CHAPTER 19Several things happened that afternoon. For one thing, the weather broke in a violent downpour which came on just after Mrs. Caddle had put on her hat and coat and shut the door of Rectory Cottage behind her. She had laid Miss Grey’s tea and left her supper in the larder. The first few heavy drops came spattering down as she latched the garden gate, and then, before she had gone twenty yards, the clouds opened and the rain came down. For a few minutes she stumbled on. Then even the state of dazed misery which for the past ten days had sealed her off from human contact was penetrated by sheer physical discomfort. She had neither umbrella nor waterproof. The rain ran into her eyes and down her neck, heavy as a thunder-plump, and of an icy, searching cold. She turned round and ran b
