She tells Pyne she wants just seven hundred pounds of her fortune to buy her and Joe a farm they want and Pyne can distribute the rest to hospitals but her new husband is never to know of her previous life. Her name is Mrs. Daphne St. John and she says she is in a great deal of trouble and needs help. Patricia Garwood played Freda Clegg Suddenly the voice of the lawyer booms in the darkness. Iris quickly follows and a scene ensues, ended by Madeleine when she screams hysterically for them to get out. In this case, there was a soldier that felt boredom and Parker Pyne advised that he could cure his boredom. Freda is full of admiration for Wilbraham and he impulsively proposes. His fortune has been badly affected in the slump. This short story was a delightful treat about a bored recently retired Major and his seeking assistance from Parker Pyne. Daphne tells him that she stole it from a friend of hers because she was in desperate straits. She checks the personal column of The Times but doesn't see what she expected to see there. Pyne agrees and leaves another satisfied client behind him. Soon after, the second young woman was dead and Schlagal suspects Lady Esther of the murder, seeing insanity in her eyes and in her manner. The story was adapted by Thames Television in 1982 as the fifth episode of their ten-part programme The Agatha Christie Hour. Another cute little story! Along with The Liste ... Major Wilbraham decides that he needs excitement. Iris demanded that Reggie throw her out, but he told his wife he wanted to marry Madeleine as per her instructions to him. Recalling that Hensley said he always carried spare socks with him, Pyne suggests Loftus fetches these. The plans were successfully transferred and he admits to giving his courier another more embellished story as a gun would seem too mundane. However, I recommend it if you're looking for an interesting short story with a pleasant ending. Iris is livid and in a private row with Reggie threatens a separation. The new consul was one of the people who had never met the real Lady Esther and therefore wasn't suspicious. In Friar's Lane, Wilbraham hears cries for help and going into an empty house sees a young blond-haired, blue-eyed woman being attacked by two black men. Rupert Frazer played Claude Luttrell Drama. He is a sober and puritanical soul who has been working in Constantinople for two weeks and she is on her way to join him. This is corrected in the film adaptation where the fee becomes 50 guineas. Veronica Strong played Madeleine de Sara Further instructions will be sent the next day but she is not to communicate with the hotel management or the police. Also, it was not that convincing which is a first in Agatha's works. She keeps her thoughts to herself for the moment and soon sees a newspaper which confirms that some three days have passed since she was in Pyne's office and also sees a report that Mrs Abner Rymer has been removed to a private nursing home having delusions that she is a servant girl named Hannah Moorhouse. Muriel tells of the real sequence of events. Mr Thompson explains how he knew something was wrong – he is Parker Pyne, travelling incognito as he promised himself on the Nile, and when he heard his name mentioned, he knew something was up! He has escaped justice. She also compliments Iris on letting Reggie have such friendships when other jealous women wouldn't. Besides Parker Pyne, this story also features Miss Lemon and the writer Ariadne Oliver who will later be associated with Hercule Poirot. Pyne checks when they will arrive at Venice and promises to help. The collection comprises twelve of her fourteen stories featuring detective James Parker Pyne; the two remaining stories, Problem at Pollensa Bay and The Regatta Mystery were later collected in The Regatta Mystery in 1939 in the US and in Problem at Pollensa Bay in the UK in 1991 although these were originally stories featuring Hercule Poirot when they were first published in the Strand Magazine in 1935 and 1936 respectively. She accepts and then worries about her father's paper which is missing from his pocket. Pyne charges him fifty pounds and instructs him to take Madeleine de Sara to lunch. Terry Plummer played Second Thug. Refresh and try again. A young, attractive woman named Elsie Jeffries boards the Orient Express at the Gare de Lyon. The only other passengers on the vessel are Sir George and Lady Grayle, her niece Pamela, her nurse, Elsie MacNaughton and Sir George's young secretary, Basil West. He does not charge her a fee as he has not made her happy as his advert had promised. With William Gaunt, Angela Easterling, Maurice Denham, Lally Bowers. and it's kind of confusing until the end. 1934, Parker Pyne Investigates, William Collins & Sons (London), November 1934, 1934, Mr Parker Pyne, Detective, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), 1934. The first one (The Case of the Middle Aged Wife) felt very similar to this one. Freda is also there and the two of them are bound. As Pyne instantly concludes, he is bored stiff living in an English village after a lifetime of excitement and adventure. Agatha Christie on matter of the heart, did it capture my heart? Country.