These people must be humoured. When I came
down (accompanied by a heavy fall of soot) the lady had vanished. I rushed
into the hall. She was mounting the stairs.
"Where are you going now?" I demanded.
She leaned over the balustrade and nodded to me, yawning broadly: "To
Edward's room. He must have taken the corpse to bed with him."
"Stop! Hold on! Come back," I implored, panic-stricken. Miss Brown held
imperviously on. I sped after her, but mercifully she had got the rooms
mixed in her decomposed brain and, instead of turning into Edward's, walked
straight into her own and shut the door behind her. I wedged a chair
against the handle to prevent any further excursions for the night and
crept softly away.
As I went I heard a soft chuckle from within, the senseless laughter, as I
diagnosed it, of a raving maniac.
* * * * *
I got down to breakfast early next morning, determined to tell the whole
sad story and have Miss Brown put under restraint without further ado.
Before I could get a word out, however, the lunatic herself appeared,
looking, I thought, absolutely full of beans. She and Aunt Angela exchanged
salutations.
"I hope you slept better last night, Jane."
"Splendidly, thank you, Angela, except for an hour or so; but I got up and
walked it off."
"Walked it off! Where?"
"All over the house.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25