Travels with my aunt / Путешествие с тетушкой. Книга для чтения на английском языке

But it did give me a guilty feeling…”

There was a ring from the front door and I said, “Hold on a moment, Aunt Augusta.” I looked through the dining-room window and saw a policeman’s helmet. I returned and said, “Your friends are here.”

“Already?”

“I’ll ring you back when they’ve gone.”

It was the first time I had ever been called on by the police. There was a short middle-aged man in a soft hat with a rough but kindly face and a broken nose and the tall good-looking young man in uniform.

“Mr. Pulling?” the detective asked.

“Yes.”

“May we come in for a few moments?”

“Have you a warrant?” I asked.

“Oh no, no, it hasn’t come to that. We just want to have a word or two with you.”

I wanted to say something about the Gestapo, but I thought it wiser not. I led them into the dining-room, but I didn’t ask them to sit down. The detective showed me an identity card and I read on it that he was Detective-Sergeant Sparrow, John.

“You know a man called Wordsworth, Mr. Pulling?”

“Yes, he’s a friend of my aunt’s.”

“Did you receive a package from him in the street yesterday?”

“I certainly did.”

“Would you have any objection to our examining the package, Mr. Pulling?”

“I most certainly would.”

“You know, sir, we could easily have obtained a search warrant, but we wanted to do things delicately. Have you known this man Wordsworth a long time?”

“I met him for the first time yesterday.

“Perhaps, sir, he asked you as a favour to deliver that package and you, seeing no harm at all in that and him being an employee of your aunt…”

“I don’t know what you are talking about. The package is mine. I had accidentally left it in the kitchen.”

“The package is yours, sir? You admit that.”

“You know very well what’s in the package. My aunt told you. It’s an urn with my mother’s ashes.”

“Your aunt has been in communication with you, has she?”

“Yes, she has.

“It had only just gone twelve, sir. And so those ashes… They are Mrs. Pulling’s?”

“There they are. You can see for yourself. On the bookcase.” I had put the urn there temporarily, until I was ready to bed it, above a complete set of Sir Walter Scott[36 - a complete set of Sir Walter Scott – (разг.