Symmington a long time.â
I was a little surprised.
âReally?â I said. âI understood from your brother that he only bought this practice a few years ago.â
âOh yes, but Dick Symmington used to come and stay in our part of the world up north. Iâve known him for years.â
Women jump to conclusions that men do not. Nevertheless, the suddenly softened tone of Aimée Griffithâs voice put, as our old nurse would have expressed it, ideas into my head.
I looked at Aimée curiously. She went onâstill in that softened tone:
âI know Dick very well⦠Heâs a proud man, and very reserved. But heâs the sort of man who could be very jealous.â
âThat would explain,â I said deliberately, âwhy Mrs. Symmington was afraid to show him or tell him about the letter. She was afraid that, being a jealous man, he might not believe her denials.â
Miss Griffith looked at me angrily and scornfully.
âGood Lord,â she said, âdo you think any woman would go and swallow a lot of cyanide of potassium for an accusation that wasnât true?â
âThe coroner seemed to think it was possible. Your brother, tooââ
Aimée interrupted me.
âMen are all alike. All for preserving the decencies. But you donât catch me believing that stuff. If an innocent woman gets some foul anonymous letter, she laughs and chucks it away. Thatâs what Iââ she paused suddenly, and then finished, âwould do.â
But I had noticed the pause. I was almost sure that what she had been about to say was âThatâs what I did.â
I decided to take the war into the enemyâs country.
âI see,â I said pleasantly, âso youâve had one, too?â
Aimée Griffith was the type of woman who scorns to lie. She paused a minuteâflushed, then said:
âWell, yes. But I didnât let it worry me!â
âNasty?â I inquired sympathetically, as a fellow sufferer.
âNaturally. These things always are. The ravings of a lunatic. I read a few words of it, realized what it was and chucked it straight into the wastepaper basket.â
âYou didnât think of taking it to the police?â
âNot then. Least said soonest mendedâthatâs what I felt.â
An urge came over me to say solemnly: âNo smoke without fire!â but I restrained myself. To avoid temptation I reverted to Megan.
âHave you any idea of Meganâs financial position?â I asked. âItâs not idle curiosity on my part. I wondered if it would actually be necessary for her to earn her living.â
âI donât think itâs strictly necessary. Her grandmother, her fatherâs mother, left her a small income, I believe. And in any case Dick Symmington would always give her a home and provide for her, even if her mother hasnât left her anything outright. No, itâs the principle of the thing.â
âWhat principle?â
âWork, Mr. Burton. Thereâs nothing like work, for men and women. The one unforgivable sin is idleness.â
âSir Edward Grey,â I said, âafterwards our foreign minister, was sent down from Oxford for incorrigible idleness. The Duke of Wellington, I have heard, was both dull and inattentive at his books. And has it ever occurred to you, Miss Griffith, that you would probably not be able to take a good express train to London if little Georgie Stephenson had been out with his youth movement instead of lolling about, bored, in his motherâs kitchen until the curious behaviour of the kettle lid attracted the attention of his idle mind?â
Aimée merely snorted.
âIt is a theory of mine,â I said, warming to my theme, âthat we owe most of our great inventions and most of the achievements of genius to idlenessâeither enforced or voluntary. The human mind prefers to be spoon-fed with the
Abigail Madeleine u Roux Urban