“A detective? You?” She flashed round on Cleek and looked at him in amazement, her lower lip indrawn, a look almost of horror in her eyes. One may not tell a lion that another lion is a jackass, though he masquerade in the skin of one. Birth spoke to Birth. She saw, she knew, she understood. “By what process could such as you—” she began; then stopped and made a slight inclination of the head. “Pardon,” she continued; “that was rude. Your private affairs are of course your own, Mr.—er——”
“Headland, your ladyship,” supplied Cleek. “My name is George Headland!” And Narkom knew from that that for all her grace and charm he neither liked nor trusted her soft-eyed ladyship.
“Thank you,” said Lady Essington, accepting this self-introduction with a graceful inclination of the head. “No doubt Mr. Narkom has given you some idea of my reason for consulting you, Mr. Headland; but as time is very short let me give you the further details as briefly as possible. I am convinced beyond any shadow of a doubt that some one who has an interest in his death is secretly attacking the life of my little grandson; and I have every reason to believe that the ‘some one’ is either the Honourable Felix Carruthers or his wife.”
“But to what purpose, your ladyship? People do not commit so desperate an act as murder without some powerful motive, either of gain or revenge, behind it, and from what I have heard, neither the uncle nor the aunt can have anything to win by injuring his little lordship.”
“Can they not?” she answered, with a despairing gesture. “How little you know! Mrs. Carruthers is an ambitious woman, Mr. Headland, and, like all women of the class from which she was recruited, she aspires to a title. She was formerly an actress. The Honourable Felix married and took her from the theatre. It is abominable that a person of that type should be foisted upon society and brought into contact with her betters.”
“Oho! that’s where the shoe pinches, is it?” thought Cleek; but aloud he merely said: “The day has long passed, your ladyship, when the followers of Thespis have to apologize for their existence. There are many ladies of the stage in these times whose lives are exemplary and whose names call forth nothing but respect and admiration; and so long as this particular lady bore an unblemished reputation——Did she?”
“Oh, yes. There was never a word against her in that respect. Felix would never have married her if there had been. But I believe in persons of that class remaining in their own circle, and not intruding themselves into others to which they were not born. She is an ambitious woman, as I have told you. She aspires to a title as well as to riches, and if little Lord Strathmere should die, her husband would inherit both. Surely that is ‘motive’ enough for a woman of that type. As for her husband——”
“There, I am afraid, your suspicion confounds itself, your ladyship,” interrupted Cleek. “I am told that the Honourable Mr. Carruthers is extremely fond of the boy; besides which, being rich in his own right, he has no reason to covet the riches of his brother’s baby son.”
“Pardon me: ‘was rich’ is the proper expression, not ‘is,’ Mr. Headland. The failure, a fortnight or so ago, of the West Coast Diamond Mining Company, in which the greater part of his fortune was invested and of which he was the chairman, has sadly crippled his resources, and he has now nothing but the income from his nephew’s estate to live upon.”
“Hum-m-m! Ah! Just so!” said Cleek, pinching his chin. “Now I recollect what made the name seem familiar, Mr. Narkom. I remember reading of the failure, and of the small hope that was held out of anything being saved from the wreckage. Still, the income from the Strathmere estate is enormous; and by dint of care, in the seventeen or eighteen years which must elapse before his little lordship comes of age——”