The Mysterious Affair At Styles

Chapter I. I Go To Stylesthe Intense Interest Aroused In The Public By What Was Known At Thetime As The Styles Case Has Now Somewhat Subsided. Nevertheless, Inview Of The World-wide Notoriety Which Attended It, I Have Been Asked, Both By My Friend Poirot And The Family Themselves, To Write An Accountof The Whole Story. This, We Trust, Will Effectually Silence Thesensational Rumours Which Still Persist.i Will Therefore Briefly Set Down The Circumstances Which Led To Mybeing Connected With The Affair.i Had Been Invalided Home From The Front; And, After Spending Somemonths In A Rather Depressing Convalescent Home, Was Given A Month'ssick Leave. Having No Near Relations Or Friends, I Was Trying To Makeup My Mind What To Do, When I Ran Across John Cavendish. I Had Seenvery Little Of Him For Some Years. Indeed, I Had Never Known Himparticularly Well. He Was A Good Fifteen Years My Senior, For Onething, Though He Hardly Looked His Forty-five Years. As A Boy, Though, I Had Often Stayed At Styles, His Mother's Place In Essex.we Had A Good Yarn About Old Times, And It Ended In His Inviting Medown To Styles To Spend My Leave There.the Mater Will Be Delighted To See You Again-after All Those Years,he Added.your Mother Keeps Well? I Asked.oh, Yes. I Suppose You Know That She Has Married Again?i Am Afraid I Showed My Surprise Rather Plainly. Mrs. Cavendish, Whohad Married John's Father When He Was A Widower With Two Sons, Had Beena Handsome Woman Of Middle-age As I Remembered Her. She Certainly Couldnot Be A Day Less Than Seventy Now. I Recalled Her As An Energetic, Autocratic Personality, Somewhat Inclined To Charitable And Socialnotoriety, With A Fondness For Opening Bazaars And Playing The Ladybountiful. She Was A Most Generous Woman, And Possessed A Considerablefortune Of Her Own.their Country-place, Styles Court, Had Been Purchased By Mr. Cavendishearly In Their Married Life. He Had Been Completely Under His Wife'sascendancy, So Much So That, On Dying, He Left The Place To Her For Herlifetime, As Well As The Larger Part Of His Income; An Arrangement Thatwas Distinctly Unfair To His Two Sons. Their Step-mother, However, Hadalways Been Most Generous To Them; Indeed, They Were So Young At Thetime Of Their Father's Remarriage That They Always Thought Of Her Astheir Own Mother.lawrence, The Younger, Had Been A Delicate Youth. He Had Qualified As Adoctor But Early Relinquished The Profession Of Medicine, And Lived Athome While Pursuing Literary Ambitions; Though His Verses Never Had Anymarked Success.john Practised For Some Time As A Barrister, But Had Finally Settleddown To The More Congenial Life Of A Country Squire. He Had Married Twoyears Ago, And Had Taken His Wife To Live At Styles, Though Ientertained A Shrewd Suspicion That He Would Have Preferred His Motherto Increase His Allowance, Which Would Have Enabled Him To Have A Homeof His Own. Mrs. Cavendish, However, Was A Lady Who Liked To Make Herown Plans, And Expected Other People To Fall In With Them, And In Thiscase She Certainly Had The Whip Hand, Namely: The Purse Strings.john Noticed My Surprise At The News Of His Mother's Remarriage Andsmiled Rather Ruefully.rotten Little Bounder Too! He Said Savagely. I Can Tell You, Hastings, It's Making Life Jolly Difficult For Us. As For Evie-youremember Evie?