That Man Simon Read Online Free PDF

readiness to start the more enjoyable part of the operation on Wednesday.
    But on Wednesday the sun was shining again, the chestnuts were bursting into bud, and Mrs. Shannon said at breakfast, 'Why not rest from your labours today, dear?
    There’s no point in overdoing things, and it’s much too nice a day to stay indoors.’
    ‘Yes, perhaps you’re right. I am rather stiff,’ Jenny admitted. ‘I think I’ll ring up Sue and ask if she’s free to lunch today.’
    Later in the morning, she caught the bus to town and had lunch with Susan Ellis who had been her closest friend at school.
    It sometimes puzzled Jenny that, when so many adolescent friendships petered out once schooldays were over, the bond between Susan and herself was as strong as ever, and this despite the fact that nowadays they met infrequently, and led lives which could scarcely be more dissimilar.
    True, they kept in touch by letter, but Jenny felt that this in itself was rather remarkable as her letters to Susan, though regular, must make very dull reading compared with the irregular but fascinating bulletins which reached the Rectory by airmail from the various exciting places where her friend had lived since leaving school.
    Susan arrived at their rendezvous wearing, as Jenny learned presently, French underwear and tights, an English dress, and a Spanish leather bag matched with Belgian shoes. She shopped for her clothes all over Europe, and always brought home a surprise present for Jenny.
    Although Susan had been in England for nearly three weeks
    - but mainly in London - and they had had several long chats on the telephone, this was their first meeting. Her homecoming present on this occasion was a red leather belt from Barcelona where she had spent the past winter.
    ‘It’s beautiful, Sue. Thank you. Oh, it is nice to see you again,’ Jenny said warmly.
    ‘Not for long, my pet. I’m taking off again on the seventeenth.’
    ‘So soon? Where to this time?’
    ‘A girl I met in Ibiza last summer has moved to the next island, Menoca, and opened a boutique in Port Mahon. It’s very successful, apparently, and she needs an assistant,’
    Susan explained. ‘So my plan to spend a summer on all three of the Balearic Islands, and a winter in Madrid and Barcelona, is working out perfectly.’
    ‘What kind of boutique is it? Souvenirs for the tourists?’
    Jenny inquired.
    ‘No - snazzy resort clothes,’ said Susan. ‘In fact the kind of assistant Belinda needs really is someone like you, someone who can design and sew as well as sell clothes.
    How about it, Jenny? When the summer term ends, why not come out and join us for six weeks, or is it eight weeks you people have now?’
    ‘Seven and a half, to be exact. But on August the fourth I’m driving Granny to Derby to stay with her sister. She’s spending a week there, and then I’m going to fetch them and old Aunt May is coming to us for a week or two.’
    ‘Can’t your grandfather ferry them?’
    ‘No, he doesn’t like long journeys now. He uses the car in the parish, but heavy traffic bothers him.’
    ‘Couldn’t the travelling be done by rail??
    ‘Well, it could, but it’s a rotten journey: two changes, and a lot of hanging about. I don’t think Granny would go if she had to go by train.’
    Susan said, ‘It doesn’t seem right that you can’t take advantage of your long holiday because of all these old people. They depend on you too much, it seems to me.’
    ‘But I’m not like you, Sue,’ countered Jenny. ‘I don’t mind staying put. I prefer it.’
    ‘I think that’s wrong - at your age,’ her friend persisted.
    ‘You’ll regret it when you’re married and tied down.’
    ‘Settled down,’ Jenny amended mildly. They had had this argument before, many times. It was impossible to convince Susan that Jenny was not trapped at the Rectory, but lived there willingly and contentedly.
    ‘Tied down or settled ... the fact remains that marriage is the end of freedom, and