"I hope he wouldn't be such a fool!"
"So do I, but I can't help seeing that it would be a very Nordic act. Really, darling, you must admit I was quite right to send for him. He's even soothed Ermyntrude!"
"You know, Vicky," said Mary, "I'm absolutely horrified by the way you talk about your mother! It's positively indecent."
"Dearest pet, the way I talk truly isn't as indecent as the way you think," Vicky replied. "Because you've got the most degrading suspicions, and you disapprove of the poor sweet so much that you daren't put it into words. I don't disapprove of her at all; in fact, she has my vote."
Mary was silenced, and turned away, merely remarking over her shoulder that she hoped Vicky was not really going to the Inquest.
The hope, however, was without foundation, and she was not surprised when Vicky left the house next morning at half past ten, and drove off in the direction of Fritton.
Hugh Dering had already arrived at the King's Head Hotel, where the Coroner's Court was to sit, but he was not alone. He had brought his father to the Inquest, in spite of Sir William's strongly-worded announcement that he wished to have nothing to do with the affair. "I wish you would come, sir." Hugh had said. "I'd like you to take a look at some of the protagonists, and tell me what you make of them."
"Why?" demanded Sir William.
"I want your opinion. It's got me guessing, and I'd very much like to know how it strikes you."
After this, Sir William's protests had been merely a matter of form, for although he would have hotly denied such an idea, he was secretly much flattered to think that Hugh wanted his opinion. Whenever anyone asked him questions about Hugh, he naturally disparaged him, and said that he was an idle young hound, and that he didn't think he was at all clever (though, as a matter of fact, he took a first in Greats, for what that was worth), or particularly good at games (though actually he got his Rugger Blue, and had entered for the Amateur Golf Championship last year; not that that was anything to make a fuss about); but if Sir William had ever been obliged to enter a confessional, and to state his true opinion of his son, he would have said, with the utmost reluctance, that Hugh's equal for character, brains, physique, athletic prowess, and general virtue did not exist. So when this paragon expressed a desire to hear his opinion on the Carter case, Sir William swelled with inward gratification, and allowed himself to be persuaded to give up his own plans for the morning, and to accompany his young fool of a son to a stuffy room at the King's Head, all to listen to an inquest which he had no interest in, and which Hugh wouldn't have had any interest in either if he had had a grain of sense, which, however, he knew from long experience he hadn't, and probably never would have.