In her life she had read many books, and was familiar with those elderly
relatives frequently to be met in them, and usually female, who intrude
into a newly married _ménage_ and make themselves objectionable to one
of the parties by sympathising with the other one. There was no cause
for sympathy here, and if there ever should be Miss Entwhistle would
certainly never sympathise except from a neutral place. She wouldn't
come into a man's house, and in the very act of being nourished by his
food sympathise with his wife; she would sympathise from London. Her
honesty of intention, her single-mindedness, were, she knew, complete.
She didn't feel, she knew she wasn't, in the least like these relatives
in books, and yet as she sat in Everard's chair--obviously it was his;
the upholstered seat was his very shape, inverted--she was afraid,
indeed she was certain, he would think she was one of them.
There she was, she thought, come unasked, sitting in his place, eating
his food. He usedn't to like her; would he like her any the better for
this? From a desire not to have meals of his she had avoided tea, but
she hadn't been able to avoid dinner, and with each dish set before
her--dishes produced surprisingly, as she couldn't but observe, at the
end of an arm thrust to the minute through a door--she felt more and
more acutely that she was in his eyes, if he could only see her, an
interloper. No doubt it was Lucy's house too, but it didn't feel as if
it were, and she would have given much to be able to escape back to
London that night.
But whatever Everard thought of her intrusion she wasn't going to leave
Lucy. Not alone in that house; not to wake up to find herself alone in
that house. Besides, who knew how such a chill would develop? There
ought of course to have been a doctor. When Everard rang up, as he would
be sure to the last thing to ask how Lucy was, she would go to the
telephone, announce her presence, and inquire whether it wouldn't be as
well to have a doctor round in the morning.
Therefore she asked Chesterton to let her know when Mr. Wemyss
telephoned; and Chesterton, surprised, for it was not Wemyss's habit to
telephone to The Willows, all his communications coming on postcards,
paused just an instant before replying, 'If you please, ma'am.'
Chesterton wondered what Wemyss was expected to telephone about. It
wouldn't have occurred to her that it might be about the new Mrs.
Wemyss's health, because he had not within her recollection ever
telephoned about the health of a Mrs. Wemyss. Sometimes the previous
Mrs. Wemyss's health gave way enough for her to stay in bed, but no
telephoning from London had in consequence taken place. Accordingly she
wondered what message could be expected.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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