Comfortable
"You will be comfortable". That indicates to me that Astrachan man may have planned to stay the night. Not something to a customer coming in for a quickie. Perhaps telling Mary that he needed somewhere to wait for an early train. "You will be all right for what I have told you". Sounds as though he was offering her extra money. A quickie (possibly) AND a place to wait. For anything. Mary falls asleep, A man sitting up and waiting. I believe Mary pulled the sheet over her face, instinctively trying to hide, having woken up to the sight of a knife-wielding maniac. She had what could have been a defence wound on her thumb. She cries out "murder" in shock. Astrachan man doesn't seem to have been a stranger to her and therefore someone she trusted. Strange that Hutchinson never mentions the man's voice or accent. Perhaps that was a detail the police deliberately kept to themselves.
Best wishes
C4
"You will be comfortable". That indicates to me that Astrachan man may have planned to stay the night. Not something to a customer coming in for a quickie. Perhaps telling Mary that he needed somewhere to wait for an early train. "You will be all right for what I have told you". Sounds as though he was offering her extra money. A quickie (possibly) AND a place to wait. For anything. Mary falls asleep, A man sitting up and waiting. I believe Mary pulled the sheet over her face, instinctively trying to hide, having woken up to the sight of a knife-wielding maniac. She had what could have been a defence wound on her thumb. She cries out "murder" in shock. Astrachan man doesn't seem to have been a stranger to her and therefore someone she trusted. Strange that Hutchinson never mentions the man's voice or accent. Perhaps that was a detail the police deliberately kept to themselves.
Best wishes
C4
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