“You know that in all tombs there is always a false door?”
Renisenb stared. “Yes, of course.”
“Well, people are like that too. They create a false door—to deceive. If they are conscious of weakness, of inefficiency, they make an imposing door of self-assertion, of bluster, of overwhelming authority—and, after a time, they get to believe in it themselves. They think, and everybody thinks, that they are like that. But behind that door, Renisenb, is bare rock . . . And so when reality comes and touches them with the feather of truth—their true self reasserts itself. For Kait gentleness and submission brought her all she desired—a husband and children. Stupidity made life easier for her—but when reality in the form of danger threatened, her true nature appeared. She did not change, Renisenb—that strength and that ruthlessness were always there.”
- from Death Comes At The End by Agatha Christie
