in a private nursing-home. Would he write to her at the Nurses’ Club? Up to this point the letter had apparently been written with a certain amount of self-control, but from then onwards O’Callaghan saw, with something like horror, that Jane’s emotions had run away with her pen. She loved him but what had she left to offer him? she asked. Must they both forget? She was fighting for her soul and nothing was too desperate. There was a devil tearing at her soul and if she lost him it would get her. She added again that she loved him and that if he persisted in ignoring her she would do something terrible. With a sudden petulant gesture he crumpled up the sheet of paper and threw it on the fire.
‘Blast!’ he said. ‘Blast! Blast! Blast!’
There was a light tap on the door, which opened far enough to disclose a large nose, a vague mouth, a receding chin, and a gigantic earring.
‘Affairs of state, Derry?’ asked a coy voice. ‘Affairs of state?’
‘Oh, come in, Ruth,’ said Sir Derek O’Callaghan.
CHAPTER 2 Introduces a Patent Medicine
Friday, the fifth. Evening.
During the following week the Home Secretary followed his usual routine. He had become more or less accustomed to the attacks of pain. If anything they occurred more often and with increasing severity. He told himself that the day after he had introduced his Bill, he would consult a doctor. Meanwhile he took three tablets of aspirin whenever the pain threatened to become unendurable, and grew more and more dispirited and wretched. The memory of Jane Harden’s letter lurked at the back of his thoughts, like a bad taste in the conscience.
His sister Ruth, an advanced hypochondriac, with the persistence of a missionary, continually pressed upon him strange boluses, pills and draughts. She made a practice of calling on him after dinner armed with chemists’ parcels and a store of maddening condolences and counsels. On Friday night he retreated to his study, begging his wife to tell Ruth, if she appeared, that he was extremely busy, and not to be interrupted. His wife looked at him for a moment.
‘I shall ask Nash,’ she said, ‘to say we are both out.’
He paused and then said uncomfortably:
‘I don’t think I quite like—’
‘I too,’ said his wife, ‘find myself bored by Ruth.’
‘Still, Cicely—after all she is exceedingly kind. Perhaps it would be better—’
‘You will see her then?’
‘No, damn it, I won’t.’
‘Very well, Derek. I’ll tell Nash. Has your pain been worrying you lately?’
‘Quite a lot, thank you.’
‘That, of course, is why you are irritable. I think you are foolish not to see a doctor.’
‘I think I told you I would call in John Phillips as soon as this Bill was through.’
‘It’s for you to decide, of course. Shall I ask Nash to take your coffee into the study?’
‘If you please.’
‘Yes.’ She had a curiously remote way of saying ‘Yes,’ as though it was a sort of bored comment on everything he uttered.
‘Good night, Derek. I am going up early and won’t disturb you.’
‘Good night, Cicely.’
She stepped towards him and waited. By some mischance his kiss fell upon her lips instead of her cheek. He almost felt he ought to apologize. However, she merely repeated ‘Good night’ and he went off to his study.
Here his secretary Ronald Jameson awaited him. Jameson, just down from Oxford, was an eager but not too tiresomely earnest young man. He did his work well, and was intelligent. Normally, O’Callaghan found him tolerable and even likeable. Tonight, the sight of his secretary irritated and depressed him.
‘Well, Ronald?’
He sank down into his chair, and reached for a cigar.
‘Sir John Phillips has rung up, sir, and would like to come and see you this evening if you are free.’
‘Phillips? Has anyone been talking about me to Phillips? What does he want? Is it a professional visit?’
‘I don’t think so, sir. Sir John didn’t mention your—indisposition.’
‘Ring him up and say I’ll be delighted. Anything else?’
‘These letters. There’s another of the threatening variety. I do wish, sir, that you’d let me talk to Scotland Yard.’
‘No. Anything else?’
‘Only one, marked personal. It’s on your desk.’
‘Give it to me, will you?’
Jameson brought the letter and handed it to him. He looked at it and experienced the sensation of going down in a lift. It was from Jane Harden. O’Callaghan let his arm swing down by the side of his chair. The letter hung from his fingers. He remained staring at the fire, the unlighted cigar between his lips.
Ronald Jameson waited uncomfortably. At last he produced his lighter and advanced it towards O’Callaghan’s cigar.
‘Thank you,’ said O’Callaghan absently.
‘Is there anything I can do, sir?’
‘No, thank you.’
Jameson hesitated, looked uneasily at his employer’s white face, reflected that Sir John Phillips still awaited his message, and left the room.
For some time after the door had shut behind his secretary O’Callaghan sat and stared at the fire. At last, with an enormous effort, he forced himself to read through the letter. Jane Harden had written a frantic, bitter arraignment, rather than an appeal. She said she felt like killing herself. A little further on, she added that if an opportunity presented itself she would not hesitate to kill him: ‘Don’t cross my path. I’m warning you for my own sake, not for yours. I mean it, Derek, for you and all men like you are better out of the way. This is my final word.—Jane Harden.’
O’Callaghan had a swift mental picture of the letter as it would appear in the columns of the penny Press. Rather to his surprise O’Callaghan heard his wife speak to the secretary in the hall outside. Something in the quality of her voice arrested his attention. He listened.
‘—something seems to be worrying him.’
‘I think so too, Lady O’Callaghan,’ Jameson murmured.
‘—any idea—any letters?’ The voice faded away.
‘Tonight—seemed to upset—of course this Bill—’
O’Callaghan got up and strode across the room. He flung open the door.
His wife and Ronald Jameson stood facing each other with something of the air of conspirators. As he opened the door they turned their faces towards him. Jameson’s became very red and he looked swiftly from husband to wife. Lady O’Callaghan merely regarded Sir Derek placidly. He felt himself trembling with anger.
‘Hitherto,’ he said to Jameson, ‘I have seen no reason to suppose you did not understand the essentially confidential nature of your job. Apparently I have been mistaken.’
‘I’m—I’m terribly sorry, Sir Derek—it was only because—’
‘You have no business to discuss my letters with anyone. With anyone. You understand?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Please don’t be absurd, Derek,’ said his wife. ‘I asked Mr Jameson a question