Chapter IX.
The Animated Picture
“Well,” said Reeves impatiently, as Marryatt came, rather late, into the dining-room, “did you find out?”
“Yes, I went round to Campbell’s——”
“But it’s early closing day.”
“Yes, only . . . only Campbell was open, for some reason. He made no difficulty about identifying the portrait or about giving me the address. When he told me the name and address I remembered quite a lot about her.”
“Who is she, then?”
“Her name is Miss Rendall-Smith. Her father, old Canon Rendall-Smith, was Rector of Binver for a long time, a learned old man, I believe, but rather a bore. He died some years before the war—I should think it would be about 1910, and left her very badly off; she left the neighbourhood then—that was just before I came. Some time during the early part of the war she came back, apparently in much better circumstances, for she took that old brick house with the white window-frames that stands next the Church and looks as if it was the Rectory but isn’t. She lives there still; she did a good deal of public work during the war, subscriptions and things, but I never actually came across her. She’s a fine-looking woman still, Campbell told me—by the way, there was no reticence about Campbell. He showed me a more recent portrait of her which he was very proud of, and told me he thought it was a pity a lady like that didn’t marry. Altogether, we seem to have struck a public character, and a very good woman, by all that’s said of her.”
“H’m,” said Reeves, “and Brotherhood kept a portrait of her—or rather, Brotherhood in his capacity as Davenant kept a portrait of her, and took it away with him when he meant to leave these parts for a bit. It seems to me she ought to be able to tell us something about him.”
“Good Lord!” said Marryatt, “you aren’t going to introduce yourself to her as the Daily Mail reporter? Hang it all, it’s one thing to take in Mrs. Bramston——”
“And another thing to take in Miss Rendall-Smith, because she’s a lady? I’m afraid that seems to me mere sentimentalism.”