Curtains For Three Read Online Free PDF Page A

mean I had lied to my father. What he thought about Alberto and me wasn’t true. I was just bragging to him because - it doesn’t matter why. Anyway,
    what I told him wasn’t true, and I told him so that night!”
    “Which night?”
    “When we got home - from the stage party after Rigoletto. That was where my father knocked Alberto down, you know, right there on the stage. When we got home I told him that what I had said about Alberto and me wasn’t true.”
    “When were you lying, the first time or the second?”
    “Don’t answer that, my dear,” Judge Arnold broke in, lawyering. He looked sternly at Wolfe. “This is all irrelevant. You’re welcome to the facts, but relevant facts. What Miss James told her father is immaterial.”
    Wolfe shook his head. “Oh no.” His eyes went from right to left and back again.
    “Apparently I haven’t made it plain. Mrs. Mion wants me to decide for her whether she has a just claim, not so much legally as morally. If it appears that Mr. James’ assault on Mr. Mion was morally justified that will be a factor in my decision.” He focused on Clara. “Whether my question was relevant or not, Miss James, I admit it was embarrassing and therefore invited mendacity. I withdraw it. Try this instead. Had you, prior to that stage party, given your father to understand that Mr. Mion had seduced you?”
    “Well - ” Clara laughed. It was a tinkly soprano laugh, rather attractive. “What a nice old-fashioned way to say it! Yes, I had. But it wasn’t true!”
    “But you believed it, Mr. James?”
    Gifford James was having trouble holding himself in, and I concede that such leading questions about his daughter’s honor from a stranger must have been hard to take. But after all it wasn’t new to the rest of the audience, and anyway it sure was relevant. He forced himself to speak with quiet dignity. “I believed what my daughter told me, yes.”
    Wolfe nodded. “So much for that,” he said in a relieved tone. “I’m glad that part is over with.” His eyes moved. “Now. Mr. Grove, tell me about the conference in Mr. Mion’s studio, a few hours before he died.”
    Rupert the Fat had his head tilted to one side, with his shrewd black eyes meeting Wolfe’s. “It was for the purpose,” he said in his high tenor, “of discussing the demand Mion had made for payment of damages.”
    “You were there?”
    “I was, naturally. I was Mion’s adviser and manager. Also Miss Bosley, Dr.
    Lloyd, Mr. James, and Judge Arnold.”
    “Who arranged the conference, you?”
    “In a way, yes. Arnold suggested it, and I told Mion and phoned Dr. Lloyd and Miss Bosley.”
    “What was decided?”
    “Nothing. That is, nothing definite. There was the question of the extent of the damage - how soon Mion would be able to sing again.”
    “What was your position?”
    Grove’s eyes tightened. “Didn’t I say I was Mion’s manager?”
    “Certainly. I mean, what position did you take regarding the payment of damages?”
    “I thought a preliminary payment of fifty thousand dollars should be made at once. Even if Mion’s voice was soon all right he had already lost that and more.
    His South American tour had been canceled, and he had been unable to make a lot of records on contract, and then radio offers - “
    “Nothing like fifty thousand dollars,” Judge Arnold asserted aggressively. There was nothing wrong with his larynx, small as he was. “I showed figures - “
    “To hell with your figures! Anybody can - “
    “Please!” Wolfe rapped on his desk with a knuckle. “What was Mr. Mion’s position?”
    “The same as mine, of course.” Grove was scowling at Arnold as he spoke to Wolfe. “We had discussed it.”
    “Naturally.” Wolfe’s eyes went left. “How did you feel about it, Mr. James?”
    “I think,” Arnold broke in, “that I should speak “for my client. You agree,
    Gif?”
    “Go ahead,” the baritone muttered.
    Arnold did, and took most of one of the three hours.