Sentence The Tenth

“Oh, Gosh!” exclaimed Roxy Davidova, pausing for breath, and looking down at her suit, which was now covered with a fine, pinkish-whitish-bluish-greyish dust; “I say, what is all this stuff?” she asked, starting to brush it off with her hands, and Daphne laughed heartily, for she was genuinely entertained by Roxy's query, cried that it was original Edinburgh Rock, and swung her arms expansively, indicating the rock floor, walls and roof of the winding tunnel in which they had paused, adding that it's an aa, at which Roxy looked puzzled; “what's a naa?” she asked, scratching her scalp as Stan Laurel was wont to do; and Daphne grinned, and explained that it was not a naa, but an aa, because you see, she added, pointing, that it was rough lava dating back to Edinburgh's last period of volcanic activity, and that, she added, wasn't yesterday....but Roxy still looked perplexed; “no,” she said, “I'd have heard about it,” doggedly nodding her head to demonstrate how positive she was that she was absolutely up-to-date – and Daphne chuckled merrily; which was when Maude pointed to a shape which seemed at odds with it's surrounding, and asked, “what's that?”; at which Daphne strode forward, seized the object, which was a rather large Gladstone Bag and tossed it to Roxy, saying that it was a portmanteau, and asking if she could see any indication of it's owner; Roxy fumbled with the clasp, and managed to open the bag – she gasped and put one hand over her mouth! - Daphne took the bag from her and turned to Maude, twisting the bag inside out as she did so, which caused a photograph and a rosary to fall on the ground, asking Maude if they meant anything to her, at which Maude picked up the objects and studied them - when she too gasped, and looked at Roxy, “is this your mother,” she asked, showing Roxy and Daphne a photograph of the Dowager Duchess of Tomintoul, in her full regalia as one of the Queen's Ladies of the Besom and Broom – Roxy nodded, and pointed at the rosary, “and that was hers too, handed down from generation to generation, mother to daughter, for hundreds of years, together with the portmanteau – it belonged to Sister Evadne Eglantine,” and she started to croon an old nursery rhyme her mother had sung to her when she was very young; Daphne took command of the situation, saying (rather abruptly) “Don't get maudlin on us, Miss Davidova, but tell us when and where you last saw these things and who had them, for it may be that whoever that was is the very person who so cruelly tried to end my life back in yonder dark oubliette!

The Dowager Duchess of Tomintoul, in her full Regalia as one of Her Magesty's Ladies of he Besom and The |Broom,