van gogh painting

An interested discussion intervened in which the stout lady，her lankhusband and a hoarse-voiced shop-boy all participated.No less than fourshort dark men had been observed，and the hoarse boy had seen a tall fairone，"but he hadn't got no beard，"he added regretfully. Finally，our purchases made，we left the establishment，leaving ourfalsehoods uncorrected. "And what was the point of all that，Poirot?"I demanded somewhatreproachfully. "Parbleu，I wanted to estimaate the chances of a stranger being noticedentering the shop opposite." "Couldn't you simply have asked-without all that tissue of lies?" "No，mon ami.If I had "simply asked"，

as you put it，I should have gotno answer at all to my question.You yourself are English and yet you do notseem to appreciate the quality of the English reaction to a directquestion.It is invariably one of suspicion and the natural result isreticence.If I had asked those people for information they would have shutup like oysters.