Page:Marsh--The seen and the unseen.djvu/175

Rh Thus spoke the landlady, hastily summoned to the presence of the newly dead.

"Starvation!"

The young man turned his ghastly face to the woman's. "Starvation. He's been slowly starving this ever so long. I don't believe he's tasted a morsel of meat these last two weeks. He owed me seven weeks' rent. But he was such an old lodger I didn't like to be hard on him. Now, I suppose, I shall lose it all."

"But I thought he had so many clients?"

"Not one. He used to have when first I knew him, but they turned him up—long ago! I don't believe he ever named a winner in his life. I know more than once he put me on a wrong one. Of late things have been preying on his mind. It's my belief that for nearly a week now he's been quite cracked."

Mr. Major wondered.