The Methods of Maigret ( PDFDrive )

moment watching her, from habit and tradition, then set off slowly toward the
square. A fisherman who had just spiked an octopus with his harpoon was
skinning it, and the tentacles were coiling round his tattooed arm.
At the Arche Paul, looking fresh, was serving out white wine from behind his
counter, and Mr. Pyke, who had had time to dress, was eating bacon and eggs at
a table. Maigret drank a glass of wine, like the others, and a little later, while he
was busy shaving in front of his window with his suspenders hanging over his
thighs, there was a knock at the door.
It was the Englishman.
“Am I in the way? May I come in?”
He sat in the only chair, and the silence was a long one.
“I spent part of the evening chatting with the major,” he said finally. “Do you
know he was one of our best and most famous polo players?”
He must have been disappointed with the reaction, or to be more precise, with
the lack of reaction on the part of Maigret. The latter had only a vague notion of
the game of polo. All he knew was that it was played from horseback and that
somewhere, in the Bois de Boulogne, or at St. Cloud, there was a very
aristocratic polo club.
Mr. Pyke, with a guileless air, stretched out a helping hand.
“He’s a younger son.”
For him this meant a lot. In England, in grand families, it is the eldest son
alone who inherits title and fortune, which obliges the others to make a career
for themselves in the army or the navy.
“His brother has a seat in the House of Lords. The major chose the Indian
Army.”
The same phenomenon must take place, in reverse, when Maigret made
allusions to people like Charlot,, like Monsieur Émile, like Ginette. But
Monsieur Pyke was patient, dotted his i’s with an exquisite discretion, almost
without touching them.
“People with a certain name are reluctant to remain in London unless they
have the means to cut a fine figure there. The great passion in the Indian army is
horses. To play polo, a stable of several ponies is essential.”
“Has the major never married?”
“Younger sons seldom marry. In taking charge of a family, Bellam would
have had to give up his horses.”
“And he preferred the horses!”