Fear Stalks the Village

The village was beautiful. It was enfolded in a hollow of the Downs, and wrapped up snugly-first, in a floral shawl of gardens, and then, in a great green shawl of fields. Lilies and lavender grew in abundance. Bees clustered over sweet-scented herbs with the hum of a myriad spinning-wheels. Although the cottages which lined the cobbled street were perfect specimens of Tudor architecture, the large houses on the green were, chiefly, of later date. The exception was a mellow Elizabethan mansion-'Spout Manor', on Miss Asprey's printed note-paper-but known locally by its original name of 'The Spout'. This was the residence of Miss Decima Asprey, the queen of the village-an elderly spinster of beautiful appearance and character, and possessed of the essential private means. Miss Asprey's subjects were not only well-bred and charming, but endowed with such charity that there was no poverty or unemployment in the village. The ladies had not to grapple with a servant problem, which oiled the wheels of hospitality. If family feuds existed, they were not advertised, and private lives were shielded by drawn blinds. Consequently, the social tone was fragrant as rosemary, and scandal nearly as rare as a unicorn.