Yet Mrs.Inglethorp ordered a fire! Why? Because she wished to destroy something, and could think of no other way.You will remember that, in consequence of the War economics practiced at Styles, no waste paper was thrown away.There was therefore no means of destroying a thick document such as a will.The moment I heard of a fire being lighted in Mrs.Inglethorp's room, I leaped to the conclusion that it was to destroy some important document--possibly a will.So the discovery of the charred fragment in the grate was no surprise to me.I did not, of course, know at the time that the will in question had only been made this afternoon, and I will admit that, when I learnt that fact, I fell into a grievous error.I came to the conclusion that Mrs.Inglethorp's determination to destroy her will arose as a direct consequence of the quarrel she had that afternoon, and that therefore the quarrel took place after, and not before the making of the will.
"Here, as we know, I was wrong, and I was forced to abandon that idea.I faced the problem from a new standpoint.Now, at 4 o'clock, Dorcas overheard her mistress saying angrily: 'You need not think that any fear of publicity, or scandal between husband and wife will deter me." I conjectured, and conjectured rightly, that these words were addressed, not to her husband, but to Mr.John Cavendish.At 5 o'clock, an hour later, she uses almost the same words, but the standpoint is different.She admits to Dorcas, 'I don't know what to do; scandal between husband and wife is a dreadful thing.' At 4 o'clock she has been angry, but completely mistress of herself.At 5 o'clock she is in violent distress, and speaks of having had a great shock.
"Looking at the matter psychologically, I drew one deduction which I was convinced was correct.The second 'scandal' she spoke of was not the same as the first--and it concerned herself!
"Let us reconstruct.At 4 o'clock, Mrs.Inglethorp quarrels with her son, and threatens to denounce him to his wife-- who, by the way, overheard the greater part of the conversation.At 4.30, Mrs.Inglethorp, in consequence of a conversation on the validity of wills, makes a will in favour of her husband, which the two gardeners witness.At 5 o'clock,Dorcas finds her mistress in a state of considerable agitation, with a slip of paper--'a letter,' Dorcas thinks--in her hand, and it is then that she orders the fire in her room to be lighted.Presumably, then, between 4.30 and 5 o'clock, something has occurred to occasion a complete revolution of feeling, since she is now as anxious to destroy the will, as she was before to make it. What was that something?
"As far as we know, she was quite alone during that half-hour.Nobody entered or left that boudoir.What then occasioned this sudden change of sentiment?
"One can only guess, but I believe my guess to be correct.Mrs.Inglethorp had no stamps in her desk.We know this, because later she asked Dorcas to bring her some.Now in the opposite corner of the room stood her husband's desk--locked.She was anxious to find some stamps, and, according to my theory, she tried her own keys in the desk.That one of them fitted I know.She therefore opened the desk, and in searching for the stamps she came across something else--that slip of paper which Dorcas saw in her hand, and which assuredly was never meant for Mrs.Inglethorp's eyes.On the other hand, Mrs.Cavendish believed that the slip of paper to which her mother-in-law clung so tenaciously was a written proof of her own husband's infidelity.She demanded it from Mrs.Inglethorp who assured her, quite truly, that it had nothing to do with that matter.Mrs.Cavendish did not believe her.She thought that Mrs.Inglethorp was shielding her stepson.Now Mrs.Cavendish is a very resolute woman, and, behind her mask of reserve, she was madly jealous of her husband.She determined to get hold of that paper at all costs, and in this resolution chance came to her aid.She happened to pick up the key of Mrs.Inglethorp's despatch-case, which had been lost that morning.She knew that her mother-in-law invariably kept all important papers in this particular case.
"Mrs.Cavendish, therefore, made her plans as only a woman driven desperate through jealousy could have done.Some time in the evening she unbolted the door leading into Mademoiselle Cynthia's room.Possibly she applied oil to the hinges, for I found that it opened quitenoiselessly when I tried it.She put off her project until the early hours of the morning as being safer, since the servants were accustomed to hearing her move about her room at that time.She dressed completely in her land kit, and made her way quietly through Mademoiselle Cynthia's room into that of Mrs.Inglethorp."He paused a moment, and Cynthia interrupted:
"But I should have woken up if anyone had come through my room?" "Not if you were drugged, mademoiselle.""Drugged?" "Mais, oui!"
"You remember"--he addressed us collectively again--"that through all the tumult and noise next door Mademoiselle Cynthia slept.That admitted of two possibilities.Either her sleep was feigned--which I did not believe--or her unconsciousness was indeed by artificial means.
"With this latter idea in my mind, I examined all the coffee-cups most carefully, remembering that it was Mrs.Cavendish who had brought Mademoiselle Cynthia her coffee the night before.I took a sample from each cup, and had them analysed--with no result.I had counted the cups carefully, in the event of one having been removed.Six persons had taken coffee, and six cups were duly found.I had to confess myself mistaken.
