"Yes, the best thing they can do when they're like that is to go away for a bit," said the freckled man. "Does she go often?"
"Not so often as I'd like, believe me. She was going to Yorkshire the day after the murder, and then was so upset that she couldn't go. Now she's gone to Eastbourne instead, and long may she stay there, say I. Let's see your stuff," she said to the pedlar.
He jerked his head at the tray. "Have a look for yourself. Anything you fancy you can have cheap. It's a long time since I had a tea like this. Wot say, Bill?"
"Ar," agreed his fellow-itinerant through a large mouthful of cake. "It isn't often people has a heart."
She gloated over the bright-coloured collection awhile. "Well, the missus is missing something," she said. "She's mad on curios and such-like things that hold the dust. Artistic, she is. What's this for?" she said, holding up the dagger. "Murdering people with?"
"An't you ever seen one like that before?" the pedlar said in astonishment. "That's a paper-knife. Same as the wooden ones."
She tried the point absently on a fingertip, and with a queer little shudder of disgust that was quite involuntary she put it down again. In the end she chose a little painted bowl, quite useless but very gay to look upon. The pedlar let her have it for sixpence, and in her gratitude she produced cigarettes of Mr. Ratcliffe's, and while they smoked enlivened them with talk of what was obviously uppermost in her mind the murder.
"We had an inspector of police here, if you'd believe it. Quite nice-looking he was. You'd never say he was a policeman. Not coarse like a bobby. But it wasn't nice, all the same, having him round. Of course he was suspicious, with her carrying on like that and not wanting to see him. I heard Miss Lethbridge say to her, 'Don't be a fool, Meg. The only way to stop him is to see him and convince him. You've got to do it. "
"Well, Eastbourne's a nice place," said the freckled man. "She'll have company there to forget her troubles."
"Ah, she's not one for company much. Always having crazes for some one or other, and then she runs them to death and has some one new. Boys, as often as not. She's queer, she is."