life and in her thought of which I know as little as if she were the
woman who brushes by me in the street. We are estranged, and I want
to know why.
"Now there is one thing that I want to impress upon you before I go
any further, Mr. Holmes. Effie loves me. Don't let there be any
mistake about that. She loves me with her whole heart and soul, and
never more than now. I know it. I feel it. I don't want to argue
about that. A man can tell easily enough when a woman loves him. But
there's this secret between us, and we can never be the same until it
is cleared."
"Kindly let me have the facts, Mr. Munro," said Holmes, with some
impatience.
"I'll tell you what I know about Effie's history. She was a widow
when I met her first, though quite young--only twenty-five. Her name
then was Mrs. Hebron. She went out to America when she was young, and
lived in the town of Atlanta, where she married this Hebron, who was
a lawyer with a good practice. They had one child, but the yellow
fever broke out badly in the place, and both husband and child died
of it. I have seen his death certificate. This sickened her of
America, and she came back to live with a maiden aunt at Pinner, in
Middlesex. I may mention that her husband had left her comfortably
off, and that she had a capital of about four thousand five hundred
pounds, which had been so well invested by him that it returned an
average of seven per cent. She had only been six months at Pinner
when I met her; we fell in love with each other, and we married a few
weeks afterwards.
"I am a hop merchant myself, and as I have an income of seven or
eight hundred, we found ourselves comfortably off, and took a nice
eighty-pound-a-year villa at Norbury. Our little place was very
countrified, considering that it is so close to town. We had an inn
and two houses a little above us, and a single cottage at the other
side of the field which faces us, and except those there were no
houses until you got half way to the station. My business took me
into town at certain seasons, but in summer I had less to do, and
then in our country home my wife and I were just as happy as could be
wished. I tell you that there never was a shadow between us until
this accursed affair began.
"There's one thing I ought to tell you before I go further. When we
married, my wife made over all her property to me--rather against my
will, for I saw how awkward it would be if my business affairs went
wrong. However, she would have it so, and it was done. Well, about
six weeks ago she came to me.
"'Jack,' said she, 'when you took my money you said that if ever I
wanted any I was to ask you for it.'
"'Certainly,' said I. 'It's all your own.'
"'Well,' said she, 'I want a hundred pounds.'
"I was a bit staggered at this, for I had imagined it was simply a
new dress or something of the kind that she was after.
"'What on earth for?' I asked.
"'Oh,' said she, in her playful way, 'you said that you were only my
banker, and bankers never ask questions, you know.'
"'If you really mean it, of course you shall have the money,' said I.
"'Oh, yes, I really mean it.'
"'And you won't tell me what you want it for?'
"'Some day, perhaps, but not just at present, Jack.'
"So I had to be content with that, thought it was the first time that
there had ever been any secret between us. I gave her a check, and I
never thought any more of the matter. It may have nothing to do with
what came afterwards, but I thought it only right to mention it.
"Well, I told you just now that there is a cottage not far from our
house. There is just a field between us, but to reach it you have to
go along the road and then turn down a lane. Just beyond it is a nice
little grove of Scotch firs, and I used to be very fond of strolling
down there, for trees are always a neighborly kind of things. The
cottage had been standing empty this eight months, and it was a pity,
for it was a pretty two storied place, with an old-fashioned porch
and honeysuckle about it. I have stood many a time and thought what a
neat little homestead it would make.
"Well, last Monday evening I was taking a stroll down that way, when
I met an empty van coming up the lane, and saw a pile of carpets and
things lying about on the grass-plot beside the porch. It was clear
that the cottage had at last been let. I walked past it, and wondered
what sort of folk they were who had come to live so near us. And as I
looked I suddenly became aware that a face was watching me out of one
of the upper windows.
"I don't know what there was about that face, Mr. Holmes, but it
seemed to send a chill right down my back. I was some little way off,
so that I could not make out the features, but there was something
unnatural and inhuman about the face. That was the impression that I
had, and I moved quickly forwards to get a nearer view of the person
who was watching me. But as I did so the face suddenly disappeared,
so suddenly that it seemed to have been plucked away into the
darkness of the room. I stood for five minutes thinking the business
over, and trying to analyze my impressions. I could not tell if the
face were that of a man or a woman. It had been too far from me for
that. But its color was what had impressed me most. It was of a livid
chalky white, and with something set and rigid about it which was
shockingly unnatural. So disturbed was I that I determined to see a
little more of the new inmates of the cottage. I approached and
knocked at the door, which was instantly opened by a tall, gaunt
woman with a harsh, forbidding face.
"'What may you be wantin'?' she asked, in a Northern accent.
"'I am your neighbor over yonder,' said I, nodding towards my house.
'I see that you have only just moved in, so I thought that if I could
be of any help to you in any--'
"'Ay, we'll just ask ye when we want ye,' said she, and shut the door
in my face. Annoyed at the churlish rebuff, I turned my back and
walked home. All evening, though I tried to think of other things, my
mind would still turn to the apparition at the window and the
rudeness of the woman. I determined to say nothing about the former
to my wife, for she is a nervous, highly strung woman, and I had no
wish that she would share the unpleasant impression which had been
produced upon myself. I remarked to her, however, before I fell
asleep, that the cottage was now occupied, to which she returned no
reply.
"I am usually an extremely sound sleeper. It has been a standing jest
in the family that nothing could ever wake me during the night. And
yet somehow on that particular night, whether it may have been the
slight excitement produced by my little adventure or not I know not,
but I slept much more lightly than usual. Half in my dreams I was
dimly conscious that something was going on in the room, and
gradually became aware that my wife had dressed herself and was
slipping on her mantle and her bonnet. My lips were parted to murmur
out some sleepy words of surprise or remonstrance at this untimely
preparation, when suddenly my half-opened eyes fell upon her face,
illuminated by the candle-light, and astonishment held me dumb. She
wore an expression such as I had never seen before--such as I should
have thought her incapable of assuming. She was deadly pale and
breathing fast, glancing furtively towards the bed as she fastened
her mantle, to see if she had disturbed me. Then, thinking that I was
still asleep, she slipped noiselessly from the room, and an instant
later I heard a sharp creaking which could only come from the hinges
of the front door. I sat up in bed and rapped my knuckles against the
rail to make certain that I was truly awake. Then I took my watch
from under the pillow. It was three in the morning. What on this
earth could my wife be doing out on the country road at three in the
morning?
"I had sat for about twenty minutes turning the thing over in my mind
and trying to find some possible explanation. The more I thought, the
more extraordinary and inexplicable did it appear. I was still
puzzling over it when I heard the door gently close again, and her
footsteps coming up the stairs.
"'Where in the world have you been, Effie?' I asked as she entered.
"She gave a violent start and a kind of gasping cry when I spoke, and
that cry and start troubled me more than all the rest, for there was
something indescribably guilty about them. My wife had always been a
woman of a frank, open nature, and it gave me a chill to see her
slinking into her own room, and crying out and wincing when her own
husband spoke to her.
"'You awake, Jack!' she cried, with a nervous laugh. 'Why, I thought
that nothing could awake you.'
"'Where have you been?' I asked, more sternly.
"'I don't wonder that you are surprised,' said she, and I could see
that her fingers were trembling as she undid the fastenings of her
mantle. 'Why, I never remember having done such a thing in my life
before. The fact is that I felt as though I were choking, and had a
perfect longing for a breath of fresh air. I really think that I
should have fainted if I had not gone out. I stood at the door for a
few minutes, and now I am quite myself again.'
"All the time that she was telling me this story she never once
looked in my direction, and her voice was quite unlike her usual
tones. It was evident to me that she was saying what was false. I
said nothing in reply, but turned my face to the wall, sick at heart,
with my mind filled with a thousand venomous doubts and suspicions.
What was it that my wife was concealing from me? Where had she been
during that strange expedition? I felt that I should have no peace
until I knew, and yet I shrank from asking her again after once she
had told me what was false. All the rest of the night I tossed and
tumbled, framing theory after theory, each more unlikely than the
last.
"I should have gone to the City that day, but I was too disturbed in
my mind to be able to pay attention to business matters. My wife
seemed to be as upset as myself, and I could see from the little
questioning glances which she kept shooting at me that she understood
that I disbelieved her statement, and that she was at her wits' end
what to do. We hardly exchanged a word during breakfast, and
immediately afterwards I went out for a walk, that I might think the
matter out in the fresh morning air.
"I went as far as the Crystal Palace, spent an hour in the grounds,
and was back in Norbury by one o'clock. It happened that my way took
me past the cottage, and I stopped for an instant to look at the
windows, and to see if I could catch a glimpse of the strange face
which had looked out at me on the day before. As I stood there,
imagine my surprise, Mr. Holmes, when the door suddenly opened and my
wife walked out.
"I was struck dumb with astonishment at the sight of her; but my
emotions were nothing to those which showed themselves upon her face
when our eyes met. She seemed for an instant to wish to shrink back
inside the house again; and then, seeing how useless all concealment
must be, she came forward, with a very white face and frightened eyes
which belied the smile upon her lips.
"'Ah, Jack,' she said, 'I have just been in to see if I can be of any
assistance to our new neighbors. Why do you look at me like that,
Jack? You are not angry with me?'
"'So,' said I, 'this is where you went during the night.'
"'What do you mean?' she cried.
"'You came here. I am sure of it. Who are these people, that you
should visit them at such an hour?'
"'I have not been here before.'
"'How can you tell me what you know is false?' I cried. 'Your very
voice changes as you speak. When have I ever had a secret from you? I
shall enter that cottage, and I shall probe the matter to the
bottom.'
"'No, no, Jack, for God's sake!' she gasped, in uncontrollable
emotion. Then, as I approached the door, she seized my sleeve and
pulled me back with convulsive strength.
"'I implore you not to do this, Jack,' she cried. 'I swear that I
will tell you everything some day, but nothing but misery can come of
it if you enter that cottage.' Then, as I tried to shake her off, she
clung to me in a frenzy of entreaty.
"'Trust me, Jack!' she cried. 'Trust me only this once. You will
never have cause to regret it. You know that I would not have a
secret from you if it were not for your own sake. Our whole lives are
at stake in this. If you come home with me, all will be well. If you
force your way into that cottage, all is over between us.'
