Harlequin’s Lane: An Agatha Christie Short Story. Agatha Christie

      Harlequin’s Lane

      A Short Story

       by Agatha Christie

       Copyright

      Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

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      Copyright © 2008 Agatha Christie Ltd.

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      Ebook Edition © JUNE 2014 ISBN 9780007560332

      Version: 2017-04-11

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      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

Harlequin’s Lane

       Related Products

       About the Publisher

       Harlequin’s Lane

      ‘Harlequin’s Lane’ was first published as ‘The Magic of Mr Quin No. 6’ in Storyteller, May 1927.

      Mr Satterthwaite was never quite sure what took him to stay with the Denmans. They were not of his kind – that is to say, they belonged neither to the great world, nor to the more interesting artistic circles. They were Philistines, and dull Philistines at that. Mr Satterthwaite had met them first at Biarritz, had accepted an invitation to stay with them, had come, had been bored, and yet strangely enough had come again and yet again.

      Why? He was asking himself that question on this twenty-first of June, as he sped out of London in his Rolls Royce.

      John Denman was a man of forty, a solid well-established figure respected in the business world. His friends were not Mr Satterthwaite’s friends, his ideas even less so. He was a man clever in his own line but devoid of imagination outside it.

      Why am I doing this thing? Mr Satterthwaite asked himself once more – and the only answer that came seemed to him so vague and so inherently preposterous that he almost put it aside. For the only reason that presented itself was the fact that one of the rooms in the house (a comfortable well-appointed house), stirred his curiosity. That room was Mrs Denman’s own sitting-room.

      It was hardly an expression of her personality because, so far as Mr Satterthwaite could judge, she had no personality. He had never met a woman so completely expressionless. She was, he knew, a Russian by birth. John Denman had been in Russia at the outbreak of the European war, he had fought with the Russian troops, had narrowly escaped with his life on the outbreak of the Revolution, and had brought this Russian girl with him, a penniless refugee. In face of strong disapproval from his parents he had married her.

      Mrs Denman’s room was in no way remarkable. It was well and solidly furnished with good Hepplewhite furniture – a trifle more masculine than feminine in atmosphere. But in it there was one incongruous item: a Chinese lacquer screen – a thing of creamy yellow and pale rose. Any museum might have been glad to own it. It was a collector’s piece, rare and beautiful.

      It was out of place against that solid English background. It should have been the key-note of the room with everything arranged to harmonize subtly with it. And yet Mr Satterthwaite could not accuse the Denmans of lack of taste. Everything else in the house was in perfectly blended accord.

      He shook his head. The thing – trivial though it was – puzzled him. Because of it, so he verily believed, he had come again and again to the house. It was, perhaps, a woman’s fantasy – but that solution did not satisfy him as he thought of Mrs Denman – a quiet hard-featured woman, speaking English so correctly that no one would ever have guessed her a foreigner.

      The car drew up at his destination and he got out, his mind still dwelling on the problem of the Chinese screen. The name of the Denman’s house was ‘Ashmead’, and it occupied some five acres of Melton Heath, which is thirty miles from London, stands five hundred feet above sea level and is, for the most part, inhabited by those who have ample incomes.

      The butler received Mr Satterthwaite suavely. Mr and Mrs Denman were both out – at a rehearsal – they hoped Mr Satterthwaite would make himself at home until they returned.

      Mr Satterthwaite nodded and proceeded to carry out these injunctions by stepping into the garden. After a cursory examination of the flower beds, he strolled down a shady walk and presently came to a door in the wall. It was unlocked and he passed through it and came out into a narrow lane.

      Mr Satterthwaite looked to left and right. A very charming lane, shady and green, with high hedges – a rural lane that twisted and turned in good old-fashioned style. He remembered the stamped address: ASHMEAD, HARLEQUIN’S LANE – remembered too, a local name for it that Mrs Denman had once told him.

      ‘Harlequin’s Lane,’ he murmured to himself softly. ‘I wonder –’

      He turned a corner.

      Not at the time, but afterwards, he wondered why this time he felt no surprise at meeting that elusive friend of his: Mr Harley Quin. The two men clasped hands.

      ‘So you’re down here,’ said Mr Satterthwaite.

      ‘Yes,’ said Mr Quin. ‘I’m staying in the same house as you are.’

      ‘Staying there?’

      ‘Yes. Does it surprise you?’

      ‘No,’ said Mr Satterthwaite slowly. ‘Only – well, you never stay anywhere for long, do you?’

      ‘Only as long as is necessary,’ said Mr Quin gravely.

      ‘I see,’ said Mr Satterthwaite.

      They walked on in silence for some minutes.

      ‘This lane,’ began Mr Satterthwaite, and stopped.

      ‘Belongs to me,’ said Mr Quin.

      ‘I thought it did,’ said Mr Satterthwaite. ‘Somehow, I thought it must. There’s the other name for it, too, the local name. They call it the “Lovers’ Lane”. You know that?’

      Mr Quin nodded.

      ‘But surely,’ he said gently, ‘there is a “Lovers’ Lane” in every village?’