Cat Sitter Among the Pigeons

Chapter 24

POIROT EXPLAINS

Mrs. Upjohn, wandering through the corridors of Meadowbank school, forgot the exciting scene she had just been through. She was for the moment merely a mother seeking her young. She found her in a deserted classroom. Julia was bending over a desk, her tongue protruding slightly, absorbed in the agonies of composition.

She looked up and stared. Then flung herself across the room and hugged her mother.

“Mummy!”

Then, with the self-consciousness of her age, ashamed of her unrestrained emotion, she detached herself and spoke in a carefully casual tone - indeed almost accusingly.

“Aren't you back rather soon, Mummy?”

“I flew back,” said Mrs. Upjohn, almost apologetically, “from Ankara.”

“Oh,” said Julia. “Well - I'm glad you're back.”

“Yes,” said Mrs. Upjohn, “I am very glad too.”

They looked at each other, embarrassed. “What are you doing?” said Mrs. Upjohn, advancing a little closer.

“I'm writing a composition for Miss Rich,” said Julia. “She really does set the most exciting subjects.”

“What's this one?” said Mrs. Upjohn. She bent over.

The subject was written at the top of the page. Some nine or ten lines of writing in Julia's uneven and sprawling handwriting came below. “Contrast the Attitudes of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to Murder,” read Mrs. Upjohn.

“Well,” she said doubtfully, “you can't say that the subject isn't topical!”

She read the start of her daughter's essay. “Macbeth,” Julia had written, “liked the idea of murder and had been thinking of it a lot, but he needed a push to get him started. Once he'd got started he enjoyed murdering people and had no more qualms or fears. Lady Macbeth was just greedy and ambitious. She thought she didn't mind what she did to get what she wanted. But once she'd done it she found she didn't like it after all.”

“Your language isn't very elegant,” said Mrs. Upjohn. “I think you'll have to polish it up a bit, but you've certainly got something there.”