To-morrow in church
I meant to take stock of the islanders--and give them a chance of taking
stock of me.
That night my thoughts ran chiefly on my host and hostess. I had learnt a
few more facts about them and these I now put together to see what
picture they suggested. In the first place, the Rendalls were an ancient
family in these parts and had owned their property for some centuries.
As all my prejudices ran in favour of old families, old port, and old
furniture, this was so far reassuring.
On the other hand, Mr. Rendall had apparently lived much abroad but he
dropped no hint as to whether he had sojourned in foreign parts for
reasons of pleasure, health, or business. In fact he was close as a clam
on the subject, and, indeed, on every other subject. Add to this that I
had heard he was hard up, that he had no wife to look after him, and that
he evidently took a caustic rather than an enthusiastic view of life, and
in my present state of mind there seemed a _prima facie_ case for
suspicion. Anyhow he was a man to be watched.
As to his daughter, I had learned that her name was Jean, that she had
been to school at a somewhat select seminary which I chanced to have
heard of, and that she had finished her education a couple of years ago
in Switzerland.
"Nothing very suspicious in all that," I thought.
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