Then, with sudden passion, “You have no right to say that.” There came an appeal in the voice. “My lord, am I compelled to answer that question?... They were forced strawberries given by a lady who will, if necessary, confirm what I say ... Miss Prince, my lord.”
And then at last, as if telling a story, and in a much more composed, quiet voice, Agatha Cheale continued:
“I put the strawberries on one side, partly because I had before me the disagreeable task of giving notice to a servant. I forgot about the strawberries till early afternoon. I then put them on a Chinese dessert dish, and took them upstairs myself. I placed them on a chest of drawers outside Mrs. Garlett’s room——”
Then came a long pause. Jean’s heart was beating—beating.
“Yes, I will swear they were gone when I saw the man I took to be a workman in the corridor. I thought no more of them till Mrs. Garlett first summoned me in the night.... Mrs. Garlett did not say they had been given her by her husband. I will swear to that.... I’m quite aware that everything I’m now saying is being said on oath.... She said, ‘The strawberries upset me. I ought not to have taken them.’ She had had several visitors that afternoon.... I cannot remember who they were. She was very fond of seeing people when fairly well.”
In a low hesitating voice came the words: “Must I go into details of Mr. Garlett’s sojourn in the war hospital, my lord?”... Then with a kind of cry—“He always behaved like a gentleman to me!”
There followed what seemed to the listener a very long silence, and Jean was just turning away to go upstairs, when again Agatha Cheale began speaking in an excited, defiant voice.
“Certainly not! This is the very first time I have ever seen an anonymous letter.... I am looking at it. I entirely deny that.... I can’t help what any expert says.... I don’t want to look at it again.... I did not know Miss Bower—she was never at the Thatched House that I know of.”
And then there followed complete silence, broken now and then by a moan from the sleeping woman on the other side of the door.
The eavesdropper stood up. She walked slowly across the landing, and made her way, hardly breathing, up the narrow stairway.