Sparkling Cyanide - Agatha Christie [87]
‘Is he really arrested?’
Anthony looked at Race, who nodded and said:
‘This morning, when he landed in New York.’
‘Was he going to marry Ruth—afterwards?’
‘That was Ruth’s idea. I think she would have brought it off too.’
‘Anthony—I don’t think I like my money very much.’
‘All right, sweet—we’ll do something noble with it if you like. I’ve got enough money to live on—and to keep a wife in reasonable comfort. We’ll give it all away if you like—endow homes for children, or provide free tobacco for old men, or—how about a campaign for serving better coffee all over England?’
‘I shall keep a little,’ said Iris. ‘So that if I ever wanted to, I could be grand and walk out and leave you.’
‘I don’t think, Iris, that is the right spirit in which to enter upon married life. And, by the way, you didn’t once say “Tony, how wonderful” or “Anthony, how clever of you”!’
Colonel Race smiled and got up.
‘Going over to the Farradays for tea,’ he exclaimed. There was a faint twinkle in his eye as he said to Anthony: ‘Don’t suppose you’re coming?’
Anthony shook his head and Race went out of the room. He paused in the doorway to say, over his shoulder:
‘Good show.’
‘That,’ said Anthony as the door closed behind him, ‘denotes supreme British approval.’
Iris asked in a calm voice:
‘He thought I’d done it, didn’t he?’
‘You mustn’t hold that against him,’ said Anthony. ‘You see, he’s known so many beautiful spies, all stealing secret formulas and wheedling secrets out of major-generals, that it’s soured his nature and warped his judgement. He thinks it’s just got to be the beautiful girl in the case!’
‘Why did you know I hadn’t, Tony?’
‘Just love, I suppose,’ said Anthony lightly.
Then his face changed, grew suddenly serious. He touched a little vase by Iris’s side in which was a single sprig of grey-green with a mauve-flower.
‘What’s that doing in flower at this time of year?’
‘It does sometimes—just an odd sprig—if it’s a mild autumn.’
Anthony took it out of the glass and held it for a moment against his cheek. He half-closed his eyes and saw rich chestnut hair, laughing blue eyes and a red passionate mouth…
He said in a quiet conversational tone:
‘She’s not around now any longer, is she?’
‘Who do you mean?’
‘You know who I mean. Rosemary…I think she knew, Iris, that you were in danger.’
He touched the sprig of fragrant green with his lips and threw it lightly out of the window.
‘Good-bye, Rosemary, thank you…’
Iris said softly:
‘That’s for remembrance…’
And more softly still:
‘Pray love remember…’
SPARKLING CYANIDE by Agatha Christie
Copyright © 1945 Agatha Christie Limited (a Chorion company)
“Essay by Charles Osborne” excerpted from The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie. Copyright © 1982, 1999 by Charles Osborne. Reprinted with permission.
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ePub edition edition published 2003 ISBN 9780061752636
This e-book was set from the Agatha Christie Signature Edition published by HarperCollins Publishers, London.
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