The Hollow (6 page)

His wrath fell on Zena.

“Why on earth don't you blow your nose?”

“She's got a little cold, I think, dear.”

“No, she hasn't. You're always thinking they have colds! She's all right.”

Gerda sighed. She had never been able to understand why a doctor, who spent his time treating the ailments of others, could be so indifferent to the health of his own family. He always ridiculed any suggestions of illness.

“I sneezed eight times before lunch,” said Zena importantly.

“Heat sneeze!” said John.

“It's not hot,” said Terence. “The thermometer in the hall is 55.”

John got up. “Have we finished? Good, let's get on. Ready to start, Gerda?”

“In a minute, John. I've just a few things to put in.”

“Surely you could have done that
before.
What have you been doing all the morning?”

He went out of the dining room fuming. Gerda had hurried off into her bedroom. Her anxiety to be quick would make her much slower. But why couldn't she have been ready? His own suitcase was packed and in the hall. Why on earth—

Zena was advancing on him, clasping some rather sticky cards.

“Can I tell your fortune, Daddy? I know how. I've told Mother's and Terry's and Lewis's and Jane's and Cook's.”

“All right.”

He wondered how long Gerda was going to be. He wanted to get away from this horrible house and this horrible street and this city full of ailing, sniffing, diseased people. He wanted to get to woods and wet leaves—and the graceful aloofness of Lucy Angkatell, who always gave you the impression she hadn't even got a body.

Zena was importantly dealing out cards.

“That's you in the middle, Father, the King of Hearts. The person whose fortune's told is always the King of Hearts. And then I deal the others face down. Two on the left of you and two on the right of you and one over your head—that has power over you, and one under your feet—you have power over it. And this one—covers you!

“
Now.
” Zena drew a deep breath. “We turn them over. On the right of you is the Queen of Diamonds—quite close.”

“Henrietta,” he thought, momentarily diverted and amused by Zena's solemnity.

“And the next one is the knave of clubs—he's some quiet young man.

“On the left of you is the eight of spades—that's a secret enemy. Have you got a secret enemy, Father?”

“Not that I know of.”

“And beyond is the Queen of Spades—that's a much older lady.”

“Lady Angkatell,” he said.

“Now this is what's over your head and has power over you—the Queen of Hearts.”

“Veronica,” he thought. “Veronica!” And then, “What a fool I am! Veronica doesn't mean a thing to me now.”

“And this is under your feet and you have power over it—the Queen of Clubs.”

Gerda hurried into the room.

“I'm quite ready now, John.”

“Oh, wait, Mother, wait, I'm telling Daddy's fortune. Just the last card, Daddy—the most important of all. The one that covers you.”

Zena's small sticky fingers turned it over. She gave a gasp.

“Oh—it's the Ace of Spades! That's usually a
death
—but—”

“Your mother,” said John, “is going to run over someone on the way out of London. Come on, Gerda. Good-bye, you two. Try and behave.”

I

M
idge Hardcastle came downstairs about eleven on Saturday morning. She had had breakfast in bed and had read a book and dozed a little and then got up.

It was nice lazing this way. About time she had a holiday! No doubt about it, Madame Alfrege's got on your nerves.

She came out of the front door into the pleasant autumn sunshine. Sir Henry Angkatell was sitting on a rustic seat reading
The Times.
He looked up and smiled. He was fond of Midge.

“Hallo, my dear.”

“Am I very late?”

“You haven't missed lunch,” said Sir Henry, smiling.

Midge sat down beside him and said with a sigh:

“It's nice being here.”

“You're looking rather peaked.”

“Oh, I'm all right. How delightful to be somewhere where no
fat women are trying to get into clothes several sizes too small for them!”

“Must be dreadful!” Sir Henry paused and then said, glancing down at his wristwatch: “Edward's arriving by the 12:15.”

“Is he?” Midge paused, then said: “I haven't seen Edward for a long time.”

“He's just the same,” said Sir Henry. “Hardly ever comes up from Ainswick.”

“Ainswick,” thought Midge. “Ainswick!” Her heart gave a sick pang. Those lovely days at Ainswick. Visits looked forward to for months! “I'm going to Ainswick.” Lying awake for nights beforehand thinking about it. And at last—the day! The little country station at which the train—the big London express—had to stop if you gave notice to the guard! The Daimler waiting outside. The drive—the final turn in through the gate and up through the woods till you came out into the open and there the house was—big and white and welcoming. Old Uncle Geoffrey in his patchwork tweed coat.

“Now then, youngsters—enjoy yourselves.” And they had enjoyed themselves. Henrietta over from Ireland. Edward, home from Eton. She herself, from the Northcountry grimness of a manufacturing town. How like heaven it had been.

But always centring about Edward. Edward, tall and gentle and diffident and always kind. But never, of course, noticing her very much because Henrietta was there.

Edward, always so retiring, so very much of a visitor so that she had been startled one day when Tremlet, the head gardener, had said:

“The place will be Mr. Edward's some day.”

“But why, Tremlet? He's not Uncle Geoffrey's son.”

“He's the
heir,
Miss Midge. Entailed, that's what they call it. Miss Lucy, she's Mr. Geoffrey's only child, but she can't inherit because she's a female, and Mr. Henry, as she married, he's only a second cousin. Not so near as Mr. Edward.”

And now Edward lived at Ainswick. Lived there alone and very seldom came away. Midge wondered, sometimes, if Lucy minded. Lucy always looked as though she never minded about anything.

Yet Ainswick had been her home, and Edward was only her first cousin once removed, and over twenty years younger than she was. Her father, old Geoffrey Angkatell, had been a great “character” in the country. He had had considerable wealth as well, most of which had come to Lucy, so that Edward was a comparatively poor man, with enough to keep the place up, but not much over when that was done.

Not that Edward had expensive tastes. He had been in the diplomatic service for a time, but when he inherited Ainswick he had resigned and come to live on his property. He was of a bookish turn of mind, collected first editions, and occasionally wrote rather hesitating ironical little articles for obscure reviews. He had asked his second cousin, Henrietta Savernake, three times to marry him.

Midge sat in the autumn sunshine thinking of these things. She could not make up her mind whether she was glad she was going to see Edward or not. It was not as though she were what is called “getting over it.” One simply did not get over anyone like Edward. Edward of Ainswick was just as real to her as Edward rising to greet her from a restaurant table in London. She had loved Edward ever since she could remember….

Sir Henry's voice recalled her.

“How do you think Lucy is looking?”

“Very well. She's just the same as ever.” Midge smiled a little. “More so.”

“Ye—es.” Sir Henry drew on his pipe. He said unexpectedly:

“Sometimes, you know, Midge, I get worried about Lucy.”

“Worried?” Midge looked at him in surprise. “Why?”

Sir Henry shook his head.

“Lucy,” he said, “doesn't realize that there are things that she can't do.”

Midge stared. He went on:

“She gets away with things. She always has.” He smiled. “She's flouted the traditions of Government House—she's played merry hell with precedence at dinner parties (and that, Midge, is a black crime!). She's put deadly enemies next to each other at the dinner table, and run riot over the colour question! And instead of raising one big almighty row and setting everyone at loggerheads and bringing disgrace on the British Raj—I'm damned if she hasn't got away with it! That trick of hers—smiling at people and looking as though she couldn't help it! Servants are the same—she gives them any amount of trouble and they adore her.”

“I know what you mean,” said Midge thoughtfully. “Things that you wouldn't stand from anyone else, you feel are all right if Lucy does them. What is it, I wonder? Charm? Magnetism?”

Sir Henry shrugged his shoulders.

“She's always been the same from a girl—only sometimes I feel it's growing on her. I mean that she doesn't realize that there
are
limits. Why, I really believe, Midge,” he said, amused, “that Lucy would feel she could get away with murder!”

II

Henrietta got the Delage out from the garage in the Mews and, after a wholly technical conversation with her friend Albert, who looked after the Delage's health, she started off.

“Running a treat, miss,” said Albert.

Henrietta smiled. She shot away down the Mews, savouring the unfailing pleasure she always felt when setting off in the car alone. She much preferred to be alone when driving. In that way she could realize to the full the intimate personal enjoyment that driving a car brought to her.

She enjoyed her own skill in traffic, she enjoyed nosing out new shortcuts out of London. She had routes of her own and when driving in London itself had as intimate a knowledge of its streets as any taxi driver.

She took now her own newly discovered way southwest, turning and twisting through intricate mazes of suburban streets.

When she came finally to the long ridge of Shovel Down it was half past twelve. Henrietta had always loved the view from that particular place. She paused now just at the point where the road began to descend. All around and below her were trees, trees whose leaves were turning from gold to brown. It was a world incredibly golden and splendid in the strong autumn sunlight.

Henrietta thought: “I love autumn. It's so much richer than spring.”

And suddenly one of those moments of intense happiness came to her—a sense of the loveliness of the world—of her own intense enjoyment of that world.

She thought: “I shall never be as happy again as I am now—never.”

She stayed there a minute, gazing out over that golden world that seemed to swim and dissolve into itself, hazy and blurred with its own beauty.

Then she came down over the crest of the hill, down through the woods, down the long steep road to The Hollow.

III

When Henrietta drove in, Midge was sitting on the low wall of the terrace, and waved to her cheerfully. Henrietta was pleased to see Midge, whom she liked.

Lady Angkatell came out of the house and said:

“Oh, there you are, Henrietta. When you've taken your car into the stables and given it a bran mash, lunch will be ready.”

“What a penetrating remark of Lucy's,” said Henrietta as she drove round the house, Midge accompanying her on the step. “You know, I always prided myself on having completely escaped the horsy taint of my Irish forebears. When you've been brought up amongst people who talk nothing but horse, you go all superior about not caring for them. And now Lucy has just shown me that I treat my car exactly like a horse. It's quite true. I do.”

“I know,” said Midge. “Lucy is quite devastating. She told me this morning that I was to be as rude as I liked whilst I was here.”

Henrietta considered this for a moment and then nodded.

“Of course,” she said. “The
shop!
”

“Yes. When one has to spend every day of one's life in a damnable little box being polite to rude women, calling them Madam, pulling frocks over their heads, smiling and swallowing their damned cheek whatever they like to say to one—well, one does
want to cuss! You know, Henrietta, I always wonder why people think it's so humiliating to go “into service” and that it's grand and independent to be in a shop. One puts up with far more insolence in a shop than Gudgeon or Simmons or any decent domestic does.”

“It must be foul, darling. I wish you weren't so grand and proud and insistent on earning your own living.”

“Anyway, Lucy's an angel. I shall be gloriously rude to everyone this weekend.”

“Who's here?” said Henrietta as she got out of the car.

“The Christows are coming.” Midge paused and then went on, “Edward's just arrived.”

“Edward? How nice. I haven't seen Edward for ages. Anybody else?”

“David Angkatell. That, according to Lucy, is where you are going to come in useful. You're going to stop him biting his nails.”

“It sounds very unlike me,” said Henrietta. “I hate interfering with people, and I wouldn't dream of checking their personal habits. What did Lucy really say?”

“It amounted to that! He's got an Adam's apple, too!”

“I'm not expected to do anything about that, am I?” asked Henrietta, alarmed.

“And you're to be kind to Gerda.”

“How I should hate Lucy if I were Gerda!”

“And someone who solves crimes is coming to lunch tomorrow.”

“We're not going to play the Murder Game, are we?”

“I don't think so. I think it is just neighbourly hospitality.”

Midge's voice changed a little.

“Here's Edward coming out to meet us.”

“Dear Edward,” thought Henrietta with a sudden rush of warm affection.

Edward Angkatell was very tall and thin. He was smiling now as he came towards the two young women.

“Hallo, Henrietta, I haven't seen you for over a year.”

“Hallo, Edward.”

How nice Edward was! That gentle smile of his, the little creases at the corners of his eyes. And all his nice knobbly bones. “I believe it's his
bones
I like so much,” thought Henrietta. The warmth of her affection for Edward startled her. She had forgotten that she liked Edward so much.

IV

After lunch Edward said: “Come for a walk, Henrietta.”

It was Edward's kind of walk—a stroll.

They went up behind the house, taking a path that zigzagged up through the trees. Like the woods at Ainswick, thought Henrietta. Dear Ainswick, what fun they had had there! She began to talk to Edward about Ainswick. They revived old memories.

“Do you remember our squirrel? The one with the broken paw. And we kept it in a cage and it got well?”

“Of course. It had a ridiculous name—what was it now?”

“Cholmondeley-Marjoribanks!”

“That's it.”

The both laughed.

“And old Mrs. Bondy, the housekeeper—she always
said
it would go up the chimney one day.”

“And we were so indignant.”

“And then it
did.
”

“She made it,” said Henrietta positively. “She put the thought into the squirrel's head.”

She went on:

“Is it all the same, Edward? Or is it changed? I always imagine it just the same.”

“Why don't you come and see, Henrietta? It's a long long time since you've been there.”

“I know.”

Why, she thought, had she let so long a time go by? One got busy—interested—tangled up with people….

“You know you're always welcome there at any time.”

“How sweet you are, Edward!”

Dear Edward, she thought, with his
nice
bones.

He said presently:

“I'm glad you're fond of Ainswick, Henrietta.”

She said dreamily: “Ainswick is the loveliest place in the world.”

A long-legged girl, with a mane of untidy brown hair…a happy girl with no idea at all of the things that life was going to do to her…a girl who loved trees….

To have been so happy and not to have known it! “
If I could go back,
” she thought.

And aloud she said suddenly:

“Is Ygdrasil still there?”

“It was struck by lightning.”

“Oh, no, not
Ygdrasil!
”

She was distressed. Ygdrasil—her own special name for the big oak tree. If the gods could strike down Ygdrasil, then nothing was safe! Better not go back.

“Do you remember your special sign, the Ygdrasil sign?”

“The funny tree like no tree that ever was I used to draw on bits of paper? I still do, Edward! On blotters, and on telephone books, and on bridge scores. I doodle it all the time. Give me a pencil.”

He handed her a pencil and notebook, and laughing, she drew the ridiculous tree.