Page:Bentley- Trent's Last Case (Nelson, nd).djvu/177

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THE INQUEST.
169

enraged and bewildered him. He was still cursing himself furiously behind the mask of conventional solicitude that he turned to the lady when he had attended her to the house and seen her sink upon a couch in the morning-room. Raising her veil, she thanked him gravely and frankly, with a look of sincere gratitude in her eyes. She was much better now, she said, and a cup of tea would work a miracle upon her. She hoped she had not taken him away from anything important. She was ashamed of herself; she thought she could go through with it, but she had not expected those last questions. 'I am glad you did not hear me,' she said when he explained. 'But of course you will read it all in the reports. It shook me so to have to speak of that,' she added simply; 'and to keep from making an exhibition of myself took it out of me. And all those staring men by the door! Thank you again for helping me when I asked you. . . . I thought I might,' she ended queerly, with a little tired smile; and Trent took himself away, his hand still quivering from the cool touch of her fingers.


The testimony of the servants and of the