Girls are very artful. But there’s one thing I _do_ tell you, James Sheppard.

Flora Ackroyd does not care a penny piece for Ralph Paton, and never has. You

can take it from me.”

 

I took it from her meekly.

 

CHAPTER XVII

 

PARKER

 

It occurred to me the next morning that under the exhilaration produced by

Tin-ho, or the Perfect Winning, I might have been slightly indiscreet. True,

Poirot had not asked me to keep the discovery of the ring to myself. On the

other hand, he had said nothing about it whilst at Fernly, and as far as I knew,

I was the only person aware that it had been found. I felt distinctly guilty.

The fact was by now spreading through King’s Abbot like wildfire. I was

expecting wholesale reproaches from Poirot any minute.

 

The joint funeral of Mrs. Ferrars and Roger Ackroyd was fixed for eleven

o’clock. It was a melancholy and impressive ceremony. All the party from Fernly

were there.

 

After it was over, Poirot, who had also been present, took me by the arm, and

invited me to accompany him back to The Larches. He was looking very grave, and

I feared that my indiscretion of the night before had got round to his ears. But