“Not so. Voyons! One fact leads to another⁠—so we continue. Does the next fit in with that? A merveille ! Good! We can proceed. This next little fact⁠—no! Ah, that is curious! There is something missing⁠—a link in the chain that is not there. We examine. We search. And that little curious fact, that possibly paltry little detail that will not tally, we put it here!” He made an extravagant gesture with his hand. “It is significant! It is tremendous!”

“Y-es⁠—”

“Ah!” Poirot shook his forefinger so fiercely at me that I quailed before it. “Beware! Peril to the detective who says: ‘It is so small⁠—it does not matter. It will not agree. I will forget it.’ That way lies confusion! Everything matters.”

“I know. You always told me that. That’s why I have gone into all the details of this thing whether they seemed to me relevant or not.”