The question of how I am to start the story properly I have tried to settle in two ways.

First, by scratching my head, which led to nothing.
Second, by consulting my daughter Penelope, which has resulted in an entirely new idea.
Penelope's notion is that I should set down what happened, regularly day by day, beginning with the day when we got the news that Mr.Franklin Blake was expected on a visit to the house.

When you come to fix your memory with a date in this way, it is wonderful what your memory will pick up for you upon that compulsion.

The only difficulty is to fetch out the dates, in the first place.

This Penelope offers to do for me by looking into her own diary, which she was taught to keep when she was at school, and which she has gone on keeping ever since.