“Of course it did! Or rather,” Graham added with a regretful laugh, “it did and it didn’t. Mr. Harrison was very cool to her when we first came, a week ago Saturday. But on Sunday morning Mr. Brent went off to shoot with Joel Harrison and Ethel, of her own innocent volition, drifted into a long, teasing conversation with Mr. Harrison. You see, she’s been on the stage and she’s learned how to amuse men of his type without losing any of her own dignity. In the afternoon he took her for a drive and a sail and Sunday night he called me into the library.”
“That was when Anita came in and had her row with him, wasn’t it?” Landis asked.
“Yes. She interrupted our talk in the middle. I found Mr. Harrison smoking and apparently in a good humor. He told me to sit down, presented me with a cigar and then said in his blunt way that he liked my attitude and liked my wife. He added that his girls had and would have plenty of money to make fools of themselves. He wound up by telling me that he was going to change his will and make a provision for Ethel in the future as he had provided for her in the past. He proposed to go into town on Monday and take me with him for lunch at the Bankers’ Club. And I gathered that he intended to see Mr. Brent and change his will.”
“But he didn’t do it!” exclaimed Landis.
“I supposed he had, though I didn’t ask him. My senior partner would be apt to say nothing to me about it and I supposed that there was plenty of time anyway. Nobody knew then that he would be dead on Saturday!”
“So he didn’t change it at all, eh? That’s tough.”
“He left me ten thousand dollars. I suppose he postponed doing anything for Ethel. Oh, well,” Graham shrugged, “I’ve enough for us both and now I won’t spend the rest of my life trying to head off her questions as to why he left her some money! But I didn’t want to tell you that conversation in the library either. It would have meant telling you the whole story and involving Ethel’s problematical past.”
“His offer, though, confirmed your natural assumption as to the reason for his interest in your wife!”
“I suppose it did.”
“The chances are,” said Bernard, “that she’ll never have to know if you keep her away from the Cuddys. By the way, to be frank about this thing, did your guess that Harrison might be Mrs. Graham’s father ever afford you an inkling as to who her mother might have been?”