第73章 THE HOUSE SURGEON(8)

"Come!" Her voice had altered. I felt Baxter start. "There's nothing to be afraid of.""Good heavens!" said Baxter. "She's running up the stairs. We'd better follow.""Let's wait below. She's going to the room."We heard the door of the bedroom I knew open and shut, and we waited in the lemon-coloured hall, heavy with the scent of flowers.

"I've never been into it since it was sold," Baxter sighed. "What a lovely, restful plate it is! Poor Aggie used to arrange the flowers.""Restful?" I began, but stopped of a sudden, for I felt all over my bruised soul that Baxter was speaking truth. It was a light, spacious, airy house, full of the sense of well-being and peace--above all things, of peace. I ventured into the dining-room where the thoughtful M'Leod's had left a small fire.

There was no terror there, present or lurking; and in the drawing-room, which for good reasons we had never cared to enter, the sun and the peace and the scent of the flowers worked together as is fit in an inhabited house. When I returned to the hall, Baxter was sweetly asleep on a couch, looking most unlike a middle-aged solicitor who had spent a broken night with an exacting cousin.

There was ample time for me to review it all--to felicitate myself upon my magnificent acumen (barring some errors about Baxter as a thief and possibly a murderer), before the door above opened, and Baxter, evidently a light sleeper, sprang awake.

"I've had a heavenly little nap," he said, rubbing his eyes with the backs of his hands like a child. "Good Lord! That's not their step!"But it was. I had never before been privileged to see the Shadow turned backward on the dial--the years ripped bodily off poor human shoulders--old sunken eyes filled and alight--harsh lips moistened and human.

"John," Miss Mary called, " I know now. Aggie didn't do it!" and "She didn't do it!" echoed Miss "I did not think it wrong to say a prayer," Miss Mary continued.

"Not for her soul, but for our peace. Then I was convinced.""Then we got conviction," the younger sister piped.

"We've misjudged poor Aggie, John. But I feel she knows now.

Wherever she is, she knows that we know she is guiltless.""Yes, she knows. I felt it too," said Miss Elizabeth., "I never doubted," said John' Baxter, whose face was beautiful at that hour. "Not from the first. Never have!""You never offered me proof, John. Now, thank God, it will not be the same any more. I can think henceforward of Aggie without sorrow." She tripped, absolutely tripped, across the hall. "What ideas these Jews have of arranging furniture!" She spied me behind a big Cloisonnee vase. "I've seen the window," she said remotely. "You took a great risk in advising me to undertake such a journey. However, as it turns out ... I forgive you, and I pray you may never know what mental anguish means! Bessie! Look at this peculiar piano! Do you suppose, Doctor, these people would offer one tea? I miss mine.""I will go and see," I said, and explored M'Leod's new-built servants' wing. It was in the servants' hall that I unearthed the M'Leod family, bursting with anxiety.

"Tea for three, quick," I said. "If you ask me any questions now, I shall have a fit!" So Mrs. M'Leod got it, and I was butler, amid murmured apologies from Baxter, still smiling and self-absorbed, and the cold disapproval of Miss Mary, who thought the pattern of the china vulgar. However, she ate well, and even asked me whether I would not like a cup of tea for myself.