“A thousand thanks for your hospitality, Mesdemoiselles,” he cried; “it has been a most charming luncheon. Ma foi , I needed it!” He swelled out his chest and thumped it. “I am now a lion⁠—a giant. Ah, Mademoiselle Katherine, you have not seen me as I can be. You have seen the gentle, the calm Hercule Poirot; but there is another Hercule Poirot. I go now to bully, to threaten, to strike terror into the hearts of those who listen to me.”

He looked at them in a self-satisfied way, and they both appeared to be duly impressed, though Lenox was biting her underlip, and the corners of Katherine’s mouth had a suspicious twitch.

“And I shall do it,” he said gravely. “Oh yes, I shall succeed.”

He had gone but a few steps when Katherine’s voice made him turn.