The Man in the Brown Suit

RAHWAY NEW JERSEY To E. A. B. IN MEMORY OF A JOURNEY, SOME LION STORIES AND A REQUEST THAT I SHOULD SOME DAY WRITE THE “MYSTERY OF THE MILL HOUSE” THE MAN IN THE B...

Everybody has been at me, right and left, to write this story from the great (represented by Lord Nasby) to the small (represented by our late maid of all work, Emily, whom I saw w...

Every one was very kind to me. Dazed as I was, I appreciated that. I felt no overwhelming grief. Papa had never loved me, I knew that well enough. If he had, I might have loved him...

In the succeeding weeks I was a good deal bored. Mrs. Flemming and her friends seemed to me to be supremely uninteresting. They talked for hours of themselves and their children a...

Nobody came forward to identify the dead woman. The inquest elicited the following facts. Shortly after one o’clock on January 8th, a well-dressed woman with a slight foreign acce...

In the first heat of indignation I found my next step unexpectedly easy to tackle. I had had a half-formed plan in my head when I went into Scotland Yard. One to be carried out if ...

I went home with a feeling of exultation. My scheme had succeeded far better than I could possibly have hoped. Lord Nasby had been positively genial. It only now remained for me to...

Shaking off the feelings that oppressed me, I went quickly upstairs. I had no difficulty in finding the room of the tragedy. On the day the body was discovered it had rained heavil...

_(Extracts from the diary of Sir Eustace Pedler, M.P.)_ It is an extraordinary thing that I never seem to get any peace. I am a man who likes a quiet life. I like my Club, my rubb...

_(Anne’s Narrative Resumed)_ It is most undignified for a heroine to be sea-sick. In books the more it rolls and tosses, the better she likes it. When everybody else is ill, she a...

I was violently excited. I was sure that I had hit on the right trail at last. One thing was clear, I must not move out of the cabin. The asafœtida had got to be borne. I examined ...

There were no further excitements that night. I had breakfast in bed and got up late the next morning. Mrs. Blair hailed me as I came on deck. “Good-morning, Gipsy girl, sit down ...

_(Extract from the diary of Sir Eustace Pedler)_ There is something to be said for life on board ship. It is peaceful. My grey hairs fortunately exempt me from the indignities of ...

It has been a curious evening. The only costume that fitted me in the barber’s emporium was that of a Teddy Bear. I don’t mind playing bears with some nice young girls on a winter...

_(Anne’s Narrative Resumed)_ It was on the night of the Fancy Dress dance that I decided that the time had come for me to confide in some one. So far I had played a lone hand and ...

Diamonds! I stared, fascinated, at the glassy heap on the bunk. I picked up one which, but for the weight, might have been a fragment of broken bottle. “Are you sure, Suzanne?” ...

I got an opportunity of tackling Colonel Race on the following morning. The auction of the sweep had just been concluded, and we walked up and down the deck together. “How’s the g...

Of course, as Mrs. Blair went straight into Cabin 71, interviewing the purser as soon as she got on board, it never occurred to the steward that she was not the lady in question. T...

_(Extract from the diary of Sir Eustace Pedler)_ Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Town. It is really the greatest relief to get off the _Kilmorden._ The whole time that I was on bo...

_(Anne’s Narrative Resumed)_ I don’t suppose that as long as I live I shall forget my first sight of Table Mountain. I got up frightfully early and went out on deck. I went right ...

It reminded me forcibly of Episode III in “The Perils of Pamela.” How often had I not sat in the sixpenny seats, eating a twopenny bar of milk chocolate, and yearning for similar t...

I drove to the hotel. There was no one in the lounge that I knew. I ran upstairs and tapped on Suzanne’s door. Her voice bade me “come in.” When she saw who it was she literally fe...

I had no further difficulty in carrying out my plans. I found a small hotel in a back street, got a room there, paid a deposit as I had no luggage with me, and went placidly to bed...

_(Extract from the diary of Sir Eustace Pedler)_ I am inclined to abandon my Reminiscences. Instead I shall write a short article entitled “Secretaries I have had.” As regards sec...

_(Anne’s Narrative Resumed)_ I thoroughly enjoyed the journey up to Rhodesia. There was something new and exciting to see every day. First the wonderful scenery of the Hex river ...

We arrived at Bulawayo early on Saturday morning. I was disappointed in the place. It was very hot, and I hated the hotel. Also Sir Eustace was what I can only describe as thorough...

I came to myself slowly and painfully. I was conscious of an aching head and a shooting pain down my left arm when I tried to move, and everything seemed dream-like and unreal. Nig...

“You are right. My real name is Harry Lucas. My father was a retired soldier who came out to farm in Rhodesia. He died when I was in my second year at Cambridge.” “Were you fond o...

Harry listened attentively whilst I recounted all the events that I have narrated in these pages. The thing that bewildered and astonished him most was to find that all along the d...

_(Extract from the diary of Sir Eustace Pedler)_ As I remarked once before, I am essentially a man of peace. I yearn for a quiet life—and that’s just the one thing I don’t seem ab...

Johannesburg, _March 6th._ There is something about the state of things here that is not at all healthy. To use the well-known phrase that I have so often read, we are all livi...

_(Anne’s Narrative Resumed)_ As soon as I got to Kimberley I wired to Suzanne. She joined me there with the utmost dispatch, heralding her arrival with telegrams sent off _en rou...

_(From the diary of Sir Eustace Pedler)_ Johannesburg, _March 7th._ Pagett has arrived. He is in a blue funk of course. Suggested at once that we should go off to Pretoria. ...

_(Anne’s Narrative Resumed)_ I had great trouble with Suzanne. She argued, she pleaded, she even wept before she would let me carry out my plan. But in the end I got my own way. S...

I was not summoned to Sir Eustace’s presence until late in the afternoon. Eleven-o’clock tea and a substantial lunch had been served to me in my own apartment, and I felt fortified...

We were not able to return to Johannesburg that night. The shells were coming over pretty fast, and I gathered that we were now more or less cut off, owing to the rebels having obt...

With his last words Colonel Race had swung away and left us. I stood staring after him. Harry’s voice recalled me to myself. “Anne, forgive me, say you forgive me.” He took my ha...

That was two years ago. We still live on the island. Before me, on the rough wooden table, is the letter that Suzanne wrote me. Dear Babes in the Wood—Dear Lunatics in Love, I’m ...