Virginie Mesnard

In the short story The Chocolate Box, Virginie Mesnard is the cousin of Paul Déroulard's deceased wife. At the time of Paul Déroulard's death, she had been living with the Paul Déroulard family for several years.

Shortly after the death of Paul Déroulard, Virginie approached Poirot and asked him to investigate. Although the official conclusion was that he had died naturally of heart failure, Virginie felt certain that he had been poisoned. She could not explain why but attributed it merely to instinct.

Poirot agreed to investigate, but later. as his suspicions began to focus on M. de Saint Alard, she mysteriously asked Poirot to drop the case as she had become certain that she had been mistaken in suspecting murder. The real for this change of heart was not explained in the story. According to François, a servant at Déroulard's house in Brussels, Virginie was a very pious woman. At the end of the story, she enters a convent and becomes a nun. M. de Saint Alard was an ardent supporter of the Catholic church. It could be that Virginie did not want to see such a person implicated by the investigation. Indeed, she emphasised to Poirot that Saint Alard could not be a killer. He was always forgetful and lost in thought. Also, perhaps, by then she had learnt who the real killer was and did not want to see an innocent man suffer.

Portrayals
In the 1993 ITV adaptation of The Chocolate Box, Virginie Mesnard is portrayed by Anna Chancellor. She has a larger role in this adaptation than in the original. She spoke up at the inquest, insisting that Déroulard had been murdered. Later she actively assisted Poirot in the investigation, including helping him set up a sting on Saint Alard to get him to confess. She certainly did not have the same kindly view of him as in the original story. Poirot becomes attracted to her but the romance does not go very far as he shortly thereafter fled to England. When he meets her again in Brussels in the 1930s, she had already married Poirot's friend, the chemist Jean-Louis Ferraud. Nonetheless, Virginie Mesnard made a permanent impression on Poirot. A lapel ornament she gives to Poirot during this episode is worn by Poirot on his jacket on every other episode in the series.