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A Damsel in Distress

Page 40

Maud hesitated a moment.

"I suppose you don't know," she asked carelessly, "why he did it? I

mean, did he tell you anything?"

"Couldn't get a word out of him. Oysters garrulous and tombs chatty

in comparison. Absolutely. All I know is that he popped one into

the officer's waistband. What led up to it is more than I can tell

you. How would it be to stagger to the library and join the

post-mortem?"

"The post-mortem?"

"Well, I met the mater and his lordship on their way to the

library, and it looked to me very much as if the mater must have

got hold of an evening paper on her journey from town. When did she

arrive?"

"Only a short while ago."

"Then that's what's happened. She would have bought an evening

paper to read in the train. By Jove, I wonder if she got hold of

the one that had the poem about it. One chappie was so carried away

by the beauty of the episode that he treated it in verse. I think

we ought to look in and see what's happening."

Maud hesitated again. But she was a girl of spirit. And she had an

intuition that her best defence would be attack. Bluff was what was

needed. Wide-eyed, innocent wonder . . . After all, Percy couldn't

be certain he had seen her in Piccadilly.

"All right."

"By the way, dear old girl," inquired Reggie, "did your little

business come out satisfactorily? I forgot to ask."

"Not very. But it was awfully sweet of you to take me into town."

"How would it be," said Reggie nervously, "not to dwell too much on

that part of it? What I mean to say is, for heaven's sake don't let

the mater know I rallied round."

"Don't worry," said Maud with a laugh. "I'm not going to talk about

the thing at all."

Lord Belpher, meanwhile, in the library, had begun with the aid of

a whisky and soda to feel a little better. There was something

about the library with its sombre half tones that soothed his

bruised spirit. The room held something of the peace of a deserted

city. The world, with its violent adventures and tall policemen,

did not enter here. There was balm in those rows and rows of books

which nobody ever read, those vast writing tables at which nobody

ever wrote. From the broad mantel-piece the bust of some unnamed

ancient looked down almost sympathetically. Something remotely

resembling peace had begun to steal into Percy's soul, when it was

expelled by the abrupt opening of the door and the entry of Lady

Caroline Byng and his father. One glance at the face of the former

was enough to tell Lord Belpher that she knew all.

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