'No thank you, dear. I just like my milk plain.'

She put down the empty glass and leaned back in her chair, her eyes half closed. Tuppence thought that perhaps this was the moment in the morning when she took a little nap, so she remained silent. Suddenly however, Mrs. Lancaster seemed to jerk herself awake again. Her eyes opened, she looked at Tuppence and said, 'I see you're looking at the fireplace.'

'Oh. Was I?' said Tuppence, slightly startled.

'Yes. I wondered-' she leant forward and lowered her voice. 'Excuse me, was it your poor child?'

Tuppence slightly taken aback, hesitated.

'I-no, I don't think so,' she said.

'I wondered. I thought perhaps you'd come for that reason. Someone ought to come some time. Perhaps they will. And looking at the fireplace, the way you did. That's where it is, you know. Behind the fireplace.'

'Oh,' said Tuppence. 'Oh. Is it?'

'Always the same time,' said Mrs. Lancaster, in a low voice. Always the same time of day. She looked up at the clock on the mantelpiece. Tuppence looked up also. 'Ten past eleven,' said the old lady. 'Ten past eleven. Yes, it's always the same time every morning.'

She sighed. 'People didn't understand-I told them what I knew-but they wouldn't believe me!'

Tuppence was relieved that at that moment the door opened and Tommy came in. Tuppence rose to her feet.

'Here I am. I'm ready.' She went towards the door turning her head to say, 'Goodbye, Mrs. Lancaster.'

'How did you get on?' she asked Tommy, as they emerged into the hall.

'After you left,' said Tommy, 'like a house on fire.'

'I seem to have had a bad effect on her, don't I?' said Tuppence. 'Rather cheering, in a way.'

'Why cheering?'

'Well, at my age,' said Tuppence, 'and what with my neat and respectable and slightly boring appearance, it's nice to think that you might be taken for a depraved woman of fatal sexual charm.'