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