OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

iyo MAINLY MAIGRET
last, Madame Popinga wouldn't sit down, and it was not difficult
to guess that under her skirt her knees were trembling.
And now it was the inspector's turn to look embarrassed. He
filled his pipe, lit it, then let it go out. He sat down in an easy-chair,
but almost immediately jumped to his feet again.
" I've got myself mixed up in an affair which is no business of
mine," he began jerkily. " A Frenchman came under suspicion,
and I was sent to look into the matter. . . ."
To gain time he lit his pipe again. Then he turned towards
Pijpekamp.
" Beetje is outside, and so is her father and Oosting. You'd better
tell them to go home ... or... or to come in here. ... It all
depends. Do you want the truth to come out? "
Without waiting to consider the question, Pijpekamp disappeared.
A minute later Beetje entered shyly, then Oosting, frowning,
and lastly Lie wens followed by Pijpekamp. The farmer was
white and nervous.
As soon as everybody was in the room Maigret slipped out.
They could hear him in the next room opening the sideboard.
When he came back, he had a glass in one hand and a bottle
of cognac in the other. He drank alone. He appeared to be in the
depths of gloom. Everybody was standing round him and he
seemed almost overawed by their presence.
" Well, Pijpekamp? Do you want the truth? "
And as Pijpekamp didn't answer, he went on savagely:
" I don't suppose you do, and you may be right. But. . . Never
mind—it's too late now. Here it is, whether you want it or not. . . .
" You see, we belong to different countries, to different races . . .
different climates, too... . And as soon as you scented a family
scandal you pounced on the first bit of evidence which would
enable you to pigeon-hole the case. A murder committed by some
foreign sailor. . . . Perhaps you were right. Perhaps it would have
been better that way. Better for public morals, better for the
preservation of that good example which the upper classes are
supposed to set the people. ... But I, on the other hand, I couldn't
help thinking of Popinga. I couldn't help seeing him here in this
room, playing about with the wireless, and dancing—dancing
under the murderer's eye...."
Maigret sighed. He looked at nobody as he went on:
" The revolver was found in the bathroom. So there was never
any serious doubt that the shot came from inside the house. For it's