Murder at Mansfield Park

which are nought but monuments to our own arrogance and folly. Sir Thomas will rue the day he
set out upon such an injudicious enterprise. Indeed, I remarked as much at the time.’
    ‘How did you come to hear of this, my dear?’ enquired Mrs Grant, who was accustomed to such pronouncements at the dinner-table, and was rather more preoccupied with how little her
sister had eaten of the excellent turkey the cook had dressed specially that day.
    ‘I met with McGregor myself, as I was coming back from Mansfield-common. He informed me that Maddox spent above an hour on his hands and knees, examining the dirt. Let us hope he is
equipped with such boots and breeches as may withstand such barbarous treatment. But it was of no avail; he did not find whatever it was he was seeking. I believe the word he
employed’—this with some thing of a sneer—‘was clues .’
    ‘You do not surprise me, Dr Grant,’ said his wife. ‘As if there could be any thing still lying there, after all this time. I do not see why such a man as this Mr Maddox is
needed, at all. To my mind, the whole dreadful business is easily enough explained—it will be those gipsies I told you of, Mary. They were seen at Stoke-hill two days ago, and accosted a
party of ladies in a lane not three miles from here. There were half a dozen children, at least, as well as several stout women, and a gang of great rough boys. The ladies were frightened quite out
of their wits.’
    Mary had said little during dinner, and her spirits remained agitated and distracted after her encounter with Maddox, but her sister’s words drew her attention; she had been imagining all
kinds of dreadful possibilities, any one of which would make grievous inroads on the tranquillity of all, but might the answer be far more simple and common-place than that? Might the blame lie
with a group of common gipsies? Mary could well see such a throng demanding money, and Fanny refusing in all the disdain of angry superiority, which would only have served to enrage them all the
more.
    ‘It is an interesting little theory, my dear, but, I fear, rather wide of the mark,’ said Dr Grant, his sonorous tones breaking through Mary’s thoughts. ‘Not least
because Mr Maddox seems to have discovered the ghastly implement.’
    Both the ladies looked at him in shock and dismay. ‘What can you mean, Dr Grant?’ said his wife.
    ‘He may not have found very much in the mud, but I gather that a search of the nearby workmen’s cart was rather more productive. One of the mattocks was found to bear distinct traces
of—’
    Mrs Grant gave a loud cough, and cast a look of meaning at her husband. Dr Grant was a sedentary man, but his intellectual tastes and pursuits were exceedingly various, and he devoted many of
his lengthy leisure hours to the study of scientific matters; he had, therefore, felt all the curiosity of a interested party in the steward’s description of the fragments of human brain and
flesh discovered on the blade of the mattock, and would have proceeded to give them a detailed account thereof, but a glance at Mary shewing her to have turned as pale as she had been on first
returning from the Park, he contented himself with remarking, ‘Well, well, I shall merely say that it was quite clear that this was the instrument with which the deed was done. Moreover,
there had clearly been a rather clumsy attempt to disguise the fact. It had been wiped, but some traces still remained.’
    ‘And what did the family have to say to that?’ said Mrs Grant, who had poured a glass of wine for Mary, and was obliging her to drink the greater part.
    ‘I believe he has asked to question the servants, and to carry out a search of the house, but the latter has been absolutely refused. Miss Bertram has declared that her mother is in no fit
state to accede to such a request, and Mrs Norris was, as one might have expected, particularly loud in her outrage at such an idea; all the more so since—in her opinion—it is
now palpably obvious that one of the labourers must be responsible. She is all for having the whole lot of them carted off to Northampton assizes, but I suppose we should not have expected any
thing like reason or logic from that lady.’
    ‘How so, Dr Grant? I am hardly an admirer of Mrs Norris, in general , but surely there is some thing to be said for such a view of the matter?’
    Dr Grant shook his head. ‘It is no more plausible, my dear,’ he said patiently,