Roger nodded.
“Well, I got permission to go and see him last week. He’s mad, right enough, but only on the one point, that he seems to have forgotten everything about the murder, and thinks he is still in Sir Robert’s service; but on every other point he appears as sane as you or me. He’s a model prisoner, gives no trouble, and devotes himself to a fellow-criminal—patient I suppose one might say—whom he believes to be Sir Robert, an old man who really does resemble him, white beard and all. He waits on him hand and foot, and they tell me he’s always miserable when he’s out of his sight! He knew me well enough and seemed glad to see me.
“‘I take it very kind of you to come, Mr. Starr,’ he said. ‘We’re fairly comfortable here, though it’s not what Sir Robert has been used to, of course; but he’s much better—very much better. May I ask if you’ve seen Mr. Carling lately?’
“I said I hadn’t—that you and Mrs. Carling were abroad, but I should probably be seeing you soon, and he answered:
“‘If you do, sir, perhaps you’ll give them my best respects and good wishes. A very nice gentleman is Mr. Carling. My master misses him greatly and will be glad to see him back.’
“Then he said something that I couldn’t make sense of; perhaps you can? Would I ask Mrs. Carling to tell little Maria that he did write to her more than once, and she never answered, so that it really wasn’t his fault. Do you know what he meant?”
“Yes. Grace told me. Maria’s our little Miss Culpepper. They were in service together, and more or less in love with each other years ago, but somehow drifted apart and only met the day old Thomson came round and insisted on lending five hundred pounds of his savings for my defence. Oh, of course that’s news to you; I forgot he enjoined Grace to secrecy.”
“He did that! Well, he’s the most extraordinary case I’ve ever struck! I wonder whether he really is mad, or only consummately clever? Anyhow, I’m convinced that when he killed Lady Rawson he did it with no more animus—and no more compunction—than I’d kill a ’squito!”
Roger made a warning gesture.
“Hush, here are the girls. Don’t speak of him before Grace!”