"Oh, no!" she answered. "Not false. I am fond of Geoffrey, as one must be of a boy one has known from his infancy. He has many faults, but I ascribe most of them to his upbringing. His father neither understood him nor liked him."
"It was unfortunate for him that his mother left Sir Arthur," remarked Harding.
"Very," said Mrs. Twining in a dry voice. "Perhaps had she been wiser, less impetuous, things would have happened differently. But she was young and in love and married a man who —- Well, it is all ancient history now, and not worth discussing."
"Were you intimate with her, Mrs. Twining?"
She reflected. "Oh — intimate! She was a school-friend; and I suppose you may say we were fairly intimate. Why do you ask me that?"
"Only because I somehow or other got the impression that you came to live in this district to be near Geoffrey. I wondered whether you had done so for his mother's sake."
She straightened the blotter on the desk. "I do not know what can have given you that impression, Inspector. I lost sight of his mother many years ago — when she deserted Sir Arthur, in fact. I chose the district because, having lived abroad all my life, I have scarcely any friends in England. I did not see eye to eye with Sir Arthur, perhaps, but I had known him a long time, and to settle where he had already formed acquaintances to whom he could introduce me seemed a natural thing to do." She looked up and saw him watching her, not suspiciously, but with a kind of grave sympathy. "The fact that I had known his first wife and was fond of her son may have influenced me a little," she said. "I'm afraid, however, that I have not done very much for Geoffrey, except occasionally to talk Sir Arthur into a better humour on his behalf."
"Sir Arthur seems to have had more respect for you than for most of the people he knew, judging from what I have been told," commented Harding.
"When one has known a man for a great many years," said Mrs. Twining easily, "one does acquire a certain influence over him. You must forgive me, Inspector, but is my residence in this district the matter which you said was puzzling you?"
"No," replied Harding. "That isn't it." He opened his pocket-book and took from it the half-sheet of notepaper with the word "There' scrawled across it. "This, Mrs. Twining, was found on Sir Arthur's desk, under his hand, on Monday."