Produced by Suzanne Shell, Rachael Schultz and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) MAN AND MAID BY E. NESBIT [Illustration: Publisher's Logo] LONDON T. FISHER UNWIN ADELPHI TERRACE MCMVI [_All rights reserved._] TO ADA BREAKELL MY DEAREST AND OLDEST FRIEND MAN AND MAID By the same Author. _Illustrated. Crown 8vo. Cloth, 6s._ The Treasure Seekers. Five Children and It. Nine Unlikely Tales for Children. The Would-be-Goods. New Treasure Seekers. LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN CONTENTS PAGE I. THE HAUNTED INHERITANCE 1 II. THE POWER OF DARKNESS 32 III. THE STRANGER WHO MIGHT HAVE BEEN OBSERVED 60 IV. RACK AND THUMBSCREW 84 V. THE MILLIONAIRESS 103 VI. THE HERMIT OF "THE YEWS" 134 VII. THE AUNT AND THE EDITOR 158 VIII. MISS MOUSE 178 IX. THE OLD WIFE 201 X. THE HOUSE OF SILENCE 224 XI. THE GIRL AT THE TOBACCONIST'S 245 XII. WHILE IT IS YET DAY 268 XIII. ALCIBIADES 287 MAN AND MAID I THE HAUNTED INHERITANCE The most extraordinary thing that ever happened to me was my going back to town on that day. I am a reasonable being; I do not do such things. I was on a bicycling tour with another man. We were far from the mean cares of an unremunerative profession; we were men not fettered by any given address, any pledged date, any preconcerted route. I went to bed weary and cheerful, fell asleep a mere animal--a tired dog after a day's hunting--and awoke at four in the morning that creature of nerves and fancies which is my other self, and which has driven me to all the follies I have ever kept company with. But even that second self of mine, whining beast and traitor as it is, has never played me such a trick as it played then. Indeed, something in the result of that day's rash act sets me wondering whether after all it could have been I, or even my other self, who moved in the adventure; whether it was not rather some power outside both of us ... but this is a speculation as idle in me as uninteresting to you, and so enough of it.