"Yes! Yes! Yes!"--Shawe made an irritable gesture, for the strain on his nerves was great--"but the idea is ridiculous. If you had accused that dumb girl, who was in the shop on the ground floor when the crime was committed, it would have been more feasible. The bedroom is on the ground floor also." "I see no reason to accuse Peri Banou," said Miss Toat, quietly. "And you see a reason to accuse Madame Coralie?" "Yes. My theory is--" "Oh, never mind your theory, Miss Toat. Come to facts." The detective was not at all put out by his short temper, as she saw that his nerves were worn thin, and sympathised with him. With a quick movement she drew the loose notes to her own side of the table. "Very good," she said in a brisk, businesslike tone. "Let us come to facts, if you please. Do you know why Madame Coralie wears a yashmak?" "Inspector Lanton hinted something about it to me when at the inquest. It is to add to the attractions of the Turkish shop--to make it more mysterious, as it were." "Ah!"--Miss Toat raised her pencilled eyebrows--"then the inspector did not tell you the exact truth. I expect Madame Coralie asked him to keep it quiet for obvious reasons." "Obvious they may be," said Ralph, impatiently, "but I can't see them." "Why, they are plain enough. The wearing of the yashmak is partly by way of a good advertisement, as it suggests mystery, and partly--this is the real reason, I expect--it is worn from necessity." "From necessity?" Shawe stared hard at his visitor. "Madame Coralie has a disfiguring birthmark on her right cheek, which, extending over mouth and chin, spoils her good looks. And she must have had some beauty when younger. Strange, is it not, Mr. Shawe, that she who can restore another woman's looks can do nothing with her own?" "How do you know that she is marked in this way?" "I saw it when she was asleep." "But how did you enter her bedroom?" asked Ralph, much astonished. The detective laughed. "When everyone was asleep I stole about the house investigating in list slippers and with a bull's-eye lantern. Madame Coralie lays aside her yashmak when in bed, so I easily saw that which she wishes to keep concealed." "But why should she so very much want to conceal it?" Miss Toat looked at him greatly amazed. "Have you not been listening to what I have been saying, Mr. Shawe? Why, if Madame's customers knew that she could not remove a birthmark from her face, it would be a case of 'Physician, heal thyself' with them. They would lose confidence, and--" "Yes, yes!" Ralph assented impatiently, and waved his hand. "I understand now; very naturally they would doubt her capability, in spite of her reputation. But what has this birthmark to do with the murder?"