“So I thought,” said Westenhanger. “But that hardly excuses the way in which you tried to throw suspicion on other people. If you hadn’t done that, it might have been possible to hush this up. But you made it impossible to stop short of complete exposure. I gave you every chance.”
“Need we go any further?” interposed old Rollo. “I think the matter is now quite clear to all of us; and I’m quite sure none of us wish it to go any further. The main thing is that suspicion has been cleared away.”
Westenhanger agreed.
“You’ve got off lightly, Mrs. Scorton. And you’ve Mr. Dangerfield to thank for it. If the police had been called in . . .”
Mrs. Caistor Scorton made no response. Nothing which she could have said would have lessened her defeat or gained her any sympathy. Westenhanger had put his finger on the main point of her offence when he spoke of her attempt to throw the blame on other shoulders: kleptomania might be forgiven as a morbid effect, but her effort to shield herself at Eileen’s expense had put her in an even worse light. Without a look at anyone, she crossed the room, fumbled with the door-handle for an instant before Westenhanger could come to her assistance, and then went out.
With her departure, a sudden slackening of the tension made itself felt. Everyone seemed anxious to minimise the whole matter as far as possible. The third uncomfortable scene of the week was at last safely behind them, and obviously, as Westenhanger had predicted, it would be the last of the series. Friocksheim could get back to normal once more now that the cloud of suspicion had settled finally on the right person. In a few minutes Westenhanger’s audience had filtered from the room, leaving him alone with Eric and old Rollo.
As soon as the last outsider had gone, Westenhanger put his hand in his pocket.
“Here’s the real Talisman,” he said, handing it over to the old man. “Before staging that last affair I exchanged it for the replica which Mrs. Caistor Scorton took, so that I could prove the thing by means of her finger-prints if necessary, and yet keep the rest of them from knowing that you were using a duplicate. I didn’t wish to let outsiders into a secret which I’d stumbled upon myself by accident.”
“Very thoughtful of you,” Rollo said warmly. “Most people would have been less careful of our feelings, I’m afraid.”
Westenhanger remembered something.