Champagne for One

I didn’t pull Mrs Usher back in time to dodge the slap, though I might have, but after it landed I acted. After all she was a house guest, and a kick on the chin by the host and a smack in the face by another guest were no credit to our hospitality; and besides, she might try to return the compliment. So I gripped her arm and pulled her back out of range, bumping into Cramer, who had bounced out of his chair. Mrs Robilotti had jerked back and sat stiff, her teeth pinning her lower lip.

"It might be well," Wolfe told me, "to seat Mrs Usher near you. Madam, I regret the indignity you have suffered under my roof." He gestured. "That is Mr Laidlaw. Mr Cramer, of the police. Mr Stebbins, also of the police. You know Mr Byne."

As I was convoying her to the chair Saul had brought, putting her between Laidlaw and me, Cramer was saying, "You stage it and then you regret it." To his right: "I do regret it, Mrs Robilotti. I had no hand in it." Back to Wolfe: "All right, let’s hear it."

"You have seen it," Wolfe told him. "Certainly I staged it. You heard me deliberately bait Mrs Robilotti, to ensure the desired reaction to Mrs Usher’s appearance. Before commenting on that reaction, I must explain Mr Laidlaw’s presence. I asked him to stay because he has a legitimate concern. As you know, someone sent an anonymous communication making certain statements about him, and that entitles him to hear disclosure of the truth. Why Mr Byne is here will soon be apparent. It was something he said last evening that informed me that Mrs Robilotti had known that her former husband, Albert Grantham, was the father of Faith Usher. However-"

"That’s a lie," Byne said. "That’s a damn lie."

Wolfe’s tone sharpened. "I choose my words, Mr Byne. I didn’t say you told me that, but that something you said informed me. Speaking of the people invited to that gathering, you said, ‘Of course, my aunt could cross Faith off and tell Mrs Irwin’-and stopped, realizing that you had slipped. When I let it pass, you thought I had missed it, but I hadn’t. It was merely that if I had tried to pin you down you would have wriggled out by denying the implication. Now that-"

"There was no implication!"