Endless Night by Agatha Christie Page B

the circumstances, don’t you think?”
    â€œIt’s my business who I get married to and how and where.”
    â€œYou may think so, but you will find that the women of any family would rarely agree as to that.”
    â€œReally, I’ve saved everyone a lot of trouble.”
    â€œYou may put it that way.”
    â€œBut it’s true, isn’t it?”
    â€œBut you practised, did you not, a good deal of deception,helped by someone who should have known better than to do what she did.”
    Ellie flushed.
    â€œYou mean Greta? She only did what I asked her to. Are they all very upset with her?”
    â€œNaturally. Neither she nor you could expect anything else, could you? She was, remember, in a position of trust.”
    â€œI’m of age. I can do what I like.”
    â€œI am speaking of the period of time before you were of age. The deceptions began then, did they not?”
    â€œYou mustn’t blame Ellie, sir,” I said. “To begin with I didn’t know what was going on and since all her relations are in another country it wasn’t easy for me to get in touch with them.”
    â€œI quite realize,” said Mr. Lippincott, “that Greta posted certain letters and gave certain information to Mrs. van Stuyvesant and to myself as she was requested to do by Ellie here, and made, if I may say so, a very competent job of it. You have met Greta Andersen, Michael? I may call you Michael, since you are Ellie’s husband?”
    â€œOf course,” I said, “call me Mike. No, I haven’t met Miss Andersen—”
    â€œIndeed? That seems to me surprising.” He looked at me with a long thoughtful gaze. “I should have thought that she would have been present at your marriage.”
    â€œNo, Greta wasn’t there,” said Ellie. She threw me a look of reproach and I shifted uncomfortably.
    Mr. Lippincott’s eyes were still resting on me thoughtfully. He made me uncomfortable. He seemed about to say something more then changed his mind.
    â€œI’m afraid,” he said after a moment or two, “that you two, Michael and Ellie, will have to put up with a certain amount of reproaches and criticism from Ellie’s family.”
    â€œI suppose they are going to descend on me in a bunch,” said Ellie.
    â€œVery probably,” said Mr. Lippincott. “I’ve tried to pave the way,” he added.
    â€œYou’re on our side, Uncle Andrew?” said Ellie, smiling at him.
    â€œYou must hardly ask a prudent lawyer to go as far as that. I have learnt that in life it is wise to accept what is a fait accompli. You two have fallen in love with each other and have got married and have, I understood you to say, Ellie, bought a piece of property in the South of England and have already started building a house on it. You propose, therefore, to live in this country?”
    â€œWe want to make our home here, yes. Do you object to our doing that?” I said with a touch of anger in my voice. “Ellie’s married to me and she’s a British subject now. So why shouldn’t she live in England?”
    â€œNo reason at all. In fact, there is no reason why Fenella should not live in any country she chooses, or indeed have property in more than one country. The house in Nassau belongs to you, remember, Ellie.”
    â€œI always thought it was Cora’s. She always has behaved as though it was.”
    â€œBut the actual property rights are vested in you. You also have the house in Long Island whenever you care to visit it. You are the owner of a great deal of oil-bearing property in the West.” His voice was amiable, pleasant, but I had the feeling that the words were directed at me in some curious way. Was it his idea of trying to insinuate a wedge between me and Ellie? I was not sure. It didn’t seem very sensible, rubbing it in to a man that his wife owned property all over the world and was