England -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Mothers and daughters -- Fiction; Paris (France) -- Fiction; Women -- Fiction
That night, which was an unusually dark night for the time of year, Audrey
left the yacht, alone, to fetch Jane Foley. She had made a provisional
plan with Jane and Aguilar, and the arrangement with Mr. Gilman had been of
the simplest, necessitating nothing save a brief order from the owner to
the woman whom Audrey could always amuse Mr. Gilman by calling the
"parlourmaid," but who was more commonly known as the stewardess. This
young married creature had prepared a cabin. For the rest little had been
said. The understanding between Mr. Gilman and Audrey was that Mrs.
Moncreiff should continue to exist, and that not a word as to the arrival
of Jane Foley should escape either of them until the deed was accomplished.
It is true that Madame Piriac knew of the probable imminence of the affair,
but Madame Piriac was discretion elegantly attired, and from the moment
they had left Flank Hall together she had been wise enough not even to
mention Jane Foley to Audrey. Madame Piriac appreciated the value of
ignorance in a questionable crisis. Mr. Gilman had been less guarded.
Indeed he had shown a tendency to discuss the coming adventure with Audrey
in remote corners--a tendency which had to be discouraged because it gave
to both of them a too obvious air of being tremendous conspirators, Also
Audrey had had to dissuade him from accompanying her to the Hall. He had
rather conventional ideas about women being abroad alone after dark, and he
abandoned them with difficulty even now.
As there were no street lamps alight in summer in the village of Moze,
Audrey had no fear of being recognised; moreover, recognition by her former
fellow-citizens could now have no sinister importance; she did not much
care who recognised her. The principal gates of Flank Hall were slightly
ajar, as arranged with Aguilar, and she passed with a suddenly aroused
heart up the drive towards the front entrance of the house. In spite of
herself she could not get rid of an absurd fear that either Mr. Hurley or
Inspector Keeble or both would jump out of the dark bushes and slip
handcuffs upon her wrists. And the baffling invisibility of the sky further
affected her nerves. There ought to have been a lamp in the front hall, but
no ray showed through the eighteenth century fanlight over the door. She
rang the bell cautiously. She heard the distant ting. Aguilar, according to
the plan, ought to have opened; but he did not open; nobody opened. She was
instantly sure that she knew what had happened. Mr. Hurley had been to
Frinton and ascertained that the Spatt story as to the tank-room was an
invention, and had returned with a search warrant and some tools. But in
another ten seconds she was equally sure that nothing of the sort could
have happened, for it was an axiom with her that Aguilar's masterly lying,
based on masterly listening at an attic door, had convinced Mr. Hurley of
the truth of the story about the tank-room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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