Postern of Fate (Tommy and Tuppence Series) - Agatha Christie [58]
‘Who was going to give you a purse full of sovereigns?’
‘I didn’t think of anyone giving it to me,’ said Tuppence. ‘I thought of it as the sort of thing that belonged to you as a right, once you were a grown up person. You know, a real grown up wearing a mantle–that’s what they called the things. A mantle with a sort of fur boa round it and a bonnet. You had this great fat purse jammed full of sovereigns, and if you had a favourite grandson who was going back to school, you always gave him a sovereign as a tip.’
‘What about the girls, the grand-daughters?’
‘I don’t think they got any sovereigns,’ said Tuppence. ‘But sometimes she used to send me half a five pound note.’
‘Half a five pound note? That wouldn’t be much good.’
‘Oh yes, it was. She used to tear the five pound note in half, send me one half first and then the other half in another letter later. You see, it was supposed in that way that nobody’d want to steal it.’
‘Oh dear, what a lot of precautions everyone did take.’
‘They did rather,’ said Tuppence. ‘Hullo, what’s this?’
She was fumbling now in the leather case.
‘Let’s get out of KK for a minute,’ said Tommy, ‘and get some air.’
They got outside KK. In the air they saw better what their trophy was like. It was a thick leather wallet of good quality. It was stiff with age but not in any way destroyed.
‘I expect it was kept from damp inside Mathilde,’ said Tuppence. ‘Oh, Tommy, do you know what I think this is?’
‘No. What? It isn’t money,’ said Tuppence, ‘but I think it’s letters. I don’t know whether we’ll be able to read them now. They’re very old and faded.’
Very carefully Tommy arranged the crinkled yellow paper of the letters, pushing them apart when he could. The writing was quite large and had once been written in a very deep blue-black ink.
‘Meeting place changed,’ said Tommy. ‘Ken Gardens near Peter Pan. Wednesday 25th, 3.30 p.m. Joanna.’
‘I really believe,’ said Tuppence, ‘we might have something at last.’
‘You mean that someone who’d be going to London was told to go on a certain day and meet someone in Kensington Gardens bringing perhaps the papers or the plans or whatever it was. Who do you think got these things out of Mathilde or put them into Mathilde?’
‘It couldn’t have been a child,’ said Tuppence. ‘It must have been someone who lived in the house and so could move about without being noticed. Got things from the naval spy, I suppose, and took them to London.’
Tuppence wrapped up the old leather wallet in the scarf she’d been wearing round her neck and she and Tommy returned to the house.
‘There may be other papers in there,’ said Tuppence, ‘but most of them I think are perished and will more or less fall to pieces if you touch them. Hullo, what’s this?’
On the hall table a rather bulky package was lying. Albert came out from the dining-room.
‘It was left by hand, madam,’ he said. ‘Left by hand this morning for you.’
‘Ah, I wonder what it is,’ said Tuppence. She took it.
Tommy and she went into the sitting-room together. Tuppence undid the knot of the string and took off the brown paper wrapping.
‘It’s a kind of album,’ she said, ‘I think. Oh, there’s a note with it. Ah, it’s from Mrs Griffin.
‘Dear Mrs Beresford, It was so kind of you to bring me the birthday book the other day. I have had great pleasure looking over it and remembering various people from past days. One does forget so soon. Very often one only remembers somebody’s Christian name and not their surname, sometimes it’s the other way about. I came across, a little time ago, this old album. It doesn’t really belong to me. I think it belonged to my grandmother, but it has a good many pictures in it and among