“So Mrs. Cavendish stood by the tray—and poured out. Yes. Then she came across to the window where you sat with Mademoiselle Cynthia. Yes. Here are the three cups. And the cup on the mantelpiece, half drunk, that would be Mr. Lawrence Cavendish’s. And the one on the tray?”

“John Cavendish’s. I saw him put it down there.”

“Good. One, two, three, four, five—but where, then, is the cup of Mr. Inglethorp?”

“He does not take coffee.”

“Then all are accounted for. One moment, my friend.”

With infinite


168 of 628



I was hardly as clear as I could wish. I repeated myself several times, and occasionally had to go back to some detail that I had forgotten. Poirot smiled kindly on me.

“The mind is confused? Is it not so? Take time, mon ami. You are agitated; you are excited—it is but natural. Presently, when we


168 of 1032