The Spinster: 1905

By Robert Hichens

'The Spinster' by Robert Hichens is a short story about a woman named Miss Bassett who has died, and how the characters in the story react to the news of her death. The story begins with the narrator having dinner with Inley and his wife, Lady Inley, when they hear the church bell tolling. Lady Inley mentions that the bell is tolling for Miss Bassett, an old spinster and cat-lover, who has passed away.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Good Press
• Release date: Mar 16, 2020
• ISBN: 4064066105365

Book preview

Robert Hichens

The Spinster

1905

Published by Good Press, 2020

[e-mail]

EAN 4064066105365

Table of Contents

Cover

Titlepage

Text

"

I had arrived at Inley Abbey that afternoon, and was sitting at dinner with Inley and his pretty wife, whom I had not seen for five years, since the day I was his best man, when we all heard faintly the tolling of a church bell. Lady Inley shook her shoulders in a rather exaggerated shudder.

Someone dead! said her husband.

It’s a mistake to build a church in the grounds of a house, Lady Inley said in her clear, drawling soprano voice. That noise gives me the blues.

Whom can it be for? asked Inley.

Miss Bassett, probably, Lady Inley replied carelessly, helping herself to a bonbon from a little silver dish.

Inley started.

Miss Sarah Bassett! What makes you think so?

Oh, while you were away in town she got ill. Didn’t you know?

No, said Inley.

I could see that he was moved. His dark, short face had changed suddenly, and he stopped eating his fruit. Lady Inley went on crunching the bonbon between her