‘I gathered, Inspector,’ said Sturry grandly, ‘that he considered Miss Paula’s friendship with the young man Unsuitable.’

‘I could see he wasn’t out of the top-drawer.’

‘Mr Roydon,’ said Sturry, with impressive reserve, ‘is a very estimable young man, I am sure, but he is Out of Place in an establishment where eight indoor servants are employed.’

The Inspector’s sympathy veered momentarily towards Roydon. ‘I understand he wanted the deceased to put up some money for a play, or something?’

‘That, Inspector, was Miss Paula’s object in bringing him to Lexham. Two thousand pounds was the figure I heard her name to Mr Herriard.’

‘That’s a lot of money,’ said the Inspector.

‘It would seem so to some, no doubt,’ said Sturry, in an odiously patronising way. ‘Miss Paula referred to it as Paltry.’

‘I take it that Mr Herriard refused to let her have it?’

‘Mr Herriard, Inspector, said that Miss Paula should have none of his money to waste on Mr Roydon. To which Miss Paula replied that when he was dead she would spend every penny he left her on Immoral Plays.’

The Inspector was shocked. ‘That’s a nice way to talk!’ he exclaimed.

‘Miss Paula,’ said Sturry forbearingly, ‘is not one to Mince Matters.’

‘What did Mr Herriard have to say to that?’

‘Mr Herriard said that she had better not count her chickens before they were hatched, since he would possibly be Making a Few Changes.’

‘Oh, he spoke of changing his will, did he? How did the young lady take that?’

‘Being, as one might say, in a Passion, Miss Paula said that she did not care, and did not want Mr Herriard’s money. Mr Herriard then said that he thought that that was just what she did want, two thousand pounds of it.’ He paused for his final effect. ‘“And ready to murder me to get it!” Mr Herriard said.’

‘He actually used those words?’ demanded the Inspector.

‘Those were his very words,’ replied Sturry solemnly, ‘I heard him with my own ears, being, as I have informed you, Upon the Point of bringing in the cocktails.’

He fixed the Inspector with a glassy stare as he spoke. The Inspector, reading the message thus haughtily conveyed to him, quite understood that the butler had stood with his ear to the door during this painful altercation, and had no intention of admitting it. He nodded his comprehension, and asked: ‘Was it then that Mr Herriard said that Mr Stephen was as bad as his sister?’

‘Immediately consequent upon Mr Stephen’s refusing to support his sister,’ said Sturry.

‘Oh, he didn’t support her?’ said the Inspector, like a terrier with its nose to a rat-hole.

‘Somewhat to my surprise, Inspector, no,’ Sturry replied. ‘Mr Herriard, who was by that time in Quite a Taking, then turned on Mr Stephen, if I may be permitted to use the expression.’

‘What happened next?’

‘I could not say,’ answered Sturry, with a return to his cold reserve. ‘Following my entrance into the drawing-room, Mr Stephen left it.’