Gently with Love Read Online Free PDF Page B

chimes. And I was wrong. Alex answered the door; one look at his face and I knew the news was bad.
    ‘Anne has cleared out.’
    He drew me into the hall and closed the door behind us. His face was tight and pale and his dark eyes a-glitter.
    ‘You mean she hasn’t come back?’
    ‘Worse than that. She left a note in Earle’s room. The wedding is off. She won’t marry him. She took a suitcase packed with clothes.’
    He made a helpless, exasperated gesture and stood aside for me to enter the drawing room. I was stunned: but this was incredible! For almost anything else I had been prepared. I found Verna weeping on the settee and Earle sitting rigidly by the window. His face was turned from us; he had the posture of a man who has felt suddenly the pain of a mortal sickness. Neither took any notice of me. I stood foolishly, holding the picture. Alex went grimly about pouring me a drink and I laid the picture down to take it.
    ‘But . . . what reason did she give?’
    Alex groaned. ‘She just says she can’t marry him.’
    ‘Can’t?’
    ‘It usually means won’t. I can think of no other interpretation.’
    ‘But she loves Earle.’
    ‘Does she? Then this is a queer way of showing it.’
    ‘I think there must be a valid reason.’
    Alex merely grunted.
    Involuntarily I sipped the drink. Yesterday’s encounter flashed accusingly through my mind. Yes, there was much more than disinclination in this unlikely behaviour of Anne’s. Too late I was recognizing her outburst as the symptom of some unresolvable quandary. I should have been astuter. Now I caught the appeal in that invitation for me to return home with her.
    ‘Where has she gone?’
    ‘She wasn’t kind enough to say.’
    ‘Surely you can guess about that.’
    ‘I don’t know and I don’t care,’ Alex said savagely. ‘For me, my sister can go to the devil. There is no excuse for what she’s done. She has made two people utterly miserable. She has behaved like a heartless bitch and the further she stays away from me the better.’
    ‘She may need help.’
    ‘She should have thought of that.’
    ‘I have reason to think she could be in trouble.’
    ‘Then it’s no more than she deserves and I hope it brings home to her what she’s done.’
    ‘It was so unnecessary!’ Verna wailed. ‘She let us do everything, arrange everything. I had even sewn bows on all her underwear. And now to go off without even explaining!’
    ‘Had she any money?’
    ‘Oh God, I don’t know. I dare say she had some in the bank.’
    ‘How much?’
    ‘Does it matter? I know she saved some when she was working.’
    ‘Oh, she’d have money,’ Alex sneered. ‘She’s not such a fool as to run off penniless. And when that’s finished she can work for some more, because neither I nor mother will help her.’
    ‘But suppose she isn’t capable of work.’
    ‘Then she’ll have to get it from the man she’s run off with.
    I glanced at him sharply. ‘Is there any evidence of that?’
    ‘What else can one think?’ Verna wailed.
    I shook my head. I knew better; I knew that Anne would not have deceived Earle. She had told me quite a few fibs but she had not been fibbing when she said she loved him. And if Anne had been vacillating between two men she would have let them know where they stood. She was Colin’s daughter, she would have acted openly; and having made her choice she would have stuck to it. I turned to the window.
    ‘Earle.’
    He looked round slowly, his eyes without focus.
    ‘What happened, Earle?’
    He stared wretchedly and gave a dull shake of his head.
    ‘Listen,’ I said. ‘I met Anne yesterday. She had just left a doctor’s surgery. She was upset and very pale. What can you tell us about that?’
    I heard Verna draw a quick breath. Earle’s eyes rounded slightly. It took a few moments for my words to sink in but when they did he jumped to his feet.
    ‘Are you saying she’s sick?’
    ‘I’m asking you.’
    ‘You said she was looking