CHAPTER I. I GO TO STYLES
The intense interest aroused in the public by what was known at the
time as "The Styles Case" has now somewhat subsided. Nevertheless, in
view of the world-wide notoriety which attended it, I have been asked,
both by my friend Poirot and the family themselves, to write an account of
the whole story. This, we trust, will effectually silence the sensational
rumours which still persist.
I will therefore briefly set down the circumstances which led to my
being connected with the affair.
I had been invalided home from the Front; and, after spending some
months in a rather depressing Convalescent Home, was given a month\'s
sick leave. Having no near relations or friends, I was trying to make up
my mind what to do, when I ran across John Cavendish. I had seen very
little of him for some years. Indeed, I had never known him particularly
well. He was a good fifteen years my senior, for one thing, though he
hardly looked his forty-five years. As a boy, though, I had often stayed at
Styles, his mother\'s place in Essex.