Hole and Corner Read Online Free PDF

down by the hearth and began to put coal on the fire, a piece at a time, with an aggravating pair of brass tongs which could not be stretched to take a large piece and invariably dropped a small one.
    He watched her, and said presently,
    â€œWhat happened?”
    â€œWell, I thought it was an odd thing. It was when I was coming away from here last night. I struck the rush hour, and there were a lot of people waiting for the bus at the end of the road. Everyone was pushing and jostling when it came up—you know how they do. And when I got near the bus I caught hold of the rail to pull myself up—and there was somebody else’s handbag on my wrist.”
    â€œSomebody else’s handbag?”
    â€œYes—wasn’t it frightful? I hadn’t got my own bag with me, only a little purse in my pocket, and anyhow this was a complete and absolute stranger of a bag.”
    â€œWhat did you do?”
    â€œI had got on to the step, so I gripped the conductor by the arm, and I said, ‘Look here, this isn’t my bag.’ And he said, ‘I don’t know nothing about that.’ And I said, ‘Well, I don’t either,’ and I held it right up and called out, ‘Is this anyone’s bag?—because it isn’t mine.’ And a woman with a red nose and a vinegar eye says yes, it was hers, and it had got a crocodile purse with seven and elevenpence half-penny in it, and a paper of peppermints, and a letter addressed to Mrs Heycock. And so it had. And she sat opposite me all the way in the bus eating peppermints and looking as if she thought I had stolen her bag.”
    Anthony laughed.
    â€œIf you’re going to take to crime, I should pinch something better worth having than seven and elevenpence halfpenny and a paper of peppermints.”
    â€œYou forget the crocodile purse,” said Shirley over her shoulder. “If I get taken up for stealing something really worth having, will you defend me, and make a lovely speech, and get me off in the teeth of the evidence with the jury wringing out their pocket handkerchiefs and reporters sobbing on each other’s shoulders?”
    â€œYou’ll have to pay me a fee.”
    She laughed too, and cocked an impudent eyebrow.
    â€œTwopence halfpenny’s about my limit.”
    â€œWhat about a kiss on account?” said Anthony in a soft, lazy voice.
    He was still leaning forward, and she had turned round from the fire and was half sitting, half kneeling on the hearth-rug no more than a yard away. Their eyes met, and a little disturbing spark leapt between them. Shirley, still laughing, had begun to shake her head, when without warning Anthony reached out, caught her by the shoulders, and pulled her hard up against the chair.
    The laughter went out of her with the most extraordinary suddenness. One moment it was a game, and the next moment it wasn’t. Anthony had kissed her before, once when they had been dancing, and twice on the doorstep when he had seen her home, and she hadn’t minded a bit. They had been light, cheerful kisses that meant nothing at all. She had laughed, and he had laughed. But now the laughter was gone out of her. For a second there was a frightening emptiness.
    Anthony was still laughing. His lips were very near.
    And then into the emptiness there poured a boiling torrent of anger. She struck him hard across the mouth, and twisted free, and got to her feet, shaking with rage.
    Anthony let go of her at once. Then he pushed back his chair and got up, and there they were with about the width of the hearth-rug between them.
    Shirley’s heart had begun to bang against her side. It wasn’t fair of him to be so tall, and to keep his temper. She wanted to go on being furious, but she could feel the anger simply leaking away and leaving her quite horribly frightened. She wished he had shaken her, she wished he had kissed her by force, because then she would have stayed at boiling-point and