The Most Maddening Story in the World

-"I lay stress," continued John Chester, "on Brassington's feelings at this moment. He never quite understood why he handed over the card. It would have been easy for him to have visited an ordinary house-agent without the proprietor's help. In fact, had he thought about the matter at all, he would surely have seen that the proprietor would naturally not be too keen to see the departure of his guest. But he didn't think. He just took the card out of his pocket and handed it over.

-"And then a queer little pang raced through his body, a pang of shame or horror or--fright. He told me afterwards that before the proprietor spoke, he was convinced that he'd made the biggest mistake of his life. And he was angry with himself. But he was also unmistakably afraid, for it suddenly seemed to him that, to use one of our modern turns of slang, he was up against _something_ which would render him powerless and absurd if nothing worse. He tried to pull himself together. What significance could the mere handing over of a card with some half-dozen words scribbled on it, possibly have? His commonsense told him none, but his instinct sent a warning in that tiny pang. And so he just sat there and waited."