hair was brushed back over his head in a neat dome. I put the vase down carefully on the chest beside the brass jug with the peonies.
«I came to get Priscilla's jewellery and stuff.»
«Is Priscilla with you?»
«No.»
«She isn't coming back, is she?»
«No.»
«Thank God. Come in here. Have a drink.» Roger's voice was prissy and plummy, rather loud, a pseudo- varsity voice, a public-relations voice, a public-speaking cad's voice. We went into the «lounge.» (A lounge lizard's voice.) Here too all was neat, there were flowers. The sun was shining.
«I want my sister's jewels.»
«Won't you drink? Mind if I do?»
«I want my sister's jewels.»
«I'm awfully sorry, but I don't think I can let you have them. You see, I don't know how valuable they are, and until-«And her mink stole.»
«Ditto.»
«Where are they?»
«Elsewhere. Look, Bradley, we needn't fight, need we?»
«I want the jewels and the mink and that vase I brought down and an enamel picture of-«Oh God. You know Priscilla's a mental case?»
«If she is, you made her one.»
«Please. I can't help Priscilla any more. I would if I could. Honestly, it's been such hell. She cleared out, after all.»
«You drove her out.» I saw Priscilla's little marble statuette on the chimney piece. It looked like Aphrodite. Miserable pity for my sister possessed me. She wanted her little things about her, they might console her. There was not much else left.
«It's no fun being in the house with a hysterical ageing woman. I did try. She got violent. And she stopped cleaning, the place was a wreck.»
«I don't want to talk to you. I want the stuff.»
«Everything valuable is in the bank. I thought Priscilla might raid the place. She can have her clothes, only for Christ's sake don't encourage her to fetch them in person. In fact I'd be jolly glad to have her clothes out of the house. But the rest I regard as sub judice.»
«Her jewels are her property.»
I felt incoherent humiliation and rage. «You deliberately drove her out. She says you tried to poison her-«
«I just put an overdose of salt and mustard into her stew. It must have tasted awful. I sat and watched her
