The Haunting of Hill House Read Online Free PDF Page B

us very much about all this, have you? I don’t think I can see my way clear to letting you borrow my car.”
    â€œIt’s half my car.”
    â€œNo,” Carrie said. “You may not.”
    â€œRight.” Eleanor’s brother-in-law nodded. “We need it, like Carrie says.”
    Carrie smiled slightly. “I’d never forgive myself, Eleanor, if I lent you the car and something happened. How do we know we can trust this doctor fellow? You’re still a young woman, after all, and the car is worth a good deal of money.”
    â€œWell, now, Carrie, I did call Homer in the credit office, and he said this fellow was in good standing at some college or other—”
    Carrie said, still smiling, “Of course, there is every reason to suppose that he is a decent man. But Eleanor does not choose to tell us where she is going, or how to reach her if we want the car back; something could happen, and we might never know. Even if Eleanor,” she went on delicately, addressing her teacup, “even if Eleanor is prepared to run off to the ends of the earth at the invitation of any man, there is still no reason why she should be permitted to take my car with her.”
    â€œIt’s half my car.”
    â€œSuppose poor little Linnie got sick, up there in the mountains, with nobody around? No doctor?”
    â€œIn any case, Eleanor, I am sure that I am doing what Mother would have thought best. Mother had confidence in me and would certainly never have approved my letting you run wild, going off heaven knows where, in my car.”
    â€œOr suppose even I got sick, up there in—”
    â€œI am sure Mother would have agreed with me, Eleanor.”
    â€œBesides,” Eleanor’s brother-in-law said, struck by a sudden idea, “how do we know she’d bring it back in good condition?”
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    There has to be a first time for everything, Eleanor told herself. She got out of the taxi, very early in the morning, trembling because by now, perhaps, her sister and her brother-in-law might be stirring with the first faint proddings of suspicion; she took her suitcase quickly out of the taxi while the driver lifted out the cardboard carton which had been on the front seat. Eleanor overtipped him, wondering if her sister and brother-in-law were following, were perhaps even now turning into the street and telling each other, “There she is, just as we thought, the thief, there she is”; she turned in haste to go into the huge city garage where their car was kept, glancing nervously toward the ends of the street. She crashed into a very little lady, sending packages in all directions, and saw with dismay a bag upset and break on the sidewalk, spilling out a broken piece of cheesecake, tomato slices, a hard roll. “Damn you damn you!” the little lady screamed, her face pushed up close to Eleanor’s. “I was taking it home, damn you damn you!”
    â€œI’m so sorry,” Eleanor said; she bent down, but it did not seem possible to scoop up the fragments of tomato and cheesecake and shove them somehow back into the broken bag. The old lady was scowling down and snatching up her other packages before Eleanor could reach them, and at last Eleanor rose, smiling in convulsive apology. “I’m really so sorry,” she said.
    â€œDamn you,” the little old lady said, but more quietly. “I was taking it home for my little lunch. And now, thanks to you —”
    â€œPerhaps I could pay?” Eleanor took hold of her pocketbook, and the little lady stood very still and thought.
    â€œI couldn’t take money, just like that,” she said at last. “I didn’t buy the things, you see. They were left over.” She snapped her lips angrily. “You should have seen the ham they had,” she said, “but someone else got that . And the chocolate cake. And the potato salad. And the little candies in the little