On one of those perfect July days which are occasionally vouchsafed to
the inhabitants of the British Isles Cynthia Bell and John Leslie were
married.
They had chosen an old church, tucked away in an unfashionable corner
of South London, as the scene of their wedding and had asked to the
ceremony only those whose friendship they really valued.
Lady Galston had flatly refused to sanction the marriage or to be
present at it, but Cynthia’s father had, once more, asserted himself
and had brought his daughter to London and insisted on giving her away
himself.
“A good thing Lady Galston has taken that line,” was the comment of
that other woman who had mothered Cynthia so efficiently in her time
of trouble, as she and Hatter Fayre drove together from the church to
the Staveleys’ house in Eaton Square which they had insisted on
lending for the occasion.
“She’s never been an atom of good to that child since the day she was
born and, in her present mood, she’d cast a blight over a Bacchanalian
orgy!”
They found Cynthia and Leslie in the hall on their arrival and it
certainly did not seem as if Lady Galston’s antagonism had served to
dim the girl’s radiance on this, the happiest day of her life.
She stood, her arm through Leslie’s, talking to old Mrs. Doggett and
surrounded by a shy, beaming crowd of Galston retainers who had come
of their own accord all the way from Cumberland to see her married.
Fayre, looking round, recognized the Gunnets and, with them, his own
special protégé, Albert Small, late tramp, now boot-boy, dog-washer,
bicycle-cleaner, etc., at Fayre’s newly acquired cottage in Surrey. He
was resplendent in an old suit of his master’s and looked a very
different being from the furtive and defiant tatterdemalion who had
slept in John Leslie’s barn on the fatal night of March 23rd.
At the sight of Fayre and his companion, Cynthia gave a little cry of
pleasure and came forward eagerly to greet them.
“It’s all much too wonderful to be true!” she said. “Even now, I feel
as if I may wake up at any minute!”
“It’s wonderful. But it’s not my idea of a quiet wedding,” gibed
Fayre, looking round the crowded hall. “The whole village of Keys and
all the tenants seem to have migrated from the North to wish you
luck!”
“Aren’t they pets? It never occurred to me that they would dream of
coming so far, but Father received a sort of deputation, headed by
Gunnet, to ask if they might be present. Gunnet said that, after what
had happened, he’d take it as a kindness if he might be allowed to
attend! They’re all going back by the night train. There are some old
friends waiting to see you upstairs. Even Dr. Gregg has turned up. I
asked him, though I didn’t think it was much in his line, and he said
that, as he’d _be_ in London anyhow on business, he’d be very pleased
to look in. Do go and be kind to him; he looks so miserable and he’s
already been quite rude to Father, just to show that he isn’t shy!”
“I’m glad you’re not going too far away from them all,” said Fayre.
“Bill tells me that the farm is finished. It sounds charming.”
Leslie had resigned his tenancy of the farm near Galston and built a
comfortable, roomy house on some farm-land on the Staveley estate.
After what had happened he had not cared to take Cynthia to the
ill-fated house up the lane nor had he wished to settle down in the
immediate vicinity of his mother-in-law. The Staveleys had been glad
to have Cynthia as a neighbour and, Fayre suspected, had done a good
deal towards giving Leslie a good start in his venture.
“It’s lovely and the land’s gorgeous. John’s simply delighted. You’re
going to be our first guest, Uncle Fayre. Promise you’ll come soon!”
Hatter Fayre’s face grew a shade pinker than usual.
“I’ll come with pleasure, on one condition,” he said.
His voice seemed suddenly to have grown curiously hoarse and
unmanageable.
“You can make any conditions you like, so long as you come,” was
Cynthia’s cheerful rejoinder. “You don’t want to bring that horrid old
bicycle with you, do you?” she finished, struck by a sudden suspicion.
Fayre shook his head.
“I’ve finished with that old friend for the present. No, I want to
bring something quite different. By the way, I’ve been busy with the
stables.”
“Hunters?”
“Yes, when I’ve finished my alterations. The stabling’s too inadequate
for my needs and there’s a good deal to be done.”
“Do you propose to travel with a couple of mounts? If so, John will
have to put them up in the barn. After all, though, it’s only July now
and we expect you long before the winter—or do you take them about as
pets in the off season? Is that your condition?”
“Oh, no. I’m not bringing any livestock—at least, not of that
kind. . . .”
“Well, I’m blessed!” ejaculated his companion suddenly and
indignantly.
Then, as Fayre cast a helpless glance in her direction and began to
flounder hopelessly, she took the matter firmly out of his hands.
“Livestock indeed!” she exclaimed. “The man’s impossible! What he’s
trying to do, my dear, is to ask if he may bring his wife. And why
he’s behaving like a self-conscious schoolboy over it, heaven only
knows!”
In spite of her brave words she was blushing vividly.
Cynthia fell on her neck.
“Oh, you darlings!” she exclaimed. “You haven’t really done it! You
and Miss Allen! Now I know I am going to wake up and find it’s all a
dream. It’s too perfect to be true!”
“Not Miss Allen, but Mrs. Fayre!” he corrected, with immense
satisfaction. “We stole off all by ourselves and did it yesterday. And
we’re not a bit ashamed of ourselves, either, thank you.”
The End
Transcriber’s Note
_The Draycott Murder Mystery_ was first published in 1928 under the
title _The Red Dwarf_. This transcription follows the text of the Dean
Street Press reprint of 2016. The following alterations have been made
to correct what are believed to be unambiguous scanning errors:
* “she overlook him” has been changed to “she overtook him”
(Chapter VIII).
* “beside the lire” has been changed to “beside the fire”
(Chapter X).
* “If was about” has been changed to “It was about” (Chapter XVIII).
* “anything hut slow” has been changed to “anything but slow”
(Chapter XIX).
* Two occurrences of suprious commas (e.g. “the writing, table”) have
been removed.
* Three occurrences of spurious hyphenation (e.g. “him-self”) have
been removed.
* Six occurrences of deleted hyphens in the words “to-day”,
“to-morrow”, and “to-night” have been restored.
Additionally, two other errors, both in Chapter XI, appear to be
unambiguous enough to be safely corrected:
* The ungrammatical phrase “to him dismount” has been changed to
“to make him dismount”.
* A reference to the nonexistent personage “Sybil Fayre” has been
changed to “Sybil Kean”.