Chapter V

I suspect the Barkers. You know, that story about Mrs. B. letting Mr. B. get into his without warning him was pretty thin. Can you imagine an English wife doing a thing of that kind? If you can it ought to be a ground for divorce under the new Bill. But you can't.

Then all that stuff about the rheumatism--clever but unconvincing. Mr. Barker stayed in his room all the next morning _when the awkward questions were being asked_. Not well; oh, no! But he was down for lunch and conducting for a glee-party in the drawing-room afterwards, as perky and active as a professional. Besides, the really unanswerable problem is, who could have _dared_ to make the Barkers' apple-pie beds? And the answer is, nobody--except the Barkers.

And there must have been a lady in it, it was so neatly done. Everybody says no _man_ could have done it. So that shows you it couldn't have been me--I--myself....