Death and the Maiden Read Online Free PDF Page A

it.
    â€˜You go through the shop,’ she added helpfully.
    â€˜No, thank you!’ said Crete. ‘I only like new books. By that I mean books which have not been handled by others.’
    â€˜But I expect they have. The new ones, I mean,’ said Miss Carmody. ‘People handle the new books to see what they want in exchange for their book tokens. No one ever knows what to do with a book token. I’ve noticed it.’
    â€˜Oh, I do!’ cried Connie. ‘All my friends give me book tokens, and I give them book tokens, too. It saves all the bother of presents.’
    â€˜But it isn’t the same fun,’ said Miss Carmody, who had certain old-fashioned ideas, although not very many.
    â€˜Well, I must have a book, and it must be a new one. Edris will have to find me something,’ said Crete. ‘He will know what to get, no doubt. I am not hard to please.’
    Confronted upon his return with the task of finding her a book which should be both light and sensible, Mr Tidson, who seemed to be in great good humour, promised to attend to it in the morning, as the shop would most certainly be shut at that time of the evening.
    â€˜I will get you a guide book,’ he said. ‘It will save you the trouble of visiting the places of interest, and will last you longer than a novel.’
    Miss Carmody, to whom these uses of a guide book had not previously occurred, looked somewhat surprised. Mrs Bradley cackled, and Crete observed that Edris sometimes had very good ideas. She added that she had had no intention whatsoever of visiting the places of interest, but that one should be informed upon matters of cultural and historic importance, and that a guide book would be most welcome.
    Upon this note of conjugal understanding and felicity, husband and wife went up to dress for dinner, and Connie, who did not think much of the walk she had had that afternoon, went out, as she said, to stretch her legs. Miss Carmody, with a grateful sigh, sat down beside Mrs Bradley.
    â€˜Well, what do you make of Edris and Crete?’ she enquired.
    â€˜They seem well matched,’ replied Mrs Bradley thoughtfully. This comment seemed to cause Miss Carmody some surprise. ‘Will they enjoy their stay in England, do you think?’ Mrs Bradley went on.
    â€˜It is not a stay. It is permanent,’ Miss Carmody replied. She hesitated, and then added, ‘Edris has retired from his banana plantation, although not as comfortably, I believe, as he had hoped. He has had losses, I understand, and then I suppose trade must have suffered somewhat during the war. I believe they have not much to live on, and as I believe they propose to live on me, that will not be much for them, either.’
    Politeness forbade Mrs Bradley to ask more, and she turned the conversation on to Connie, who seemed, she said, an interesting child. Certainly Connie’s ill-humour, which had been most marked since the advent of the Tidsons, seemed to have disappeared. Miss Carmody commented on this, and added that she was very fond of Connie.
    â€˜She is my cousin’s child. I took her for his sake, but I keep her now for my own,’ she said with apparent sincerity.
    Mrs Bradley understood from this that Miss Carmody supported Connie, and she was surprised that so independent-seeming a girl should be content to live on an aunt past middle age.
    â€˜She is technically illegitimate,’ said Miss Carmody, as though she were explaining away Mrs Bradley’s uncharitable thoughts. ‘A very sad case. My cousin – Arthur Preece-Harvard, you know – was very deeply in love with Connie’s mother. There was no dishonour attached. They intended to marry. Connie is the first-fruits of impatience.’
    â€˜And the mother?’ Mrs Bradley enquired, perceiving that Miss Carmody wished to develop the conversation.
    â€˜A sweet, sweet girl,’ said Miss Carmody. ‘She died, I am sorry to say, in