A Connoisseur's Case Read Online Free

it’s the craft that’s long.’
    â€˜We must learn more from him,’ Judith said firmly. The Applebys had strolled away again to take another look at the mouth of the tunnel. ‘Do you think, if we had another drink ourselves, we might offer him one too?’
    â€˜I think we might – and that he would no doubt accept it. His seems to be a case of a rather odd form of nostalgia. He once had something that was known as his place. Now he wants to have it again, just as part of the old days he’s come home in search of. If I fetched him out a tankard he’d stand up and ask leave to drink your health in it. And you, of course, would comport yourself in a highly becoming way. Then, quite casually, you would refer to me as “Sir John”, fondly supposing that the old chap would become more communicative once he could start saying “my lady” or “your ladyship”.’
    â€˜Fondly?’ Lady Appleby, thus taxed, was entirely unabashed.
    â€˜Almost certainly. He’s a sensitive old person – a rustic endowed with some undeveloped artistry or the like – and he’ll close up at once if he suspects that you’re trying to buy something from him for a casual pint, or to come it over him on the strength of being nothing more than London gentry.’
    â€˜But he seems quite communicative.’
    â€˜My guess is that you deceive yourself, if you think so. As a matter of fact, the venerable old man has something to hide.’
    â€˜Something to hide, John? What on earth makes you think that?’
    â€˜Thirty years as a policeman. At least he’s uncertain about something. And it’s not merely that he hasn’t yet shaken down into an old environment he’s largely forgotten about. There’s something more. Perhaps he’s even aware that he’s been spied on.’
    â€˜Spied on? What an outrageous interpretation to put on my quite natural–’
    â€˜No, no – I don’t mean your mere fishing for information about your blessed Scroop House. You can go on some way farther there before he closes down – although eventually close down he will. He really is being spied on. You see the path we came by, and how it goes on behind that outbuilding?’
    â€˜Yes. It looks like an old stable.’
    â€˜Just that. Well, while we were talking, I glimpsed out of the corner of my eye somebody slip rapidly behind it. Whoever it was must then have got inside the stable, because the door facing this way was pushed open just a fraction. The spy was peering out at us.’
    â€˜Exactly, John. At us .’ Judith was laughing. ‘We’re quite reasonable objects of rural curiosity – probably on the part of a child.’
    Appleby shook his head.
    â€˜I don’t think it was a child – although I couldn’t say whether it was man or woman. And I doubt whether a child would spy like that. He would simply stand at a safe distance and openly gape.’
    â€˜Well, if it was a grown-up, I rather agree that it would be our old man who was being peered at. This is a pretty quiet part of the world, and any former inhabitant returning from foreign parts is bound to cause quite a stir.’
    â€˜That’s true enough, and I don’t suppose we’re in contact with anything sinister. Heaven forbid. I’ve no taste for a busman’s holiday. The thing was oddly furtive, all the same. I think we’ll walk round and take a look at that stable.’
    This didn’t prove difficult. There was an open door at the back. They went in, paused to accustom their eyes to a half-darkness, and then crossed over to another door that Appleby indicated. He gave it a gentle push, so that a tiny crack of light appeared.
    â€˜Have a look,’ he said.
    Judith had a look. And there, sure enough, neatly framed and in bright sunshine, was the old man, absorbed in his task. It was an entirely peaceful and