A Queen's Error

E-text prepared by Al Haines
Author of
The Blood Bond The Idol of the King Tears of Angels The Queen's Gate Mystery Out of the Shadows Etc. Etc.
London F. V. White & Co. Ltd. 17 Buckingham Street, Strand, W.C. 1911
I turned the corner abruptly and found myself in a long, dreary street; looking in the semi-fog and drizzle more desolate than those dismal old-world streets of Bath I had passed through already in my aimless wandering; I turned sharply and came almost face to face with her.
She was standing on the upper step, and the door stood open; the house itself looked neglected and with the general appearance of having been shut up for years. The windows were grimed with dirt, and there was that little accumulation of dust, pieces of straw, and little scraps of paper, under the two steps which tells of long disuse.
She stood on the step, a figure slightly over the middle height, leaning one hand on a walking stick, and her face fascinated me.
It was the face of an old lady of perhaps seventy, hale and healthful, with fresh colour on the cheeks, and bands of perfectly white hair falling over the ears. But it was the expression which attracted me; it was peculiarly sweet and winning.
My halt could only have been momentary. I recollected myself and was passing on, when she spoke to me.
Would you be so kind as to do me a favour, sir? she asked.
The voice was as sweet and winning as her expression; though she spoke perfect English, yet there was the very slightest soupçon of a foreign accent. Of what country, I could not tell.
I stopped again as she spoke, and having perhaps among my friends a little reputation for politeness to the weaker sex, especially the older members of it—for I am not by way of being a Lothario, be it said—I answered her as politely as I could.