The Gossamer Cord Read Online Free PDF Page B

truth, before, for Dorabella, it had been a trifle disappointing.
    He was indeed all he had implied. He led us with the minimum of difficulty to the stricken tree. He shouted with triumph.
    “We’re on the way.” Then he found the small tree to which he had referred. And there we were on the road.
    Dorabella flung her arms round me and, looking over my shoulder at him, cried: “You’re wonderful.”
    “I think we need something to warm us up,” he said. “What about a glass of wine—or are you tempted by their really excellent beer?”
    Frau Brandt was at the door of the schloss looking anxiously along the road.
    She said: “The mist had come up rather quickly, as it often does at this time of the year. I was beginning to think it was time you were back.”
    Dorabella explained that we were lost in the forest and Mr. Tregarland had brought us out.
    “Ach!” cried Frau Brandt, and broke into a stream of German which, we realized, expressed relief. She went on about the ease with which people could be lost in the forest and had to remain there until the mist cleared.
    She hustled us into the schloss. It was not weather for loitering in the Beer Garden. What refreshments would we like?
    We said we would like a glass of wine…a sort of aperitif. So wine was brought and we sat together—Dorabella in a state of extreme contentment. I thought to myself, I believe she is falling in love with this young man, or perhaps trying to convince herself that she is. And he? He was charming, and it was clearly Dorabella who had his attention. She was the sort of girl who changed in the society of men. If she were depressed, this could be completely dispersed by masculine appreciation. She sparkled; she was at her most enchanting best. I suppose there were occasions when I might have felt a little jealous, but I did not now. For one thing, I took her superior feminine charms for granted; and so far I had never felt any desire for the attention of those men who attracted her.
    I liked this young man. He was certainly charming, but that was all. Dorabella was inclined to let her emotions flow too easily. I was always afraid that she would—as she had once or twice in the past—have to face some disappointment.
    Dermot lifted his glass and said: “To our safe return from the dangers of the forest.”
    Dorabella touched her glass with his and they smiled at each other.
    “How lucky for us that you saw us,” said Dorabella.
    “It was more due to design than luck,” he assured her. “I was so sorry to have missed you. I was so certain that I would find you sitting there sipping your coffee. I was so grateful to the waiter for telling me you had only just left. Then I dashed off and saw you turning into the forest. It occurred to me that it might be misty there. Indeed, it did seem to be getting worse every moment.”
    “So you came to rescue us,” said Dorabella. “It was truly marvelous, the way you brought us out.”
    They smiled at each other again.
    “The English have to stick together when on alien soil…even if some of them are only Cornish.”
    Dorabella laughed at everything he said, as though she found it the height of wit. I would tell her when we were alone that she must not be so blatantly adoring.
    Then we started to talk about ourselves. We told him who Edward was and how our mother had brought him out of France at the beginning of the war.
    He was very interested. “And Edward is the good big brother to you.”
    “Oh, yes,” I said. “He is wonderful to us, always feels he has to look after us.”
    “He does not forbid you to wander in the misty forest?”
    “He will be furious with us for having done so,” said Dorabella. “But he has gone off for the day with his friend Kurt—the son of the Brandts. They have known each other for some little time. That is why we are here.”
    He said he hoped to meet Edward.
    He told us something about his house in Cornwall. It had been in the Tregarland family for