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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spinster, by Robert Hichens
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Spinster
+       1905
+
+Author: Robert Hichens
+
+Release Date: November 8, 2007 [EBook #23410]
+Last Updated: September 24, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPINSTER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SPINSTER
+
+By Robert Hichens
+
+Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers
+
+Copyright, 1905
+
+
+I had arrived at Inley Abbey that afternoon, and was sitting at dinner
+with Inley and his pretty wife, whom I had not seen for five years,
+since the day I was his best man, when we all heard faintly the tolling
+of a church bell. Lady Inley shook her shoulders in a rather exaggerated
+shudder.
+
+“Someone dead!” said her husband.
+
+“It’s a mistake to build a church in the grounds of a house,” Lady Inley
+said in her clear, drawling soprano voice. “That noise gives me the
+blues.”
+
+“Whom can it be for?” asked Inley.
+
+“Miss Bassett, probably,” Lady Inley replied carelessly, helping herself
+to a bonbon from a little silver dish.
+
+Inley started.
+
+“Miss Sarah Bassett! What makes you think so?”
+
+“Oh, while you were away in town she got ill. Didn’t you know?”
+
+“No,” said Inley.
+
+I could see that he was moved. His dark, short face had changed
+suddenly, and he stopped eating his fruit. Lady Inley went on crunching
+the bonbon between her little white teeth with all the enjoyment of a
+pretty marmoset.
+
+“Influenza,” she said airily. “And then pneumonia. Of course, at her
+age, you know---- By the way, what is her age, Nino?”
+
+“No idea,” said Inley shortly.
+
+He was listening to the dim and monotonous sound of the church bell.
+
+Lady Inley turned to me with the childish, confidential movement which
+men considered one of her many charms.
+
+“Miss Bassett is, or was, one of those funny old spinsters who always
+look the same and always ridiculous. Dry twigs, you know. One size all
+the way down. Very little hair, and no emotions. If it weren’t for the
+sake of cats, one would wonder why such people are born. But they’re
+always cat-lovers. I suppose that’s why they’re so often called old
+cats.”
+
+She uttered a little high-pitched laugh, and got up.
+
+“Don’t be too long,” she said to me carelessly as I opened the
+dining-room door for her. “I want to sing ‘Ohé Charmette’ to you.
+
+“I won’t be long,” I answered, thinking what exquisite eyes she had.
+
+She turned, and went out in her delicious, thin way. No wonder she had
+made skeletons the rage in London. When I came back to the dinner-table
+Inley was sitting with both his brown hands clenched on the cloth. His
+black eyes--inherited from his dead mother, who had been one of the
+Neapolitan aristocracy--were glittering.
+
+“What is it, Nino?” I asked as I sat down.
+
+We had been such intimate friends that even my five years’ absence
+abroad had not built up a barrier between us.
+
+“I wonder if it is Miss Bassett?” he said, looking at me earnestly.
+
+“But was she a great friend of yours?” I said. “If Lady Inley’s
+description of her is accurate, I can hardly imagine so.”
+
+“Vere doesn’t know what she’s saying.”
+
+“Then Miss Bassett----”
+
+“Oh, she does look like that; dried up, unemotional, tame, English, even
+comic.”
+
+“The regular spinster, eh?”
+
+“She looks it. But, damn it all, Vere has no business to say she has no
+emotions, to wonder why such people are born. But she doesn’t know--Vere
+doesn’t know.”
+
+His agitation grew, and was inexplicable to me. But I knew Inley, knew
+that he was bound to tell me what was on his mind. He could be reserved,
+but not with me. So I took a cigar, cut the end off it deliberately,
+struck a match, lighted it, and began to smoke in silence. He followed
+my example quickly, and then said:
+
+“Vere talks like that, and, but for Miss Bassett, Vere would have been
+murdered two years ago.”
+
+I started, and dropped my cigar on the table.
+
+“Murdered!”
+
+“Yes; and I----”
+
+He fixed his eyes on me, and put his hand up to his throat. Nino was
+half Neapolitan, and I saw a man being hanged. I picked up my cigar with
+a hand that slightly shook.
+
+“But,” I said, “I always thought Lady Inley and you were very happy
+together.”
+
+It sounded banal, even ridiculous, but I hardly knew what to say. I was
+startled. The tolling of the bell, too, was getting on my nerves.
+
+“One doesn’t write such things,” he said. “You’ve been abroad for
+years.”
+
+“It’s all right now?”
+
+He nodded.
+
+“I suppose so. Vere has never had the least suspicion.”
+
+He drew his chair closer to mine, and was about to go on speaking when
+the servants came in with the coffee.
+
+“Who’s the bell tolling for, Hurst?” he said to the butler.
+
+“I couldn’t say, my lord.”
+
+When the servants had gone Inley continued, at first in a calmer voice:
+
+“Miss Bassett lived in the red cottage just beyond the gate of the South
+Lodge from time immemorial. You generally came to us in Scotland, I
+know, but I should think you must have seen her.”
+
+Suddenly a recollection flashed upon me--a recollection of a long, flat
+figure, a drab face, thin hair coming away from a wrinkled forehead
+under a mushroom hat, flapping, old-fashioned golden earrings.
+
+“Not the person I used to call ‘the Plank’?” I said.
+
+“Did you?”
+
+He thought for a moment.
+
+“Yes; I believe you did-. I’d forgotten.”
+
+“She was always in church twenty minutes before the service began, and
+always dropped her hymn-book coming out if there were visitors in the
+Abbey pew!”
+
+“Yes, yes; that’s it. Miss Bassett is very nervous in little ways.”
+
+“I remember her now perfectly. And you say she----”
+
+I looked at him, and hesitated.
+
+“She saved Vere’s life and, indirectly, mine. I’ll tell you now we’re
+together again at last. I shall never tell Vere.”
+
+He looked towards the windows, across which dark blue silk curtains were
+drawn, as if he could see the passing-bell swinging in the old square
+tower. Then he turned to me.
+
+“You know how mad I was about Vere. It’s always like that with me.
+Unless I’m stone I’m fire. After we were married I got even madder.
+Having her all to myself was like enchantment, and in Italy, too, my
+other native land.”
+
+I thought of Lady Inley’s eyes.
+
+“I can understand,” I said.
+
+“Of course, when we got back it had to be different. Friends came
+in, and she was run after and admired and written about. You know the
+publicity of life in modern London.”
+
+“City of public-houses and society spies.”
+
+“I bore it, because it’s supposed to be the thing. And Vere rather likes
+it, somehow. So I let her have her fun, as long as it was fun. I didn’t
+intend it should ever be anything else.”
+
+He frowned. When he did that, and his thick eyebrows nearly met, he
+looked all Italian.
+
+“We did the usual things--Paris, Ascot, Scotland, and so on--till Vere
+had to lie up.”
+
+“Your boy?”
+
+“Yes; Hugo came along. I was glad when that was over. I thought she was
+going to die. You knew Seymour Glynd?”
+
+“Life Guards? Killed hunting a year ago?”
+
+Inley nodded.
+
+“He was a great deal with us soon after Hugo’s birth. I thought nothing
+of it. I’d known the fellow all my life. But then one nearly always
+has.”
+
+He laughed bitterly.
+
+“To cut that part short, two years ago in autumn we had Glynd staying
+with us down here for shooting. There were some others, of course--Mrs.
+Jack, Bobbie Elphinton, and Lady Bobbie--but you know the lot.”
+
+“I did.”
+
+“Ah,” he said, “you’ve been well out of it these years. Well, the shoot
+was to break up on a Friday, and I’d arranged to go to town that day
+with the rest. Vere didn’t intend to come. She said she was feeling
+tired, and was going to have a Friday to Monday rest cure. That’s the
+thing, you know, nowadays. You get a Swedish _masseuse_ down to stay,
+and go to bed and drink milk. Vere had engaged a _masseuse_ to come on
+the Friday night. On the Thursday, the day before we were all going to
+town, Glynd hurt his foot getting over a fence into a turnip field--at
+least I thought so.”
+
+He stopped.
+
+“Everyone thought so, I believe--except, of course, Vere. I wonder if
+they did, though?” he added moodily. “Or whether I was the only--But
+what does it matter now? Glynd said he only wanted a couple of days’
+rest to be all right again, and asked me if he might stay on at the
+Abbey till the Monday. Of course I said ‘Yes; if he wouldn’t want a
+hostess.’ Because Vere said to me, when she heard of it, that she must
+have her rest cure all the same. Glynd swore he’d be quite happy alone.
+So he stayed, and the rest of us came up to town on the Friday. Well,
+on the Saturday morning I was walking across the park when I met the
+Swedish _massense_ who was to have gone down to Vere on the Friday
+night. I knew her, because Vere had often had her before in London.
+‘Hullo!’ I said. ‘You ought to be down at Inley Abbey with my wife.’
+‘No, my lord,’ she said. ‘Why not?’ ‘I’ve had a wire from Lady Inley not
+to go.’ ‘A wire!’ I said. ‘When did you get it?’ ‘On Thursday night, my
+lord.’ You mean last night?’ I said, thinking Vere must have changed her
+mind after we had left. ‘No,’ said the woman; ‘on Thursday night, late.’
+Then I remembered that, after Glynd had hurt his foot and asked to stay,
+Vere had gone out alone for a drive in her cart, to get a last breath of
+air before the rest cure. She must have sent the telegram herself then.
+All of a sudden I seemed to understand a lot of things.’”
+
+He had let his cigar out, and now he noticed that he had. He tossed it
+into the fire.
+
+“I said, ‘Good-morning’ to the woman quite quietly, went back to the
+house, and told my man I shouldn’t be at home that night.”
+
+He put his hand on my arm.
+
+“I felt perfectly calm. Wasn’t that strange?”
+
+I nodded.
+
+“There was a train from town reaching Ashdridge Station at nine o’clock
+at night. I took it. I didn’t care to go to Inley Station, where
+everybody would know me, and wonder what I was up to. I didn’t take any
+luggage. My man asked if he should pack, and I said ‘No.’ I didn’t dine.
+I was at Pad-dington three-quarters of an hour before the train was
+due to start. At last it came in to the platform. Going down I read the
+evening papers just like any man going home from business. Soon after we
+got away from London I saw there was rain on the carriage windows. That
+seemed to me right. We were a little late at Ashdridge. It was still
+wet, and I had my coat collar turned up. I don’t believe they recognised
+me there. I set out to walk to Inley.”
+
+“What did you mean to do?”
+
+“I told you before.”
+
+I looked into his face, and believed him. Then I thought of Lady Inley’s
+childish, delicate beauty, of her slightly affected manner, the manner
+of a woman who has always been spoilt, whose paths have been made very
+smooth. And here she was living, apparently happily, with a man who had
+deliberately travelled down in the night to kill her. How ignorant we
+are!
+
+“You are condemning me,” Inley said, with a touch of hot anger.
+
+“I was only thinking----”
+
+“Yes?”
+
+“That we don’t know each other much in the greatest intimacy.”
+
+“That’s what I thought then.”
+
+He said that in a way which suddenly put me on his side. He must
+have seen the change in my feelings, for he went on, with his former
+unreserve:
+
+“I walked fast in the dark. I didn’t think very much, but I remember
+that all the trees--there’s a lot of woodland, you know, between
+Ashdridge and Inley--seemed alive. Everything seemed to me to be alive
+that night. I’ve never had that sensation before or since.”
+
+I realised what the condition of the man had been when he said that, as
+if I were a doctor and a patient had told me the symptom which put me in
+possession of his malady.
+
+“When I reached Inley it was late, and the long village street was
+deserted. There were lights in the inn and in the schoolmaster’s house,
+but there were no people about. I got through without meeting a soul,
+and came on towards the gates of the Abbey.”
+
+“You meant to go into the house?”
+
+“Yes. I was sure--somehow I was sure; but I intended to see before I
+acted, merely for my own justification. But I was quite sure, as if
+Vere herself had told me everything. Soon after I had got clear of the
+village I heard a sound of wheels behind me. I stood up against the
+hedge, and in a minute or two a fly passed me going slowly. I saw the
+driver’s face. It wasn’t a man from Inley. Evidently the fly had come
+from a distance. It was splashed with mud, and the horse looked tired.
+I followed it till it came to the turning just below Miss Bassett’s
+cottage, where there’s a narrow lane going to Charfield through the
+woods. It went a little way down this lane, and stopped. I waited at the
+turning. I could see the light from the lamps shining on the wet road,
+and in the circle of light the driver’s breath. He bent down, and I saw
+him looking at a big silver watch. Then he put it back. But he didn’t
+drive on. I knew what he was waiting for. Vere was going with--with
+Glynd. That was more than I had ever thought of, that she would go. I
+put my hand into my pocket, took out my revolver, and went on till I was
+close to the red cottage. By this time the rain had stopped. I came up
+to within a few yards of the Abbey gates, stood for a moment, and then
+returned till I was at the wicket of Miss Bassett’s garden. It’s bounded
+by a yew hedge, beyond which there is a path shaded by mulberry-trees.
+The hedge is low. The path is dark. It was a blackguardly thing to do,
+but I thought of nothing except myself, my wrong, and how I was to wipe
+it out. I opened the wicket, came into the path, and stood there under
+the mulberry-trees behind the hedge. Here I was in cover, and could see
+the road. I held my revolver in my hand, and waited. It never struck me
+that Miss Bassett might be up. I saw no light in the cottage, and I had
+a sort of idea that people like her went to bed at about eight. While
+I was standing there listening I felt something rub against my legs. It
+made me start. Then I heard a little low noise. I looked down, and
+there was a great cat holding up its tail and purring. Its pleasure was
+horrible to me. I pushed it away with my foot, but it came back, bending
+down its head, arching its back, and pressing against me. I was thinking
+what to do to get rid of it when I heard a shrill, husky voice call out:
+
+“‘Johnny--John-nee!’
+
+“It was Miss Bassett. I held my breath, and pushed away the cat.
+
+“‘Johnny, Johnny--John-nee!’ went the voice again.
+
+“The cat wouldn’t leave me. God knows why it wished to stay. I was
+determined to get rid of it, so I put the revolver down on the path,
+picked the cat up in my arms, and dropped it over the hedge into the
+road. Just as I had caught up the revolver again I was confronted by
+Miss Bassett. She had come in slippers up the path in the dark to look
+for her cat.”
+
+I uttered a slight exclamation.
+
+Inley went on: “She had a handkerchief tied over her cap and under her
+chin, and a small lantern in her hands, on which she wore black mittens.
+I can see her now. We stood there on the path for a minute staring at
+each other without a word. The light from the lantern flickered over the
+revolver, and I saw Miss Bassett look down at it.”
+
+He stopped, poured out a glass of water, and drank it off like a man who
+has been running.
+
+“Didn’t she show surprise--fear?” I asked.
+
+“Not a bit. Women are so extraordinary, even old women who’ve never been
+in touch with life, that I’m certain now she understood directly her
+eyes fell on the revolver.”
+
+“What did she do?”
+
+“After a minute she said: ‘Lord Inley, I’m looking for my cat. Have you
+seen him?’
+
+“‘Yes,’ I said; ‘he’s run into the house.’
+
+“It was a lie, but I wanted her to go in. I had slipped the revolver
+back into my pocket, and tried to assume a perfectly simple, natural
+air. I fancied it would be very easy to impose on Miss Bassett when I
+heard her question. It sounded so innocent, as if the old lady was full
+of her pet. I even thought, perhaps, she had not known what the revolver
+was when she looked at it.
+
+“‘Did he run into the house?’ she said, still looking at me from under
+her wrinkled eyelids.
+
+“‘Yes; when you came out. He was here on the path with me. You called
+“Johnny!” and he ran off there between the mulberry-trees.’
+
+“All the time I was speaking to her I had an eye to the road, and my
+ears were listening like an Indian’s when he puts his head to the ground
+to hear the pad of his enemy.
+
+“Miss Bassett stood there quietly for a moment as if she were
+considering something. She looked prim. I remember that even now--prim
+as a caricature. It was only a moment, but it seemed to me an hour. ‘If
+they should come,’ I thought, ‘while she is out here!’ The sweat came
+out all over my face with impatience--an agony of impatience. I longed
+to take the old lady by the shoulders, push her into the cottage, lock
+her in, and be alone, able to watch the bit of road from the Abbey gates
+to the wicket. But I could do nothing. I was obliged to repress every
+sign of agitation. It was devilish.”
+
+He got up with a sudden jerk from his chair, and stood by the fire. Even
+the telling of that moment had set beads of moisture on his square, low
+forehead.
+
+“At last she spoke again.
+
+“‘I wonder if you’d mind coming in for a minute to help me see if Johnny
+really is in the house?’ she said.
+
+“I don’t know what I should have done--refused, I believe, refused her
+with an oath, for I began to feel mad; but just at that instant up came
+the cat once more, purring like fury, and lifting up his tail. He made
+straight for me, and began to rub himself against my legs again.
+
+“‘Oh!’ said Miss Bassett, ‘there he is! Naughty Johnny, naughty boy!
+Lord Inley, perhaps you’d be so good as just to lif t him up and put him
+inside the door for me. I always have such a job to get him to come
+in of a night. He likes hunting in the woods. Doesn’t he, the naughty
+Johnny?’
+
+“‘Now’s my chance to get rid of her!’ I thought.
+
+“I bent down, picked the cat up, and went along the path towards the
+cottage, Miss Bassett following close behind me. The cat was an immense
+beast, awfully heavy, and just as I turned out of the yew path to go up
+to the cottage door he began struggling to get away, and scratching.
+I held on to him, but it wasn’t easy, and I got my hand torn before
+I dropped him down inside the little hall. Away he ran, towards the
+kitchen, I suppose. Miss Bassett was very grateful, but I cut her
+gratitude short.
+
+“‘Very glad to have been able to help you,’ I said. ‘Good-night.’
+
+“‘Good-night, Lord Inley,’ she said.
+
+“I thought her voice sounded a little bit odd when she said that, and
+I just glanced at her funny old face, lit up by the lantern she was
+holding in one mittened hand. She didn’t look at me this time as she had
+in the garden. Then I went out, and she immediately shut the door.
+
+“‘Thank God!’ I thought, and I hurried to the wicket. I didn’t dare stay
+in the garden now. Seeing her had made me realise my blackguardism in
+coming in at all, considering my reason. I resolved to hide in the field
+at the corner where the road turns off to Charfield. As I opened the
+wicket, instinctively I put my hand into my pocket for my revolver.”
+
+He bent down, looking full into my eyes.
+
+“It wasn’t there.”
+
+“Miss Bassett!” I exclaimed.
+
+“In a moment I realised that Miss Bassett must have grasped the
+situation; that her asking me to carry in her cat was a ruse, and that
+while the beast was struggling between my hands she must have stolen
+the revolver from behind. I say I knew that, and yet even then, when I
+thought of her look, her manner, the sort of nervous old thing she was,
+I couldn’t believe what I knew. Then I remembered her voice when she
+said ‘Good-night’ to me in the passage, her eyes looking down instead of
+at me, and that she was only holding the lantern in one hand, whereas
+in the garden she was using two. She must have had the revolver in
+her other hand concealed in the folds of her dress. I ran back to the
+cottage door, and knocked--hard. Not that I thought she’d open. I knew
+she wouldn’t, but she did directly. I could hardly speak. I was afraid
+of myself just then. At last I said:
+
+“‘Miss Bassett, you know what I want.’
+
+“‘You can’t have it,’ she said, looking straight at me.
+
+“I kept quiet for a second, then I said:
+
+“‘Miss Bassett, I don’t think you know that you’re running into danger.’
+For I felt that there was danger for her then if she went against me.
+She knew it, too, perhaps better than I did. I saw her poor old hands,
+all blue veins, beginning to tremble.
+
+“‘You can’t have it, Lord Inley,’ she repeated.
+
+“There wasn’t the ghost of a quiver in her voice.
+
+“‘I must, I will!’ I said, and I made a movement towards her--a violent
+movement I know it was.
+
+“But the old thing stood her ground. Oh, she was a gallant old woman.
+
+“‘Do what you like to me,’ she said. ‘I’m old. What does it matter?
+She’s young.’
+
+“Then I knew she understood.
+
+“‘You’ve seen them together!’ I said. ‘Since I went!’
+
+“She wouldn’t say. Not a word. I was mad. I forgot decency, everything.
+I took her. I searched her for the revolver. I searched her roughly--God
+forgive me. She trembled horribly, but never said a word. It wasn’t on
+her. She must have hidden it somewhere in that moment when she was alone
+in the cottage. That was another ruse to keep me searching in there
+while-- But I saw it almost directly. I broke away, and rushed out and
+down the road. Something seemed to tell me they had passed. I got into
+the lane that leads to Charfield. The fly was gone. Then, all of a
+sudden, I felt perfectly calm. I turned, and went up to the Abbey gates.
+I knocked them up at the lodge. The keeper came out. When he saw me he
+said:
+
+“‘You, my lord! However did you know?’
+
+“‘Go on!’ I said. ‘Know what?’
+
+“‘About Master Hugo?’
+
+“I didn’t say one way or the other.
+
+“‘The doctor says it’s a bitter bad quinsy, but there’s just a chance.
+Her ladyship’s nearly mad. It only came on a few hours ago quite
+sudden.’
+
+“I went up to the Abbey, and found Vere by the child’s bed. She looked
+flushed, and was breathing hard, as if she had just been running.”
+
+He stopped, and took out his cigar-case.
+
+“Running!” I said.
+
+“She had parted finally from Glynd in front of Miss Bassett’s cottage,”
+ he said. “He told me that afterwards.”
+
+There was a moment’s silence. Then he spoke more calmly.
+
+“I went up to town when the child was safe, and had it out with Glynd.
+They had meant to go that night. It was the boy who stopped them and
+they took it as a judgment. You know how women are. Glynd swore she was
+stopped in time. You understand?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“He didn’t lie to me.”
+
+“And your wife?”
+
+“I never spoke of it to her. I saw her with the boy, and--well, I saw
+her with the boy, and what she was to him when he was close to death.”
+
+His voice went for a moment. Then he added:
+
+“I told her I’d had a presentiment Hugo was ill. She believed me, I
+think. If not, she’s kept her secret.”
+
+Just then the dining-room door opened, and Lady Inley put in her pretty
+head.
+
+“Are you never coming?” she said with her little childish drawl.
+
+I got up, and went towards her.
+
+“By the way, Nino,” she added, “the bell was for poor, funny old Miss
+Bassett. What will her cat do, I wonder?”
+
+As I followed her towards the drawing-room I heard Inley’s voice mutter
+behind me:
+
+“_Requiescat in Pace_.”
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spinster, by Robert Hichens
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPINSTER ***
+
+***** This file should be named 23410-0.txt or 23410-0.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/4/1/23410/
+
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diff --git a/23410-0.zip b/23410-0.zip
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+++ b/23410-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,970 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spinster, by Robert Hichens
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Spinster
+       1905
+
+Author: Robert Hichens
+
+Release Date: November 8, 2007 [EBook #23410]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPINSTER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SPINSTER
+
+By Robert Hichens
+
+Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers
+
+Copyright, 1905
+
+
+I had arrived at Inley Abbey that afternoon, and was sitting at dinner
+with Inley and his pretty wife, whom I had not seen for five years,
+since the day I was his best man, when we all heard faintly the tolling
+of a church bell. Lady Inley shook her shoulders in a rather exaggerated
+shudder.
+
+"Someone dead!" said her husband.
+
+"It's a mistake to build a church in the grounds of a house," Lady Inley
+said in her clear, drawling soprano voice. "That noise gives me the
+blues."
+
+"Whom can it be for?" asked Inley.
+
+"Miss Bassett, probably," Lady Inley replied carelessly, helping herself
+to a bonbon from a little silver dish.
+
+Inley started.
+
+"Miss Sarah Bassett! What makes you think so?"
+
+"Oh, while you were away in town she got ill. Didn't you know?"
+
+"No," said Inley.
+
+I could see that he was moved. His dark, short face had changed
+suddenly, and he stopped eating his fruit. Lady Inley went on crunching
+the bonbon between her little white teeth with all the enjoyment of a
+pretty marmoset.
+
+"Influenza," she said airily. "And then pneumonia. Of course, at her
+age, you know---- By the way, what is her age, Nino?"
+
+"No idea," said Inley shortly.
+
+He was listening to the dim and monotonous sound of the church bell.
+
+Lady Inley turned to me with the childish, confidential movement which
+men considered one of her many charms.
+
+"Miss Bassett is, or was, one of those funny old spinsters who always
+look the same and always ridiculous. Dry twigs, you know. One size all
+the way down. Very little hair, and no emotions. If it weren't for the
+sake of cats, one would wonder why such people are born. But they're
+always cat-lovers. I suppose that's why they're so often called old
+cats."
+
+She uttered a little high-pitched laugh, and got up.
+
+"Don't be too long," she said to me carelessly as I opened the
+dining-room door for her. "I want to sing 'Oh� Charmette' to you.
+
+"I won't be long," I answered, thinking what exquisite eyes she had.
+
+She turned, and went out in her delicious, thin way. No wonder she had
+made skeletons the rage in London. When I came back to the dinner-table
+Inley was sitting with both his brown hands clenched on the cloth. His
+black eyes--inherited from his dead mother, who had been one of the
+Neapolitan aristocracy--were glittering.
+
+"What is it, Nino?" I asked as I sat down.
+
+We had been such intimate friends that even my five years' absence
+abroad had not built up a barrier between us.
+
+"I wonder if it is Miss Bassett?" he said, looking at me earnestly.
+
+"But was she a great friend of yours?" I said. "If Lady Inley's
+description of her is accurate, I can hardly imagine so."
+
+"Vere doesn't know what she's saying."
+
+"Then Miss Bassett----"
+
+"Oh, she does look like that; dried up, unemotional, tame, English, even
+comic."
+
+"The regular spinster, eh?"
+
+"She looks it. But, damn it all, Vere has no business to say she has no
+emotions, to wonder why such people are born. But she doesn't know--Vere
+doesn't know."
+
+His agitation grew, and was inexplicable to me. But I knew Inley, knew
+that he was bound to tell me what was on his mind. He could be reserved,
+but not with me. So I took a cigar, cut the end off it deliberately,
+struck a match, lighted it, and began to smoke in silence. He followed
+my example quickly, and then said:
+
+"Vere talks like that, and, but for Miss Bassett, Vere would have been
+murdered two years ago."
+
+I started, and dropped my cigar on the table.
+
+"Murdered!"
+
+"Yes; and I----"
+
+He fixed his eyes on me, and put his hand up to his throat. Nino was
+half Neapolitan, and I saw a man being hanged. I picked up my cigar with
+a hand that slightly shook.
+
+"But," I said, "I always thought Lady Inley and you were very happy
+together."
+
+It sounded banal, even ridiculous, but I hardly knew what to say. I was
+startled. The tolling of the bell, too, was getting on my nerves.
+
+"One doesn't write such things," he said. "You've been abroad for
+years."
+
+"It's all right now?"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I suppose so. Vere has never had the least suspicion."
+
+He drew his chair closer to mine, and was about to go on speaking when
+the servants came in with the coffee.
+
+"Who's the bell tolling for, Hurst?" he said to the butler.
+
+"I couldn't say, my lord."
+
+When the servants had gone Inley continued, at first in a calmer voice:
+
+"Miss Bassett lived in the red cottage just beyond the gate of the South
+Lodge from time immemorial. You generally came to us in Scotland, I
+know, but I should think you must have seen her."
+
+Suddenly a recollection flashed upon me--a recollection of a long, flat
+figure, a drab face, thin hair coming away from a wrinkled forehead
+under a mushroom hat, flapping, old-fashioned golden earrings.
+
+"Not the person I used to call 'the Plank'?" I said.
+
+"Did you?"
+
+He thought for a moment.
+
+"Yes; I believe you did-. I'd forgotten."
+
+"She was always in church twenty minutes before the service began, and
+always dropped her hymn-book coming out if there were visitors in the
+Abbey pew!"
+
+"Yes, yes; that's it. Miss Bassett is very nervous in little ways."
+
+"I remember her now perfectly. And you say she----"
+
+I looked at him, and hesitated.
+
+"She saved Vere's life and, indirectly, mine. I'll tell you now we're
+together again at last. I shall never tell Vere."
+
+He looked towards the windows, across which dark blue silk curtains were
+drawn, as if he could see the passing-bell swinging in the old square
+tower. Then he turned to me.
+
+"You know how mad I was about Vere. It's always like that with me.
+Unless I'm stone I'm fire. After we were married I got even madder.
+Having her all to myself was like enchantment, and in Italy, too, my
+other native land."
+
+I thought of Lady Inley's eyes.
+
+"I can understand," I said.
+
+"Of course, when we got back it had to be different. Friends came
+in, and she was run after and admired and written about. You know the
+publicity of life in modern London."
+
+"City of public-houses and society spies."
+
+"I bore it, because it's supposed to be the thing. And Vere rather likes
+it, somehow. So I let her have her fun, as long as it was fun. I didn't
+intend it should ever be anything else."
+
+He frowned. When he did that, and his thick eyebrows nearly met, he
+looked all Italian.
+
+"We did the usual things--Paris, Ascot, Scotland, and so on--till Vere
+had to lie up."
+
+"Your boy?"
+
+"Yes; Hugo came along. I was glad when that was over. I thought she was
+going to die. You knew Seymour Glynd?"
+
+"Life Guards? Killed hunting a year ago?"
+
+Inley nodded.
+
+"He was a great deal with us soon after Hugo's birth. I thought nothing
+of it. I'd known the fellow all my life. But then one nearly always
+has."
+
+He laughed bitterly.
+
+"To cut that part short, two years ago in autumn we had Glynd staying
+with us down here for shooting. There were some others, of course--Mrs.
+Jack, Bobbie Elphinton, and Lady Bobbie--but you know the lot."
+
+"I did."
+
+"Ah," he said, "you've been well out of it these years. Well, the shoot
+was to break up on a Friday, and I'd arranged to go to town that day
+with the rest. Vere didn't intend to come. She said she was feeling
+tired, and was going to have a Friday to Monday rest cure. That's the
+thing, you know, nowadays. You get a Swedish _masseuse_ down to stay,
+and go to bed and drink milk. Vere had engaged a _masseuse_ to come on
+the Friday night. On the Thursday, the day before we were all going to
+town, Glynd hurt his foot getting over a fence into a turnip field--at
+least I thought so."
+
+He stopped.
+
+"Everyone thought so, I believe--except, of course, Vere. I wonder if
+they did, though?" he added moodily. "Or whether I was the only--But
+what does it matter now? Glynd said he only wanted a couple of days'
+rest to be all right again, and asked me if he might stay on at the
+Abbey till the Monday. Of course I said 'Yes; if he wouldn't want a
+hostess.' Because Vere said to me, when she heard of it, that she must
+have her rest cure all the same. Glynd swore he'd be quite happy alone.
+So he stayed, and the rest of us came up to town on the Friday. Well,
+on the Saturday morning I was walking across the park when I met the
+Swedish _massense_ who was to have gone down to Vere on the Friday
+night. I knew her, because Vere had often had her before in London.
+'Hullo!' I said. 'You ought to be down at Inley Abbey with my wife.'
+'No, my lord,' she said. 'Why not?' 'I've had a wire from Lady Inley not
+to go.' 'A wire!' I said. 'When did you get it?' 'On Thursday night, my
+lord.' You mean last night?' I said, thinking Vere must have changed her
+mind after we had left. 'No,' said the woman; 'on Thursday night, late.'
+Then I remembered that, after Glynd had hurt his foot and asked to stay,
+Vere had gone out alone for a drive in her cart, to get a last breath of
+air before the rest cure. She must have sent the telegram herself then.
+All of a sudden I seemed to understand a lot of things.'"
+
+He had let his cigar out, and now he noticed that he had. He tossed it
+into the fire.
+
+"I said, 'Good-morning' to the woman quite quietly, went back to the
+house, and told my man I shouldn't be at home that night."
+
+He put his hand on my arm.
+
+"I felt perfectly calm. Wasn't that strange?"
+
+I nodded.
+
+"There was a train from town reaching Ashdridge Station at nine o'clock
+at night. I took it. I didn't care to go to Inley Station, where
+everybody would know me, and wonder what I was up to. I didn't take any
+luggage. My man asked if he should pack, and I said 'No.' I didn't dine.
+I was at Pad-dington three-quarters of an hour before the train was
+due to start. At last it came in to the platform. Going down I read the
+evening papers just like any man going home from business. Soon after we
+got away from London I saw there was rain on the carriage windows. That
+seemed to me right. We were a little late at Ashdridge. It was still
+wet, and I had my coat collar turned up. I don't believe they recognised
+me there. I set out to walk to Inley."
+
+"What did you mean to do?"
+
+"I told you before."
+
+I looked into his face, and believed him. Then I thought of Lady Inley's
+childish, delicate beauty, of her slightly affected manner, the manner
+of a woman who has always been spoilt, whose paths have been made very
+smooth. And here she was living, apparently happily, with a man who had
+deliberately travelled down in the night to kill her. How ignorant we
+are!
+
+"You are condemning me," Inley said, with a touch of hot anger.
+
+"I was only thinking----"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"That we don't know each other much in the greatest intimacy."
+
+"That's what I thought then."
+
+He said that in a way which suddenly put me on his side. He must
+have seen the change in my feelings, for he went on, with his former
+unreserve:
+
+"I walked fast in the dark. I didn't think very much, but I remember
+that all the trees--there's a lot of woodland, you know, between
+Ashdridge and Inley--seemed alive. Everything seemed to me to be alive
+that night. I've never had that sensation before or since."
+
+I realised what the condition of the man had been when he said that, as
+if I were a doctor and a patient had told me the symptom which put me in
+possession of his malady.
+
+"When I reached Inley it was late, and the long village street was
+deserted. There were lights in the inn and in the schoolmaster's house,
+but there were no people about. I got through without meeting a soul,
+and came on towards the gates of the Abbey."
+
+"You meant to go into the house?"
+
+"Yes. I was sure--somehow I was sure; but I intended to see before I
+acted, merely for my own justification. But I was quite sure, as if
+Vere herself had told me everything. Soon after I had got clear of the
+village I heard a sound of wheels behind me. I stood up against the
+hedge, and in a minute or two a fly passed me going slowly. I saw the
+driver's face. It wasn't a man from Inley. Evidently the fly had come
+from a distance. It was splashed with mud, and the horse looked tired.
+I followed it till it came to the turning just below Miss Bassett's
+cottage, where there's a narrow lane going to Charfield through the
+woods. It went a little way down this lane, and stopped. I waited at the
+turning. I could see the light from the lamps shining on the wet road,
+and in the circle of light the driver's breath. He bent down, and I saw
+him looking at a big silver watch. Then he put it back. But he didn't
+drive on. I knew what he was waiting for. Vere was going with--with
+Glynd. That was more than I had ever thought of, that she would go. I
+put my hand into my pocket, took out my revolver, and went on till I was
+close to the red cottage. By this time the rain had stopped. I came up
+to within a few yards of the Abbey gates, stood for a moment, and then
+returned till I was at the wicket of Miss Bassett's garden. It's bounded
+by a yew hedge, beyond which there is a path shaded by mulberry-trees.
+The hedge is low. The path is dark. It was a blackguardly thing to do,
+but I thought of nothing except myself, my wrong, and how I was to wipe
+it out. I opened the wicket, came into the path, and stood there under
+the mulberry-trees behind the hedge. Here I was in cover, and could see
+the road. I held my revolver in my hand, and waited. It never struck me
+that Miss Bassett might be up. I saw no light in the cottage, and I had
+a sort of idea that people like her went to bed at about eight. While
+I was standing there listening I felt something rub against my legs. It
+made me start. Then I heard a little low noise. I looked down, and
+there was a great cat holding up its tail and purring. Its pleasure was
+horrible to me. I pushed it away with my foot, but it came back, bending
+down its head, arching its back, and pressing against me. I was thinking
+what to do to get rid of it when I heard a shrill, husky voice call out:
+
+"'Johnny--John-nee!'
+
+"It was Miss Bassett. I held my breath, and pushed away the cat.
+
+"'Johnny, Johnny--John-nee!' went the voice again.
+
+"The cat wouldn't leave me. God knows why it wished to stay. I was
+determined to get rid of it, so I put the revolver down on the path,
+picked the cat up in my arms, and dropped it over the hedge into the
+road. Just as I had caught up the revolver again I was confronted by
+Miss Bassett. She had come in slippers up the path in the dark to look
+for her cat."
+
+I uttered a slight exclamation.
+
+Inley went on: "She had a handkerchief tied over her cap and under her
+chin, and a small lantern in her hands, on which she wore black mittens.
+I can see her now. We stood there on the path for a minute staring at
+each other without a word. The light from the lantern flickered over the
+revolver, and I saw Miss Bassett look down at it."
+
+He stopped, poured out a glass of water, and drank it off like a man who
+has been running.
+
+"Didn't she show surprise--fear?" I asked.
+
+"Not a bit. Women are so extraordinary, even old women who've never been
+in touch with life, that I'm certain now she understood directly her
+eyes fell on the revolver."
+
+"What did she do?"
+
+"After a minute she said: 'Lord Inley, I'm looking for my cat. Have you
+seen him?'
+
+"'Yes,' I said; 'he's run into the house.'
+
+"It was a lie, but I wanted her to go in. I had slipped the revolver
+back into my pocket, and tried to assume a perfectly simple, natural
+air. I fancied it would be very easy to impose on Miss Bassett when I
+heard her question. It sounded so innocent, as if the old lady was full
+of her pet. I even thought, perhaps, she had not known what the revolver
+was when she looked at it.
+
+"'Did he run into the house?' she said, still looking at me from under
+her wrinkled eyelids.
+
+"'Yes; when you came out. He was here on the path with me. You called
+"Johnny!" and he ran off there between the mulberry-trees.'
+
+"All the time I was speaking to her I had an eye to the road, and my
+ears were listening like an Indian's when he puts his head to the ground
+to hear the pad of his enemy.
+
+"Miss Bassett stood there quietly for a moment as if she were
+considering something. She looked prim. I remember that even now--prim
+as a caricature. It was only a moment, but it seemed to me an hour. 'If
+they should come,' I thought, 'while she is out here!' The sweat came
+out all over my face with impatience--an agony of impatience. I longed
+to take the old lady by the shoulders, push her into the cottage, lock
+her in, and be alone, able to watch the bit of road from the Abbey gates
+to the wicket. But I could do nothing. I was obliged to repress every
+sign of agitation. It was devilish."
+
+He got up with a sudden jerk from his chair, and stood by the fire. Even
+the telling of that moment had set beads of moisture on his square, low
+forehead.
+
+"At last she spoke again.
+
+"'I wonder if you'd mind coming in for a minute to help me see if Johnny
+really is in the house?' she said.
+
+"I don't know what I should have done--refused, I believe, refused her
+with an oath, for I began to feel mad; but just at that instant up came
+the cat once more, purring like fury, and lifting up his tail. He made
+straight for me, and began to rub himself against my legs again.
+
+"'Oh!' said Miss Bassett, 'there he is! Naughty Johnny, naughty boy!
+Lord Inley, perhaps you'd be so good as just to lif t him up and put him
+inside the door for me. I always have such a job to get him to come
+in of a night. He likes hunting in the woods. Doesn't he, the naughty
+Johnny?'
+
+"'Now's my chance to get rid of her!' I thought.
+
+"I bent down, picked the cat up, and went along the path towards the
+cottage, Miss Bassett following close behind me. The cat was an immense
+beast, awfully heavy, and just as I turned out of the yew path to go up
+to the cottage door he began struggling to get away, and scratching.
+I held on to him, but it wasn't easy, and I got my hand torn before
+I dropped him down inside the little hall. Away he ran, towards the
+kitchen, I suppose. Miss Bassett was very grateful, but I cut her
+gratitude short.
+
+"'Very glad to have been able to help you,' I said. 'Good-night.'
+
+"'Good-night, Lord Inley,' she said.
+
+"I thought her voice sounded a little bit odd when she said that, and
+I just glanced at her funny old face, lit up by the lantern she was
+holding in one mittened hand. She didn't look at me this time as she had
+in the garden. Then I went out, and she immediately shut the door.
+
+"'Thank God!' I thought, and I hurried to the wicket. I didn't dare stay
+in the garden now. Seeing her had made me realise my blackguardism in
+coming in at all, considering my reason. I resolved to hide in the field
+at the corner where the road turns off to Charfield. As I opened the
+wicket, instinctively I put my hand into my pocket for my revolver."
+
+He bent down, looking full into my eyes.
+
+"It wasn't there."
+
+"Miss Bassett!" I exclaimed.
+
+"In a moment I realised that Miss Bassett must have grasped the
+situation; that her asking me to carry in her cat was a ruse, and that
+while the beast was struggling between my hands she must have stolen
+the revolver from behind. I say I knew that, and yet even then, when I
+thought of her look, her manner, the sort of nervous old thing she was,
+I couldn't believe what I knew. Then I remembered her voice when she
+said 'Good-night' to me in the passage, her eyes looking down instead of
+at me, and that she was only holding the lantern in one hand, whereas
+in the garden she was using two. She must have had the revolver in
+her other hand concealed in the folds of her dress. I ran back to the
+cottage door, and knocked--hard. Not that I thought she'd open. I knew
+she wouldn't, but she did directly. I could hardly speak. I was afraid
+of myself just then. At last I said:
+
+"'Miss Bassett, you know what I want.'
+
+"'You can't have it,' she said, looking straight at me.
+
+"I kept quiet for a second, then I said:
+
+"'Miss Bassett, I don't think you know that you're running into danger.'
+For I felt that there was danger for her then if she went against me.
+She knew it, too, perhaps better than I did. I saw her poor old hands,
+all blue veins, beginning to tremble.
+
+"'You can't have it, Lord Inley,' she repeated.
+
+"There wasn't the ghost of a quiver in her voice.
+
+"'I must, I will!' I said, and I made a movement towards her--a violent
+movement I know it was.
+
+"But the old thing stood her ground. Oh, she was a gallant old woman.
+
+"'Do what you like to me,' she said. 'I'm old. What does it matter?
+She's young.'
+
+"Then I knew she understood.
+
+"'You've seen them together!' I said. 'Since I went!'
+
+"She wouldn't say. Not a word. I was mad. I forgot decency, everything.
+I took her. I searched her for the revolver. I searched her roughly--God
+forgive me. She trembled horribly, but never said a word. It wasn't on
+her. She must have hidden it somewhere in that moment when she was alone
+in the cottage. That was another ruse to keep me searching in there
+while-- But I saw it almost directly. I broke away, and rushed out and
+down the road. Something seemed to tell me they had passed. I got into
+the lane that leads to Charfield. The fly was gone. Then, all of a
+sudden, I felt perfectly calm. I turned, and went up to the Abbey gates.
+I knocked them up at the lodge. The keeper came out. When he saw me he
+said:
+
+"'You, my lord! However did you know?'
+
+"'Go on!' I said. 'Know what?'
+
+"'About Master Hugo?'
+
+"I didn't say one way or the other.
+
+"'The doctor says it's a bitter bad quinsy, but there's just a chance.
+Her ladyship's nearly mad. It only came on a few hours ago quite
+sudden.'
+
+"I went up to the Abbey, and found Vere by the child's bed. She looked
+flushed, and was breathing hard, as if she had just been running."
+
+He stopped, and took out his cigar-case.
+
+"Running!" I said.
+
+"She had parted finally from Glynd in front of Miss Bassett's cottage,"
+he said. "He told me that afterwards."
+
+There was a moment's silence. Then he spoke more calmly.
+
+"I went up to town when the child was safe, and had it out with Glynd.
+They had meant to go that night. It was the boy who stopped them and
+they took it as a judgment. You know how women are. Glynd swore she was
+stopped in time. You understand?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He didn't lie to me."
+
+"And your wife?"
+
+"I never spoke of it to her. I saw her with the boy, and--well, I saw
+her with the boy, and what she was to him when he was close to death."
+
+His voice went for a moment. Then he added:
+
+"I told her I'd had a presentiment Hugo was ill. She believed me, I
+think. If not, she's kept her secret."
+
+Just then the dining-room door opened, and Lady Inley put in her pretty
+head.
+
+"Are you never coming?" she said with her little childish drawl.
+
+I got up, and went towards her.
+
+"By the way, Nino," she added, "the bell was for poor, funny old Miss
+Bassett. What will her cat do, I wonder?"
+
+As I followed her towards the drawing-room I heard Inley's voice mutter
+behind me:
+
+"_Requiescat in Pace_."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spinster, by Robert Hichens
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+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
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+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
+    <title>
+      The Spinster, by Robert Hichens
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
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+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spinster, by Robert Hichens
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Spinster
+       1905
+
+Author: Robert Hichens
+
+Release Date: November 8, 2007 [EBook #23410]
+Last Updated: September 24, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPINSTER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      THE SPINSTER
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      By Robert Hichens
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      Copyright, 1905
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had arrived at Inley Abbey that afternoon, and was sitting at dinner
+      with Inley and his pretty wife, whom I had not seen for five years, since
+      the day I was his best man, when we all heard faintly the tolling of a
+      church bell. Lady Inley shook her shoulders in a rather exaggerated
+      shudder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Someone dead!&rdquo; said her husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a mistake to build a church in the grounds of a house,&rdquo; Lady Inley
+      said in her clear, drawling soprano voice. &ldquo;That noise gives me the
+      blues.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whom can it be for?&rdquo; asked Inley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Bassett, probably,&rdquo; Lady Inley replied carelessly, helping herself
+      to a bonbon from a little silver dish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Inley started.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Sarah Bassett! What makes you think so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, while you were away in town she got ill. Didn&rsquo;t you know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Inley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I could see that he was moved. His dark, short face had changed suddenly,
+      and he stopped eating his fruit. Lady Inley went on crunching the bonbon
+      between her little white teeth with all the enjoyment of a pretty
+      marmoset.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Influenza,&rdquo; she said airily. &ldquo;And then pneumonia. Of course, at her age,
+      you know&mdash;&mdash; By the way, what is her age, Nino?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No idea,&rdquo; said Inley shortly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was listening to the dim and monotonous sound of the church bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Inley turned to me with the childish, confidential movement which men
+      considered one of her many charms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Bassett is, or was, one of those funny old spinsters who always look
+      the same and always ridiculous. Dry twigs, you know. One size all the way
+      down. Very little hair, and no emotions. If it weren&rsquo;t for the sake of
+      cats, one would wonder why such people are born. But they&rsquo;re always
+      cat-lovers. I suppose that&rsquo;s why they&rsquo;re so often called old cats.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She uttered a little high-pitched laugh, and got up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be too long,&rdquo; she said to me carelessly as I opened the dining-room
+      door for her. &ldquo;I want to sing &lsquo;Ohé Charmette&rsquo; to you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t be long,&rdquo; I answered, thinking what exquisite eyes she had.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned, and went out in her delicious, thin way. No wonder she had
+      made skeletons the rage in London. When I came back to the dinner-table
+      Inley was sitting with both his brown hands clenched on the cloth. His
+      black eyes&mdash;inherited from his dead mother, who had been one of the
+      Neapolitan aristocracy&mdash;were glittering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it, Nino?&rdquo; I asked as I sat down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We had been such intimate friends that even my five years&rsquo; absence abroad
+      had not built up a barrier between us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder if it is Miss Bassett?&rdquo; he said, looking at me earnestly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But was she a great friend of yours?&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;If Lady Inley&rsquo;s
+      description of her is accurate, I can hardly imagine so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vere doesn&rsquo;t know what she&rsquo;s saying.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then Miss Bassett&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, she does look like that; dried up, unemotional, tame, English, even
+      comic.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The regular spinster, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She looks it. But, damn it all, Vere has no business to say she has no
+      emotions, to wonder why such people are born. But she doesn&rsquo;t know&mdash;Vere
+      doesn&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His agitation grew, and was inexplicable to me. But I knew Inley, knew
+      that he was bound to tell me what was on his mind. He could be reserved,
+      but not with me. So I took a cigar, cut the end off it deliberately,
+      struck a match, lighted it, and began to smoke in silence. He followed my
+      example quickly, and then said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vere talks like that, and, but for Miss Bassett, Vere would have been
+      murdered two years ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I started, and dropped my cigar on the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Murdered!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; and I&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He fixed his eyes on me, and put his hand up to his throat. Nino was half
+      Neapolitan, and I saw a man being hanged. I picked up my cigar with a hand
+      that slightly shook.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I always thought Lady Inley and you were very happy
+      together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It sounded banal, even ridiculous, but I hardly knew what to say. I was
+      startled. The tolling of the bell, too, was getting on my nerves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One doesn&rsquo;t write such things,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve been abroad for years.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all right now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose so. Vere has never had the least suspicion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He drew his chair closer to mine, and was about to go on speaking when the
+      servants came in with the coffee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who&rsquo;s the bell tolling for, Hurst?&rdquo; he said to the butler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t say, my lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the servants had gone Inley continued, at first in a calmer voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Bassett lived in the red cottage just beyond the gate of the South
+      Lodge from time immemorial. You generally came to us in Scotland, I know,
+      but I should think you must have seen her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly a recollection flashed upon me&mdash;a recollection of a long,
+      flat figure, a drab face, thin hair coming away from a wrinkled forehead
+      under a mushroom hat, flapping, old-fashioned golden earrings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not the person I used to call &lsquo;the Plank&rsquo;?&rdquo; I said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He thought for a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; I believe you did-. I&rsquo;d forgotten.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She was always in church twenty minutes before the service began, and
+      always dropped her hymn-book coming out if there were visitors in the
+      Abbey pew!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes; that&rsquo;s it. Miss Bassett is very nervous in little ways.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember her now perfectly. And you say she&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I looked at him, and hesitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She saved Vere&rsquo;s life and, indirectly, mine. I&rsquo;ll tell you now we&rsquo;re
+      together again at last. I shall never tell Vere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked towards the windows, across which dark blue silk curtains were
+      drawn, as if he could see the passing-bell swinging in the old square
+      tower. Then he turned to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know how mad I was about Vere. It&rsquo;s always like that with me. Unless
+      I&rsquo;m stone I&rsquo;m fire. After we were married I got even madder. Having her
+      all to myself was like enchantment, and in Italy, too, my other native
+      land.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I thought of Lady Inley&rsquo;s eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can understand,&rdquo; I said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course, when we got back it had to be different. Friends came in, and
+      she was run after and admired and written about. You know the publicity of
+      life in modern London.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;City of public-houses and society spies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I bore it, because it&rsquo;s supposed to be the thing. And Vere rather likes
+      it, somehow. So I let her have her fun, as long as it was fun. I didn&rsquo;t
+      intend it should ever be anything else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He frowned. When he did that, and his thick eyebrows nearly met, he looked
+      all Italian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We did the usual things&mdash;Paris, Ascot, Scotland, and so on&mdash;till
+      Vere had to lie up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your boy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; Hugo came along. I was glad when that was over. I thought she was
+      going to die. You knew Seymour Glynd?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Life Guards? Killed hunting a year ago?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Inley nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was a great deal with us soon after Hugo&rsquo;s birth. I thought nothing of
+      it. I&rsquo;d known the fellow all my life. But then one nearly always has.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He laughed bitterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To cut that part short, two years ago in autumn we had Glynd staying with
+      us down here for shooting. There were some others, of course&mdash;Mrs.
+      Jack, Bobbie Elphinton, and Lady Bobbie&mdash;but you know the lot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you&rsquo;ve been well out of it these years. Well, the shoot
+      was to break up on a Friday, and I&rsquo;d arranged to go to town that day with
+      the rest. Vere didn&rsquo;t intend to come. She said she was feeling tired, and
+      was going to have a Friday to Monday rest cure. That&rsquo;s the thing, you
+      know, nowadays. You get a Swedish <i>masseuse</i> down to stay, and go to
+      bed and drink milk. Vere had engaged a <i>masseuse</i> to come on the
+      Friday night. On the Thursday, the day before we were all going to town,
+      Glynd hurt his foot getting over a fence into a turnip field&mdash;at
+      least I thought so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everyone thought so, I believe&mdash;except, of course, Vere. I wonder if
+      they did, though?&rdquo; he added moodily. &ldquo;Or whether I was the only&mdash;But
+      what does it matter now? Glynd said he only wanted a couple of days&rsquo; rest
+      to be all right again, and asked me if he might stay on at the Abbey till
+      the Monday. Of course I said &lsquo;Yes; if he wouldn&rsquo;t want a hostess.&rsquo; Because
+      Vere said to me, when she heard of it, that she must have her rest cure
+      all the same. Glynd swore he&rsquo;d be quite happy alone. So he stayed, and the
+      rest of us came up to town on the Friday. Well, on the Saturday morning I
+      was walking across the park when I met the Swedish <i>massense</i> who was
+      to have gone down to Vere on the Friday night. I knew her, because Vere
+      had often had her before in London. &lsquo;Hullo!&rsquo; I said. &lsquo;You ought to be down
+      at Inley Abbey with my wife.&rsquo; &lsquo;No, my lord,&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;Why not?&rsquo; &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve
+      had a wire from Lady Inley not to go.&rsquo; &lsquo;A wire!&rsquo; I said. &lsquo;When did you get
+      it?&rsquo; &lsquo;On Thursday night, my lord.&rsquo; You mean last night?&rsquo; I said, thinking
+      Vere must have changed her mind after we had left. &lsquo;No,&rsquo; said the woman;
+      &lsquo;on Thursday night, late.&rsquo; Then I remembered that, after Glynd had hurt
+      his foot and asked to stay, Vere had gone out alone for a drive in her
+      cart, to get a last breath of air before the rest cure. She must have sent
+      the telegram herself then. All of a sudden I seemed to understand a lot of
+      things.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had let his cigar out, and now he noticed that he had. He tossed it
+      into the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I said, &lsquo;Good-morning&rsquo; to the woman quite quietly, went back to the
+      house, and told my man I shouldn&rsquo;t be at home that night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He put his hand on my arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I felt perfectly calm. Wasn&rsquo;t that strange?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was a train from town reaching Ashdridge Station at nine o&rsquo;clock at
+      night. I took it. I didn&rsquo;t care to go to Inley Station, where everybody
+      would know me, and wonder what I was up to. I didn&rsquo;t take any luggage. My
+      man asked if he should pack, and I said &lsquo;No.&rsquo; I didn&rsquo;t dine. I was at
+      Pad-dington three-quarters of an hour before the train was due to start.
+      At last it came in to the platform. Going down I read the evening papers
+      just like any man going home from business. Soon after we got away from
+      London I saw there was rain on the carriage windows. That seemed to me
+      right. We were a little late at Ashdridge. It was still wet, and I had my
+      coat collar turned up. I don&rsquo;t believe they recognised me there. I set out
+      to walk to Inley.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did you mean to do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I told you before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I looked into his face, and believed him. Then I thought of Lady Inley&rsquo;s
+      childish, delicate beauty, of her slightly affected manner, the manner of
+      a woman who has always been spoilt, whose paths have been made very
+      smooth. And here she was living, apparently happily, with a man who had
+      deliberately travelled down in the night to kill her. How ignorant we are!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are condemning me,&rdquo; Inley said, with a touch of hot anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was only thinking&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That we don&rsquo;t know each other much in the greatest intimacy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I thought then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He said that in a way which suddenly put me on his side. He must have seen
+      the change in my feelings, for he went on, with his former unreserve:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I walked fast in the dark. I didn&rsquo;t think very much, but I remember that
+      all the trees&mdash;there&rsquo;s a lot of woodland, you know, between Ashdridge
+      and Inley&mdash;seemed alive. Everything seemed to me to be alive that
+      night. I&rsquo;ve never had that sensation before or since.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I realised what the condition of the man had been when he said that, as if
+      I were a doctor and a patient had told me the symptom which put me in
+      possession of his malady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I reached Inley it was late, and the long village street was
+      deserted. There were lights in the inn and in the schoolmaster&rsquo;s house,
+      but there were no people about. I got through without meeting a soul, and
+      came on towards the gates of the Abbey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You meant to go into the house?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. I was sure&mdash;somehow I was sure; but I intended to see before I
+      acted, merely for my own justification. But I was quite sure, as if Vere
+      herself had told me everything. Soon after I had got clear of the village
+      I heard a sound of wheels behind me. I stood up against the hedge, and in
+      a minute or two a fly passed me going slowly. I saw the driver&rsquo;s face. It
+      wasn&rsquo;t a man from Inley. Evidently the fly had come from a distance. It
+      was splashed with mud, and the horse looked tired. I followed it till it
+      came to the turning just below Miss Bassett&rsquo;s cottage, where there&rsquo;s a
+      narrow lane going to Charfield through the woods. It went a little way
+      down this lane, and stopped. I waited at the turning. I could see the
+      light from the lamps shining on the wet road, and in the circle of light
+      the driver&rsquo;s breath. He bent down, and I saw him looking at a big silver
+      watch. Then he put it back. But he didn&rsquo;t drive on. I knew what he was
+      waiting for. Vere was going with&mdash;with Glynd. That was more than I
+      had ever thought of, that she would go. I put my hand into my pocket, took
+      out my revolver, and went on till I was close to the red cottage. By this
+      time the rain had stopped. I came up to within a few yards of the Abbey
+      gates, stood for a moment, and then returned till I was at the wicket of
+      Miss Bassett&rsquo;s garden. It&rsquo;s bounded by a yew hedge, beyond which there is
+      a path shaded by mulberry-trees. The hedge is low. The path is dark. It
+      was a blackguardly thing to do, but I thought of nothing except myself, my
+      wrong, and how I was to wipe it out. I opened the wicket, came into the
+      path, and stood there under the mulberry-trees behind the hedge. Here I
+      was in cover, and could see the road. I held my revolver in my hand, and
+      waited. It never struck me that Miss Bassett might be up. I saw no light
+      in the cottage, and I had a sort of idea that people like her went to bed
+      at about eight. While I was standing there listening I felt something rub
+      against my legs. It made me start. Then I heard a little low noise. I
+      looked down, and there was a great cat holding up its tail and purring.
+      Its pleasure was horrible to me. I pushed it away with my foot, but it
+      came back, bending down its head, arching its back, and pressing against
+      me. I was thinking what to do to get rid of it when I heard a shrill,
+      husky voice call out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Johnny&mdash;John-nee!&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was Miss Bassett. I held my breath, and pushed away the cat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Johnny, Johnny&mdash;John-nee!&rsquo; went the voice again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The cat wouldn&rsquo;t leave me. God knows why it wished to stay. I was
+      determined to get rid of it, so I put the revolver down on the path,
+      picked the cat up in my arms, and dropped it over the hedge into the road.
+      Just as I had caught up the revolver again I was confronted by Miss
+      Bassett. She had come in slippers up the path in the dark to look for her
+      cat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I uttered a slight exclamation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Inley went on: &ldquo;She had a handkerchief tied over her cap and under her
+      chin, and a small lantern in her hands, on which she wore black mittens. I
+      can see her now. We stood there on the path for a minute staring at each
+      other without a word. The light from the lantern flickered over the
+      revolver, and I saw Miss Bassett look down at it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped, poured out a glass of water, and drank it off like a man who
+      has been running.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Didn&rsquo;t she show surprise&mdash;fear?&rdquo; I asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a bit. Women are so extraordinary, even old women who&rsquo;ve never been
+      in touch with life, that I&rsquo;m certain now she understood directly her eyes
+      fell on the revolver.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did she do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After a minute she said: &lsquo;Lord Inley, I&rsquo;m looking for my cat. Have you
+      seen him?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; I said; &lsquo;he&rsquo;s run into the house.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was a lie, but I wanted her to go in. I had slipped the revolver back
+      into my pocket, and tried to assume a perfectly simple, natural air. I
+      fancied it would be very easy to impose on Miss Bassett when I heard her
+      question. It sounded so innocent, as if the old lady was full of her pet.
+      I even thought, perhaps, she had not known what the revolver was when she
+      looked at it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Did he run into the house?&rsquo; she said, still looking at me from under her
+      wrinkled eyelids.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Yes; when you came out. He was here on the path with me. You called
+      &ldquo;Johnny!&rdquo; and he ran off there between the mulberry-trees.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All the time I was speaking to her I had an eye to the road, and my ears
+      were listening like an Indian&rsquo;s when he puts his head to the ground to
+      hear the pad of his enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Bassett stood there quietly for a moment as if she were considering
+      something. She looked prim. I remember that even now&mdash;prim as a
+      caricature. It was only a moment, but it seemed to me an hour. &lsquo;If they
+      should come,&rsquo; I thought, &lsquo;while she is out here!&rsquo; The sweat came out all
+      over my face with impatience&mdash;an agony of impatience. I longed to
+      take the old lady by the shoulders, push her into the cottage, lock her
+      in, and be alone, able to watch the bit of road from the Abbey gates to
+      the wicket. But I could do nothing. I was obliged to repress every sign of
+      agitation. It was devilish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He got up with a sudden jerk from his chair, and stood by the fire. Even
+      the telling of that moment had set beads of moisture on his square, low
+      forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At last she spoke again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;I wonder if you&rsquo;d mind coming in for a minute to help me see if Johnny
+      really is in the house?&rsquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what I should have done&mdash;refused, I believe, refused
+      her with an oath, for I began to feel mad; but just at that instant up
+      came the cat once more, purring like fury, and lifting up his tail. He
+      made straight for me, and began to rub himself against my legs again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Oh!&rsquo; said Miss Bassett, &lsquo;there he is! Naughty Johnny, naughty boy! Lord
+      Inley, perhaps you&rsquo;d be so good as just to lif t him up and put him inside
+      the door for me. I always have such a job to get him to come in of a
+      night. He likes hunting in the woods. Doesn&rsquo;t he, the naughty Johnny?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Now&rsquo;s my chance to get rid of her!&rsquo; I thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I bent down, picked the cat up, and went along the path towards the
+      cottage, Miss Bassett following close behind me. The cat was an immense
+      beast, awfully heavy, and just as I turned out of the yew path to go up to
+      the cottage door he began struggling to get away, and scratching. I held
+      on to him, but it wasn&rsquo;t easy, and I got my hand torn before I dropped him
+      down inside the little hall. Away he ran, towards the kitchen, I suppose.
+      Miss Bassett was very grateful, but I cut her gratitude short.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Very glad to have been able to help you,&rsquo; I said. &lsquo;Good-night.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Good-night, Lord Inley,&rsquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought her voice sounded a little bit odd when she said that, and I
+      just glanced at her funny old face, lit up by the lantern she was holding
+      in one mittened hand. She didn&rsquo;t look at me this time as she had in the
+      garden. Then I went out, and she immediately shut the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Thank God!&rsquo; I thought, and I hurried to the wicket. I didn&rsquo;t dare stay
+      in the garden now. Seeing her had made me realise my blackguardism in
+      coming in at all, considering my reason. I resolved to hide in the field
+      at the corner where the road turns off to Charfield. As I opened the
+      wicket, instinctively I put my hand into my pocket for my revolver.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He bent down, looking full into my eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Bassett!&rdquo; I exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In a moment I realised that Miss Bassett must have grasped the situation;
+      that her asking me to carry in her cat was a ruse, and that while the
+      beast was struggling between my hands she must have stolen the revolver
+      from behind. I say I knew that, and yet even then, when I thought of her
+      look, her manner, the sort of nervous old thing she was, I couldn&rsquo;t
+      believe what I knew. Then I remembered her voice when she said
+      &lsquo;Good-night&rsquo; to me in the passage, her eyes looking down instead of at me,
+      and that she was only holding the lantern in one hand, whereas in the
+      garden she was using two. She must have had the revolver in her other hand
+      concealed in the folds of her dress. I ran back to the cottage door, and
+      knocked&mdash;hard. Not that I thought she&rsquo;d open. I knew she wouldn&rsquo;t,
+      but she did directly. I could hardly speak. I was afraid of myself just
+      then. At last I said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Miss Bassett, you know what I want.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;You can&rsquo;t have it,&rsquo; she said, looking straight at me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I kept quiet for a second, then I said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Miss Bassett, I don&rsquo;t think you know that you&rsquo;re running into danger.&rsquo; 
+      For I felt that there was danger for her then if she went against me. She
+      knew it, too, perhaps better than I did. I saw her poor old hands, all
+      blue veins, beginning to tremble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;You can&rsquo;t have it, Lord Inley,&rsquo; she repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There wasn&rsquo;t the ghost of a quiver in her voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;I must, I will!&rsquo; I said, and I made a movement towards her&mdash;a
+      violent movement I know it was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the old thing stood her ground. Oh, she was a gallant old woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Do what you like to me,&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;I&rsquo;m old. What does it matter? She&rsquo;s
+      young.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I knew she understood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;You&rsquo;ve seen them together!&rsquo; I said. &lsquo;Since I went!&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She wouldn&rsquo;t say. Not a word. I was mad. I forgot decency, everything. I
+      took her. I searched her for the revolver. I searched her roughly&mdash;God
+      forgive me. She trembled horribly, but never said a word. It wasn&rsquo;t on
+      her. She must have hidden it somewhere in that moment when she was alone
+      in the cottage. That was another ruse to keep me searching in there while&mdash;
+      But I saw it almost directly. I broke away, and rushed out and down the
+      road. Something seemed to tell me they had passed. I got into the lane
+      that leads to Charfield. The fly was gone. Then, all of a sudden, I felt
+      perfectly calm. I turned, and went up to the Abbey gates. I knocked them
+      up at the lodge. The keeper came out. When he saw me he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;You, my lord! However did you know?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Go on!&rsquo; I said. &lsquo;Know what?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;About Master Hugo?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t say one way or the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;The doctor says it&rsquo;s a bitter bad quinsy, but there&rsquo;s just a chance. Her
+      ladyship&rsquo;s nearly mad. It only came on a few hours ago quite sudden.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I went up to the Abbey, and found Vere by the child&rsquo;s bed. She looked
+      flushed, and was breathing hard, as if she had just been running.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped, and took out his cigar-case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Running!&rdquo; I said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She had parted finally from Glynd in front of Miss Bassett&rsquo;s cottage,&rdquo; he
+      said. &ldquo;He told me that afterwards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a moment&rsquo;s silence. Then he spoke more calmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I went up to town when the child was safe, and had it out with Glynd.
+      They had meant to go that night. It was the boy who stopped them and they
+      took it as a judgment. You know how women are. Glynd swore she was stopped
+      in time. You understand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t lie to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And your wife?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never spoke of it to her. I saw her with the boy, and&mdash;well, I saw
+      her with the boy, and what she was to him when he was close to death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His voice went for a moment. Then he added:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I told her I&rsquo;d had a presentiment Hugo was ill. She believed me, I think.
+      If not, she&rsquo;s kept her secret.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then the dining-room door opened, and Lady Inley put in her pretty
+      head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you never coming?&rdquo; she said with her little childish drawl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I got up, and went towards her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the way, Nino,&rdquo; she added, &ldquo;the bell was for poor, funny old Miss
+      Bassett. What will her cat do, I wonder?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As I followed her towards the drawing-room I heard Inley&rsquo;s voice mutter
+      behind me:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Requiescat in Pace</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
diff --git a/23410.txt b/23410.txt
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+++ b/23410.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spinster, by Robert Hichens
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Spinster
+       1905
+
+Author: Robert Hichens
+
+Release Date: November 8, 2007 [EBook #23410]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPINSTER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SPINSTER
+
+By Robert Hichens
+
+Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers
+
+Copyright, 1905
+
+
+I had arrived at Inley Abbey that afternoon, and was sitting at dinner
+with Inley and his pretty wife, whom I had not seen for five years,
+since the day I was his best man, when we all heard faintly the tolling
+of a church bell. Lady Inley shook her shoulders in a rather exaggerated
+shudder.
+
+"Someone dead!" said her husband.
+
+"It's a mistake to build a church in the grounds of a house," Lady Inley
+said in her clear, drawling soprano voice. "That noise gives me the
+blues."
+
+"Whom can it be for?" asked Inley.
+
+"Miss Bassett, probably," Lady Inley replied carelessly, helping herself
+to a bonbon from a little silver dish.
+
+Inley started.
+
+"Miss Sarah Bassett! What makes you think so?"
+
+"Oh, while you were away in town she got ill. Didn't you know?"
+
+"No," said Inley.
+
+I could see that he was moved. His dark, short face had changed
+suddenly, and he stopped eating his fruit. Lady Inley went on crunching
+the bonbon between her little white teeth with all the enjoyment of a
+pretty marmoset.
+
+"Influenza," she said airily. "And then pneumonia. Of course, at her
+age, you know---- By the way, what is her age, Nino?"
+
+"No idea," said Inley shortly.
+
+He was listening to the dim and monotonous sound of the church bell.
+
+Lady Inley turned to me with the childish, confidential movement which
+men considered one of her many charms.
+
+"Miss Bassett is, or was, one of those funny old spinsters who always
+look the same and always ridiculous. Dry twigs, you know. One size all
+the way down. Very little hair, and no emotions. If it weren't for the
+sake of cats, one would wonder why such people are born. But they're
+always cat-lovers. I suppose that's why they're so often called old
+cats."
+
+She uttered a little high-pitched laugh, and got up.
+
+"Don't be too long," she said to me carelessly as I opened the
+dining-room door for her. "I want to sing 'Ohe Charmette' to you.
+
+"I won't be long," I answered, thinking what exquisite eyes she had.
+
+She turned, and went out in her delicious, thin way. No wonder she had
+made skeletons the rage in London. When I came back to the dinner-table
+Inley was sitting with both his brown hands clenched on the cloth. His
+black eyes--inherited from his dead mother, who had been one of the
+Neapolitan aristocracy--were glittering.
+
+"What is it, Nino?" I asked as I sat down.
+
+We had been such intimate friends that even my five years' absence
+abroad had not built up a barrier between us.
+
+"I wonder if it is Miss Bassett?" he said, looking at me earnestly.
+
+"But was she a great friend of yours?" I said. "If Lady Inley's
+description of her is accurate, I can hardly imagine so."
+
+"Vere doesn't know what she's saying."
+
+"Then Miss Bassett----"
+
+"Oh, she does look like that; dried up, unemotional, tame, English, even
+comic."
+
+"The regular spinster, eh?"
+
+"She looks it. But, damn it all, Vere has no business to say she has no
+emotions, to wonder why such people are born. But she doesn't know--Vere
+doesn't know."
+
+His agitation grew, and was inexplicable to me. But I knew Inley, knew
+that he was bound to tell me what was on his mind. He could be reserved,
+but not with me. So I took a cigar, cut the end off it deliberately,
+struck a match, lighted it, and began to smoke in silence. He followed
+my example quickly, and then said:
+
+"Vere talks like that, and, but for Miss Bassett, Vere would have been
+murdered two years ago."
+
+I started, and dropped my cigar on the table.
+
+"Murdered!"
+
+"Yes; and I----"
+
+He fixed his eyes on me, and put his hand up to his throat. Nino was
+half Neapolitan, and I saw a man being hanged. I picked up my cigar with
+a hand that slightly shook.
+
+"But," I said, "I always thought Lady Inley and you were very happy
+together."
+
+It sounded banal, even ridiculous, but I hardly knew what to say. I was
+startled. The tolling of the bell, too, was getting on my nerves.
+
+"One doesn't write such things," he said. "You've been abroad for
+years."
+
+"It's all right now?"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I suppose so. Vere has never had the least suspicion."
+
+He drew his chair closer to mine, and was about to go on speaking when
+the servants came in with the coffee.
+
+"Who's the bell tolling for, Hurst?" he said to the butler.
+
+"I couldn't say, my lord."
+
+When the servants had gone Inley continued, at first in a calmer voice:
+
+"Miss Bassett lived in the red cottage just beyond the gate of the South
+Lodge from time immemorial. You generally came to us in Scotland, I
+know, but I should think you must have seen her."
+
+Suddenly a recollection flashed upon me--a recollection of a long, flat
+figure, a drab face, thin hair coming away from a wrinkled forehead
+under a mushroom hat, flapping, old-fashioned golden earrings.
+
+"Not the person I used to call 'the Plank'?" I said.
+
+"Did you?"
+
+He thought for a moment.
+
+"Yes; I believe you did-. I'd forgotten."
+
+"She was always in church twenty minutes before the service began, and
+always dropped her hymn-book coming out if there were visitors in the
+Abbey pew!"
+
+"Yes, yes; that's it. Miss Bassett is very nervous in little ways."
+
+"I remember her now perfectly. And you say she----"
+
+I looked at him, and hesitated.
+
+"She saved Vere's life and, indirectly, mine. I'll tell you now we're
+together again at last. I shall never tell Vere."
+
+He looked towards the windows, across which dark blue silk curtains were
+drawn, as if he could see the passing-bell swinging in the old square
+tower. Then he turned to me.
+
+"You know how mad I was about Vere. It's always like that with me.
+Unless I'm stone I'm fire. After we were married I got even madder.
+Having her all to myself was like enchantment, and in Italy, too, my
+other native land."
+
+I thought of Lady Inley's eyes.
+
+"I can understand," I said.
+
+"Of course, when we got back it had to be different. Friends came
+in, and she was run after and admired and written about. You know the
+publicity of life in modern London."
+
+"City of public-houses and society spies."
+
+"I bore it, because it's supposed to be the thing. And Vere rather likes
+it, somehow. So I let her have her fun, as long as it was fun. I didn't
+intend it should ever be anything else."
+
+He frowned. When he did that, and his thick eyebrows nearly met, he
+looked all Italian.
+
+"We did the usual things--Paris, Ascot, Scotland, and so on--till Vere
+had to lie up."
+
+"Your boy?"
+
+"Yes; Hugo came along. I was glad when that was over. I thought she was
+going to die. You knew Seymour Glynd?"
+
+"Life Guards? Killed hunting a year ago?"
+
+Inley nodded.
+
+"He was a great deal with us soon after Hugo's birth. I thought nothing
+of it. I'd known the fellow all my life. But then one nearly always
+has."
+
+He laughed bitterly.
+
+"To cut that part short, two years ago in autumn we had Glynd staying
+with us down here for shooting. There were some others, of course--Mrs.
+Jack, Bobbie Elphinton, and Lady Bobbie--but you know the lot."
+
+"I did."
+
+"Ah," he said, "you've been well out of it these years. Well, the shoot
+was to break up on a Friday, and I'd arranged to go to town that day
+with the rest. Vere didn't intend to come. She said she was feeling
+tired, and was going to have a Friday to Monday rest cure. That's the
+thing, you know, nowadays. You get a Swedish _masseuse_ down to stay,
+and go to bed and drink milk. Vere had engaged a _masseuse_ to come on
+the Friday night. On the Thursday, the day before we were all going to
+town, Glynd hurt his foot getting over a fence into a turnip field--at
+least I thought so."
+
+He stopped.
+
+"Everyone thought so, I believe--except, of course, Vere. I wonder if
+they did, though?" he added moodily. "Or whether I was the only--But
+what does it matter now? Glynd said he only wanted a couple of days'
+rest to be all right again, and asked me if he might stay on at the
+Abbey till the Monday. Of course I said 'Yes; if he wouldn't want a
+hostess.' Because Vere said to me, when she heard of it, that she must
+have her rest cure all the same. Glynd swore he'd be quite happy alone.
+So he stayed, and the rest of us came up to town on the Friday. Well,
+on the Saturday morning I was walking across the park when I met the
+Swedish _massense_ who was to have gone down to Vere on the Friday
+night. I knew her, because Vere had often had her before in London.
+'Hullo!' I said. 'You ought to be down at Inley Abbey with my wife.'
+'No, my lord,' she said. 'Why not?' 'I've had a wire from Lady Inley not
+to go.' 'A wire!' I said. 'When did you get it?' 'On Thursday night, my
+lord.' You mean last night?' I said, thinking Vere must have changed her
+mind after we had left. 'No,' said the woman; 'on Thursday night, late.'
+Then I remembered that, after Glynd had hurt his foot and asked to stay,
+Vere had gone out alone for a drive in her cart, to get a last breath of
+air before the rest cure. She must have sent the telegram herself then.
+All of a sudden I seemed to understand a lot of things.'"
+
+He had let his cigar out, and now he noticed that he had. He tossed it
+into the fire.
+
+"I said, 'Good-morning' to the woman quite quietly, went back to the
+house, and told my man I shouldn't be at home that night."
+
+He put his hand on my arm.
+
+"I felt perfectly calm. Wasn't that strange?"
+
+I nodded.
+
+"There was a train from town reaching Ashdridge Station at nine o'clock
+at night. I took it. I didn't care to go to Inley Station, where
+everybody would know me, and wonder what I was up to. I didn't take any
+luggage. My man asked if he should pack, and I said 'No.' I didn't dine.
+I was at Pad-dington three-quarters of an hour before the train was
+due to start. At last it came in to the platform. Going down I read the
+evening papers just like any man going home from business. Soon after we
+got away from London I saw there was rain on the carriage windows. That
+seemed to me right. We were a little late at Ashdridge. It was still
+wet, and I had my coat collar turned up. I don't believe they recognised
+me there. I set out to walk to Inley."
+
+"What did you mean to do?"
+
+"I told you before."
+
+I looked into his face, and believed him. Then I thought of Lady Inley's
+childish, delicate beauty, of her slightly affected manner, the manner
+of a woman who has always been spoilt, whose paths have been made very
+smooth. And here she was living, apparently happily, with a man who had
+deliberately travelled down in the night to kill her. How ignorant we
+are!
+
+"You are condemning me," Inley said, with a touch of hot anger.
+
+"I was only thinking----"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"That we don't know each other much in the greatest intimacy."
+
+"That's what I thought then."
+
+He said that in a way which suddenly put me on his side. He must
+have seen the change in my feelings, for he went on, with his former
+unreserve:
+
+"I walked fast in the dark. I didn't think very much, but I remember
+that all the trees--there's a lot of woodland, you know, between
+Ashdridge and Inley--seemed alive. Everything seemed to me to be alive
+that night. I've never had that sensation before or since."
+
+I realised what the condition of the man had been when he said that, as
+if I were a doctor and a patient had told me the symptom which put me in
+possession of his malady.
+
+"When I reached Inley it was late, and the long village street was
+deserted. There were lights in the inn and in the schoolmaster's house,
+but there were no people about. I got through without meeting a soul,
+and came on towards the gates of the Abbey."
+
+"You meant to go into the house?"
+
+"Yes. I was sure--somehow I was sure; but I intended to see before I
+acted, merely for my own justification. But I was quite sure, as if
+Vere herself had told me everything. Soon after I had got clear of the
+village I heard a sound of wheels behind me. I stood up against the
+hedge, and in a minute or two a fly passed me going slowly. I saw the
+driver's face. It wasn't a man from Inley. Evidently the fly had come
+from a distance. It was splashed with mud, and the horse looked tired.
+I followed it till it came to the turning just below Miss Bassett's
+cottage, where there's a narrow lane going to Charfield through the
+woods. It went a little way down this lane, and stopped. I waited at the
+turning. I could see the light from the lamps shining on the wet road,
+and in the circle of light the driver's breath. He bent down, and I saw
+him looking at a big silver watch. Then he put it back. But he didn't
+drive on. I knew what he was waiting for. Vere was going with--with
+Glynd. That was more than I had ever thought of, that she would go. I
+put my hand into my pocket, took out my revolver, and went on till I was
+close to the red cottage. By this time the rain had stopped. I came up
+to within a few yards of the Abbey gates, stood for a moment, and then
+returned till I was at the wicket of Miss Bassett's garden. It's bounded
+by a yew hedge, beyond which there is a path shaded by mulberry-trees.
+The hedge is low. The path is dark. It was a blackguardly thing to do,
+but I thought of nothing except myself, my wrong, and how I was to wipe
+it out. I opened the wicket, came into the path, and stood there under
+the mulberry-trees behind the hedge. Here I was in cover, and could see
+the road. I held my revolver in my hand, and waited. It never struck me
+that Miss Bassett might be up. I saw no light in the cottage, and I had
+a sort of idea that people like her went to bed at about eight. While
+I was standing there listening I felt something rub against my legs. It
+made me start. Then I heard a little low noise. I looked down, and
+there was a great cat holding up its tail and purring. Its pleasure was
+horrible to me. I pushed it away with my foot, but it came back, bending
+down its head, arching its back, and pressing against me. I was thinking
+what to do to get rid of it when I heard a shrill, husky voice call out:
+
+"'Johnny--John-nee!'
+
+"It was Miss Bassett. I held my breath, and pushed away the cat.
+
+"'Johnny, Johnny--John-nee!' went the voice again.
+
+"The cat wouldn't leave me. God knows why it wished to stay. I was
+determined to get rid of it, so I put the revolver down on the path,
+picked the cat up in my arms, and dropped it over the hedge into the
+road. Just as I had caught up the revolver again I was confronted by
+Miss Bassett. She had come in slippers up the path in the dark to look
+for her cat."
+
+I uttered a slight exclamation.
+
+Inley went on: "She had a handkerchief tied over her cap and under her
+chin, and a small lantern in her hands, on which she wore black mittens.
+I can see her now. We stood there on the path for a minute staring at
+each other without a word. The light from the lantern flickered over the
+revolver, and I saw Miss Bassett look down at it."
+
+He stopped, poured out a glass of water, and drank it off like a man who
+has been running.
+
+"Didn't she show surprise--fear?" I asked.
+
+"Not a bit. Women are so extraordinary, even old women who've never been
+in touch with life, that I'm certain now she understood directly her
+eyes fell on the revolver."
+
+"What did she do?"
+
+"After a minute she said: 'Lord Inley, I'm looking for my cat. Have you
+seen him?'
+
+"'Yes,' I said; 'he's run into the house.'
+
+"It was a lie, but I wanted her to go in. I had slipped the revolver
+back into my pocket, and tried to assume a perfectly simple, natural
+air. I fancied it would be very easy to impose on Miss Bassett when I
+heard her question. It sounded so innocent, as if the old lady was full
+of her pet. I even thought, perhaps, she had not known what the revolver
+was when she looked at it.
+
+"'Did he run into the house?' she said, still looking at me from under
+her wrinkled eyelids.
+
+"'Yes; when you came out. He was here on the path with me. You called
+"Johnny!" and he ran off there between the mulberry-trees.'
+
+"All the time I was speaking to her I had an eye to the road, and my
+ears were listening like an Indian's when he puts his head to the ground
+to hear the pad of his enemy.
+
+"Miss Bassett stood there quietly for a moment as if she were
+considering something. She looked prim. I remember that even now--prim
+as a caricature. It was only a moment, but it seemed to me an hour. 'If
+they should come,' I thought, 'while she is out here!' The sweat came
+out all over my face with impatience--an agony of impatience. I longed
+to take the old lady by the shoulders, push her into the cottage, lock
+her in, and be alone, able to watch the bit of road from the Abbey gates
+to the wicket. But I could do nothing. I was obliged to repress every
+sign of agitation. It was devilish."
+
+He got up with a sudden jerk from his chair, and stood by the fire. Even
+the telling of that moment had set beads of moisture on his square, low
+forehead.
+
+"At last she spoke again.
+
+"'I wonder if you'd mind coming in for a minute to help me see if Johnny
+really is in the house?' she said.
+
+"I don't know what I should have done--refused, I believe, refused her
+with an oath, for I began to feel mad; but just at that instant up came
+the cat once more, purring like fury, and lifting up his tail. He made
+straight for me, and began to rub himself against my legs again.
+
+"'Oh!' said Miss Bassett, 'there he is! Naughty Johnny, naughty boy!
+Lord Inley, perhaps you'd be so good as just to lif t him up and put him
+inside the door for me. I always have such a job to get him to come
+in of a night. He likes hunting in the woods. Doesn't he, the naughty
+Johnny?'
+
+"'Now's my chance to get rid of her!' I thought.
+
+"I bent down, picked the cat up, and went along the path towards the
+cottage, Miss Bassett following close behind me. The cat was an immense
+beast, awfully heavy, and just as I turned out of the yew path to go up
+to the cottage door he began struggling to get away, and scratching.
+I held on to him, but it wasn't easy, and I got my hand torn before
+I dropped him down inside the little hall. Away he ran, towards the
+kitchen, I suppose. Miss Bassett was very grateful, but I cut her
+gratitude short.
+
+"'Very glad to have been able to help you,' I said. 'Good-night.'
+
+"'Good-night, Lord Inley,' she said.
+
+"I thought her voice sounded a little bit odd when she said that, and
+I just glanced at her funny old face, lit up by the lantern she was
+holding in one mittened hand. She didn't look at me this time as she had
+in the garden. Then I went out, and she immediately shut the door.
+
+"'Thank God!' I thought, and I hurried to the wicket. I didn't dare stay
+in the garden now. Seeing her had made me realise my blackguardism in
+coming in at all, considering my reason. I resolved to hide in the field
+at the corner where the road turns off to Charfield. As I opened the
+wicket, instinctively I put my hand into my pocket for my revolver."
+
+He bent down, looking full into my eyes.
+
+"It wasn't there."
+
+"Miss Bassett!" I exclaimed.
+
+"In a moment I realised that Miss Bassett must have grasped the
+situation; that her asking me to carry in her cat was a ruse, and that
+while the beast was struggling between my hands she must have stolen
+the revolver from behind. I say I knew that, and yet even then, when I
+thought of her look, her manner, the sort of nervous old thing she was,
+I couldn't believe what I knew. Then I remembered her voice when she
+said 'Good-night' to me in the passage, her eyes looking down instead of
+at me, and that she was only holding the lantern in one hand, whereas
+in the garden she was using two. She must have had the revolver in
+her other hand concealed in the folds of her dress. I ran back to the
+cottage door, and knocked--hard. Not that I thought she'd open. I knew
+she wouldn't, but she did directly. I could hardly speak. I was afraid
+of myself just then. At last I said:
+
+"'Miss Bassett, you know what I want.'
+
+"'You can't have it,' she said, looking straight at me.
+
+"I kept quiet for a second, then I said:
+
+"'Miss Bassett, I don't think you know that you're running into danger.'
+For I felt that there was danger for her then if she went against me.
+She knew it, too, perhaps better than I did. I saw her poor old hands,
+all blue veins, beginning to tremble.
+
+"'You can't have it, Lord Inley,' she repeated.
+
+"There wasn't the ghost of a quiver in her voice.
+
+"'I must, I will!' I said, and I made a movement towards her--a violent
+movement I know it was.
+
+"But the old thing stood her ground. Oh, she was a gallant old woman.
+
+"'Do what you like to me,' she said. 'I'm old. What does it matter?
+She's young.'
+
+"Then I knew she understood.
+
+"'You've seen them together!' I said. 'Since I went!'
+
+"She wouldn't say. Not a word. I was mad. I forgot decency, everything.
+I took her. I searched her for the revolver. I searched her roughly--God
+forgive me. She trembled horribly, but never said a word. It wasn't on
+her. She must have hidden it somewhere in that moment when she was alone
+in the cottage. That was another ruse to keep me searching in there
+while-- But I saw it almost directly. I broke away, and rushed out and
+down the road. Something seemed to tell me they had passed. I got into
+the lane that leads to Charfield. The fly was gone. Then, all of a
+sudden, I felt perfectly calm. I turned, and went up to the Abbey gates.
+I knocked them up at the lodge. The keeper came out. When he saw me he
+said:
+
+"'You, my lord! However did you know?'
+
+"'Go on!' I said. 'Know what?'
+
+"'About Master Hugo?'
+
+"I didn't say one way or the other.
+
+"'The doctor says it's a bitter bad quinsy, but there's just a chance.
+Her ladyship's nearly mad. It only came on a few hours ago quite
+sudden.'
+
+"I went up to the Abbey, and found Vere by the child's bed. She looked
+flushed, and was breathing hard, as if she had just been running."
+
+He stopped, and took out his cigar-case.
+
+"Running!" I said.
+
+"She had parted finally from Glynd in front of Miss Bassett's cottage,"
+he said. "He told me that afterwards."
+
+There was a moment's silence. Then he spoke more calmly.
+
+"I went up to town when the child was safe, and had it out with Glynd.
+They had meant to go that night. It was the boy who stopped them and
+they took it as a judgment. You know how women are. Glynd swore she was
+stopped in time. You understand?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He didn't lie to me."
+
+"And your wife?"
+
+"I never spoke of it to her. I saw her with the boy, and--well, I saw
+her with the boy, and what she was to him when he was close to death."
+
+His voice went for a moment. Then he added:
+
+"I told her I'd had a presentiment Hugo was ill. She believed me, I
+think. If not, she's kept her secret."
+
+Just then the dining-room door opened, and Lady Inley put in her pretty
+head.
+
+"Are you never coming?" she said with her little childish drawl.
+
+I got up, and went towards her.
+
+"By the way, Nino," she added, "the bell was for poor, funny old Miss
+Bassett. What will her cat do, I wonder?"
+
+As I followed her towards the drawing-room I heard Inley's voice mutter
+behind me:
+
+"_Requiescat in Pace_."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spinster, by Robert Hichens
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #23410 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23410)
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
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+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The Spinster, by Robert Hichens
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
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+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
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+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
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+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spinster, by Robert Hichens
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Spinster
+       1905
+
+Author: Robert Hichens
+
+Release Date: November 8, 2007 [EBook #23410]
+Last Updated: September 24, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPINSTER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      THE SPINSTER
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      By Robert Hichens
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      Copyright, 1905
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had arrived at Inley Abbey that afternoon, and was sitting at dinner
+      with Inley and his pretty wife, whom I had not seen for five years, since
+      the day I was his best man, when we all heard faintly the tolling of a
+      church bell. Lady Inley shook her shoulders in a rather exaggerated
+      shudder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Someone dead!&rdquo; said her husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a mistake to build a church in the grounds of a house,&rdquo; Lady Inley
+      said in her clear, drawling soprano voice. &ldquo;That noise gives me the
+      blues.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whom can it be for?&rdquo; asked Inley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Bassett, probably,&rdquo; Lady Inley replied carelessly, helping herself
+      to a bonbon from a little silver dish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Inley started.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Sarah Bassett! What makes you think so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, while you were away in town she got ill. Didn&rsquo;t you know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Inley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I could see that he was moved. His dark, short face had changed suddenly,
+      and he stopped eating his fruit. Lady Inley went on crunching the bonbon
+      between her little white teeth with all the enjoyment of a pretty
+      marmoset.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Influenza,&rdquo; she said airily. &ldquo;And then pneumonia. Of course, at her age,
+      you know&mdash;&mdash; By the way, what is her age, Nino?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No idea,&rdquo; said Inley shortly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was listening to the dim and monotonous sound of the church bell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lady Inley turned to me with the childish, confidential movement which men
+      considered one of her many charms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Bassett is, or was, one of those funny old spinsters who always look
+      the same and always ridiculous. Dry twigs, you know. One size all the way
+      down. Very little hair, and no emotions. If it weren&rsquo;t for the sake of
+      cats, one would wonder why such people are born. But they&rsquo;re always
+      cat-lovers. I suppose that&rsquo;s why they&rsquo;re so often called old cats.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She uttered a little high-pitched laugh, and got up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be too long,&rdquo; she said to me carelessly as I opened the dining-room
+      door for her. &ldquo;I want to sing &lsquo;Ohé Charmette&rsquo; to you.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t be long,&rdquo; I answered, thinking what exquisite eyes she had.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned, and went out in her delicious, thin way. No wonder she had
+      made skeletons the rage in London. When I came back to the dinner-table
+      Inley was sitting with both his brown hands clenched on the cloth. His
+      black eyes&mdash;inherited from his dead mother, who had been one of the
+      Neapolitan aristocracy&mdash;were glittering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it, Nino?&rdquo; I asked as I sat down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We had been such intimate friends that even my five years&rsquo; absence abroad
+      had not built up a barrier between us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder if it is Miss Bassett?&rdquo; he said, looking at me earnestly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But was she a great friend of yours?&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;If Lady Inley&rsquo;s
+      description of her is accurate, I can hardly imagine so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vere doesn&rsquo;t know what she&rsquo;s saying.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then Miss Bassett&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, she does look like that; dried up, unemotional, tame, English, even
+      comic.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The regular spinster, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She looks it. But, damn it all, Vere has no business to say she has no
+      emotions, to wonder why such people are born. But she doesn&rsquo;t know&mdash;Vere
+      doesn&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His agitation grew, and was inexplicable to me. But I knew Inley, knew
+      that he was bound to tell me what was on his mind. He could be reserved,
+      but not with me. So I took a cigar, cut the end off it deliberately,
+      struck a match, lighted it, and began to smoke in silence. He followed my
+      example quickly, and then said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Vere talks like that, and, but for Miss Bassett, Vere would have been
+      murdered two years ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I started, and dropped my cigar on the table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Murdered!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; and I&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He fixed his eyes on me, and put his hand up to his throat. Nino was half
+      Neapolitan, and I saw a man being hanged. I picked up my cigar with a hand
+      that slightly shook.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;I always thought Lady Inley and you were very happy
+      together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It sounded banal, even ridiculous, but I hardly knew what to say. I was
+      startled. The tolling of the bell, too, was getting on my nerves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One doesn&rsquo;t write such things,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve been abroad for years.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all right now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose so. Vere has never had the least suspicion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He drew his chair closer to mine, and was about to go on speaking when the
+      servants came in with the coffee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who&rsquo;s the bell tolling for, Hurst?&rdquo; he said to the butler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t say, my lord.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      When the servants had gone Inley continued, at first in a calmer voice:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Bassett lived in the red cottage just beyond the gate of the South
+      Lodge from time immemorial. You generally came to us in Scotland, I know,
+      but I should think you must have seen her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly a recollection flashed upon me&mdash;a recollection of a long,
+      flat figure, a drab face, thin hair coming away from a wrinkled forehead
+      under a mushroom hat, flapping, old-fashioned golden earrings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not the person I used to call &lsquo;the Plank&rsquo;?&rdquo; I said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He thought for a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; I believe you did-. I&rsquo;d forgotten.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She was always in church twenty minutes before the service began, and
+      always dropped her hymn-book coming out if there were visitors in the
+      Abbey pew!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes; that&rsquo;s it. Miss Bassett is very nervous in little ways.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember her now perfectly. And you say she&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I looked at him, and hesitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She saved Vere&rsquo;s life and, indirectly, mine. I&rsquo;ll tell you now we&rsquo;re
+      together again at last. I shall never tell Vere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked towards the windows, across which dark blue silk curtains were
+      drawn, as if he could see the passing-bell swinging in the old square
+      tower. Then he turned to me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know how mad I was about Vere. It&rsquo;s always like that with me. Unless
+      I&rsquo;m stone I&rsquo;m fire. After we were married I got even madder. Having her
+      all to myself was like enchantment, and in Italy, too, my other native
+      land.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I thought of Lady Inley&rsquo;s eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can understand,&rdquo; I said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course, when we got back it had to be different. Friends came in, and
+      she was run after and admired and written about. You know the publicity of
+      life in modern London.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;City of public-houses and society spies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I bore it, because it&rsquo;s supposed to be the thing. And Vere rather likes
+      it, somehow. So I let her have her fun, as long as it was fun. I didn&rsquo;t
+      intend it should ever be anything else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He frowned. When he did that, and his thick eyebrows nearly met, he looked
+      all Italian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We did the usual things&mdash;Paris, Ascot, Scotland, and so on&mdash;till
+      Vere had to lie up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your boy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; Hugo came along. I was glad when that was over. I thought she was
+      going to die. You knew Seymour Glynd?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Life Guards? Killed hunting a year ago?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Inley nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was a great deal with us soon after Hugo&rsquo;s birth. I thought nothing of
+      it. I&rsquo;d known the fellow all my life. But then one nearly always has.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He laughed bitterly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To cut that part short, two years ago in autumn we had Glynd staying with
+      us down here for shooting. There were some others, of course&mdash;Mrs.
+      Jack, Bobbie Elphinton, and Lady Bobbie&mdash;but you know the lot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you&rsquo;ve been well out of it these years. Well, the shoot
+      was to break up on a Friday, and I&rsquo;d arranged to go to town that day with
+      the rest. Vere didn&rsquo;t intend to come. She said she was feeling tired, and
+      was going to have a Friday to Monday rest cure. That&rsquo;s the thing, you
+      know, nowadays. You get a Swedish <i>masseuse</i> down to stay, and go to
+      bed and drink milk. Vere had engaged a <i>masseuse</i> to come on the
+      Friday night. On the Thursday, the day before we were all going to town,
+      Glynd hurt his foot getting over a fence into a turnip field&mdash;at
+      least I thought so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everyone thought so, I believe&mdash;except, of course, Vere. I wonder if
+      they did, though?&rdquo; he added moodily. &ldquo;Or whether I was the only&mdash;But
+      what does it matter now? Glynd said he only wanted a couple of days&rsquo; rest
+      to be all right again, and asked me if he might stay on at the Abbey till
+      the Monday. Of course I said &lsquo;Yes; if he wouldn&rsquo;t want a hostess.&rsquo; Because
+      Vere said to me, when she heard of it, that she must have her rest cure
+      all the same. Glynd swore he&rsquo;d be quite happy alone. So he stayed, and the
+      rest of us came up to town on the Friday. Well, on the Saturday morning I
+      was walking across the park when I met the Swedish <i>massense</i> who was
+      to have gone down to Vere on the Friday night. I knew her, because Vere
+      had often had her before in London. &lsquo;Hullo!&rsquo; I said. &lsquo;You ought to be down
+      at Inley Abbey with my wife.&rsquo; &lsquo;No, my lord,&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;Why not?&rsquo; &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve
+      had a wire from Lady Inley not to go.&rsquo; &lsquo;A wire!&rsquo; I said. &lsquo;When did you get
+      it?&rsquo; &lsquo;On Thursday night, my lord.&rsquo; You mean last night?&rsquo; I said, thinking
+      Vere must have changed her mind after we had left. &lsquo;No,&rsquo; said the woman;
+      &lsquo;on Thursday night, late.&rsquo; Then I remembered that, after Glynd had hurt
+      his foot and asked to stay, Vere had gone out alone for a drive in her
+      cart, to get a last breath of air before the rest cure. She must have sent
+      the telegram herself then. All of a sudden I seemed to understand a lot of
+      things.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had let his cigar out, and now he noticed that he had. He tossed it
+      into the fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I said, &lsquo;Good-morning&rsquo; to the woman quite quietly, went back to the
+      house, and told my man I shouldn&rsquo;t be at home that night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He put his hand on my arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I felt perfectly calm. Wasn&rsquo;t that strange?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I nodded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was a train from town reaching Ashdridge Station at nine o&rsquo;clock at
+      night. I took it. I didn&rsquo;t care to go to Inley Station, where everybody
+      would know me, and wonder what I was up to. I didn&rsquo;t take any luggage. My
+      man asked if he should pack, and I said &lsquo;No.&rsquo; I didn&rsquo;t dine. I was at
+      Pad-dington three-quarters of an hour before the train was due to start.
+      At last it came in to the platform. Going down I read the evening papers
+      just like any man going home from business. Soon after we got away from
+      London I saw there was rain on the carriage windows. That seemed to me
+      right. We were a little late at Ashdridge. It was still wet, and I had my
+      coat collar turned up. I don&rsquo;t believe they recognised me there. I set out
+      to walk to Inley.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did you mean to do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I told you before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I looked into his face, and believed him. Then I thought of Lady Inley&rsquo;s
+      childish, delicate beauty, of her slightly affected manner, the manner of
+      a woman who has always been spoilt, whose paths have been made very
+      smooth. And here she was living, apparently happily, with a man who had
+      deliberately travelled down in the night to kill her. How ignorant we are!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are condemning me,&rdquo; Inley said, with a touch of hot anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was only thinking&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That we don&rsquo;t know each other much in the greatest intimacy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I thought then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He said that in a way which suddenly put me on his side. He must have seen
+      the change in my feelings, for he went on, with his former unreserve:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I walked fast in the dark. I didn&rsquo;t think very much, but I remember that
+      all the trees&mdash;there&rsquo;s a lot of woodland, you know, between Ashdridge
+      and Inley&mdash;seemed alive. Everything seemed to me to be alive that
+      night. I&rsquo;ve never had that sensation before or since.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I realised what the condition of the man had been when he said that, as if
+      I were a doctor and a patient had told me the symptom which put me in
+      possession of his malady.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I reached Inley it was late, and the long village street was
+      deserted. There were lights in the inn and in the schoolmaster&rsquo;s house,
+      but there were no people about. I got through without meeting a soul, and
+      came on towards the gates of the Abbey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You meant to go into the house?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. I was sure&mdash;somehow I was sure; but I intended to see before I
+      acted, merely for my own justification. But I was quite sure, as if Vere
+      herself had told me everything. Soon after I had got clear of the village
+      I heard a sound of wheels behind me. I stood up against the hedge, and in
+      a minute or two a fly passed me going slowly. I saw the driver&rsquo;s face. It
+      wasn&rsquo;t a man from Inley. Evidently the fly had come from a distance. It
+      was splashed with mud, and the horse looked tired. I followed it till it
+      came to the turning just below Miss Bassett&rsquo;s cottage, where there&rsquo;s a
+      narrow lane going to Charfield through the woods. It went a little way
+      down this lane, and stopped. I waited at the turning. I could see the
+      light from the lamps shining on the wet road, and in the circle of light
+      the driver&rsquo;s breath. He bent down, and I saw him looking at a big silver
+      watch. Then he put it back. But he didn&rsquo;t drive on. I knew what he was
+      waiting for. Vere was going with&mdash;with Glynd. That was more than I
+      had ever thought of, that she would go. I put my hand into my pocket, took
+      out my revolver, and went on till I was close to the red cottage. By this
+      time the rain had stopped. I came up to within a few yards of the Abbey
+      gates, stood for a moment, and then returned till I was at the wicket of
+      Miss Bassett&rsquo;s garden. It&rsquo;s bounded by a yew hedge, beyond which there is
+      a path shaded by mulberry-trees. The hedge is low. The path is dark. It
+      was a blackguardly thing to do, but I thought of nothing except myself, my
+      wrong, and how I was to wipe it out. I opened the wicket, came into the
+      path, and stood there under the mulberry-trees behind the hedge. Here I
+      was in cover, and could see the road. I held my revolver in my hand, and
+      waited. It never struck me that Miss Bassett might be up. I saw no light
+      in the cottage, and I had a sort of idea that people like her went to bed
+      at about eight. While I was standing there listening I felt something rub
+      against my legs. It made me start. Then I heard a little low noise. I
+      looked down, and there was a great cat holding up its tail and purring.
+      Its pleasure was horrible to me. I pushed it away with my foot, but it
+      came back, bending down its head, arching its back, and pressing against
+      me. I was thinking what to do to get rid of it when I heard a shrill,
+      husky voice call out:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Johnny&mdash;John-nee!&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was Miss Bassett. I held my breath, and pushed away the cat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Johnny, Johnny&mdash;John-nee!&rsquo; went the voice again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The cat wouldn&rsquo;t leave me. God knows why it wished to stay. I was
+      determined to get rid of it, so I put the revolver down on the path,
+      picked the cat up in my arms, and dropped it over the hedge into the road.
+      Just as I had caught up the revolver again I was confronted by Miss
+      Bassett. She had come in slippers up the path in the dark to look for her
+      cat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I uttered a slight exclamation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Inley went on: &ldquo;She had a handkerchief tied over her cap and under her
+      chin, and a small lantern in her hands, on which she wore black mittens. I
+      can see her now. We stood there on the path for a minute staring at each
+      other without a word. The light from the lantern flickered over the
+      revolver, and I saw Miss Bassett look down at it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped, poured out a glass of water, and drank it off like a man who
+      has been running.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Didn&rsquo;t she show surprise&mdash;fear?&rdquo; I asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not a bit. Women are so extraordinary, even old women who&rsquo;ve never been
+      in touch with life, that I&rsquo;m certain now she understood directly her eyes
+      fell on the revolver.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did she do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After a minute she said: &lsquo;Lord Inley, I&rsquo;m looking for my cat. Have you
+      seen him?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Yes,&rsquo; I said; &lsquo;he&rsquo;s run into the house.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was a lie, but I wanted her to go in. I had slipped the revolver back
+      into my pocket, and tried to assume a perfectly simple, natural air. I
+      fancied it would be very easy to impose on Miss Bassett when I heard her
+      question. It sounded so innocent, as if the old lady was full of her pet.
+      I even thought, perhaps, she had not known what the revolver was when she
+      looked at it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Did he run into the house?&rsquo; she said, still looking at me from under her
+      wrinkled eyelids.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Yes; when you came out. He was here on the path with me. You called
+      &ldquo;Johnny!&rdquo; and he ran off there between the mulberry-trees.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All the time I was speaking to her I had an eye to the road, and my ears
+      were listening like an Indian&rsquo;s when he puts his head to the ground to
+      hear the pad of his enemy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Bassett stood there quietly for a moment as if she were considering
+      something. She looked prim. I remember that even now&mdash;prim as a
+      caricature. It was only a moment, but it seemed to me an hour. &lsquo;If they
+      should come,&rsquo; I thought, &lsquo;while she is out here!&rsquo; The sweat came out all
+      over my face with impatience&mdash;an agony of impatience. I longed to
+      take the old lady by the shoulders, push her into the cottage, lock her
+      in, and be alone, able to watch the bit of road from the Abbey gates to
+      the wicket. But I could do nothing. I was obliged to repress every sign of
+      agitation. It was devilish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He got up with a sudden jerk from his chair, and stood by the fire. Even
+      the telling of that moment had set beads of moisture on his square, low
+      forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At last she spoke again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;I wonder if you&rsquo;d mind coming in for a minute to help me see if Johnny
+      really is in the house?&rsquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what I should have done&mdash;refused, I believe, refused
+      her with an oath, for I began to feel mad; but just at that instant up
+      came the cat once more, purring like fury, and lifting up his tail. He
+      made straight for me, and began to rub himself against my legs again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Oh!&rsquo; said Miss Bassett, &lsquo;there he is! Naughty Johnny, naughty boy! Lord
+      Inley, perhaps you&rsquo;d be so good as just to lif t him up and put him inside
+      the door for me. I always have such a job to get him to come in of a
+      night. He likes hunting in the woods. Doesn&rsquo;t he, the naughty Johnny?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Now&rsquo;s my chance to get rid of her!&rsquo; I thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I bent down, picked the cat up, and went along the path towards the
+      cottage, Miss Bassett following close behind me. The cat was an immense
+      beast, awfully heavy, and just as I turned out of the yew path to go up to
+      the cottage door he began struggling to get away, and scratching. I held
+      on to him, but it wasn&rsquo;t easy, and I got my hand torn before I dropped him
+      down inside the little hall. Away he ran, towards the kitchen, I suppose.
+      Miss Bassett was very grateful, but I cut her gratitude short.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Very glad to have been able to help you,&rsquo; I said. &lsquo;Good-night.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Good-night, Lord Inley,&rsquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought her voice sounded a little bit odd when she said that, and I
+      just glanced at her funny old face, lit up by the lantern she was holding
+      in one mittened hand. She didn&rsquo;t look at me this time as she had in the
+      garden. Then I went out, and she immediately shut the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Thank God!&rsquo; I thought, and I hurried to the wicket. I didn&rsquo;t dare stay
+      in the garden now. Seeing her had made me realise my blackguardism in
+      coming in at all, considering my reason. I resolved to hide in the field
+      at the corner where the road turns off to Charfield. As I opened the
+      wicket, instinctively I put my hand into my pocket for my revolver.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He bent down, looking full into my eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Miss Bassett!&rdquo; I exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In a moment I realised that Miss Bassett must have grasped the situation;
+      that her asking me to carry in her cat was a ruse, and that while the
+      beast was struggling between my hands she must have stolen the revolver
+      from behind. I say I knew that, and yet even then, when I thought of her
+      look, her manner, the sort of nervous old thing she was, I couldn&rsquo;t
+      believe what I knew. Then I remembered her voice when she said
+      &lsquo;Good-night&rsquo; to me in the passage, her eyes looking down instead of at me,
+      and that she was only holding the lantern in one hand, whereas in the
+      garden she was using two. She must have had the revolver in her other hand
+      concealed in the folds of her dress. I ran back to the cottage door, and
+      knocked&mdash;hard. Not that I thought she&rsquo;d open. I knew she wouldn&rsquo;t,
+      but she did directly. I could hardly speak. I was afraid of myself just
+      then. At last I said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Miss Bassett, you know what I want.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;You can&rsquo;t have it,&rsquo; she said, looking straight at me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I kept quiet for a second, then I said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Miss Bassett, I don&rsquo;t think you know that you&rsquo;re running into danger.&rsquo; 
+      For I felt that there was danger for her then if she went against me. She
+      knew it, too, perhaps better than I did. I saw her poor old hands, all
+      blue veins, beginning to tremble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;You can&rsquo;t have it, Lord Inley,&rsquo; she repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There wasn&rsquo;t the ghost of a quiver in her voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;I must, I will!&rsquo; I said, and I made a movement towards her&mdash;a
+      violent movement I know it was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the old thing stood her ground. Oh, she was a gallant old woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Do what you like to me,&rsquo; she said. &lsquo;I&rsquo;m old. What does it matter? She&rsquo;s
+      young.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I knew she understood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;You&rsquo;ve seen them together!&rsquo; I said. &lsquo;Since I went!&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She wouldn&rsquo;t say. Not a word. I was mad. I forgot decency, everything. I
+      took her. I searched her for the revolver. I searched her roughly&mdash;God
+      forgive me. She trembled horribly, but never said a word. It wasn&rsquo;t on
+      her. She must have hidden it somewhere in that moment when she was alone
+      in the cottage. That was another ruse to keep me searching in there while&mdash;
+      But I saw it almost directly. I broke away, and rushed out and down the
+      road. Something seemed to tell me they had passed. I got into the lane
+      that leads to Charfield. The fly was gone. Then, all of a sudden, I felt
+      perfectly calm. I turned, and went up to the Abbey gates. I knocked them
+      up at the lodge. The keeper came out. When he saw me he said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;You, my lord! However did you know?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Go on!&rsquo; I said. &lsquo;Know what?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;About Master Hugo?&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t say one way or the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;The doctor says it&rsquo;s a bitter bad quinsy, but there&rsquo;s just a chance. Her
+      ladyship&rsquo;s nearly mad. It only came on a few hours ago quite sudden.&rsquo; 
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I went up to the Abbey, and found Vere by the child&rsquo;s bed. She looked
+      flushed, and was breathing hard, as if she had just been running.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped, and took out his cigar-case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Running!&rdquo; I said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She had parted finally from Glynd in front of Miss Bassett&rsquo;s cottage,&rdquo; he
+      said. &ldquo;He told me that afterwards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a moment&rsquo;s silence. Then he spoke more calmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I went up to town when the child was safe, and had it out with Glynd.
+      They had meant to go that night. It was the boy who stopped them and they
+      took it as a judgment. You know how women are. Glynd swore she was stopped
+      in time. You understand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t lie to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And your wife?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never spoke of it to her. I saw her with the boy, and&mdash;well, I saw
+      her with the boy, and what she was to him when he was close to death.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His voice went for a moment. Then he added:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I told her I&rsquo;d had a presentiment Hugo was ill. She believed me, I think.
+      If not, she&rsquo;s kept her secret.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then the dining-room door opened, and Lady Inley put in her pretty
+      head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you never coming?&rdquo; she said with her little childish drawl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I got up, and went towards her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the way, Nino,&rdquo; she added, &ldquo;the bell was for poor, funny old Miss
+      Bassett. What will her cat do, I wonder?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As I followed her towards the drawing-room I heard Inley&rsquo;s voice mutter
+      behind me:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Requiescat in Pace</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>