Miss Silver said,
“A watersplash would not be deep enough to drown a man unless he fell or was pushed. Even then he should be able to get up again.”
“He was probably drunk-he very often was.” Her voice was casual to the point of indifference, but her hand shook.
“There was an inquest of course. What was the verdict?”
“Death by misadventure.”
“There was no suspicion of foul play?”
Clarice shook her head.
“Even my old ladies never thought of it, and they are the worst gossips in the place.”
But she did not look at Miss Silver. After a moment she said,
“You see what I mean-the witnesses are both dead. I never saw the will-I only know he said that he had made one. I don’t see it would be much good my going to the lawyer and saying that. I mean, would it? And a nurse has to be careful. If she gets a name for making mischief she’s finished. I can’t afford to run the risk of that.”
Miss Silver said, “No-” in a meditative voice.
Hearsay word of a dying man, a hypothetical will, a pretty girl who couldn’t even say that she had seen it, and who was doing her best to marry the beneficiary-the story was thin to the vanishing point.
Clarice pushed back her chair.
“I thought you would say that. I suppose anyone would.” She dusted the cake crumbs from her fingers and stood up. “I’ll just have to do the best I can for myself.”
Miss Silver was in two minds whether to answer that or not. She was always to be very glad that she had done so. She put out a detaining hand.
“You must not try to make a profit for yourself out of what you know. In certain circumstances that might be blackmail, which is a very heavily punishable offence. It is also extremely dangerous-for the blackmailer.”
Clarice’s laugh came a little too quickly.
“Who said anything about blackmail?”
“I did. It is not only a criminal practice, but an extremely dangerous one. I think there is something you are afraid of. If you know anything that you have not told me-anything which you ought to tell the police-pray make no delay in doing so. It is not only your duty, but it will be your protection. Let me urge you to think of what I have said, and to dismiss any idea of making a profit out of someone else’s wrongdoing.”
All the colour had drained out of Clarice’s face. Her mouth opened, but the only sound that came from it was a little gasp. Then quite suddenly her face was red with anger. The brightly lipsticked mouth closed with a snap before opening again to say in a voice which had no sweetness left,
“Mind your own business, can’t you!” She snatched at her gloves, her hand bag, and was gone.
Miss Silver did not attempt to follow her. She sat where she was until she had watched the girl pay her bill and leave the shop. Then, with a little shake of the head, she took up her bag and umbrella and made her own way out into the busy street and back to 15 Montague Mansions.
Clarice went back to Greenings in rather a disturbed state of mind. She had come up to collect a few more of her things, since she had now decided that it was probably going to be worth her while to go on putting up with the Miss Blakes for a bit. Now she sat in a third class carriage and was not so sure. She had shaken the dust of the tea-shop floor from her feet in a hurry, but some of the things Miss Silver had said were not so easily left behind. Blackmail! What a thing to say! “Not only a criminal practice but an extremely dangerous one…
There is something you are afraid of… “ She tried to switch her thoughts to something-anything else. What a pity her brown coat and skirt were still at the cleaners. It would be just the thing for Greenings. The red was much smarter, and it was very becoming, but people in the country were so stuffy about what you wore. Any old rag of a tweed and you were all right, but the minute you put on something a little more up-to-date they looked down their noses and said you were overdressed. Edward at eighteen had been illuminatingly frank on the subject. ”My dear girl, you can’t wear that sort of thing down here. It simply isn’t done. “ Clarice had remembered, and the red remained in the box Maisie Long was keeping for her. Her thoughts lingered upon it regretfully.
She was just beginning to plan a new high-necked woollen dress like the one she had seen in that very exclusive Bond Street shop-only of course she would have to make it herself, and it didn’t look difficult, but there was always something that didn’t come out quite right-and there was Miss Maud Silver’s voice coming through like one of those foreign stations on the radio. “Not only a criminal practice but an extremely dangerous one.” What rubbish! And who cared what a stupid old governess said anyhow?
And then Dick Winnington coming in quite strong and clear, as if he had been there in the carriage with her-“They think no end of her at the Yard.” And Miss Silver again-“Not only criminal but dangerous.” The word fell in with the clanging rhythm of the train-dangerous-dangerous-dangerous- dangerous-
She dragged her thoughts back to the stuff for the new dress. Emerald green-a good dark emerald green-those bright emeralds looked common. And a clip at the neck with green stones in it to bring up the colour. There were quite good shops in Embank. She could get the material there and a Vogue pattern to make it up by, as soon as Miss Blake paid her at the end of the week. She meant to make quite sure about getting her money paid down on the nail. Miss Mildred held the purse-strings, and everyone knew how she hated to part with a penny. “But I’m not putting up with any of that sort of thing, and Dr. Croft will back me up if it comes to a show-down.”
A show-down. The word jutted out from the rest of her thoughts and deflected them. Edward-she would have to have a show-down with Edward. He was dodging-making excuses -deliberately getting out of seeing her alone. Well, that meant he was afraid of her-afraid of what she might do to him- afraid of his own feelings. Some men were like that-shy- nervous-wary. Quite impossible to picture Edward as nervous or shy. Well then, he was wary-didn’t want to get involved. She mustn’t frighten him. The thing to do was to hint at something vague and say that she didn’t quite know what to do about it. It could be something that she had got on her mind-something that his Uncle James had said to her before he died. Yes, that was the way to go about it-“And, Edward, I thought you ought to know, because, you see, I’ve been away, and it’s been quite a shock to come down here and find that it is your Uncle Arnold who has come in for everything.” Yes, that would be the way to do it, only she must lead up to it gradually, so as to make sure of their having to go on meeting and talking about it. She mustn’t say too much at once-just be upset and having something on her conscience, so as to spin it out and keep him guessing. There wasn’t anything wrong about that, was there? Too silly for words to mind what a stupid old maid like Miss Silver said- The iron clang of the train came jangling through: “Dangerous-dangerous-dangerous-”
CHAPTER XIV
Edward went on being extremely busy. Taking over from old Barr was a leisurely process. Right in the middle of going through the books he would come upon an item for the repair of a roof and sit there wagging a finger and meandering through four or five generations of the family which had lived in the cottage for the past two hundred years. If Edward thought that he knew this corner of the country pretty well, he was being obliged to eat humble pie. Mr. Barr’s father and his grandfathers up to a great-great-great had lived and carried on an avocation of some sort or another upon the estate acquired in more recent times by Lord Burlingham, and what he did not know about the families rich, poor and middling within a radius of twenty miles was not worth knowing.