Call of the Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

everyone with whom she came in contact.
    The next moment there was only her grave in the Church-yard and the house was empty and still.
    “How can it have happened?” Lalitha asked her father.
    While he kept repeating over and over again:
    “I did not even know she was ill.”
    But if her mother had died, Lalitha soon realised that her father had in effect died too.
    Over-night he had changed from being good-humoured and happy to a man morose and churlish who sat drinking far into the night. He took no further interest in any of the things that had occupied him before.
    She tried to rouse him from his lethargy but it was impossible. One night in the Wintertime when he was driving home from an Inn where he had been drinking he had an accident.
    He was not found until morning and by that time he was in a bad way.
    He was brought back to the house and while he lingered on for over two months he was a man who no longer had the will to live.
    It was then that Mrs. Clements came to the house ostensibly to help.
    Lalitha could remember the previous year when her father had come back to luncheon one day and said to her mother:
    “Do you recall a rather rat-faced individual called ‘Clements’? He kept the Pharmacy in Norwich.”
    “Yes, of course I remember him,” Lalitha’s mother had replied. “I never cared for the man, although I believe he was clever.”
    “We patronised his shop,” her father said, “because my father had always dealt there and his father before him.”
    “But Clements was not a Norfolk man,” her mother smiled, “nevertheless he lived in Norwich for many years.”
    “I know that,” Sir John replied, “which is why I feel I have to help his daughter.”
    “His daughter?” his wife asked. “I seem to remember there was some trouble . . . ”
    “There was,” Sir John said. “She ran away when she was only seventeen with a young Army Officer. Old Clements was furious and said he would have nothing further to do with her.” “Yes, of course. I recall the incident now,” Lady Studley said, “although I was only engaged to you at the time. My mother was deeply shocked at the thought of any young woman defying her parents in such a way, but then Mama was very strait-laced.”
    “She was indeed,” Sir John said with a smile. “I do not believe she really approved of me.”
    “She grew very fond of you after we were married,” Lady Studley corrected softly, “because she realised how happy I was.”
    Her eyes met her husband’s with a look of perfect understanding and then Lalitha, who had been listening, asked: “What happened to Mr. Clements’ daughter?”
    “That is what I have been trying to tell you,” Sir John answered. “She is back. I saw her this morning and she asked me if I could rent her a cottage.”
    “Oh, I am sure we do not want anyone like that on the Estate,” Lalitha’s mother said quickly.
    “I was rather sorry for her,” Sir John said. “The man she ran away with turned out to be an absolute blackguard. He never married her and left her destitute after a few years. She has been supporting herself and her child by working as a domestic servant.”
    “If Mr. Clements were alive the idea would give him a heart-attack!” Lady Studley said. “He always thought himself very superior. In fact he stood for Mayor at one time.”
    “Well, the Clements family will have nothing to do with the ‘black sheep,’ but I felt I could not turn her away.”
    “You have rented her a cottage?” his wife cried.
    “The one near the Church,” Sir John answered. “It is small, but large enough for a woman and a child.” “You are too softhearted, John,” Lalitha’s mother said. “She will not be received well in these parts.”
    “I do not suppose she will want to have any contact with village folk,” Sir John answered. “She appears to be superior in every way. She is still a good-looking woman and her daughter is about the same age as Lalitha—perhaps a