Detective and mystery stories; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction
But if this theory is true, how about the shelves that fell at daybreak,
and how about her escape from the house without detection? A little
thought will explain all that. The man, horrified, no doubt, at the
result of his imprudence, and execrating the crime to which it had led,
left the house almost immediately. But the woman remained there,
possibly because she had fainted, possibly because he would have nothing
to do with her; and coming to herself, saw her victim's face staring up
at her with an accusing beauty she found it impossible to meet. What
should she do to escape it? Where should she go? She hated it so she
could have trampled on it, but she restrained her passions till
daybreak, when in one wild burst of fury and hatred she drew down the
cabinet upon it, and then fled the scene of horror she had herself
caused. This was at five, or, to be exact, three minutes before that
hour, as shown by the clock she had carelessly set in her lighter
moments.
She escaped by the front door, which her husband had mercifully forborne
to lock; and she had not been discovered by the police, because her
appearance did not tally with the description which had been given them.
How did I know this? Remember the discoveries I had made in Miss Van
Burnam's room, and allow them to assist you in understanding my
conclusions.
Some one had gone into that room; some one who wanted pins; and keeping
this fact before my eyes, I saw through the motive and actions of the
escaping woman. She had on a dress separated at the waist, and finding,
perhaps, a spot of blood on the skirt, she conceived the plan of
covering it with her petticoat, which was also of silk and undoubtedly
as well made as many women's dresses. But the skirt of the gown was
longer than the petticoat and she was obliged to pin it up. Having no
pins herself, and finding none on the parlor floor, she went up-stairs
to get some. The door at the head of the stairs was locked, but the
front room was open, so she entered there. Groping her way to the
bureau, for the place was very dark, she found a pin-cushion hanging
from a bracket. Feeling it to be full of pins, and knowing that she
could see nothing where she was, she tore it away and carried it towards
the door. Here there was some light from the skylight over the stairs,
so setting the cushion down on the bed, she pinned up the skirt of her
gown.
When this was done she started away, brushing the cushion off the bed in
her excitement, and fearing to be traced by her many-colored hat, or
having no courage remaining for facing again the horror in the parlor,
she slid out without one and went, God knows whither, in her terror and
remorse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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