I ventured to disagree. I then asked Mr. Rhodes
if he could describe the maid in my house. Neither
he nor Mr. Petherick could do so.
"Don't you see what that means?" I said. "You
both came here full of your own affairs and the
person who let you in was only a parlorrnaid. The
same applies to Mr. Rhodes at the Hotel. He saw
only a chambermaid. He saw her uniform and her
apron. He was engrossed by his work. But Mr.
Petherick has interviewed the same woman in a
different capacity. He has looked at her as a
person.
"That's what the woman who did the murder
counted upon."
As they still didn't see, I had to explain.
MISS MARPLE TELLS A STORY
139
"I think," I said, "that this is how it went. The
chambermaid came in by door A, passed through
Mr. Rhodes' room into Mrs. Rhodes' room with
the hot water bottle and went out through the hall-way
into passage B. X--as I will call our murder-ess--came
in by door B into the little hallway,
concealed herself in--well, in a certain apartment,
ahem--and waited until the chambermaid had
passed out. Then she entered Mrs. Rhodes' room,
took the stiletto from the dressing-table--(she had
doubtless explored the room earlier in the day)
went up to the bed, stabbed the dozing woman,
wiped the handle of the stiletto, locked and bolted