Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #19)

by Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot had been brought up to believe that all outside air was best left outside, and that night air was especially dangerous to the health.

I used to think that I wasn’t anything. But now—I’m not sure. I feel—oh, I feel that if I could sweep all this away’—she made a violent gesture—‘all the buildings and the sects and the fierce squabbling churches—that—that I might see Christ’s quiet figure riding into Jerusalem on a donkey—and believe in Him.’

Lady Westholme entered the room with the assurance of a transatlantic liner coming into dock. Miss Amabel Pierce, an indeterminate craft, followed in the liner’s wake and sat down in an inferior make of chair slightly in the background.