So it ended by my
accepting, and I went down to Chiltern Grange, about six miles
from Farnham. Mr. Carruthers was a widower, but he had
engaged a lady housekeeper, a very respectable, elderly person,
called Mrs. Dixon, to look after his establishment. The child was
a dear, and everything promised weli. Mr. Carruthers was very
kind and very musical, and we had most pleasant evenings
together. Every week-end I went home to my mother in town.
"The first flaw in my happiness was the arrival of the red-
moustached Mr. Woodley. He came for a visit of a week, and
oh! it seemed three months to me. He was a dreadful person -- a
bully to everyone else, but to me something infinitely worse. He
made odious love to me, boasted of his wealth, said that if I
married him I could have the finest diamonds in London, and
finally, when I would have nothing to do with him, he seized me
in his arms one day after dinner -- he was hideously strong -- and
swore that he would not let me go until I had kissed him. Mr.
Carruthers came in and tore him from me, on which he turned
upon his own host, knocking him down and cutting his face open.
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