"Of course I knew what was going on. Children do. But I didn't mind, really. When the war was over, and my mother had died, I came to stay with a cousin of hers here in England. My father disappeared. I have not seen him since then, except once about ten years ago, when he came to my `aunt's' house unexpectedly and said he must lie low for a day or two, because — " She stopped. "That does not matter. I visited Germany several times. That was where I met Larry; I think he told you he studied there? Also, that was where he met Mr. Hogenauer, I think.
"But I never saw Mr. Hogenauer until he turned up in this neighbourhood some time ago. That is to say, I thought not. But all the same I could have sworn I had met him somewhere before — and I couldn't think where. I kept racking my brains and racking my brains. It wasn't until three days ago, when I got that letter from America, that I realized. It came to me all of a sudden, when I was reading the letter about my father: I saw a face. Mr. Hogenauer had been one of the men who came to our flat in Berlin when I was ten years old."
She leaned forward, hammering the palm of her hand slowly on the arm of the chair.
"And for a good many months he'd been hanging about us. Why? He was horribly secretive about himself. I thought there was some game, without knowing what game. I still don't know. Then I heard from the colonel that you yes, I'd heard all about you and something about your department were coming down here. I heard something vague about L. On the night you turned up, I had been put into such a position that I gave strychnine salts to Mr. Hogenauer by accident. On top of all that, I found on the desk-blotter in Hogenauer's study the blottings of some words from a letter he'd written, and it showed that there was something-something big, and ugly, and-" Again she stopped. "But why are you spying on us? We haven't done anything. You know that the least bit of scandal will ruin Larry's career. Why? Why?"
There was a silence, after blue devils released at last, and a breathless silence.
"I see," said H.M.
For a moment he remained ruffling the two tufts of hair at either side of his big bald head. The skull looked back at him from the desk. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Evelyn, who was studiously examining every side of her cigarette.
"Ma'am," said H.M., clearing his throat, "it's the blinkin' awful cussedness of things in general that's tangled things up for you as well as us. We've been worried about that somethin' Big and Ugly you talk about. And apparently it's a big ugly turnip-ghost: nothin' else. You've been worryin' yourself unnecessarily. We weren't spying on you."
"I don't believe you," she said sharply, and sat up.
"All right. You don't have to. It's true, though. Here, now. Let's go back to important things. Your husband knew Hogenauer pretty well, didn't he? Wait! I can see you flashin' out with that, `Not particularly, before you even open your mouth. Don't. I mean, he'd got more than a nodding acquaintance? Uh-huh. Leave it at that. Did you know Hogenauer tolerably well too?"