MAN AND MAID

CONTENTS


PAGE

I. THE HAUNTED INHERITANCE 1

II. THE POWER OF DARKNESS 32

III. THE STRANGER WHO MIGHT HAVE BEEN OBSERVED 60

IV. RACK AND THUMBSCREW 84

V. THE MILLIONAIRESS 103

VI. THE HERMIT OF "THE YEWS" 134

VII. THE AUNT AND THE EDITOR 158

VIII. MISS MOUSE 178

IX. THE OLD WIFE 201

X. THE HOUSE OF SILENCE 224

XI. THE GIRL AT THE TOBACCONIST'S 245

XII. WHILE IT IS YET DAY 268

XIII. ALCIBIADES 287




MAN AND MAID




I

THE HAUNTED INHERITANCE


The most extraordinary thing that ever happened to me was my going back
to town on that day. I am a reasonable being; I do not do such things. I
was on a bicycling tour with another man. We were far from the mean
cares of an unremunerative profession; we were men not fettered by any
given address, any pledged date, any preconcerted route. I went to bed
weary and cheerful, fell asleep a mere animal--a tired dog after a day's
hunting--and awoke at four in the morning that creature of nerves and
fancies which is my other self, and which has driven me to all the
follies I have ever kept company with. But even that second self of
mine, whining beast and traitor as it is, has never played me such a
trick as it played then. Indeed, something in the result of that day's
rash act sets me wondering whether after all it could have been I, or
even my other self, who moved in the adventure; whether it was not
rather some power outside both of us ... but this is a speculation as
idle in me as uninteresting to you, and so enough of it.

From four to seven I lay awake, the prey of a growing detestation of
bicycling tours, friends, scenery, physical exertion, holidays. By seven
o'clock I felt that I would rather perish than spend another day in the
society of the other man--an excellent fellow, by the way, and the best
of company.