Torry nodded and crossed over to the desk on which Mr. Grent's bunch of keys still lay. Amongst them he found a key similar in all respects to that shown by Vass.
"So here is Mr. Grent's key," he said, comparing it with the secretary's, "and safe on his chain, in his rooms which no one could have entered since the murder. It is very strange. I don't exactly see my way," he scratched his chin thoughtfully, then cried: "The hat!"
"What hat?" asked Leighbourne, amazed at the irrelevancy of the remark.
"The hat of the dead woman which was made for Donna Maria Sandoval. I must question her at once about that, and then, and then--well, we'll see."
CHAPTER X.
[DONNA MARIA]
Wray House was a charming villa on the banks of the Thames. The view of the mansion from the river was singularly picturesque. From the banks a smooth green lawn of closely shorn turf, diversified by oval flower-beds, brilliant with scarlet geranium, sloped gently up to a terrace, bordered by a balustrade of white marble. On this plateau rose the house, a fairy edifice of two storeys, the upper smaller than the lower. A colonnade ran round the house, and supported an upper balcony, broad and spacious, on which opened the French windows of the bedrooms. French windows also gave access to the colonnade, which was liberally sprinkled with small tables and lounging chairs. The whole building painted a brilliant white had, in appearance and design, a tropical look, more suited to equatorial regions than to the cool green misty island of England. This miniature paradise was encircled by a belt of trees.
This particular summer, however, had proved particularly hot, so that Wray House was a perfect residence, during the sultry months of June and August. Used to the ardent heats of South America Donna Inez, as Mrs. Grent loved to be called, found the warmth delightful, and basked like a snake in the golden sunshine. In a large degree her niece was charmed with the unusual splendour of the summer, and the two Spanish women passed most of their time lounging in the colonnade, or swinging in silken hammock suspended from the branches of convenient trees. To them house and life and summer recalled the languid lazy existence of far distant Lima. There laziness is an art, and idleness has been reduced to a silence.
When the news came of Grent's tragic death, Donna Inez, a weak lymphatic woman, had given way to intolerable grief, and had shut herself up to indulge in it. The domestic economy of the house was thus upset for the moment, but was speedily restored to order by Maria Sandoval, who had much more character and self-control than her aunt. Mr. Leighbourne, senior, came hastily over from Paris on receiving the news of his partner's death, and at once paid a visit to Wray House. He could do nothing with Donna Inez, who was hysterical from grief, so he insisted that Donna Maria should take command of the household. This the young girl, not without misgiving, agreed to do, and satisfied on this point, Mr. Leighbourne returned to London in order to arrange the affairs of the dead man. So far as the will was concerned he, as one of the executors, took all the trouble on his shoulders, but at Wray house the responsibility of looking after her aunt and managing the servants devolved on Maria. Shortly she found that the task was too difficult, the more so as she was a foreigner, and a comparative stranger to English way, so she requested Lydia Hargone to come down and assist her.
Miss Hargone was a woman of twenty-seven, good-looking and extremely clever. She had been engaged to teach Maria English when the young girl first arrived from Lima, and had stayed nearly two years at Wray House. Then she had announced that Maria spoke the Anglo-Saxon tongue excellently well, and that, as there was no necessity for further teaching, she Miss Hargone, would seek another situation. Everyone in the house had protested against this, for Lydia was a general favourite and Maria was quite overcome with grief at the thought of losing her. However, Miss Hargone had her own way, as usual, and had departed some three months before the death of Grent, when the tragic circumstance and the urgent message of her former pupil recalled her to Wray House. It is to Miss Hargone's credit that she accepted the invitation at once, and strove in every way to pacify Donna Inez, and lighten the domestic burdens of Donna Maria. Things were in this position when Torry, accompanied by Darrel, paid a visit to the house of the dead man. And that visit was the first step in the dark and tortuous path which led to the discovery of the truth.