heart [hA:t], flare-up ['flE@rVp], secretive [sI'kri:tIv]
"There was one row nearly a year ago and another — a worse one — just over a month ago. I was home for the weekend — and I got them to patch it up again, and it was then that I tried to knock a little sense into Betty — told her she was a little fool. All she would say was that there hadn't been any harm in it. Well, that was true enough, but all the same she was riding for a fall. You see, after the row a year ago, she'd got into the habit of telling a few useful lies on the principle that what the mind doesn't know the heart doesn't grieve over.
This last flare-up came because she'd told Don she was going to Hastings to see a girl pal and he found out that she'd really been over to Eastbourne with some man. He was a married man, as it happened, and he'd been a bit secretive about the business anyway — and so that made it worse. They had an awful scene — Betty saying that she wasn't married to him yet and she had a right to go about with whom she pleased and Don all white and shaking and saying that one day — one day — "
"Yes?"
"He'd commit murder
She stopped and stared at Poirot
He nodded his head gravely several times
"I didn't think
commit [k@'mIt], lowered ['l@Ued], quarrel ['kwOr@l]
"Yes?"
"He'd commit murder — " said Megan in a lowered voice.
She stopped and stared at Poirot.
He nodded his head gravely several times. "And so, naturally, you were afraid ."
"I didn't think he'd actually done it — not for a minute! But I was afraid it might be brought up — the quarrel and all that he'd said — several people knew about it."
Again Poirot nodded his head gravely
He was silent for a minute or two
Megan shook her head
egoistical [,i:g@U'IstIk(@)l], escape [Is'keIp], boasting ['b@UstIN]
Again Poirot nodded his head gravely. "Just so. And I may say, mademoiselle, that but for the egoistical vanity of a killer, that is just what would have happened. If Donald Fraser escapes suspicion, it will be thanks to A.B.C.'s maniacal boasting."
He was silent for a minute or two, then he said: "Do you know if your sister met this married man, or any other man, lately?"
Megan shook her head. "I don't know. I've been away, you see."
"But what do you think