Our client's surprise showed on her face as she took fastidious little sips at the hot tea.
"That is correct, Mr. Pons. Clitherington, a small village on the Redhill line."
Solar Pons inclined his head and favored me with a faint smile as he bent forward in his armchair.
"That light, sandy soil is quite unmistakable, Parker. You no doubt noticed, as did I, a distinctive sample on the seams of the young lady's right boot."
I cleared my throat, caught unaware with a piece of toast halfway down.
"Now that you point it out, Pons, certainly."
"It is obviously something serious that brings you to us at this hour, Miss Helstone, and you have already told me it is a matter of life and death. You are obviously agitated beneath your calm manner. Please take your time. You are among friends."
The young woman drew in her breath with a long, shuddering sigh.
"That is good to know, Mr. Pons. It has indeed been quite unbearable this last day or two. And affairs at the house…"
"You live there with your parents?" interrupted Pons. The young woman paused and made an engaging little contraction of her mouth.
"I beg your pardon, Mr. Pons. I am telling the story very badly. I am engaged as a governess at The Priory, Clitherington, the home of Mr. Clinton Basden."
Solar Pons tented his thin fingers before him and gave our fair client his undivided attention.
"So far as I know, Miss Helstone, there is no train on the timetable that leaves a remote place like Clitherington at such an hour as 4:30 A.M."
Miss Helstone gave a faint smile, the first sign of returning normality she had evinced since I had entered the room.
"That is correct, Mr. Pons. I came up on the milk train. There are always two carriages used mainly by railway staff and I found an empty compartment."
"So that the matter is one of the utmost gravity. Pray continue."
"My full name is Helen Jane Helstone, Mr. Pons, and I come of a good family originally settled in the West Country. My parents were killed in a local uprising in India some years ago and after I had completed my schooling in England, it became necessary to earn my living. I enjoy the company of children, and so I became a governess with a view to entering a teacher-training college when I am a little older."
"What is your age now, Miss Helstone?"
"I just turned twenty-one, Mr. Pons."
Solar Pons nodded and looked thoughtfully at the girl, who had now recovered the color in her cheeks. She looked even more handsome than before and I found the contemplation of her most engaging but turned again to the tea and toast, aware of Pons' glance on me.
"I give this information, Mr. Pons, so that you shall know all of the salient circumstances."
"You are telling your story in an admirable manner, Miss Helstone."
"I had two positions, Mr. Pons, one in Cornwall and another in Cumberland, which I held for several years, but I decided to move nearer to London and, when I saw Mr. Basden's advertisement in a daily newspaper, Surrey seemed ideal for my purposes and I hastened to answer his announcement."
"When was that, Miss Helstone?"
"A little over three months ago, Mr. Pons."
Our visitor paused again and sipped at her tea; her face was thoughtful as though she were carefully contemplating her next words, but my professional eye noted that her breathing was more regular and she was becoming calmer by the minute.
"There was something extremely strange about my engagement as governess, Mr. Pons. I have often thought about it since."
"How was that, Miss Helstone?"
"For example, Mr. Pons, it was extraordinarily well paid, though the duties are somewhat unusual."
Pons nodded, narrowing his deep-set eyes.
"Pray be most explicit, Miss Helstone."
"Well, Mr. Pons, I have no hesitation in telling you that the salary is some five hundred pounds a year, payable quarterly in advance."
Pons drew in his breath in surprise and I gazed at him open-mouthed.
"That is indeed princely for these times, Miss Helstone. I should imagine there would have been quite a few ladies in your position after the appointment."
"That is just it, Mr. Pons. There were literally lines. I met some people on the train who were answering the advertisement. Apparently it had been running in the daily newspapers for more than a week."
"That is highly significant, Parker," put in Pons enigmatically and he again resumed his rapt study of Miss Helstone's face.
Our client went on breathlessly, as though some reserve had been breached by the confidence my friend inspired in her.
"My heart sank, Mr. Pons, as you can well imagine, but as the train stopped at Clitherington, my spirits rose again. You see, I had heard one of the girls say that though the announcement had been running for some time, the prospective employers were very fastidious and no one had yet been found to suit them."
"And as you already had experience of two similar appointments, you had high hopes?"
"Exactly, Mr. Pons. But my spirits were dashed when we arrived at the house. A large car had been sent to the station to meet applicants, and we were taken to a vast, gloomy mansion, set in an estate whose main entrance was locked and guarded by heavily built men."
"An odd circumstance, Miss Helstone," said Pons, glancing quizzically at me.
"You may well say so, Mr. Pons. But though the grounds, with their great clumps of rhododendron and pine plantations, were gloomy and somber indeed in that bleak December weather, the interior of the mansion was extremely luxurious and well appointed, evincing the most refined taste. It was evident that the prospective employer was a man of enormous wealth."
"And of fastidious nature if it took him so much time to select a governess for his children, Miss Helstone. How many were there, in fact?"
"Two, Mr. Pons. A boy and a girl, aged nine and twelve respectively. But my heart sank again, when we were shown into a sumptuously furnished drawing room to find between twenty and thirty young ladies already there."
"It sounds more like a theatrical producer's office, Pons," I could not resist observing.
Solar Pons gave me a faint smile and his eyes held a wry twinkle.
"Ah, there speaks the sybarite in you, Parker. The lover of night life, good wine and chorus girls."
"Heavens, Pons!" I stammered. "What will Miss Helstone think of me?"
"That you are a poor recipient of waggish remarks at your own expense, my dear fellow. But we digress."
Miss Helstone had smiled hesitantly at this little exchange, revealing two rows of dazzling white teeth.
"Well, there is a great deal of truth in Dr. Parker's remark, Mr. Pons," she said earnestly. "It did in truth look like a theatrical agency, though they are a good deal shabbier as a rule. But the most extraordinary thing was the proceedings. A hard-faced woman in black beckoned to the first girl as I sat down, and she disappeared through the big double doors. In less than a minute she was back, with an angry shake of the head."
Miss Helstone put down her cup and leaned forward in her chair, regarding my companion with steady gray eyes.
"Mr. Pons, five of the applicants went in and out of that room in five minutes, and it was obvious by their angry expressions that none of them were suited. But even more extraordinary — and I learned this afterward — each and every one was given a new five-pound note for her trouble, a car to the station and a free railway ticket to London."
Solar Pons clapped his hands together with a little cracking noise in the silence of the sitting room.
"Excellent, Parker!" said he. "This gets more intriguing by the minute, Miss Helstone. There is more, of course."
"Much more, Mr. Pons. Of course, I got most intrigued as the minutes went by and the girls disappeared into the room. Those of us who were left moved up and fresh arrivals sat down behind us. Now and again there would be loud exclamations from behind the door, and it was obvious as I got closer and closer to the double doors guarded by the woman in black that none of the girls had been found suitable by the mysterious advertiser. I did not, of course, at that stage, know the name of my employer, Mr. Pons, as it was not given in the advertisement."