The Shadow of the Rope

singular interview. You may hold your breath without moving a muscle, but the muscles will make up for it when their turn comes, and it w

hing of the kind, from hoarse throat and on fluttering placard, it was "Trial and Verd

r when all that had been said could be remembered, would his behavior be found so very inexplicable? Rachel was not devoid of a proper vanity, albeit that night she had

rong impression was not all on one side. No more, it would seem, was the fascination. Rachel, indeed, owned to no such feeling, even in her inmost heart. But she did begin to blame herself, alike for her reception of advances which might well have been dicta

was ashamed alike of her rudeness and her vanity; the latter she traced to its source. It was inspired by vague memories of other women who had been through the same ordeal as herself. One had been handed a bouquet in the dock; another had been overwhelmed by proposals of marriage. Rachel herself had received letters of which the first line was enough. But there had been no letter from Mr. Steel. Ah! b

rrantable in themselves, were yet marked by so many evidences of sympathy and consideration. She had not always been suspic

ould have wished. It was Mrs. Carrington, however, who had found the Minchins their furnished house, while her husband certainly interested himself in Rachel's defence. Carrington was a barrister, who never himself touched criminal work, but he had spoken to a friend who did, to wit the brilliant terror of female witnesses, and caustic critic of the police, to whom Rachel owed so little. But to Carrington himself she owed much-more indeed than she cared t

ad said, "when you get

was not Mrs. Carrington whom Rachel blamed, however, and those last words of hers implied an invitation which had never been withdrawn. But invitation or no invitation, friend or no friend, Mrs. Carrington s

rview that was over when she ought to have been preparing for the one still before her. And, in her absence of mind, the force of habit had taken advantage of her; ins

rwise all was as she remembered it only too well. Her breath came quickly. It was a strange trick her feet had played her, bringing her here against her will! Yet she had thought of coming as a

time-to show her face openly where it was known-not to slink and hide as though she were really guilty! That might give her back her self-respe

when she was arrested was in it still. Nobody had asked her for it; she had kept it for this; dare she use it afte

the steps. If sh

r own step rang in turn upon the floor. It was bare boards; and as Rachel felt her way to the electric switches, beyond the dining-room door, her fingers missed the pictures on the walls. This prepared her

his was illegal and wicked. The house was hers for other two months; and there were things of hers in it, she had left everything behind her. If they had been removed, then this outrage was lit

eemed to have contained bread and cheese; it did contain a report of the first day of the trial. They might have waited till her trial was over; they should suffer for their impatience, it was their turn. So angry was Rachel

d done in the small hours of that fatal morning, but this time all was darkness within. She had to put on the electric light for herself. The necessity

. The broken glass might have been placed upon the sill in order to promote the very theory which had been so gullibly adopted by the police, and the watch and chain hidden in the chimney for the same

was thinking only of him, and her eyes hung over the spot where she had seen him sitting dead-once without dreaming it-and soon they filled. Perhaps she was remembering all that had been good in him, perhaps all that had been evil in herself; her lips quivered, and her eyes filled. But it was

ladies must have gone upstairs, and Mrs. Carrington was the woman to see Rachel for five minutes, and the one woman in England to whom she could turn. It was an opportunity not to miss-she had not the courage to let it pass-and yet it required almost as much to ring the bell. And e

at Rachel had asked; and the omen was instantly fulfilled. It was Mr. Carrington who came into the room, dark, dapper, and duskily flushed with his own hospi

how it was to be; for with her at least this man had never been stiff before, having indee

to you," faltered Rache

aid it was n

on one of her impulses, "that you

emptuous superiority with which he would have referred to any other Old Bailey trial; but the m

a touch of the early manner which she

she had come to ask his advice. "What was the point?" he said to that, so crisply that t

u?" asked Carrington. "He came

well what

e term-quite right-the usual way. The permanent tenant wanted to be done with the house altogether, an

ded Rachel, "wher

uld not care to bother you about trifles until the case against you was satisfactorily d

said Rachel, miserably. "I know I oug

did not con

about," she went desperately on. "T

s with you, and to advise you to the best of my ability. If you could manage to come at ha

that she was faint with weariness and hunger, that she had nowhere to go for the night, and not the price of a decent meal, much

"oh, may I not sp

plied Carrington, with his bow and sm

pleaded Rachel. "I wo

iously irrevocable that Rachel said no more. But she would not see the hand that he could affor

uld have kept me! I know her! I know her! She would have had pity on

spectable hotel would take her in without

n idea came. She was very near the fatal little street at the time. She turned about, and then to the

lmost shutting the door in Rachel's fac

to let," said R

ly; and Rachel was not surprised, the o

our own evidence-and yet you of all women will not take me in!

e world; but for once a surprise was in store for her. The pale woman shifted her eyes,

ent witness for the defence. "But others do, and I am too near

seized

ten thousand times, that you should believe in me, that

gazing past the woman who believed in her, along the passag

," said the lan

did get

t morning, and for days and weeks. Now he's

she reached the pavement. The fact did not strike her. She was thinking for a moment of the innocent young foreigner who had brought matt

ght; she was famished and worn out in body and mind, nor cou

with food and warmth and rest, and the blessed cert

irony, after all

omething to eat, and take it with her; and at least she could rest, and would be alone, in the empt

eagerness to break a fast which she had only felt since excitement had given place to

d filled it; the crowd stood before the empty house of s

the light burning in the upper ro

what was being said. All eyes were upon the lighted window of the bedroom-watching for hers

re, I tell ye

! It's a

and's gho

e next street; an' followed 'er and 'eard the door go;

ve 'er ah

ain't no ri

ned cell's the

one afore the

nd within a very few minutes there was not a whole pane left in the fron

her lightly o

faith to the man in the

time that very evening, it was a voice th