Page:More lives than one.djvu/121



“I can’t, Nick. She goes off in tantrums if I make the merest hint or suggestion of any change. Oh, well, that’s in the future. Just now, it’s the funeral arrangements. Poor Maddy, if I could only have a simple service and just a few of our nearest friends”

“Mrs. Selden objects to that?”

“Oh, rather! She insists on enough pomp and ceremony for a Queen of England, at least. And, I’m glad for her to have her way—it’s her own daughter, you know, but she changes all the details every few hours. Now she’s all for a vested choir, and when that is arranged, she decides on a solo by some prima donna instead.”

“Can’t you put her and her arrangements in the hands of some one else?”

“I tried that. I sent for her sister, Mrs. Beresford. And when she came, they quarreled the first thing, and her sister went off in a huff. Claudine’s a good girl, she helps out all she can. Oh, Lord, Nick, don’t think I’m complaining—but I have to think quickly to keep up with Mrs. Selden’s vagaries.”

“Good old Drew,” and Nelson’s sympathy was ready. “Suppose I have a go at her. Maybe I can drive some sense into her head.”

“All right, try it. You’ve done about everything else for me. Now, as to this investigation. I want it pushed, and all that, but I can’t do anything myself until after the funeral.”

“Nor are you expected to. And, too, there’s nothing you or I can do. It’s up to the authorities. I think they feel that Locke is or will be in touch with that Miss Cutler.”

“Who’s she?” Barham looked up with a show of interest.

“She’s a neighbor and a friend of Locke’s. Rather an intimate friend, I judge. Also, and this is strange, she