Daphne St John

In the Parker Pyne short story The Case of the Distressed Lady, Daphne St John is the "distressed lady" in question. She called on Parker Pyne with a tearful story of how she had dishonestly stolen a friend's diamond ring and needed to discreetly return it.

She had gotten herself into debt because of her extravagant lifestyle. She went with friends to Le Touquet to try to win back some money but lost even more at the casino. But she could not tell her husband about it because he was an upright austere person who disapproved of debt. She had been staying with a school friend, Lady Naomi Dortheimer. Naomi's diamond ring had come loose and she asked Daphne to help get it fixed at Bond Street. Instead, Daphne had gone to make a paste copy and returned it to Naomi. She pawned the real one and used it to pay off her debts. Then a cousin had died and left her some money which she used to redeem the ring. Now she has learnt that Naomi plans to have the diamond put into a new setting and so would soon discover that her diamond was a fake.

She could not simply return the ring and confess. Naomi would never forgive her and could ruin her by telling others about what she had done. The only solution was if Parker Pyne could somehow arrange to exchange the real one for Naomi's fake one without her suspecting anything.

Unfortunately for Daphne, Parker Pyne saw through her story. He discovered that she was in reality Ernestine Richards, the secretary of Lady Naomi and her whole story was a plot to get hold of the real diamond ring while remaining free of suspicion. Parker Pyne and his staff would end up being implicated in the theft. So Parker Pyne went through the motions of arranging an "exchange" but in reality, left Lady Naomi in possession of the real diamond. The fake one he returned to Ernestine, while charging her expenses for the whole operation.