OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

A CRIME IN HOLLAND *5*
It was Any who tfiought of switching on the light, telling the
servant to draw the curtains.
" I am so sorry to be disturbing you," said Maigret. " All the
more so at a meal-time. I didn't know .. ."
Madame Popinga waved a hand awkwardly towards an armchair
and looked about her with embarrassment, while her sister edged
away to the furthest corner of the room.
The latter was very similar to the one he had been in at the farm.
Modern furniture, but of a modernism in no way exaggerated. The
soft neutral colours combined sombreness with elegance.
" You've come about... ? "
Madame Popinga's lower lip quivered, and she had to put her
handkerchief to her mouth to stifle a sudden sob. Any did not move.
" I won't bother you now," said Maigret. *' I'll come back
later "
With a sign she insisted on his staying. She was making a valiant
effort to regain her composure. She must have been some years
older than her sister; she was tall and altogether much more of a
woman. Her features were regular, though she was just a little too
florid about the cheeks. In places, her hair was beginning to turn
grey.
All her movements were marked by a well-bred self-effacement.
Maigret remembered that she was a head-master's daughter, and that
she had the reputation of being very cultured and speaking several
languages. But all that had not sufficed to make her a woman of the
world. On the contrary, her shy awkwardness was thoroughly
provincial, and obviously she was the sort of person who would be
shocked by the least thing.
He remembered, too, that she belonged to the strictest of Protestant
sects, that she generally acted as president of any charity
that was organized at Delfzijl, and was also the leading spirit in
intellectual circles.
She managed * to recover her self-control—though she looked
pleadingly at her sister, as though to ask her to come to the
rescue.
" You must excuse me, Inspector. . . . It's unbelievable, isn't it?
. . . Conrad, of all people! ... A man who was loved by everybody
. . ."
Her eyes fell on the loud-speaker of the wireless in a corner of
the room, and at the sight of it she nearly burst into tears.
" It was his chief amusement," she stammered. ..." That and