“It must have been a terrible ordeal,” I said.

“And then to find that you knew,” continued Ursula. “How did you know? Was it Ralph who told you?”

Poirot shook his head.

“You know what brought me to you tonight,” went on the girl. “ This ⁠—”

She held out a crumpled piece of newspaper, and I recognized the paragraph that Poirot had had inserted.

“It says that Ralph has been arrested. So everything is useless. I need not pretend any longer.”

“Newspaper paragraphs are not always true, mademoiselle,” murmured Poirot, having the grace to look ashamed of himself. “All the same, I think you will do well to make a clean breast of things. The truth is what we need now.”