"Of course he said so.
Quite right. A man's got to stick up for his wife.
Dick would."
She paused and then explained:
"You see, I've known Dick Symmington a long time."
"Really?" I said surprised.
"I understood from your brother that he only bought this practice a few years ago."
"Yes, but Dick Symmington used to come and stay in our part of the world up north.
I've known him for years."
I looked at Aimйe curiously.
She went on, still in that softened tone,
"I know Dick very well... He's a proud man and very reserved.
But he's the sort of man who could be very jealous."
"That would explain," I said deliberately, "why Mrs. Symmington was afraid to show him or tell him about the letter.
She was afraid that, being a jealous man, he might not believe her denials."
Miss Griffith looked at me angrily and scornfully.
"Good Lord," she said. "Do you think any woman would go and swallow a lot of cyanide of potassium for an accusation that wasn't true?"
"The coroner seemed to think it was possible.
Your brother, too -"
Aimйe interrupted me: "Men are all alike.
All for preserving the decencies.
But you don't catch me believing that stuff.
If an innocent woman gets some foul anonymous letter, she laughs and chucks it away.
That's what I -" she paused suddenly, and then finished - "would do."
But I had noticed the pause.
I was almost sure that what she had been about to say was,
"That's what I did."
I decided to take the war into the enemy's country.
"I see," I said pleasantly.
"So you've had one, too?"
Aimйe Griffith was the type of woman who scorns to lie.
She paused a minute - flushed, then said,
"Well, yes.
But I didn't let it worry me!"
"Nasty?" I inquired sympathetically, as a fellow sufferer.
"Naturally.
These things always are.
The ravings of a lunatic!
I read a few words of it, realized what it was and chucked it straight into the wastepaper basket."
"You didn't think of taking it to the police?"
"Not then.
Least said soonest mended - that's what I felt."
An urge came over me to say solemnly,
"No smoke without fire!" but I restrained myself.
I asked her if she had any idea how her mother's death would affect Megan financially.
Would it be necessary for the girl to earn her own living?
"I believe she has a small income left her by her grandmother and of course Dick would always give her a home.
But it would be much better for her to do something - not just slack about the way she does."
"I should have said Megan is at the age when a girl wants to enjoy herself - not to work."
Aimйe flushed and said sharply,