Free Money in the Bank by P. G. Wodehouse Page B

attractive."
    Mrs. Cork looked a little blank.
    "I have never seen her wiggle the tip of her nose."
    "I suppose a detective observes these things."
    Mrs. Cork remained for some moments in thought. She seemed to be musing on the mobility of Anne's nose. Then, catching the eye of the antelope on the wall and appearing to read into its glassy stare a suggestion of rebuke, she returned to business.
    “I am not easy in my mind about Miss Benedick."
    "You mean about Cakebread," said Jeff, genially correcting the slight slip.
    "I do not mean about Cakebread," replied Mrs. Cork, with petulance. "I said Miss Benedick, and I meant Miss Benedick. When Mrs. Molloy suggested bringing a detective to Shipley Hall, I welcomed the idea principally because it would enable me to find out a good deal about Miss Benedick which I would very much like to know. Your principal duty, while you are here, will be to watch her. I don't trust her.  I think she's sly."
    Jeff could not let this pass. The revolting adjective had caused his soul to turn a handspring. He had no objection to Mrs. Cork smirching Lord Uffenham with her foul innuendoes, but when it came to Anne, it was time to pull her up sharply.
    "Sly? What do you mean, sly? She's nothing of the sort," he said warmly. "She has a beautiful nature, as frank and open as a—well, you know the sort of thing."
    Mrs. Cork began to dislike this young man. She preferred those about her to be Yes-men in the fine old Hollywood tradition. There came into her eyes a hard, steely look, which any of her native bearers and a variety of half-caste traders through the dark continent would have recognised. It was the look which had caused her to be known in native bearer and half-caste trader circles as 'Mgobo-'Mgumbi, which may be loosely translated as She on Whom It Is Unsafe To Try Any Oompus-Boompus.
    "You appear to have made up your mind about her on very slight acquaintance," she said, frostily.
    "The primary asset of the detective is the ability to read character at a glance."
    "Very possibly. But I happen to have had the opportunity of observing her in my nephew's society. And I believe she is trying to entangle him."
    The monstrous word affected Jeff like a bradawl through the seat of his trousers. He sat up sharply. "Sly" had been bad enough, verging closely on the frozen limit. "Entangle" reached this limit, if it did not actually pass it.
    "My ability to read character at a glance tells me that you are entirely wrong."
    "Will you stop talking about your ability to read character at a glance. I am not employing you to contradict me."
    Jeff's immediate impulse was to thunder that she was not employing him at all and to rise and turn on his heel and stalk from the room. Only the reflection that this would interfere a good deal with his project of seeing plenty of Anne in the near future restrained him.
    "What has given you the idea that there is anything between Miss Benedick and your nephew?" he asked, more pacifically.
    "The way she looks at him. And I was telling Mr. Trumper only this afternoon that her behaviour when she was reading me the newspaper report of my nephew's examination in court was most suspicious. Her voice trembled, and when I said I would like to strangle this man Miller with my bare hands, she gave a sort of wistful sigh. I looked up at her sharply, and saw that her eyes were blazing."
    "Miller?" said Jeff, interested by the coincidence.
    "A man of the name of J. G. Miller. A barrister."
    Once more, the bradawl had come shooting through the seat of Jeff's chair, causing him to leap like a salmon in the spawning season. It is always disconcerting for a young man to learn that he is enjoying the hospitality of a woman who is anxious to strangle him with her bare hands. He looked at Mrs. Cork closely. He had the advantage in reach, but she conveyed the impression that she might be a nasty customer in the clinches.
    "My nephew, Lionel Green, was a witness yesterday in the law courts,