“Why not? Since it’s the truth. You now can have the pleasure of seeing your nephew pursue——”
“Don’t talk about me as if I weren’t here!” exclaimed Richard. “Or as if I were a minor or an incompetent! I’m devoted to my aunt; I love, honor and obey her, but I’m a man with a mind of my own. And when it runs counter to the desires or plans of my aunt—well, we must fight it out between ourselves. However, Mr Corson, I can’t see that the affairs of my aunt and myself, or the affairs of my aunt and her fellow-feudist, Mrs Everett, have any connection with or bearing on the murder of Sir Herbert Binney. If they seem to you to have such a bearing, I think it is right that you should tell us all about it.”
“I take it, then, that we are working in unison,—at least, in concord?”
“You may certainly assume that as far as I am concerned,” said Bates, but the two women present seemed by their silence to reserve judgment.
“First, Miss Prall, I’d like to hear from you what plans Sir Herbert had, so far as you know, regarding the sale of his great bakery business.”
“I know a great deal about that, Mr Corson, as Sir Herbert not only discussed the matter with me, but did me the honor to ask my advice, considering that my judgment was of value.”
“No doubt. And you advised him?”
“I advised him to sell out to Crippen,—of Crippen’s Cakes. You know of the firm?”
“Yes, indeed; who doesn’t? It’s the largest of its sort in the country.”
“Unless one excepts the Vail Bakery. But that’s bread.”