Death in Ecstasy. Ngaio Marsh
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Название: Death in Ecstasy
Автор: Ngaio Marsh
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Зарубежные детективы
isbn: 9780007344437
isbn:
âYes. Now look here, sir. Youâre a business man I take it?â
âSurely.â
âThank God for that. I donât know how much this organisation means to you, and I donât want to say anything that will be offensive, but Iâm longing for a sensible manâs view of the whole situation. An intelligent and knowledgeable view.â
âInside dope,â said Mr Ogden.
âExactly.â
âGo right ahead. Maybe Iâll talk and maybe not. Maybe I donât know anything.â
âI gather you are an officer of the executive?â
âThatâs so. A Warden.â
âYou know all these people quite well, I suppose?â
âWhy, yes. We are all enthusiastic about uplift. The spirit of comradeship pervades our relationship. You Britishers are weaned on starch, I guess, but I hand myself out a whole lot of roses for the way Iâve got this bunch started. Right at the commencement of the movement they used to sit round looking at each other like they all suffered from frostbite. Now theyâve got together like regular fellows. Theyâre a great little crowd.â
âYouâve been interested in the organisation since its foundation?â
âThatâs so. That was way back in â why, it must be two years ago. I met up with Father Garnette coming across to England. I move about some, Inspector. Thatâs my job. That trip it was the Brightwater Creek Gold Mining Company. Yes, thatâs what it would be. I recollect I had Father Garnette accept a small nugget as a souvenir. That would be May two years ago. I was very, very much impressed with Father Garnetteâs personality.â
âReally,â said Alleyn.
âYes, sir. Iâm a self-made man, Chief. I was raised in a ten-cent fish joint, and my education simply forgot to occur, but when I meet culture I respect it. I like it handed out good and peppy, and thatâs the way Father Garnette let me have it. By the time we hit Southampton weâd doped out a scheme for this church, and before six months had passed we were drawing congregations of three hundred.â
âRemarkable,â said Alleyn.
âIt was swell.â
âWhere did the money come from?â
âWhy, from the flock. Father Garnette had a small hall âway down Great Holland Road. Compared with this it was a bum show, but say, did we work it? The Father had a service every night for a month. He got right down to it. A small bunch of very influential people came along. Just one or two, but they roped in more. When heâd got them all enthusiastic he had an appeal week and loosed a line of high-voltage oratory. Sob-stuff. I gave five grand and Iâm proud to spill the beans.â
âWho were the other subscribers?â
âWhy, Dagmar Candour was in on the plush seats with a thousand pounds and poor Cara checked in at the same level. Each of those ladies seemed ambitious to carry off the generosity stakes. Then there was M. de Ravigne and â and all the bunch of Initiates. I guess Iâd hold up operations some if I recited all the subscribers.â
âMiss Quayne must have been a very wealthy woman?â
âShe was very, very wealthy, and she had a lovely nature. Why, only last month she deposited five thousand in bearer bonds in the safe back there beyond the altar. They are waiting there until another five is raised among the rest of us and then itâs to form a building fund for a new church. Thatâs how generous she was.â
Nigel had paused, pen in air, to gape at Mr Ogdenâs enthusiastic countenance, and to reflect a little childishly on the gullibility of average men and women. None of these people was particularly stupid, he would say, except perhaps Mrs Candour. Miss Quayne had looked interesting. Mr Ogden was obviously an intelligent business man. Janey Jenkins, Maurice Pringle, M. de Ravigne were none of them idiots. He forgot all about Miss Wade. Yet all these apparently sensible individuals had been duped by Garnette into parting with sums of money. Extraordinary! At this moment he remembered his own reaction to Father Garnettâs oratory and felt less superior.
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