“You coming into Mr. Rendell’s room and talking about things you know nothing about.”
“Know nothing about!” Frazer shouted. “No decent person would have a room in this house——”
“Hold your tongue! You’re making a fool of yourself.”
“I’ve let you make a fool of me. Come on! Let’s see whether you’ll lie to these people as you lie to me. Why do none of Trent’s friends know he’s had rooms here for years? Why don’t they?—why don’t they?”
“That’s his business, not yours. You’d have been in the gutter if it hadn’t been for him.”
“You hear that?” Frazer demanded, turning to the others. “Very well. All right. You’re witnesses. Now I know what to do.”
“You’ll go away, that’s what you’ll do,” his wife said in the same steady tone.
“You want me out of the way, my lady. I know too much. I know more than you think—more than
He flung himself out of the room, banging the door behind him.
Vera rose quickly.
“Why, where are you going?” Marsden asked.
“There’s something I want to ask Captain Frazer.”
She hurried out of the room before Marsden could reply.
Frazer was half-way up the stairs. He turned on hearing the door open, then came down slowly.
At their first meeting he had detected that Vera was frightened and had instinctively intensified her fears by making enigmatic statements to her or to Marsden, knowing that the latter would repeat them.
“Come down to my study,” he said in a confidential whisper. “We can talk there. The basement stairs are rather dark. Allow me.”
He took her arm, guided her down the stairs and into his room. Then, instead of releasing her, he took her other arm in a firm grip, turning her so that she faced him.
“Now, what is it? No secrets between us, I take it. No need to go into details perhaps——”
Her eyes flashed apprehensively, greatly to his satisfaction. He had long sought a victim on whom to inflict the spite accumulated by his daily humiliations. Of what she was frightened he had no conception. But as the merest hint concerning details clearly terrified her, his ignorance was unimportant.
He pressed her arms more tightly, but she made no protest.
“Don’t tremble. You can trust me. Lucky for you that you have to deal with an officer and a gentleman. I understand—I understand! You’re very handsome, and our friend Trent is too distinguished a person to be quite normal.”
He spoke entirely at random, but the effect on her was such that he put his arm round her, thinking she might collapse.
Possibilities—amorous and financial—raced through his mind. A sense of power thrilled him. He could put her on the rack at will.
“Hold on, or we shall have
Her cheeks flamed and she looked away.
“Now, it’s all right,” he went on. “I’m going away, but I’m going to give you my address. I shall write to you, of course.”
He went to the table and wrote his address on a slip of paper.
“Here’s the address. And yours is?”
She told him, and he noted it carefully.
“You may have to come down to see me, Vera. That could be managed, I take it.”
“It wouldn’t be easy.” Her voice was a whisper.
“Of course, you’ve a job. Perhaps at the weekend?”
“Yes, but——”
“No one would know. You do everything I tell you—and it will be all right. I’ve had some expenses owing to all this, but you can send me a few pounds later on to cover that. Yes!”
He hesitated, but her attitude was so submissive that he went to her and put his arms round her.
“You’re all right, I take it?”
“Yes, I’m all right.”
He lowered his clasp and pressed her to him. She yielded herself so abjectly that victory intoxicated him and he kissed her on the lips.
Meanwhile, in Rendell’s room, Mrs. Frazer stated a number of facts, clearly and concisely.
The nurse had gone. She was going to attend to Trent, and a friend would take her place in the house. Her husband was going away. She implied that Trent wished these arrangements, and was paying the extra expenses involved. He continued to be very excited, slept most of the day, and the doctor still visited him. He could see no one, and all his letters remained unopened.
Also Mrs. Frazer was making other changes. Miss Ratcham, the lady journalist, was not well and was going to her people in Devonshire for some weeks. Incidentally, she was furious with Frazer for not giving her the paragraph about Trent—and was also furious with the latter owing to her failure to interview him.
Mr. Archibald Fortesque, the handsome student in the room opposite Miss Ratcham’s, had been summoned home to account for his extravagance and laziness—and Mrs. Frazer did not propose to have him back, in view of the number of complaints she had received concerning him.
Also, and finally, she had given notice to all undesirable tenants, every one of whom her husband had admitted when she was absent.
She ended by saying: