Several further days passed, and then one evening Geoffrey, having been to the Eslava Theatre, was leaving in order to return to Aranjuez, when, to his surprise, he saw walking along the dark street in front of him the familiar figure of Mr. Mapleton, and at his side was Madame Garcia!
They had evidently been to the theatre together. He followed them unseen, and saw them enter the car, and drive back to El Pardo together.
This, indeed, further aroused his suspicions concerning Mrs. Mapleton’s repeated seizures.
Next afternoon he went to El Pardo again with the express purpose of keeping his eyes open, and also of telling Sylvia in confidence what he had learnt.
The pair while walking in the garden agreed that there was distinct suspicion that either Mr. Mapleton might be plotting to get rid of his wife, or that the handsome Spanish woman might be endeavouring to poison her rival through motives of jealousy. As Sylvia pointed out, Mapleton was very rich, while Madame Garcia was the wife of a poor professional man in financial difficulties. The woman could not obtain the luxuries, smart dresses, and sojourns at Aix, Dinant, or San Sebastian, for which she longed.
“She is always deploring the fact that she leads such a humdrum life,” the girl went on. “Only yesterday she told me that she envied us, travelling about as we do.”
“Well, personally, I don’t like madame,” her lover said. “Her eyes are cruel and vindictive, and she seems to bear an entirely false affection for her hostess.”
“Mrs. Mapleton is charming,” declared Sylvia as they halted on the terrace, from which a beautiful view of Madrid could be seen across the plain. “I wonder if her husband has any suspicion? Surely Dr. Garcia could discover whether those mysterious attacks are due to indigestion—or to foul play?”
“The doctor’s wife would never let her husband into her guilty secret,” Geoffrey said. Then after a pause, he added: “Of course if the banker himself had experienced similar seizures one could discern in them a motive—namely, that the doctor being deeply in his debt wanted to get rid of him, for by his death he would get out of his heavy liabilities. But the affair concerns only the banker’s wife.”
“It’s a complete mystery, Geoff,” declared the girl. “I watch them all closely day after day, but I become more and more mystified. I long to tell mother, but I have acted upon your advice, and kept my own counsel. Only to-day at breakfast Mrs. Mapleton, who, of course, is all unsuspecting, invited the Garcias to remain for another fortnight. After that they are going to Granada. And a week later the Mapletons go to Barcelona, where he has a branch of his bank, while we go back to London.”