第42章

When they had first taken the house, the basement had been made by her care, if not into a pleasant, then, at any rate, into a very clean place.She had had it whitewashed, and against the still white walls the gas stove loomed up, a great square of black iron and bright steel.It was a large gas-stove, the kind for which one pays four shillings a quarter rent to the gas company, and here, in the kitchen, there was no foolish shilling-in-the-slot arrangement.

Mrs.Bunting was too shrewd a woman to have anything to do with that kind of business.There was a proper gas-meter, and she paid for what she consumed after she had consumed it.

Putting her candle down on the well-scrubbed wooden table, she turned up the gas-jet, and blew out the candle.

Then, lighting one of the gas-rings, she put a frying-pan on the stove, and once more her mind reverted, as if in spite of herself, to Mr.Sleuth.Never had there been a more confiding or trusting gentleman than the lodger, and yet in some ways he was so secret, so - so peculiar.

She thought of the bag - that bag which had rumbled about so queerly in the chiffonnier.Something seemed to tell her that tonight the lodger had taken that bag out with him.

And then she thrust away the thought of the bag almost violently from her mind, and went back to the more agreeable thought of Mr.

Sleuth's income, and of how little trouble he gave.Of course, the lodger was eccentric, otherwise he wouldn't be their lodger at all - he would be living in quite a different sort of way with some of his relations, or with a friend in his own class.

While these thoughts galloped disconnectedly through her mind, Mrs.Bunting went on with her cooking, preparing the cheese, cutting it up into little shreds, carefully measuring out the butter, doing everything, as was always her way, with a certain delicate and cleanly precision.

And then, while in the middle of toasting the bread on which was to be poured the melted cheese, she suddenly heard sounds which startled her, made her feel uncomfortable.

Shuffling, hesitating steps were creaking down the house.

She looked up and listened.

Surely the lodger was not going out again into the cold and foggy night - going out, as he had done the other evening, for a second time? But no; the sounds she heard, the sounds of now familiar footsteps, did not continue down the passage leading to the front door.

Instead - Why, what was this she heard now? She began to listen so intently that the bread she was holding at the end of the toasting-fork grew quite black.With a start she became aware that this was so, and she frowned, vexed with herself.That came of not attending to one's work.

Mr.Sleuth was evidently about to do what he had never yet done.

He was coming down into the kitchen.

Nearer and nearer came the thudding sounds, treading heavily on the kitchen stairs, and Mrs.Bunting's heart began to beat as if in response.She put out the flame of the gas-ring, unheedful of the fact that the cheese would stiffen and spoil in the cold air.

Then she turned and faced the door.

There came a fumbling at the handle, and a moment later the door opened, and revealed, as she had at once known and feared it would do, the lodger.

Mr.Sleuth looked even odder than usual.He was clad in a plaid dressing-gown, which she had never seen him wear before, though she knew that he had purchased it not long after his arrival.In his hand was a lighted candle.

When he saw the kitchen all lighted up, and the woman standing in it, the lodger looked inexplicably taken aback, almost aghast.

"Yes, sir? What can I do for you, sir? I hope you didn't ring, sir?"Mrs.Bunting held her ground in front of the stove.Mr.Sleuth had no business to come like this into her kitchen, and she intended to let him know that such was her view.

"No, I - I didn't ring," he stammered awkwardly."The truth is, Ididn't know you were here, Mrs.Bunting.Please excuse my costume.