as i said, megan barnard' s words, and still more the crisp businessliketone in which they were uttered, made me j ump.

poirot, however, merely bowed his head gravely.

"a la bonne heure, ' he said. "you are intelligent, mademoiselle. "megan barnard said, still in the same detached tone:

"i was extremely fond of betty. but my fondness didn' t blind mefrom seeing exactly the kind of silly little fool she was--and eventellingher so upon occasion! sisters are like that. ""and did she pay any attention to your advice?" "probably not, " saidmegan cynically.

"will you, mademoiselle, be precise. "

the girl hesitated for a minute or two.

poirot said with a slight smile:

"i will help you. i heard what you said to hastings. that your sisterwas a bright, happy girl with no men friends. it was--un peu--theoppositethat was true, was it nott'

megan said slowly:

"there wasn' t any harm in betty. i want you to understand that.

she' d always go straight. she' s not the week-ending kind. nothing ofthat sort. but she liked being taken out and dancing and--oh, cheapflattery and compliments and all that sort of thing. ""and she was pretty--yes?"this uesfion, the third time i had heard it, met this time with apracticalresonse'

, mega slipped off the table, went to her suitcase, snapped it openaha extracted something which she handed to poirot.

. in a leather frame was a head and shoulders of a fair-haired, smilinggirl. h. er hair had evidently recently been permed; it stood out fromherhead in mass of rather frizzy curls. the smile was arch and artificial.

it was certainly not a face that you could call beautiful, but it hadanobvious and cheap prettiness.

poirt handed it back, saying:

"you and she do not resemble each other, mademoiselle. ""oh, i' m the plain one of the family. i' ve always known that. " sheseemed to brush aside the fact as unimportant.

foo", i. n, hat way exactly do you consider your sister was behavingllsni3' a do you mean nerhans, in relation to mr. donald fraser?"' that s it, exactly. don' s a very quiet sort of person--but he--well,naturally he' d resent certain things--and then--""and then what, mademoiselle?"his eyes were on her very steadily.

it may have been my fancy but it seemed to me that she hesitated asecond before answering.

"i afraid that he might---chuck her altogether. and that wouldhave n a pity. he' s a very steady and hard-working man and wouldhave mqle her a good husband. "poiro continued to gaze at her. she did not flush under his glancebut retu%ed it with one of her own equally steady and with somethingelse in i{something that reminded me of her first defiant, disdainfulmanner.

"so it is like that, " he said at last. "we do not speak the truth anylonger. ", s, . he al' lrugged her shoulders and turned towards the door.

well, , , she said, "i' ve done what i could to help you. "p°ircl?s voice arrested her.

"wai, mademoiselle. i have something to tell you. come back. "rathe, unwillingly, i thought, she obeyed.

s°mxhat to my surorise poirot oluned into the whole story of the. ' . ' ' itters, the murder at andover, and the railway guide found bythe ixlis'

he htl no reason to complain of any lack of interest on her part. herlip, s, . pa. d, her eyes gleaming, she hung on his words.

s this all tree, m. poirot?'

"yes, it is true. "

"you really mean my sister was killed by some horrible homicidalmaniac?

"precisely. "

she drew a deep breath.

"oh! betty--betty--how---how ghastly! "

"you see, mademoiselle, that the information for which i ask youcan give freely without wondering whether or not it will hurt any one. ""yes, i see that now. ""then let us continue our conversation. i have formed the idea thatthis donald fraser has, perhaps, a violent and j ealous temper, is thatright?"megan barnard said quietly:

"i' m trusting you now, m. poirot. i' m going to give you the absolutetruth. don is, as i say, a very quiet persona bottled-up person if youknow what i mean. he can' t always express what he feels in words.

but underneath it all he minds things terribly. and he' s got a j ealousnature. he was always j ealous of betty. he was devoted to her--and ofcourse she was very fond of him, but it wasli' t in betty to be fondofone person and not notice anybody else. she wasn' t made that way.

she' d got a--well, an eye for any nice-looking man who' d pass thetime of day with her. and of course, working in the ginger cat, shewas always running up against men--especially in the summer holidays.

she was always very pat with her tongte and if they chaffed hershe' d chaff back again. and then perhaps she' d meet them and go tothe pictures or something like that. nothing serious--never anythingof that kind--but she j ust liked her fun. she used to say that as she' dgot to settle down with don one day she might as well have her funnow while she could. "megan paused and poirot said:

"i understand. continue. "

"it was j ust that attitude of mind of hers that don couldn' t understand.

if she was really keen on him he couldn' t see why she wanted togo out with other people. and once or twice they had flaming big rowsabout it. ""m. don, he was no longer quiet?"

"it' s like all those quiet people, when they do lose their tempers theylose them with a vengeance. don was so violent that betty wasfrightened. ' '

"wlen was this?

"there was one row nearly a year ago and another--a worse one--just over a month ago. i was home for the weekend--and i got them topatch it up again, and it was then that i tried to knock a little senseintobetty--told her she was a little fool. all she would say was that therehadn' t been any harm in it. well, that was true enough, but all thesameshe was riding for a fall. you see, after the row a year ago, she' dgotinto the habit of telling a few useful lies on the principle that whatthemind doesn' t know the heart doesn' t grieve over. this last flare-upcame because she' d told don she was going to hastings to see a girlpal and he found out that she' d really been over to eastbourne withsome man. he was a married man, as it happened, and he' d been a bitsecretive about the business anyway--and so that made it worse. theyhad an awful scene--betty saying that she wasn' t married to him yetand she had a right to go about with whom she pleased and don allwhite and shaking and saying that one day---one day--""yes?""he' d commit murder--" said megan in a lowered voice.

she stopped and stared at poirot.

he nodded his head gravely several times.

"and so, naturally, you were afraid. . . "

"i didn' t think he' d actually done it--not for a minute! but i wasafraid it might be brought up--the quarrel and all that he' dsaid--severalpeople knew about it. "

again poirot nodded his head gravely.

"just so. and i may say, mademoiselle, that but for the egotisticalvanity of a killer, that is j ust what would have happened. if donaldfraserescapes suspicion, it will be thanks to a. b. c. ' s maniacal boasting. "he was silent for a minute or two, then he said:

"do you know if your sister met this married man, or any other man,lately?"megan shook her head.

"i don' t know. i' ve been away, you see. "

"but what do you think?"

"she mayn' t have met that particular man again. he' d probablysheer off if he thought there was a chance of a row, but it wouldn' tsurpriseme if betty had--well, been telling don a few lies again. yousee, she did so enj oy dancing and the pictures, and of course, doncouldn' t afford to take her all the time. ""if so, is she likely to have confided in any one? the girl at the cafe,for instance?""i don' t think that' s likely. betty couldn' t bear the higley girl. she thought her common. and the others would be new. betty wasn' t theconfiding sort anyway. "an electric bell trilled sharply above, the girl' s head.

she went to the window and leaned out. she drew back her headsharply.

"it' s don. . "

"bring him in here, " said poirot quickly. "i would like a word withhim before our good inspector takes him in hand. "like a flash megan bamard was out of the kitchen, and a couple ofseconds later she was back again leading donald fraser by the hand.