A Simple Case of Ill-Will — Evelyn Berckman

Miss Armina Clere never entered that little room on the first floor of the club without coveting it for herself. Going home at midnight was becoming more and more of a strain. Yet she knew that Phyllis Dalton, highly though she valued Armina's services as a bridge hostess, would never let her have the bedroom. -- Phyliss' refusal accounted for the coolness between the two women but not for the edgy atmostphere in the birdge club. It went much deeper. Phyllis had quarrelled with her second floor tenant Fleur Daintry about a gas leak in the basement which Phyllis claimed had been put right. Armina, who could never keep her nose out of anything, also noticed the smell. So Fleur appealed to Lady Mellish, the club's most enthusiastic member and the owner of the whole house. Even so, the last thing she should have done, with her heart, was to go scrambling in basements after gas leaks.