Frank’s fair eyebrows lifted.
‘I am reminded of “Perhaps it is right to dissemble your love, but why need you kick me downstairs?” Do you usually press a client as far as that?’
There was a silence long enough to be marked before she said,
‘No, Frank.’
‘Meaning?’
‘I think that, in spite of her disclaimers, Lady Dryden has something to hide.’
‘Then why import you into the case?’
The crochet-hook went in and out, making little pink shells.
‘She was very much alarmed about her niece’s position. She was desperately anxious to avoid an arrest and the consequent blow to her own social position. She had heard exaggerated stories, and believed me to have some influence with the police. She hoped that I should be a channel through which her views might percolate. Those, I think, were her re
