While, to make
the fatality complete, Agnes herself had innocently provided
the conspirators with the one man who was fitted to be the passive
agent of their crime.
Even the bare doubt that it might be so was more than he could endure.
He left his room; resolved to force the truth out of the Countess,
or to denounce her before the authorities as a murderess at large.
Arrived at her door, he was met by a person just leaving the room.
The person was the manager. He was hardly recognisable; he looked
and spoke like a man in a state of desperation.
'Oh, go in, if you like!' he said to Henry. 'Mark this, sir!
I am not a superstitious man; but I do begin to believe that crimes
carry their own curse with them. This hotel is under a curse.
What happens in the morning? We discover a crime committed in the old
days of the palace. The night comes, and brings another dreadful
event with it--a death; a sudden and shocking death, in the house.
Go in, and see for yourself! I shall resign my situation,
Mr. Westwick: I can't contend with the fatalities that pursue
me here!'
Henry entered the room.
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