Chapter Two of Sleeping Murder

The second chapter of the novel gives the reader more of a sense as to what has happened in that house. A month has passed since she has been in that house without her husband, Giles. Renovations were being made to the house and most of them were completed or almost there. Throughout the chapter Gwenda has known things about the house that she did not realize. For example, the cabinet in the nursery was covered up and painted over but underneath it the wallpaper had little bunches of poppies alternating with bunches of cornflowers. That would not be so strange except for the fact that she had imagined the exact same pattern to use for her new drapes in that room and had no idea. Another instance was when she first met Foster, the gardener. Gwenda mentioned that she wanted a path leading down to the lawn and the sea which was fairly close to the house. Foster was surprised considering there had been steps in that spot originally but had planted over with many different shrubs and other things over the years. He was pleased with Gwenda because he felt the same way she did which was that it looked much nicer to have steps. Lastly was the incident in the hallway coming out of the drawing room. Gwenda was in her drawing room writing letters and walked out a little later on in the wrong direction and walked right into the wall thinking there was a door leading to the dining room and had done that a few times. It turns out there actually was a door there in the exact same spot that she ran into several times but it was painted over. She had absolutely no knowledge of that so naturally she began to believe that she was clairvoyant. The house began to frighten Gwenda so she sent a telegram to Giles' cousins in London, England accepting their invitation for her to come visit them for a while which she had gotten earlier in the chapter.