The gold bag by Carolyn Wells

Fleming Stone, a private detective better than Sherlock Holmes, as his friend detective Burroughs tells us... but come on, the bits with Stone were the worst. I liked the rest, but not his deductions. Let's be honest and say that this deductions are often rubbish: -he always walks at her right side, never at her left, that proves that either she's deaf in her left ear of he is deaf in the right ear- come on, is it really?? It can be, of course, but it's in no way absolute. Maybe he likes to give a lady his left arm, or maybe she likes to carry her bag with her left hand/shoulder... there can't be just one reason for simple actions like that, people are different, not all the same! Anyway, the rest of the book was nice. Very old-fashion due to its age, but nice. Joseph Crawford is murdered, and Burroughs goes to investigate, and he falls in love with Florence Lloyd, Crawford's niece and engaged to Gregory Hall, a fortune-hunter. Florence is the heiress, so she's suspected a lot, and Hall too is suspected because of course he wanted the money. A late-night paper is found in the room of the crime, along with a gold bag. From this Burroughs starts his investigation alone; he interrogates people, he follows every clue, but he feels too much in love and worried over Florence to think clearly. Hall refuses to say where he was the night of the murder and the reason behind that was really too obvious. He was with another girl and didn't want Florence to know. Burroughs tries to convince people to send for Stone, but they all refuse except Florence. She agrees, they call for him and in one day he solves everything! The murderer poisons himself to escape the shame and the sentence, Florence breaks her previous engagement and shows a new affection for Burroughs, quite happy.
A few more details: when the will was nowhere to be found (making the brother Philip the heir) Hall was for breaking the engagement, when it came out (after Philip confessed his stealing it) he was all for marriage again. Of course the motive for the murder was money, but not the will. It was all a financial matter, people playing the market. Joseph had a big stock of the same thing others had, and by selling it all at once of course the price would have fallen causing big losses to the others. One of these people would have been financially ruined, so he killed him in an act of desperation. Funny how in the 'good old days' people (of a certain class) were all good and intelligent, isn't it? How come now there are so many bastards around and even more idiots? It's surprising, it is indeed.
I don't know why but I like the ending line, when Burroughs asks Florence if she loves somebody else (of course she broke up with Hall, saying she actually never truly loved him) and the last line is "you-she murmured softly, and I was content" I don't know why but that 'and I was content' sticks to my mind, it's nothing special and yet it is :-)