Craddock. âShe looked out to Camelot, didnât she?
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The Mirror crackâd from side to side;
âThe curse has come upon me,â cried
The Lady of Shalott.â
âExactly. She did,â said Mrs. Bantry.
âI beg your pardon. Who did? Did what?â
âLooked like that,â said Mrs. Bantry.
âWho looked like what?â
âMarina Gregg.â
âAh, Marina Gregg. When was this?â
âDidnât Jane Marple tell you?â
âShe didnât tell me anything. She sent me to you.â
âThatâs tiresome of her,â said Mrs. Bantry, âbecause she can always tell things better than I can. My husband always used to say that I was so abrupt that he didnât know what I was talking about. Anyway, it may have been only my fancy. But when you see anyone looking like that you canât help remembering it.â
âPlease tell me,â said Dermot Craddock.
âWell, it was at the party. I call it a party because what can one call things? But it was just a sort of reception up at the top of the stairs where theyâve made a kind of recess. Marina Gregg was there and her husband. They fetched some of us in. They fetched me, I suppose, because I once owned the house, and they fetched Heather Badcock and her husband because sheâd done all the running of the fête, and the arrangements. And we happened to go up the stairs at about the same time, so I was standing there, you see, when I noticed it.â
âQuite. When you noticed what?â
âWell, Mrs. Badcock went into a long spiel as people do whenthey meet celebrities. You know, how wonderful it was, and what a thrill and theyâd always hoped to see them. And she went into a long story of how sheâd once met her years ago and how exciting it had been. And I thought, in my own mind, you know, what a bore it must be for these poor celebrities to have to say all the right things. And then I noticed that Marina Gregg wasnât saying the right things. She was just staring.â
âStaringâat Mrs. Badcock?â
âNoâno, it looked as though sheâd forgotten Mrs. Badcock altogether. I mean, I donât believe sheâd even heard what Mrs. Badcock was saying. She was just staring with what I call this Lady of Shalott look, as though sheâd seen something awful. Something frightening, something that she could hardly believe she saw and couldnât bear to see.â
âThe curse has come upon me?â suggested Dermot Craddock.
âYes, just that. Thatâs why I call it the Lady of Shalott look.â
âBut what was she looking at, Mrs. Bantry?â
âWell, I wish I knew,â said Mrs. Bantry.
âShe was at the top of the stairs, you say?â
âShe was looking over Mrs. Badcockâs headâno, more over one shoulder, I think.â
âStraight at the middle of the staircase?â
âIt might have been a little to one side.â
âAnd there were people coming up the staircase?â
âOh yes, I should think about five or six people.â
âWas she looking at one of these people in particular?â
âI canât possibly tell,â said Mrs. Bantry. âYou see, I wasnât facing that way. I was looking at her . My back was to the stairs. I thought perhaps she was looking at one of the pictures.â
âBut she must know the pictures quite well if sheâs living in the house.â
âYes, yes, of course. No, I suppose she must have been looking at one of the people. I wonder which.â
âWe have to try and find out,â said Dermot Craddock. âCan you remember at all who the people were?â
âWell, I know the mayor was one of them with his wife. There was someone who I think was a reporter, with red hair, because I was introduced to him later, but I canât remember his name. I never hear names.
Yenthu Wentz
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