"I should think so," Guest replied. "Can't say I know much about the procedure."
Miss de Silva eyed Camilla austerely. "I do not find that there is reason for you to weep," she announced. "ll I do so that is what may be easily understood, since Sir Arthur was the father of Geoffrey. But I do not weep. because I have great courage, and, besides, I do not choose that my eyes should be red. There will bc reporters, and one must think of these things, for it is a very good thing to have one's picture in all the papers though not, I assure you, with red eyes."
This speech had the effect of stopping Camilla's rather gusty sobs. She said: "I can't think how you can be so callous! And please don't ask me to eat anything, because I simply couldn't swallow a mouthful!"
"Just a little chicken, madam," said Finch soothingly at her elbow, and put a plate down before her.
Dinah had seated herself beside Stephen Guest, and was mechanically eating a morsel of chicken. It seemed curiously tasteless, and rather difficult to swallow. She felt as though she were partaking of lunch in an unpleasant nightmare, where everything was top syturvy, and familiar people said and did ridiculous things that surprised you even in your dream. She asked, "Have the police come?" and thought at once how odd that sounded, quite unreal, as unreal as the thought of Arthur, murdered in his own study. It was the sort of macabre thing that happened to other people, and was reported in the evening papers, making you wonder whatever they could be like who got themselves into such extraordinary cases. Things like this just didn't happen in one's own family. It was no good repeating to oneself that it had happened; one just couldn't realise it.
"Yes, they arrived about five minutes ago," Guest was saying. "Four of them. They're in the study now. They'll want to interview Fay first, I expect. Is she very upset?"
"Well, naturally it's a frightful shock," Dinah said. "I've left Dr Raymond and Mrs. Twining with her. She seems more stunned than anything. Geoffrey's there too," she added.
Camilla raised her head. "I never saw anything like the way Geoffrey took it!" she announced. "It takes a lot to shock me, but I must say that about finished me. He just laughed! However badly he'd quarrelled with poor Sir Arthur I should have though he could at least have pretended to be sorry."
"Hysteria?" inquired Guest, lifting his brows.
"I'm sure I don't know. All I can say is that he came in looking quite wild. I was absolutely terrified. I thought he'd gone mad or something."