Overture to Death

‘Oh, Lord!’ thought Dinah. ‘What’s brewing now?’ She wished that her father was a stronger character, that he would bully or frighten those two venomous women into holding their tongues. And suddenly, with a cold pang, she thought: ‘If he should lose his head and marry one of them!’

Henry brought her a cup of black coffee.

‘I’ve put some whisky in it,’ he said. ‘You’re as pale as a star, and look frightened. What is it?’

‘Nothing. I’m just tired.’

Henry bent his dark head and whispered:

‘Dinah?’

‘Yes.’

‘I’ll talk to Father on Saturday night when he’s flushed with his dubious triumphs. Did you get my letter?’

Dinah’s hand floated to her breast.

‘Darling,’ whispered Henry. ‘Yours, too. We can’t wait any longer. After tomorrow?’

‘After tomorrow,’ murmured Dinah.

CHAPTER 7 Vignettes

‘I have sinned,’ said Miss Prentice, ‘in thought, word and deed by my fault, by my own fault, by my most grievous fault. Especially I accuse myself that since that last confession, which was a month ago, I have sinned against my neighbour. I have harboured evil suspicions of those with whom I have come in contact, accusing them in my heart of adultery, unfaithfulness and disobedience to their parents. I have judged my sister-woman in my heart and condemned her. I have listened many times to evil reports of a woman, and because I could not in truth say that I did not believe them –’

‘Do not seek to excuse rather than to condemn yourself,’ said the rector from behind the Norman confessional that his bishop allowed him to use. ‘Condemn only your own erring heart. You have encouraged and connived at scandal. Go on.’

There was a brief silence.

‘I accuse myself that I have committed sins of omission, not performing what I believed to be my bounden Christian duty to the sick, not warning one whom I believe to be in danger of great unhappiness.’

The rector heard Miss Prentice turn a page of the notebook where she wrote her confessions. ‘I know what she’s getting at,’ he thought miserably. But because he was a sincere and humble man, he prayed: ‘Oh, God, give me the strength of mind to tackle this woman. Amen.’

Miss Prentice cleared her throat in a subdued manner and began again. ‘I have consorted with a woman whom I believe to be of evil nature, knowing that by doing so I may have seemed to connive in sin.’

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