A boy's voice shouted
'Forty-fifteen, not thirty all.
Don't you remember hitting it out, you silly ass?'
"They must have finished tea,' said Colonel Julyan.
He hesitated a moment, glancing at Maxim.
Then he rang the bell. It tinkled somewhere in the back premises.
There was a long pause.
A very young maid opened the door to us. She looked startled at the sight of so many of us.
'Doctor Baker?' said Colonel Julyan.
'Yes, sir, will you come in?'
She opened the door on the left of the hall as we went in.
It would be the drawing-room, not used much in the summer.
There was a portrait of a very plain dark woman on the wall.
I wondered if it was Mrs Baker.
The chintz covers on the chairs and on the sofa were new and shiny.
On the mantelpiece were photographs of two schoolboys with round, smiling faces.
There was a very large wireless in the corner of the room by the window.
Cords trailed from it, and bits of aerial.
Favell examined the portrait on the wall.
Colonel July an went and stood by the empty fireplace.
Maxim and I looked out of the window.
I could see a deck-chair under a tree, and the back of a woman's head.
The tennis court must be round the corner.
I could hear the boys shouting to each other.
A very old Scotch terrier was scratching himself in the middle of the path.
We waited there for about five minutes.
It was as though I was living the life of some other person and had come to this house to call for a subscription to a charity.
It was unlike anything I had ever known.
I had no feeling, no pain.
Then the door opened and a man came into the room. He was medium height, rather long in the face, with a keen chin.
His hair was sandy, turning grey.
He wore flannels, and a dark blue blazer.
'Forgive me for keeping you waiting,' he said, looking a little surprised, as the maid had done, to see so many of us.
'I had to run up and wash.
I was playing tennis when the bell rang.
Won't you sit down?'
He turned to me.
I sat down in the nearest chair and waited.
'You must think this a very unorthodox invasion, Doctor Baker,' said Colonel Julyan, 'and I apologise very humbly for disturbing you like this.
My name is Julyan.
This is Mr de Winter, Mrs de Winter, and Mr Favell.
You may have seen Mr de Winter's name in the papers recently.'
'Oh,' said Doctor Baker, 'yes, yes, I suppose I have.
Some inquest or other, wasn't it?
My wife was reading all about it.'
'The jury brought in a verdict of suicide,' said Favell coming forward, 'which I say is absolutely out of the question.
Mrs de Winter was my cousin, I knew her intimately.
She would never have done such a thing, and what's more she had no motive.
What we want to know is what the devil she came to see you about the very day she died?'
'You had better leave this to Julyan and myself,' said Maxim quietly.