Miss Silver coughed.
“Well, Mr. Latter, there are two members of your household who are not on very good terms with your wife. What about Mrs. Street?”
It took Jimmy Latter about a quarter of an hour to explain how angelic Lois had been to Ellie-“looked after her like a mother. And of course, as she says, it would never do to have that poor chap Ronnie Street in the house-Ellie would only wear herself out.”
Miss Silver mentally added Ellie Street to the list of those who had no great reason to love Mrs. Latter. Her enquiry as to the attitude of Mr. Antony Latter also provided some grounds for speculation.
“Oh, he was quite a pal of Lois’-knew her before I did. In fact I don’t mind saying I got the wind up about him. Of course he’s a bit younger, but she doesn’t look her age-not anything like. And there they were, always about together- well, I give you my word, I didn’t think I’d got a chance. Antony ’s one of those clever chaps. I never thought she’d look at me, but she did-I can’t think why. Anyhow he’s been off abroad for the last two years-just got demobilized. I told you about that.”
Miss Silver had one more question.
“Your cook, Mrs. Maniple-has she any reason to dislike your wife?”
“Oh, no.”
“She is not under notice to leave?”
Jimmy looked quite horrified.
“Of course not! Why, she saw me christened.”
Miss Silver wrote a few more lines in the red copybook. Then, closing it, she looked up and said,
“I would like you to tell me a little more about your wife and these attacks she has been having. The two you have described occurred about a fortnight ago. I imagine that you would not have come to see me unless something had occurred since then. Now that I am clear as to your household, I should like you to tell me of these more recent happenings. When, for instance, did Mrs. Latter begin to think that someone was trying to poison her?”
Miss Silver coughed.
“When was the next incident, Mr. Latter?”
Jimmy rubbed his nose.
“Well, I don’t know. I’ve been away-had to go down to Devonshire to settle up the affairs of an old cousin of mine. Lois didn’t say anything when I came back, but now she says she didn’t feel at all well once or twice whilst I was away. To tell you the honest truth, I didn’t take a great deal of notice- I mean, I thought something had just happened to upset her. People do get upset-don’t they? That first time, for instance, we had had a very good sort of dish with mushrooms in it- well, you know there might have been a bad one. And the second time there was the fruit salad-all dodged up with kümmel-I mean, it might have upset her. And when I came home, there she was, looking the picture of health, so I thought perhaps she’d just got it a bit on her mind because of what this Memnon chap had said to her.”
“Very natural, Mr. Latter.”
“But the day after I came back she was very bad again, after drinking her coffee.”
“The Turkish coffee which was made specially for her?”
“Yes. She was sipping it, and we were talking, when all at once she said, ‘There’s something wrong with this coffee,’ and she put down the cup and ran out of the room. I went after her, and she was very sick, poor girl. When I could leave her I went back to get hold of the coffee cup. It had been taken through into the pantry, but the dregs were there. I took it over to Crampton in the morning to a big chemist’s shop. There was plenty left at the bottom of the cup, and they got it analysed.”
“Well, Mr. Latter?”
He looked at her with puzzled eyes.
“They didn’t find anything.”
Miss Silver coughed.
“Is your wife imaginative-neurotic?”
“I shouldn’t have said so.”
“There are two possibilities in this case. One is that Mrs. Latter has induced these attacks by becoming obsessed with the idea of poison. The other-” She paused for a moment. “Mr. Latter, has it occurred to you that the dregs in the coffee cup might have been tampered with?”
He appeared to be very much startled.
“How do you mean-tampered with?”
She replied with gravity.
“If a noxious drug had been introduced into the coffee, the dregs might have been thrown away, the cup washed out, and a little more coffee poured in.”
He stared at her.
“That’s what Lois said when I came back and told her about the chemist. She said the cup might have been washed, and anyone might have done it.”
“Who were present, Mr. Latter?”
“ Antony, Julia, Ellie, Minnie, Lois, and myself.”
“And Mrs. Maniple and the girl Polly in the kitchen?”
“Yes.”
“Who took the cup out to the pantry?”
“Minnie did.”
“Could any of the others have had the opportunity of washing it?”
He looked wretchedly unhappy.
“Minnie didn’t wash it-I asked her. I asked them all, because Lois said that one of them must have washed it. But they all said they hadn’t.”
“What did your wife say to that?”
“She said that any of them could have done it.”
“Was that the case?”
“I suppose it was. Ellie went out to speak to Mrs. Maniple, and Julia went to look for her. Antony went with her.”
“And were they together all the time?”
He rubbed his nose.
“Noy they weren’t. There was a lot of coming and going. As a matter of fact it’s all very worrying and uncomfortable, because Lois has got it into her head that someone is trying to poison her, and it means she thinks it’s someone in the family.”
Miss Silver closed her eyes for a moment. She had seen photographs in the picture papers of the beautiful Mrs. Latter.
She was trying to recall those photographs. She looked at Jimmy and said,
“I have seen pictures of your wife. I should like to refresh my memory. Have you by any chance a photograph?”
He took a folding case out of his breast pocket and handed it to her with a look of anxious pride. The portrait inside was a miniature on ivory. He said as he watched her scrutiny,
“It’s exactly like.”
Miss Silver looked at the miniature for quite a long time. During that time the idea of Lois Latter as the subject of an hysterical fancy faded from her mind. This was the portrait of a resolute and strong-willed woman. The line of cheek and jaw, the moulding of the chin, the curve of the lips were eloquent of this. The beautiful red mouth was hard. The eyes, for all their beauty and their brightness, were hard. This was a woman who knew what she wanted and knew how to get it.
The case was handed back across the table with the remark that it appeared to be a speaking likeness. Then, whilst Jimmy was agreeing, she fixed her serious gaze upon him and said,
“Would you like me to tell you what I really think, Mr. Latter?”
“Yes, yes-of course I would.”
Miss Silver coughed.
“Before I do so, will you tell me if there were any ill effects from this last attack? For instance, did your wife rejoin the party in the drawing-room as she did on a previous occasion?”
“Yes, she did,” said Jimmy. “She seemed to be quite all right again, I’m thankful to say.”
Miss Silver spoke with authority.
“Then I do not believe that an attempt has been made to poison her. I think that someone has been playing a trick. A very wrong and spiteful trick of course, but not, I think, intended to have any serious consequences. The symptoms you have described could be produced by a harmless emetic such as ipecacuanha, a drug which is to be found in most households, and whose sweetish, not unpleasant taste would be readily disguised by fruit salad or coffee-especially if, as in this instance, sugar and a liqueur were added.”
She saw his face revert so suddenly to its natural boyishness as to suggest a ludicrous comparison with one of those rubber masks which can be drawn out to look lugubrious or compressed into jollity. Miss Silver dismissed this irrelevancy from her thought, and answered his smile with one of her own.