up and down the terrace, so I had to go round through the bushes to avoid him.

It must have been about twenty-seven minutes to ten when I reached the

summer-house. Ralph was waiting for me. I was with him ten minutes—not longer,

for it was just a quarter to ten when I got back to the house.”

 

I saw now the insistence of her question the other day. If only Ackroyd could

have been proved to have been killed before a quarter to ten, and not after.

 

I saw the reflection of that thought in Poirot’s next question.

 

“Who left the summer-house first?”

 

“I did.”

 

“Leaving Ralph Paton in the summer-house?”

 

“Yes—but you don’t think——”

 

“Mademoiselle, it is of no importance what I think. What did you do when you got

back to the house?”

 

“I went up to my room.”

 

“And stayed there until when?”