THE SPINSTER

By Robert Hichens

Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers

Copyright, 1905

I had arrived at Inley Abbey that afternoon, and was sitting at dinnerwith Inley and his pretty wife, whom I had not seen for five years, since the day I was his best man, when we all heard faintly the tollingof a church bell. Lady Inley shook her shoulders in a rather exaggeratedshudder. 

"Someone dead!" said her husband. 

"It's a mistake to build a church in the grounds of a house, " Lady Inleysaid in her clear, drawling soprano voice. "That noise gives me theblues. "

"Whom can it be for?" asked Inley. 

"Miss Bassett, probably, " Lady Inley replied carelessly, helping herselfto a bonbon from a little silver dish. 

Inley started. 

"Miss Sarah Bassett! What makes you think so?"

"Oh, while you were away in town she got ill. Didn't you know?"

"No, " said Inley. 

I could see that he was moved. His dark, short face had changedsuddenly, and he stopped eating his fruit. Lady Inley went on crunchingthe bonbon between her little white teeth with all the enjoyment of apretty marmoset. 

"Influenza, " she said airily. "And then pneumonia. Of course, at herage, you know---- By the way, what is her age, Nino?"

"No idea, " said Inley shortly. 

He was listening to the dim and monotonous sound of the church bell. 

Lady Inley turned to me with the childish, confidential movement whichmen considered one of her many charms. 

"Miss Bassett is, or was, one of those funny old spinsters who alwayslook the same and always ridiculous. Dry twigs, you know. One size allthe way down. Very little hair, and no emotions. If it weren't for thesake of cats, one would wonder why such people are born. But they'realways cat-lovers. I suppose that's why they're so often called oldcats. "

She uttered a little high-pitched laugh, and got up. 

"Don't be too long, " she said to me carelessly as I opened thedining-room door for her. "I want to sing 'Ohé Charmette' to you. 

"I won't be long, " I answered, thinking what exquisite eyes she had. 

She turned, and went out in her delicious, thin way. No wonder she hadmade skeletons the rage in London. When I came back to the dinner-tableInley was sitting with both his brown hands clenched on the cloth. Hisblack eyes--inherited from his dead mother, who had been one of theNeapolitan aristocracy--were glittering. 

"What is it, Nino?" I asked as I sat down. 

We had been such intimate friends that even my five years' absenceabroad had not built up a barrier between us. 

"I wonder if it is Miss Bassett?" he said, looking at me earnestly. 

"But was she a great friend of yours?" I said. "If Lady Inley'sdescription of her is accurate, I can hardly imagine so. "

"Vere doesn't know what she's saying. "

"Then Miss Bassett----"

"Oh, she does look like that; dried up, unemotional, tame, English, evencomic. "

"The regular spinster, eh?"

"She looks it. But, damn it all, Vere has no business to say she has noemotions, to wonder why such people are born. But she doesn't know--Veredoesn't know. "

His agitation grew, and was inexplicable to me. But I knew Inley, knewthat he was bound to tell me what was on his mind. He could be reserved, but not with me. So I took a cigar, cut the end off it deliberately, struck a match, lighted it, and began to smoke in silence. He followedmy example quickly, and then said:

"Vere talks like that, and, but for Miss Bassett, Vere would have beenmurdered two years ago. "

I started, and dropped my cigar on the table. 

"Murdered!"

"Yes; and I----"

He fixed his eyes on me, and put his hand up to his throat. Nino washalf Neapolitan, and I saw a man being hanged. I picked up my cigar witha hand that slightly shook. 

"But, " I said, "I always thought Lady Inley and you were very happytogether. "

It sounded banal, even ridiculous, but I hardly knew what to say. I wasstartled. The tolling of the bell, too, was getting on my nerves. 

"One doesn't write such things, " he said. "You've been abroad foryears. "

"It's all right now?"

He nodded. 

"I suppose so. Vere has never had the least suspicion. "

He drew his chair closer to mine, and was about to go on speaking whenthe servants came in with the coffee. 

"Who's the bell tolling for, Hurst?" he said to the butler. 

"I couldn't say, my lord. "

When the servants had gone Inley continued, at first in a calmer voice:

"Miss Bassett lived in the red cottage just beyond the gate of the SouthLodge from time immemorial. You generally came to us in Scotland, Iknow, but I should think you must have seen her. "

Suddenly a recollection flashed upon me--a recollection of a long, flatfigure, a drab face, thin hair coming away from a wrinkled foreheadunder a mushroom hat, flapping, old-fashioned golden earrings. 

"Not the person I used to call 'the Plank'?" I said. 

"Did you?"

He thought for a moment. 

"Yes; I believe you did-. I'd forgotten. "

"She was always in church twenty minutes before the service began, andalways dropped her hymn-book coming out if there were visitors in theAbbey pew!"

"Yes, yes; that's it. Miss Bassett is very nervous in little ways. "

"I remember her now perfectly. And you say she----"

I looked at him, and hesitated. 

"She saved Vere's life and, indirectly, mine. I'll tell you now we'retogether again at last. I shall never tell Vere. "

He looked towards the windows, across which dark blue silk curtains weredrawn, as if he could see the passing-bell swinging in the old squaretower. Then he turned to me. 

"You know how mad I was about Vere. It's always like that with me. Unless I'm stone I'm fire. After we were married I got even madder. Having her all to myself was like enchantment, and in Italy, too, myother native land. "

I thought of Lady Inley's eyes. 

"I can understand, " I said. 

"Of course, when we got back it had to be different. Friends camein, and she was run after and admired and written about. You know thepublicity of life in modern London. "

"City of public-houses and society spies. "

"I bore it, because it's supposed to be the thing. And Vere rather likesit, somehow. So I let her have her fun, as long as it was fun. I didn'tintend it should ever be anything else. "

He frowned. When he did that, and his thick eyebrows nearly met, helooked all Italian. 

"We did the usual things--Paris, Ascot, Scotland, and so on--till Verehad to lie up. "

"Your boy?"

"Yes; Hugo came along. I was glad when that was over. I thought she wasgoing to die. You knew Seymour Glynd?"

"Life Guards? Killed hunting a year ago?"

Inley nodded. 

"He was a great deal with us soon after Hugo's birth. I thought nothingof it. I'd known the fellow all my life. But then one nearly alwayshas. "

He laughed bitterly. 

"To cut that part short, two years ago in autumn we had Glynd stayingwith us down here for shooting. There were some others, of course--Mrs. Jack, Bobbie Elphinton, and Lady Bobbie--but you know the lot. "

"I did. "

"Ah, " he said, "you've been well out of it these years. Well, the shootwas to break up on a Friday, and I'd arranged to go to town that daywith the rest. Vere didn't intend to come. She said she was feelingtired, and was going to have a Friday to Monday rest cure. That's thething, you know, nowadays. You get a Swedish _masseuse_ down to stay, and go to bed and drink milk. Vere had engaged a _masseuse_ to come onthe Friday night. On the Thursday, the day before we were all going totown, Glynd hurt his foot getting over a fence into a turnip field--atleast I thought so. "

He stopped. 

"Everyone thought so, I believe--except, of course, Vere. I wonder ifthey did, though?" he added moodily. "Or whether I was the only--Butwhat does it matter now? Glynd said he only wanted a couple of days'rest to be all right again, and asked me if he might stay on at theAbbey till the Monday. Of course I said 'Yes; if he wouldn't want ahostess. ' Because Vere said to me, when she heard of it, that she musthave her rest cure all the same. Glynd swore he'd be quite happy alone. So he stayed, and the rest of us came up to town on the Friday. Well, on the Saturday morning I was walking across the park when I met theSwedish _massense_ who was to have gone down to Vere on the Fridaynight. I knew her, because Vere had often had her before in London. 'Hullo!' I said. 'You ought to be down at Inley Abbey with my wife. ''No, my lord, ' she said. 'Why not?' 'I've had a wire from Lady Inley notto go. ' 'A wire!' I said. 'When did you get it?' 'On Thursday night, mylord. ' You mean last night?' I said, thinking Vere must have changed hermind after we had left. 'No, ' said the woman; 'on Thursday night, late. 'Then I remembered that, after Glynd had hurt his foot and asked to stay, Vere had gone out alone for a drive in her cart, to get a last breath ofair before the rest cure. She must have sent the telegram herself then. All of a sudden I seemed to understand a lot of things. '"

He had let his cigar out, and now he noticed that he had. He tossed itinto the fire. 

"I said, 'Good-morning' to the woman quite quietly, went back to thehouse, and told my man I shouldn't be at home that night. "

He put his hand on my arm. 

"I felt perfectly calm. Wasn't that strange?"

I nodded. 

"There was a train from town reaching Ashdridge Station at nine o'clockat night. I took it. I didn't care to go to Inley Station, whereeverybody would know me, and wonder what I was up to. I didn't take anyluggage. My man asked if he should pack, and I said 'No. ' I didn't dine. I was at Pad-dington three-quarters of an hour before the train wasdue to start. At last it came in to the platform. Going down I read theevening papers just like any man going home from business. Soon after wegot away from London I saw there was rain on the carriage windows. Thatseemed to me right. We were a little late at Ashdridge. It was stillwet, and I had my coat collar turned up. I don't believe they recognisedme there. I set out to walk to Inley. "

"What did you mean to do?"

"I told you before. "

I looked into his face, and believed him. Then I thought of Lady Inley'schildish, delicate beauty, of her slightly affected manner, the mannerof a woman who has always been spoilt, whose paths have been made verysmooth. And here she was living, apparently happily, with a man who haddeliberately travelled down in the night to kill her. How ignorant weare!

"You are condemning me, " Inley said, with a touch of hot anger. 

"I was only thinking----"

"Yes?"

"That we don't know each other much in the greatest intimacy. "

"That's what I thought then. "

He said that in a way which suddenly put me on his side. He musthave seen the change in my feelings, for he went on, with his formerunreserve:

"I walked fast in the dark. I didn't think very much, but I rememberthat all the trees--there's a lot of woodland, you know, betweenAshdridge and Inley--seemed alive. Everything seemed to me to be alivethat night. I've never had that sensation before or since. "

I realised what the condition of the man had been when he said that, asif I were a doctor and a patient had told me the symptom which put me inpossession of his malady. 

"When I reached Inley it was late, and the long village street wasdeserted. There were lights in the inn and in the schoolmaster's house, but there were no people about. I got through without meeting a soul, and came on towards the gates of the Abbey. "

"You meant to go into the house?"

"Yes. I was sure--somehow I was sure; but I intended to see before Iacted, merely for my own justification. But I was quite sure, as ifVere herself had told me everything. Soon after I had got clear of thevillage I heard a sound of wheels behind me. I stood up against thehedge, and in a minute or two a fly passed me going slowly. I saw thedriver's face. It wasn't a man from Inley. Evidently the fly had comefrom a distance. It was splashed with mud, and the horse looked tired. I followed it till it came to the turning just below Miss Bassett'scottage, where there's a narrow lane going to Charfield through thewoods. It went a little way down this lane, and stopped. I waited at theturning. I could see the light from the lamps shining on the wet road, and in the circle of light the driver's breath. He bent down, and I sawhim looking at a big silver watch. Then he put it back. But he didn'tdrive on. I knew what he was waiting for. Vere was going with--withGlynd. That was more than I had ever thought of, that she would go. Iput my hand into my pocket, took out my revolver, and went on till I wasclose to the red cottage. By this time the rain had stopped. I came upto within a few yards of the Abbey gates, stood for a moment, and thenreturned till I was at the wicket of Miss Bassett's garden. It's boundedby a yew hedge, beyond which there is a path shaded by mulberry-trees. The hedge is low. The path is dark. It was a blackguardly thing to do, but I thought of nothing except myself, my wrong, and how I was to wipeit out. I opened the wicket, came into the path, and stood there underthe mulberry-trees behind the hedge. Here I was in cover, and could seethe road. I held my revolver in my hand, and waited. It never struck methat Miss Bassett might be up. I saw no light in the cottage, and I hada sort of idea that people like her went to bed at about eight. WhileI was standing there listening I felt something rub against my legs. Itmade me start. Then I heard a little low noise. I looked down, andthere was a great cat holding up its tail and purring. Its pleasure washorrible to me. I pushed it away with my foot, but it came back, bendingdown its head, arching its back, and pressing against me. I was thinkingwhat to do to get rid of it when I heard a shrill, husky voice call out:

"'Johnny--John-nee!'

"It was Miss Bassett. I held my breath, and pushed away the cat. 

"'Johnny, Johnny--John-nee!' went the voice again. 

"The cat wouldn't leave me. God knows why it wished to stay. I wasdetermined to get rid of it, so I put the revolver down on the path, picked the cat up in my arms, and dropped it over the hedge into theroad. Just as I had caught up the revolver again I was confronted byMiss Bassett. She had come in slippers up the path in the dark to lookfor her cat. "

I uttered a slight exclamation. 

Inley went on: "She had a handkerchief tied over her cap and under herchin, and a small lantern in her hands, on which she wore black mittens. I can see her now. We stood there on the path for a minute staring ateach other without a word. The light from the lantern flickered over therevolver, and I saw Miss Bassett look down at it. "

He stopped, poured out a glass of water, and drank it off like a man whohas been running. 

"Didn't she show surprise--fear?" I asked. 

"Not a bit. Women are so extraordinary, even old women who've never beenin touch with life, that I'm certain now she understood directly hereyes fell on the revolver. "

"What did she do?"

"After a minute she said: 'Lord Inley, I'm looking for my cat. Have youseen him?'

"'Yes, ' I said; 'he's run into the house. '

"It was a lie, but I wanted her to go in. I had slipped the revolverback into my pocket, and tried to assume a perfectly simple, naturalair. I fancied it would be very easy to impose on Miss Bassett when Iheard her question. It sounded so innocent, as if the old lady was fullof her pet. I even thought, perhaps, she had not known what the revolverwas when she looked at it. 

"'Did he run into the house?' she said, still looking at me from underher wrinkled eyelids. 

"'Yes; when you came out. He was here on the path with me. You called"Johnny!" and he ran off there between the mulberry-trees. '

"All the time I was speaking to her I had an eye to the road, and myears were listening like an Indian's when he puts his head to the groundto hear the pad of his enemy. 

"Miss Bassett stood there quietly for a moment as if she wereconsidering something. She looked prim. I remember that even now--primas a caricature. It was only a moment, but it seemed to me an hour. 'Ifthey should come, ' I thought, 'while she is out here!' The sweat cameout all over my face with impatience--an agony of impatience. I longedto take the old lady by the shoulders, push her into the cottage, lockher in, and be alone, able to watch the bit of road from the Abbey gatesto the wicket. But I could do nothing. I was obliged to repress everysign of agitation. It was devilish. "

He got up with a sudden jerk from his chair, and stood by the fire. Eventhe telling of that moment had set beads of moisture on his square, lowforehead. 

"At last she spoke again. 

"'I wonder if you'd mind coming in for a minute to help me see if Johnnyreally is in the house?' she said. 

"I don't know what I should have done--refused, I believe, refused herwith an oath, for I began to feel mad; but just at that instant up camethe cat once more, purring like fury, and lifting up his tail. He madestraight for me, and began to rub himself against my legs again. 

"'Oh!' said Miss Bassett, 'there he is! Naughty Johnny, naughty boy!Lord Inley, perhaps you'd be so good as just to lif t him up and put himinside the door for me. I always have such a job to get him to comein of a night. He likes hunting in the woods. Doesn't he, the naughtyJohnny?'

"'Now's my chance to get rid of her!' I thought. 

"I bent down, picked the cat up, and went along the path towards thecottage, Miss Bassett following close behind me. The cat was an immensebeast, awfully heavy, and just as I turned out of the yew path to go upto the cottage door he began struggling to get away, and scratching. I held on to him, but it wasn't easy, and I got my hand torn beforeI dropped him down inside the little hall. Away he ran, towards thekitchen, I suppose. Miss Bassett was very grateful, but I cut hergratitude short. 

"'Very glad to have been able to help you, ' I said. 'Good-night. '

"'Good-night, Lord Inley, ' she said. 

"I thought her voice sounded a little bit odd when she said that, andI just glanced at her funny old face, lit up by the lantern she washolding in one mittened hand. She didn't look at me this time as she hadin the garden. Then I went out, and she immediately shut the door. 

"'Thank God!' I thought, and I hurried to the wicket. I didn't dare stayin the garden now. Seeing her had made me realise my blackguardism incoming in at all, considering my reason. I resolved to hide in the fieldat the corner where the road turns off to Charfield. As I opened thewicket, instinctively I put my hand into my pocket for my revolver. "

He bent down, looking full into my eyes. 

"It wasn't there. "

"Miss Bassett!" I exclaimed. 

"In a moment I realised that Miss Bassett must have grasped thesituation; that her asking me to carry in her cat was a ruse, and thatwhile the beast was struggling between my hands she must have stolenthe revolver from behind. I say I knew that, and yet even then, when Ithought of her look, her manner, the sort of nervous old thing she was, I couldn't believe what I knew. Then I remembered her voice when shesaid 'Good-night' to me in the passage, her eyes looking down instead ofat me, and that she was only holding the lantern in one hand, whereasin the garden she was using two. She must have had the revolver inher other hand concealed in the folds of her dress. I ran back to thecottage door, and knocked--hard. Not that I thought she'd open. I knewshe wouldn't, but she did directly. I could hardly speak. I was afraidof myself just then. At last I said:

"'Miss Bassett, you know what I want. '

"'You can't have it, ' she said, looking straight at me. 

"I kept quiet for a second, then I said:

"'Miss Bassett, I don't think you know that you're running into danger. 'For I felt that there was danger for her then if she went against me. She knew it, too, perhaps better than I did. I saw her poor old hands, all blue veins, beginning to tremble. 

"'You can't have it, Lord Inley, ' she repeated. 

"There wasn't the ghost of a quiver in her voice. 

"'I must, I will!' I said, and I made a movement towards her--a violentmovement I know it was. 

"But the old thing stood her ground. Oh, she was a gallant old woman. 

"'Do what you like to me, ' she said. 'I'm old. What does it matter?She's young. '

"Then I knew she understood. 

"'You've seen them together!' I said. 'Since I went!'

"She wouldn't say. Not a word. I was mad. I forgot decency, everything. I took her. I searched her for the revolver. I searched her roughly--Godforgive me. She trembled horribly, but never said a word. It wasn't onher. She must have hidden it somewhere in that moment when she was alonein the cottage. That was another ruse to keep me searching in therewhile-- But I saw it almost directly. I broke away, and rushed out anddown the road. Something seemed to tell me they had passed. I got intothe lane that leads to Charfield. The fly was gone. Then, all of asudden, I felt perfectly calm. I turned, and went up to the Abbey gates. I knocked them up at the lodge. The keeper came out. When he saw me hesaid:

"'You, my lord! However did you know?'

"'Go on!' I said. 'Know what?'

"'About Master Hugo?'

"I didn't say one way or the other. 

"'The doctor says it's a bitter bad quinsy, but there's just a chance. Her ladyship's nearly mad. It only came on a few hours ago quitesudden. '

"I went up to the Abbey, and found Vere by the child's bed. She lookedflushed, and was breathing hard, as if she had just been running. "

He stopped, and took out his cigar-case. 

"Running!" I said. 

"She had parted finally from Glynd in front of Miss Bassett's cottage, "he said. "He told me that afterwards. "

There was a moment's silence. Then he spoke more calmly. 

"I went up to town when the child was safe, and had it out with Glynd. They had meant to go that night. It was the boy who stopped them andthey took it as a judgment. You know how women are. Glynd swore she wasstopped in time. You understand?"

"Yes. "

"He didn't lie to me. "

"And your wife?"

"I never spoke of it to her. I saw her with the boy, and--well, I sawher with the boy, and what she was to him when he was close to death. "

His voice went for a moment. Then he added:

"I told her I'd had a presentiment Hugo was ill. She believed me, Ithink. If not, she's kept her secret. "

Just then the dining-room door opened, and Lady Inley put in her prettyhead. 

"Are you never coming?" she said with her little childish drawl. 

I got up, and went towards her. 

"By the way, Nino, " she added, "the bell was for poor, funny old MissBassett. What will her cat do, I wonder?"

As I followed her towards the drawing-room I heard Inley's voice mutterbehind me:

"_Requiescat in Pace_. "