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Updated: May 3, 2025
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.
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 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.
"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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
"'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.
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.
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