Talking to herself! The phrase produced a strange tremor in the room. Those in the corners appeared to draw toward the centre, as though their intense individualism were about to be merged.
"Ha!" said Vaughan. "Did you notice anything singular in what she said? Did she ever mention Finch's name?"
Augusta pressed her finger to her brow. "M—yes. Yes, she did! She muttered something once about Finch and a Chinese goddess."
Nicholas leaned forward, clasping his gouty knee. "Did you ask her what she meant?"
"Yes. I said: 'Mama, whatever do you mean?' and she said: 'That lad has guts, though you mightn't think it!' . . . I did wish she would not use such coarse expressions!"
Vaughan looked at the faces about him. "I think that is sufficient proof. Do what you like about an appeal, but I think no one who was sane would ramble like that."
Nicholas rolled his grey-crested head from side to side. He growled: "That's nothing. If anyone could hear my mutterings to myself, I might easily be considered dotty."
Piers flashed: "You may be, but the rest of us aren't! It's a case for the courts!"
"Yes, indeed!" chimed Meg. "We might easily arrange to have the money divided equally."
Augusta cocked her Queen Alexandra fringe. "If it could be done—it's really the just way out of the difficulty."
Ernest raised his long face from gnawing his forefinger. "It seems to me," he faltered, "that I've never known Mama brighter than she was that last day."
Meg exclaimed, ironically: "If you call it bright, giving away her most valuable ring on a mere whim!"
"For the Lord's sake," shouted Piers, "try to get your mind off that ring! One would think it represented a fortune!"
"It quite probably does," returned his sister suavely.
