The Feast Read Online Free PDF Page B

at present. One double,on the ground floor, and two small single on the first floor.’
    ‘Two single? Oh … thank you.’
    ‘You want two single,’ he told her. ‘We can have them ready at once if you’d like.’
    ‘Oh yes. Oh, thank you.’
    ‘Our terms are six guineas a week each.’
    ‘Oh, thank you.’
    There was a pause. Glancing at her he discovered that she was really quite young, but so thin, so worn, that her youth was not at first apparent. And she had the walk, the voice, the fidgety movements, of an ageing spinster.
    ‘You’ve left your friend,’ he suggested, ‘over in Porthmerryn .’
    This startled her greatly. She gave him a scared glance and then said:
    ‘I … I have no friends.’
    ‘But you want two rooms.’
    ‘Yes … one for me as well … I mean it’s for my … my father… he wants a room … and one for me as well.’
    ‘Oh? Your father. You want two rooms. One for yourself and one for your father.’
    ‘Oh yes. Thank you.’
    ‘And your father is in Porthmerryn.’
    ‘Oh no. He … he’s here.’
    ‘Here?’
    ‘In the … at the top of the … at the top of the … at the top. In the car.’
    ‘Your car?’
    ‘Oh yes. I mean … his car.’
    ‘Then you’ll want garage room.’
    ‘Oh yes. Thank you.’
    They had reached the house by now, and he took her to the office. She seemed to become a good deal more sensible and collected when talking to his mother. She explained that her name was Wraxton; her father wasa Canon Wraxton. They had been staying at the Bellevue in Porthmerryn, but had not liked their quarters there and had left that morning. They wanted two rooms for a week. Her father was waiting in the car at the top of the hill while she enquired about accommodation.
    ‘I’ll go up and tell him we have rooms,’ volunteered Gerry, who thought that the poor girl really did not look fit to climb that hill again.
    But she seemed to be so much disturbed at this idea, so sure that she must go back herself, and so averse from his company, that he had to let her go alone.
    ‘I’m astonished they weren’t comfortable at the Bellevue ,’ said Mrs. Siddal. ‘It’s a very nice hotel. I wonder if they’re all right.’
    ‘Ring up and find out, before they come,’ suggested Gerry.
    ‘I could do that. I could ask Mrs. Parkins, in confidence … one doesn’t like to turn away a windfall ….’
    She rang up the Bellevue, but got no further than the name of Wraxton when a torrent of squeaks from the telephone interrupted her. Mrs. Parkins had a great deal to say about the Wraxtons.
    ‘Well?’ asked Gerry, when the colloquy was over.
    ‘They’re all right as regards money. They paid for a week in advance, though they only stayed two nights. But she says he has the most awful temper; he quarrelled with everybody and objected to cards and dancing in the lounges. And he was very rude to the staff.’
    ‘Oh Mother … don’t let’s have them.’
    ‘If he’s a Canon they must be respectable. We can’t afford to have rooms standing empty….’
    ‘But if he’s that sort of man….’
    ‘We don’t have cards or dancing … or much staff for him to be rude to. And it’s only for a week.’
    ‘You said yourself that you don’t want windfalls.’
    ‘It’s twelve guineas.’
    Outside there was a sound of wheels crunching ongravel. They looked out of the window and saw a large car cautiously nosing its way round the last bend, between the rhododendrons. It drew up before the front door.
    Miss Wraxton was driving, and the Canon sat behind. He was so exactly what they had expected that both the Siddals were startled. They had imagined a man with a large nose, bushy brows, small red eyes, purplish complexion and a controversial lower lip; and here he sat. His priestly garments only made him more formidable, for they threatened eternal punishment to anyone so rash as to disagree with him.
    ‘Oh dear …’ whispered Mrs. Siddal. ‘Oh dear. I can’t …’
    She