‘And your husband responded to this appeal?’
Hilda said:
‘His acceptance was, I am afraid, all my doing—I misunderstood the situation.’
Poirot interposed. He said:
‘Will you be so kind as to explain yourself a little more clearly, madame? I think what you can tell us may be of value.’
She turned to him immediately.
She said:
‘At that time I had never seen my father-in-law. I had no idea what his real motive was. I assumed that he was old and lonely and that he really wanted to be reconciled to all his children.’
‘And what was his real motive, in your opinion, madame?’
Hilda hesitated a moment. Then she said slowly:
‘I have no doubt—no doubt at all—that what my father-in-law really wanted was not to promote peace but to stir up strife.’
‘In what way?’
Hilda said in a low voice:
‘It amused him to—to appeal to the worst instincts in human nature. There was—how can I put it?—a kind of diabolical impishness about him. He wished to set every member of the family at loggerheads with one another.’
Johnson said sharply: ‘And did he succeed?’
‘Oh, yes,’ said Hilda Lee. ‘He succeeded.’
Poirot said:
‘We have been told, madame, of a scene that took place this afternoon. It was, I think, rather a violent scene.’
She bowed her head.
‘Will you describe it to us—as truthfully as possible, if you please.’
She reflected a minute.
‘When we went in my father-in-law was telephoning.’
‘To his lawyer, I understand?’
‘Yes, he was suggesting that Mr—was it Charlton?—I don’t quite remember the name—should come over as he, my father-in-law, wanted to make a new will. His old one, he said, was quite out of date.’
Poirot said:
‘Think carefully, madame; in your opinion did your father-in-law deliberately ensure that you should all overhear this conversation, or was it just by chance that you overheard it?’
Hilda Lee said:
‘I am almost sure that he meant us to overhear.’
‘With the object of fomenting doubt and suspicions among you?’
‘Yes.’