Hugh Walpole

“The Silver Mask” is a short story by British writer Hugh Walpole, first published in March 1932 in Harper’s Bazaar and later included in the collection All Souls’ Night (1933). The story begins on a cold night in London, when Miss Sonia Herries, a lonely fifty-year-old woman, encounters an extraordinarily handsome young beggar who begs her for help for his starving family. Moved by a compassionate impulse, Sonia invites him to her home, unaware that this gesture will draw her into a strange and disturbing situation, where emotional vulnerability becomes her greatest weakness.