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had received from Mrs. Inglethorp."

Why, what was there to lie about?"

You saw that letter? Do you recall its general appearance?"

Yes--more or less."

You will recollect, then, that Mrs. Inglethorp wrote a very distinctive hand,

and left large clear spaces between her words. But if you look at the date at

the top of the letter you will notice that 'July 17th' is quite different in this

respect. Do you see what I mean?"

"No," I confessed, "I don't."

"You do not see that that letter was not written on the 17th, but on the 7th--

the day after Miss Howard's departure? The '1' was written in before the '7'

to turn it into the '17th'."

"But why?"

"That is exactly what I asked myself. Why does Miss Howard suppress the

letter written on the 17th, and produce this faked one instead? Because she

did not wish to show the letter of the 17th. Why, again? And at once a

suspicion dawned in my mind. You will remember my saying that it was

wise to beware of people who were not telling you the truth."

"And yet," I cried indignantly, "after that, you gave me two reasons why Miss

Howard could not have committed the crime!"

And very good reasons too," replied Poirot. "For a long time they were a

stumbling-block to me until I remembered a very significant fact: that she

and Alfred Inglethorp were cousins. She could not have committed the crime

single-handed, but the reasons against that did not debar her from being an

accomplice. And, then, there was that rather over-vehement hatred of hers!

It concealed a very opposite emotion. There was, undoubtedly, a tie of

passion between them long before he came to Styles. They had already

arranged their infamous plot--that he should marry this rich, but rather

foolish old lady, induce her to make a will leaving her money to him, and

then gain their ends by a very cleverly conceived crime. If all had gone as

they planned, they would probably have left England, and lived together on

their poor victim's money.

195

The Mysterious Affair at Styles