Lady Carmichael (The Horses of Diomedes)

In the short story The Horses of Diomedes, Lady Carmichael is an old friend of Hercule Poirot. Poirot needed an invitation to Mertonshire in order to learn more about the background of General Grant and his family. However although it is said that "everybody has a second cousin in Mertonshire", Poirot did not. Fortunately he knew Lady Carmichael. Her chief delight was gossiping about her neighbours and so she proved not just to be Poirot's hostess but a good resource person on all the people in the locality, including the Grants, Anthony Hawker and others, more people, perhaps, than Poirot was interested in learning about.