Is he coming back?"
"Not just yet."
"Who are you?"
At last I had been asked the question that I had been expecting all the morning.
I answered it with reasonable truth.
"I'm connected with the police, but I'm also a friend of the family."
"The family!
Beasts!
I hate them all."
She looked at me, her mouth working.
She looked sullen and frightened and angry.
"They've been beastly to me always - always.
From the very first.
Why shouldn't I marry their precious father?
What did it matter to them?
They'd all got loads of money.
He gave it to them.
They wouldn't have had the brains to make any for themselves!"
She went on: "Why shouldn't a man marry again - even if he is a bit old?
And he wasn't really old at all - not in himself.
I was very fond of him.
I was fond of him." She looked at me defiantly.
"I see," I said. "I see."
"I suppose you don't believe that - but it's true.
I was sick of men.
I wanted to have a home - I wanted someone to make a fuss of me and say nice things to me.
Aristide said lovely things to me - and he could make you laugh - and he was clever.
He thought up all sorts of smart ways to get round all these silly regulations.
He was very very clever.
I'm not glad he's dead.
I'm sorry."
She leaned back on the sofa.
She had rather a wide mouth, it curled up sideways in a queer sleepy smile.
"I've been happy here.
I've been safe.
I went to all those posh dressmakers - the ones I'd read about.
I was as good as anybody.
And Aristide gave me lovely things." She stretched out a hand looking at the ruby on it.
Just for a moment I saw the hand and arm like an outstretched cat's claw, and heard her voice as a purr.
She was still smiling to herself.
"What's wrong with that?" she demanded. "I was nice to him.
I made him happy." She leaned forward. "Do you know how I met him?"
She went on without waiting for an answer.
"It was in the Gay Shamrock.
He'd ordered scrambled eggs on toast and when I brought them to him I was crying.
'Sit down,' he said, 'and tell me what's the matter.'
'Oh, I couldn't,' I said. 'I'd get the sack if I did a thing like that.'
'No, you won't,' he said, 'I own this place.'
I looked at him then.
Such an odd little old man he was, I thought at first - but he'd got a sort of power. I told him all about it... You'll have heard about it all from them, I expect - making out I was a regular bad lot - but I wasn't.