Patience Sparhawk and Her Times: A NovelAtherton, Gertrude Franklin Horn
General
Patience Sparhawk and Her Times: A Novel
Atherton, Gertrude Franklin Horn
American fiction -- 19th century
She opened the “Eye” and glanced at the headlines of the first page. In
the place of honour, the extreme left hand column, she found her story:
WAS IT MURDER?
AN OLD MANOR HOUSE IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY MAY
HAVE BEEN THE THEATRE OF A GREAT CRIME!
A YOUNG WIFE SUSPECTED OF THE FOUL DEED!
Patience read ten lines. Then she stumbled to her feet, spilling the
papers to the floor. Her skin felt cold and wet, her knees trembled, her
hands moved spasmodically. Something within her seemed disintegrating.
She got to the door and up to her room. Aside from the horror which sat
in each nerve centre and jabbered, she was conscious of but one idea:
she must fly. She flung off her robe and put on the black frock she had
bought out of deference to the family’s grief. She scratched herself and
thrust the buttons into the wrong holes, but she could call no one to
her assistance. She was thankful it was so early; she could get away
without encountering any of the family. She was about to put on her
black bonnet when her muddled consciousness emitted another flash and
bade her disguise herself; detectives would have orders to search for a
woman in weeds. She tore off the mourning frock, dropping it to the
floor, and got herself into a grey one, then pinned on a grey hat
trimmed with pink flowers. She thrust a few things into a bag, and ran
down the stair. She reached the station in time to flag the 8.30 train
for New York. Some one else boarded the same train, but she did not see
him.
Having accomplished her flight, her thoughts travelled to the objective
point. Inevitably her woman’s instinct turned to the man whose duty it
was to protect her. She convinced herself femininely that if she could
reach him all would be well; he not only loved her, but he was so
amazingly clever.
At the station in New York she walked deliberately to a cab and gave the
man Morgan Steele’s address. She looked neither to the right nor to the
left, consequently did not see that the man who had boarded the train at
Peele Manor stood at her elbow when she gave the order, and followed her
immediately.
When the cab reached the house in which Morgan Steele lived, she
dismissed it and ran up the steps. She rang again and again, pacing the
narrow stoop in an agony of fear and impatience. At the end of ten
minutes an irritable half dressed Frenchman came shuffling down the
stairs. There were no curtains on the door, and the man’s expression
struck new terror to her heart.
“What is it?” he asked surlily, as he opened the door.
“I—I—must see Mr. Steele.”
“Mr. Steele is asleep. He does not receive visitors at this hour.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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