The Mirror Crack's From Side to Side by Agatha Christie Page A

Marple. She added, 'I daresay, after the first natural grief, he won't miss her very much...'
    'Why? Did she bully him?'
    'Oh no,' said Miss Marple, 'but I don't think that she - well, she wasn't a considerate woman. Kind, yes. Considerate - no. She would be fond of him and look after him when he was ill and see to his meals and be a good housekeeper, but I don't think she would ever - well, that she would ever even know what he might be feeling or thinking. That makes rather a lonely life for a man.'
    'Ah,' said Dermot, 'and is his life less likely to be lonely in future?'
    'I expect he'll marry again,' said Miss Marple. 'Perhaps quite soon. And probably, which is such a pity, a woman of much the same type. I mean he'll marry someone with a stronger personality than his own.'
    'Anyone in view?' asked Dermot.
    'Not that I know of,' said Miss Marple. She added regretfully, 'But I know so little.'
    'Well, what do you think?' urged Dermot Craddock. 'You've never been backward in thinking things.'
    'I think,' said Miss Marple, unexpectedly, 'that you ought to go and see Mrs Bantry.'
    'Mrs Bantry? Who is she? One of the film lot?'
    'No,' said Miss Marple, 'she lives in the East Lodge at Gossington. She was at the party that day. She used to own Gossington at one time. She and her husband, Colonel Bantry.'
    'She was at the party. And she saw something?'
    'I think she must tell you herself what it was she saw. You mayn't think it has any bearing on the matter, but I think it might be - just might be - suggestive. Tell her I sent you to her and - ah yes, perhaps you'd better just mention the Lady of Shalott.'
    Dermot Craddock looked at her with his head just slightly on one side.
    'The Lady of Shalott,' he said. 'Those are the code words, are they?'
    'I don't know that I should put it that way,' said Miss Marple, 'but it will remind her of what I mean.'
    Dermot Craddock got up. 'I shall be back,' he warned her.
    'That is very nice of you,' said Miss Marple. 'Perhaps if you have time, you would come and have tea with me one day. If you still drink tea,' she added rather wistfully. 'I know that so many young people nowadays only go out to drinks and things. They think that afternoon tea is a very outmoded affair.'
    'I'm not as young as all that,' said Dermot Craddock. 'Yes, I'll come and have tea with you one day. We'll have tea and gossip and talk about the village. Do you know any of the film stars, by the way, or any of the studio lot?'
    'Not a thing,' said Miss Marple, 'except what I hear,' she added.
    'Well, you usually hear a good deal,' said Dermot Craddock. 'Goodbye. It's been very nice to see you.'

The Mirror Crack's From Side to Side
    III
    'Oh, how do you do?' said Mrs Bantry, looking slightly taken aback when Dermot Craddock had introduced himself and explained who he was. 'How very exciting to see you. Don't you always have sergeants with you?'
    'I've got a sergeant down here, yes,' said Craddock. 'But he's busy.'
    'On routine enquiries?' asked Mrs Bantry, hopefully.
    'Something of the kind,' said Dermot gravely.
    'And Jane Marple sent you to me,' said Mrs Bantry, as she ushered him into her small sitting-room. 'I was just arranging some flowers,' she explained. 'It's one of those days when flowers won't do anything you want them to. They fall out, or stick up where they shouldn't stick up or won't lie down where you want them to lie down. So I'm thankful to have a distraction, and especially such an exciting one. So it really was murder, was it?'
    'Did you think it was murder?'
    'Well, it could have been an accident, I suppose,' said Mrs Bantry, 'Nobody's said anything definite, officially, that is. Just that rather silly piece about no evidence to show by whom or in what way the poison was administered. But, of course, we all talk about it as murder.'
    'And about who did it?'
    'That's the odd part of it,' said Mrs Bantry. 'We don't. Because I really don't see who can have done it.'
    'You mean as a matter of definite