Mrs St. Vincent

In the short story The Listerdale Mystery, Mrs St. Vincent is the mother of Rupert St. Vincent and his sister Barbara. Mrs St. Vincent's husband had lost all his money on speculation and died laving large debts. The family had been forced to sell their family home and move to a cheap boarding house in London. Then Mrs St. Vincent had sold their possessions to set Rupert up in a city job.

Mrs St. Vincent's had many preoccupations. Besides trying to make ends meet with her meagre resources, she was concerned about Barbara's prospects. She had been dating one Jim Masterson who was about to propose to her. He wanted to visit Mrs St. Vincent and Barbara at their residence but Mrs St. Vincent was concerned that see them in their humble lodgings might put him off. All of Mrs St. Vincent's seem to be solved when she managed to rent a town house owned by Lord Listerdale for a purely nominal sum. The lease came with servants and generous provisions provided free of charge from the estates of Lord Listerdale. While this was a welcome turn of events, it also gave rise to a mystery: where or who was Lord Listerdale adn why was he renting out his town house in this manner.