“We considered those points when we talked it over about the clinic.”
“Yes. Well, then, Lady Dormer fell ill. The General went round and heard about the legacy that was coming to him. And then he toddled along to Penberthy, feeling very groggy, and promptly told him all about it. You can imagine him saying: ‘You’ve got to patch me up long enough to get the money.’ That must have been a nasty jar for Penberthy.”
“It was. You see, he didn’t even hear about my twelve thousand.”
“Oh?”
“No. Apparently what the General said was, ‘If only I last out poor Felicity, all the money comes to me. Otherwise it goes to the girl and my boys only get seven thousand apiece.’ That was why—”
“Just a moment. When did Penberthy tell you about that?”
“Why, later—when he said I was to compromise with the Fentimans.”
“That explains it. I wondered why you gave in so suddenly. I thought, then, that you—Well, anyhow, Penberthy hears this, and gets the brilliant idea of putting General Fentiman out of the way. So he gives him a slow-working kind of a pill—”
“Probably a powder in a very tough capsule that would take a long time to digest.”
“Good idea. Yes, very likely. And then the General, instead of heading straight for home, as he expected, goes off to the Club and dies there. And then Robert—”
He explained in detail what Robert had done, and resumed.
“Well, now—Penberthy was in a bad fix. If he drew attention at the time to the peculiar appearance of the corpse, he couldn’t reasonably give a certificate. In which case there would be a postmortem and an analysis, and the digitalin would be found. If he kept quiet, the money might be lost and all his trouble would be wasted. Maddenin’ for him, wasn’t it? So he did what he could. He put the time of the death as early as he dared, and hoped for the best.”
“He told me he thought there would be some attempt to make it seem later than it really was. I thought it was you who were trying to hush everything up. And I was so furious that of course I told Mr. Pritchard to have a proper inquiry made and on no account to compromise.”
“Thank God you did,” said Wimsey.
“Why?”
“I’ll tell you presently. But Penberthy now—I can’t think why he didn’t persuade you to compromise. That would have made him absolutely safe.”
“But he did! That’s what started our first quarrel. As soon as he heard about it, he said I was a fool not to compromise. I couldn’t understand his saying that, since he himself had said there was something wrong. We had a fearful row. That was the time I mentioned the twelve thousand that was coming to me anyway.”
“What did he say?”
“ ‘I didn’t know that.’ Just like that. And then he apologized and said that the law was so uncertain, it would be best to agree to divide the money anyhow. So I rang up Mr. Pritchard and told him not to make any more fuss. And we were friends again.”
“Was it the day after that, that Penberthy—er—said things to you?”
“Yes.”
“Right. Then I can tell you one thing: he would never have been so brutal if he hadn’t been in fear of his life. Do you know what had happened in between?”
She shook her head.
“I had been on the phone to him, and told him there was going to be an autopsy.”
“Oh!”
“Yes—listen—you needn’t worry any more about it. He knew the poison would be discovered, and that if he was known to be engaged to you, he was absolutely bound to be suspected. So he hurried to cut the connection with you—purely in self-defense.”
“But why do it in that brutal way?”
“Because, my dear, he knew that that particular accusation would be the very last thing a girl of your sort would tell people about. He made it absolutely impossible for you to claim him publicly. And he bolstered it up by engaging himself to the Rushworth female.”
“He didn’t care how I suffered.”
“He was in a beast of a hole,” said Wimsey, apologetically. “Mind you, it was a perfectly diabolical thing to do. I daresay he’s feeling pretty rotten about it.”
Ann Dorland clenched her hands.
“I’ve been so horribly ashamed—”
“Well, you aren’t any more, are you?”
“No—but—” A thought seemed to strike her. “Lord Peter—I can’t prove a word of this. Everybody will think I was in league with him. And they’ll think that our quarrel and his getting engaged to Naomi was just a put-up job between us to get us both out of a difficulty.”
“You’ve got brains,” said Wimsey, admiringly. “Now you see why I thanked God you’d been so keen on an inquiry at first. Pritchard can make it pretty certain that you weren’t an accessory before the fact, anyhow.”
“Of course—so he can. Oh, I’m so glad! I am so glad.” She burst into excited sobs and clutched Wimsey’s hand. “I wrote him a letter—right at the beginning—saying I’d read about a case in which they’d proved the time of somebody’s death by looking into his stomach, and asking if General Fentiman couldn’t be dug up.”
“Did you? Splendid girl! You have got a head on your shoulders! … No, I observe that it’s on my shoulders. Go on. Have a real, good howl—I feel rather like howling myself. I’ve been quite worried about it all. But it’s all right now, isn’t it?”
“I am a fool … but I’m so thankful you came.”
“So am I. Here, have
