Mrs. Harter by E.M. Delafield

Most of us, at Cross Loman, have begun to forget about Mrs. Harter and Captain Patch, and those of us who still remember -- and after all, it was only last summer -- hardly ever speak their names.

I know that Mary Ambrey remembers, just as I do. Sometimes we talk about it to each other, and exchange impressions and conjectures. Conjectures more than anything, because neither of us has the inside knowledge that alone could help one to a real understanding of what happened. Mary goes by intuition a good deal, and after all she did see something of Mrs. Harter. Personally, I know less than anybody. Bill Patch was my junior by many years and, though I saw him very often, we were never anything more than acquaintances. And Diamond Harter, oddly enough, I scarcely spoke to at all. And yet I have so vivid an impression of her strange personality that I feel as though I understood her better than anyone now living can ever do.