Lady's maids -- Fiction; Love stories; Wessex (England) -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
Joseph Chinney, porter at the Carriford Road Station, deposed that he
saw Mrs. Manston, dressed as the last witness had described, get out
of a second-class carriage on the night of the twenty-eighth. She stood
beside him whilst her luggage was taken from the van. The luggage,
consisting of the clamped deal box and another covered with canvas, was
placed in the cloak-room. She seemed at a loss at finding nobody there
to meet her. She asked him for some person to accompany her, and carry
her bag to Mr. Manston’s house, Knapwater Park. He was just off duty
at that time, and offered to go himself. The witness here repeated
the conversation he had had with Mrs. Manston during their walk, and
testified to having left her at the door of the Three Tranters Inn, Mr.
Manston’s house being closed.
Next, Farmer Springrove was called. A murmur of surprise and
commiseration passed round the crowded room when he stepped forward.
The events of the few preceding days had so worked upon his nervously
thoughtful nature that the blue orbits of his eyes, and the mere spot of
scarlet to which the ruddiness of his cheeks had contracted, seemed the
result of a heavy sickness. A perfect silence pervaded the assembly when
he spoke.
His statement was that he received Mrs. Manston at the threshold, and
asked her to enter the parlour. She would not do so, and stood in the
passage whilst the maid went upstairs to see that the room was in order.
The maid came down to the middle landing of the staircase, when Mrs.
Manston followed her up to the room. He did not speak ten words with her
altogether.
Afterwards, whilst he was standing at the door listening for his son
Edward’s return, he saw her light extinguished, having first caught
sight of her shadow moving about the room.
THE CORONER: ‘Did her shadow appear to be that of a woman undressing?’
SPRINGROVE: ‘I cannot say, as I didn’t take particular notice. It moved
backwards and forwards; she might have been undressing or merely pacing
up and down the room.’
Mrs. Fitler, the ostler’s wife and chambermaid, said that she preceded
Mrs. Manston into the room, put down the candle, and went out. Mrs.
Manston scarcely spoke to her, except to ask her to bring a little
brandy. Witness went and fetched it from the bar, brought it up, and put
it on the dressing-table.
THE CORONER: ‘Had Mrs. Manston begun to undress, when you came back?’
‘No, sir; she was sitting on the bed, with everything on, as when she
came in.’
‘Did she begin to undress before you left?’
‘Not exactly before I had left; but when I had closed the door, and was
on the landing I heard her boot drop on the floor, as it does sometimes
when pulled off?’
‘Had her face appeared worn and sleepy?’
‘I cannot say as her bonnet and veil were still on when I left, for she
seemed rather shy and ashamed to be seen at the Three Tranters at all.’
‘And did you hear or see any more of her?’
‘No more, sir.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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