The Secret Places of the HeartWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
General
The Secret Places of the Heart
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
England -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Psychological fiction
But this action had scarcely the effect he had intended it to have. It
set the young lady who was called Belinda asking about ways and means of
getting to Salisbury; it brought to light the distressing fact that V.V.
had the beginnings of a chafed heel. Once he had set things going they
moved much too quickly for the doctor to deflect their course. He
found himself called upon to make personal sacrifices to facilitate the
painless transport of the two ladies to Salisbury, where their luggage
awaited them at the Old George Hotel. In some way too elusive to trace,
it became evident that he and Sir Richmond were to stay at this same Old
George Hotel. The luggage was to be shifted to the top of the coupe,
the young lady called V.V. was to share the interior of the car with
Sir Richmond, while the lady named Belinda, for whom Dr. Martineau
was already developing a very strong dislike, was to be thrust into an
extreme proximity with him and the balance of the luggage in the dicky
seat behind.
Sir Richmond had never met with a young woman with a genuine historical
imagination before, and he was evidently very greatly excited and
resolved to get the utmost that there was to be got out of this
encounter.
Section 3
Sir Richmond displayed a complete disregard of the sufferings of Dr.
Martineau, shamefully compressed behind him. Of these he was to hear
later. He ran his overcrowded little car, overcrowded so far as the
dicky went, over the crest of the Down and down into Amesbury and on
to Salisbury, stopping to alight and stretch the legs of the party when
they came in sight of Old Sarum.
“Certainly they can do with a little stretching,” said Dr. Martineau
grimly.
This charming young woman had seized upon the imagination of Sir
Richmond to the temporary exclusion of all other considerations. The
long Downland gradients, quivering very slightly with the vibration of
the road, came swiftly and easily to meet and pass the throbbing little
car as he sat beside her and talked to her. He fell into that expository
manner which comes so easily to the native entertaining the visitor from
abroad.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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