And then, turning, she glided across the candle-lit room, and noiselessly
opening the door, she slid through it.
Enid Crofton sank farther back into her chintz-covered easy-chair. She
was trembling all over, and her hands were shaking. She had not felt so
frightened as she felt now, even during the terrible moments which had
preceded her being put in the witness-box at the inquest held on her
husband's body; and with a feeling of acute, unreasoning terror, she
asked herself how she could cope with this new, dreadful situation.
What, for instance, did that allusion to the insurance company mean? She
had had the two thousand pounds, and she had spent about a quarter of it
paying bills of which her husband had known nothing. Then the settling
in at The Trellis House had cost a great deal more than she had expected.
Of course she had some left, but five hundred pounds would make a hideous
hole in her little store.
What could the Pipers do to her? Could they do anything? The sinister
woman's repetition of Piper's curious remark, "'E says sometimes as what
'e ought to give 'imself up, and say what 'e saw," came back to her with
sickening vividness.
She looked round her, timorously.
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