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CHAPTER I. I GO TO STYLES
The intense interest aroused in the public by what was known at the time
as "The Styles Case" has now somewhat subsided. Nevertheless, in view of
the world-wide notoriety which attended it, I have been asked, both by my
friend Poirot and the family themselves, to write an account of the whole
story. This, we trust, will effectually silence the sensational rumours which
still persist.
I will therefore briefly set down the circumstances which led to my being
connected with the affair.
I had been invalided home from the Front; and, after spending some months
in a rather depressing Convalescent Home, was given a month's sick leave.
Having no near relations or friends, I was trying to make up my mind what
to do, when I ran across John Cavendish. I had seen very little of him for
some years. Indeed, I had never known him particularly well. He was a good
fifteen years my senior, for one thing, though he hardly looked his forty-five
years. As a boy, though, I had often stayed at Styles, his mother's place in
Essex.
We had a good yarn about old times, and it ended in his inviting me down to
Styles to spend my leave there.
"
The mater will be delighted to see you again--after all those years," he
added.
"Your mother keeps well?" I asked.
"
Oh, yes. I suppose you know that she has married again?"
I am afraid I showed my surprise rather plainly. Mrs. Cavendish, who had
married John's father when he was a widower with two sons, had been a
handsome woman of middle-age as I remembered her. She certainly could
not be a day less than seventy now. I recalled her as an energetic, autocratic
personality, somewhat inclined to charitable and social notoriety, with a
fondness for opening bazaars and playing the Lady Bountiful. She was a
most generous woman, and possessed a considerable fortune of her own.
Their country-place, Styles Court, had been purchased by Mr. Cavendish
early in their married life. He had been completely under his wife's
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