Page:The Strange Case of Miss Annie Spragg (1928).djvu/234

 (happily dressed) and listening to the gramophone when an antiquated and high-pitched Rolls Royce drove up and stopped before the door. At sight of it Bessie withdrew quickly behind the curtains but not so quickly that she wasn't able to see that it had on the door a coronet exactly like the one she had seen on the letter found in Mr. Blundon's room so many years before. A footman rang the bell and in a moment Briggs came in trembling, pale and shaken, to ask if Mrs. Winnery could receive er Gryce, the Duchess of Narkworth."

"Now," thought Bessie, es's done it. E'sit. 'E's [sic] gone and told 'er the whole thing."

Peering from behind the curtain she saw a little old woman dressed very queerly in black with a black bonnet and parasol get down from the Rolls Royce and come up the steps.

"She ain't so awesome," thought Bessie with relief. "She looks just like old Mrs. Grubb that sits in the third pew at chapel."

The little old lady came in and Bessie received her with all the grace of manner Mr. Winnery had taught her. Would 'er Gryce sit down? And did she mind the poodle puppies? No, it appeared, 'er Gryce didn't mind, she kept spaniels herself—cockers—and she was very attached to them. Bessie told her about the death of Esther and Minnie, not without shedding a tear and explaining their relation to the late Mr. Winnery.

And then 'er Gryce came to the point. She too had just lost her husband a little while before and since he was dead there had been a reconciliation between her and Mr. Blundon, the cousin of the