"ErnestBramah-TheDisappearanceOfMarieSevere" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bramah Ernest)

thing at last."
"And you haven't, eh?"
The Inspector looked round. He knew well enough that they were alone in the
study at The Turrets, but the action had become something of a mannerism with
him.
"I don't mind admitting to you, sir, that I've never had any other opinion than
that the father of the little girl went down that day and got her away. Where
she is now, and whether dead or alive, I can't pretend to say, but that he's at
the bottom of it I'm firmly convinced. And what's more," he added with slow
significance, "I hope so."
"Why in particular?" inquired the other.
Beedel felt in his breast-pocket, took out a formidable wallet, and from among
its multitudinous contents selected a cabinet photograph sheathed in its
protecting envelope of glazed transparent paper.
"If you could make out anything of what this portrait shows, you'd understand
better what I mean, Mr. Carrados," he replied delicately.
Carrados shook his head but nevertheless held out his hand for the photograph.
"No good, I'm afraid," he confessed before he took it. "A print of this sort is
one of the few things that afford no graduation to the sense of touch. No,
no"Чas he passed his finger-tips over the paper Ч"a gelatino-chloride surface of
mathematical uniformity, Inspector, and nothing more. Now had it been the
negativeЧ"
"I am sure that that could be procured if you wished to have it, Mr. Carrados.
Anyway, I dare say that you've seen in some of the papers what this young girl
is like. She is ten years old and bigЧ at least tall-for her age. This picture
is the last takenЧ some time this yearЧand I am told that it is just like her."
"How should you describe it, Inspector?"
"I am not much good at that sort of thing," said the large man with a shy
awkwardness, "but it makes as sweet a picture as ever I've seen. She is very
straight-set, and yet with a sort of gracefulness such as a young wild animal
might have. It's a full-faced position, and she is looking straight out at you
with an expression that is partly serious and partly amused, and as noble and
gracious with it all as a young princess might be. I have children of my own,
Mr. Carrados, and of course I think they're very nice and pretty, but thisЧthis
is quite a different thing. Her hair is curly without being in separate curls,
and the description calls it black. Eyes dark brown with straight eyebrows,
complexion a sort of glowing brown, small regular teeth. Of course we have a
full description of what she was wearing and so forth."
"Yes, yes," assented Carrados idly. "The Van Brown Studio, Photographers, eh?
These people are quite well off, then?"
"Oh yes; very nice house and good position-Mrs. Severe, that is to say. You will
remember that she obtained a divorce from her husband four or five years ago.
I've turned up the particulars and it wasn't what you'd call a bad case as
things go, but the lady seemed determined, and in the end Severe didn't defend.
She had five or six hundred a year of her own, but he had nothing beyond his
salary, and he threw his position up then, and ever since he has been going
steadily down. He's almost on the last rung now and picks up his living casual."

"What's the case against him?"
"Well, it scarcely amounts to a case as yet because there is no evidence of his