Appleby at Allington by Michael Innes Read Free Book Online Page A

able to have a little chat about it with Colonel Pride.’
    ‘The Chief Constable? Certainly not. He feels I have to be kept in my place – which is absurd. If he’s at this nonsense, of course we’ll have some civil talk. But I don’t care for him.’
    ‘My dear Appleby, you mustn’t be put out by Tommy Pride’s manner.’ Wilfred Osborne spoke as a man of peace. ‘He’s not a bad chap. Had quite a decent war, and all that. Perhaps he hasn’t much between the ears, as the young people say. And, naturally, he knows nothing about criminals, and all that sort of thing.’ Osborne paused in mild perplexity before Judith’s sudden yelp of laughter. ‘Only saying, my dear, that poor old Tommy may feel a bit defensive – with a top pro. like John moving into these parts. Appleby, may I call you John? Seems not too out of turn.’
    ‘Yes, of course. And I’ve no doubt you’re right, Wilfred, about Pride. But he’s one reason why I wouldn’t dream of starting to poke into that affair last night.’
    ‘Why do the lake and drive run beside each other on this hard straight line?’ Judith had judged a diversion useful. ‘Didn’t Humphrey Repton or somebody lay out the grounds?’
    ‘He improved them, my dear. That was the word.’ Osborne was delighted. ‘It comes into An Inquiry into the Changes of Taste in Landscape Gardening . And it was only for my great-grandfather, you know, that he did the job. Chronologically, that’s rather remarkable. Osbornes marry late, you see, if they marry at all. My great-grandfather was what they called a Russia merchant. I don’t know why Russia. It was where tallow in a big way seemed to come from. Perhaps it was made out of bears. What was I saying?’
    ‘Repton.’
    ‘Yes, of course. He was a gentleman, you know, who lost his fortune and turned professional gardener to the nobility, gentry, and newer propertied classes. That would be how to put it – eh, John? And it impressed my great-grandfather very much. He had Repton in a big way. In those days you wound your waters – that was the word for them – but just here it was necessary to have this long straight bank. It’s really the bed of a shallow quarry, from which they got the stone for the later parts of the castle. However, the resourceful Repton said it was an interesting return to the Dutch Taste. I believe he threw in a tulip-bed a quarter of a mile long. Of course, this isn’t the main approach. Do you know Ashdown House in Berkshire? Most intriguing Dutch place in the country.’
    The car continued to move up the drive – slowly, because it was now one of a line of cars. Osborne continued to talk in a casually informative way about Allington. Appleby wondered how strong his feelings about the house really were. He also wondered whether, apart from having been a soldier, this amiable elderly man had ever engaged in any settled occupation whatever. Presumably he had run Allington when he owned it. But what had he done since then? Perhaps just lived on what he had salved from what must have been, presumably, a sadly encumbered estate. Judith would know.
    The music had sounded quite grand from far away, as if it were provided by a regimental band. It turned out, however, to utter itself from a van, the property of young William Goodcoal, who owned the wireless shop in Linger. The van was boldly lettered PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM, and justified this claim by every now and then breaking away from melody into a curious dry crackling, susceptible of uncertain interpretation as a human voice commending to the general regard any of the surrounding attractions being inadequately patronized at the moment. There was another van vending ice-cream – conceivably in the interest of new doors and windows for the village hall, but more probably in a spirit of successful piracy and private enterprise. Between two splendid oaks in a nearer reach of the park a long trestle table had been set up, and behind this the females of