“He didn’t, as it happens. But you seem to think we were talking as if it was all a matter of business, Paul. It was a shock to me to have him back again. And I daresay I did most of the talking, and he hadn’t time to give me any message for you. I was very shaken up by it all, and he was so kind to me.”
Her brother seemed to find little pleasure in the picture which she drew.
“Yes, I expect you did most of the talking, Jay. He wouldn’t interrupt you much. But, aside from all that, it’s getting near lunchtime now. He’s had the whole morning to break into the family circle; and yet he hasn’t come near. From what I remember of him, shyness wasn’t one of his defects. Whatever you may think about it, that seems to me a bit fishy. Damned strange in fact. I’m not taking up any definite stand in the matter; but there are things that need a bit of explaining.”
Miss Fordingbridge seemed for a moment to be staggered by her brother’s analysis; but she recovered herself almost at once and fastened upon his last point.
“Didn’t I tell you that he was horribly disfigured? Even in the moonlight he was a dreadful sight. Do you expect him to come marching into this hotel in broad daylight this morning, so that everyone can stare at him? You really have very little common sense, Paul. I think it shows that he wants to spare us all the tittle-tattle he can. You know what hotels are, and how the people in them are simply on the lookout for something to chatter about. And when they got a chance like this—missing heir returns, and so forth—you can guess for yourself what it would be like. We’d have no life of it, with people staring at us and whispering behind our backs as we passed. And I think Derek has shown a great deal of tact and common sense in behaving as he has done. Naturally he asked to see me first. He knows how fond of him I was.”
Her brother seemed to consider this fresh view of the affair for a longer time than he had devoted to any of her other statements. At last he shook his head doubtfully.
“It might be as you say, of course,” he conceded grudgingly. “We must wait and see what turns up. But you can take it from me, Jay, that I shan’t be satisfied unless I get something a good deal better in the way of evidence. It looks very like a parcel from a shop in Queer Street, so far as it’s gone.”
Miss Fordingbridge seemed content to drop that side of the matter, at least for the time. But she had something further to say.
“Of course you’ll drop this absurd idea of letting Foxhills now, Paul?”
Her brother seemed irritated by this fresh turn given to their conversation.
“Why should I? I’ve told you often enough that it’s my business to do the best I can for Derek; and the rent of Foxhills would be worth having, even if Derek did come back. You’re not suggesting that he should stay there, are you? It’s far too big a place for a single man, even if he wanted to live down here at Lynden Sands.”
Miss Fordingbridge was plainly put out by this suggestion.
“Of course he would stay there. When he went away, didn’t I keep his rooms in order, just as he left them? He could go back tomorrow and find his study exactly as it was when he left us. Everything’s there just as it used to be: his books, his pipes, his old diary, his ashtrays—everything. When we shut up Foxhills, I wanted to have everything ready so that when he came back from the war he’d find everything in its usual place. He could walk straight in and feel that things were just the same and that we hadn’t forgotten him. And now you want to let Foxhills just at the moment when he comes back again—rob the poor boy of the only place on this side of the world that he can call a home. I won’t have it, Paul!”
“Whether you have it or haven’t it, Jay, is a matter of total indifference. Until the power of attorney is revoked, I shall do exactly as seems best to me; and letting Foxhills is one of the things I shall certainly do.”
“But I know Derek doesn’t want it,” cried Miss Fordingbridge. “Last night I told him all about how I’d kept his things for him so carefully; and if you’d seen how touched the poor boy was! He said it was the thing that had touched him most. And he was ever so grateful to me. And now you propose to spoil it all, after those years!”
She switched off on to another subject.
“And what do you propose to do about poor old Peter Hay? If you let Foxhills, it won’t need a caretaker; and I suppose you’ll turn poor Peter adrift? And, if you remember, Peter was one of the people that Derek liked best when he was here before. He was always going about with Peter, and he said he found him companionable. And he’s learned a lot from Peter about beasts and so on—all new to him—since he came from Australia. But I suppose Peter’s to go at a week’s notice? That’s a nice way to serve people.”
Her brother seemed to consider things before replying.
“I’ll try to find something for Peter. You’re quite right, Jay. I didn’t mean to turn Peter adrift, though. If I have to sack him from the caretaker business, I’ll pay him out of my own
