I can find only one letter for the next few weeks with any important
bearing on the subject of this inquiry. My father and stepmother were in
Paris from the 15th of December to the 7th of January. I received a few
picture post-cards with accounts of places visited, but they contained
nothing of any moment, and I did not preserve them.
Lathom joined them on or about the 28th of December, and spent the Jour
de l’An in their company. I believe that Mrs. Harrison wrote several
letters to Miss Milsom from Paris, but these I have been unable to
secure; in fact, I am informed that they have been destroyed. I visited
Miss Milsom (see my statement No. 49), and questioned her as tactfully
as possible on the subject, but could only get from her a rambling
diatribe, full of the same demented prejudice she has always displayed
against my father, and, in the absence of any direct evidence (such as
the original letters would have afforded), I feel bound to ignore her
remarks. Indeed, it is obvious that nothing which Miss Milsom says
_later_ than April, 1929, is of any evidential value whatsoever, and
that _all_ her statements, without exception, must be received with
extreme caution, except in so far as they tend to prove the influence
exerted, consciously or unconsciously, by her upon my stepmother.
Mr. Munting, who spent the Christmas season with his family and in the
company of his fiancée, not returning to town till the 15th of January,
has handed to me the only letter which he received from his friend
during this period.