‘I’m afraid,’ said Miss Marple, ‘that we have all to face the fact that conditions are different. These large estab-lishments are a great problem. It must be sad for you, in a way, to come back here and find everything so different.
Do you really prefer living here to – well – somewhere of your own?’
Mildred Strete flushed.
‘After all, it’s my home,’ she said. ‘It was my father’s house. Nothing can alter that. I’ve a right to be here if I choose. And I do choose. If only mother were not so impossible! She won’t even buy herself proper clothes. It worries Jolly a lot.’
‘I was going to ask you about Miss Believer.’
‘Such a comfort having her here. She adores mother.
She’s been with her a long time now – she came in John Restarick’s time. And was wonderful, I believe, during the whole sad business. I expect you heard that he ran away with a dreadful Yugoslavian woman – a most abandoned creature. She’d had any amount of lovers, I believe. Mother was very fine and dignified about it all.
Divorced him as quietly as possible. Even went so far as to have the Restarick boys for their holidays – quite unnecessary, really, other arrangements could have been made. It would have been unthinkable, of course, to have let them go to their father and that woman. Anyway, mother had them here… And Miss Bellever stood by all through things and was a tower of strength. I sometimes think she makes mother even more vague than she need be, by doing all the practical things herself. But I really don’t know what mother would do without her.’ She paused and then remarked in a tone of surprise: ‘Here is Lewis. How odd. He seldom comes out in the garden.’ Mr Serrocold came towards them in the same single-minded way that he did everything. He appeared not to notice Mildred, because it was only Miss Marple who was in his mind.
‘I’m so sorry,’ he said. ‘I wanted to take you round our institution and show you everything. Caroline asked me to. Unfortunately I have to go off to Liverpool. The case of that boy and the railway parcels office. But Maverick will take you. He’ll be here in a few minutes. I shan’t be back until the day after tomorrow. It will be splendid if we can get them not to prosecute.’ Mildred Strete got up and walked away. Lewis Serrocold did not notice her go. His earnest eyes gazed at Miss Marple through thick glasses.
‘You see,’ he said, ‘the Magistrates nearly always take the wrong view. Sometimes they’re too severe, but sometimes they’re too lenient. If these boys get a sentence of a few months it’s no deterrent – they get a kind of a kick out of it, even. Boast about it to their girl friends. But a severe sentence often sobers them. They realize that the game isn’t worth it. Or else it’s better not to serve a prison sentence at all. Corrective training – constructional training like we have here ‘ Miss Marple interrupted him.
‘Mr Serrocold,’ she said. ‘Are you quite satisfied about young Mr Lawson. Is he – is he quite normal?’ A disturbed expression appeared on Lewis Serrocold’s face.
‘I do hope he’s not relapsing. What has he been saying?’ ‘He told me that he was Winston Churchill’s son ‘ ‘Of course – of course. The usual statements. He’s illegitimate, as you’ve probably guessed, poor lad, and of very humble beginnings. He was a case recommended to me by a Society in London. He’d assaulted a man in the street who he said was spying on him. All very typical Dr Maverick will tell you. I went into his case history.
Mother was of a poor class but a respectable family in Plymouth. Father a sailor – she didn’t even know his name… Child brought up in difficult circumstances.
Started romancing about his father and later about himself. Wore uniform and decorations he wasn’t entitled to – all quite typical. But Maverick considers the prognosis hopeful. If we can give him confidence in himself. I’ve given him responsibility here, tried to make him appreciate that it’s not a man’s birth that matters but what he is. I’ve tried to give him confidence in his own ability. The improvement was marked. I was very happy about him. And now you say ‘ He shook his head.