Part 24 (1/2)
”I am,” was the quiet reply; ”now, Miss Prall, you'll be obliged to answer a few questions, whether you like it or not.”
Corson's tone, though courteous, was severe, and the Grenadier, while not frightened, gave him a look of curiosity and intense interest.
”Go on,” she said, briefly.
”This feud between yourself and Mrs Everett is a matter of long standing, I believe. You can't, therefore, object to my reference to it.
What was its cause?”
”Oh, it's so old now, that its cause is sunk in oblivion.” Let.i.tia smiled sourly. ”But it has been added to by other causes as time went on, and thus new fuel has kept the fire burning.”
”Keep the home fires burning,” said Richard, with a mocking smile at his aunt, who heeded it not.
”And so,” she went on, ”the feud, as it has come to be called, is as strong and well-nourished as ever.”
”Yet you two ladies elect to live under the same roof.”
”To nurse the feud along,” Bates a.s.serted, and the Grenadier nodded a.s.sent.
”However,” she added, ”Mrs Everett is about to move away.”
”What!” cried Richard.
”Yes,” repeated his aunt, evidently pleased with the fact, ”she is going soon.”
”Thus,” offered Corson, ”you will be relieved of two undesirable people at once.”
”Meaning Mrs Everett and her daughter?” queried Eliza.
”Not at all. Meaning Mrs Everett and Sir Herbert Binney.”
”Oh!” gasped Miss Prall. ”Don't put it that way!”
”Why not? Since it's the truth. You now can have the pleasure of seeing your nephew pursue----”
”Don't talk about me as if I weren't here!” exclaimed Richard. ”Or as if I were a minor or an incompetent! I'm devoted to my aunt; I love, honor and obey her, but I'm a man with a mind of my own. And when it runs counter to the desires or plans of my aunt--well, we must fight it out between ourselves. However, Mr Corson, I can't see that the affairs of my aunt and myself, or the affairs of my aunt and her fellow-feudist, Mrs Everett, have any connection with or bearing on the murder of Sir Herbert Binney. If they seem to you to have such a bearing, I think it is right that you should tell us all about it.”
”I take it, then, that we are working in unison,--at least, in concord?”
”You may certainly a.s.sume that as far as I am concerned,” said Bates, but the two women present seemed by their silence to reserve judgment.
”First, Miss Prall, I'd like to hear from you what plans Sir Herbert had, so far as you know, regarding the sale of his great bakery business.”
”I know a great deal about that, Mr Corson, as Sir Herbert not only discussed the matter with me, but did me the honor to ask my advice, considering that my judgment was of value.”
”No doubt. And you advised him?”
”I advised him to sell out to Crippen,--of _Crippen's Cakes_. You know of the firm?”
”Yes, indeed; who doesn't? It's the largest of its sort in the country.”
”Unless one excepts the Vail Bakery. But that's bread.”