Miss Silver Deals With Death Read Online Free PDF Page B

know about Giles. Uncle Godfrey had been most awfully kind, but of course he had told Aunt Mabel and Aunt Mabel had told everyone in the world, so now she had to tell Aunt Mabel that Giles was alive and that he had forgotten her, so of course they were not engaged any more. She must get it over.
    She got it over. It wasn’t easy. Mabel Underwood did nothing to make it easier. She meant to be kind, but actually she was the last straw.
    “He doesn’t remember you?”
    “He doesn’t remember anything.”
    “But how perfectly extraordinary! Do you mean to say that he doesn’t remember his name?”
    “He remembers his name.”
    “Or who he is—or about his job in the States?”
    “He remembers that.”
    Mrs. Underwood’s voice became strident.
    “And he doesn’t remember you? My dear, it’s too thin! He’s trying to back out. Your Uncle Godfrey must see him at once. Don’t you worry—young men have these sort of turns, but your uncle will put it right. It’s not as if you hadn’t anyone to stand up for you. Don’t you worry—it’ll all come right.”
    It was quite unbearable, but she had to bear it. Unkindness would have been easier. Aunt Mabel meant to be kind, but behind the kindness it was perfectly plain that she thought Giles Armitage a very good match for a penniless girl, and that she had no intention of letting him go.
    Nothing lasts for ever. Meade was told that she didn’t look fit for anything but bed, to which haven she thankfully repaired. “And Ivy will bring you your supper. I’m going up to the Willards for some bridge.”
    Blessed relief, even though she knew that the Willards would be told about Giles and treated to Mabel Underwood’s views upon the management of recalcitrant young men. It wasn’t any good thinking about it. Aunt Mabel was like that, and you just had to let it go.
    She lay there and let everything go. No use thinking, no use planning, no use hoping, no use grieving.
    Ivy came in with a tray—fish cakes and a cup of Ovaltine. Meade, sitting up in bed, thought, “She doesn’t look any too good herself. I wonder if she is unhappy.” She said on the impulse,
    “You look tired, Ivy. Are you all right?”
    “Got a bit of a head—nothing to write home about.”
    A London girl, small and thin, with a pale, sharp face and lank brown hair.
    “Where is your home?”
    Ivy jerked a shoulder.
    “Haven’t got one—not to speak of. Gran’s being ’vacuated. Ever such a nice lady she’s got billeted with. Bottled four dozen of tomatoes out of their own garden, and fresh veg. coming in every day—we could do with a bit of that here, couldn’t we?”
    “Is that all the family you’ve got?”
    Ivy nodded.
    “Gran and my Auntie Flo—that’s the lot. And Aunt Flo, she’s in the A.T.S.—got one of those new caps they wear too—red and green on them—ever so smart they are. She wanted me to join up too, but I didn’t pass my medical. That’s on account of the accident I had when I was a kid on the halls.”
    “What halls?”
    Ivy giggled.
    “Music halls, miss—V’riety—me and me sister Glad. Boneless Wonders we was—acrobats, you know. But there was an accident on the high wire and Glad was killed, and they said I wouldn’t never be any good for it again, so I went out to service, and seems like I’ll have to stay in it. Doctor said he couldn’t pass me nohow.”
    Meade said, “I’m sorry,” in her pretty, soft voice. And then, “Get off early to bed, Ivy, and have a good rest. Mrs. Underwood won’t be wanting anything.”
    Ivy jerked again.
    “I’m not all that set on bed—seems like it don’t do me any good. I get dreaming, you know—about Glad and me, and having to walk that wire. That’s how I come to walk in my sleep when I was down in Sussex, and Gran said it wasn’t respectable and I’d better take and go in a flat where I couldn’t get out.”
    Meade shivered, and then wondered why. It certainly wouldn’t be easy to get out of