Miss Marple – Miss Marple and Mystery: The Complete Short Stories. Агата Кристи

a long time.’

      The point worried the old lady and the next day she sat down and wrote to her lawyer asking if he would send her will so that she might look over it. It was that same day that Charles startled her by something he said at lunch.

      ‘By the way, Aunt Mary,’ he said, ‘who is that funny old josser up in the spare room? The picture over the mantelpiece, I mean. The old johnny with the beaver and side whiskers?’

      Mrs Harter looked at him austerely.

      ‘That is your Uncle Patrick as a young man,’ she said.

      ‘Oh, I say, Aunt Mary, I am awfully sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude.’

      Mrs Harter accepted the apology with a dignified bend of the head.

      Charles went on rather uncertainly:

      ‘I just wondered. You see –’

      He stopped undecidedly and Mrs Harter said sharply:

      ‘Well? What were you going to say?’

      ‘Nothing,’ said Charles hastily. ‘Nothing that makes sense, I mean.’

      For the moment the old lady said nothing more, but later that day, when they were alone together, she returned to the subject.

      ‘I wish you would tell me, Charles, what it was made you ask me about that picture of your uncle.’

      Charles looked embarrassed.

      ‘I told you, Aunt Mary. It was nothing but a silly fancy of mine – quite absurd.’

      ‘Charles,’ said Mrs Harter in her most autocratic voice, ‘I insist upon knowing.’

      ‘Well, my dear aunt, if you will have it, I fancied I saw him – the man in the picture, I mean – looking out of the end window when I was coming up the drive last night. Some effect of the light, I suppose. I wondered who on earth he could be, the face was so – early Victorian, if you know what I mean. And then Elizabeth said there was no one, no visitor or stranger in the house, and later in the evening I happened to drift into the spare room, and there was the picture over the mantelpiece. My man to the life! It is quite easily explained, really, I expect. Subconscious and all that. Must have noticed the picture before without realizing that I had noticed it, and then just fancied the face at the window.’

      ‘The end window?’ said Mrs Harter sharply.

      ‘Yes, why?’

      ‘Nothing,’ said Mrs Harter.

      But she was startled all the same. That room had been her husband’s dressing-room.

      That same evening, Charles again being absent, Mrs Harter sat listening to the wireless with feverish impatience. If for the third time she heard the mysterious voice, it would prove to her finally and without a shadow of doubt that she was really in communication with some other world.

      Although her heart beat faster, she was not surprised when the same break occurred, and after the usual interval of deathly silence the faint far-away Irish voice spoke once more.

      ‘Mary – you are prepared now … On Friday I shall come for you … Friday at half past nine … Do not be afraid – there will be no pain … Be ready …’

      Then almost cutting short the last word, the music of the orchestra broke out again, clamorous and discordant.

      Mrs Harter sat very still for a minute or two. Her face had gone white and she looked blue and pinched round the lips.

      Presently she got up and sat down at her writing desk. In a somewhat shaky hand she wrote the following lines:

      Tonight, at 9.15, I have distinctly heard the voice of my dead husband. He told me that he would come for me on Friday night at 9.30. If I should die on that day and at that hour I should like the facts made known so as to prove beyond question the possibility of communicating with the spirit world.

      Mary Harter.

      Mrs Harter read over what she had written, enclosed it in an envelope and addressed the envelope. Then she rang the bell which was promptly answered by Elizabeth. Mrs Harter got up from her desk and gave the note she had just written to the old woman.

      ‘Elizabeth,’ she said, ‘if I should die on Friday night I should like that note given to Dr Meynell. No,’ – as Elizabeth appeared to be about to protest – ‘do not argue with me. You have often told me you believe in premonitions. I have a premonition now. There is one thing more. I have left you in my will £50. I should like you to have £100. If I am not able to go to the bank myself before I die Mr Charles will see to it.’

      As before, Mrs Harter cut short Elizabeth’s tearful protests. In pursuance of her determination, the old lady spoke to her nephew on the subject the following morning.

      ‘Remember, Charles, that if anything should happen to me, Elizabeth is to have an extra £50.’

      ‘You are very gloomy these days, Aunt Mary,’ said Charles cheerfully. ‘What is going to happen to you? According to Dr Meynell, we shall be celebrating your hundredth birthday in twenty years or so!’

      Mrs Harter smiled affectionately at him but did not answer. After a minute or two she said:

      ‘What are you doing on Friday evening, Charles?’

      Charles looked a trifle surprised.

      ‘As a matter of fact, the Ewings asked me to go in and play bridge, but if you would rather I stayed at home –’

      ‘No,’ said Mrs Harter with determination. ‘Certainly not. I mean it, Charles. On that night of all nights I should much rather be alone.’

      Charles looked at her curiously, but Mrs Harter vouchsafed no further information. She was an old lady of courage and determination. She felt that she must go through with her strange experience singlehanded.

      Friday evening found the house very silent. Mrs Harter sat as usual in her straight-backed chair drawn up to the fireplace. All her preparations were made. That morning she had been to the bank, had drawn out £50 in notes and had handed them over to Elizabeth despite the latter’s tearful protests. She had sorted and arranged all her personal belongings and had labelled one or two pieces of jewellery with the names of friends or relations. She had also written out a list of instructions for Charles. The Worcester tea service was to go to Cousin Emma. The Sèvres jars to young William, and so on.

      Now she looked at the long envelope she held in her hand and drew from it a folded document. This was her will sent to her by Mr Hopkinson in accordance with her instructions. She had already read it carefully, but now she looked over it once more to refresh her memory. It was a short, concise document. A bequest of £50 to Elizabeth Marshall in consideration of faithful service, two bequests of £500 to a sister and a first cousin, and the remainder to her beloved nephew Charles Ridgeway.

      Mrs Harter nodded her head several times. Charles would be a very rich man when she was dead. Well, he had been a dear good boy to her. Always kind, always affectionate, and with a merry tongue which never failed to please her.

      She looked at the clock. Three minutes to the half hour. Well she was ready. And she was calm – quite calm. Although she repeated these last words to herself several times, her heart beat strangely and unevenly. She hardly realized it herself, but she was strung up to a fine point of overwrought nerves.

      Half past nine. The wireless was switched on. What would she hear? A familiar voice announcing the weather forecast or that far-away voice belonging to a man who had died twenty-five years before?

      But she heard neither. Instead there came a familiar sound, a sound she knew well but which tonight made her feel as though an icy hand were laid on her heart. A fumbling at the door …

      It came again. And then a cold blast seemed to sweep though the room. Mrs Harter had now no doubt what her sensations were. She was afraid … She was more than afraid – she was terrified …

      And