The children had been happy there, but had left no mark on it. Now that it was empty and tidy, it looked just like something in a furniture shop window.
She had gone back to her own room, baffled and sick at heart, and had packed a small bag for her use in the morning. To-morrow she must go up to town and face this new emergency in the history of the Ashbys.
"Do you believe, yourself, that it is Patrick?" she had asked.
But Mr. Sandal could give her no assurance.
"He has not the air of a pretender," he allowed. "And if he is not Patrick, then who is he? The Ashby family resemblance has always been abnormally strong. And there is no other son of this generation."
"But Patrick would have written," she said.
That is the thought she always went back to. Patrick would never have left her in grief and doubt all those years. Patrick would have written. It couldn't be Patrick.
Then if it wasn't Patrick, who was it?
Round and round went her mind, swooping and whirling.
"You will be the best judge," Mr. Sandal had said. "Of those now living you are the one who knew the boy best."
"There is Simon," she had said.
"But Simon was a boy at the time and boys forget, don't they? You were grown up."
So the onus was being put upon her. But how was she to know? She who had loved Patrick but now could hardly remember what he looked like at thirteen. What test would there be?
Or would she know at once when she saw him that he was Patrick? Or that he-wasn't?
And if he wasn't and yet insisted that he was, what would happen? Would he bring a claim? Make a court action of it? Drag them all through the publicity of the daily Press?
And if he was Patrick, what of Simon? How would he take the resurrection of a brother he had not seen for eight years? The loss of a fortune. Would he be glad about it, fortune or no, or would he hate his brother?
The coming-of-age celebrations would have to be postponed, that was clear. They were much too close now for anything to be decided by that time. What excuse should they make?
But oh, if it could, by some miracle, be Patrick, she would be free of that haunting horror, that thought of the boy who regretted too late to come back.
Her mind was still swooping and swirling as she climbed the stairs to the offices of Cosset, Thring and Noble.
"Ah, Miss Ashby," Mr. Sandal said. "This is a shocking dilemma. A most unprecedented — Do sit down. You must be exhausted. A dreadful ordeal for you. Sit down, sit down. Mercer, some tea for Miss Ashby."
"Did he say why he didn't write, all those years?" she asked; this being the all-important thing in her mind.
"He said something about 'perhaps preferring to be dead'."
"Oh."
"A psychological difficulty, no doubt," Mr. Sandal said, proffering comfort.
"Then you believe it is Patrick?"
"I mean, if it is Patrick, his 'preferring to be dead' would no doubt arise from the same psychological difficulty as did his running away."
"Yes. I see. I suppose so. Only-it is so unlike Patrick. Not to write, I mean."
"It was unlike Patrick to run away."
"Yes; there is that. He certainly wasn't a runner-away by nature. He was a sensitive child but very brave. Something must have gone very wrong." She sat silent for a moment. "And now he is back."
"We hope so; we hope so."
"Did he seem quite normal to you?"
"Excessively," said Mr. Sandal, with a hint of dryness in his tone.
"I looked for photographs of Patrick, but there is nothing later than this." She produced the studio group. "The children had studio portraits taken regularly every three years, from the time they were babies. This was the last of them. The new one would have been taken in the summer of the year that Bill and Nora were killed; the year Patrick-disappeared. Patrick is ten there."
She watched while Mr. Sundal studied the small immature face.
"No," he said at last. "It is impossible to say anything from so early a photograph. As I said before, the family likeness is very strong. At that age they are just young Ashbys, aren't they? Without any great individuality." He looked up from studying the photograph and went on: "I am hoping that when you yourself see the boy-the young man-you will have no doubt one way or another. After all, it is not entirely a matter of likeness, this recognition, is it? There is an aura of-of personality."
"But-but if I am not sure? What is to happen if I am not sure?"
"About that: I think I have found a way out. I dined last night with my young friend Kevin Macdermott."
"The K.C.?"
"Yes. I was greatly distressed, of course, and told him of my difficulty, and he comforted me greatly by assuring me that identification would be a quite simple matter. It was merely an affair of teeth."
"Teeth? But Patrick had quite ordinary teeth."
"Yes, yes. But he had no doubt been to a dentist, and dentists have records. Indeed, most dentists have a sort of visual memory, I understand, of mouths they have treated-a very grim thought-and would almost recognise one at sight. But the record will certainly show — " He caught the look on Bee's face and paused. "What is the matter?"
"The children went to Hammond."
"Hammond? Well? That is simple, isn't it? If you don't definitely identify the boy as Patrick, we have only to — " He broke off. "Hammond!" he said quietly. "Oh!"
"Yes," Bee said, agreeing with the tone of the monosyllable.
"Dear me, how unfortunate. How very unfortunate."
Into the subsequent silence Mr. Sandal said miserably: "I think I ought to tell you that Kevin Macdermott thinks the boy is lying."
"What could Mr. Macdermott possibly know about it," said Bee angrily. "He has not even seen him!" And as Mr. Sandal went on sitting in miserable silence, "Well?"
"It was only Kevin's opinion on the hypothesis."
"I know, but why did he think that?"
"He said it was a-a 'phoney thing to come straight to a lawyer'."
"What nonsense! It was a very sensible thing to do."
"Yes. That was his point. It was too sensible. Too pat. Everything, Kevin said, was too pat for his liking. He said a boy coming home after years away would go home."
"Then he doesn't know Patrick. That is just what Patrick would have done: broken it gently by going to the family lawyer first. He was always the most thoughtful and unselfish of creatures. I don't think much of the clever Mr. Macdermott's analysis."
"I felt it only right to tell you everything," Mr. Sandal said, still miserably.
"Yes, of course," Bee said kindly, recovering her temper. "Did you tell Mr. Macdermott that Patrick-that the boy had remembered crying at Olympia? I mean, that he had volunteered the information."
"I did; yes."
"And he still thought the boy was lying?"
"That was part of the 'patness' he professed not to like."
Bee gave a small snort. "What a mind!" she said. "I suppose that is what a court practice does."
"It is a detached mind, that is all. One not emotionally engaged in the matter, as we are. It behooves us to keep our minds detached."
"Yes, of course," Bee said, sobered. "Well, now that poor old Hammond is to be no help to us-they never found him, did you know? Everything was just blown to dust."