Maud chose that moment to come into the hall from the wide corridor leading past the billiard-room to the servants' quarters. She was still carrying her mutilated book, and it was evidently still absorbing her attention, 1-or she said without preamble: "They all say they know nothing about it. If you did it, Stephen, it would be more manly of you to own up to it."
"God's teeth, how many more times do you want to be told that I never touched your book?" Stephen demanded.
"There is no need to swear," Maud said. "When I was a girl gentlemen did not use strong language in front of ladies. Of course, times have changed, but I do not think for the better. It's my belief someone wantonly destroyed this book." Her pale gaze drifted to the Inspector's face.
"You don't seem to be doing anything," she said, on a note of severity. "I think you ought to discover who put my book into the incinerator. It may not seem important to you, but as far as I can see you aren't getting any further over my brother-in-law's death, so you might turn your attention to this for a change."
"Good God, Aunt, you surely don't expect Scotland Yard to bother itself about a miserable book!" exclaimed Paula. "We're all sick and tired of hearing about it!"
"And I," said Maud, quite sharply, "am sick and tired of hearing about Nat's murder, and Nat's will!"
"In that case," said Stephen, "we can't expect you to be interested in Blyth's verdict."
"No, I am not interested," Maud replied. "I do not want a large fortune, and I do not want to be obliged to continue living in this house. I shall write to town for a copy of the Life of the Empress at once, and when I have finished reading it, I shall give it to the library in place of this one."
Joseph, who was coming down the stairs, overheard this, and threw up his hands. "Oh, my dear, are we never to hear the last of that book? I thought we had decided to forget about it!"
"You may have decided to forget about it, Joseph, but it was not your book. I was very much interested in it, and I want to know what the end was."