The daffodils in Miss Rider's flat are the variety known as the Emperor." "Well ?" said Whiteside.
"Well," said the other slowly, "the daffodils I saw this morning which were found on Lyne's chest were Golden Spurs." He knelt down by the side of the bed and began pushing aside the stems, examining the ground carefully.
"Here you are," he said.
He pointed to a dozen jagged stems.
"That is where the daffodils were plucked, I'd like to swear to that.
Look, they were all pulled together by one hand.

Somebody leaned over and pulled a handful." Whiteside looked dubious.
"Mischievous boys sometimes do these things." "Only in single stalks," said Tarling, "and the regular flower thieves are careful to steal from various parts of the bed so that the loss should not be reported by the Park gardeners." "Then you suggest--" "I suggest that whoever killed Thornton Lyne found it convenient, for some reason best known to himself or herself, to ornament the body as it was found, and the flowers were got from here." "Not from the girl's flat at all ?" "I'm sure of that," replied Tarling emphatically.

"In fact, I knew that this morning when I'd seen the daffodils which you had taken to Scotland Yard." Whiteside scratched his nose in perplexity.
"The further this case goes, the more puzzled I am," he said.

"Here is a man, a wealthy man, who has apparently no bitter enemies, discovered dead in Hyde Park, with a woman's silk night-dress wound round his chest, with list slippers on his feet, and a Chinese inscription in his pocket--and further, to puzzle the police, a bunch of daffodils on the chest.

That was a woman's act, Mr.Tarling," he said suddenly.
Tarling started.