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THE OPEN WINDOW

window got anything to do with the carpets. So like you men-folk, isn’t
tragedy?” it?”
“Out through that window, three She rattled on cheerfully about the
years ago to a day, her husband and shooting and the scarcity of birds, and
her two young brothers went off for the prospects for duck in the winter.
their day’s shooting. They never came To Framton it was all purely horrible.
back. In crossing the moor to their fa- He made a desperate but only partially
vourite snipe-shooting ground they successful effort to turn the talk on to
were all three engulfed in a treacher- a less ghastly topic; he was conscious
ous piece of bog. It had been that that his hostess was giving him only a
dreadful wet summer, you know, and fragment of her attention, and her
places that were safe in other years eyes were constantly straying past him
gave way suddenly without warning. to the open window and the lawn be-
Their bodies were never recovered. yond. It was certainly an unfortunate
That was the dreadful part of it.” coincidence that he should have paid
Here the child’s voice lost its self- his visit on this tragic anniversary.
possessed note and became falteringly “The doctors agree in ordering me
human. “Poor aunt always thinks that complete rest, an absence of mental ex-
they will come back some day, they citement, and avoidance of anything
and the little brown spaniel that was in the nature of violent physical exer-
lost with them, and walk in at that cise,” announced Framton, who la-
window just as they used to do. That boured under the tolerably widespread
is why the window is kept open every delusion that total strangers and
evening till it is quite dusk. Poor dear chance acquaintances are hungry for
aunt, she has often told me how they the least detail of one’s ailments and
went out, her husband with his white infirmities, their cause and cure. “On
waterproof coat over his arm, and the matter of diet they are not so much
Ronnie, her youngest brother, singing in agreement,” he continued.
‘Bertie, why do you bound?’ as he al- “No?” said Mrs. Sappleton, in a
ways did to tease her, because she said voice which only replaced a yawn at
it got on her nerves. Do you know, the last moment. Then she suddenly
sometimes on still, quiet evenings like brightened into alert attention—but
this, I almost get a creepy feeling that not to what Framton was saying.
they will all walk in through that “Here they are at last!” she cried.
window—” “Just in time for tea, and don’t they
She broke off with a little shudder. look as if they were muddy up to the
It was a relief to Framton when the eyes!”
aunt bustled into the room with a Framton shivered slightly and
whirl of apologies for being late in turned towards the niece with a look
making her appearance. intended to convey sympathetic com-
“I hope Vera has been amusing prehension. The child was staring out
you?” she said. through the open window with dazed
“She has been very interesting,” said horror in her eyes. In a chill shock of
Framton. nameless fear Framton swung round
“I hope you don’t mind the open in his seat and looked in the same di-
window,” said Mrs. Sappleton briskly; rection.
“my husband and brothers will be In the deepening twilight three fig-
home directly from shooting, and they ures were walking across the lawn to-
always come in this way. They’ve been wards the window; they all carried
out for snipe in the marshes to-day, so guns under their arms, and one of
they’ll make a fine mess over my poor them was additionally burdened with
a white coat hung over his shoulders.

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