Part 31 (2/2)

”Rather more than a fortnight.” said Helena. ”But do sit down. My husband will be so pleased to see you again. He has a great admiration for you.”

Mr. Flexen sat down and unconsciously stared hard at her. Ideas were jostling one another in his head.

”We won't wait for him. I'll have the tea made at once,” she said, bending forward to press the bell-b.u.t.ton.

”One moment, please,” he said in his crispest, most official voice. ”I've come to see you on a very important matter.”

”Oh?” she said quickly, frowning. Then she looked at him with steady eyes.

”Yes. You know that I am investigating the Loudwater case, and I have received information that you are the mysterious lady who visited Lord Loudwater on the night of his death and had a violent quarrel with him.”

”We began by quarrelling,” she said quietly.

”_Began_ by quarrelling?” said Mr. Flexen.

”Yes. I'd better tell you the whole story, and you'll understand,” she said in a matter-of-fact voice. ”Rather more than two years ago I was engaged to be married to Lord Loudwater. He broke off our engagement and married Miss Quainton. I was not going to stand that, and I was going to bring a breach of promise action against him. He didn't want that, of course. It would most likely have stopped his marrying Miss Quainton. So he agreed to make over the Crest, my house just beyond Loudwater, to me, and pay me an allowance of six hundred a year.”

”This was two years ago?” said Mr. Flexen.

”Yes,” said Helena. ”But stupidly, though I had the house properly made over to me, I didn't have a deed about the allowance. And a few days before he committed suicide--”

”Committed suicide?” Mr. Flexen interrupted.

”Of course he committed suicide. Didn't Dr. Thornhill say that the wound might have been self-inflicted? Besides, poor Egbert had a most frightful temper.”

”But why should he commit suicide?” said Mr. Flexen.

”He may have been upset about Lady Loudwater and Colonel Grey. Why, I'm quite sure that it would drive him mad--absolutely mad for the time being. I know him well enough to be sure of that.”

”Yes--yes,” said Mr. Flexen slowly. ”It's a tenable theory, doubtless.

But about your quarrel with him.”

”A few days before he died he talked about halving my allowance. And, of course, I was frightfully annoyed about it. I wanted to have it out with him--I meant to--but I knew that he'd never let me get near him, if he could help it. But I knew, too, that he sat in the smoking-room every evening after dinner, and generally went to sleep. You know everything about every one in the country, you know. And I determined to take him by surprise, and I did. We did have a row, for I was frightfully angry. It seemed so mean. But he stopped it by telling me that he had instructed his bankers--we have the same bankers--to pay twelve thousand pounds into my account instead of allowing me six hundred a year.”

There was just the faintest change in her voice as she spoke the last sentence, and it did not escape Mr. Flexen's sensitive ear. He thought that the whole story had been rehea.r.s.ed; it sounded so. But she spoke the last sentence just a little more quickly. The rest of the story rang true, or, at any rate, truer.

”Twelve thousand pounds,” he said slowly. ”And did Lord Loudwater tell you when he instructed his bankers?”

”No. But it must have been that very day. The letter must have been in the post, in fact, for two mornings later I received a letter from the bank telling me that they had credited me with that amount--the morning after the inquest, I think it was.”

”I see,” said Mr. Flexen, and he paused, considering the story. Then he said: ”And were you surprised at all at his doing this?”

”Yes, I was,” she said frankly. ”It didn't seem like him. But since I've wondered whether he had made up his mind to commit suicide and wished to leave things quite straight.”

It was a plausible theory, but Mr. Flexen did not believe that Lord Loudwater had committed suicide.

”I suppose that your husband knows all about it?” he said at random.

”He may, and he may not. He hasn't said anything to me about it,” she said.

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