Beatrice Lippincott

In the novel Taken at the Flood, Miss Beatrice Lippincott is the landlady of the Stag in Warmsley Vale. She is described as a plump middle-aged woman with a golden pompadour of hair that she keeps smoothing back and patting into place. She smiles at her customers in a charming way and tends to exaggerate the importance of the inn and herself. Her aesthetic sense is somewhat lacking, as her quarters are overfurnished with battered furniture and a lot of china. She employs two maids called Lily and Gladys.

According to Rowley Cloade, who has known her most of his life and affectionately calls her "Bee", she was good-looking in her youth, running a shop with her father. Rowley used to buy tobbacco there and sometimes helped her behind the counter. When Rowley was a child, rumours spread in the village about Beatrice's one-year-long absence, everybody claiming she went away to have an illegitimate child. However, those allegations have never been confirmed, and Rowley now finds her "highly respectable and refined. Plenty of backchat and giggles, but an almost painful propriety." Beatrice, in turn, thinks of him as classy, declaring to the maid Lily that "a gentleman's a gentleman even if he does drive a tractor". According to Mrs Leadbetter, who is prejudiced against modern women, the landlady is "just as bad as any of them" and "would go a mile for anything that wears trousers".

It is unknown whether Miss Lippincott was running the inn during the war. She only mentions with a world-weary air that during the war, she cashed in cheques from the soldiers from the fighter station – sometimes against her better judgement.Being on very friendly terms, Rowley sometimes comes to drink a beer at the bar and chats with the landlady. When a stranger passes by the farm and asks Rowley about accommodation in Warmsley Vale, the latter recommends the Stag. In the evening, Rowley comes to the inn and inquires about the stranger. Beatrice readily produces the register, the entry running: "Enoch Arden. Cape Town. British."

The next day, David Hunter comes to visit Arden. Miss Lippincott eavesdrops on them through a concealed door communicating with the adjacent room. On Tuesday, she proceeds to write a beautiful letter to Rowley Cloade to come see her about "a certain person". When he arrives, she takes him to her private rooms and takes quite a while to come to the point. She delicately hints that the door between the rooms was mysteriously open – just as she went there to see about some towels and bed linen – and so she was bound to overhear the conversation. Then she tells Rowley the whole story: Enoch Arden has intimated that Rosaleen's first husband Robert Underhay is still alive, and threatened to sell the fact to the Cloades if David didn't pay 10,000 pounds to cover Underhay's expenses. David agreed to get the money and bring it to the inn by next Tuesday.

When Miss Lippincott finishes, Rowley doesn't say a word and simply goes straight out of the room, leaving her underwhelmed and frustrated. As always, Rowley's reactions are slow and it takes him a few hundred yards of walking to get over his quiet astonishment.

One day later, on a Wednesday morning after 10 o'clock, Gladys the chambermaid rushes into Miss Lippincott's private rooms and declares that the gentleman from Room 5 lies dead on the floor. Unbelieving at first, the landlady and Dr Lionel Cloade (who has been called to tend to her cut hand) go inspect the situation. When the story is proven true, the doctor instantly becomes abrupt and authoritative, and instructs Miss Lippincott to telephone to the police station. Gladys smells a stunner and asks the landlady in an awed whisper if she thinks it was murder. Miss Lippincott reprimands her for talking about such things before they are known with certainty because it means negative publicity for the inn, and suggests the maid get herself "a nice cup of tea". Lily readily acquiesces and promises to bring along a second cup for her employer.

When Superintendent Spence becomes in charge of the investigation, Miss Lippincott goes to the police station and readily comes forward with a statement about the overheard conversation between Arden and David Hunter. She asks the Superintendent if she will have to give evidence in a police court and suggests hopefully that it might have been suicide. Spence is non-commital. Since he knows the landlady well, he fairly believes in the accuracy of her memory, but notes that she definitely embroidered her words a bit for the sake of excitement. At the inquest two weeks later, Miss Lippincott does indeed give evidence, retelling the overheard conversation and stating that Mr Arden did not give her his ration book, even though he was required to do so if staying more than five days. This fact ties in to Arden's not having any documents with him that might reveal his true identity. Beatrice further states that the deceased man never referred to himself as Robert Underhay. When David Hunter is called to give testimony, he rejects Lippincott's account of the eavesdropped conversation and says that the deceased simply knew his sister's first husband, complained of having come down in the world and begged for David some money. David then gave him a fiver and took his leave.


 * "'Eavesdroppers,' said David, 'usually hear only a portion of what goes on and frequently get the whole thing wrong owing to supplying the missing details from their own fertile imaginations.'
 * Beatrice flounced angrily and exclaimed, 'Well, I never –' The coroner said repressively, 'Silence, please.'"

(from Taken at the Flood, Book II, Chapter Four)

After the inquest, in conversation with Spence, Poirot says that Miss Lippincott strikes him as a "singularly truthful witness". He then fixes a room with her at the Stag so that he can investigate the case more closely. When the Detective meets Mrs Leadbetter there and learns that a mysterious girl went into Enoch Arden's room on the night of the murder, he seeks out Miss Lippincott. She readily supplies details about the regular guest, saying that Mrs Leadbetter's mind is almost as sharp as her tongue and her account of things can be believed.