Evening star., 1925-01-11
/IT HIS is the room, madame"
''Ah, thank you-thank
you"
4 Does il appear satisfac-

"Oh, yes, thank you"
Does madame require anything
further"
'--Er-if not too late, may have a
hot bath?'
"Parfaitement, madame. The bath
room is at the end of the passage, on
the left. l will go and prepare it for
madame"
There is one thing more. I have
had "a very long journey. 1 am very
tired. VIII you please see that l am
not disturbed in the morning until l
ring"
Certainly, madame"
Millicent Bracegirdle was speaking
the truth-she was tired. In the
sleepy cathedral town of Easing
stroke, from which she came. it was
customary for every one to speak
the truth. 1t was customary, more
over, for every one to lead a simple,
self denying life, to give up time to
good works and elevating thoughts.
One had only to glance at little Miss
Bracegirdle TO see that in her were
epitomized all the virtues and ideals
of EaSingstroke. The pursuit of duty
had brought her to the Hotel de
TOest at Bordeaux on this night.
Some one had to come to Bordeaux
to meet her young sister-in-Iaw. who
was arriving the next day from South
America. Her dear brother, the dean,
would have come himself but the
claims on his time were so extensive,
the parishioners would miss him So
ii was clearly Mil1icent's duty to go.
she had never been out of England
before, and she had a horror of travel
and an ingrained distrust of for
cigners.
The dear dean had given her end
less advice, warning her earnestly not
to enter into conversation with
strangers, to obtain all information
from the police, railway officials; in
fact, any one in an official uniform.
He deeply regretted to say that he
was afraid that France was not a
country for a woman to travel about
In alone. There were loose, bad peo-
pie about.
She donned a dressing gown. Then,
armed with sponge bag and towel,
she Crept timidly to the bathroom,
after closing her bedroom door and
turning out the light. The bath
cheered her. She wallowed Iuxuri-
ously in the hot water. And for the
first time since leaving home there
came to her pleasant moment-a
sense of enjoyment in her adventure.
After all. it was rather an adventure,
and her life had been peculiarly de-
void of it. How old was she? Not
really olu. not DN any means tOrty-
two? Forty-three? She had shut
herself up so. She hardly ever re-
Sarded the potentialities of age. As
the world went, she was a well pre-
served woman for her age.
Love? Yes. Once when she was
young girl. He was a schoolmaster,
most estimable, kind gentleman.
They were never engaged-not actu-
ally-but it was a kind of understood
this pleasant understanding and
friendship. He was so gentle, so dis
ttnguished and considerate. She would
have been happy to continue in this
strain forever. But there was some
thing lacking. Stephen had curious,
restless lapses. And then one day
one day he went away, vanished and
never returned. They told her he had
married one of the country girls-a
girl who used to work in Mrs. Forbes
dairy-not very nice girl, she
feared. Heigho! Well, she had lived
that down, destructive as the blow ap-
peared at the time.
X x K ):
CHE tidied up the bathroom. Then,
~ once more gripping her sponge
bag and towel and turning out the
light, she crept down the passage to
her room. Entering the room, she
switched on the light and shut the
door quickly. Then one of those
ridiculous things happened-just the
kind of thing you would expect to
happen in foreign hotel The handle
of the door came off in her hand.
She calculated a quiet Bother"
and sought to replace it with one
hand, the other being occupied with
the towel and sponge bag. In doing
this she behaved foolishly, for, thrust
l., -.
steel pin, without properly securing
It, she only succeeded in pushing the
pin farther into the door, and the
knob was not adjusted She uttered
another little "Bother!" and put her
sponge bag and towel down on the
floor. She then tried to recover the
pin with her left hand, but it had
gone in too far.
How very foolish" she thought.
II shall have to ring for the chamber
maid, and perhaps the poor girl has
gone to bed"
She turned and faced the room, and
suddenly the awful horror was upon
her. There was man asleep in her
bedi
The sight of that swarthy face on
the pillow, with its black tousled hair
and heavy mustache, produced in her
the most terrible moment of her life.
seconds she could neither think nor
scream, and her first thought was, II
mustn't scream"
She stood there like one paralyzed
staring at the mans head and the
great curved hunch Of his body under
the clothes. When she began to think
she thought very quickly and all her
thoughts worked together. The first
vivid realization was that it wasn't
Il. sar,fEr 1. II
She was in the wrong room. She
must get out somehow, anyhow
She clutched once more at the door,
feveriShly driving her finger nails
into the hole where the elusive pin
had vanished. She tried to force her
fingers in the crack and open the door
that way, but it was of no avail.
She was to all intents and purposes,
locked in a bedroom in a strange
hotel alone with a mana foreigner,
a Frenchman. She must think: she
must think. She switched off the
light. If the light was off he might
not wake up. 1t might give her time
to think how to act. 1t was surpris-
ing that he had not awakened. If he
did wake up, what would he do?
How could she explain herself? He
wouldn't believe her. No one would
believe her. In an English hotel it
would be difficult enough, but here
merciful heavens.
She must get out. Should she wake
the man? No, she couldn't do that.
He might murder her. Oh, it was
too awful to contemplated Should
she scream? Ring for the chamber
maid? But no, it would be the same
thing. People would come rushing
They would find her there in the
strange mans bedroom after mid
night-she AIillicent Bracegirdle,
sister of the Dean of Easingstroke, +,
EaSingstrokei