Yet for eleven days she was safe from discovery. It
is said that she is suffering from " a complete loss of memory." This affliction has taken an unusual form, as most people who lose their memory wander aimlessly for a time. If they eventually arrive at some place where they may have been expected to go they do so deviously. The most self-possessed person could not have managed a journey more accurately than Mrs. Christie did. The whole incident is a perfect illustration of the theory developed by Edgar Allan Poe that an obvious means of concealment is safer than one that is intricate or subtle. Thus it is easier to disappear in a crowd—especially in London where no man inquires into his neighbour's affairs—than to be unobserved in an unfrequented place. There was an instance of this during the search for that notorious murderer, Lefroy, nearly fifty years ago. Lefroy had disappeared and clues were being followed up all over the country. The Spectator suggested that a man might live for months without being suspected in one of those common lodging houses of which there are many in Bermondsey and similar poor parts of London. Shortly afterwards Lefroy was arrested in a Bermondsey lodging house.
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