Listerdale Mystery - Agatha Christie [72]
‘Symbolical?’
‘Yes. Originally Eve gave Adam an apple. Nowadays Adam gives Eve one. See?’
‘Yes,’ said Mary rather doubtfully.
‘Where shall I drive you?’ inquired George formally.
‘Home, please.’
He drove to Grosvenor Square. His face was absolutely impassive. He jumped out and came round to help her out. She made a last appeal.
‘Darling George–couldn’t you? Just to please me?’
‘Never,’ said George.
And at that moment it happened. He slipped, tried to recover his balance and failed. He was kneeling in the mud before her. Mary gave a squeal of joy and clapped her hands.
‘Darling George! Now I will marry you. You can go straight to Lambeth Palace and fix up with the Archbishop of Canterbury about it.’
‘I didn’t mean to,’ said George hotly. ‘It was a bl–er–a banana skin.’ He held the offender up reproachfully.
‘Never mind,’ said Mary. ‘It happened. When we quarrel and you throw it in my teeth that I proposed to you, I can retort that you had to go on your knees to me before I would marry you. And all because of that blessed banana skin! It was a blessed banana skin you were going to say?’
‘Something of the sort,’ said George.
II
At five-thirty that afternoon, Mr Leadbetter was informed that his nephew had called and would like to see him.
‘Called to eat humble pie,’ said Mr Leadbetter to himself. ‘I dare say I was rather hard on the lad, but it was for his own good.’
And he gave orders that George should be admitted.
George came in airily.
‘I want a few words with you, uncle,’ he said. ‘You did me a grave injustice this morning. I should like to know whether, at my age, you could have gone out into the street, disowned by your relatives, and between the hours of eleven-fifteen and five-thirty acquire an income of twenty thousand a year. This is what I have done!’
‘You’re mad, boy.’
‘Not mad, resourceful! I am going to marry a young, rich, beautiful society girl. One, moreover, who is throwing over a duke for my sake.’
‘Marrying a girl for her money? I’d not have thought it of you.’
‘And you’d have been right. I would never have dared to ask her if she hadn’t–very fortunately–asked me. She retracted afterwards, but I made her change her mind. And do you know, uncle, how all this was done? By a judicious expenditure of twopence and a grasping of the golden ball of opportunity.’
‘Why the tuppence?’ asked Mr Leadbetter, financially interested.
‘One banana–off a barrow. Not everyone would have thought of that banana. Where do you get a marriage licence? Is it Doctor’s Commons or Lambeth Palace?’
The Rajah’s Emerald
With a serious effort James Bond bent his attention once more on the little yellow book in his hand. On its outside the book bore the simple but pleasing legend, ‘Do you want your salary increased by £300 per annum?’ Its price was one shilling. James had just finished reading two pages of crisp paragraphs instructing him to look his boss in the face, to cultivate a dynamic personality, and to radiate an atmosphere of efficiency. He had now arrived at a subtler matter, ‘There is a time for frankness, there is a time for discretion,’ the little yellow book informed him. ‘A strong man does not always blurt out all he knows.’ James let the little book close, and raising his head, gazed out over a blue expanse of ocean. A horrible suspicion assailed him, that he was not a strong man. A strong man would have been in command of the present situation, not a victim to it. For the sixtieth time that morning James rehearsed his wrongs.
This was his holiday. His holiday? Ha, ha! Sardonic laughter. Who had persuaded him to come to that fashionable seaside resort, Kimpton-on-Sea? Grace. Who had urged him into an expenditure of more than he could afford? Grace. And he had fallen in with the plan eagerly. She had got him here, and what was the result? Whilst he was staying in an obscure boarding-house about a mile and a half from the sea-front, Grace who should have been in a similar boarding-house (not the same one–the proprieties of James’s circle were very strict) had flagrantly deserted him,