Endless Night by Agatha Christie Page B

however efficient and even handsome they are.”
    â€œThank you, Michael, for listening to me so patiently. I hope you will give me the pleasure of dining with me, both of you. Possibly next Tuesday evening? Cora van Stuyvesant and Frank Barton will probably be in London by that time.”
    â€œAnd I’ve got to meet them, I suppose?”
    â€œOh yes, that will be quite inevitable.” He smiled at me and this time his smile seemed more genuine than it had before. “You mustn’t mind too much,” he said. “Cora, I expect, will be very rude to you. Frank will be merely tactless. Reuben won’t be over just at present.”
    I didn’t know who Reuben was—another relation I supposed.
    I went across to the connecting doors and opened them. “Come on, Ellie,” I said, “the grilling is over.”
    She came back in the room and looked quickly from Lippincott to myself, then she went across and kissed him.
    â€œDear Uncle Andrew,” she said. “I can see you’ve been nice to Michael.”
    â€œWell, my dear, if I weren’t nice to your husband you wouldn’t have much use for me in the future, would you? I do reserve the right to give a few words of advice now and then. You’re very young you know, both of you.”
    â€œAll right,” said Ellie, “we’ll listen patiently.”
    â€œNow, my dear, I’d like to have a word with you if I may.”
    â€œMy turn to be odd man out,” I said, and I too went into the bedroom.
    I shut the two double doors ostentatiously but I opened the innerone again after I got inside. I hadn’t been as well brought up as Ellie so I felt a bit anxious to find out how double-faced Mr. Lippincott might turn out to be. But actually there was nothing I need have listened to. He gave Ellie one or two wise words of advice. He said she must realize that I might find it difficult to be a poor man married to a rich wife and then he went on to sound her about making a settlement on Greta. She agreed to it eagerly and said she’d been going to ask him that herself. He also suggested that she should make an additional settlement on Cora van Stuyvesant.
    â€œThere is no earthly need that you should do so,” he said. “She has been very well provided for in the matter of alimony from several husbands. And she is as you know paid an income, though not a very big one, from the trust fund left by your grandfather.”
    â€œBut you think I ought to give her more still?”
    â€œI think there is no legal or moral obligation to do so. What I think is that you will find her far less tiresome and shall I say catty if you do so. I should make it in the form of an increased income, which you could revoke at any time. If you find that she has been spreading malicious rumours about Michael or yourself or your life together, the knowledge that you can do that will keep her tongue free of those more poisonous barbs that she so well knows how to plant.”
    â€œCora has always hated me,” said Ellie. “I’ve known that.” She added rather shyly, “You do like Mike, don’t you, Uncle Andrew?”
    â€œI think he’s an extremely attractive young man,” said Mr. Lippincott. “And I can quite see how you came to marry him.”
    That, I suppose, was as good as I could expect. I wasn’t really his type and I knew it. I eased the door gently to and in a minute or two Ellie came to fetch me.
    We were both standing saying good-bye to Lippincott when there was a knock on the door and a page boy came in with a telegram. Ellie took it and opened it. She gave a little surprised cry of pleasure.
    â€œIt’s Greta,” she said, “she’s arriving in London tonight and she’ll be coming to see us tomorrow. How lovely.” She looked at us both. “Isn’t it?” she said.
    She saw two sour faces and heard two polite voices saying, one: