do nowadays), and she can say ‘Not at home’ without scruples if she has to

answer the door instead of Parker, and she doesn’t have those peculiar gurgling

noises inside which so many parlormaids seem to have when they wait at

table——Let me see, where was I?”

 

“You were saying, that in spite of several valuable qualities, you never liked

Bourne.”

 

“No more I do. She’s—odd. There’s something different about her from the others.

Too well educated, that’s my opinion. You can’t tell who are ladies and who

aren’t nowadays.”

 

“And what happened next?” I asked.

 

“Nothing. At least, Roger came in. And I thought he was out for a walk. And he

said: ‘What’s all this?’ and I said, ‘Nothing. I just came in to fetch _Punch_.’

And I took _Punch_ and went out with it. Bourne stayed behind. I heard her

asking Roger if she could speak to him for a minute. I went straight up to my

room, to lie down. I was very upset.”

 

There was a pause.

 

“You will explain to M. Poirot, won’t you? You can see for yourself what a

trivial matter the whole thing was. But, of course, when he was so stern about

concealing things, I thought of this at once. Bourne may have made some