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When she came to she was on a sofa in what had been the drawing-room of the house, or the front half of it. There were voices in the room. One of them was saying, ‘Well, I think you’re mad.’ To which Janet answered, ‘All right, so I’m mad. And that’s the way I am.’
A
‘Are you better? Don’t try and talk until you’ve had something to eat. You’ve been starving yourself. You’re going to have soup and custard pudding, and there’s an awfully good cheese-Oh, this is my cousin Lizabet.’
A
Lizabet had remained turned away. Now she swung round.
‘I want to say-’ she began, and Janet interrupted her. ‘You don’t want to say anything at all!’
A
Lizabet said, ‘Why do you look at me like that?’
A little faint colour came into A
Lizabet turned colour. Janet said, ‘Yes, isn’t she? Come along, Lizabet, and help me with her lunch.’
Lizabet went.
A
The room was large and finely proportioned. There was a blue tea-set on the mantelpiece. Spode, blue de roi, lovely and bright. It came to her then that she could recognise a sort of china, and yet she didn’t know her own name. And she hadn’t the slightest doubt about the china-she knew it. Did that mean that she had lived with a set like that, known it intimately? She couldn’t answer that at all.
She went on looking about the room. There were rugs on the floor-oriental rugs, small and good. They didn’t touch each other, and the space between showed polished parquet. There were books-a great many books. There was a dear little walnut writing-table. And over the mantelpiece, where it reflected the blue china, there was a lovely walnut mirror.
She had got back to the mirror, when the door opened and Janet came in with a bowl of thick soup in her hand, Lizabet behind her with bread and butter. She had a rather wary expression. Her eyes darted at A
And then Lizabet was putting the custard pudding in front of her and saying in a curious pettish voice, ‘Janet says I have been rude. I’m sorry.’
There was something touching about it. A
Janet was behind her. She didn’t move. A
‘You mustn’t go away because of me. Janet will be so cross if you do.’ She was like a little girl. A
Janet came forward, and Lizabet ran out of the room. Janet said, ‘Don’t take any notice of her. She’s been spoilt. She’s my cousin, you know, and she had her home with my grandfather. He let her do anything she liked. When he died she had to come to me. I can manage her, but not if everyone else gives in to her. Do you feel better? Would you like to see your room? It’s one flight farther up. Lizabet’s up there too. Yours is the other front room.’
‘But-’ A
‘The house belongs to me. That is, it belonged to my parents. When they died, and everything got so expensive, I realised that something would have to be done. Our old cook Mrs Bingham took the basement. Her husband is a watchman in a jeweller’s shop, so he’s out all night. There are two girls on the top floor, you and Lizabet on the next, and an old lady on the two ground floors. I am in the back half of this room. Another cousin of mine has been in the room you are to have, but she went out yesterday. She doesn’t like town, so she’s going down into Dorset to keep chickens with a friend. A frightful life, I should say, but it takes all sorts to make the world, and she hates town. Fu
It came on A
CHAPTER 32
Jim Fancourt walked into Miss Silver’s sitting-room. He could hardly wait for Emma Meadows to shut the door behind him, or for Miss Silver to shake hands, before he said, ‘I’ve been thinking-’
Miss Silver gave a faint reproving cough.
‘Will you not sit down?’
‘Thank you, I’d rather stand.’
Miss Silver seated herself. She took her knitting-bag from the small table beside her chair and began to knit. Jim Fancourt stood before the hearth. When she had knitted about a row and a half, he came out with something between a groan and a cough.
‘You haven’t heard any more?’
Miss Silver was not prepared to tell an untruth. She said, ‘I have heard something, but not from A
He had been turned half away from her, looking down into the fire. He was round in a flash.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Just what I said, Mr Fancourt. I have some news of A
He didn’t know how dreadfully afraid he had been until she said that A
‘Where is she?’
‘I do not think that I can tell you that. She is with the cousin of a girl whom I was able to help-a very nice steady person. She is quite safe, Mr Fancourt. You may be perfectly sure of that.’
‘You won’t tell me where she is?’
Miss Silver laid down her knitting.
‘I can make allowances for your impatience, but I will ask you to consider the circumstances. At the present moment A
He bit his lip.
‘That is all very well-’
‘Yes, I think that it is. I think that you will achieve more by giving her a little time to, shall we say, miss you.’
‘Do you think she will?’
‘I think so, if you do not alarm her by trying to force a decision upon her before she is prepared to make one.’
‘What decision do you mean?’
‘Think for a minute, Mr Fancourt. A