The policeman went in--Mr. Cottrell went in also, with his
assistance; he saw their boxes packed. It was a process in which
the packers fared badly, the butler in particular. Each servant
in the house, almost without exception, was shown to be in
possession of property which was indisputably Mrs. Lamb's. Their
mistress' attitude was one of magnanimity. She declined to
prefer a charge against them, at any rate just then, whatever
she might do later. Though, of course, under the circumstances,
to pay them anything in the shape of wages was altogether out of
the question. All she wanted to do was to see their backs. And
she saw them. A shamefaced, miserable, draggle-tailed crew they
looked, as, one after the other, under the policeman's cold
official glance, they took their boxes out into the street. Then
Mrs. Lamb presented that zealous young officer with a sovereign.
He made short work of clearing the debris away from the front.
So Mrs. Lamb was left alone in that great mansion without a
servant to wait on her of any sort or kind.
She went into the boudoir; that and her bedroom, and indeed the
whole house, was exactly in the same condition in which she had
found it in the morning. It seemed as if no one had moved a
finger to put anything in order. Removing her hat, she sat down
and tried to think. The result was a failure. Her thoughts would
not travel on the lines she wished; they would launch out in
undesirable directions. She had scarcely been there a minute
before she began to become conscious of an unpleasant feeling
that she was not alone, when, all the time, she knew she was. An
odd, morbid obsession began to overpower her, as, directly she
was alone, it had shown an uncomfortable aptitude to do of late.
Putting her hands up to her eyes she rubbed them with her palms,
as if she were endeavouring to rub something away from them.
Then, removing her hands again, she looked about her, queerly.
"Of course it's ridiculous, and I suppose the real explanation
is that I'm not so well as I ought to be; but it's funny how I'm
always seeming to be back in his room, and how plainly I can see
it all; and the bed--the bed." There was a rigid expression on
her face which it was not agreeable to observe, as she herself
seemed to understand. Standing up she gave herself a little
shake, as if she were trying to shake something from off her.
"This won't do--it won't do. It's not healthy. And yet there's
something which I ought to look at--to see; to understand. It's
something in the room. It's not the bed--not only the bed; it's
something else. I wish I could think what it was; I wish I could
understand; then perhaps it might go."
The overturned decanter which had been on the buhl table in the
morning was still there. She picked it up, holding it up to the
light. It was empty. She went to what seemed to be a buhl
liqueur case which stood on the floor in a corner. It was
locked. She went to her bedroom to look for the key. It was not
in its usual place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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