(6/13) Gossip from Thrush Green Read Online Free PDF Page A

her best to get him to make a decision.
    Ella, forthright as ever, was giving vociferous support.
    'Don't be such an ass, Charles. Of course, you need a holiday. Everyone does. You'll come back full of beans, and with some new ideas for sermons.'
    Charles looked wounded.
    'My dear Ella, you speak as though you hear the same sermon time and time again. I assure you - '
    'Oh yes, yes!' said Ella testily, fishing out a battered tobacco tin and beginning to roll herself a cigarette. 'I know it sounded like that, but I didn't mean anything so rude. You manage very well,' she continued kindly.
    She licked the cigarette paper noisily.
    'And I can truthfully say,' she continued, 'that I have only heard that one about the Good Samaritan three times, and the one about arrogance twice. Mind you, as you well know, I don't go every Sunday, but still, it's not a bad record on your part, Charles dear.'
    The rector's chubby face was creased with distress, but he remained silent. Dimity flew to his support.
    Those sermons, Ella, were quite different. Charles approached the subject from a fresh way each time, and in any case, those themes are universal, and can stand being repeated. But you have a point, dear, about returning refreshed from holiday, and I wish Charles would see it.'
    'If it's money you need,' said Ella bluntly, 'I can let you have some.'
    'We're quite accustomed to being short of money,' said Charles, with a smile. 'But thank you, Ella, for a kind offer. The difficulty is to find the time.'
    'Well, what's wrong with nipping away for a week or so between Easter and Whitsun? I can quite see that you've got to fix a holiday in a slack period. Like farmers.'
    'Like farmers?' echoed Charles, bemused.
    'They have to go away after hay-making or after harvest, you surely know that? And they usually get married in October when the harvest's in, and they have some corn money for a honeymoon.'
    'What a grasp you have of agricultural economy,' commented Charles, 'but now I come to think of it, I do seem to marry young farmers in the autumn.'
    'I think Ella's suggestion of a May break is very good,' said Dimity, bringing the subject to heel again. 'Why not write to Edgar? Better still, ring him up one evening. Yorkshire would be lovely then, if he could spare the house.'
    Charles looked from one determined woman to the other. He knew when he was beaten.
    'I'll do something this week,' he promised. In any case, I have neglected Edgar sadly for the last few months. That living of his in Yorkshire keeps him very busy, and I really should be the one who writes. But where do the weeks go, Ella? Do you know?'
    'They turn into months far too quickly,' said Ella, 'and that's because we're all getting old and can't pack as much into a month as we used to. I'm sure Edgar will understand. What do you propose to do? To have a straight swap of livings for a week or two?'
    'Probably. I must say, we both love the dales, and Edgar and Hilda seem to enjoy the Cotswolds. It's just a case of arranging dates.'
    'Which is where I came in,' said Ella, heaving herself to her feet. She ground out her cigarette end in the earth surrounding Dimity's choicest geranium plant on the window sill. Dimity caught her breath in dismay, but, as a true Christian, forbore to comment.
    'And of course I'll feed the cat,' continued Ella, making for the door. 'Does she still live on pig's liver?'
    'I'm afraid so,' replied Dimity. 'Such dreadful stuff to chop up.'
    'No worse than tripe,' said Ella, and vanished.

    It was towards the end of March that Winnie Bailey crossed from her house into the surgery which had been her husband's, and was now occupied by John Lovell, the senior partner in the practice, since Donald's death.
    He was a quiet conscientious young man who had learnt a great deal from Winnie's husband, and was liked by his Thrush Green patients.
    He glanced up from his papers as Winnie entered, and went to fetch a chair.
    'I saw that the waiting room was empty,' said