gratified.
âLipowitsky had a fine time,â he said. âTold me so. He thinks New York girls are fine.â
Gamadge, with a glance at his wife, said he was glad Lipowitsky wasnât disappointed.
âI suppose nothing more turned up about the case?â Harold asked it idly.
âOhâone thing more. My client isnât Miss Caroline Fenway.â
CHAPTER FOUR
The Book Of Views
A T HALF PAST two oâclock on Sunday, January 31st, Gamadge stood in bright sunshine, a book under his arm, and took a corner view of the Fenway house. Even in daylight it had a semiurban look; he could imagine ladies with parasols walking in the garden on fine afternoons, and old Mr. Fenway driving down to business every morning in a barouche.
He strolled down the side street, past the double flight of stone steps. There was the bay window; there, below and in front of it, the spot where the paper balls had lain. Beyond stretched the high brick wall with the dark-green door in it. He mounted the nearer flight and looked into a neatly paved side yard, with shrubs and a row of trees against the wall that divided the Fenway grounds from the next house.
He rang, and entered a Pompeian vestibule with painted walls and ceiling. Black-and-white marble was underfoot, and facing him were ponderous walnut doors, their upper halves of glass frosted in pseudoclassic designs. The Fenways certainly had the sense of the past. A very old manservant admitted him, said that Mr. Fenway expected him, and took away his hat and coat; he retained his book, however, carrying it with what he hoped was an absent-minded air as he followed the old butler down the hall.
He had a glimpse into immense reaches of drawing room on the left, of a bay-windowed dining room on the right. A broad stairway rose into dimness; at the turn of the second-floor landing he saw a niche, with Psyche (marble) holding a lamp. Oil lamp; they couldnât very well wire Psyche.
At the end of the hall a glassed door let in a filtered, grayish light; by it could be distinguished a door under the stairs (coat cupboard?) another beyond (back drawing room?) and two opposite. The butler opened the last of these.
âMr. Gamadge.â
Gamadge entered a fine big library, panelled and celled in oak, with two windows looking out on the lawn, and a bay window overlooking the side garden. A slender man came forward; clean-shaven, gray-haired, with a long, well-shaped head and kind blue eyes. The aquiline features that made his daughter a plain woman made Blake Fenway a handsome man; he was excellently dressed in the darkest town clothes.
âThis is a very great pleasure, Mr. Gamadge.â He shook hands with Gamadge, who replied that he was aware he owed it to Miss Vauregard.
âNot at all, I am delighted to have the opportunity of meeting you. Your booksâreally extraordinary. Literary detection. Absorbing.â
âGreat fun to do.â Gamadge glanced about him; at the high bookshelves with their cupboards and their glass doors, surmounted by busts of classical lawgivers and writers; at solid furniture, red-velvet curtains and upholstery, impressive bric-a-brac, a thick old Turkey rug. There was a portrait above the mantel, with Blake Fenwayâs features but a thinner and less agreeable mouth.
There was a coffee table in front of the fire. The butler came in from a door in the north wall, carrying a tray and an after-dinner coffee service. He set it down.
âThank you, Phillips, and you neednât wait,â said Fenway. âMr. Gamadge, will you have that chair?â
Gamadge sat down in the chair opposite Fenwayâs, and accepted a cigar. Phillips went away; Fenway poured coffee. When Gamadge had his cup, Fenway glancedânot for the first timeâat the book which Gamadge had laid on the little table beside him.
âHave you brought something to show me?â he asked. âI hope so.â
âItâs just something