b, the brush and towel. Downstairs, a chair is drawn across the floor, something is thrown or falls, the dog barks. Upstairs, Richard walks, coughs, mutters. If I am to run, I must do it now. Which way shall I go? Down, down, the way I have come. Which was the door, at the bottom, that they led me through?—the second, or the first? I am not sure. Never mind, I think. Go now! But I do not. The woman lifts her face, catches my eye, I hesitate; and in the moment of that hesitation Richard crosses his floor and steps heavily down the stairs. He comes into the room. He has a cigarette behind his ear. He has rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, and his beard is dark with water.
He closes the door, and locks it. ''Take your cloak off, Maud,'' he says. I think: He is going to strangle me.
T keep my cloak quite fastened, and move backwards, slowly, from him and from the woman, back to the window. I will
ash it with my elbow if I must. I will shriek into the street. Richard watches me and sighs. He makes his eyes wide. ''You need
t'' he says, ''look so like a rabbit. Do you think I would bring you all this way, to hurt you?''
''And do you think,'' I answer, ''I will trust you not to? You told me vourself, at Briar, what lengths you will go to, for money''s sake. I wish I had listened harder, then! Tell me now you don''t mean to cheat me of all my fortune. Tell me you shan''t get it, through Sue. I suppose you will fetch her, after some slight delay. She will be cured, I suppose.'' My heart contracts. ''Clever Sue. Good girl.''