They Do It With Mirrors

The next day passed uneventfully to all appearances, yet to Miss Marple it seemed that there were signs of an inner tension. Christian Gulbrandsen spent his morning with Dr Maverick in going round the Institute and in discussing the general results of the Institute's policy. In the early afternoon Gina took him for a drive, and after that Miss Marple noticed that he induced Miss Bellever to show him something in the gardens. It seemed to her that it was a pretext for ensuring a tte-d-tte with that grim woman. And yet, if Christian Gulbrandsen's unex-pected visit had only to do with business matters, why this wish for Miss Believer's company, since the latter dealt only with the domestic side of Stonygates?

But in all this, Miss Marple could tell herself that she was being fanciful. The one really disturbing incident of the day happened about four o'clock. She hadzrotkd up her knitting and had gone out in the garden to take alittle stroll before tea. Rounding a straggling rhododendron she came upon Edgar Lawson, who was striding along muttering to himself and who nearly ran into her.

He said, 'I beg your pardon,' hastily, but Miss Marple was startled by the queer staring expression of his eyes.

'Aren't you feeling well, Mr Lawson?'

'Well? How should I be feeling well? I've had a shock - a terrible shock.'

'What kind of a shock?'

The young man gave a swift glance past her, and then a sharp uneasy glance to either side. His doing so gave Miss Marple a nervous feeling.

'Shall I tell you?' He looked at her doubtfully. 'I don't know. I don't really know. I've been so spied upon.'

Miss Marple made up her mind. She took him firmly by the arm.

'If we walk down this path… There, now, there are no trees or bushes near. Nobody can overhear.'

'No - no, you're right.' He drew a deep breath, bent his head and almost whispered his next words. 'I've made a discovery. A terrible discovery.'

Edgar Lawson began to shake all over. He was almost weeping.

'To have trusted someone! To have believed… and it was lies - all lies. Lies to keep me from finding out the truth. I can't bear it. It's too wicked. You see, he was the one person I trusted, and now to find out that all the time he's been at the bottom of it all. It's he who's been my enemy! It's he who has been having me followed about and spied upon. But he can't get away with it any more.

I shall speak out. I shall tell him I know what he has been doing.'

'Who is "he"?' demanded Miss Marple.

Edgar Lawson drew himself up to his full height. He might have looked pathetic and dignified. But actually he only looked ridiculous.

'I'm speaking of my father.'

'Viscount Montgomery - or do you mean Winston Churchill?'

Edgar threw her a glance of scorn.

'They let me think that - just to keep me from guessing the truth. But I know now. I've got a friend - a real friend.

A friend who tells me the truth and lets me know just how I've been deceived. Well, my father will have to reckon with me. I'll throw his lies in his face! I'll challenge him with the truth. We'll see what he's got to say to that.'

And suddenly breaking away, Edgar went off at a run and disappeared in the park.

Her face grave, Miss Marple went back to the house.

'We're all a little mad, dear lady,' Dr Maverick had said.

But it seemed to her that in Edgar's case it went rather further than that.

II Lewis Serrocold arrived back at six-thirty. He stopped the car at the gates and walked to the house through the park. Looking out of her window, Miss Marple saw Christian Gulbrandsen go out to meet him and the two men, having greeted one another, turned and paced to and fro up and down the terrace.

Miss Marple had been careful to bring her bird glasses with her. At this moment she brought them into action.

Was there, or was there not, a flight of siskins by that far clump of trees?

She noted as the glasses swept down before rising that both men were looking seriously disturbed. Miss Marple leant out a little farther. Scraps of conversation floated up to her now and then. If either of the men should look up, it would be quite clear that an enraptured bird watcher had her attention luted on a point far removed from their conversation.

'… how to spare Carrie Louise the knowledge -' Gulbrandsen was saying.

The next time they passed below, Lewis Serrocold was speaking.

' if it can be kept from her. I agree that it is she who must be considered…' Other faint snatches came to the listener.

' - Really serious -' '- not justified -' '- too big a responsibility to take -' '- we should, perhaps, take outside advice ' Finally Miss Marple heard Christian Gulbrandsen say: 'Ach, it grows cold. We must go inside.' Miss Marple drew her head in through the window with a puzzled expression. What she had heard was too fragmentary to be easily pieced together - but it served to confirm that vague apprehension that had been gradually growing upon her and about which Ruth Van Rydock had been so positive.

Whatever was wrong at Stonygates, it definitely affected Carrie Louise.