CLOSE QUARTERS Theydon escorted Miss Beale downstairs.

As they passed the closed door of No.

17, the lady shivered.
"To think that within the next few days I would have been staying there with Edith, and planning evenings at the theater before going to Newquay!" she murmured; there was a pitiful catch in her voice that told better than words how the remainder of her existence would be darkened by the tragedy.
At best she was a shrinking, timid little woman, for whom life probably held but narrow interests.

Such as they were, their placid content was forever shattered.

The death of her niece had closed the one chief avenue leading to the outer world.