Flowers for the Judge, Death of a Ghost, and the Case of the Late Pig by Margery Allingham

Author:Margery Allingham [Allingham, Margery]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Agora Books

6

The Gesture

Mr Campion went slowly upstairs to the drawing room reflecting that the situation was impossible. He dreaded the meeting with the family. Belle, he knew, looked to him for comfort, and in the circumstances he had very little to offer her.

The cold air of calamity had permeated the whole household. The very atmosphere of the hall was chill and yet curiously stuffy.

They would have to be warned of the Inspector’s intention — he realised that — and there was the question of insanity too. The longer he considered his task the less he was attracted by it.

He pushed open the door of the drawing room and went in.

They were all there save Linda and Rosa-Rosa. Belle sat in her usual chair by the fire just as she had done on the evening before when she had been chatting so happily to Campion. She was very grave now, but there was no sign of weakness on her face. Her hands were folded in her lap and she stared down into the fire, her mouth screwed into a small grimace of pity.

Lisa was crying softly, huddled up on a low chair by Belle’s side. At least it seemed that she was crying, for she dabbed her little black eyes with a big white handkerchief from time to time.

On the opposite side of the hearth, Donna Beatrice, the only one of the party who had changed her dress, sat swathed in black georgette, a silver chatelaine hanging from her girdle and a great silver cross round her neck.

Max strode up and down the room impatiently. Like Donna Beatrice he had been quick to see the dramatic possibilities of the affair, and whereas he did not actually ‘make copy’ out of them, he obviously got a modicum of satisfaction out of the drama. At worst it seemed to mean that something else was happening on the little stage which he made his life. The vital question whether the scandal would affect Lafcadio’s reputation advantageously or adversely confronted him also.

He glanced at Campion carelessly as the young man came in and made him a helpless gesture. If he had said, ‘It’s too terribly trying, isn’t it? But emergencies do occur,’ he could not have conveyed his thought more clearly.

Donna Beatrice’s greeting was more sensational, and Campion remembered with sudden satisfaction that her real name was Harriet Pickering. She rose from her chair.

‘Your aura,’ she said. ‘Your aura… You looked like a flame coming into the room, a vigorous cosmic flame.’

Lisa made some muttered protest in her own language, and Belle put out a hand to soothe her.

Donna Beatrice sank down again.

‘The vibrations in this house are terrible,’ she continued. ‘The air is full of evil spirits crowding upon one another. I can feel them oppressing me, wearing me down. It’s all very well for you, Lisa. They pass you by. But I’m attuned to the higher consciousness and I know we’re all in danger. The evil act has set millions of vibrations going. We must be very strong.

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