In the short story In the House of the Enemy (later, chapter 8 of The Big Four), Miss Martin was a stenographer employed by the American multi-millionaire Abe Ryland. Hastings described her as a pretty girl of about twenty-three or four, with auburn hair and "brown eyes that could look mischievous enough upon occasion, though they were usually cast demurely down." Hastings took a liking to her because she was "so unaffected, so natural." It would later transpire that she was an operative of "The Big Four" and became yet another instance where Poirot had to remind Hastings of his weakness for "auburn hair".
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