Free Man with the Dark Beard by Annie Haynes Page A

make ’em.”
    â€œI shall not find her anything at all,” Sir Felix returned. “She is not going to take another engagement, she says. Come into money, I gather.”
    â€œDear me!” exclaimed Miss Lavinia. “I should like to know where she got it from. Well, you haven’t lost much, Sir Felix. I think – I really think I would rather have Mary Ann Taylor as a parlourmaid than that young woman as a secretary, and that is saying a great deal!”

CHAPTER 7
    â€œCan you call to mind any friend or acquaintance of Dr. Bastow’s who wears a dark beard?”
    â€œDon’t know any of his friends or acquaintances at all, except Sir Felix Skrine. He entertained at his club – the Corinthian – or if he had anyone in for a pipe and a chat he had them in his own room. As for beards, nobody wears them. Men were a great deal better-looking in my opinion when they used to in my young days. Not but what they were inconvenient sometimes!” Miss Lavinia added candidly.
    Whereat in spite of the gravity of the occasion a faint titter ran through the room.
    The adjourned inquest had been opened this morning and, as Inspector Stoddart had prophesied, Miss Lavinia was one of the first witnesses called. After her account of the finding of the body of her brother-in-law given with her usual energy, the coroner proceeded to ask her a few questions, which Miss Lavinia, in no way cowed, seemed inclined to counter with some of her own.
    â€œWhy do you ask me about a man with a dark beard?” she demanded now.
    The coroner stroked the side of his nose reflectively with his pen handle. Inspector Stoddart standing at the back of the court gave an almost imperceptible nod and the coroner went on.
    â€œA paper was found on Dr. Bastow’s desk on which apparently in his handwriting were these words: ‘It was the Man with the Dark Beard.’ ”
    Miss Lavinia stared at him. She did not appear in the least impressed.
    â€œWell, what of that?”
    The coroner took no notice of the question.
    â€œThen I am to take it that so far as you know there were no men with dark beards in Dr. Bastow’s circle?”
    â€œI have just said so,” was Miss Lavinia’s reply, spoken with uncompromising abruptness.
    There was a pause. The coroner conferred a minute or two with Inspector Stoddart, and then signified to Miss Lavinia that her examination was over. The lady stood down with one of her loudest sniffs.
    Iris Mary Houlton was the next witness called. 
    The secretary came forward from her seat near Hilary Bastow and stepped into the witness-box, and after being sworn testified that the statement she had previously given to Inspector Stoddart and now read over to her was correct in every particular.
    As she stood there, the clear light from the high window behind falling full upon her, Hilary Bastow looking at her was struck by the subtle change that seemed to have come over her. The Iris Houlton who had been Dr. Bastow’s secretary had always appeared to Hilary to be a plain, dowdy little person who had a curious trick of dropping her eyes and never looking anyone in the face. This new Iris Houlton, in her expensive mourning, much more expensive and elaborate than Hilary’s own, seemed to have no difficulty in looking the world in the face. Her complexion, which Hilary remembered as dull and sallow looking, was now pink and white, the lipstick had obviously been called in to aid nature, and the eyelashes and eyebrows, formerly indefinite and almost invisible, were now darkened and finely pencilled. She gave her evidence too in a clear, distinct rather musical voice totally unlike the almost inaudible fashion in which she had usually answered any inquiry of Hilary’s in her secretary days. Her testimony did not carry the case much further, though. Dr. Bastow had seemed much as usual when she last saw him just before leaving about seven o’clock and had