Explore "The Great House" by Stanley J. Weyman on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Basset had been absent the greater part of the day, and returning at sunset had learned that Miss Audley had not come back from Brown Heath. The servant had hinted alarm-the Chase was lonely, the hour late; and Basset had hurried off without more, not doubting that John Audley was in the house.
Now he was sure that John Audley had been abroad at the time, and he suspected that Toft had known it, and had kept it from him. He stood for a moment in thought, then he crossed the court to Toft's house. Mrs. Toft was cooking something savory in a bonnet before the fire, and the contrast between her warm cheerful kitchen and the stillness of the house from which he came struck him painfully. He told her that her daughter had received a blow on the head, and that Miss Audley needed supper-she had better attend to them.