ll had gone as they planned, they would probably
have left England, and lived together on their poor victim's money.

"They are a very astute and unscrupulous pair. While suspicion was to be
directed against him, she would be making quiet preparations for a
very different denouement. She arrives from Middlingham with all the
compromising items in her possession. No suspicion attaches to her.
No notice is paid to her coming and going in the house. She hides the
strychnine and glasses in John's room. She puts the beard in the attic.
She will see to it that sooner or later they are duly discovered."

"I don't quite see why they tried to fix the blame on John," I remarked.
"It would have been much easier for them to bring the crime home to
Lawrence."

"Yes, but that was mere chance. All the evidence against him arose out
of pure accident. It must, in fact, have been distinctly annoying to the
pair of schemers."

"His manner was unfortunate," I observed thoughtfully.

"Yes. You realize, of course, what was at the back of that?"

"No."

"You did not understand that he believed Mademoiselle Cynthia guilty of
the crime?"

"No," I exclaimed, astonished. "Impossible!"

"Not at all. I myself nearly had the same idea. It was in my mind when I
asked Mr. Wells that first question about the will. Then there were
the bromide powders which she had made up, and her clever male
impersonations, as Dorcas recounted them to us. There was really more
evidence against her than anyone else."

"You are joking, Poirot!"

"No. Shall I tell you what made Monsieur Lawrence turn so pale when
he first entered his mother's room on the fatal night? It was because,
whilst his mother lay there, obviously poisoned, he saw, over your
shoulder, that the door into Mademoiselle Cynthia's room was unbolted."

"But he declared that he saw it bolted!" I cried.

"Exactly," said Poirot dryly. "And that was just what confirmed my
suspicion that it was not. He was shielding Mademoiselle Cynthia."

"But why should he shield her?"

"Because he is in love with her."

I laughed.

"There, Poirot, you are quite wrong! I happen to know for a fact that,
far from being in love with her, he positively dislikes her."

"Who told you that, mon ami?"

"Cynthia herself."

"La pauvre petite! And she was concerned?"

"She said that she did not mind at all."

"Then she certainly did mind very much," remarked Poirot. "They are like
that--les femmes!"

"Wh