‘Yes,’ he said softly. ‘Yes.’
The superb non-committal of this opening gambit over, silence again ensued. Sir Edgar squatted down on his august heels and peered through a small glass at the texture of the paint on the very bottom of the canvas.
Presently he rose to his feet and spoke brusquely.
‘Can we have it out of the frame?’
‘Of course.’ Max raised a hand and magically two assistants in baize aprons, one of them the ubiquitous Mr Green, appeared, the beautiful old frame was removed, and the picture, looking surprisingly less important, relinquished naked to Sir Edgar’s little glass.
Then followed a minute examination of the canvas, back and front, interspersed by little grunts and muttered technicalities from the two combatants.
Presently the frame was restored, and they took up their old positions in front of the easel, Sir Edgar a little pinker and a trifle dishevelled from his exertions, Max quieter, more enigmatic than ever.
‘No signature and no date,’ said the amateur.
‘No,’ said Max. ‘Only internal evidence.’
‘Of course,’ the other agreed hastily. ‘Of course.’
And once again there was silence.
‘There’s no mention of this christening piece in the catalogue of Steen’s work,’ Sir Edgar ventured at last.
Max shrugged his shoulders. ‘In that case there’d hardly be a question,’ he said and laughed a little.
Sir Edgar echoed his laugh. ‘Quite,’ he agreed. ‘It’s indubitably the right period.’
Max nodded. ‘We have only the picture to go upon,’ he said, ‘and of course doubts naturally crowd into the mind. But there are little touches which you as an expert must recognize, Sir Edgar, that curious cross-grained canvas, that sitting figure in the foreground. Very like Steen himself. Interesting how those men went in for self-portraiture.
‘Of course,’ he added, shrugging his shoulders, ‘I know no more than you. As I told you, it came into my hands in a perfectly orthodox way. I bought it at Theobald’s in January. I paid fourteen hundred and fifty for it. I bought it after examining it very closely, you understand, and I backed my own judgement. I can’t tell you whether it’s a genuine Steen. I don’t know. I’m inclined to think not. After all, a piece of luck like that doesn’t happen these days. Not to me at any rate. A signed Steen was sold in the same sale for two thousand seven hundred pounds, and A. T. Johnson who bought that picture ran me up to fourteen fifty for this.
‘But, of course,’ he went on with a sudden gesture which swept aside anything so uninteresting as money, ‘there’s the picture itself. This little group here, for instance’ – his long fingers described an airy circle – ‘there’s spirit and jollity there. There’s something quite indescribable. Don’t you notice it?’
‘Oh, I do.’ Sir Edgar was plainly impressed. ‘I do. In fact I’m inclined to go further than you, Fustian. You were always overcautious. The drawing of the child, that little piece of drapery, that suggests Steen to me.’
‘Yes,’ said Max casually. ‘Yes. Or a pupil.’
‘A pupil?’ Sir Edgar considered this contingency and shook his head. ‘But,’ he went on, feeling perhaps that he had gone too far, ‘as you say, we can’t be sure.’
‘No,’ said Max. ‘No. There’s a mention in the first catalogue of a picture called “The First Birthday”. If the child were older – but no. Even supposing the early chroniclers had not been too accurate, I fancy the production of a new find of that name would call into question a picture of that name in the Viennese collection.’
Sir Edgar produced his glass once again and peered long and thoughtfully at the child.
‘Well, Fustian,’ he said. ‘I’ll let you know definitely. Fifteen hundred, you say? In the meantime I’ll get you to put it on one side for me.’
Max hesitated and then, with the air of one making a decision, produced what Mr Campion suddenly felt must be the master stroke of this ordeal by innuendo.
‘Sir Edgar,’ he said, ‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’ve been thinking this matter over while we’ve been standing here and I tell you frankly that I do not think it is a Steen. On the face of it I can’t sell it with any kind of guarantee. It’s charming, it’s like – it’s very like – but in the absence of external evidence I don’t think I can commit myself to such a pronouncement. No, no. Leave it at that. I don’t think it is a Steen.’
Sir Edgar’s bright, rather greedy blue eyes smiled.
‘Officially,’ he murmured.
Max permitted himself a deprecatory grimace.
‘No, I won’t even say that,’ he said. ‘I’m afraid you must let me make it quite definite. I don’t think it is a Steen. But I shall sell it to you for fifteen hundred, or I shall put it back in the sale room with that reserve.’
Sir Edgar laughed and polished his glass carefully with his handkerchief before replacing it in his pocket.
‘Cautious,’ he said. ‘Too cautious, Fustian. You ought to stand for Parliament. Put it on one side for me.’
Mr Campion drifted into the other salon. The interview, he understood, was at an end.
Max returned after some minutes, quietly elated. His small black eyes were supremely happy and, although he did not directly refer to the interview which had passed, Campion felt that he was to understand that it had been a triumph.
They parted with many protestations of regret on Max’s part, and a reckless promise that the ‘Head of a Boy’ should be recovered though it lay at the end of the earth.
Mr Campion wandered off down Bond Street. His mind was uneasy. The affair of the Dacre drawings was odd and irritating, but he was aware that the root of the uncomfortable impression chipping at his mind lay not here. Rather, it was something that had happened during the last few minutes, something which his unconscious mind had seized and was trying to point out to him.
In sheer annoyance he forced himself to think of something else.
CHAPTER 10
The Key
–
WHEN Mr Campion went to call on Belle three days after his visit to the Salmon Galleries his interest in the murder was still mainly academic.
The police, embodied by the Inspector and his sergeant, had their own cut-and-dried views of the case. These had become crystallized in their minds by the cessation of the investigation, and their curiosity was appeased.
Campion, on the other hand, was convinced afresh every time he saw Linda that she had nothing to do with the killing of Dacre, and also that she was not hiding anything.
For him the question remained, and as he walked up the staircase to the drawing-room he felt strange in the old house. It was as though he were visiting it for the first time and noticing something uncanny about it, something inhospitable, as though the very walls were hugging themselves away from him with jealous secrecy.
The drawing-room looked much the same as usual, however. A fire had been lighted against the chilly spring weather and Belle sat in her low chair beside it, her plump hands held out to the blaze. As soon as Campion saw her he experienced his first feeling of animosity towards the murderer.
In the few weeks since the affair Belle had aged. She looked thinner and more fragile than before. There was a droop in the muslin of her bonnet, and another at the corner of her mouth. Her brown eyes were more faded and her welcome, although warm, was a trifle tremulous.
They were careful not to mention the business in those first minutes when they sat together by the hearth, and waited for Lisa to bring tea, but its presence was very obvious, and even the grand bravura of John Lafcadio’s trophies scattered round the room seemed to have lost its magic beside the piece of violent, sordid reality which had invaded their fastness.
When Lisa, the tea, and the inevitable Donna Beatrice arrived together, the skeleton could be kept decently in the cupboard no longer. Indeed, Donna Beatrice drew it forth with a flourish and the same air of self-righteous courage with which some people dis
close the more disgusting details of their ailments.
‘Mr Campion,’ she said, thrusting her surprisingly strong hand into his own, ‘you don’t regard us as social lepers at any rate. As soon as I came into the room I was aware of a strong blue aura over here in the corner by Belle and I said to myself, “Well, here’s a friend, at any rate”.’
Mr Campion, who had forgotten her rainbow complex, was taken aback.
‘Not at all,’ he murmured unsuitably and rose to assist Lisa in the matter of the tea table. The old Italian woman shot him a sly, grateful smile from under her yellow lids, an expression immediately followed by a most expressive glare of hatred directed at the unsuspecting ‘Inspiration’ who had seated herself in the high Stuart chair across the hearth.
Donna Beatrice was still dramatizing the situation on National Theatre lines. Her heavy black velvet, chased silver cross, and fine lace handkerchief were almost traditional. Belle’s kind brown eyes rested on her a little wearily.
‘No news, no developments. The secret grows oppressive,’ Donna Beatrice remarked with relish as she accepted a cup of tea. ‘Tell me, Mr Campion, have the police really dropped the case, or are they just crouching, watching, waiting to spring?’
Mr Campion glanced at Belle for support, which she gave him generously.
‘I don’t want to talk about it, Beatrice, if you don’t mind,’ she said plaintively. ‘I’m growing old. I don’t want to think of unpleasant things.’
‘Always a weakness, Belle dear,’ said the irrepressible Inspiration with intentional gentleness. ‘But if you say so, we’ll change the subject. Tell me, Mr Campion, do you think the trend of modern art shows degeneracy or a leaning towards the primitive?’
Half an hour later, when Campion was wondering why, with a murderer at large in Little Venice, Donna Beatrice should have escaped killing, Max arrived.
He made his usual entrance, kissed Belle’s hand, bowed to the younger lady, all but chucked Lisa under the chin, and seemed a little put out to see Campion.
‘Tea, Lisa,’ he said. ‘Tea, that vulgar little stimulant we sip to soothe our afternoons. Bring me tea.’
With his arrival the talk steered on to more general subjects, and Donna Beatrice was eclipsed.
‘Linda spends a great deal of her time with the boy D’Urfey,’ Max remarked suddenly. ‘I met them going out together just now when I came in from my call on Claire Potter.’
‘He seemed a nice boy,’ said Belle. ‘He reminds me of poor Will Fitzsimmons before he became famous.’
Donna Beatrice made a gesture. ‘Isn’t that typical of Belle?’ she said. ‘I’m afraid I’m more squeamish. Linda’s infatuation for the friend of her murdered fiancé seems too much like morbidity for me.’
Belle’s eyes hardened.
‘My granddaughter is neither morbid nor infatuated,’ she said with sudden vigour, and Max, who had opened his mouth, shut it again with the words unspoken.
Mr Campion found himself growing more interested in Max. The man was not merely an empty poseur and he felt he could begin to understand how he had carved a niche for himself in contemporary letters without having any especial gift. His was a tortuous, subtle brain, unexpectedly mobile and adroit.
Glancing at him now, lounging gracefully on a settee, his small dark face with its blue jowl and lively eyes turned towards the fire, Campion found him a most arresting personality.
‘I trust the outcome of your masterly piece of salesmanship was successful the other afternoon?’ he enquired.
Max turned to him lazily, but his smile showed him to be pleased.
‘Eminently, thank you,’ he said. ‘The deal went through without another word.’
Campion turned to Belle. ‘I had the privilege of seeing Fustian sell an old master the other afternoon,’ he said. ‘A most exciting experience. Tell me,’ he added, glancing back at the indolent figure on the settee, ‘how much doubt was there about the authenticity of that thing?’
‘None whatever.’ The drawl was very pronounced. ‘None in the world.’
Belle looked up sharply.
‘What picture was it?’ she enquired.
‘Nothing to interest you, dear lady.’ Max seemed anxious to let the question drop. ‘A conversation piece in the Steen manner, that’s all.’
His casualness had not deceived the old woman, however. She leant forward, her eyes fixed upon him.
‘Not a christening scene?’
Max avoided her glance at first, but presently he laughed and looked into her eyes.
‘There was a child in it,’ he admitted.
‘And a lot of blue and a kneeling figure in the foreground?’ Belle persisted.
Max shot a glance at Campion.
‘I confess to all these,’ he said, laughing.
Mrs Lafcadio sat back in her chair, her eyes round and reproachful, a flush in her wrinkled cheeks.
‘Max, that’s very disgraceful,’ she said. ‘Very disgraceful, indeed. Poor old Salmon would turn in his grave if he knew about it – he’s probably doing it now. Really, my dear, that’s dishonest!’
‘But my adorable Mrs Lafcadio,’ Max was still smiling, ‘you don’t understand. I never for one moment suggested that the christening scene was a genuine Steen. Campion must bear me out. I told my client very definitely that in my opinion it was not a Steen. I sold it on the strict understanding that I could give no guarantee of any kind. I said that in front of witnesses, didn’t I, Campion?’
Mr Campion was spared replying by Belle, who continued in the same impulsive way.
‘That picture,’ she said, ‘as you must know very well, Max, was painted by old Cornelius van Pijper. Surely you remember his widow? She used to live in the Cromwell Road. Johnnie and I were so sorry for her. I remember her dying quite well. It’s some years ago, of course, because Linda’s father wasn’t born.’
Max smiled faintly. ‘It’s an old picture then, anyway,’ he said.
For a moment Belle’s eyes clouded and then she, too, smiled.
‘I forget how old I am,’ she said. ‘Yes, of course, poor Hester van Pijper was before any of your time. But I remember that picture. There were half a dozen of them and Johnnie made Salmon buy them. Van Pijper was a copyist, but that one picture was an original in the Steen manner. Van Pijper himself would never part with it, but when he died and his widow was so desperately poor, Johnnie made Salmon buy the pictures. I remember, poor dear, he was very cross at having to pay as much for the original as the copies. He could sell the copies, you see, for what they were, but a single picture by an unknown artist in the manner of a master was hardly worth anything at all. Still, Mrs van Pijper was very glad of the money. I remember how she cried when she saw it, poor thing.’
Max continued to smile, mischievously now, his eyes dancing.
‘Dear Belle – what a gift!’ he said. ‘You touch everything with the fairy finger of Romance. Can’t you see her, Campion? The old Dutch widow weeping, the corner of her apron, held to her eye, while my portly predecessor in the frock-coat of munificence slips the golden guineas into the bosom of her dress!’
‘Max, you won’t get out of it that way.’ Belle shook her head at him angrily. ‘Besides, old Salmon would never think of slipping guineas into anyone’s dress, although he certainly did wear a frock-coat. But Mrs van Pijper never wore an apron, and if she had and was weeping into it, it would have been impossible to put money down her chest. But that’s not the point. How much did you get for that picture?’
Mr Campion looked the other way.
Max closed his eyes. ‘Fifteen,’ he said.
‘Guineas?’ demanded Belle, a little mollified.
‘Hundreds,’ said Max.
‘Fifteen hundred? Oh, Max, I won’t have you here. I’m disgusted.’
Donna Beatrice laughed a little enviously. ‘Very clever of Max, I think,’ she said.
‘Don’t encourage him.’ Belle was furious. ‘Oh,’ she added inconsequently, ‘what a boon that
money would have been to Hester. She had such a pretty daughter – in consumption, I remember.’
Max burst out laughing. ‘Belle, you exquisite period piece,’ he said. ‘You do me wrong. I told my client that in my opinion the picture was not a Steen.’
‘Then why did he pay fifteen hundred pounds for it?’
‘Because,’ said Max superbly, ‘the man was a pompous imbecile who imagined that I could be wrong.’
‘I suppose you suggested that it was a contemporary picture?’ persisted Belle.
‘I suggested nothing,’ said Max. ‘He did all the talking. Isn’t that so, Campion? He certainly said it was painted on canvas contemporary with Steen and I agreed with him. So it was. Your friend Van Pijper must have had a stock of old canvases. Very useful.’
Belle’s muslin bonnet quivered in the warm air.
‘You’re very clever, Max,’ she said, ‘but you’re not good.’
Max’s reply to this summing up of his character was typical. He slipped on one knee at her side and burst into a torrent of words.
‘Let me explain, dear lady. You’re judging me unheard. If you had seen the man, you’d have agreed with me. You would have been my ally. You’d have convinced him it was a Steen, sold it for three thousand pounds and spent the money on Hester van Pijper’s descendants. And you’d have been right.’
He threw out his arm.
‘There was this man, an over-fed, self-important ignoramus with a ridiculous little glass – the sort of thing the detective in a farce might use – crawling about on my floor talking about the texture and the pigment as though he knew what the words meant. Why was he doing it?’
He sprang to his feet and strode down the room, working himself into’ a passion of eloquence, his eyes blazing with righteous fire.
‘He was attempting to get an important picture cheap to present to the art gallery in a beastly town whose underfed millions he hopes to represent in Parliament. By this ostentatious gift he intends to impress the under-educated snobs on the local town council, while the shivering children of the poor, who subscribe to the rates and taxes, are not interested in pictures at all. They want food. Do you know what I intend to do with that fifteen hundred pounds, Belle? I shall buy a motor-car. This fellow’s rival candidate owns a factory which employs hundreds and thousands of men. I shall buy one of his cars and the money which my idiot client should have spent on the poor children of his constituency will go back to them after all, with the picture thrown in.’
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