Chapter Twenty-one
C hief-Inspector Davy settled himself back in his chair and looked at the two women sitting opposite him. It was pastmidnight. Police officials had come and gone. There had been doctors, fingerprint¹ men, an ambulance to remove thebody; and now everything had narrowed to this one room dedicated² for the purposes of the law by Bertram’s Hotel.
Chief-Inspector Davy sat one side of the table. Bess Sedgwick and Elvira sat the other side. Against the wall apoliceman sat unobtrusively writing. Detective-Sergeant³ Wadell sat near the door.
Father looked thoughtfully at the two women facing him. Mother and daughter. There was, he noted⁴, a strongsuperficial likeness⁵ between them. He could understand how for one moment in the fog he had taken Elvira Blake forBess Sedgwick. But now, looking at them, he was more struck by the points of difference than the points ofresemblance. They were not really alike save in colouring, yet the impression persisted that here he had a positive anda negative version of the same personality. Everything about Bess Sedgwick was positive. Her vitality⁶, her energy, hermagnetic attraction. He admired Lady Sedgwick. He always had admired her. He had admired her courage and hadalways been excited over her exploits; had said, reading his Sunday papers: “She’ll never get away with that,” andinvariably she had got away with it! He had not thought it possible that she would reach journey’s end and she hadreached journey’s end. He admired particularly the indestructible quality of her. She had had one air crash, several carcrashes, had been thrown badly twice from her horse, but at the end of it here she was. Vibrant⁷, alive, a personalityone could not ignore for a moment. He took off his hat to her mentally. Some day, of course, she would come acropper. You could only bear a charmed life for so long. His eyes went from mother to daughter. He wondered. Hewondered very much.
In Elvira Blake, he thought, everything had been driven inward. Bess Sedgwick had got through life by imposingher will on it. Elvira, he guessed, had a different way of getting through life. She submitted, he thought. She obeyed.

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