Part 29 (1/2)
But she was not to be caught. ”My theory is,” she smiled, ”that as Goethe says, 'We are all capable of crime, even the best of us.' I truly think that most human beings could commit crime, given sufficient motive and opportunity.”
”All very fine in theory,” said Gibbs, smiling, ”but are you willing to a.s.sert that Miss Prall or--or yourself, would be capable of the murder of Sir Herbert Binney, if you had a perfect opportunity and if you considered your motive strong enough?”
”Oh, _I_ wouldn't have done it!” and Mrs Everett looked shocked, indeed, ”but,--well, maybe I do think Let.i.tia Prall would have done it.”
”Aided and abetted by Miss Gurney,” the detective egged her on.
”Yes; Eliza would have been not only a help but a commander,--a tyrant, even.”
”And Miss Gurney wished the old gentleman out of the way?”
”Oh, yes; as much, perhaps, as Let.i.tia. You see, if he died just now, his fortune would be young Bates' and the boy could go on with his chosen career, without being pestered to make buns! Moreover, Sir Herbert favored Rickey's marriage----”
”To your daughter?”
”To anybody,--any nice young woman. My daughter is out of the question and not to be spoken of in this connection.”
Mrs Everett drew herself up in with an effect of injured dignity and looked scornfully at Gibbs.
”But you seem to eliminate the young people themselves as factors in the romance part of it all.”
”They are not factors. My daughter has sufficient confidence in my judgment to agree to my advice. She knows my att.i.tude toward Miss Prall and she would not encourage or accept the attentions of her nephew.”
”You're sure of this?”
”Of course I'm sure of it! Dorcas is a sweet, obedient child, and she would not deceive her loving and beloved mother. Also, she knows the despicable and unworthy nature of Miss Prall, and she a.s.sumes, as I do, that Richard is of the same stamp.”
”Then you don't know the young man? You only a.s.sume his character? Is that quite fair?”
”Fair enough for anybody belonging to the Prall family! They cannot expect fairness! They wouldn't even appreciate it! Let.i.tia Prall is a mean, low type of womanhood,--a deceitful, unjust, disloyal, contemptible snake in the gra.s.s!”
”That's so,” chimed in Kate; ”she's proved all that over and over,--and more too! She has no notion of common decency toward her neighbors; she is a two-faced, backbiting, sneaky, tattletale!”
”But this doesn't prove young Bates----”
”Yes, it does!” the detective's argument was cut off; ”she brought him up, and she taught him all her own evil principles, and her own way of thinking and talking----”
”But you scarcely know the man,----”
”That's doesn't matter! He's the nephew of Let.i.tia Prall,--and that's enough for me! My daughter shall never speak to him,--never meet him,--and lest such a chance should occur accidentally, I am planning to move away.”
”You don't think your daughter is--is interested in Mr Bates?”
”I know she is not! Dorcas is a wayward-tempered child, but she is loyal to her mother and her mother's wishes. She wouldn't dream of seeing Richard Bates against my will.”
Now, as it happened at that very moment, the loyal child was apparently quite oblivious of the wishes of her beloved mother, for she was sitting by the side of the objurgated Richard on a bench in Central Park.
When told to leave the room by her mother, she had also left the Everett apartment, and later, the house.
By some discreet telephoning she had summoned the despised young man and the two had sauntered out of The Campanile, separately, and joined company soon after.