SIRWILFRID. Of course, of course. You have a continental way of looking at these things. But I assure you, dear Mrs. Vole, that is
ROMAINE. Oh, by all means let us say an aunt, if you think it best.
SIRWILFRID. One has to think of the effect on the jury of all these things, Mrs. Vole.
ROMAINE. Yes. I also wish to do that. I have been thinking of that a good deal.
SIRWILFRID. Quite so. We must work together. Now we come to the evening of October fourteenth. That is just over a week ago. You remember that evening?
ROMAINE. I remember it very well.
SIRWILFRID. Leonard Vole called on Miss French that evening. The housekeeper, Janet MacKenzie, was out. Mr. Vole played a game of Double Demon with Miss French and finally took leave of her about nine o’clock. He returned home on foot, he tells me, arriving at approximately twenty-five minutes past nine. (
(ROMAINE
ROMAINE. (
SIRWILFRID. At half past nine the housekeeper returned to the house to get something she had forgotten. Passing the sitting-room door she heard Miss French’s voice in conversation with a man. She assumed that the man with Miss French was Leonard Vole, and Inspector Hearne says that it is this statement of hers which has led to your husband’s arrest. Mr. Vole, however, tells me that he has an absolute alibi for that time, since he was at home with you at nine-thirty.
(
That is so, is it not? He was with you at nine-thirty?
(SIR WILFRID
ROMAINE. That is what Leonard says? That he was home with me at nine-thirty?
SIRWILFRID. (
(
ROMAINE. (
SIRWILFRID. (
ROMAINE. Oh yes, they came to see me yesterday evening.
SIRWILFRID. And you said . . . ?
ROMAINE. (
MAYHEW. (
ROMAINE. That was right, was it not?
SIRWILFRID. What do you mean by that, Mrs. Vole?
ROMAINE. (
SIRWILFRID. It’s the truth. You said so just now.
ROMAINE. I have to understand—to be sure. If I say yes, it is so, Leonard was with me in the flat at nine-thirty—will they acquit him?
(SIR WILFRID
Will they let him go?
MAYHEW. (
ROMAINE. But when I said—that—to the police, I do not think they believed me. (
SIRWILFRID. What makes you think they did not believe you?
ROMAINE. (
(SIR WILFRID
SIRWILFRID. (
ROMAINE. So you don’t understand? Well, perhaps it is difficult.
SIRWILFRID. Perhaps your husband’s position is not quite clear to you?