Chapter 10 - Page 2

important; in all probability Fan's whole after life would have been
different if she had not made that trivial mistake.

She was quickly at the station, and after taking her ticket had only a
few minutes to wait for a train; half an hour later she was at Twickenham
Station. As soon as the platform was clear of the other passengers who
had alighted, a respectably-dressed woman got up from one of the seats
and came up to Fan. "You are Miss Affleck," she said, with a furtive
glance at the girl's face. "Miss Starbrow sent me to meet you. She is
going to stay a few days with friends just outside of Twickenham. Will
you please come this way?"

She took the bag from Fan, then led the way not to, but round the
village, and at some distance beyond it into a road with trees planted in
it and occasional garden-seats. They followed this road for about a
quarter of a mile, then left it, and the villas and houses near it, and
struck across a wide field. Beyond it, in an open space, they came to an
isolated terrace of small red-brick cottages. The cottages seemed newly
built and empty, and no person was moving about; nor had any road been
made, but the houses stood on the wet clay, full of deep cart-wheel ruts,
and strewn with broken bricks and builders' rubbish. In the middle of the
row Fan noticed that one of the cottages was inhabited, apparently by
very poor people, for as she passed by with her guide, three or four
children and a woman, all wretchedly dressed, came out and stared
curiously at her. Then, to her surprise, her guide stopped at the last
house of the row, and opened the door with a latchkey. The windows were
all closed, and from the outside it looked uninhabited, and as they went
into the narrow uncarpeted hall Fan began to experience some nervous
fears. Why had her mistress, a rich woman, with a luxurious home of her
own, come into this miserable suburban cottage? The door of a small
square room on the ground-floor was standing open, and looking into it
she saw that it contained a couple of chairs and a table, but no other
furniture and no carpet.

"Where's Miss Starbrow?" she asked, becoming alarmed.

"Upstairs, waiting for you. This way, please"; and taking Fan by the
hand, she attempted to lead her up the narrow uncarpeted stairs. But
suddenly, with a cry of terror, the girl snatched herself free and rushed
down into the open room, and stood there panting, white and trembling
with terror, her eyes dilated, like some wild animal that finds itself
caught in a trap.

"What ails you?" said the woman, quickly following her down.

"Captain Horton is there--I saw him looking down!" said Fan, in a
terrified whisper. "Oh,