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A House to Let by Adelaide Anne Procter;Charles Dickens;Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell;Wilkie Collins
page 48 of 126 (38%)
the man was, and in this he was baffled. He was, consequently, much
irritated. He returned to his uncle and aunt in a state of great
annoyance and perplexity, and told them he could get nothing out of the
woman; that some man had been in the house the night before; but that she
refused to tell who he was. At this moment his wife came in, greatly
agitated, and asked what had happened to Norah; for that she had put on
her things in passionate haste, and had left the house.

"This looks suspicious," said Mr. Chadwick. "It is not the way in which
an honest person would have acted."

Mr. Openshaw kept silence. He was sorely perplexed. But Mrs. Openshaw
turned round on Mr. Chadwick with a sudden fierceness no one ever saw in
her before.

"You don't know Norah, uncle! She is gone because she is deeply hurt at
being suspected. O, I wish I had seen her--that I had spoken to her
myself. She would have told me anything." Alice wrung her hands.

"I must confess," continued Mr. Chadwick to his nephew, in a lower voice,
"I can't make you out. You used to be a word and a blow, and oftenest
the blow first; and now, when there is every cause for suspicion, you
just do nought. Your missus is a very good woman, I grant; but she may
have been put upon as well as other folk, I suppose. If you don't send
for the police, I shall."

"Very well," replied Mr. Openshaw, surlily. "I can't clear Norah. She
won't clear herself, as I believe she might if she would. Only I wash my
hands of it; for I am sure the woman herself is honest, and she's lived a
long time with my wife, and I don't like her to come to shame."
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