ON CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE MORNING
Margery Allingham
Sir Leo Pursuivant, the Chief Constable, had been sitting in his comfortable study after a magnificent lunch and talking heavily of the sadness of Christmas, while his guest, Mr. Campion, most favoured of his large house-party, had been laughing at him gently.
It was true, the younger man had admitted, his pale eyes sleepy behind his horn-rimmed spectacles, that, however good the organisation, the festival was never quite the same after one was six and a half, but then, what sensible man would expect it to be, and meanwhile, what a truly remarkable bird that had been!
At that point the Superintendent had arrived with his grim little story and the atmosphere was spoiled altogether.
. . .