That Affair Next Door | Page 6

and the other spare, with a touch of severity in his aspect.
But for some reason these gentlemen did not seem to appreciate the
honor I had done them, for they both gave me a displeased glance,
which was so odd and unsympathetic in its character that I bridled a
little, though I soon returned to my natural manner. Did they realize at
the first glance that I was destined to prove a thorn in the sides of every
one connected with this matter, for days to come?
"Are you the woman who called from the window?" asked the larger of
the two, whose business here I found it difficult at first to determine.
"I am," was my perfectly self-possessed reply. "I live next door and my
presence here is due to the anxious interest I always take in my
neighbors. I had reason to think that all was not as it should be in this
house, and I was right. Look in the parlor, sirs."
They were already as far as the threshold of that room and needed no
further encouragement to enter. The heavier man went first and the
other followed, and you may be sure I was not far behind. The sight
meeting our eyes was ghastly enough, as you know; but these men
were evidently accustomed to ghastly sights, for they showed but little
emotion.
"I thought this house was empty," observed the second gentleman, who
was evidently a doctor.
"So it was till last night," I put in; and was about to tell my story, when
I felt my skirts jerked.
Turning, I found that this warning had come from the cleaner who
stood close beside me.
"What do you want?" I asked, not understanding her and having
nothing to conceal.
"I?" she faltered, with a frightened air. "Nothing, ma'am, nothing."

"Then don't interrupt me," I harshly admonished her, annoyed at an
interference that tended to throw suspicion upon my candor. "This
woman came here to scrub and clean," I now explained; "it was by
means of the key she carried that we were enabled to get into the house.
I never spoke to her till a half hour ago."
At which, with a display of subtlety I was far from expecting in one of
her appearance, she let her emotions take a fresh direction, and pointing
towards the dead woman, she impetuously cried:
"But the poor child there! Aint you going to take those things off of her?
It's wicked to leave her under all that stuff. Suppose there was life in
her!"
"Oh! there's no hope of that," muttered the doctor, lifting one of the
hands, and letting it fall again.
"Still--" he cast a side look at his companion, who gave him a meaning
nod--"it might be well enough to lift this cabinet sufficiently for me to
lay my hand on her heart."
They accordingly did this; and the doctor, leaning down, placed his
hand over the poor bruised breast.
"No life," he murmured. "She has been dead some hours. Do you think
we had better release the head?" he went on, glancing up at the portly
man at his side.
But the latter, who was rapidly growing serious, made a slight protest
with his finger, and turning to me, inquired, with sudden authority:
"What did you mean when you said that the house had been empty till
last night?"
"Just what I said, sir. It was empty till about midnight, when two
persons----" Again I felt my dress twitched, this time very cautiously.
What did the woman want? Not daring to give her a look, for these men
were only too ready to detect harm in everything I did, I gently drew

my skirt away and took a step aside, going on as if no interruption had
occurred. "Did I say persons? I should have said a man and a woman
drove up to the house and entered. I saw them from my window."
"You did?" murmured my interlocutor, whom I had by this time
decided to be a detective. "And this is the woman, I suppose?" he
proceeded, pointing to the poor creature lying before us.
"Why, yes, of course. Who else can she be? I did not see the lady's face
last night, but she was young and light on her feet, and ran up the stoop
gaily."
"And the man? Where is the man? I don't see him here."
"I am not surprised at that. He went very soon after he came, not ten
minutes after, I should say. That is what alarmed me and caused me to
have the house investigated. It did not seem natural or like any of the
Van Burnams to leave a woman to spend the night in so large a house
alone."
"You know