Behold Here's Poison Read Online Free PDF Page B

you won't offer it to him,' said Stella. 'He's a bit squeamish.'
    'If there's one thing I hate above all others,' declared Miss Matthews, 'it is waste!'
    Her activities during the rest of the morning were surprising. Having ordered cold lamb and rice-pudding for lunch, spurning all Mrs Beecher's more appetising suggestions on the score that no one would care what there was to eat on such an occasion as this, she announced her intention of having Gregory Matthews' room turned out. No sooner had his body been removed in an ambulance than she ordered both Rose and Mary upstairs to begin this work of purification. Rose at once started to cry, saying that she couldn't bear to enter the Master's room, but Miss Matthews, her own late qualms forgotten, told her not to be silly, but to gather up all the Master's discarded underclothing, and carry them to the dirty-linen basket. Rose immediately gave notice, and retired sobbing. Mrs Matthews came up to suggest that they should all of them devote the rest of this unhappy day to quiet and meditation, but was tartly informed that if a thing had to be done her sister-in-law did not believe in putting it off. She went away, routed, and since Guy was occupied in designing an overmantel for a house in Dorking, and flatly refused to meditate with his mother, and Stella could not be found, abandoned all ideas of a contemplative day, and ordered the chauffeur to motor her to town for the purpose of buying mourning clothes.
    When Miss Matthews, busily engaged in inspecting the condition of Gregory's suits (with a view to selling them), heard of her sister-in-law's action she could scarcely contain herself. To go to London for no nobler purpose than to squander money on dress seemed to her the height of callousness. 'After all her talk about setting our minds on higher things! Meditation indeed! And I should very much like to know what right she has to take the car out without one word to me!' This aspect of the case soon outweighed every other. Miss Matthews went muttering about the house, and by lunch-time had muttered herself into a state of considerable agitation which found expression in a sudden announcement to her nephew and niece that she could not enjoy a moment's peace until she had seen Gregory's Will, and had the Whole Thing settled Once and for All.
    One glance at the rice pudding which succeeded the lamb at luncheon drove Stella from the table. She said in a wan voice that she really didn't feel she could, and betook herself to the house next door.
    Dr Fielding had come in from his rounds when Stella arrived, and had just gone in to luncheon. He was glancing through his notebook when Stella was ushered into the room, but at sight of her he threw the book aside, and jumped up. 'Stella, my dear!'
    'I've come to lunch,' said Stella. 'There's nothing but mutton and rice chez noun, and I can't bear it.'
    He smiled. 'Poor darling! Jenner, lay for Miss Matthews. Sit down, my dear, and tell me all about it. Have you had a difficult morning?'
    'Ghastly,' said Stella, accepting a glass of sherry. 'Enough to make one wish uncle hadn't died.'
    Fielding gave her a warning look, and said: 'I was afraid you'd have rather a bad time. All right, Jenner, we'll wait on ourselves.' He paused while the manservant withdrew, and then said: 'Stella, be careful what you say in front of people. You don't want anyone to get the impression that you wished your uncle to die.'
    'I didn't wish him to,' replied Stella. 'I hadn't ever considered the possibility. He wasn't the sort of person you'd expect to die, was he?'
    'Well, I'm a doctor,' said Fielding, smiling.
    'You mean you did expect it? You never told me.'
    'No, I didn't exactly expect it. Nor should I have told you if I had, my darling.'
    Stella laid down her knife and fork. 'Deryk, please tell me one thing: Do you believe uncle was poisoned?'
    'No, I don't,' he answered. 'But although there were no signs not compatible with death from syncope, I couldn't