Jewelry theft -- Fiction; London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction; Love stories; Mystery fiction
She turned into Soho and was immediately conscious of a slightly
different atmosphere. There were fewer people about and the street was
not so brightly lit up, or at any rate seemed to her darker. She heard
voices speaking Italian in the shadows. The lights of small restaurants
glimmered faintly on the bone-dry pavement. She was nearing the _Bella
Napoli_. Soon she heard the distant sound of guitars.
Where she was walking at this moment there was no one. She stood still
for an instant considering. If Lady Sellingworth and Craven were really
dining together, as she suspected, and at the _Bella Napoli_, she could
see them from the street if they had a table near the window. If they
were not seated near the window she might not be able to see them. In
that case, what was she going to do?
After a moment’s thought she resolved that if she did not see them from
the street she would go into the restaurant and dine there alone. They
would see her of course, if they were there, and would no doubt be
surprised and decidedly uncomfortable. But that could not be helped.
Having come so far she was determined not to go back to the hotel
without making sure whether her suspicion was correct. If, on the other
hand, they were dining at a table near the window she resolved not to
enter the restaurant.
Having come to this decision she walked on.
The musicians were playing “O Sole mio!” And as the music grew more
distinct in her ears she felt more solitary, more injured and more
ill-humoured. Music of that type makes youth feel that the world ought
of right to belong to it, that the old are out of place in the regions
of adventure, romance and passion. That they should not hang about where
they are no longer wanted, like beggars about the door of a house in
which happy people are feasting.
“Such music is for me not for Adela Sellingworth,” thought Miss Van
Tuyn. “Let her listen to Bach and Beethoven, or to Brahms if she likes.
She can have the classics and the intellectuals. But the songs of Naples
are for me, not for her.”
And at that moment she felt very hard, even cruel.
She came up to the restaurant. The window was lighted up brilliantly. No
blind was drawn over it. There was opaque glass at the bottom, but not
at the top. She was tall and could look through the glass at the top.
She did so, and at once saw Lady Sellingworth and Craven.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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