Richard cried out: ‘What do you mean, Floy? Be quiet! You don’t know what you’re saying.’

‘Where’s Clara Plumtree?’

‘She will appear,’ Alleyn said, ‘if the occasion arises. And you had better be quiet, you know.’

For a moment she looked as if she would defy him, but seemed to change her mind. She stood where she was and watched him.

‘There is, however,’ Alleyn said, ‘a third circumstance. You will all remember that after the speeches you waited down here for Mrs Templeton to take her part in the ceremony of opening the presents. Mr Dakers had left her in her room, passing Florence and Mrs Plumtree on his way downstairs. Mrs Plumtree had then gone to her room, leaving Florence alone on the landing. Mr Templeton went from here into the hall. From the foot of the stairs he saw Florence on the landing and called up to her that you were all waiting for her mistress. He then rejoined the party here. A minutes or so later Florence ran downstairs into this room and, after a certain amount of confused ejaculation, made it known that her mistress was desperately ill. Mr Templeton rushed upstairs. Dr Harkness, after a short delay, followed. With Florence, Colonel Warrender and Mr Gantry hard on his heels.

‘They found Mrs Templeton lying dead on the floor of her room. The overturned tin of Slaypest lay close beside her right hand. The scent spray was on the dressing table. That has been agreed to, but I am going to ask for a further confirmation.’

Dr Harkness said: ‘Certainly. That’s how it was.’

‘You’d make a statement on oath to that effect?’

‘I would.’ He looked at Gantry and Warrender. ‘Wouldn’t you?’

They said uneasily that they would.

‘Well, Florence?’ Alleyn asked.

‘I said before: I didn’t notice. I was too upset.’

‘But you don’t disagree?’

‘No,’ she admitted grudgingly.

‘Very well. Now, you will see, I think, all of you, that the whole case turns on this one circumstance. The tin of Slaypest on the floor. The scent spray and the empty bottle on the dressing-table.’

‘Isn’t it awful?’ Pinky said suddenly. ‘I know it must be childishly obvious, but I just can’t bring myself to think.’

‘Can’t you?’ Gantry said grimly. ‘I can.’

‘Not having been involved in the subsequent discussions,’ Marchant remarked to nobody in particular, ‘the nicer points must be allowed, I hope, to escape me.’

‘Let me bring you up to date,’ Alleyn said. ‘There was poison in the scent spray. Nobody, I imagine, will suggest that she put it there herself or that she used the Slaypest on herself. The sound of a spray in action was heard a minute or so before she died. By Ninn – Mrs Plumtree.’

‘So she says,’ Florence interjected.