The Bittermeads Mystery
E >>
E. R. Punshon >> The Bittermeads Mystery
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 | 14
She chose her very simplest gown, and when there was absolutely
nothing more to do she went into their little sitting-room to
wait alone by the fire she had built up there, for it was winter
now and today was cold and inclined to be stormy.
Rupert had not said exactly when she was to expect him, and she sat
for a long time by the fire, starting at every sound and imagining
at every moment that she heard the front-door bell ring.
"I shall not let him feel himself bound," she said to herself with
great decision. "I shall tell him I hope we shall always be friends
but that's all; and if he wants anything more, I shall say No. But
most likely he won't say a word about all that nonsense, it would
be silly to take seriously what he said--there."
To Ella, now, Bittermeads was always "there," and though she told
herself several times that probably Rupert had not the least idea
of repeating what he had said to her--there--and that most likely
he was coming today merely to make a friendly call, and that it
would never do for either of them to think again of what they had
said when they were both so excited and overwrought, yet in her
heart she knew a great deal better than all that.
But she said to herself very often:
"Anyhow, I shall certainly refuse him."
And on this point her mind was irrevocably made up since, after all,
whether Rupert would accept refusal or not would still remain
entirely for him to decide.
At half-past three she heard the garden-gate creak, and when she
ran to the window to peep, she saw with a kind of chill surprise
that there was a stranger coming through.
"Some one he's sent," she said to herself. "He doesn't want to
come himself and so he has sent some one else instead. I am glad."
Having said this and repeated again the last three words, and having
gulped down a sob--presumably of joy--that unexpectedly fluttered
into her throat, she went quickly to open the door.
The newly-arrived stranger smiled at her as she showed herself but
did not speak. He was a man of middle height, quite young, and
wrapped in a big, loose overcoat that very completely hid his figure.
His face, clean-shaven, showed clear, strongly-marked well-shaped
features with a firm mouth round which at this moment played a very
gentle and winning smile, a square-cut chin, and extremely bright,
clear kindly eyes that were just now smiling too.
When he took off his hat she saw that his hair was cut rather
closely, and very neatly brushed and combed, and she found his
smile so compelling and so winning that in spite of her
disappointment she found herself returning it.
It occurred to her that she had some time or another seen some one
like this stranger, but when or where she could not imagine.
Still he did not speak, but his eyes were very tender and kind as
they rested on her so that she wondered a little.
"Yes?" she said inquiringly. "Yes?"
"Don't you know me, Ella?" he said then, very softly, and in a
voice that she recognized instantly.
"Is it you--you?" she breathed.
Instinctively she lifted her hands to greet him, and at once she
found herself caught up and held, pressed passionately to his
strongly-beating heart.
***
An hour later, by the fire in the sitting-room, Ella suddenly
remembered tea.
"Good gracious! You must be starving," she cried, smitten with
remorse. "And there's poor mother waiting upstairs all this time.
Oh, Rupert, are you very hungry?"
"Starving," he asserted, but held her to him as closely as ever.
"I must get the tea," she protested. She put one cheek against his
and sighed contentedly.
"It's nice to see the real you," she murmured. "But oh, Rupert,
I do miss your dear bristly beard."
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 | 14