If Winter ComesHutchinson, A. S. M. (Arthur Stuart-Menteth)
General
If Winter Comes
Hutchinson, A. S. M. (Arthur Stuart-Menteth)
Fiction
"'Was she dismissed because your wife suspected you of relations with
her?'
"'Look here--'
"'Answer the question.'
"'Well, but look _here_--'
"'Answer the question, sir.'
"'Look _here_--'
"'Very well, sir. Very well. Answer me this question then. Is it the
fact that your wife has instituted divorce proceedings against you?'
"'Look _here_--'
"Court surging with sensation at this dramatic disclosure. Humpo mopping
his face, keeping the great forefinger going. Sabre clutching the desk
like a man in asthma, Twyning tugging at Humpo's coat. 'Yes, yes,' says
Humpo, bending down, then launches at Sabre again.
"'Is it the fact that in these proceedings the deceased woman is named
as corespondent?'
"'Look here--'
"'You keep asking me to look here, sir, but you tell me nothing. I ask
you plain questions. Have you nothing better than, "Look here"? Is it
the fact that these papers were served on you at Brighton on the
occasion of your flight?'
"'Flight--flight--Look here--'
"'Is it the fact?'
"'Yes. Brighton, yes. But, look here--flight! flight! Holiday, I tell
you. Holiday.'
"'Holiday!' cries Humpo. 'Do you tell me holiday, sir? Holiday! I thank
you for that word. We will examine it in a moment. This was at Brighton,
then. The business of the witness whom we have recently seen in the box
was to serve the papers on you and on the deceased. Now come back a
little. Let me ask you to carry back your mind to the summer of 1915--,
and with his wagging forefinger, and his sloshing tongue, and his
mopping at his face, and his throwing back of his mane as though it were
a cloak from under which he kept rushing in to stab home another knife,
he takes the unhappy man through all the stuff he had got out of old
Bright--Sabre's apparently uncalled-for interest in the girl, first
getting her from her father's house to the neighbourhood of his own,
then under his own roof, and all the rest of the unholy chain of it.
Then he has a chat with Twyning, then mops himself dry, and then hurls
in again.
"'Now, sir, this holiday. This pleasant holiday by the sea! Did you make
any preparations for it, any little purchases?'
"'No. Purchases? No. Look here--'
"'Never mind about "Look here," sir. No purchases? Did you hear the
evidence of the witness--the Alton chemist who declared on oath that you
made a purchase in his shop on the very day before you started, a
purchase you have admitted? Remembering that, do you still say you made
no purchases for your--holiday?'
"'Nothing to do with it. Nothing--'
"'Nothing to do with it? Well, sir, we will accept that for a moment. Do
you often go shopping in Alton?'
"The poor beggar shook his head. No voice in his throat.
"'Do you shop there once in a month, once in six months?'
"Shook again.
"'Are there chemists in the Garden House, in Tidborough, in
Chovensbury?'
"Nods.
"'Are you known in all these places I have mentioned?'
"Nods.
"'Are you known in Alton?'
"Shakes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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