The Black Cabinet Read Online Free PDF Page A

I should fall hugely in love with her if I was to go on seeing her. Don’t be alarmed. My old horror takes the road on Tuesday, so that only leaves Monday for me to get into mischief. I don’t suppose I shall see her again, and perhaps it’s just as well. I haven’t felt so romantic since Lillah Blake gave me the chuck when I was eighteen. There’s something for you to have heart-throbs over. Calm yourself by remembering that I shall be out of danger by the time you read this.
    â€œTons of love,
    â€œMichael.”
    On Monday evening Chloe Dane left the house with the green railings half an hour later than usual. She had stayed behind to finish a dress which had been promised without fail by Monday night. She was glad to get out into the air after sitting still for so many hours.
    The shops were shutting in the High Street. That was a nuisance, because she really had planned to do some shopping. She stood for a moment, hesitating, outside Baker’s. They were still open, but it was such a shame to rush in at the last minute and delay some girl who was putting stock away. Chloe knew how it felt to be kept back at the last moment after a long day’s work. She moved on; and as she did so, some one behind her said:
    â€œHow do you do, Miss Dane?”
    Chloe stopped, swung round, and saw Michael Foster.
    â€œHow did you know it was me? “
    â€œI—well, I just knew it was,” said Michael.
    They stood, looking at each other; Michael; very angry with himself because he felt shy and tongue-tied; Chloe amused.
    â€œI’m going home,” she said.
    Without a word Michael began to walk down the High Street beside her. Chloe’s amusement became tinged with embarrassment. What was one to do with an almost totally strange young man who, like Felix, kept on walking?
    â€œI’m going away to-morrow,” he said at last.
    â€œAre you?” said Chloe. She looked up at him suddenly with laughing eyes. “I do hope Toto is quite well. Why do you keep me in suspense? You must know that I’m simply longing for news of him.”
    â€œToto will live for ever,” said Michael gloomily. “And so will Mrs. Howard. However, I shan’t have to live with them—that’s one comfort. To-morrow I drive them to London and shed them, also, I hope, for ever. Er, Miss Dane, do you ever go to the pictures?” Michael turned bright red as he jerked out the last sentence.
    â€œSometimes.”
    There was a pause.
    â€œMiss Dane—I say, would it be awful cheek? I mean, if you weren’t doing anything else, would you—would you come to the pictures this evening?”
    Chloe bowed to Bernard Austin who was glaring mournfully from the other side of the street—she had refused him for the sixth time about a week before—; then she smiled at Michael.
    â€œI’d like to awfully. Rose Smith who lives with me is going with her fiancé. They wanted me to go too; but I was going to be tactful and mend stockings at home. I do loathe mending stockings and being tactful,—don’t you?”
    â€œI can’t mend stockings—at least—well, I did in a sort of way when I was in Africa. And my mother was most frightfully rude about them when I came home, and scrapped the whole lot—perfectly good some of them were too.”
    â€œCan’t you be tactful either?”
    â€œI don’t know. I wasn’t very tactful just now. But I say, will you really come to the pictures?” Chloe considered. She liked Michael Foster; she liked him a good deal; and he was leaving Maxton next day. It was perfectly safe. “Rose will probably scold, but I don’t care,” she thought Then she said aloud:
    â€œYes, I’ll come. I’m just going home to tea. You’d better come with me and meet Rose and her fiancé.”
    Rose did just raise her eyebrows when Chloe walked in with a strange young man; but the tea party