“Marry him?” Judy was incredulous. “She wouldn’t be such a fool.”
“Ho! Wouldn’t she? You don’t know your Aunt Constance as well as I do. And I won’t be here to prevent it. Hang it all! I wish Chiozzi hadn’t got himself done in just now.”
“Let’s not tell her,” suggested Judy.
“That’s no good. She’s probably heard from her solicitors in Paris already. I haven’t seen her for two or three days. She’s at Eastbourne and won’t be back till the day after to-morrow. What’s to be done now, I wonder? I never guessed that a fallen aunt would be such a responsibility.”
“But,” said Judy, “suppose she does marry Petrovitch. Wouldn’t that be a solution, in a way?”
Noel’s jaw looked uncompromisingly firm at that moment.
“Not in the way I would like. Connie’s a fool, but she’s not bad. Petrovitch is a brute. If she marries him she’s done for, for good.”
“Leave it to Claire. She’ll find a way to stop it.”
“No, she won’t. She can’t. I’ve got more influence with Connie than anybody, but if she sees a chance of marrying Petrovitch she won’t listen to me, even.”
He sat for a moment lost in thought, then looked at his watch.