“I see. Well, Major Jefferson, am I to take it that you can’t throw any light at all on the reasons for Mr. Stanworth’s suicide? Think carefully, if you please. Suicide is a pretty serious step, and the reasons must be correspondingly serious. The coroner is bound to do his best to bring them to light.”
“I haven’t the least idea,” said Jefferson quietly. “It is the last thing in the world I should have expected from Mr. Stanworth.”
The inspector turned to Roger. “Now, sir, you were in the garden with him last evening at ten. What happened after that?”
“Oh, we didn’t stay out very long after that. Not more than twenty minutes, I should say. I had some work to do, and we went in together.”
“What were you talking about in the garden?”
“Roses chiefly. He was very keen on roses and took a lot of interest in the rose garden here.”
“Did he seem cheerful?”
“Very. He always struck me as an exceptionally cheerful person. Genial, in fact.”
“Did anything he said lead you to think that he might be contemplating taking his life? Not at the time, of course; but looking back on it. No casual remark, or anything like that?”
“Good heavens, no! On the contrary, he talked quite a lot about the future. What part of the country he was going to stay in next year, and that sort of thing.”