"I think he came to the front door and rang the bell, and Maggie let him in, and he said he had forgotten his key; so I think she must have been down stairs"

The speaker describes a recollection or an account of a past event involving a man, possibly a family member or household resident, arriving at the front door and ringing the bell. Maggie, likely the household maid or servant, responds to his call and allows him inside. The man explains that he has forgotten his key, suggesting either a sense of routine or mild disorder in his daily actions. This small oversight becomes the pretext for the scene: a typical domestic moment charged with an undercurrent of normalcy, but framed by the unusual context in which Lizzie Borden’s life and testimony resides.

The act of Maggie answering the door implies her presence on the ground floor, corroborating that she was in a position to interact with the man at that moment. The speaker deduces from this fact that Maggie “must have been downstairs.” This logical inference emphasizes the importance placed on the locations and movements of the household’s inhabitants, subtly pointing to the broader context of establishing alibis or explaining their actions during critical moments. The narration suggests careful attention to detail, as if seeking to clarify or defend Maggie’s position and actions through reasoned observation rather than assumption.

By recounting the man’s excuse, forgetting his key, the narration humanizes the scenario and imbues it with an everyday quality, yet, particularly through Lizzie Borden’s historical notoriety, the passage also adopts an air of scrutiny, with each minor detail carrying unspoken weight. The reasoning process, moving from the observed response at the door to the deduction regarding Maggie’s location, highlights how mundane domestic interactions can become pieces of crucial evidence or points of interrogation. The ordinary moment thus becomes layered with implication, the speaker balancing between simple recollection and the unspoken need to account for actions within a scrutinized household.