- Hercule Poirot: Cricket. The English enigma. I know not of any other game where even the players are unsure of the rules.
- Captain Hastings: Oh, but you would have noticed if his behavior had been in any way unusual?
- Dulcie Lang: I doubt it. Painters' behaviors are always unusual. They can never make up their mind whether to commit suicide or give a party.
- Bonnington: To my good friend, Hercule Poirot.
- Hercule Poirot: Bon.
- Bonnington: For whom life without mystery would be like... roast beef without the mustard.
- Hercule Poirot: C'est la vérité, mon ami.
- Hercule Poirot: I have a dinner engagement with my dentist.
- Captain Hastings: Your dentist? Positively morbid.
- Miss Lemon: But you're always trying to avoid him.
- Hercule Poirot: Not at all. Off duty, he's quite charming. Besides, he likes to see the end product at work.
- [At the art gallery for contemporary modern art. Poirot and Hastings are carefully inspecting a non-figurative painting, then approached by Makinson]
- Makinson: Man throwing a stone at a bird!
- Captain Hastings: Really? Which is which?
- Hercule Poirot: Joan Miró, Hastings. An exponent of the surrealist vision.
- [to Makinson:]
- Hercule Poirot: A work inspired by the dream, non?
- Makinson: Yes, a man with the most individual imagination.
- [first lines]
- Doctor: There's very little I can do for him now, Mrs Hill. He's very weak.
- Mrs. Hill: Oh dear! Is there no hope?
- Doctor: I'm afraid not. It's more a matter of hours, rather than days, now. Doesn't Mr Anthony have any relatives?
- Mrs. Hill: There's a brother, Henry, but they haven't spoken in twenty years.
- Doctor: No one else?
- Mrs. Hill: Well, yes. There's Mr George, his nephew, in London. I expect he'd want to know.
- Captain Hastings: With both of the brothers dead, there aren't many Gascoynes left to pay their respects.
- Hercule Poirot: Not too many suspects left either, huh?