Chapter 16
UNDERTAKER’S PARLOURThe glass door of the Bowels’s establishment was fastened but there was still light within when Mr Campion pressed the bell and stood waiting. Considered dispassionately, the window was not without interest. It contained one black marble urn, which could only have been an embarrassment anywhere else, and two wax wreaths under glass.
Each of these last incorporated a china dove, sparrow-sized if the roses were to be believed, lying dead with wings outstretched amid the pallid blooms.
The only other item was a miniature easel bearing a black-edged card which announced ‘Reliable Interments. Taste, Efficiency, Economy, Respect,’ in small but florid type.
He was reflecting that an unreliable interment hardly bore imagining when he caught sight of Mr Bowels, s
