She made no allusion to it afterwards, and I made none, for a
promise is a promise; but she has never known an easy hour from
that moment. There is always a look of fear upon her face --
a look as if she were waiting and expecting. She would do
better to trust me. She would find that I was her best friend.
But until she speaks I can say nothing. Mind you, she is a
truthful woman, Mr. Holmes, and whatever trouble there may have
been in her past life it has been no fault of hers. I am only
a simple Norfolk squire, but there is not a man in England who
ranks his family honour more highly than I do. She knows it well,
and she knew it well before she married me. She would never
bring any stain upon it -- of that I am sure.
"Well, now I come to the queer part of my story. About a week
ago -- it was the Tuesday of last week -- I found on one of the
window-sills a number of absurd little dancing figures, like
these upon the paper. They were scrawled with chalk. I thought
that it was the stable-boy who had drawn them, but the lad swore
he knew nothing about it. Anyhow, they had come there during
the night.
Pages:
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112