“An odd streak in the family?”
“Streak? A psychopathic rainbow, old dear!
“Her father, Sir John Mayonnaise and his wife were so passionately devoted that they had two children born nineteen years apart.
“The first was Lord Tawdry. You’ve seen him?”
“O, quite.”
“There was discouragement for a devoted couple if you like!
“Then when Verbeena was born her mother died immediately.
“Ten seconds later Sir John grasped a big pistol and blew his brains somewhere or other. Nobody criticized the act of Sir John save as to the size of the pistol. Least of all he who is now Lord Tawdry.”
“There was no suicide clause in Sir John’s insurance policy, I take it?”