‘Oh, that? Let’s see – it would be somewhere about the time everyone was getting a move on, for I thought to myself, “Well, anyhow the party’s as good as over, which is better than if it had happened earlier on.”
‘What has she done with the dress?’
‘Took it off to the cleaner’s on the Monday. But they’ll never get those stains out, and so I told her. “Have it dyed,” I said, “and make a job of it – black, or brown, or a good navy. Always very ladylike, a good navy is.” And for once in a way she hadn’t got anything to say.’
When Meeson was gone Adriana looked defiantly at Miss Silver and said,
‘Well?’
Miss Silver had been knitting in a very thoughtful manner. She was, in fact, engaged in the process known as putting two and two together. They added up to an ugly four. She said,
‘What do you make of it yourself, Miss Ford?’
Adriana lifted the teapot and began to pour out. Her hand was perfectly steady.
‘She went down to the pool at some time when she was wearing the dress.’
‘Yes.’
‘She was in the drawing-room during all the time that people were arriving, but after the room got very full I can’t say whether she was there or not. She could have slipped out – only why should she?’
‘She had not worn that dress before?’
‘No.’
‘Then she did go out, since I found a torn shred from it caught on the hedge by the pool.’
Adriana said, ‘Do you take milk and sugar?’
Miss Silver gave her slight formal cough.
‘Milk, if you please, but no sugar.’ She laid down her knitting, took the cup, and continued as if there had been no interruption. ‘We have, then, two certain facts. Miss Meriel went down to the pool, and at some time towards the end of the party she told Meeson that she had spilt coffee on her dress. Did you notice the stains yourself? Either during the party or afterwards?’
Adriana looked startled. She finished pouring out her own cup of tea and set down the teapot. Then she said,
‘But she had changed – when I came out on the landing and they were all in the hall, she had changed!’
‘You are sure about that?’
‘Of course I am sure. She had put on her old green crape, a hideous garment – I can’t think why she ever bought it, but she had no clothes-sense.’ She added milk to the cup and lifted it to her lips, but she did not drink from it. Her hand jerked suddenly and she set it down again.
‘Look here, where is this getting us? Are you asking me to believe that Meriel – Meriel – went down to that pool in the dusk and pushed Mabel in? Because she was wearing my coat – because she took her for me? Is that what you are asking me to believe?’
Miss Silver looked at her compassionately.
‘It is not I who am saying these things, Miss Ford. It is you.’
‘What does it matter who says them? Do you think them? Do you believe that Meriel pushed poor Mabel Preston into the pool and held her down there, thinking she was me? And that she then came back into the house and spilt coffee on her dress to hide the stains? There’s moss on the parapet, you know, and the water from the pool would leave a dirty mark, but coffee – coffee would hide anything.’
Miss Silver said firmly,
‘Miss Ford, I have not said any of these things. It is you who are saying them. They exist as a possibility, but a thing that is possible should not necessarily be accepted as a fact. Circumstantial evidence can be extremely misleading. Miss Meriel seems to have been in the neighbourhood of the pool in that cyclamen dress, and she subsequently changed it as it had become stained with coffee. There is a possibility that it was stained deliberately, and for the purpose of concealing other and more compromising stains, but there is no proof that this was so.’
Adriana lifted her cup, and this time she drank from it, a long steady draught. When she had set it down again she said,
‘She is in a state of resentment against me. It has been going on for a long time. She thinks I could use my influence to push her on to the stage. But she isn’t willing to be trained. She thinks she can stroll in at the top with all the hard work cut out. She thinks I could make that possible. Well, I couldn’t if I would, and I wouldn’t if I could. I said that to her once, and she hated me for saying it. And these last few days she has been very angry with me about that damned coat. She is like that, you know. She sets her heart on something, and she has got to have it. But if she gets it, nine times out of ten she doesn’t care about it any more. There you are – that’s Meriel! But still I don’t think-’
Her voice did not choke, it stopped. There was no colour under the careful make-up. She took a long breath and went on as if there had been no broken sentence.
‘I don’t think she would try to kill me.’
Miss Silver said,
‘She is a very uncontrolled person.’
Adriana nodded.
‘She blows off steam. I have spent my life among people like that. They fly into a temper and get it off the chest. It sounds like a lot more than it really is. The artistic temperament – and a bit of a curse if you have it without the talent which makes it go down!’
When Meeson came up presently for the tray she was in no great hurry to take it.
‘What price me being a spying, tale-tattling old devil?’ she said with the air of one who has received a mortal affront and is determined to rise above it.
Adriana, not unaccustomed to this mood, supplied the question for which Meeson was waiting.
‘And who has been calling you a tale-tattling spy?’
Meeson tossed her head.
‘Tale-tattling, spying devil is what it was – and twenty years ago I’d have turned her up and spanked her for it! Spoilt her – that’s what you’ve done! And not the first time I’ve told you what would come of it! Spying! Me! And tale-tattling, which my worst enemy couldn’t throw up at me! “Now look here, Meriel,” I said, “that’s enough and a bit too much! There’s Miss Ford showing me that bit of stuff off of the dress you tore, and all I said was, ‘Torn it was – and what’s a tear more or less, for it’s neither here nor there!’ ” I said. And she come back on me like a fury and said she’d take her dying oath she never tore it! And “Oh, yes, you did!” I said. “And what you were doing down by that horrid pool in a brand new dress – it isn’t for me to say!” Well, ducks, you’d have thought I’d hit her. “I wasn’t down by the pool,” she said. And I said, “Oh, yes, you were, my lady! And that’s where you tore your dress, because that’s where Miss Silver found the scrap from it! Just outside the door I was, getting it open, when she told Miss Ford about finding it caught in the hedge!”’
‘Gertie – you listened!’
Meeson bridled.
‘Well, I’d got to get the door open, hadn’t I? And if you’re going to start and have secrets from me, what’s the good? Which is what I told that Meriel, and that’s when she had the cheek to call me what she did! Tale-tattling spy! I was clean ashamed of her, and so I told her! With Mr and Mrs Geoffrey coming out of their rooms, and Mr Ninian and Simmons down in the hall! What they could have thought!’
When she had gone, Miss Silver spoke in a tone of extreme gravity.
‘Miss Ford, you came to me for advice, but when I offered it you were not disposed to give it any consideration. Since then there has been a tragedy. You have summoned me with great urgency, and I am here. After only a few hours in the house I am not in a position to offer a solution of the events which have occurred, or to dogmatize upon the situation, but I do feel obliged to offer you a warning. There are elements which may produce or precipitate some further explosion.’
Adriana directed a hard stare upon her.
‘What elements?’
‘Do I need to point them out to you?’
‘Yes.’
Miss Silver complied.