Miss Leatheran’s style in my opinion is vigorous, individual and entirely apposite. If she calls Hercule Poirot ‘Poirot’ in one paragraph and ‘Mr Poirot’ in the next, such a variation is both interesting and suggestive. At one moment she is, so to speak, ‘remembering her manners’ (and hospital nurses are great sticklers for etiquette) and at the next her interest in what she is telling is that of a pure human being-cap and cuffs forgotten!

The only thing I have done is to take the liberty of writing a first chapter-aided by a letter kindly supplied by one of Miss Leatheran’s friends. It is intended to be in the nature of a frontispiece-that is, it gives a rough sketch of the narrator.

Chapter 1. Frontispiece

In the hall of the Tigris Palace Hotel in Baghdad a hospital nurse was finishing a letter. Her fountain-pen drove briskly over the paper.

…Well, dear, I think that’s really all my news. I must say it’s been nice to see a bit of the world-though England for me every time, thank you. Thedirt and themess in Baghdad you wouldn’t believe-and not romantic at all like you’d think from theArabianNights! Of course, it’s pretty just on the river, but the town itself is just awful-and no proper shops at all. Major Kelsey took me through the bazaars, and of course there’s no denying they’requaint -but just a lot of rubbish and hammering away at copper pans till they make your headache-and not what I’d like to use myself unless I was sure about the cleaning. You’ve got to be so careful of verdigris with copper pans. 

I’ll write and let you know if anything comes of the job that Dr Reilly spoke about. He said this American gentleman was in Baghdad now and might come and see me this afternoon. It’s for his wife-she has ‘fancies’, so Dr Reilly said. He didn’t say any more than that, and of course, dear, one knows what thatusually means (but I hope not actually D.T.s!). Of course, Dr Reilly didn’tsay anything-but he had a look-if you know what I mean. This Dr Leidner is an archaeologist and is digging up a mound out in the desert somewhere for some American museum.



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