What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? by Henry Farrell Page A

now that her plan with the note held dangers she had not considered; there could so easily be ugly consequences, consequences that she didn’t dare risk. But if she threw away this chance, there wouldn’t be another until Mrs. Stitt came on Friday.…
    And then she remembered; Mrs. Stitt had altered her plans for the week; she had said she would be back on Monday morning. Tomorrow! The awful weight of her anxiety fell suddenly away. How foolish to have forgotten; in her fright it had simply slippedher mind. But now that she had remembered it was all so simple; when Mrs. Stitt came tomorrow, she would promptly send her out to call Dr. Shelby from the nearest phone booth, and when he came… What an absolute fool she had been to let herself get into such a state over nothing. Folding the note quickly, almost embarrassedly, she shoved it back into her pocket.
    Certainly, Mrs. Stitt had informed Jane, too, of her plans. So Jane could hardly be plotting anything so very sinister, knowing that the woman would be coming into the house the very next morning. Recalling her morbid fancies about Jane’s plans to starve and frighten her to death, Blanche felt a faint flush of chagrin. What a state she had been in! Since Jane had uncovered the breakfast tray to show her there was nothing wrong with it, it was evident that that hideous nonsense was at an end.
    At the thought of breakfast, Blanche looked back toward the desk, and at the sight of the food, she was suddenly famished. In a mood of happy relief, she turned her chair and started forward.
    As the day passed quietly and without incident, Blanche’s newly found optimism seemed justified. Jane spent most of her time downstairs. Promptly at one she appeared with Blanche’s lunch, uncovered the tray as she had at breakfast time, so that she could see that it contained only a fruit salad in gelatin and a few crackers.
    After lunch Blanche read a bit and then, to make up for the sleep she had lost during the night, napped. Shortly after four she awoke, greatly rested, and wheeled her chair to the window to see that Mrs. Bates, in accordance with her accustomed schedule, had returned to her garden. Blanche’s hand sought the note in her pocket, but left it there undisturbed.
    At seven, when Jane brought her dinner tray up to her and left it on the desk without removing its cover, Blanche felt none of the previous day’s apprehension. With only a momentary twinge ofdoubt, she moved her chair over to the desk, reached out to the cloth and removed it.
    The food looked wonderful. There were two perfectly grilled chops, a small helping of mashed potatoes, carrots and peas, a small green salad and a slice of cherry pie. Eagerly Blanche picked up her fork and took up some of the potatoes.
    She had only just put the food into her mouth when with a sharp gasp she started forward. Letting her fork fall, unnoticed, to the floor, she reached quickly for her napkin. And then she stopped, staring down hard at her plate.
    She saw now what she had not seen before; the entire meal had been carefully sprinkled over with fine, white sand.

5
    A t a quarter to nine the house was still silent; Jane had yet to awaken and emerge from her room.
    For Blanche the night had passed again in frightened and interminable sleeplessness. Again she had sat the night out in her chair, listening to the endless silence, her heart racing for fear of—she didn’t know what. And again she had watched the dawn come obliquely into the room through the window, creeping in past the grillwork with cold, gray stealth. Now, as the day began to ripen, and a band of golden light appeared on the sill, Blanche waited with increased tenseness, praying fervently that Mrs. Stitt would come before Jane was up.
    It was just two minutes to nine when she finally heard a sound from downstairs and rolled her chair quickly over to the door. There was a slight scratching sound which, even from so great a distance, Blanche recognized as Mrs.