Mystery at Geneva: An Improbable Tale of Singular HappeningsMacaulay, Rose
General
Mystery at Geneva: An Improbable Tale of Singular Happenings
Macaulay, Rose
Detective and mystery stories; Geneva (Switzerland) -- Fiction
So he packed, in his small hot room after dinner, with the cats and
dogs uttering their cries in the courtyard below, and beyond them the
small whispering cry of water beating and shuffling against the wharf.
His adventure was over. In fact, Henry must now be called Miss
Montana, for such was, in truth, her name, and such, as Charles
Wilbraham had truly said, her sex.
How superciliously had he said it, how superciliously staring her down
the while. As, long ago, he had superciliously stared her down when he
had said to his secretary, "This cannot go on, Miss Montana. I must
make another arrangement. Particularly in view of Paris...."
Particularly in view of Paris. Ah, yes, that was the sting. Who would
have wanted to go on being Charles Wilbraham's secretary but for
Paris? For to that heaven of secretaries, the Paris Peace Conference,
Charles had been called, and was going that month, January, 1919. She
had been going with him. What delight! What a world of joy had opened
before her when she heard it! What a peace! It would make up for all
the weary years of war, all the desolating months of servitude to
Charles Wilbraham. And now, within a fortnight of starting, Charles
said he must make another arrangement. For his secretary had shown
gross carelessness, hopeless incompetence: she had done a frightful
thing. She had put a Foreign Office letter into an envelope addressed
to the Archbishop of Westminster, and vice versa, and so despatched
them. It was the climax, so Charles told her, of a long series of
misdeeds. Also, she was slow on the typewriter, spelt Parliament with
a small p, and used the eraser too frequently, and you could, said
Charles, see the smudge made by that a mile off. So--in fine, Charles
must make another arrangement and must in fact, in point of fact, he
unctuously told her, ask her forthwith to take a minute to the
establishment, bidding them obtain for him another secretary. The
bitterness of that moment swept back to Henry now across the years.
She remembered how, wordless, sullen, and fighting that dizziness that
attacked her in moments of stress, she had stood before him, loathing
his smooth voice, his lofty choice of words, his whole arrogant,
pompous presence. Then he had dictated the minute.
"_From_ Mr. Wilbraham.
"_To_ the Establishment Branch.
"I find I have to make other arrangements about a secretary. I
shall be glad if you will transfer Miss Montana to other work,
and send some one to me more thoroughly efficient. It would be
well if I could have a selection up for interview and make a
choice, preferably after a preliminary trial. The work will be
responsible, as I am going out to the Peace Conference in a
fortnight.
"8.1.1919."
"Kindly see," Charles had ordered her, "that that is typed and goes
down immediately. I shall be glad to have it for initialing in not
more than five minutes from now."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account