Major strains successfully at his bonds. He frees himself, then her and they flee the house. Freda is full of admiration for Wilbraham and he impulsively proposes. She accepts and then worries about her father's paper which is missing from his pocket. He tells her that what they took was a spoof copy and he posted her father's paper on to his tailor in the envelope in Notting Hill. Parker Pyne visits Mrs Oliver, the novelist and congratulates her on the story she thought up for him to use with the Major and Freda, although he thinks the cellar of water was something of a cliché. "Whitefriars" is a house Pyne bought long ago which he has so far used for eleven exciting dramas. The Wilbrahams, happily married, are in Africa. Without telling each other, both think that they paid money to Pyne and he did not provide anything for them. Neither bears a grudge though – if they had not gone to see Pyne, the train of events that led to them meeting would never have happened... The Case of the Distressed Lady A young lady calls at Parker Pyne's office. Her name is Mrs. Daphne St. John and she says that she is in a great deal of trouble and needs help. She produces a diamond ring that Pyne examines and declares to be worth at least two thousand pounds. Daphne tells him that she stole it from a friend of hers, because she was in desperate straits. The background is that her husband is careful with money and does not know that she has got herself into debt. Daphne went with friends to Le Touquet and lost a great deal of money in the casino. Soon afterwards she went to stay in the country at the house of Sir Reuben Dortheimer whose wife, Naomi, was at school with Daphne. During the visit the setting of the diamond ring became loose and Naomi asked Daphne to take it to Bond Street for her to be fixed. Instead, Daphne had a paste copy made and pawned the real ring for money to pay off her debts, the paste being sent to Lady Dortheimer. Soon after, she came into some money when a cousin died and has now reclaimed the real ring. However she cannot return it as the husbands have quarrelled and the two couples are no longer on