Page:The Viaduct Murder (1926).pdf/54

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
40
THE VIADUCT MURDER

jeu de mots. Very singular in his habits. Every Saturday off he'd go, just the same as it was in the papers, and where he went to is more than I can say, though I've been looking after him the best part of a year now. Every afternoon from Monday to Saturday he'd come home by the five o'clock train, and then he'd go for his round of golf, and I'd have a bit of cold supper ready for him when he came home. . . .

"No, I can't say that I've noticed anything strange about him of late. You see, he was always a very reserved gentleman, Mr. Brotherood was; very silent, if you understand what I mean, in conversation." (Reeves felt that this was probably a characteristic common to most of Mrs. Bramston's interlocutors.) "Time and again he's said to me would I mind leaving him now because he'd got a great deal to do. I recollect about a fortnight ago he did seem rather put out about not being able to find his overcoat when he went out to deliver his address to the villagers; but I found it for him. . . . No, it isn't much more than two months ago since he commenced exhorting. I never could see what he did it for; not that I go to church myself, but you see the way I look at it is if people want to go to church why not let them go to church? Live and let live, that's what I say. I shouldn't call myself a religious woman, mind you, but I like to see everyone go their own way, and not leave tracts. Miss Frobisher she used to come here with tracts, but I said to her, 'Miss Frobisher,' I said, 'you're wast-