The house-party was in the dining-room, where Stephen, unmoved by the late gruesome events, was eating his interrupted dinner. Everyone else had reached the coffee stage, and, with the exception of Maud, was plying him with eager questions. They all turned, as Joseph came in, and Paula asked if the police had finished.
"Alas, my poor child, I'm afraid it will be a long time before they do that!" said Joseph, with a heavy sigh. "They have only just begun. Willoughby, the Inspector wants to see you. He is in the morning-room."
Roydon at once flushed, and his voice jumped up an octave. "What on earth does he want to see me about? I can't tell him anything!"
"No, that's what I assured him. I am afraid he is a stupid sort of a man. It came out that you had been reading your play to us - dear me, it seems already as though that was in another life!"
"Did you tell him so?" said Stephen, looking up under his brows.
Joseph's absurdly cherubic countenance set into worried lines. "Well, yes, but I never dreamed he'd take me up as he did!"
Paula's eyes stabbed him. "Did you tell him that Willoughby wanted Uncle Nat's backing?"
"Of course I didn't! I didn't say a word about that. It's quite irrelevant, and I don't think there's the least need to mention it."
Roydon stubbed out his cigarette, and got up. "I suppose I'd better go along and see the man," he said. "Not that I can throw the least light on the affair, but that's by the way!"
He went out, and Stephen, watching him critically, said to his sister: "Are you vitally concerned in your boy-friend's fate? With any luck, I should say he'll incriminate himself good and proper."
"He had nothing to do with it!" Paula said.
"How do you know?"jeered Stephen.
She stared at him. "Well, I don't know," she said slowly. "I don't know who did it."
"I should like to think that someone quite unconnected with any of us was the guilty man," said Joseph. "May we not assume that, children, and try not to say bitter, hurtful things to one another?"
The only person to respond to this appeal was Mathilda, who said handsomely that he at least could not be accused of this vice. He threw her a grateful smile, but shook his head, saying that he was afraid he was a very imperfect mortal.
"As though I hadn't had enough to put me off my food already!" growled Stephen.
Valerie, who had been fidgeting with her coffeespoon, let it fall into the saucer, and exclaimed: "I wonder it doesn't make you sick to think of eating any doing! I think you're the most callous person I've ever met in all my life!"
"I shouldn't be surprised," agreed Stephen.
"And if the police want to question me, it's no earthly use, because I don't know a thing about it, and my nerves just won't stand it! I feel as though I'm going mad!"
"Oh, do shut up!" said Paula.
"I won't shut up! I didn't come here to be insulted, and I don't see why I should be expected to put up with it!"
"Leave her alone, Paula," ordered Stephen, getting up, and walking over to the sideboard, where some chocolate mousse had been left for him.
"I'm not doing anything to her. If she doesn't like my behaviour she can leave the room, can't she?" said Paula, becoming belligerent.
"I wish I could leave the house!" cried Valerie.
"I believe it is still snowing," remarked Maud, as unperturbed by this bickering as by all the other events of the day.
"I don't care! I'd rather walk all the way to London than stay here now!"
"It's an engaging thought," said Stephen. "Orphan of the Storm."
"Oh, you can laugh at me! but if you think I could possibly sleep a wink here you're mistaken! I simply shan't dare to close my eyes all night. I shall be petrified!"
"Well, really, I don't think that's very sensible," objected Mathilda. "What do you suppose is going to happen to you?"
"You wouldn't understand," said Valerie, adding in a lofty tone: "I expect you're one of those lucky people who just haven't got any nerves, and don't feel a thing. But the thought of Mr. Herriard, lying there in that room - Oh, I simply can't bear it!"
"You won't have to," said Stephen. "The body will be removed to the police-mortuary. Probably has been by this time."
This brutal truth made Joseph wince. He said: "Stephen, Stephen!" in an imploring voice.
"I think," said Maud, getting up, "that I shall go and sit in the drawing-room with my book."
Joseph glanced at her with humorous affection. "Yes, my dear, do that!" he said. "Try to put it all out of your mind! How I wish that I could do the same! But I am afraid the Inspector will want to see you."
"Oh yes!" she said, uninterested.
"There is nothing to be afraid of, you know. He is quite human."
"I am not afraid, thank you, Joseph," she replied placidly.
Paula barely waited until she had left the room before ejaculating: "If I've got to listen to extracts from that ghastly book on top of everything else, I think my nerve will crack!"
"Keep calm, sister: Aunt has lost the book."
"Stephen!" exclaimed Joseph. "No, that's too bad of you! If you've hidden it, you must give it back to her at once."
"I haven't touched it," said Stephen curtly.
Neither Mathilda nor Paula believed this, but as Joseph showed signs of pressing the point, they intervened to prevent an explosion. Mathilda said that no doubt it would turn up; and Paula wondered how Roydon was getting on with the Inspector.
He was not, as a matter of fact, getting on very well. Policemen represented to him, quite irrationally, his personal enemies. He did not like them; they made him nervous, in much the same way that butlers did, so that he felt that his clothes were shabby and his hands too large. To conceal this discomfort, he assumed a grand manner, and was inclined to overact his unconcern. He said: "Ah, Inspector, you want a word with me, don't you? I'm quite ready to tell you anything I know, of course, but I'm afraid that won't be much. I'm only down for the week-end, as I daresay you've heard. In fact, I hardly knew Mr. Herriard."
He ended on his nervous laugh. He hadn't meant to say all that; he knew it must have sounded artificial, but somehow he was unable to stop himself. To occupy his hands, he lit a cigarette, and began to smoke it, rather too fast. He wished the Inspector would stop staring at him so unblinkingly. As though he were a wild beast in a show! he thought resentfully.
The Inspector asked him for his name and address, and slowly wrote these down in his notebook. "Were you acquainted with the deceased previous to your arrival here?" he asked.
"No. Well, naturally I knew of him, but I hadn't actually met him. I came down with Miss Herriard. She invited me."
"I understand you are occupying the bedroom next to the deceased's?"
"Oh well, yes, in a way I suppose I am!" conceded Roydon. "Only there's a bathroom in between, so naturally I didn't hear anything, if that's what you mean.
"When you left the drawing-room after tea, did you go straight upstairs to your room?"
"Yes. At least, no! Now I come to think of it, Miss Clare and I went into the library. As far as I remember, Miss Herriard joined us there. It was after that that I went up to change. I've no idea where Mr. Herriard was by that time. I never saw him again after I left the drawing-room."
The Inspector thanked him, and requested him to ask Miss Herriard to come to him.
Paula was not afraid of policemen. She answered the Inspector's questions impatiently; and when he asked her if she had had any quarrel with Nathaniel, said that no one could possibly live for half a day with Nathaniel without quarrelling with him. But when the Inspector wanted to know why she had quarrelled with her uncle, she replied haughtily that it was none of his business.
This did nothing to prejudice him in her favour, and since under his remorseless probing she very soon lost her temper it was not long before he had learnt that she had wanted Nathaniel to give her money for some undivulged purpose, and that he had refused.