Mrs. Hubbard

Age range Personality Description Past Present Future Suspect Victim

Excerpt from bookPageExplanation “He wiped his forehead. "Imagine to yourself the time I have had with her! She insists—but insists—that there is a man in her compartment! Figure to yourself, Monsieur. In a space of this size." He swept a hand round. "Where would he conceal himself? I argue with her. I point out that it is impossible. She insists. She woke up, and there was a man there. And how, I ask, did he get out and leave the door bolted behind him? But she will not listen to reason.” Page #29 Mrs. Hubbard calls to the conductor early morning. She keeps telling the conductor there is a man in her compartment, and he argues back saying to reason how it is possible. She continues to tell people about the man in her room. Mrs. Hubbard kept ringing the bell constantly because she figured there was somebody in her room, and was getting impatient. Poirot takes this into account, and she is suspected for this action. "What still puzzles me, Madame," said Poirot, "is how the man got into your compartment if the communicating door was bolted as you say. You are sure that it was bolted?" "Why, the Swedish lady tried it before my eyes." "Let us just reconstruct that little scene. You were lying in your bunk—so—and you could not see for yourself, you say?" "No, because of the sponge-bag. Oh! my, I shall have to get a new sponge-bag. It makes me feel sick at my stomach to look at this one." Poirot picked up the sponge-bag and hung it on the handle of the communicating door into the next carriage. "Précisément. I see," he said. "The bolt is just underneath the handle—the sponge-bag masks it. You could not see from where you were lying whether the bolt was turned or not." Page #134 One major thing that Mrs. Hubbard is suspected for is the story of the lock on her communicating door. If she didn’t say the bolt was below her bag, the case would have been much different. This evidence confirmed her participation in the crime that she is a suspect. The conductor first bolted her lock, and then put a suitcase. After he did so, the Swedish lady bolted it for her. Later, when Poirot was checking the bolt out, he said the sponge bag covered the bolt. "Poor creature, she's a Swede. As far as I can make out she's a kind of missionary. A teaching one. A nice creature, but doesn't talk much English. She was most interested in what I told her about my daughter." Poirot, by now, knew all about Mrs. Hubbard's daughter. Everyone on the train who could understand English did! How she and her husband were on the staff of a big American college in Smyrna, and how this was Mrs. Hubbard's first journey to the East, and what she thought of the Turks and their slipshod ways and the condition of their roads. “ Page #25 Mrs. Hubbard mentioned her daughter numerous times in the book. \When Poirot was talking to her about the bloody knife, she started crying and talking about her daughter! Her daughter is probably the only thing she talks about everywhere. It is suspected why she talks about her daughter all the time.

Excerpt from bookPageExplanation The door next to them opened and the thin pale manservant stepped out. Inside, Poirot caught a glimpse of Mr. Ratchett sitting up in bed. He saw Poirot and his face changed, darkening with anger. Then the door was shut. Mrs. Hubbard drew Poirot a little wide. "You know, I'm dead scared of that man. Oh! not the valet—the other. His master. Master, indeed! There's something wrong about that man. My daughter always says I'm very intuitive. 'When Mamma gets a hunch, she's dead right,' that's what my daughter says. And I've got a hunch about that man. He's next door to me and I don't like it. I put my grips against the communicating door last night. I thought I heard him trying the handle. Page #25 & 26 Before Ratchett died, and Poirot knew his personality, Mrs. Hubbard was scared of him. She can’t be the victim, because even though she is really close to Ratchett’s compartment, she tries her best to stay away from him. She has a hunch he can murder somebody because his face is terrifying. She proved this because she heard her door knob wiggling, and assumed it was Ratchett’s. That’s why she made sure she locked her door before sleeping. "Now just tell me this—who's in authority here? I've got some very important information, very important indeed, and I'm going to tell it to someone in authority just as soon as I can. If you gentlemen—" Her wavering glance fluctuated between the three men. Poirot leaned forward. "Tell it to me, Madame," he said. "But first, pray be seated." Mrs. Hubbard plumped heavily down on to the seat opposite to him. "What I've got to tell you is just this. There was a murder on the train last night, and the murderer was right there in my compartment!" She paused to give dramatic emphasis to her words.” Page #72 Since the event of the murder happened, Mrs. Hubbard gave valuable information throughout. She can’t be the victim because she told Poirot that when she was sleeping, the murderer was in her own room! Mrs. Hubbard brought the evidence of the button, knife, the murderer, and many more things. She was always voluble, no matter what she was talking about. She kept the characteristic through the times she was crying, yelling, and speaking regularly. "Colonel Armstrong was an Englishman—a V.C. He was half American, his mother having been a daughter of W. K. Van der Halt, the Wall Street millionaire. He married the daughter of Linda Arden, the most famous tragic American actress of her day. They lived in America and had one child—a girl whom they idolized. When she was three years old she was kidnapped, and an impossibly high sum demanded as the price of her return. I will not weary you with all the intricacies that followed. Page #54 The book finishes with a great concluding part to Mrs. Hubbard’s character; she was Linda Arden. This is one reason Mrs. Hubbard could be the victim. She was also related to the Armstrong family; she was Mrs. Armstrong’s mother. This gives a lot of suspicion for why she could be the victim.