print of normal size.

  In response to approaches from the medical

  world, the Foundation is also helping to purchase

  the latest, most sophisticated medical

  equipment desperately needed by major eye

  hospitals for the diagnosis and treatment of

  eye diseases.

  If you would like to know more about the

  ULVERSCROFT FOUNDATION,

  and how you can help to further its work, please write for details to:

  THE ULVERSCROFT FOUNDATION

  The Green, Bradgate Road

  Anstey

  Leicestershire

  England

 

 

 


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