Endless Night by Agatha Christie

stories of that kind,” said Mr. Lippincott. “And Ellie, remember, is not as tough as you are, Michael. She can be influenced easily. Only in some ways. Which brings me—” he stopped without going on to say what he had been going to. He tapped on the table with one finger. “I’m going to speak to you now on a matter of some difficulty. You said just now that you had not met this Greta Andersen.”
    â€œNo, as I said, I haven’t met her yet.”
    â€œOdd. Very curious.”
    â€œWell?” I looked at him inquiringly.
    â€œI should have thought you’d have been almost sure to have met her,” he said slowly. “How much do you know about her?”
    â€œI know that she’s been with Ellie some time.”
    â€œShe has been with Ellie since Ellie was seventeen. She has occupied a post of some responsibility and trust. She came first to theStates in the capacity of secretary and companion. A kind of chaperone to Ellie when Mrs. van Stuyvesant, her stepmother, was away from home, which I may say was a quite frequent occurrence.” He spoke particularly dryly when he said this. “She is, I gather, a well-born girl with excellent references, half-Swedish half-German. Ellie became, quite naturally, very much attached to her.”
    â€œSo I gather,” I said.
    â€œIn some way Ellie was, I suppose, almost too much attached to her. You don’t mind my saying that?”
    â€œNo. Why should I mind? As a matter of fact I’ve—well, I’ve thought so myself once or twice. Greta this and Greta that. I got—well, I know I’ve no business to, but I used to get fed up sometimes.”
    â€œAnd yet she expressed no wish for you to meet Greta?”
    â€œWell,” I said, “it’s rather difficult to explain. But I think, yes, I think she probably did suggest it in a mild way once or twice but, well, we were too taken up with having met each other. Besides, oh well, I suppose I didn’t really want to meet Greta. I didn’t want to share Ellie with anyone.”
    â€œI see. Yes, I see. And Ellie did not suggest Greta being present at your wedding?”
    â€œShe did suggest it,” I said.
    â€œBut—but you didn’t want her to come. Why?”
    â€œI don’t know. I really don’t know. I just felt that this Greta, this girl or woman I’d never met, she was always horning in on everything. You know, arranging Ellie’s life for her. Sending post-cards and letters and filling in for Ellie, arranging a whole itinerary and passing it on to the family. I felt that Ellie was dependent on Greta in a way, that she let Greta run her, that she wanted to do everything that Greta wanted. I—oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Lippincott, Ioughtn’t to be saying all these things perhaps. Say I was just plain jealous. Anyway I blew up and I said I didn’t want Greta at the wedding, that the wedding was ours, that it was just our business and nobody else’s. And so we went along to the Registrar’s office and his clerk and the typist from his office were the two witnesses. I dare say it was mean of me to refuse to have Greta there, but I wanted to have Ellie to myself.”
    â€œI see. Yes, I see, and I think, if I may say so, that you were wise, Michael.”
    â€œYou don’t like Greta either,” I said shrewdly.
    â€œYou can hardly use the word ‘either,’ Michael, if you have not even met her.”
    â€œNo, I know but, well, I mean if you hear a lot about a person you can form some sort of idea of them, some judgment of them. Oh well, call it plain jealousy. Why don’t you like Greta?”
    â€œThis is without prejudice,” said Mr. Lippincott, “but you are Ellie’s husband, Michael, and I have Ellie’s happiness very much at heart. I don’t think that the influence that Greta has over Ellie is a very desirable one. She takes too much upon