Good lord, he is a gentleman! thought Geoffrey. Well, that's something, anyway. He doesn't look such a bad chap, either.
Miss Fawcett, realising that her frank stare was being returned with a rather amused twinkle, had the grace to blush. She stepped forward, and held out her hand. "How do you do?" she said politely.
"How do you do, Miss Fawcett," said Harding, shaking hands with her.
"How on earth did you know I was Miss Fawcett?" asked Dinah, visibly impressed.
"The butler told me that he would fetch Miss Fawcett," explained Harding gravely.
"Oh!" said Dinah, disappointed. "I thought you were being hideously clever."
"No, I'm afraid I wasn't," said Harding apologetically.
This man, decided Miss Fawcett, is definitely going to be nice.
Chapter Nine
Inspector Harding was listening to Geoffrey, voluble and slightly injured. "Of course I know you've got to make inquiries," Geoffrey said, "but I do hope you'll be as quick as you can, because it's frightfully rotten for my stepmother — I mean, she's had a simply ghastly shock, you know — we both have, if it comes to that — and having the house crammed full of visitors makes it all absolutely foul for us. And naturally they don't want to hang about here either. Personally, I can't see -"