Mrs Arthur

In the short story The Four Suspects, Mrs Arthur was a village parallel mentioned by Miss Marple. Mrs Arthur was a daily woman for Mrs Trent. Mrs Trent found a half crown missing from her bag. The Trents suspected Mrs Arthur but they were kindly people. They knew that Mrs Arthur had a large family and a husband who drank, so they let the incident go. But they began to feel differently about the daily woman from then on. They began to trust her less, and did not leave her in charge of the house when they went out. Mrs Arthur felt the difference in treatment and soon other people in the village began to "get a feeling" about her. Fortunately, Mrs Arthur was exonerated when Mrs Trent happened to look through an open door reflected in a mirror and saw that it was the governess who was stealing things.

Miss Marple recalled this parallel as an example of why catching the culprit of a crime was sometimes less important that proving the innocence of others who were suspected.