Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/180

 "If you respected her so much, you'll be all the readier to bring her murderers to justice."

"Not by going as no witness to no trial. My duty is here. Besides, her ladyship was too fond of wearing rich jewelry. She had the name of being charitable, but she'd have done more wisely to sell her precious stones and give the money to missions. Maybe her murder by some thief was a judgment from heaven on her vanity. We all of us have faults, but vanity is a crying sin. And Lady Hereward put powder on her face, and pink paint on her lips. Tisn't many would have seen that, perhaps, but my eyes are sharp for such things, though I'm not as young as I was, and I can't abide 'em, on Christian or no Christian. That's all I know about her ladyship, though I was servant to the steward of her husband's estate, so it's no good summoning me. You've got all I can tell out of me now."

"It isn't so much Lady Hereward I'm here to ask you about," said Gaylor, "as Mr. Ian Barr."

"Oh, indeed, do they think he killed her? Well, I'm not surprised. I always thought his temper would be his undoing one of these fine days."

"There's certainly ground for suspicion," replied the detective. "Mr. Barr has disappeared, and so far can't be found."

"Who's trying to find him?" inquired Mr. Barr's late housekeeper. "Those folks that advertised for me, Kipper & Beeching, or whatever their name is?"