OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

290 MAINLY MAIGRET
" And the chief engineer? "
" No "
" There were only you two, then. It was fear, wasn't it, Le
Clinche? "
" I don't know. ... Leave me alone, for heaven's sake! "
" Ad&le was in the cabin. There were three men hanging round.
And yet the captain wouldn't yield to his desire, spent days and
days without speaking to his mistress. And you watched her
through the port-hole, but after a single meeting you never touched
her again. . .."
"Stop it!..."
" The men in the hold, the men on duty, spoke of the evil eye,
and the trip went from bad to worse—bad seamanship, an accident,
the cabin-boy overboard, two men injured, the cod gone wrong,
and the entrance into port bungled.. . ."
They turned a corner of die quay, and the beach lay before them,
with its neat esplanade, its hotels, its bathing-huts, and the multicoloured
deck-chairs on the sand.
In a pool of sunlight was Madame Maigret, sitting on a deck-chair
beside Marie Leonnec in a white hat.
Le Clinche followed his companion's glance and stopped dead,
his forehead damp.
" One woman wouldn't cause all that. Come on! Your fiancee
has seen you.. •."
It was true. She rose. For a moment she remained motionless,
as if her feelings were too strong for her. Then she rushed along
the esplanade, while Madame Maigret put down her sewing and
waited.
7. In the Family Circle
IT was one of those situations which spring up of themselves and
which it is very difficult to get out of. Marie Leonnec, alone in
Fecamp and recommended to the Maigrets by a mutual friend, took
her meals with them.
Now her fiance was there. The four of them found themselves
together on the beach when the hotel gong sounded for lunch.