"I shan't ask my girlie to introduce you. I know that you are Stephen's Uncle Joe! Val told me about you over the 'phone, and how kind you have been to her. You must let a mother thank you, Mr. Herriard!"
Joseph turned quite pink with pleasure and responded gallantly that to be kind to Valerie was a privilege requiring no thanks.
"Ah, I can't have you turning my girlie's head!" said Mrs. Dean. "Such a foolish childie as she is!"
"Oh, Mummy, it's been simply foul!" said Valerie. "I couldn't sleep a wink all night, and that beastly policeman upset me frightfully!"
"I'm afraid our nerves aren't over-strong," Mrs. Dean confided to Joseph. "We've always been one of the delicate ones, and quite absurdly sensitive."
"Ah!" said Joseph. "May I say that it is all too seldom nowadays that one encounters the bloom of innocence?"
While uttering this speech, he had drawn Mrs. Dean into the house, and Mathilda and Paula, who had come out of the library into the hall, were privileged to hear it. They perceived at once that Joseph had met a soul-mate, for Mrs. Dean threw him a warm smile, and said: "I have always tried to keep the bloom on both my girlies. How one hates to see that dewy freshness vanish! You must forgive a mother's foolish heart if I say that I can't help wishing that this hadn't happened!"
"I know, and I understand," said Joseph earnestly.
"If only my Val had not been in the house!" said Mrs. Dean, apparently stating her only objection to the murder.
Joseph saw nothing ludicrous in this remark, but shook his head, and said with a heavy sigh: "How well I know what you must feel!"