“Is that so?” the Vicar queried. “I had not heard it. But it would be a very suitable match too. He has money and physical strength and she has youth and beauty. That should make an ideal combination. They seemed very happy and comfortable—I noticed that. As they passed me he was talking to her, but they both saw me. Thoyne nodded to me as they went past.”
“And how do you know he’s gone for good?” Mrs. Vicar demanded.
“Oh, yes, it was Miss Kitty who told me that. I met her again an hour or two later and I asked her if she thought Mr. Thoyne would take the chair next Wednesday. She said he couldn’t because he had left Cartordale and had given up his house. She said, I think, that he was going abroad—”
“On his yacht, I expect,” Mrs. Vicar chimed in.
“Lucky man!” I interjected. “So he possesses a yacht, does he?”
“A lovely vessel,” Mrs. Vicar replied, with enthusiasm. “I haven’t seen it, but he gave us a lecture with limelight views, ‘Round the World by Steam’ he called it, and he showed us a lot of pictures of his yacht. The Sunrise its name is, and he says he gave it that name because he uses it to go where the sun is—one of the privileges of wealth, Mr. Holt,” she added, with a sigh.
“Had Mr. Thoyne been long in Cartordale?” I asked.
“Oh, well, it would be about two years, or, let me see, perhaps a little longer,” Mrs. Vicar replied. “He fought in the war, you know, and was wounded. He stayed as a lodger for some months at Lepley’s Farm and then took Lennsdale which belongs to Mr. Bannister of Peakborough, an auctioner and agent and all sorts of things generally, who lets it furnished—”
“Lepley,” I murmured, “that name seems familiar—”
“Yes,” Mrs. Vicar went on, right in her element now, “you will be thinking of the girl who gave evidence at the inquest, Nora Lepley, tall, good-looking, with dark eyes. She lives at the farm though she sometimes stays at White Towers with her aunt, the housekeeper there. I remember there was some talk about Ronald Thoyne and Nora Lepley, but there was nothing in it, or, anyway nothing came of it. Talk’s easy in a place like this, you know—there is nothing else to do. And there’s always been plenty of talk round Nora Lepley—”