He doesn’t come down as a rule when Star is at Ford, but it was Stella’s birthday – the little girl, you know – and he actually remembered it. Star wouldn’t see him – she was furious. There was a party – just a few children from round about – and I had been in the thick of it, but I went upstairs to try and get Star to come down, and she wouldn’t because of Robin. So he must have been in the house when I fell… The date? Oh, March the fifteenth.’

Miss Silver wrote that down too.

‘And the incident of the mushroom soup?’

‘Oh, that was in August. And I can’t give you the exact date, so it’s no use your asking me. I only remember about my fall because it was Stella’s birthday. But it would have been a weekend, if that is any use, because Star was there, and Mabel – and, yes, I suppose most of the others too, but not Robin. At least not that any of us knew. But as to the tablet, you can see for yourself it might have been put into the bottle by anyone and at any time. In fact,’ said Adriana with a radiant smile, ‘anyone might have done any of the things, or they may all have been just nothing at all.’ She opened the old fur coat and threw it back with a buoyant gesture. ‘Now that I’ve told you all about it, you can’t think how much better I feel. You know how it is, you think of things in the night and they get hold of you. I expect the whole thing is just imagination from start to finish. I slipped and fell. The fly on the drop of soup just happened to die – flies do. And as to the tablet, I suppose it might have been a different sort that got in by mistake, or one that hadn’t turned out quite right – something like that. I had better just put the whole thing right out of my mind.’

Miss Silver was silent. Her face was grave and composed. She thought Adriana Ford was talking to convince herself, and she wondered whether the effect would be more than a transitory one. It was a little while before she spoke again.