“As soon as the inquest and the funerals are over.”

“That is very wise.”

She turned to Mark and Lydia.

“May I say how much I wish you every happiness.”

Lydia said, “We owe it to you.” And Mark, “She’s going to leave her office and take on Albert’s job here. Then as soon as all this ghastly business is over we can get married. I shall hand this house over for a hospital, or a convalescent home, or anything that’s wanted, and we’ll go and live in my flat. It will do to start with anyhow.”

Miss Silver rolled up little Roger’s leggings and put them away in her knitting-bag together with the needles and a half-finished ball of dark grey wool. Then she rose to her feet and smiled kindly upon the three young people.

“I wish you every happiness,” she said.

Born in Mussoorie, India, in 1878, Patricia Wentworth was the daughter of an English general. Educated in England, she returned to India, where she began to write and was first published. She married, but in 1906 was left a widow with four children, and returned again to England where she resumed her writing, this time to earn a living for herself and her family. She married again in 1920 and lived in Surrey until her death in 1961.

Miss Wentworth’s early works were mainly historical fiction, and her first mystery, published in 1923, was The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith. In 1928 she wrote The Case Is Closed and gave birth to her most enduring creation, Miss Maud Silver.