‘ But now,’ said Marion, ‘let me tell you what I wanted your advise about. To begin with, look at the top of that table.’ He bent over it. You mean these faint scratches here and there- as if something hard and heavy had been shifted about on it. Curious! The scratches are in four lots-making the four corners of a square. Was it done when the furniture was moved here from Wallingford?’
‘ No, it was done fairly lately -three weeks ago, say; perhaps more. That table was as smooth as glass till then. I rub it over with a duster every day, so I noticed it at once . And it wasn’t done by the woman who comes here to work two mornings a week. She is a very careful, neat-handed woman; and besides, I first saw the scratches on a thursday, and her days are Tuesday and friday. Of course, I don’t like having my table sratched, but what I like much less is not knowing who did it, and how anyone could have been here to do it. The entrance door is locked when I’m out, of course; and the street door always is. And don’t think I am worrying about a trifle. There are other things that tell me plainly someone comes into this place when I’M not here.
‘ You see the velvet cushion in that armchair- a prettier pattern on one side than on the other, and I always leave it showing that side, as it is now. But several times I have come in and found it turned the other way round. Then again there is that old writing-table you like so much. There is nothing of value in either of the drawers, but three times someone has opened them.’ ‘ They are not locked?’ Trent asked.
‘ No- nothing in the place is locked expect the door of the flat. Now, look at these drawers. You see’- she opened both and shut them again-‘ they both push in a little too far when you close them, and I always pull them back so as to be just level with the woodwork round them. i’m very fussy, perhaps, you think; anyhow, I was absolutely certain I have never left those drawers pushed right in as I found them three days running not long ago. And now here’-she led the way into the kitchen- ‘I’ll show you the thing that makes me quite certain, and that is this sink. When i’ ve washed up after breakfast I have it not only perfectly clean, but quite dry, bottom and sides as well.’
‘ Why?’ Trent wondered.
‘ Because I’ve been well brought up,’ Marion said. ‘ well, every day for some time past I have come home and found it perfectly clean, but not dry- drops of water on the sides, which you get from splashes when you’re running the tap. Look! You see those drops? They weren’t there when I left this morning.
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