Criminals -- Fiction; Detective and mystery stories; England -- Fiction
“Nothing,” said her host, “except that she is one of these society
swells who frequent such--well, such parties as I am giving to-night.
There will be a lot of ladies here--some of the best in the land--that
is what makes it so difficult. As likely as not she will be one of
them.”
“Would you trust them all with your life?” she asked mischievously,
and then going on: “I think I know your Four Square woman. Mind,” she
raised her hand, “I’m not going to say that I shall discover her
here.”
“I hope to goodness you don’t,” said Joe heartily.
“Or if I do find her I’m going to denounce her. Perhaps you can tell
me something else about her.”
Mr. Lewinstein shook his head.
“The only thing I know is that when she’s made a haul, she usually
leaves behind a mark.”
“That I know,” said the girl nodding. “She does that in order that
suspicion shall not fall upon the servants.”
The girl thought a moment, tapping her teeth with a pencil, then she
said:
“Whatever I do, Mr. Lewinstein, you must not regard as remarkable. I
have set my mind on capturing Four Square Jane, and starting my career
in England with a big flourish of silver trumpets.” She smiled so
charmingly that Mrs. Lewinstein in the doorway raised her eyebrows.
“It is time you were going, Joseph,” she said severely. “What am I to
do with this young woman?”
“Let somebody show her her room,” said the temporarily flustered Mr.
Lewinstein, and hurried out to the waiting car.
Mrs. Lewinstein rang the bell. She had no interest in detectives,
especially pretty detectives of twenty-three.
Adchester Manor House was a large establishment, but it was packed to
its utmost capacity to accommodate the guests who arrived that night.
All Mrs. Lewinstein had said--that these pretty women and amusing men
had been lured into Buckinghamshire with a lively hope of favours to
come--might be true. Joe Lewinstein was not only a power in the City,
with the control of four great corporations, but the Lewinstein
interests stretched from Colorado to Vladivostock.
It was a particularly brilliant party which sat down to dinner that
night, and if Mr. Lewinstein swelled a little with pride, that pride
was certainly justified. On his right sat Lady Ovingham, a thin woman
with the prettiness that consists chiefly in huge appealing eyes and
an almost alarming pallor of skin. Her appearance greatly belied her
character, for she was an unusually able business woman, and had
partnered Mr. Lewinstein in some of his safer speculations. An arm
covered from wrist to elbow with diamond bracelets testified to the
success of these ventures in finance, for Lady Ovingham had a way of
investing her money in diamonds, for she knew that these stones would
not suddenly depreciate in value.
The conversation was animated and, in many cases, hilarious, for Mr.
Lewinstein had mixed his guests as carefully as his butler had mixed
the cocktails, and both things helped materially towards the success
of the evening.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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