Many years after His Lordship and Her Ladyship died, long after our poor, disgraced maid had moved on, builders who had known her were hired to renovate the castle. When they lifted the dining room floor, they uncovered a nest containing the mummified body of a rat, and beside it, a single silver spoon.
-- Molly (Prologue)

Importance: In the prologue to The Mystery Guest, Molly recounts a parable her grandmother once told her about a maid whose employers fire her for stealing a silver spoon. The maid insists she put the spoon on the table as usual and she apologizes profusely when the wealthy landowners demand to know what happened. In this passage, Molly concludes the parable with an ironic twist: Years later, the maid is exonerated when builders discover the spoon in the nest of a long-dead rat who lived beneath the dining room floor. The parable is significant because it demonstrates...