"Well, nobody was saying very much, if you know what I mean."
"Police weren't giving anything away?"
"No."
Stephen said, "Must have been rather an unpleasant business for you."
"Well, I didn't exactly enjoy it.
But it wasn't too devastating.
The coroner was quite decent."
Stephen slashed absent-mindedly at the hedge.
"I say, Venetia, any idea - have you, I mean - as to who did it?"
Venetia Kerr shook her head slowly.
"No."
She paused a minute, seeking how best and most tactfully to put into words what she wanted to say. She achieved it at last with a little laugh:
"Anyway, it wasn't Cicely or me.
That I do know.
She'd have spotted me and I'd have spotted her."
Stephen laughed too.
"That's all right then," he said cheerfully.
He passed it off as a joke, but she heard the relief in his voice.
So he had been thinking - She switched her thoughts away.
"Venetia," said Stephen, "I've known you a long time, haven't I?"
"H'm, yes.
Do you remember those awful dancing classes we used to go to as children?"
"Do I not?
I feel I can say things to you -"
"Of course you can."
She hesitated, then went on in a calm matter-of-fact tone:
"It's Cicely, I suppose?"
"Yes.
Look here, Venetia. Was Cicely mixed up with this woman Giselle in any way?"
Venetia answered slowly, "I don't know. I've been in the south of France, remember. I haven't heard the Le Pinet gossip yet."
"What do you think?"
"Well, candidly, I shouldn't be surprised."
Stephen nodded thoughtfully.
Venetia said gently: "Need it worry you?
I mean, you live pretty semi-detached lives, don't you?
This business is her affair, not yours."
"As long as she's my wife it's bound to be my business too."
"Can you - er - agree to a divorce?"
"A trumped-up business, you mean? I doubt if she'd accept it."
"Would you divorce her if you had the chance?"
"If I had cause I certainly would." He spoke grimly.
"I suppose," said Venetia thoughtfully, "she knows that."
"Yes."
They were both silent.
Venetia thought: "She has the morals of a cat! I know that well enough.
But she's careful. She's shrewd as they make 'em."
Aloud she said: "So there's nothing doing?"
He shook his head.
Then he said: "If I were free, Venetia, would you marry me?"
Looking very straight between her horse's ears, Venetia said in a voice carefully devoid of emotion: