Part 12 (1/2)

”_I_ broke it off!” said Elizabeth angrily, and she drew herself up very stiff and frowning.

It was Mr. Flexen's turn to hesitate. Then he made a shot, and said: ”I see. He wanted you to become engaged to him again, and you wouldn't.”

Elizabeth looked at him with an air of surprise and respect, and said: ”It wasn't quite like that, sir. I didn't say as I wouldn't be his fioncy again. I said I'd see how he behaved himself.”

”Then he wasn't in a good temper,” said Mr. Flexen.

”He was in a better temper than he'd any right to expect to be,” said Elizabeth with some heat.

”That's true,” said Mr. Flexen, smiling at her. ”But after the trouble he had had with Lord Loudwater he couldn't be in a very good temper.”

”He was too used to his lords.h.i.+p's tantrums to take much notice of them.

He was too much that way himself,” said Elizabeth quickly.

”I see,” said Mr. Flexen. ”What time was it when he left you?”

”I can't rightly say. But it wasn't half-past eleven,” she said.

He perceived that that was true. At the moment there was no more to be learned from her. If she could throw any more light on the doings of James Hutchings, she was on her guard and would not. But he had learned that James Hutchings had not entered the Castle by the side door. Had he entered it and left it by the library window?

He asked Elizabeth a few more unimportant questions and dismissed her.

Inspector Perkins, having sent a groom to inform the coroner of the murder, and of the need for an early inquest into it, came back to him.

They discussed the matter of James Hutchings, and decided to have him watched and arrest him on suspicion should he try to leave the neighbourhood. The inspector telephoned to Low Wycombe for two of his detectives.

Mr. Flexen questioned the rest of the servants and learned nothing new from them. By the time he had finished the two detectives from Low Wycombe arrived, and he sent them out to make inquiries in the village, though he thought it unlikely that anything was to be learnt there, unless Hutchings had been talking again.

He had risen and was about to go to the smoking-room to look round it again, on the chance that something had escaped his eye, when Mrs.

Carruthers, the housekeeper, entered the room. None of the servants had mentioned her to him, and it had not occurred to him that there would of course be a housekeeper.

”Good morning, Mr. Flexen. I'm Mrs. Carruthers, the housekeeper,” she said. ”You didn't send for me. But I thought I ought to see you, for I know something which may be important, and I thought you ought to know it, too.”

”Of course. I can't know too much about an affair like this,” said Mr.

Flexen quickly.

”Well, there was a woman, or rather I should say a lady, with his lords.h.i.+p in the smoking-room last night--about eleven o'clock.”

”Indeed?” said Mr. Flexen. ”Won't you sit down? A lady you say?”

”Yes; she was a lady, though she seemed very angry and excited, and was talking in a very high voice. I didn't recognize it, so I can't tell you who it was. You see, I don't belong to the neighbourhood. I've only been here six weeks.”

”And how long did this interview last?” said Mr. Flexen.

”I can't tell you. It was no business of mine. I was making my round last thing to see that the servants had left nothing about. I always do. You know how careless they are. I went round the hall, and then I went to bed. But, of course, I wondered about it,” said Mrs. Carruthers.

Mr. Flexen looked at her refined, rather delicate face, and he did not wonder how she had repressed her natural curiosity.

”Can you tell me whether the French window in the library, the end one, was open at that time?” he said.