Julia Spurrier
Miss Spurrier was very well dressed; as regards appearance she was
really smarter than Miss Forster. All her extremely nice clothes
looked as if they had come from the hands of artists, and her hat was a
dream. She stood with one well-gloved hand resting on a long-handled
parasol--it was a sunny afternoon; with one champagne-coloured shoe she
seemed to be describing figures on the ground; her head was held a
little back at an angle which became her. It was not easy to recognise
in this elegant personage Jane Simmons in her cap and apron. Major
Reith, who, with old-fashioned courtesy, stood with his hat in his
hand, seemed as if he did not know what to make of her; while possibly
the singularity of Miss Forster's bearing was owing to the fact that
she was divided between anger and amazement, with possibly a touch of
fear lurking in the corner of her heart. She seemed to be in doubt as
to whether it would be better and wiser to enter into conversation with
this disreputable person, or to pass contemptuously on. When, at last,
she did speak, it was with the plain intention of giving the other to
understand that she was to keep what Miss Forster considered her place.
"Have you anything to say to me? Can't you say it here?"
"In the presence of Major Reith?" The lady swung her parasol in that
gentleman's direction, and she beamed at him. "Oh, I know you,
Major--you're not the only officer in your regiment with whom I have
the pleasure of being acquainted. With one of them I've been on quite
intimate terms; ask Miss Forster. It's about him I wish to speak to
her."
The major, noting his companion's distress, made a somewhat blundering
attempt to come to her rescue.
"If I'm in the way, Miss Forster, pray command me; shall I walk on, or
would you prefer that I should stay?"
Miss Forster still seemed to be in doubt; her words were scarcely
friendly.
"Major Reith, I've only seen this person once in my life--she was a
servant at Avonham on the night of the Easter ball--or she pretended to
be. Her conduct on that occasion was of a kind which makes it amazing
that she should have the assurance to address me now."
Miss Spurrier showed no signs of being hurt by the speaker's candour;
she only laughed.
"It's hardly fair, Major Reith, for Miss Forster to put it like
that. You will, of course, recollect the robbery of the ladies'
jewels--actually from their bedrooms, when they were fast asleep. You
remember how all the jewels were found again, in a leather bag? It was
rather a funny story." She turned to the girl. "Miss Forster, shall I
tell him all about it? I'm convinced that it would tickle him."
A flush had come over Violet Forster's face, her cheeks were as scarlet
as they had just been white. Not only her lips, her whole frame seemed
trembling from head to foot.
Miss Spurrier observed her with malicious amusement--she remained all
smiles.
"Why, Miss Forster, how red you have all at once become, and only a
moment ago I was thinking how pale you were. Doesn't a touch of colour
become her, Major Reith?"
The major looked extremely uncomfortable, as if he did not know what to
make of the position. Miss Forster relieved him of his perplexity.
"I think," she said to him, "that I will hear what this person has to
say. She can come with me in this cab to my rooms; and may I ask you to
accompany us? I have reasons for wishing you to do so. Get in."
She ordered Miss Spurrier to enter the cab very much as she might have
done if she had still been Jane Simmons. Miss Spurrier laughingly
complied.
"What funny ways you have, Miss Forster! If you would let me tell Major
Reith that story, he'd think they were funnier still."
Miss Forster, following her into the cab, chose to sit with her back to
the driver; the major, entering last, was placed in the seat of honour
by Miss Spurrier's side. When the cab reached Cobden Mansions, and the
passengers had alighted, Miss Forster said to the major, as she opened
the door of a room which was just inside the hall:
"This is meant to be used as a reception room for visitors to tenants
of the flats who do not wish to see them in their own apartments. I am
going to take this person with me upstairs; will you wait here till she
has gone, or till I send for you?"
The major expressed his perfect willingness to await the lady's
pleasure; the two women ascended in the lift to Miss Forster's flat on
one of the upper floors. So soon as they were in, Miss Forster's manner
entirely changed. All signs of confusion or distress vanished; she
assumed what was almost an air of truculence. Closing the door, she
pointed to a seat.
"Sit down." The visitor obeyed. "Now, Jane Simmons, or whatever you
call yourself, you say you've been looking for me; I don't know what
truth there may be in that, but I do know that I've been looking for
you; and now that I've found you, we're not going to part until we've
come to an understanding."
"That's what I want, Miss Forster--an understanding."
"In the first place, before you leave this room, you're going to tell
me where Sydney Beaton is now."
The visitor raised her grey-suede-covered hands with what was possibly
meant to be a gesture of lady-like amazement.
"How odd! How extremely singular! What a coincidence!"
"What's a coincidence--and odd--and singular?"
Nothing could have been grimmer than the tone in which Miss Forster put
her question. She had taken up an attitude before the empty fireplace
which was almost masculine, and again there was something which was
almost masculine in the curt, unceremonious fashion of her speech;
nothing could have been in more striking contrast than the other's airs
and graces of a fine lady.
"That you should have said such a thing as that to me about dear old
Sydney."
Miss Forster bit her lip.
"Have the goodness not to speak of Mr. Beaton in my presence by his
Christian name."
"My dear Miss Forster, why not? When he and I have been such friends;
I've always called him Sydney."
"Whether that is or is not a lie I am not in a position to say; you'll
speak of him as Mr. Beaton to me. Where is Mr. Beaton?"
"That's what I said was so odd, so singular, such a coincidence. That
you should put such a question to me, when one of the chief reasons why
I was so anxious to have a talk was because I wished to put exactly the
same question to you--where is Mr. Beaton?"
"Do you mean to say that you don't know?"
"I've no more idea than the dead."
"You did know."
"Up to a certain point of course I knew."
"Where was he living when--I saw you last?"
The visitor looked at her before she answered, with a smile which grew
more and more pronounced; there was a singular quality in the woman's
smile. In repose her face was good to look at; her smile invested it
with a charm, a tenderness, a something daintily malicious, which made
it almost irresistible. Miss Forster admitted to herself that she would
be easy for any man to fall in love with, and, when she chose, there
was a winning something in her voice; she had one of those flexible
voices which are capable of expressing so many, and such fine, shades
of meaning.
"Where was he living when you saw me last? Well, that's rather a
question. I needn't tell you that a good many people would like to
know. But as I have every reason to believe that you really are his
friend, and have no sympathy with those objectionable creatures, the
police, I don't mind telling you. He had rooms at Notting Hill--78
Caversham Street. Mine were close to Brompton Road, and when he wasn't
in my rooms I was in his."
Miss Forster was making a note on a sheet of paper.
"78 Caversham Street, Notting Hill. You say that was his address at the
time of the Easter ball at Avonham?"
"Exactly, and after what occurred at Avonham I expected that he would
return to that address; and I don't mind telling you that when I left I
went straight there, to find that he hadn't returned. I was a little
surprised, but, of course--in the profession in which he was then
engaged, accidents do happen--there's no shutting our eyes to that, is
there? There might have been all sorts of reasons why his return had
been delayed; but when day after day went by, and still nothing was
seen or heard of him, I did begin to wonder."
The lady, pausing, looking down, began to draw figures on the carpet
with the end of her parasol, smiling to herself as if in enjoyment of
some private joke.
"Most regular in his habits, was Mr. Beaton--you see, I adopt the Mr.
in deference to you; I'm always so anxious not to wound people's
feelings, especially yours. Everything in his rooms was in perfect
order, the rent had been paid up, and the landlady, who was a most
innocent creature, and quite attached to her lodger, whom she
believed to be something in the commercial way, was not in the least
concerned--but I was. You see, I knew. As time went on, and there were
still no signs of him, I became positively anxious; I was almost as
attached to him as his landlady."
Again--it is necessary to dwell upon the fact, to such an extent was it
her most outstanding characteristic--her face was irradiated by her
wonderful smile. She continued, with her eyes still cast down.
"I was really concerned; then it occurred to me that probably my
distress was wasted, the explanation might be quite simple; seeing you
that night had brought his thoughts back to the old channels, and--you
knew where he was instead of me. I began to take it for granted that he
had exchanged 78 Caversham Street for an address which would be more
convenient for you, and less for me--isn't that the case?"
Miss Forster's manner, as she replied, was still ungenial.
"In dealing with persons such as you, one is confronted with the
difficulty that one can never tell when you are telling the truth and
when you are lying; I am quite sure that you can lie like truth. What I
do gather is that you wish me to believe that you have seen and heard
nothing of Mr. Beaton since that night; but though your tale sounds
plausible, there is no reason why it should be true."
"It doesn't matter to me one pin's head whether you do or don't
believe. Will you please answer me one question? Have you seen or heard
anything of him?"
"I have not."
"I do believe you, and I'm very sorry to hear it." Nothing could have
been sweeter than the smile with which Miss Spurrier said it, or nicer
than her bearing. "I'm afraid, Miss Forster, that there's something
wrong. If you do or don't believe it, I have heard nothing of Mr.
Beaton, and if you haven't, then I don't like the look of things at
all. Do you see"--the lady hesitated; looking down, she still described
figures with the end of her parasol--"there's that business of Captain
Draycott. It is, unfortunately, possible that Mr. Beaton may have had
his reasons for not wishing to let me know his whereabouts, or you
either. In matters of that kind it may be better--for the person who
did it to keep himself to himself; it's safer for him, and for all
concerned, because, of course, if one doesn't know, one can't tell."
The lady glanced at a gold watch set in a jewelled bangle.
"How the time does go--I must be off; I'm keeping Major Reith waiting.
One moment--excuse me, Miss Forster, if I am interrupting you when you
were about to speak--but please don't let us talk about that business
of Captain Draycott; it's so much better not to."
"I don't agree with you; what do you know about it?"
"Suppose I know everything--what good will it do you, or him? You're
not fool enough to suppose that I did it. Captain Draycott was an utter
stranger to me; I had no grudge against him; you know how it was--with
Mr. Beaton. You don't want to put the noose about his neck, do you? And
you can't want me to do so. I've had one friend hung, and I certainly
don't want to have another--it's a nasty business, I can assure you."
"I can't believe that, for what happened to Captain Draycott, Mr.
Beaton was in any way to blame."
"Miss Forster, you really must forgive me if I say that now I don't
believe you. I tell you again that I don't wish to talk about it, and
it's better on all accounts that we shouldn't; but do you suppose that
I can't see that your heart's as heavy as lead, and that you've worn
yourself nearly to a shadow, because you've been worrying about what
you pretend you don't believe? If you were to go down on your bended
knees, and swear that you were quite certain that he had nothing to do
with it, still I shouldn't believe you; your face, everything about you
gives you away; I know better. Let me tell you something, and this is
the last word you'll get on the subject from me. I don't know"--the
lady suddenly lowered her voice--"who killed him, and I don't want, and
I don't mean to know, but I have my doubts--so now you've got it."