The Murder of Roger Ackroyd / Убийство Роджера Экройда

But it was also clear the she had no intention of telling me anything further. Whatever the mystery centring round Ursula Bourne might be, I was not going to learn it through Mrs Folliott.

Defeated, I apologized once more for disturbing her, took my hat and departed.

I went to see a couple of patients and arrived home about six o’clock. Caroline was sitting beside the wreck of tea things. She had that look of suppressed exultation on her face which I know only too well. It is a sure sign with her of either the getting or the giving of information. I wondered which it had been.

‘I’ve had a very interesting afternoon,’ began Caroline, as I dropped into my own particular easy-chair and stretched out my feet to the inviting blaze in the fireplace.

‘Have you?’ I said. ‘Miss Gannett drop in to tea?’

Miss Gannett is one of the chief of our news-mongers.

‘Guess again,’ said Caroline, with intense complacency.

I guessed several times, working slowly through all the members of Caroline’s Intelligence corps. My sister received each guess with a triumphant shake of the head. In the end she volunteered the information herself.