‘You don’t seem to understand, Jasper. That child never has any fun, never goes to Venice or the South of France like other girls of her age. So, in order to make her life seem more interesting she has to make believe all the time, poor darling.’
‘Like Mrs Thompson you mean?’
‘I’ve a very good mind to take her off to Cannes with me next week.’
‘My dear old boy, now, for God’s sake don’t lose your head. There’s the husband remember.’
‘You don’t have to remind me,’ said Noel, moodily. ‘And from what I hear I should think he’s the divorcing kind too. Sounds a perfect swine. Poor little Anne-Marie, you have no idea what that child has to put up with.’
‘Oh, well, you can have lots of fun down here. Just think of the pageant, garden party, and Grand Social Unionist rally, it will be a perfect riot. Besides, like this you can keep an eye on Eugenia, which seems to me an exceedingly important feature from your point of view, eh what?
‘I say, old boy,’ he added, half rising in his seat and staring out of the window, ‘just come here and take a look at these two chaps would you?’ Noel looked without much interest. Two excessively ordinary men in tweed coats and grey flannel trousers stood outside the Jolly Roger. Two suitcases, which clearly belonged to them, were being removed from a hired car by the boot-boy, and deposited in the hall.
‘This pub will be overflowing soon,’ remarked Noel, in a bored kind of voice.
‘Private detective agents,’ said Jasper.
‘Good heavens! Jasper, do you really think so?’
‘I know it.’
‘How?’
‘By the look of them for one thing. Nobody looks quite so obtrusively ordinary as private detective agents. Besides I’m practically certain the left-hand one is the chap who used to shadow poor little Marigold. She got awfully chummy with him after a bit, allowed him to keep a charcoal brazier inside her garden gate when the weather got bad, and promised to stay at home all Christmas Day so that he could spend it with his kiddies. He liked her a lot after that.’
‘Who can they be after down here?’
‘That’s what I propose to find out, it’s an exceedingly important point because you see it might be any one of us.’
‘I don’t see why.’
‘Well, my dear old boy, just consider the situation for a moment. Major Lace, to begin with yourself, may well be feeling jealous; Mr St Julien would be only human if he was wondering why his wife came to this unlikely place; the Duke of Dartford is probably not uninterested in getting the low-down on Lady Marjorie’s behaviour here, while it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that my Uncle Bradenham may be beginning to guess at the authorship of certain blackmailing letters which he receives from time to time (only when I am on my beam ends, of course, and anyway the old miser jolly well ought to make me a decent allowance).’
‘This is too fearful,’ said Noel. ‘What are we to do?’
‘I’m going to send for the girls, warn them about these dicks, and evolve some plan of action.’
Jasper sent a note up to Poppy’s room, with the boots, who had finished carrying luggage. In it he requested that she and Lady Marjorie should join him in the bar as soon as they were up and dressed.
‘You’d better come along Marge,’ said Poppy, as her friend began to demur at this suggestion. ‘I told you before, you must join in the life here unless you want to die of boredom.’
‘I shall probably be rude to Mr Aspect.’
‘That’s all right, he’ll give as good as he gets. Don’t you worry about him.’
‘Good morning,’ said Jasper, as they walked into the bar a few minutes later. ‘What’s yours?’
‘What’s what?’ said Lady Marjorie.
‘I meant to say that as we are having the unexpected pleasure of your company, my dear lady (running a bit short of face cream, I suppose?) what can we offer you in the shape of a drink? You so rarely assume a vertical position in these days that I imagine you to be in need of alcoholic support when you do.’
‘Thank you,’ said Lady Marjorie coldly. ‘I have been brought up to regard drinking in between meals as a very middle-class habit.’
‘I see, you prefer to get sozzled in the dining-room, I suppose. What’s yours, Miss Smith?’
Poppy said she would like a glass of sherry, and after this had duly been procured Jasper proceeded to impart his news.
‘Now the point is,’ he said, ‘that they may be after any one of us, and it would really be a good thing if we could find out which. The sooner the better in fact, so what we must have now is a little intelligent cooperation. I suggest that after luncheon today Miss Smith here, Noel, and myself, should each go for a long walk in different directions. Lady Marjorie, having lost, it appears, the use of her legs, had better spread a pot of “Ponds” over her face and resume horizontality. Now, private detective agents always behave in a pathetically obvious way, and whichever one of us it is that they are after will certainly find him or herself shadowed by these boys. However fast, however tirelessly one walks, it is impossible to shake them off. On the other hand, if they stay around here we can set our minds at rest. It will only mean that old Dartford is keeping an eye on those gold and diamond hair brushes, and so on.’
‘How dare you go into my bedroom?’ said Lady Marjorie, with cold fury.
‘My dear lady, I didn’t have to go into it. The door happened to be wide open and I was positively blinded by the flashing of gems which came from your dressing-table. Why, I nearly fell down the stairs.’
Poppy giggled at this.
Lady Marjorie gave her a reproving look, and saying: ‘I think you are a very
