Chapters 20 and 21 Summary

Poirot's visit with Mrs. Luxmore is profitable. His manner is already foreign, but he purposely adopts some of Mr. Shaitana's mannerisms for his visit with the widow of the professor who lost his life on the banks of the Amazon. The story Mrs. Luxmore tells is one of forbidden love, how she and Major Despard were desperately in love and a fight broke out between her husband and Major Despard. Mrs. Luxmore insists that the major fired the gun only in self-defense, but that it killed her husband. After he was buried, their love remained secret and prohibited. To this day, they must both pretend it never happened.

After leaving Mrs. Luxmore, Poirot makes a quick stop at a women's store to purchase nineteen pair of the most exquisite and fine ladies' stockings money can buy. From there he returns home...