The next minutes were like something from a nightmare, touched with unreality. I heard Adeline sobbing and crying “Wake up! Wake up! And don’t let her hurt me.”

Nanny was whispering to Mrs. Barton.

“Annie will be here soon. Might be a good idea to let her have a look at her.” She nudged Mrs. Barton, who smirked. It was as though they shared some secret joke.

Then to my relief and Adeline’s Miss Carson opened her eyes.

“What … what… ?” she began.

“You fainted, dear,” said Mrs. Barton.

Miss Carson looked about her in a bewildered, frightened way. Adeline was kneeling beside her, clinging to her hand.

“Don’t faint,” she pleaded.

“Stay here … with me.”

“I’ll help you up, dear,” said Mrs. Barton.

“Best go and have a lie down.”

“That’s it,” said Nanny.

“You go and lie down. You’ve had a nasty turn.”

Miss Carson went to her room. Nanny and Mrs. Barton went with her, and Adeline and I followed in their wake.

I was very shaken by the scene which I had witnessed. I even went into Miss Carson’s bedroom. She lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling and there was fear in her eyes.

“Now, you lie there for a bit,” said Mrs. Barton.

“Mustn’t upset yourself, you know.”

I saw Nanny’s lips turn up at the corners in that familiar smirk. Then her eyes fell on me and Adeline.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded.

“You get along with you.”

I took Adeline’s hand and we went out.

“Miss Carson is not ill, is she?” asked Adeline anxiously.

“She’ll be all right,” I told her.

“They won’t send her away, will they?”

I pressed her hand.

“Oh no, no,” I said, without conviction. I had to soothe Adeline. I could not bear to see her face so distorted by fear.

Nanny Gilroy had come up behind us. She seized Adeline’s hand and drew her away from me.

I went to my room. I knew something dramatic was going to happen. I believed Miss Carson would be told to pack her bags and go. Mrs. Marline would never allow anyone she employed to talk to her as Miss Carson had. She had come near to dismissal once before. She could not escape again. Like Adeline, I was wretched, contemplating what the house would be like without her.

When Annie Logan came at half past six to settle Mrs. Marline, Nanny Gilroy took her up to Miss Carson’s room. I opened my door and peered over the banisters. I saw them in the corridor.

“It would be best for you to have a look at her, Annie. Fainted clean away, she did. I mean, it’s not natural for a young woman to faint like that. There could be something wrong.”

Then they went in and the door shut.

I hung about, waiting, and in due course they came out and went down to the kitchen to have the customary cup of tea. I watched and I waited. They were there for some time with Mrs. Barton. I wished I could hear what they were saying.

Then the door opened and I heard Nanny say: “It’s only right and proper. Madam will have to be told. I ask you! To think of it! Mind you, I’ve had my suspicions all along. And I know you have, too.”

Annie Logan, with Nanny and Mrs. Barton in attendance went into Mrs. Marline’s room. I could not hear what was said. For once, Mrs. Marline was not shouting. Then they came out and Annie Logan went off on her bicycle, and Nanny and Mrs. Barton went back to the kitchen for more talk.

When the doctor came home, Mrs. Barton told him that the mistress wished to see him without delay. I knew there was going to be a discussion about Miss Carson’s future, and, as I had become a skilled eavesdropper, I managed to hear some of it.

Because it was a hot day, the french windows leading from the garden to Mrs. Marline’s room were open. I went as close as I dared and managed to hide myself in some measure behind a bush, and, although I could not hear all, I did hear some, particularly when Mrs. Marline raised her voice, as she did when she was incensed; and she was very angry.

“The insolence of the woman! Telling me how I was to treat my own daughter!”

Then there was a rumble from the doctor which was indecipherable.

“You would stand up for the slut! This is the last straw. She is going now. It would be a disgrace to keep her. You’d dismiss her … or … will you leave it to me? I want her out of this house. Let her stay the night, and then … out.”

The doctor must have left then, for there was silence.

I crept into the house, and, on impulse, went to Miss Carson’s room. I knocked and, when she heard my voice, she said: “Come in.”

I went in. Adeline was lying on the bed with her, her arms round Miss Carson. She was crying, and Miss Carson was comforting her.

I felt such a rush of emotion that I went to Miss Carson and the three of us were lying on the bed, our arms round each other, when the doctor came in.

He looked pale and unhappy.

“Oh, Papa,” sobbed Adeline.

“Don’t let Miss Carson go.”

“We must do our best to make her stay,” he said.

“Yes, yes, yes,” cried Adeline.

“And now, children, I have something important to say to Miss Carson.

Carmel, will you take Adeline away? “

We rose from the bed and Adeline ran to her father. She took his hand.

“Please … please … make her stay.”

“Dear child,” he said, and he stooped and kissed her. It was something I had never seen him do before.

“I shall do all in my power,” he said.

Then he smiled kindly at me, and, taking Adeline’s hand, I led her away.

It was a strange night. I slept little and when I awoke to daylight, it was with a sense of deep foreboding. I knew it was going to be an important day.

Of course, it was the day when Henry was going back to school. He was to leave at ten in the morning, as he had done before. Previously everything else had been forgotten in Henry’s departure and it seemed much the same today.

Henry had spent the evening with Lucian at the Grange, and seemed to know nothing of the events of the night before; but then Henry was rarely interested in anything that was not of immediate concern to himself and, as Miss Carson had played a very small part in his existence, he would not realize or care what a tragedy her departure would be.

The doctor drove him to the station, as he always had, and there he would meet Lucian and the two of them would travel together. Having said goodbye to them, the doctor would go to his surgery and not return until late afternoon. It was strange, after last night’s drama, that everything should seem to have returned to normal. But, of course, things were far from normal, and this quiet was what people called the lull before the storm. Mrs. Marline would insist on Miss Carson’s departure and would the doctor be able to prevent it?

Miss Carson was not feeling well enough to take lessons. Estella was pleased about this. She knew that there had been trouble between Miss Carson and her mother, and she gave me the impression that she knew something which she then refused to tell me. She went over to see Camilla, who was not going back to school for a few more days.

I did not go with her. I did not want to leave the house, for I did not know when the next momentous event might occur.

Mrs. Marline stayed very quietly in her room.

I heard Nanny say to Mrs. Barton: “The mistress is upset. Who wouldn’t be? Wait till he comes back, then the fire works will start.”

There was something ominous about the silence that afternoon. It pervaded the house. It would break when the doctor returned, as that would be time for the ‘fireworks’.

But it happened before his return. It was when Tom Yardley went into Mrs. Marline’s room to see if she would like the chair taken into the garden. Tom Yardley seemed destined to make momentous discoveries.

The trench windows were open, so he rapped on them and called out.

There was no answer and he looked into the room. Mrs. Marline was in bed. He thought she was fast asleep and was about to turn away when he heard a strange gurgling noise, which didn’t sound quite right to Tom Yardley.

He thought he’d better mention it, so he went round to the kitchen.

Mrs. Barton was there and he told her.

Together they went to Mrs. Marline’s room. Mrs. Marline was silent and there was no gurgling sound; but they both thought she looked different somehow, and Mrs. Barton said there was no harm in sending for Dr. Everest.

Tom went off to get him, but Dr. Everest was with a patient and it was a good hour before he arrived at Commonwood House; and when he did come, it was to find that Mrs. Marline was dead.

A Sea Voyage

It is hard for me to remember exactly what happened on that day. There were so many comings and goings, so much whispering and heavy silences.

The news that Mrs. Marline was dead was a great shock to everyone. Dr. Everest must have sent for Dr. Marline, for he came home, in a state of disbelief and horror.

The doctors were together for a long time and then Dr. Everest left.

Nanny Gilroy and Mrs. Barton whispered together and when Annie Logan came, she stayed with them and they shut the door in case anyone heard what they were saying.

The doctor and Miss Carson were in the drawing-room together. They both seemed in a state of shock.

Estella and I talked about what had happened. Neither of us could pretend to mourn Mrs. Marline. I had many times heard the term ‘happy release’ applied to death; and I often thought how well it fitted in this case. It was certainly a release for us, and, since Mrs. Marline had been in such pain, for her also.