1957-04-09 — Page 4

Part three of our new mystery serial

*

THE STORY SO. FAR: Widow Mer ton, engaged - as house. keeper to the Carring fords, finds that she has Joined a strange house- hold with undercurrents of fear and “nerves." NOW read on. . . .

THE CHINA MAIL,” TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 1957.

No Flowers by Request

And in came

FEAR

WAS writing to my daughter Julia-the sort of letter

which assure

was that I

settled. But I just had to get some air.

comfortably

As I strolled slowly along the rather tangled her- baceous border, 1 tried to sort out my own sense of unease, the reston for the impulse which had flashed across my mind. "I can't stand this: there's something wrong here

The plain fact was that every member of the house

"Those hold seemed odd. "Odd. Queer. Peculiar.. were the words my generation had been taught to use: today they said Pathological... Neurotic... Mal- adjusted.

Somewhere from below the surface of my mind a phrase I'd learnt in child-

hood swam up: "

the

unruly wills and affections

of sinful men...

Marcus Carringford: he was Laughter-loving: kini, ciable,

14

remembered

Bucosful I ha own profes- was married to a sion; and he very unpleasant, ill-bred woman who had ngularly nasty tongue.

her

cackl after she had said: "He was luckier

(And it than some,** was my husband's death she'd been talking about. Why had Marcus Carringford brought his wife to live in this remote country place, when she was so obviously an urban product?

Remote look

to

BY E. C. R. LORAC

Philippa Deane was a beauti- what tui young woman-ard

Bome

ately faced with the problem of disposing of it and I walked of the garden on earth was she doing in this to the camer

where I had noticed compost household? Any girl with looks heap and bonfire behind and

could watlle fencing a figure like hers

there Wan choice of jobs in potting shed as well. take her London - receptionist, model, mannequin, air-hostess.

The Characters in the Case

Mrs

WIDOW MERTON, a "gentlewoman," who goes Her employer, work as a cook-housekeeper.

an INVALID MARCUS CARRINGFORD, who has WIFE. They live in a remote old rectory with their war-wounded nephew, TRENT CARRINGFORD, their niece, MRS PHILIPPA DEANE, and NURSE CUTLER. Also in the strange establishment is SENNACHERIB daily help-MRS_HUTCHIN- the cat, and there is SON. Mrs Carringford is visited by DR GRAYLING; a

helps in hofty blonde, JOY BARNSLOW, Carringfords' garden.

and

Doone

War

Lotter The door of the

and as I glanced in I open couldn't help sooing that Trent Canningford and Joy Barnslow were both inside the stred learing againet the potting bench, their heads very close together.

43

1 should very much have preferred to walk past though I hadn't seen them, but

caught mine.

I

"Lovely, fan't it? So nice for a little walk in the garden." the

no mention of

Carringford Mr passed Nurse Cutler on the lärding last husband: and the had that with

drawn, remote look... night?

Here I gave myself a mental shake- level-but

اشا

The bonfire

Д

BENT to pull up a flourist-

whose Ing groundsel,

floating

charwoman

I couldn't forget

TREETS

country:

were her streets,

the complacuity line of Cutler's voice when

"Theat shops, said

kidney cinemas, entes-net rutted lanes they oflen and "immemorini elma." And had coma,

I course.} my eye deceived me when

vt Nurse she had

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(Quite true,

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socda were

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Having screwed the thing up in my hand, I was

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A

--and a new writer takes over from Dorothy L. Sayers

His coat was almost electric

under my fingers..

o

now, and though her face was Trent's What a lovely after flushed she wa

Jonger called: noon, and would have walked crying.

Trent Emped off at a faster on, but Trent replied:

1 thon should have pace

him thought

capable of, unhapplly: And Joy sald "He's so bitter,"

"My dear, can you wonder?" lad has I replied "When a suffered like that and been half crippled it'd be astonishing he weren't bitter. And now tell me what I'm to do with these wretched weeds: I feel such fool walking about with a fistful of seeding groundset."

at Laughed She

that,

stood He came outside and by the door, so that he was be- tween me and Joy Barnslow Been doing a

and went on:

an

Are you ittle weeding? expert at gardening as well as cooking?

I couldn't tell from his face aneering or whather he

tť

2

Something in his expression told me that be

B very

affronted cat, somebody had dis-

his turbed him, turned him off comfortable sunny window-sill in Mrs Caringford's room.

A woman buys Rainier'syacht

-AND HIS VILLA

Paris.

AFTER nearly a year of negotiations with several

prospective buyers for the sale of his yacht, the Deo Juvante, and his villa, Iberia, at St Jean Cap Ferrat, Prince Rainier of Monaco has finally found a buyer for both.

Who is the buyer?

That, the Palace is not tell-

ing.

"It is a personal affair in the Prince's view," a Palace spokes-

TEL told

*He cannot

divulge the name,"

The buyer in foet is a very remarkable woman.

She is Mme. Milita Banac, a stateless Yugoslav, and the widow of a man who owned Yugoslavia's only major ship- ping line, the Yugoslav Lloydi, before the war.

Mme. Banac is between 15 and 07. She has been resident in Monaco for the past Пус yours, A woman of energy, and great business acumen, she has been running,

hus- since her band's death, with the ald of two.song from a previous mar- riage, what

of her husband's shipping fleet.

Two

sons

remains

The fleet now consists of six cargo vessels belonging to the Crest Shipping Company, plus three others under the Panama Bug and another three at pre- sent under construction.

PARIS NEWSLETTER

by Sam White

MME, BANAC

alt for a family cools.

intends to invite the

Pope to One of her sons, Vane Lourdes next year for the con- Ivanovic, runs the London alde lenary of the miracle of St of the business, while another Bernadette, M. Coty is going to

I picked him up to stroke him and found his coat wES almost electric under my · fingers-or | son, Vladimir, runs the New Rome on a state visit in Máy

and wi be received by

His che I was shivering, quite un-York end,

Her daughter iş married Lo Holiness, Such a visit would reasonably.

smiling, but I have very quick tremulously, bir laughing all the Slammed door Inverness, Nell McLean.

she had

samo.

cara I knew that behind him,

She took a fork and lifted in the darkness of the shed.

the top layer of half-burnt Joy Barnslow was crying.

weeds and 1 plunged my seed-

say Suckdenly sho emerged from ing pests into the ashes,

some the shed, pushing him aside;

Ing:

you burn "I sec

too-that in hand household, rubbish, got herself

isn't all garden rubbish, is it? I'm glad to know that, Disposal of household refuse can be

In problem quite a country, when the dust-carts don't come round very fre- quently."

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Startled

SHE looked up

startled

the

ot me in wary and per

eshes down

Mmo.

the Old Etonion, Tory MP for be truly sensational especially

the fact in view of

that the Banae is a close perderical and that the invitation

Republic is traditionally an sonal friend of Prince Pierre

bo Rainier's

would Polignac, Prince

approved by AFTER tea i finished off my do

Socialist government the mem A letter to Julla; I found myself | father.

Mme. Banac at present owns bers of which are acknowledged incapable of adding anything two Hats in Monte Carlo, one of free-thinkers. to it except that the weather them in a recently constructed . It would also be the first was perfect. I had meant to de-skyscraper which now deforms time a Pope had set foot on

French soil for 154 years, scribe the garden, with the love Monte Carlo Harbour. by wild flowers by the fence at the end, but that part of garden was now connected

Joy Baslow's my mind with unhappy face. Why had she been crying, why did she look

zored?

the

in

I

A sharp knock on, the door cut Actors

thoughts. my called "Come in" and Nurse

In the Art values

WITH the spring art shows

She will use the Deo Juvanta

pleasure cruising Mediterranean and intende to take it this summer for a family here is a brief stulle, to holiday cruise to Majorca,

Banc's husband the current market values of

fleet of brought he

ships to various Paris pointers, Braque Britain during the war and remains the highest-priced of resisted all efforts by Tlio to living painters, one of his bludgeon him into returning paintings having recently been them to Yugoslav ports,

sold for £20,000, Ho is followed He was given

the choice of by Pleasso, whoso Blue Period rammed the cold

Cutler appeared: she was DO roturning them or being sen- paintings are now of inestimable again, as she sald quickh

longen in uniform but in a very tenced to death. As a result of value and whoso medium-sized "Rubbish from the house is smart black suit, out to reveal | his refusal a Yugoslav court works sell anywhere, between burnt in the incinerator in the

her generous lines, and informally

£1.000 add £3,000, This is all maculale nylons.

of oid wash-house.

the younger

painters, Buffet Most of his ships saw service and Manessier often sell at garden rubbish-you've no idea

the £1,000 mark. what fantastle things you find "Sorry to intrude," she said with the Admiralty during the price over buried in old gardens: skeletons abruptly. "It's my evening of war and many of them were Among best investments in less-

of

known painters, the following of perished pets to skeletons

and God knows I need sunk. duty, Victorian corsets, and boliler it. I wondered if you'd be kind A considerable sum in insur are recommanded:.......Carzou, dy, Brayer, and galore, broken

and otherwise. enough to look in at my patient ance was paid to him after the Bottle necks seem indestruct after dinner,..."

war and It was this money

Financial which enabled him to set about

valuations ible,"

aro often deceptive because of the re-establishing a new fleet,

MITIC. Bariae is giving

habit of dealers to bid high at coming-out bail this season in London for Mrs McLean's twin daughters by a previous mar- ringe.

the

I patted her shoulder:.."AI

"I'm sorry," I said. "A nurse right, my dear, I think I can understand: you see I've been must have her, off-duty hours respected-but I'm afraid I'm kitchen-but turning out

not the answer. Surely Mr Car it's much easier to reduce kitchen

to order than a garden," ringford is the right person to be with your patient while you I spoke with no ulterior

are out?" thought in

but a my mind, scared look flashed over Joy's

"Him?" Her It mu face for a second

must have been awful," she paid volumes. "The last Treasure was a men- tal defective and she WOULD bury empty bottles in my com post heap. Oh dear, you must think we're a very queer

lot of_people."

I repeated this observation to myself as I walked back to the kichen to piat my sweet peas dr warter and to get the tea. Odd

Pecullar Neurotie

Qtheor Patitological

Maladjusted....

And then Sennacherib

camo

voice spoke

She slammed the door be- hind her and I heard her high heels topping noisily down the corridor.

• TOMORROW

comes to the old

What is the truth these frightened,

and rubbed round my anos, people?.

THE QUEEN

death.

sentenced

him

to

A

Mme. Banac is reputed to be extremely wealthy and is noted for her generosity to Yugoslav refugees. Embassy order

Paris,

public auctions for the works of sell in painters whom they order to increase, their, prestige. Things they say

QUOTES OF THE WEEK: Minister Former Foreign

M. Bidaulti "If we lost Algeria we would have to make a hero of Louis XV who lost នៅ

FASHION NOTE: The fashion house of Jacques Fath an- Canada." nounces that Lady Jebb, wife Author'・ Armand Balacrou: British Ambassador in "It's only when you have lived of Lho

has ordered seven a great deal that you learn how dresses, two coats, and three to be young." hats for the four-day Royal Incidental intelligencs visit to Paris.

There is a possibility, of an Death Pope invited

August harvest in the Cham-

this year" bo rectory, CONSIDERABLE emotion has pagne country

stirred here by cause of tho early rhild highly elrcumstantial reports, weather, neurotic from Rome that President of

This has not happened since the French Republic, M. Coły, 1803.

behind

ANNE GLIDEWELL tolls of Parisian pre- parations for the Queen's visit... about the royal, apartments... Prince Philip's bed Parisiennes practising the "reverence"

French etiquette...

about

« about

-puts Paris in a flutter

OME with me down works about this Royal visit he had provided the Prince

Etiquette is also really com

that 4,000 "French- coming

one of the most roman the Prince are here their city

During the time the Queen and just would not fitt tic and glamorous will be en fete. The streets are

It took him five days of hard women who have been invited streets in the world

in Paris antique to one or other of the six recep- the decorated The Boulevard de arching

another more tions to be given for the Queen. Rue du Faubourg St Honore. l'Opera has become a Mediter shops, to find

Boulevard with the suitable bed...two metros, five At the g dress designing bous mid the milliners the centimetres longt This is the street in which neon

talk, la all of suitable hals, wo off Fireworks the Queen and Prince Philip Lepota turned into palm

a. sword, you' at Etiquette is arrived yesterday, and in which night fron

The edict has gone out that they will stay for their memore, oner is in hall corner, Every hear zon, everybody's Hps in loves and dresses..

Parks these days. President Coly able State visit to Paris, and

Tlibits of information about daived into the etiquette of past long gloves must always be this is the street in which I arrangements for the tour that Royal visits and decided that a worn, and that at evening re have been staying, tool,

through the French security French lady-in-waiting, a dame coptions long dresses will be the hould be ap-rule although short gowns are On the, one side are the cloak are endlessly, discussed. a accompagner "

occopiable on the night the beautiful, and imposing build- i picco of information: pointed, for the Queen,

One ings of the British Embassy and about the Royal apartments As a

mood.

the Elysee Palaca: (the French that has mot with their amisso.: Crouy-the most. en*TED, for Frenchwoner

President's bmcial: home, inant it not their approbation, where the Queen will stay on the Business of Prince Philly's the other to a row of Tie, most. Ded),ness of P elegant

the Countess of Queen, sails down the Seine pe

The other big worry, of vied woman in Party.

Lucky Nobody is quite sure why she enough to be presented to the should be

"Is their" be that like the Pointed, except Quota,

́ahis is SPATE, marihuer (of foto), she has als

In fact, the most fashionablu with ready bees a presented to the excuse for not turning up at Kusinister Queon, and the Prince, and she party theme - That Dow

and

·'shopa"

Lin, Fraboo, The, me so there cannot

where dreams! Prince Falls, and

have in charge of the

had a mont ́les the Abbey 40 10W-

Caronationi

2.