The Loudwater Mystery | Page 6

not have done this. It was, indeed,
wrong. But he had assured her that he could not help it, that he was
always blurted things out. Since it was a habit of long standing, now
probably ingrained, it was useless to reproach him with any great
severity for his frankness. She did not do so.
For his part, the Lord Loudwater had but little to say to his wife. She
was fond of Melchisidec and indifferent to horses. For the greater part
of the meal he was hardly aware that she was at the other end of the
table. Immersed in his food and its deglutition, he was hardly sensible
of the outside world at all. Once, disturbed by Holloway's removing his
empty plate, he told her that he had seen a dog-fox on Windy Ridge;
again, when Holloway handed the cheese-straws to him, he told her that
Merry Belle's black colt had a cold. Her two replies, "Oh, did you?"
and "Has he?" appeared to fall on deaf ears. He did not continue either
conversation.
Then Lord Loudwater broke into an eloquent monologue. Wilkins had
poured out a glass of port for both of them to drink with their
cheese-straws. Lord Loudwater finished his cheese-straws, took a long
sip from his glass, rolled it lovingly over his tongue, gulped it down
with a hideous grimace, banged down his fist on the table, and roared
in a terrible, anguished voice:
"It's corked! It's corked! It's that scoundrel Hutchings! This is his way
of taking it out of me for sacking him. He's done it on purpose, the
scoundrel! Now I will gaol him! Hanged if I don't!"
"I'll get another bottle, m'lord," said Wilkins, catching up the decanter,
and hurrying towards the door.
"Get it! And be quick about it! And tell that scoundrel I'll gaol him!"
cried Lord Loudwater.
Wilkins rushed from the room bearing in his hand the decanter of
offending port; Holloway followed him to help.

Lady Loudwater sipped a little port from her glass. She was rather
inclined to take no one's word for anything which she could herself
verify. Then she took another sip.
Then she said; "Are you sure this wine's corked?"
Corked wine at the end of a really good meal is a bitter blow to any
man, an exceedingly bitter blow to a man of Lord Loudwater's
sensitiveness in such matters.
"Am I sure? Hey? Am I sure? Yes! I am sure, you little fool!" he
bellowed. "What do you know about wine? Talk about things you
understand!"
Lady Loudwater's face was twisted by a faint spasm of hate which left
it flushed. She would never grow used to being bellowed at for a fool.
Once more her husband's refusal to let her take her meals apart from
him seemed monstrous. Hardly ever did she rise from one at which she
had not been abused and insulted. She realized indeed that she had been
foolish to ask the question. But why should she sit tongue-tied before
the brute?
She took another sip and said quietly: "It isn't corked."
Then she turned cold with fright.
Lord Loudwater could not believe his ears. It could not be that his wife
had contradicted him flatly. It--could--_not_--be.
He was still incredulous, breathing heavily, when the door opened and
James Hutchings appeared on the threshold. In his right hand he held
the decanter of offending port, in his left a sound cork.
He said firmly: "This wine isn't corked, m'lord. Its flavour is perfect.
Besides, a cork like this couldn't cork it."
A less sensitive man than Lord Loudwater might have risen to the
double emergency. Lord Loudwater could not. He sat perfectly still.

But his eyes rolled so horribly that the Lady Loudwater started from
her chair, uttered a faint scream, and fairly ran through the long
window into the garden.
James Hutchings advanced to the table, thumped the decanter down on
it--no way to treat an old vintage port--at Lord Loudwater's right hand,
walked out of the room, and shut the door firmly behind him.
In the great hall he smiled a triumphant, malevolent smile. Then he
called Wilkins and Holloway, who stood together in the middle of it,
cowardly dogs and shirkers, and strode past them to the door to the
servants' quarters.
A few moments later Lord Loudwater rose to his feet and staggered
dizzily along to the other end of the table. He picked up his wife's
half-emptied glass and sipped the port. It was not corked. It was
incredible! He would never forgive her!
He rang the bell. Both Wilkins and Holloway answered it. He bade
them tell Hutchings to pack his belongings and go at once. If he were
not out of the castle by four o'clock, they were to kick him