The Inspector looked a good deal taken aback by this exchange of compliments. It did not fit in with his ideas of how the gentry behaved, and he made no attempt to cope with the situation. Roydon seemed to share his feelings, but Paula, who had stalked into the library at the outset of hostilities, said in approving accents: "Good for you, Mathilda!"
As usual it was Joseph who had to intervene. He shook his head at Mathilda, although with a sympathetic twinkle in his eye, and suggested to Valerie that she was overwrought.
"She's trying to make you think I murdered Mr. Herriard!" said Valerie tearfully.
"My dear child, no one could possibly think anything so absurd!" Joseph assured her: "Nobody as pretty as you could be suspected of hurting a fly!"
She was a little mollified by this tribute, and when Roydon said emphatically "Hear, hear!" she threw him a pathetic smile, and said: "Oh, I don't know about that, but I don't even remember Stephen's giving me his case, and I certainly never took it out of the room. It's much more likely that I simply tossed it back to him."
"Oh, it is, is it?" said Mathilda. "Why "tossed"?"
Valerie's face turned crimson. "I don't know. I -"
"Yes, you do. You know perfectly well that Stephen threw his case over to you. So let's have less of this convenient aphasia!"
Valerie flung round to face Stephen. "Are you going to stand there allowing that woman to insult me?" she demanded.
"Where on earth did you dig out a line like that?" enquired Paula.