She Came Back Read Online Free PDF Page B

years under German rule might very well have taught her self-control.”
    Philip got out of his chair with an impatient movement.
    “Not Anne—and not with me.” He began to walk to and fro in the room. “You’ve got to consider the way those two girls were brought up. Anne was the charming, spoiled only child of an heiress. At eighteen she was an heiress herself. She had such a lot of charm you wouldn’t find out she was spoiled unless you crossed her. I found out when I said she couldn’t possibly accept Theresa Jocelyn’s bequest. We had a very bad row about it, and she went to France. If this were Anne, she’d have simply boiled over when I said she was Annie Joyce. This is someone older, tougher, warier.”
    “Nearly four years of German rule, Philip.”
    “It would take more than four grown-up years to produce this woman who is pretending to be Anne. Just take a look at what has produced her. Her father was old Ambrose’s illegitimate son. But he only just missed being legitimate. If Anne’s grandmother had died a month sooner, there’s no doubt at all that Uncle Ambrose would have married his Mrs. Joyce, and young Roger would have been Sir Roger. As it was, the old man didn’t even bother to sign his will, and Annie didn’t inherit anything except a grievance. When she was fifteen Theresa tried to foist her on the family. I don’t suppose their very natural reactions helped the grievance to fade out. For the next seven years or so she was at Theresa’s beck and call. Very unstable sort of person, my cousin Theresa—the wretched girl would never know where she was with her. She’d be petted one minute, and snubbed the next—she’d always have to watch her step—she’d always have to think before she spoke—she simply couldn’t afford to lose her temper. She served a seven-years’ apprenticeship for Theresa’s money, and Theresa diddled her. Don’t you think the original grievance must have done some growing by the time it came to that? Don’t you think you’d get just the kind of woman who might think up a plan for getting her own back?”
    “Quite persuasive. But it’s not an easy job impersonating someone. Of course it’s been done, and it will be done again, but there are a lot of pitfalls. In this case Annie Joyce would, of course, be quite familiar with all the family history, and with all the family photographs. Miss Jocelyn was an indefatigable gossip. She probably knew as much family tittle-tattle as anyone, and what she knew Annie would know. They stayed here too, didn’t they?”
    “They did—for a week. Theresa insisted on bringing her. I was in my last term at school, so I missed the row, but I gather that Theresa surpassed herself. My father was livid, and my mother spent all her time picking up the bits—in fact, a pleasant time was had by all.”
    “Quite so—rather hard on the child.”
    Philip smiled, not too pleasantly.
    “Well, there you have it. She had a week to memorize everything—the first big house she had ever been into, the first time she had ever been in the country. I remember my mother telling me that. Well, don’t you suppose it would stick? Those sort of impressions are strong, and they last. Miss Joyce finds her way with perfect ease all over the house and garden.”
    “Oh, she does, does she?”
    “That impresses you? It doesn’t impress me. I stayed with the McLarens in a shooting-box in the Highlands when I was fifteen—the same age as Annie Joyce when she came here. I’d back myself to find my way over it blindfold now, and I haven’t had the advantage of a refresher course—Annie Joyce has. Anne was three months at the château. I don’t say this was planned then—it couldn’t have been—but if you remember Theresa, you can imagine how she would have pumped Anne about everything.”
    Mr. Codrington nodded.
    “I agree that Annie Joyce would be in a better position to produce corroborative detail than most of the classic claimants