The Case of the Magic Mirror by Christopher Bush

Author:Christopher Bush [Bush, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dean Street Press
Published: 2018-07-02T04:00:00+00:00

The late afternoon post brought me a letter from Bernice which Palmer had forwarded. Bernice was having quite a good time and said of course that the only thing lacking to make it a heavenly time was my presence. At the end, in fact as a postscript, she wrote:

“I couldn’t understand your references to C. C. . . . Don’t tell me that you and she were once more friendly than you made out!”

The exclamation mark, of course, was to show that while such a thing might have been possible, it was—in her wifely eyes—far from probable. I struck while the iron was hot and wrote a return letter. There was a brief report of the sensational happenings, news of which had not yet reached her in the Continental editions, and then I added my own postscript:

With regard to your postscript, I was just thinking how funny life is. Since our marriage I’ve been what one calls so much of an old stager that when you mentioned Charlotte to me that morning I didn’t think of her as a possible part of my bachelor days. By the way, she’s going to America; another case of The Ghost Goes West.

When I’d posted the letter I was feeling on quite good terms with myself. One more postscript, I told myself, and Bernice would know quite enough of one episode of my past. Perhaps I had been right after all in not making a clean breast of things at the beginning, for that might have spoilt Bernice’s holiday. Truth without tears, I told myself, and I recalled an old saying of my nurse: “A penny a time, Master Ludo, the same as they pay for pianos.”

Half an hour later I was even more on good terms with myself. The time had passed quickly enough, and I had no idea how late it was. It was actually just past seven o’clock, which was dinner-time, so after a quick freshen up I looked round for Frank. I ran him to earth in Mrs. Porter’s room where he was at the telephone. He made frantic signs for me to keep away.

I was half-way through the meal when he appeared.

“Not even a half-bottle?” he said, eyebrows raising.

I looked up at him.

“Don’t be a piker,” he said. “I’ve got something for you to celebrate.”

“The news first and the bottle later,” I told him as he sat down. “What is it? Mrs. D. let out something?”

“Mrs D.? Chicken-feed,” he said contemptuously. “Preliminary report from our man in Austria. The firm just telephoned me a résumé. Thought you’d like to have it before the full report.”

“And it’s good”

“Good?” He grinned. “Listen to this. The de Karnoviks, or whatever they call themselves, have left Austria altogether, that Hasserbruch place included. She was English and he was an Anglophile, and apparently they bolted from the Gestapo. Living in Dalmatia now, but that didn’t worry our man. He scouted round and found two of the old family servants, still living near Hasserbruch. They remembered Queenie perfectly.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.