Normally, Linnet is the character who makes grand entrances—but this time, Jacqueline gets to have her turn. Her introduction in this passage recalls the femme fatales of hard-boiled detective stories (which was still a very young genre at the time Christie was writing in the 1930s). Jacqueline’s smile and gaze at the Nile are both mysterious, but it’s clear that whatever she has in mind is something Linnet isn’t going to like.