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The intense interest aroused in the public by as 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 circu connected with the affair

I had been invalided ho soiven ano 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 hiood fifteen years h he hardly looked his forty-five years As a boy, though, I had often stayed at Styles, his ood yarn about old ti me down to Styles to spend ain--after all those years," he added

"Your mother keeps well?" I asked

"Oh, yes I suppose you know that she has ain?"

I am afraid I showed my surprise rather plainly Mrs Cavendish, who had married John's father when he was a ith two sons, had been a handsoe 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 enerous 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 ascendancy, so , he left the place to her for her lifetiement that was distinctly unfair to his two sons Their step-enerous to the at the tiht of her as their own er, had been a delicate youth He had qualified as a doctor but early relinquished the profession ofliterary ah his verses never had any marked success