‘Who told you so?’ I asked, very much surprised.
‘Mr Ackroyd. About a week ago. he is very pleased about it – has long desired that such a thing should come to pass, or so I understood from him. I even believe that he brought some pressure to bear upon the young man. That is never wise. A young man should marry to please himself – not to please a stepfather from whom he has expectations.’
My ideas were completely upset. I could not see Ackroyd taking a hairdresser into his confidence, and discussing the marriage of his niece and stepson with him. Ackroyd extends a genial patronage to the lower orders, but he has a very great sense of his own dignity. I began to think that Porrott couldn’t be a hairdresser after all.
To hide my confusion, I said the first thing that came into my head.
‘What made you notice Ralph Paton? His good looks?’
‘No, not that alone – though he is unusually good-looking for an Englishman – what your lady novelists would call a greek god. No, there was something about that young man that I did not understand.’
He said the last sentence in a musing tone of voice which made an indefinable impression upon me. It was as though he was summing up the boy by the light of some inner knowledge that I did not share. It was that impression that was left with me, for at that moment my sister’s voice called me from the house.
I went in. Caroline had her hat on, and had evidently just come in from the village.
She began without preamble. ‘I met Mr Ackroyd.’
‘Yes?’ I said.
‘I stopped him, of course, but he seemed in a great hurry, and anxious to get away.’
I have no doubt but that that was the case. he would feel towards Caroline much as he had felt towards Miss Gannett earlier in the day – perhaps more so. Caroline is less easy to shake off.
‘I asked him at once about ralph. he was absolutely astonished. had no idea the boy was down here. he actually said he thought I must have made a mistake. I! A mistake!’
‘Ridiculous,’ I said. ‘he ought to have known you better.’
‘Then he went on to tell me that ralph and flora are engaged.’
‘I knew that, too,’ I interrupted, with modest pride.
‘Who told you?’
‘Our new neighbour.’
Caroline visibly wavered for a second or two, much as if a roulette ball might coyly hover between two numbers. Then she declined the tempting red herring.
‘I told Mr Ackroyd that ralph was staying at the Three Boars.’
‘Caroline,’ I said, ‘do you never reflect that you might do a lot of harm with this habit of yours of repeating everything indiscriminately?’
‘Nonsense,’ said my sister. ‘People ought to know things. I consider it my duty to tell them. Mr Ackroyd was very grateful to me.’
‘Well,’ I said, for there was clearly more to come.
‘I think he went straight off to the Three Boars, but if so he didn’t find ralph there.’
‘No?’
‘No. Because as I was coming back through the wood-’
‘Сoming back through the wood?’ I interrupted.
Сaroline had the grace to blush.
‘It was such a lovely day,’ she exclaimed. ‘I thought I would make a little round. The woods with their autumnal tints are so perfect at this time of year.’
Сaroline does not care a hang for woods at any time of year. Normally she regards them as places where you get your feet damp, and where all kinds of unpleasant things may drop on your head. No, it was good sound mongoose instinct which took her to our local wood. It is the only place adjacent to the village of king’s Abbot where you can talk with a young woman unseen by the whole of the village. It adjoins the Park of Fernly.
‘Well,’ I said, ‘go on.’
‘As I say, I was just coming back through the wood when I heard voices.’
Caroline paused.
‘Yes?’
‘One was Ralph Paton’s – I knew it at once. The other was a girl’s. Of course I didn’t mean to listen – ’
‘Of course not,’ I interjected, with patent sarcasm- which was, however, wasted on Caroline.
‘But I simply couldn’t help overhearing. The girl said something – I didn’t quite catch what it was, and ralph answered. he sounded very angry. ‘My dear girl,’ he said. ‘Don’t you realize that it is quite on the cards the old man will cut me off with a shilling? He’s been pretty fed up with me for the last few years. A little more would do it. And we need the dibs, my dear. I shall be a very rich man when the old fellow pops off. he’s mean as they make ’em, but he’s rolling in money really. I don’t want him to go altering his will. you leave it to me, and don’t worry.’ Those were his exact words. I remember them perfectly. unfortunately, just then I stepped on a dry twig or something, and they lowered their voices and moved away. I couldn’t, of course, go rushing after them, so wasn’t able to see who the girl was.’
‘That must have been most vexing,’ I said. ‘I suppose, though, you hurried on to the Three Boars, felt faint, and went into the bar for a glass of brandy, and so were able to see if both the barmaids were on duty?’
‘It wasn’t a barmaid,’ said Сaroline unhesitatingly. ‘In fact, I’m almost sure that it was flora Ackroyd, only-’
‘Only it doesn’t seem to make sense,’ I agreed.
‘But if it wasn’t flora, who could it have been?’
Rapidly my sister ran over a list of maidens living in the neighbourhood, with profuse reasons for and against. When she paused for breath, I murmured something about a patient, and slipped out.
I proposed to make my way to the Three Boars. It seemed likely that Ralph Paton would have returned there by now.
I knew Ralph very well – better, perhaps, than anyone else in King’s Abbot, for I had known his mother before him, and therefore I understood much in him that puzzled others. He was, to a certain extent, the victim of heredity. He had not inherited his mother’s fatal propensity for drink, but nevertheless he had in him a strain of weakness. As my new friend of this morning had declared, he was extraordinarily handsome. Just on six feet, perfectly proportioned, with the easy grace of an athlete, he was dark, like his mother, with a handsome, sunburnt face always ready to break into a smile. Ralph Paton was of those born to charm easily and without effort. He was selfindulgent and extravagant, with no veneration for anything on earth, but he was lovable nevertheless, and his friends were all devoted to him.
Could I do anything with the boy? I thought I could.
On inquiry at the Three Boars I found that captain Paton had just come in. I went up to his room and entered unannounced.
For a moment, remembering what I had heard and seen, I was doubtful of my reception, but I need have had no misgivings.
‘Why, it’s Sheppard! Glad to see you.’ He came forward to meet me, hand outstretched, a sunny smile lighting up his face. ‘The one person I am glad to see in this infernal place.’
I raised my eyebrows. ‘What’s the place been doing?’
He gave a vexed laugh. ‘It’s a long story. Things haven’t been going well with me, doctor. But have a drink, won’t you?’
‘Thanks,’ I said, ‘I will.’
He pressed the