Miss Packard interrupted. 'Oh, I'm sorry, Mrs. Beresford, I'm afraid we can't do that. It was a Mrs. Lancaster who gave it to Miss Fanshawe and she isn't with us any longer.'

'Isn't with you?' said Tuppence, surprised. 'A Mrs. Lancaster? The one I saw last time I was here-with white hair brushed back from her face. She was drinking milk in the sitting room downstairs. She's gone away, you say?'

'Yes. It was all rather sudden. One of her relations, a Mrs. Johnson, took her away about a week ago. Mrs. Johnson had returned from Africa where she's been living for the last four or five years-quite unexpectedly. She is now able to take care of Mrs. Lancaster in her own home, since she and her husband are taking a house in England. I don't think,' said Miss Packard, 'that Mrs. Lancaster really wanted to leave us. She had become so-set in her ways here, and she got on very well with everyone and was happy. She was very disturbed, quite tearful about it-but what can one do? She hadn't really very much say in the matter, because of course the Johnsons were paying for her stay here. I did suggest that as she had been here so long and settled down so well, it might be advisable to let her remain-'

'How long had Mrs. Lancaster been with you?' asked Tuppence.

'Oh, nearly six years, I think. Yes, that's about it. That's why, of course, she'd really come to feel that this was her home.'

'Yes,' said Tuppence. 'Yes, I can understand that.' She frowned and gave a nervous glance at Tommy and then stuck a resolute chin into the air.

'I'm sorry she's left. I had a feeling when I was talking to her that I'd met her before-her face seemed familiar to me. And then afterwards it came back to me that I'd met her with an old friend of mine, a Mrs. Blenkinsop. I thought when I came back here again to visit Aunt Ada, that I'd find out from her if that was so. But of course if she's gone back to her own people, that's different.'