"You didn't consider the quarrel with his son to be of much moment?"
"You see," said Mrs. Twining apologetically, "I knew Sir Arthur too well to set much store by his threats."
"And you didn't think that his threats might provoke his son to some extreme course of action?"
She gave a faint laugh. "No, Inspector, I certainly did not. I am also well acquainted with Geoffrey — too well acquainted to expect him to do more than precisely what he did do — fling himself out of the house in a temper and walk it off, and return — a trifle sheepishly."
"I see," said Harding. "And now will you try to tell me, Mrs. Twining, exactly how you found Sir Arthur, when you went into the study, and what you did?"
"I found him dead, Inspector," she replied calmly. "He had fallen forward across his desk."
"You didn't raise any outcry?" inquired Harding.
"If you mean, did I scream, certainly not. I am not a flapper," said Mrs. Twining with a touch of asperity. "Nor did I immediately realise that Sir Arthur was dead. If I remember rightly, I spoke his name first. Then I went up to him, and laid my hand on his shoulder." Involuntarily sloe glanced down at her hand. "I didn't see the blood till I had actually touched him," she said in a level controlled voice. "I don't think I grasped what had happened even then. I believe I must have stayed quite still for some moments. I felt — a little stunned. When I pulled myself together I tried to rouse him; I think I felt for his pulse." She stopped, and pressed her handkerchief to her lips.
"And then?" prompted Harding.
She looked at him. "I felt extremely sick," she said. "I sat clown on the arm of the chair by the fire — or perhaps I should say, more correctly, that I collapsed on to it. I think if I had not I should have fainted outright. When the — nausea passed, I left the room, shutting the door behind me, so that no one should see in, and went back to the terrace, and told the others."