Free The Gold Masters by Norman Russell

“A” Division man, no concern of his;nevertheless, he’d keep a careful eye on the police constable who had witnessed the apparitions of folk who were supposed to be dead.

5
Sir Hamo Strange Discomfited
    Lady Marion Peto was still distinguished enough to find her portrait reproduced in the better society magazines, but since turning fifty she had begun, so her sister declared indignantly, to ‘let herself go’. Her fashionable clothes had yielded to a wardrobe of plain greys and browns, and her hair, once tended by a celebrated London coiffeuse, was now pulled back sternly from her forehead, and tied in a bun.
    ‘Lord Jocelyn came home at an odd hour this afternoon, Marion,’ said Lady Marion’s sister, Lady Riverdale, putting down her tea cup on its saucer. It sounded like a statement, but it was, in fact, a question.
    ‘Lord Jocelyn keeps bankers’ hours, or so he tells me, Cornelia,’ said Lady Marion drily. ‘Far be it from me to inhibit his freedom. But then, Jocelyn has always done just as he liked. He decided long ago that I was a credulous fool, and it suits me at present to let him go on thinking that.’
    She glanced at her younger sister, and thought: she looks more like my daughter, beautifully dressed, soignée , what their father used to call ‘an ornament of society’. That’s because Lord Riverdale dotes on her. She’s no need to run charities and sit on committees, as I do, to mask my sense of worthlessness.
    ‘Well, my dear,’ said Lady Riverdale, ‘I still wish that you’d come to stay with us at Rivermead Place for a few weeks. Alfred would be delighted to have you, so think about it. I’m your only sister, and I’d like to see more of you.’
    ‘Well, Cornelia, I’ll think over what you’ve said. It’s very kind of you both, but I have many projects on hand at the moment that can’t be left. I’ll write and let you know.’
    When her sister had made her farewells, Lady Marion sat in thought. What was to become of her? She was fading visibly, and very soon whatever slender bond still existed between her and her husband would be broken. He knew that, too, and had already made the necessary arrangements….
    She knew nothing for certain, but she would not be long in that state of ignorance. To judge from his air of smug contentment, his latest abandoned female was someone more distinguished than his usual flower-shop girls and minor actresses. He thought she was a fool. Did he also think that she was harmless? Did he—?
    The door of her sitting-room opened, and a young housemaid appeared.
    ‘Shall I clear away, your ladyship?’ she asked.
    ‘Yes, Alice, you can clear, now. Have the ladies from the Dorcas Society arrived yet?’
    ‘Yes, madam. They’re ready in the drawing-room.’
    Lady Marion watched the housemaid as she left the room carrying the tea things on a silver tray. Alice despised her, of course, for failing to please her lord and master. They all despised her for abdicating her role as gracious companion of a distinguished public figure, and chatelaine of Duppas Park House. Well, she didn’t blame them. Her own sister despised her, and Clemency, who was her father’s daughter in every respect, treated her with a mixture of pity and impatience. But then, she despised herself.
    Rising from the table, she went downstairs to meet the dull and worthy women of the Dorcas Society.
    *
    Arnold Box stepped down from the omnibus that had brought him out to Finchley, and made his way along pleasant roads of red brick houses adjoining a number of playing fields and small public gardens. Turning into a brand-new avenue of modern villas, he knocked at the door of the third house on the right-hand side, and waited for Ethel, Miss Louise Whittaker’s trim little maid, to admit him to the house.
    Over the two years since Box had encountered Louise Whittaker, the London University scholar and he had become firm friends. It was his habit – and his great pleasure – to go out