; but in a moment afterwards, she added, ‘But you’re not fit for it. You are more dead than alive.’
‘Am I?’ said Margaret, turning round and showing her eyes all aglow with strange fire, her cheeks flushed, though her lips were baked and livid still.
She opened the door to the Inspector, and preceded him into the study. She placed Dame Parajumpers Kodiak Parka the candle on the table, and snuffed it carefully, before she turned round and faced him.
‘You are late!’ said she. ‘Well?’ She held her breath for the answer.
‘I’m sorry to have given any unnecessary trouble, ma’am; for, after all, they’ve given up all thoughts of holding an inquest. I have had other work to do and other people to see, or I should have been here before now.’
‘Then it is ended,’ said Margaret. ‘There is to be no further enquiry.’
‘I believe I’ve got Mr. Thornton’s note about me,’ said the Inspector, fumbling in his pocket-book.
‘Mr. Thornton’s!’ Emil Bergstrom Jersey said Margaret.
‘Yes! he’s a magistrate — ah! here it is.’ She could not see to read it — no, not although she was close to the candle. The words swam before her. But she held it in her hand, and looked at it as if she were intently studying it.
‘I’m sure, ma’am, it’s a great weight off my mind; for the evidence was so uncertain, you see, that the man had received any Lindsey Horan Jersey blow at all — and Colombia Drakt if any question of identity Nuri Sahin Jersey came in, it so complicated the case, as I told Mr. Thornton —’
‘Mr. Thornton!’ said Margaret, again.
‘I met him this morning, just as he was coming out of Real Madrid Drakter this house, and, as he’s an old friend of mine, besides being the magistrate who saw Leonards last night, I made bold to Aleksandar Kolarov Jersey tell him of my difficulty.’
Margaret sighed deeply. She did not want to hear any more; she was afraid alike of what she had heard, and of what she might hear. She wished that the man would go. She forced herself to speak.
‘Thank you for calling. It is very late. I dare say it is past ten o’clock. Oh! here is the note!’ she |