Major Charles Wilbraham calls at Parker Pyne's office. He has recently returned after many years in the service of the Empire in East Africa and is retired. As Pyne instantly concludes, he is bored stiff living in an English village after a lifetime of excitement and adventure. Pyne charges him fifty pounds and instructs him to take Madeleine de Sara to lunch. She returns a few hours later unsuccessful: she has frightened the Major off, as he thinks her something of a vamp; his tastes run to fair-haired, blue-eyed women. Pyne consults a list and decides that Freda Clegg will be suitable...