"Oh?" said the Inspector, deeply interested, and trying not to show it. "Not your money, eh?"
This vulgarity brought a look of pain to Sturry's countenance, but being by this time launched on the cumulative tide of his disclosures, he decided to overlook it. "Mr. Joseph Herriard is a very well-meaning gentleman," he said, "but the Peculiar Circumstances of his life have made him, I regret to say, forgetful of his dignity. He is Familiar with the Staff."
The Inspector nodded feelingly. "I know what you mean. What about the young one? Cross-grained looking chap, I thought."
"Mr. Stephen Herriard," said Sturry, "is not a gentleman with whom I could ever contemplate taking service. Mr. Stephen's temper is quite as violent as his late uncle's, and although I would not wish to imply that he is not Quite the Gentleman, he is careless of appearances to a degree which I could not bring myself to overlook. He has, moreover, become engaged to a young lady who will not, in my opinion, Do for Lexham Manor." He paused, fixing the Inspector with a basilisk eye. "I could not, in any case, reconcile it with my conscience to serve any gentleman who had been on such inimical terms with the late Mr. Herriard," he said.
Here it comes at last! thought the Inspector. "I'd heard that they quarrelled a good bit," he said. "Bad, was it?"
Sturry closed his eyes for an expressive moment. "At times, Inspector, it has been what I should call Shocking, both Mr. Stephen and Mr. Herriard raising their voices in a manner very unbecoming to their stations, and not caring who might be within hearing. Indeed, upon one occasion Mr. Stephen had Words with his uncle in front of the Tweeny."
The enormity of this did not, perhaps, impress the Inspector as forcibly as it was meant to, but he looked shocked, and said he wondered why Stephen came to Lexham so often.
"If you were to ask me, Inspector," said Sturry, "I should say that both Mr. Stephen and Miss Paula came for what they could get out of the late Mr. Herriard."
"Is Stephen Herriard the heir?"
"That, Inspector, I could not take it upon myself to say, not being in the late Mr. Herriard's confidence. It is generally believed in the Hall that he is, Mr. Herriard having had an unaccountable fondness for him. But there has been a good deal of unpleasantness lately over Mr. Stephen's Unfortunate Entanglement, Mr. Herriard having taken exception to Miss Dean in a way one cannot wonder at. There was Quite a Scene between them after lunch."