OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

A CRIME IN HOLLAND I99
8. Beetje and Her Father
INSTEAD of going "through the town from the police station to the
Hotel Van Hasselt, Maigret went round by the quays, accompanied
by Jean Duclos, whose face and whole demeanout* radiated bad
temper.
" I suppose you know," he said at last, " that you're making
yourself most objectionable? "
As he spoke his eyes were fixed on the crane, whose hoist swung
only a foot or two above their heads.
" In what way."
Duclos shrugged his shoulders and took several steps before
answering.
" Is it possible you don't understand? Perhaps you don't want to.
. .. You're like all French people. . . ."
" I thought we were both French."
" With this difference, however, that I have travelled widely.
In fact, I think I could justly call myself a European rather than a
Frenchman. Wherever I go I can fall into the ways of the country.
While you . . . you simply crash straight through everything regardless
of the consequences, blind to everything that requires
a little discrimination...."
" Without stopping to wonder, for instance, whether or not it's
desirable that the murderer should be caught! "
" Why shouldn't you stop to wonder? " burst out the professor.
" Why shouldn't you discriminate? ... This isn't a dirty crime.
It isn't the work of a professional killer or any other sort of regular
criminal. The question of robbery hasn't arisen.... In other words,
the person who did it is not necessarily a danger to society...."
" In which case ... ? "
Maigret was smoking his pipe with obvious relish, striding along
easily, his hands behind his back.
" You've only got to look about you—" said Duclos, with a
wave of the hand which embraced the scene around them. The tidy
little town where everything was arranged as neatly as in a good
housewife's cupboard. The harbour too small to have any of the
grimness that so often belongs to ports. Happy, serene people
clattering along in their yellow sabots.
Then he went on:
" Everybody earns his living. Everybody's more or Jess content.