Was it Ralph who told you?”

 

Poirot shook his head.

 

“You know what brought me to you to-night,” went on the girl. “_This_——”

 

She held out a crumpled piece of newspaper, and I recognized the paragraph that

Poirot had had inserted.

 

“It says that Ralph has been arrested. So everything is useless. I need not

pretend any longer.”

 

“Newspaper paragraphs are not always true, mademoiselle,” murmured Poirot,

having the grace to look ashamed of himself. “All the same, I think you will do

well to make a clean breast of things. The truth is what we need now.”

 

The girl hesitated, looking at him doubtfully.

 

“You do not trust me,” said Poirot gently. “Yet all the same you came here to

find me, did you not? Why was that?”

 

“Because I don’t believe that Ralph did it,” said the girl in a very low voice.

“And I think that you are clever, and will find out the truth. And also——”

 

“Yes?”