“No, but I've heard him with his family, and what I say is, If you can be civil to strangers you can be civil in your own home, too. Not that he was always civil to strangers either, because everyone knows he was shockingly rude to the Rector, not to mention the way he behaved to Dr Fielding. And it's no credit to him that he liked you, Ned, because everybody likes you.”
“Rubbish!” said her husband. “He liked me because I could give him a game of chess.” A gleam of amusement crept into his eyes. “And because he thought he could always beat me,” he added.
“Yes, I always suspected you were the soul of tact in your dealings with my uncle,” said Randall pensively. “So was I. It saved trouble.”
Mrs Rumbold gave a giggle. “Oh, Mr Matthews, as though you'd ever bothered to be tactful in all your life!”
“I ought perhaps to explain that tact from nephew to uncle consisted in this case of refraining from asking him for money,” said Randall.
“Well, they say virtue brings its own reward, don't they?” observed Mrs Rumbold. “I wish someone would leave me a fortune, just for being what you call tactful!”
“It has certain disadvantages,” said Randall in his bored voice. “It puts strange ideas into the heads of policemen, for one thing, and that, though amusing up to a point, is apt to become a nuisance.”
“I'm sure that's all nonsense,” said Mrs Rumbold, reddening. “No one really thinks you had anything to do with it, do they, Ned?”
“What you really mean,” corrected Randall gently, “is that everyone is afraid that I couldn't have had anything to do with it.”
Mrs Rumbold did not know what to say in answer to this, and merely looked rather uncomfortable. Her husband said bluntly: “In face of your own remarks you can hardly object to your relations speculating on whether you might not be the guilty party.”