Chapter 22 Summary

Poirot comforts Ursula with the suggestion that not all newspaper articles are true. Then, he urges her to trust him and tell him her story from start to finish. Ursula tells her tale. Ursula, comes from a poor family and began to work early in her life to support herself. She meets Ralph through her job and falls in love with him. Ralph urges her to marry him secretly because Mr. Ackroyd would never approve of his marriage to a poor girl, and he needed to stay on good terms with Mr. Ackroyd, until he could get out of the financial trouble he is in. Mr. Ackroyd has his heart set on Ralph and Flora marrying, and he pushed for their engagement with the promise to help Ralph financially.

The trouble began when Mr. Ackroyd decides to announce the engagement. When Ursula finds...