She looked away, at a corner of one window, and added in a very low voice: "I never had a great deal of happiness, you see. I thought that I was going to have it, now. Why should — somebody — have spoiled it?"
Again the night breeze went wandering through the trees round the house, with a rustling of turmoil far away; and you knew that it was agitating the beeches and maples round the Guest House as well. All the time Dr. Fell's pencil was slowly clicking against the desk; tap — tap — tap — as though it were a brain endlessly asking the same question.
"How long have you suspected anything in your father's past, Miss Depping? 0
She shook her head. There never was anything definite. But I think I started to wonder as much as five years ago. You see, he sent for me to join him in London suddenly. I thought he had always been there; I wrote him once a week, in care of Mr. Langdon, and he would reply about once a month, with a London postmark. So I came over from France; naturally I was pleased to get away from school. He told me he was retiring from whatever it was he did in the City, and going into the publishing business with a Mr. Standish and a Mr. Burke.
Then — we were sitting in the lobby of the hotel one afternoon, and all of a sudden he caught sight of somebody walking towards us, and he was — I don't know — flustered. He said, That's Burke; he didn't say he was coming here. Listen: don't be surprised at anything I say to him in the way of business. So far as you know, I've spent a year in India, where — remember this — where my closest friend was a Major Pendleton.' Then he hushed me." She brushed a hand back across her shining brown hair. It was as though she had an insupportable headache, and tried to smile in spite of it. "You… well, you wonder about things like that. But I never knew. That's why I say I have a right to know."
Again she hesitated, stared at Dr. Fell, and could not ask the question. It was Maw Standish who fired it out.
That's precisely it. That's why I demand to know. I still tell you this is impossible! Poor Mr. Depping… I have even heard rumors from the servants' hall— from the servants hall, I assure you. to the outrageous effect that he was a criminal. A criminal." Maw gulped out the word.
"We had better setde this," declared Dr. Fell, "before. we can go on." His voice became gruff. "I am sorry that I must give you the facts brutally, but it will be best this way. The rumor was correct. Depping was not only a criminal; he was a criminal of the meanest and most damnable variety; a racketeer, an extortionist, and a killer. Do not ask for any of the details. They are not pretty."
"Impossi—" said Mrs. Standish, and stopped. She stared at the bishop, who nodded slowly.
"I am sorry, madam," he said.