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Updated: June 19, 2025
She heard a loud snort of shattering contempt from Louisa; and then a strange and terrific silence fell on the stairs. There was no sound even of a movement. The Watchetts did not stir; the cook did not stir; Sarah Gailey did not stir; Louisa's fury was sated. The empty landing lay, as it were, expectant at Hilda's door.
Although single-fronted, it was deep, and there were two bedrooms on the first floor, and four each two large and two small on the second and third. Eleven in all, they had seen, of which three were occupied by the Watchetts, and one, temporarily, by George Cannon. The rest were empty; but the season had scarcely begun, and the Boutwoods were coming.
"Come along with that tea, Louisa," he added pleasantly. He went first, Sarah next, and Hilda last, cautiously down a short, dark flight of stone steps beneath the stairs; the servant followed. At the foot a gas-jet burned. "Those Watchetts might be the landladies!" muttered Sarah, strangely ignoring the propinquity of the maid; and sniffed. Hilda gave a short, uneasy laugh.
George Cannon had said grandly that Hilda must choose her room; she chose the smallest on the top floor. The furniture, if shabby and old-fashioned, was everywhere ample. They descended, and not a word had been said about Sarah's room. On the first-floor landing, where indeed the danger was acutest, they were trapped by two of the Watchetts.
But sometimes, after benignantly speeding, for instance, one of the Watchetts on her morning constitutional, he would slip down into the basement and ejaculate, 'Cursed hag! with a calm and natural earnestness, which frightened Hilda, indicating as it did that he must be capable of astounding duplicities. He came, now, directly to the underground parlour, hat on head and ebony stick in hand.
Do come into the drawing-room, please! There's a beautiful view of the sea!" Sarah Gailey hesitated. A noise of bumping came from the hall below. "I think that's the luggage," she said. The smile with which she forced herself to respond to the fixed simper of the Watchetts seemed to cause her horrible torment. She motioned nervously to George Cannon, who was nearest the stairs.
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