Lord Peter Views the Body · The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question (2/2)

“Those are the things to beware of,” returned his lordship, with an earnestness that seemed a little out of place. “One can keep guard on everything but just those second-nature tricks.” He moved across to the window, which overlooked the tradesmen’s entrance. “Hullo!” he said, “here’s our bird.”

Parker joined him, and saw the neat, shingled head of the French girl from the Gare St. Lazare, topped by a neat black bandeau and bow. A man with a basket full of white narcissi had rung the bell, and appeared to be trying to make a sale. Parker gently opened the window, and they heard Célestine say with a marked French accent, “No, nossing today, sank you.” The man insisted in the monotonous whine of his type, thrusting a big bunch of the white flowers upon her, but she pushed them back into the basket with an angry exclamation and flirted away, tossing her head and slapping the door smartly to. The man moved off muttering. As he did so a thin, unhealthy-looking lounger in a check cap detached himself from a lamppost opposite and mouched along the street after him, at the same time casting a glance up at the window. Mr. Parker looked at Lord Peter, nodded, and made a slight sign with his hand. At once the man in the check cap removed his cigarette from his mouth, extinguished it, and, tucking the stub behind his ear, moved off without a second glance.

“Very interesting,” said Lord Peter, when both were out of sight. “Hark!”

There was a sound of running feet overhead⁠—a cry⁠—and a general commotion. The two men dashed to the door as the bride, rushing frantically downstairs with her bevy of bridesmaids after her, proclaimed in a hysterical shriek: “The diamonds! They’re stolen! They’re gone!”

Instantly the house was in an uproar. The servants and the caterers’ men crowded into the hall; the bride’s father burst out from his room in a magnificent white waistcoat and no coat; the Duchess of Medway descended upon Mr. Parker, demanding that something should be done; while the butler, who never to the day of his death got over the disgrace, ran out of the pantry with a corkscrew in one hand and a priceless bottle of crusted port in the other, which he shook with all the vehemence of a town-crier ringing a bell. The only dignified entry was made by the dowager duchess, who came down like a ship in sail, dragging Célestine with her, and admonishing her not to be so silly.

“Be quiet, girl,” said the dowager. “Anyone would think you were going to be murdered.”

“Allow me, your grace,” said Mr. Bunter, appearing suddenly from nowhere in his usual unperturbed manner, and taking the agitated Célestine by the arm. “Young woman, calm yourself.”

“But what is to be done?” cried the bride’s mother. “How did it happen?”

It was at this moment that Detective-Inspector Parker took the floor. It was the most impressive and dramatic moment in his whole career. His magnificent calm rebuked the clamorous nobility surrounding him.

“Your grace,” he said, “there is no cause for alarm. Our measures have been taken. We have the criminals and the gems, thanks to Lord Peter Wimsey, from whom we received inf⁠—”

“Charles!” said Lord Peter in an awful voice.

“Warning of the attempt. One of our men is just bringing in the male criminal at the front door, taken red-handed with your grace’s diamonds in his possession.” (All gazed round, and perceived indeed the check-capped lounger and a uniformed constable entering with the flower-seller between them.) “The female criminal, who picked the lock of your grace’s safe, is⁠—here! No, you don’t,” he added, as Célestine, amid a torrent of apache language which nobody, fortunately, had French enough to understand, attempted to whip out a revolver from the bosom of her demure black dress. “Célestine Berger,” he continued, pocketing the weapon, “I arrest you in the name of the law, and I warn you that anything you say will be taken down and used as evidence against you.”

“Heaven help us,” said Lord Peter; “the roof would fly off the court. And you’ve got the name wrong, Charles. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you Jacques Lerouge, known as Sans-culotte⁠—the youngest and cleverest thief, safe-breaker, and female impersonator that ever occupied a dossier in the Palais de Justice.”

There was a gasp. Jacques Sans-culotte gave vent to a low oath and cocked a gamin grimace at Peter.

“C’est parfait,” said he; “toutes mes félicitations, milord, what you call a fair cop, hein? And now I know him,” he added, grinning at Bunter, “the so-patient Englishman who stand behind us in the queue at St. Lazare. But tell me, please, how you know me, that I may correct it, next time.”

“I have mentioned to you before, Charles,” said Lord Peter, “the unwisdom of falling into habits of speech. They give you away. Now, in France, every male child is brought up to use masculine adjectives about himself. He says: Que je suis beau! But a little girl has it rammed home to her that she is female; she must say: Que je suis belle! It must make it beastly hard to be a female impersonator. When I am at a station and I hear an excited young woman say to her companion, ‘Me prends-tu pour un imbécile’⁠—the masculine article arouses curiosity. And that’s that!” he concluded briskly. “The rest was merely a matter of getting Bunter to take a photograph and communicating with our friends of the Sûreté and Scotland Yard.”

Jacques Sans-culotte bowed again.

“Once more I congratulate milord. He is the only Englishman I have ever met who is capable of appreciating our beautiful language. I will pay great attention in future to the article in question.”

With an awful look, the Dowager Duchess of Medway advanced upon Lord Peter.

“Peter,” she said, “do you mean to say you knew about this, and that for the last three weeks you have allowed me to be dressed and undressed and put to bed by a young man?”

His lordship had the grace to blush.

“Duchess,” he said humbly, “on my honour I didn’t know absolutely for certain till this morning. And the police were so anxious to have these people caught red-handed. What can I do to show my penitence? Shall I cut the privileged beast in pieces?”

The grim old mouth relaxed a little.

“After all,” said the dowager duchess, with the delightful consciousness that she was going to shock her daughter-in-law, “there are very few women of my age who could make the same boast. It seems that we die as we have lived, my dear.”

For indeed the Dowager Duchess of Medway had been notable in her day.