Explore "The House in Lordship Lane" by A.E.W. Mason on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Olivia was near to the centre of the room when the lights were turned on. Horbury's gross body had fallen forward over the blotting-book and the table, but in his panic he had drawn its legs so tightly to him as a defence that he was wedged in his chair. His head was turned towards me, so that she could not see the wound at his throat. But the pool of blood upon the floor and the blue-handled knife amongst it could have left her in no doubt of his death. She did not touch him but she covered her face with her hands, and then, taking them away, said in a pitiful quiet voice: "Daniel! Oh, Daniel!"
I was hurt by her appeal. You may think that unimportant, but I was. It sounded as if a child were complaining of some injustice and asking for it to be explained to her; and explained by the one man who would never explain anything any more--not even to an assembly of shareholders in the Cannon Street Hotel who wanted to know where their dividends had gone to. Did I utter some sort of cry? I don't know, but I felt that her face turned suddenly towards me. In a fluster I rattled the handle of the door.