“It's a much meaner trick to keep him dangling when you've no intention of marrying him.”
She considered this. “No, I don't think it is,” she answered presently. “It's bound to look a bit fishy if I throw him over while he's a suspect.”
“Tony, what if he did it?” Giles asked.
“Oh well, then I shall just have to stick to him!” she said. “However, I left him proving to everybody how he couldn't possibly have done it, so perhaps he didn't. He's being rather pleased with himself at the moment, and that, coming on top of all the rest, was too much for me, so I bolted.” She turned, as Giles's man came into the room with the coffee-tray, and waited until it had been arranged on a low table beside her chair. “Thank you. Is that cream? Because if so, lovely!”
“All the rest of what, Tony?” Giles asked, as the door closed again.
“I'll tell you. I've put two lumps into yours. Is that enough? Well, to start with, Leslie Rivers drifted in after you left this afternoon, so I sent Roger out to order more whisky - it's completely incredible the amount he puts away, you know - and then she let fly. Usually she's a quiet sort of creature, and definitely sensible, but - this is absolutely private, Giles - she's not sane when it comes to Kenneth, and from the way she talked about Roger, you'd think he'd come home on purpose to do Kenneth an injury. Well, I got rather bored with that, because really and truly it's Violet who wants the Vereker fortune, much more than Kenneth, and I've got a distinct hope that she may throw him over now that he's poor again. Though I'm bound to say that he hadn't any expectations at all when she got engaged to him, so perhaps she won't. Leslie says she doesn't care tuppence for him, but then she's prejudiced. I admit I haven't much time for Violet myself - in fact, I can't stand her but I daresay she feels a lot more than she shows. She's the sort that doesn't give herself away at all, so you can never tell what she's thinking. But that's not the point. The point is I got bored with Leslie being intense about the whole situation. She went away after a bit then Kenneth and Violet came back from that matinee in the middle of a most drivelling row. Apparently some fat old man with a pearl tie-pin came up to speak to her in the theatre, and according to Kenneth, called her Vi, and pawed her shoulder, and was quite obviously one of her past conquests. Well, you know what Kenneth is. He promptly went off the deep end, and came home in one of his moods, and pranced up and down the studio raving at Violet. And Violet made things worse by saying that Tie-pin was a Big Man in the City, and she'd met him quite by accident when she was waiting for a friend in the lounge of some hotel or other. Well, that didn't go with a swing by any means, and Kenneth was extraordinarily rude, and talked about Pick-ups and things. I hoped Violet would break off the engagement there and then, but she didn't. And, of course, I went and said the wrong thing without the least meaning to, so Violet then had a shot at withering me.”
Giles laughed. “What a hopeless task! What did you say?”
“Well, I meant it really to be on her side, because Kenneth was being such an ass, and I said I couldn't see what he was making such a song and dance about when he knew perfectly well that Violet was always getting off with rich men. I honestly didn't mean it cattily, but I quite see it may have sounded like that. All the same, Kenneth must know that she used to pick up men who could trot her round and give her a good time, because she's never made any secret of the fact. However, he wouldn't look at it in a reasonable light at all, and it went on and on till I got so fed-up I could have screamed. And then Roger came in, and it was quite obvious he'd been at a pub all the time, because he was just nicely.”
“Where did he get the money?” inquired Giles.
“Took it out of my bag. He said so. Anyway, he was in a ghastly state.”