The Floating Admiral - Agatha Christie [117]
This is dreadfully disconcerting to Walter, and Mrs. Mount is appalled when she finds herself—not only in the same village as, but actually next door to, her former husband. (I don’t think Walter mentioned to Mrs. Mount where her husband was living—why should he?—and by the time Mrs. Mount has been able to tell Walter where they are going, the move has taken place. Or it is just possible that Mrs. Mount did know, but deliberately didn’t tell Walter at first, because she was bitten with the idea of getting a sight of her two boys. Perhaps this latter idea makes the thing more credible and more suitable to Mrs. Mount’s weakly emotional character.)
The Vicar, of course, sees and recognises his wife, and is greatly shocked. He has an interview with her in private, in which he regains a good deal of his old influence over her, as a priest, at least, if not as a man. He asks her kindly about Walter (whom he, of course, knows only as X)—is she still living with him? She has never asked for a divorce and he, the Vicar, would never think of divorcing her on his own account, as it is against his principles. To him, she is always his wife; if she asks for divorce, he will not let his religious convictions stand in her way. She is touched by his real consideration for her, and admits that X has behaved badly to her, but that she now has hopes that he may marry her after all, if his “affairs” can be put right. Mrs. Mount (always readily accessible to the latest influence) becomes very much troubled after this interview. Moreover, from what she hears at the Admiral’s, she begins to fear that she is being mixed up in something much more wicked and dangerous than the restitution of a persecuted man to his “rights.” After all, she can by this time have few illusions as to Walter’s personal character. She works herself up to going to the Vicar again, and telling him what she knows of the story, under the seal of confession.
The Vicar is stern with her. It is absurd to suppose that he can give her absolution. She is not repentant—she is merely frightened. She is deceiving her employer and engaging in a conspiracy to defeat the ends of justice. Her duty is to break with Walter and make a clean breast of everything to the Admiral.
Mrs. Mount characteristically does neither one thing nor the other. She won’t go on with it and she daren’t tell the Admiral—she simply leaves Rundel Croft, merely telling Walter that her husband has recognised her and that the situation is impossible. Walter is annoyed, but recognises that she is no longer to be trusted. He tells her not to be a fool. Why shouldn’t Elma marry Holland? Nothing more is contemplated. He gets out of her an exact description of the Admiral’s house and the Vicarage, etc.
Two weeks later, Walter hears from Denny. The Admiral is getting dangerously near to the truth. “Old friends” have been visiting him: something has been discovered. The Admiral must be silenced.
Walter agrees. His plan is to:
(a) Kill the Admiral.
(b) Manufacture proof of his (Walter’s) death at some period subsequent to old Fitzgerald’s death.
(c) Let Elma inherit Walter’s share of the money under Walter’s will of 1915.
He and Denny will then be safe, and all the money will be, to all intents and purposes, in Walter’s hands. If Denny is good, he shall get a share of it. Walter then gets Denny to convey a letter to Elma. He says he has found means to obtain a hold over the Admiral and force him into giving consent to Elma’s marriage with Holland. She is to say nothing of this to Holland (who might high-mindedly object to these methods), but she is to tell Holland that she is ready to marry him, Admiral or no Admiral. Holland is to get a special licence, and she will come up to town to marry him on the morning of August 10th.
The plan is then laid to murder the Admiral, steal the compromising papers, and thus leave everything happy and comfortable all round.
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