Memento Mori

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Q.   What are the four last things to be ever remembered?

A.   The four last things to be ever remembered are Death, Judgement, Hell, and Heaven.

The Penny Catechism

ONE

Dame Lettie Colston refilled her fountain-pen and continued her letter:

One of these days I hope you will write as brilliantly on a happier theme. In these days of cold war I do feel we should soar above the murk & smog & get into the clear crystal.

The telephone rang. She lifted the receiver. As she had feared, the man spoke before she could say a word. When he had spoken the familiar sentence she said, ‘Who is that speaking, who is it?’

But the voice, as on eight previous occasions, had rung off. Dame Lettie telephoned to the Assistant Inspector as she had been requested to do. ‘It has occurred again,’ she said.

‘I see. Did you notice the time?’

‘It was only a moment ago.

‘The same thing?’

‘Yes,’ she said, ‘the same. Surely you have some means of tracing —’

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