led.

There was no answer, but the house reverberated again.

"Henry, have you got in?"

But it was the heart of the house beating, faintly at first, then
loudly, martially. It dominated the rain.

It is the starved imagination, not the well-nourished, that is afraid.
Margaret flung open the door to the stairs. A noise as of drums seemed
to deafen her. A woman, an old woman, was descending, with figure erect,
with face impassive, with lips that parted and said dryly:

"Oh! Well, I took you for Ruth Wilcox."

Margaret stammered: "I--Mrs. Wilcox--I?"

"In fancy, of course--in fancy. You had her way of walking. Good-day."
And the old woman passed out into the rain.

CHAPTER XXIV

"It gave her quite a turn," said Mr. Wilcox, when retailing the incident
to Dolly at tea-time. "None of you girls have any nerves, really. Of
course, a word from me put it all right, but silly old Miss Avery--she
frightened you, didn't she, Margaret? There you stood clutching a bunch
of weeds. She might have said something, instead of coming down the
stairs with that alarming bonnet on. I passed her as I came in. Enough
to make the car shy. I believe Miss Avery goes in for being a character;
some old maids do." He lit a cigarette. "It is their last resource.
Heaven knows what she was doing in the place; but that's Bryce's
business, not mine."

"I wasn't as foolish as you suggest," said Margaret "She only startled
me, for the house had been silent so long."

"Did you take her for a spook?" asked Dolly, for whom "spooks"' and
"going to church" summarised the unseen.

"Not exactly."

"She really did frighten you," said Henry, who was far from discouraging
timidity in females. "Poor Margaret! And very naturally. Uneducated
classes are so stupid."

"Is Miss Avery uneducated classes?" Margaret asked, and found herself
looking at the decoration scheme of Dolly's drawing-room.

"She's just one of the crew at the farm. People like that always assume
things. She assumed you'd know who she was. She left all the Howards End
keys in the front lobby, and assumed that you'd seen them as you came
in, that you'd lock up the house when you'd done, and would bring them
on down to her. And there was her niece hunting for them down at the
farm. Lack of education makes people very casual. Hilton was full of
women like Miss Avery once."

"I shouldn't have disliked it, perhaps."

"Or Miss Avery giving me a wedding present," said Dolly.

Which