Jumping Jenny (27 page)

“So…?”

“So I cut into the tirade and said she must be talking nonsense. Phil would never have done such a thing. That made her more angry still, and she said that Phil jolly well had done such a thing. She’d been talking to him, and he’d dared her to stand on the chair and put her head in the noose, and when she did it he just pulled the chair away from underneath her; and now she was going to ring up the police and give him in charge for attempted murder, and that would be that. So …”

“Yes?”

Margot hesitated. “I like Phil, don’t you?”

“Yes, he’s a good sort.”

“Yes. And … Darling, you would love me whatever you knew I’d done, wouldn’t you?”

“I expect so.”

“Sure you would?”

“Positive. What did you do?”

Margot coughed in a rather deprecatory way.

“Well, darling,” she said simply, “I pulled the chair away again.”

THE END