Lady Molly of Scotland Yard | Page 9

their preliminary inquiries revealed the fact that his lordship had
left Edbrooke Castle on the 21st. He went up to town, saying to his

wife and household that he was called away on business, and not even
taking his valet with him. He put up at the Langham Hotel.
But here police investigations came to an abrupt ending. Lord
Edbrooke evidently got wind of them. Anyway, the day after Lady
Molly so cleverly enticed Mary Nicholls out of her hiding-place, and
surprised her into an admission of the truth, the unfortunate man threw
himself in front of the express train at Grantham railway station, and
was instantly killed. Human justice cannot reach him now!
But don't tell me that a man would have thought of that bogus
paragraph, or of the taunt which stung the motherly pride of the village
girl to the quick, and thus wrung from her an admission which no
amount of male ingenuity would ever have obtained.

II
THE FREWIN MINIATURES
ALTHOUGH, mind you, Lady Molly's methods in connection with the
Ninescore mystery were not altogether approved of at the Yard,
nevertheless, her shrewdness and ingenuity in the matter were so
undoubted that they earned for her a reputation, then and there, which
placed her in the foremost rank of the force. And presently, when
everyone--public and police alike--were set by the ears over the Frewin
miniatures, and a reward of 1,000 guineas was offered for information
that would lead to the apprehension of the thief, the chief, of his own
accord and without any hesitation, offered the job to her.
I don't know much about so-called works of art myself, but you can't be
in the detective force, female or otherwise, without knowing something
of the value of most things, and I don't think that Mr. Frewin put an
excessive value on his Englehearts when he stated that they were worth
£10,000. There were eight of them, all on ivory, about three to four
inches high, and they were said to be the most perfect specimens of
their kind. Mr. Frewin himself had had an offer for them, less than two

years ago, of 200,000 francs from the trustees of the Louvre, which
offer, mind you, he had refused. I dare say you know that he was an
immensely wealthy man, a great collector himself, as well as dealer,
and that several of the most unique and most highly priced works of art
found their way into his private collection. Among them, of course, the
Engleheart miniatures were the most noteworthy.
For some time before his death Mr. Frewin had been a great invalid,
and for over two years he had not been able to go beyond the boundary
of his charming property, Blatchley House, near Brighton.
There is a sad story in connection with the serious illness of Mr.
Frewin--an illness which, if you remember, has since resulted in the
poor old gentleman's death. He had an only son, a young man on whom
the old art-dealer had lavished all the education and, subsequently, all
the social advantages which money could give. The boy was
exceptionally good-looking, and had inherited from his mother a great
charm of manner which made him very popular. The Honourable Mrs.
Frewin is the daughter of an English peer, more endowed with physical
attributes than with worldly goods. Besides that, she is an exceptionally
beautiful woman, has a glorious voice, is a fine violinist, and is no
mean water-colour artist, having more than once exhibited at the Royal
Academy.
Unfortunately, at one time, young Frewin had got into very bad
company, made many debts, some of which were quite unavowable,
and there were rumours current at the time to the effect that had the
police got wind of certain transactions in connection with a brother
officer's cheque, a very unpleasant prosecution would have followed.
Be that as it may, young Lionel Frewin had to quit his regiment, and
presently he went off to Canada, where he is supposed to have gone in
for farming. According to the story related by some of the servants at
Blatchley House, there were violent scenes between father and son
before the former consented to pay some of the young spendthrift's
most pressing debts, and then find the further sum of money which was
to enable young Frewin to commence a new life in the colonies.
Mrs. Frewin, of course, took the matter very much to heart. She was a

dainty, refined, artistic creature, who idolised her only son, but she had
evidently no influence whatever over her husband, who, in common
with certain English families of Jewish extraction, had an extraordinary
hardness of character where the integrity of his own business fame was
concerned. He absolutely never forgave his son what he considered a
slur