The Hand in the Dark | Page 5

She was Mrs. Rath, the
housekeeper, and the pretty girl was her daughter.
"How are you, Hazel?" said Miss Heredith, offering her hand to the girl.
"It is a long time since I saw you. Why have you not been to see us

lately?"
The girl appeared embarrassed by the question. She hesitated, and then,
as if reassured by Miss Heredith's gracious smile, murmured that she
had been so busy that she had very little time to herself.
"I thought they gave you an afternoon off every week at your place of
employment," pursued Miss Heredith, seating herself in a chair which
the housekeeper placed for her.
"Not always," replied Hazel. "At least, not lately. We have had such a
lot of orders in."
"Do you like the millinery business, Hazel?"
"Very much indeed, Miss Heredith."
"Hazel is getting on nicely now," said her mother.
"I am very glad to hear it," responded Miss Heredith, in the same
gracious manner. "You must come and see us oftener. I take a great
interest in your welfare, Hazel. Now, Mrs. Rath."
There are faces which attract attention by the expression of the eyes,
and the housekeeper's was one of them. Her face was thin, almost
meagre, with sunken temples on which her greying hair was braided,
but her large eyes were unnaturally bright, and had a strange look, at
once timid and watchful. She now turned them on Miss Heredith as
though she feared a rebuke.
"Mrs. Rath," said Miss Heredith, "I hope dinner will be served
punctually at a quarter to seven this evening, as I arranged. And did you
speak to cook about the poultry? She certainly should get more variety
into her cooking."
"It is rather difficult for her just now, with the food controller allowing
such a small quantity of butcher's meat," observed Mrs. Rath. "She
really does her best."

"She manages very well on the whole, but she has many resources,
such as poultry and game, which are denied to most households."
When Miss Heredith emerged from the housekeeper's room a little later
she was quite satisfied that the dinner was likely to be as good as an
arbitrary food controller would permit, and she ascended to her room to
dress. In less than half an hour she reappeared, a rustling and dignified
figure in black silk. She walked slowly along the passage from her
room, and knocked at Mrs. Heredith's door.
"Come in!" cried a faint feminine voice within.
Miss Heredith opened the door gently, and entered the room. It was a
spacious and ancient bedroom, with panelled walls and moulded ceiling.
The Jacobean furniture, antique mirrors, and bedstead with silken
drapings were in keeping with the room.
A girl of delicate outline and slender frame was lying on the bed. She
was wearing a fashionable rest gown of soft silk trimmed with gold
embroidery, her fair hair partly covered by a silk boudoir cap. By her
side stood a small table, on which were bottles of eau-de-Cologne and
lavender water, smelling salts in cut glass and silver, a gold cigarette
case, and an open novel.
The girl sat up as Miss Heredith entered, and put her hands
mechanically to her hair. Her fingers were loaded with jewels, too
numerous for good taste, and amongst the masses of rings on her left
hand the dull gold of the wedding ring gleamed in sober contrast. Her
face was pretty, but too insignificant to be beautiful. She had large blue
eyes under arching dark brows, small, regular features, and a small
mouth with a petulant droop of the under lip. Her face was of the type
which instantly attracts masculine attention. There was the lure of sex
in the depths of the blue eyes, and provocativeness in the drooping
lines of the petulant, slightly parted lips. There was a suggestion of
meretriciousness in the tinted lips and the pretence of colour on the
charming face. The close air of the room was drenched with the heavy
atmosphere of perfumes, mingled with the pungent smell of cigarette
smoke.

Miss Heredith took a seat by the bedside. The two women formed a
striking contrast in types: the strong, rugged, practical country lady,
and the fragile feminine devotee of beauty and personal adornment,
who, in the course of time, was to succeed the other as the mistress of
the moat-house. The difference went far beyond externals; there was a
wide psychological gulf between them--the difference between a
woman of healthy mind and calm, equable temperament, who had
probably never bothered her head about the opposite sex, and a woman
who was the neurotic product of a modern, nerve-ridden city; sexual in
type, a prey to morbid introspection and restless desires.
The younger woman regarded Miss Heredith with a rather peevish
glance of her large