"He's frightfully attractive, Anne."
"He's nice, isn't he?"
"A great deal more than nice. I've got an absolute passion for him.
Why wasn't I at that damned dinner instead of you?
I'd have enjoyed the excitement - the net closing round me - the shadow of the scaffold -"
"No, you wouldn't, You're talking nonsense, Rhoda." Anne's voice was sharp.
Then it softened as she said, "It was nice of him to come all this way - for a stranger - a girl he'd only met once."
"Oh, he fell for you.
Obviously.
Men don't do purely disinterested kindnesses.
He wouldn't have come toddling down if you'd been cross-eyed and covered with pimples."
"Don't you think so?"
"I do not, my good idiot.
Mrs. Oliver's a much more disinterested party."
"I don't like her" said Anne abruptly. "I had a sort of feeling about her, I wonder what she really came for?"
"The usual suspicions of your own sex.
I daresay Major Despard had an ax to grind if it comes to that."
"I'm sure he hadn't," cried Anne hotly. Then she blushed as Rhoda Dawes laughed.
Chapter 14 THIRD VISITOR
Superintendent Battle arrived at Wallingford about six o'clock.
It was his intention to learn as much as he could from innocent local gossip before interviewing Miss Anne Meredith.
It was not difficult to glean such information as there was.
Without committing himself definitely to any statement, the superintendent nevertheless gave several different impressions of his rank and calling in life.
At least two people would have said confidently that he was a London builder come down to see about a new wing to be added to the cottage; from another you would have learned that he was "one of these week-enders wanting to take a furnished cottage," and two more would have said they knew positively and for a fact that he was the representative of a hard-court tennis firm.
The information that the superintendent gathered was entirely favorable.
Wendon Cottage?
Yes, that's right - on the Marlbury Road.
You can't miss it.
Yes, two young ladies. Miss Dawes and Miss Meredith.
Very nice young ladies, too.
The quiet one.
Here for years?
Oh, no, not that long.
Just over two years, September quarter they come in.
Mr. Pickersgill they bought it from.
Never used it much, he didn't, after his wife died.
Superintendent Battle's informant had never heard they came from Northumberland.
London he thought they came from.
Popular in the neighborhood, though some people were old-fashioned and didn't think two young ladies ought to be living alone.
But very quiet they were.
None of this cocktail-drinking week-end lot.
Miss Rhoda, she was the dashing one.
Miss Meredith was the quietest.
Yes, it was Miss Dawes what paid the bills.
She was the one had got the money.
The superintendent's researches at last led him inevitably to Mrs. Astwell, who "did" for the ladies at Wendon Cottage.
Mrs. Astwell was a loquacious lady.
"Well, no, sir, I hardly think they'd want to sell.
Not so soon.
They only got in two years ago.