“I hope you’re not annoyed? It was very careless of me.”

 

“But not at all, my good friend, not at all. I laid no commands upon you. You

were at liberty to speak of it if you so wished. She was interested, your

sister?”

 

“She was indeed. It created a sensation. All sorts of theories are flying

about.”

 

“Ah! And yet it is so simple. The true explanation leapt to the eye, did it

not?”

 

“Did it?” I said dryly.

 

Poirot laughed.

 

“The wise man does not commit himself,” he observed. “Is not that so?

 

But here we are at Mr. Hammond’s.”

 

The lawyer was in his office, and we were ushered in without any delay.

 

He rose and greeted us in his dry, precise manner.

 

Poirot came at once to the point.