The Clue quotes

And its owner, the beautiful Madeleine Van Norman, was the most envied as well as the most admired young woman in the town.

Magnificent Madeleine, as she was sometimes called, was of the haughty, imperious type which inspires admiration and respect rather than love.

An orphan and an heiress, she had lived all of her twenty-two years of life in the old house, and since the death of her uncle, two years before, had continued as mistress of the place, ably assisted by a pleasant, motherly chaperon, a clever …

Magnificent Madeleine looked straight at him, tilting her head back slightly to look beneath her half-closed lids.

“It is not seemly,” she said, “for my betrothed husband to imply that I could be at fault in a matter of propriety or punctilio. That is not possible.”

“You are right,” he said, and his eyes gleamed with admiration of her glorious beauty and imperious manner. “Forgive me—you are indeed right.”

But, after all, they rarely quarrelled except regarding Madeleine’s approaching marriage.

“Don’t throw yourself away on that iceberg, Maddy,” Tom would plead.

“He’s a truly fine man, I know, but he can’t make you happy.”

“Don’t be foolish, Tom. Naturally you know nothing about Mr. Carleton’s affection for me—he does not proclaim it from the housetops. And I desire you not to speak of it again.”

“Why should I speak of what doesn’t exist? Forgive me, Maddy, but I love you so myself, it drives me frantic to see that man treating you so coolly.”

“He doesn’t treat me coolly. Or, if he does, it’s because I don’t wish for tender demonstrations before other people. I’m fond of you, Tom, as you know, but I won’t allow even you to criticise the man I am about to marry.”

Carleton. There! I’ve said more than I meant to, but you’re too good a friend to let it make any trouble, and, anyway, in a few days they will be married, and then I’m sure it will be all right—I’m sure of it.”

Like many people, Mrs. Markham emphasized by repetition a statement of whose truth she was far from sure.

“Do look at that funny Miss Morton! She seems to be scolding Madeleine. I’m sorry she came. She doesn’t seem very attractive. But perhaps it’s because she was crossed in love and it made her queer.”

“Or she was queered in love and it made her cross,” laughed Fessenden.

“Well, I must go, now, and look up Carleton. Poor old boy, he was a little miffed when he went away.”

“Why did you not tell before that you wrote this paper supposed to have been written by Miss Van Norman?”

“Nobody asked me.” Miss Dupuy’s tone was defiant and even pert.

Robert Fessenden began to look at the girl with increasing interest. He felt quite sure that she knew more about the tragedy than he had suspected. His detective instinct became immediately alert, and he glanced significantly at Kitty French.

All logic and deduction fly out of my head, and I can think only of poetry and romance. And it won’t do! At least, not now. Can’t you try to give a more successful imitation of a coroner’s jury?”

Kitty tried to look stupid and wise, both at once, and only succeeded in looking bewitching.

“It’s no use,” said Fessenden; “I can’t sit facing you, as I would the real thing in the way of juries. So I’ll sit beside you, and look at the side of that distant barn, while we talk.”

“And you, being a little, kittenish girl, said yes?”

“Don’t be rude,” said Kitty, flashing a smile at him. “I am kittenish in name only. And I am not little!”

“You are, compared to Miss Van Norman’s type.”

“Yes, but this is too horrible!”

“All murders are ‘too horrible.’ But I tell you it must have been Schuyler⁠—it couldn’t have been Miss Burt!”

“Don’t be absurd! That little girl couldn’t kill a fly, I’m sure. I wish you could see her, Miss French. Then you’d understand how her very contrast to Miss Van Norman’s splendid beauty would fascinate Schuyler. And I know he was fascinated.

But so certain was she that her son’s ambitions, like her own, were centred on the Van Norman name, she could not believe that Schuyler would let himself become greatly interested in Dorothy Burt.

But she did not allow for that mischievous Imp of Romance who plays havoc with hearts without saying “by your leave.”

And partly because of her own dainty charm, partly because of her contrast to Madeleine’s magnificence, Dorothy Burt crept into Schuyler Carleton’s affections before either of them realized it, and when they did discover the surprising fact, it did not seem to dismay them as …

And yet he knew in his own heart if Dorothy Burt had wanted to connive in the slightest degree in the removal of her rival, she was quite capable of doing so, notwithstanding her very evident effect of pretty helplessness.

“When an excessively clever young woman assumes an utterly inefficient air,” he thought, “it must be for some undeclared purpose;”

and he felt an absurd thrill of satisfaction that though Kitty French was undeniably clever, she put on no ingénue arts to hide it.

“Thank you for a pretty compliment to our profession,” said Rob.

“We lawyers are too often accused of giving rein to our fancy, when we should be strapped to the saddle of slow but sure Truth.”

“But can you arrive anywhere on such a prosaic steed?” asked Miss Burt, smiling at his words.

And I believe, by assuming that Carleton is the man, and then looking for proof of it, we may run across clues that will lead us to the real villain.”

Kitty looked at him admiringly, and for Kitty French to look at any young man admiringly was apt to be a bit disturbing to the young man’s peace of mind.

It proved so in this case, and though Fessenden whispered to his own heart that he would attend first to the vindication of his friend Carleton, his own heart whispered back that after that, Miss French must be considered.

“I think in detective stories everything is found out by footprints.

I never saw anything like the obliging way in which people make footprints for detectives.

”