She Came Back

Light overhead, the blue curtains drawn at the windows, a wood fire glowing bright, and over it the white mantelshelf with The Seasons looking down, and over The Seasons, The Girl with a Fur Coat. She looked at her steadily, critically, as she might have looked at her own reflection in the glass. She thought the portrait might very well have been a mirror reflecting her.

There were two people in the room. On the right of the hearth Milly Armitage with a newspaper on her lap and another sprawling beside her on the blue carpet. Untidy, tiresome woman. Never her friend. Of course she would be here. Well dug in. Nous allons changer tout cela. Down on the hearthrug, curled up with a book, that brat Lyndall.

The paper rustled under the sudden heavy pressure of Milly Armitage’s hand, the book pitched forward on to the white fur rug. Lyndall sprang up, stumbling on the folds of her long green skirt, catching at the arm of the empty chair against which she had been leaning. Her eyes widened and darkened, all the colour went out of her face. She stared at the open door and saw A

In the same moment she heard Milly Armitage gasp. She herself did not seem to be breathing at all. Everything stopped while she looked at A

“A

“I very nearly thought so myself.”

They came across the room together.

“Aunt Milly! How good to see you! Oh, how very, very good to be here!”

Milly Armitage was embraced. Struggling with a horrid rush of completely disorganized emotions, she kissed a cheek which was thi

Lyndall was saying, “A

Mrs. Armitage remembered that she had been brought up to be a gentlewoman. With grim determination she set herself to behave like one.

CHAPTER 4

It was getting on for four o’clock of the following day before Philip Jocelyn came home. He was intercepted in the hall by Milly Armitage.

“Philip-come here-I want to speak to you.”

“What’s the matter?”

She had him by the arm, drawing him down the hall towards the study, which balanced the parlour on the opposite side and was comfortably far away from it. Like most rooms of the name it had never been much studied in, but the walls were lined with books and it had a pleasant lived-in air, with its rust-red curtains and deep leather chairs.

When the door was shut, Philip looked curiously at his Aunt Milly. He was very fond of her, but he wished she would come to the point. Something had obviously happened, but instead of getting on with it and telling him what it was, she was just beating about the bush.

“We tried to get on to you, but they said you’d left the club.”

“Yes-Blackett asked me to go down to his place. What’s the matter? Where’s Lyn? It’s not got anything to do with Lyn?”

“No.”

Milly Armitage said to herself in a distraught ma

“Aunt Milly, what is it? Anyone dead?”

Mrs. Armitage restrained herself from saying, “Worse than that.” By making a tremendous effort she contrived merely to shake her head.

He said with some impatience, “What is it then?”

Milly Armitage blurted it right out.

“A

They were standing close together beside the writing-table. Philip had his coat over his arm and his hat in his hand. He stood there, fair and tall like all the Jocelyns, his face longer and sharper than the type, his eyes the same dark grey as A

“Would you mind saying that again?”

Milly Armitage felt as if she were going to burst. She said it again, separating the words as if she were speaking to a child,

“A

“I thought that was what you said-I just wanted to be sure. Would you mind telling me what it means?”

“Philip-don’t! I can’t tell you if you’re like that.”

His crooked brows went up.

“Like what?”

“Inhuman. She’s alive-she’s come back-she’s here.”

His voice grated for the first time as he said,

“Have you gone out of your mind?”

“Not yet, but I expect I shall.”

He said quietly, “A

“A

“Nonsense!”

“Philip, if you go on saying that sort of thing to me, I shall scream! I tell you she’s alive-I tell you she’s in the parlour with Lyndall.”

“And I tell you that I saw her die, and I saw her buried.”

Milly Armitage checked an involuntary shudder. She said in an angry voice,

“What’s the good of saying that?”

“Meaning I’m telling lies?”

“She’s in the parlour with Lyndall.”

Philip walked over to the door.

“Then suppose we join them.”

“Wait! It’s no good taking it like that. It’s happened-better let me tell you. Someone rang up in the morning-yesterday morning. Lyn told you on the telephone.”

“Yes?”

“It was A

He turned away and opened the door.

“A

Neither of them spoke as they went across the hall. It was Philip who opened the door and went in. He saw Lyndall first. She was sitting on the arm of one of the big chairs on the left-hand side of the hearth. She jumped up, and he saw behind her in the chair the blue dress of the portrait-A