That Affair Next Door | Page 2

Anna Katharine Green

elapsed, I was settling myself again to sleep when I was re-aroused by a
fresh sound from the quarter mentioned. The door I had so lately heard
shut, opened again, and though I had to rush for it, I succeeded in
getting to my window in time to catch a glimpse of the departing figure
of the young man hurrying away towards Broadway. The young
woman was not with him, and as I realized that he had left her behind
him in the great, empty house, without apparent light and certainly
without any companion, I began to question if this was like Franklin
Van Burnam. Was it not more in keeping with the recklessness of his
more easy-natured and less reliable brother, Howard, who, some two or
three years back, had married a young wife of no very satisfactory
antecedents, and who, as I had heard, had been ostracized by the family
in consequence?

Whichever of the two it was, he had certainly shown but little
consideration for his companion, and thus thinking, I fell off to sleep
just as the clock struck the half hour after midnight.
Next morning as soon as modesty would permit me to approach the
window, I surveyed the neighboring house minutely. Not a blind was
open, nor a shutter displaced. As I am an early riser, this did not disturb
me at the time, but when after breakfast I looked again and still failed
to detect any evidences of life in the great barren front beside me, I
began to feel uneasy. But I did nothing till noon, when going into my
rear garden and observing that the back windows of the Van Burnam
house were as closely shuttered as the front, I became so anxious that I
stopped the next policeman I saw going by, and telling him my
suspicions, urged him to ring the bell.
No answer followed the summons.
"There is no one here," said he.
"Ring again!" I begged.
And he rang again but with no better result.
"Don't you see that the house is shut up?" he grumbled. "We have had
orders to watch the place, but none to take the watch off."
"There is a young woman inside," I insisted. "The more I think over
last night's occurrence, the more I am convinced that the matter should
be looked into."
He shrugged his shoulders and was moving away when we both
observed a common-looking woman standing in front looking at us.
She had a bundle in her hand, and her face, unnaturally ruddy though it
was, had a scared look which was all the more remarkable from the fact
that it was one of those wooden-like countenances which under
ordinary circumstances are capable of but little expression. She was not
a stranger to me; that is, I had seen her before in or about the house in
which we were at that moment so interested; and not stopping to put

any curb on my excitement, I rushed down to the pavement and
accosted her.
"Who are you?" I asked. "Do you work for the Van Burnams, and do
you know who the lady was who came here last night?"
The poor woman, either startled by my sudden address or by my
manner which may have been a little sharp, gave a quick bound
backward, and was only deterred by the near presence of the policeman
from attempting flight. As it was, she stood her ground, though the
fiery flush, which made her face so noticeable, deepened till her cheeks
and brow were scarlet.
"I am the scrub-woman," she protested. "I have come to open the
windows and air the house,"--ignoring my last question.
"Is the family coming home?" the policeman asked.
"I don't know; I think so," was her weak reply.
"Have you the keys?" I now demanded, seeing her fumbling in her
pocket.
She did not answer; a sly look displaced the anxious one she had
hitherto displayed, and she turned away.
"I don't see what business it is of the neighbors," she muttered,
throwing me a dissatisfied scowl over her shoulder.
"If you've got the keys, we will go in and see that things are all right,"
said the policeman, stopping her with a light touch.
She trembled; I saw that she trembled, and naturally became excited.
Something was wrong in the Van Burnam mansion, and I was going to
be present at its discovery. But her next words cut my hopes short.
"I have no objection to your going in," she said to the policeman, "but I
will not give up my keys to her. What right has she in our house any
way." And I thought I heard her murmur something about a

meddlesome old maid.
The look which I received from the policeman convinced me that
Continue reading on your phone by scaning this QR Code

 / 135
Tip: The current page has been bookmarked automatically. If you wish to continue reading later, just open the Dertz Homepage, and click on the 'continue reading' link at the bottom of the page.