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The Confession by Mary Roberts Rinehart
page 14 of 114 (12%)
unless it was that her back settled into more rigid lines. I
glanced along the pew. Willie's face wore a calm and slightly
somnolent expression. But Maggie, in her far end--she is very high
church and always attends--Maggie's eyes were glued almost fiercely
to Miss Emily's back. And just then Miss Emily herself stirred,
glanced up at the window, and turning slightly, returned Maggie's
glance with one almost as malevolent. I have hesitated over that
word. It seems strong now, but at the time it was the one that came
into my mind.

When it was over, it was hard to believe that it had happened. And
even now, with everything else clear, I do not pretend to explain
Maggie's attitude. She knew, in some strange way. But she did not
know that she knew--which sounds like nonsense and is as near as I
can come to getting it down in words.

Willie left that night, the 16th, and we settled down to quiet days,
and, for a time, to undisturbed nights. But on the following
Wednesday, by my journal, the telephone commenced to bother me again.
Generally speaking, it rang rather early, between eleven o'clock and
midnight. But on the following Saturday night I find I have recorded
the hour as 2 a. m.

In every instance the experience was identical. The telephone never
rang the second time. When I went downstairs to answer it--I did
not always go--there was the buzzing of the wire, and there was
nothing else. It was on the twenty-fourth that I had the telephone
inspected and reported in normal condition, and it is possibly
significant that for three days afterward my record shows not a
single disturbance.
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