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Updated: May 8, 2025
It was of white marble, brought from Carrara for the fifth Baron Loudwater at the end of the eighteenth century; and a whim of her murdered husband had led him to replace the original, delicate, rather severe furniture by a most comfortable broad couch, two no less comfortable chairs with arms, a small red lacquer table and a dozen cushions.
Lord Loudwater was thirty-five; she was twenty-two; he would therefore survive her by at least seven years. She would certainly be bowed down all her life under this grievous burden.
A few days later, on a Saturday, his work took him to Loudwater, and he called on Olivia. He found her a different creature. She had lost her air of being under a strain, and save that her eyes were at first anxious, she showed herself wholly at her ease with him. He came away assuring himself that she was one of the most charming women he had ever met.
She paused; then she added: "And I was frightened horribly frightened. I couldn't sleep. I was going to tell you about it, but I didn't like to. You gave me no opening. Then the letter came from my bankers about the twelve thousand pounds and it made it all right. It made it clear that I had no reason to murder Loudwater." "Of course," said Mr. Manley.
The only thing is that I ought to have found either their bills or the receipts for them among those papers except that my late client does not appear to have taken the trouble to keep many receipts." "The thing is that I've learnt that Lord Loudwater had a furious quarrel with some unknown woman between eleven and a quarter-past on the night of his death, and I want to find her.
That admission had not at all simplified the problem. The next morning Scotland Yard telegraphed to him the reply to its cable to Captain Shepherd. It ran: Loudwater allowed Mrs. Helena Truslove Crest Loudwater six hundred a year and gave her Crest. He had the mysterious woman at last! He drove over to the Crest at once and learned from the caretaker that Mrs.
Lord Loudwater again spluttered; then he roared: "A perquisite! What about the Corrupt Practices Act? It was passed for rogues like you! I'll show you all about perquisites! You'll find yourself in gaol inside of a month." "I shan't. There isn't a word of truth in it, or a scrap of evidence," said Hutchings fiercely. "Evidence? I'll find evidence all right!" cried his master.
Lord Loudwater returned his greeting with a scowl. Mr. Herbert Manley had one of those faces which begin well and end badly. He had a fine forehead, lofty and broad, a well-cut, gently-curving-nose, a slack, thick-lipped mouth, always a little open, a heavy, animal jaw, and the chin of an eagle. His fine, black hair was thin on the temples. His moustache was thin and straggled.
Lord Loudwater was paying attention neither to his breakfast nor to the cat Melchisidec. Absorbed in a leader in The Times newspaper, now and again he tugged at his red-brown beard in order to quicken his comprehension of the weighty phrases of the leader-writer; now and again he made noises, chiefly with his nose, expressive of disgust. Lady Loudwater paid no attention to these noises.
He did not believe that James Hutchings had returned; he thought it improbable that the mysterious woman had returned. Even more important was the fact that this admission of Colonel Grey assured him that neither he nor Lady Loudwater had committed the murder. Grey had evidently lied to shield her. He had no less evidently learned that she did not need shielding.
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