The Last Houseparty Read Online Free PDF Page B

and focusing to a sharp-seen point. Then he took a bundle of short girders out, opened a couple of match-boxes and began to assemble an end-frame, his large fingers handling the miniature nuts and screws without fumbling, every movement looking in fact as though he had been fibbing about not having done this before, and had really been practising regularly for this moment.
    â€œWhen’s Mummy coming?” said the child suddenly.
    â€œI’m afraid I don’t know. Is your mother staying here?”
    â€œWe live here now. Mummy works for the Countess.”
    â€œOh … Mrs Dubigny?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWhat’s your name?”
    â€œSally.”
    â€œI’m Vincent. Vincent Masham. My friends call me Vince.”
    â€œShe said she wouldn’t be very long.”
    â€œI met her in the courtyard about half an hour ago. She was going to show my cousin something. I expect she’ll come after that.”
    â€œShe usually forgets.”
    â€œIf I see her I’ll remind her.”
    â€œI’m not allowed downstairs alone. The Countess says I might knock things over.”
    â€œI’m sure you wouldn’t.”
    â€œI’m not allowed in the garden alone. The Countess says I might walk on the flowerbeds.”
    â€œThat’s too bad. The garden’s the best thing about Snailwood. I expect she’ll change her mind when she’s used to you. There haven’t been children here for ages. We used to run all over the garden. There are some corking trees to climb in.”
    â€œThat’s a boys’ thing.”
    â€œI suppose so. Lend me Mary again, for a try. She is going to need some kind of mattress, you know.”
    â€œShe’s only a doll. She can’t feel anything.”
    â€œIf you say so.”
    A few minutes later, when the two end-frames had been joined by longer strips and girders to make a shape like a truncated canoe, Sally rose, went to the child-size chest of drawers beyond the bed, tugged open the top drawer and came back with a yellowish Chilprufe vest which she folded slowly, trying several methods, until she had a shape which fitted the bottom of the cradle. Settling the doll into place she sat down again, now leaning against Vincent’s arm and watching while he worked at the first support.
    â€œWe’ll need another of these,” he said. “Would you like to find the pieces for it—just the same as I’ve got here?”
    â€œNo, thank you.”
    Neither of them spoke until Vincent had finished the second support and attached it and a motor to the base-plates.
    â€œNow comes the tricky part,” he said. “You see, this wheel’s going to go round and round and push this crank and I’ve got to join the other end to this wheel so that it goes round for a bit and then goes back. To make the cradle rock to and fro, you see. If I’m not careful we’ll have Mary whirling round and round as if she was on the wheel at a fairground—except the motor isn’t strong enough for that, probably.”
    â€œMummy’s not used to having me,” said Sally. “That’s why she forgets. I lived with Auntie May, but then the judge said I must come and live with Mummy.”
    â€œOh, I see. Do you like it at Snailwood?”
    â€œIf only I could go in the garden when I wanted.”
    â€œLook, just let me finish this—it won’t take five minutes—and then we’ll go and look for your mother and ask if I can take you out till tea. O.K.?”
    â€œIf you want to,” she said, apparently as dismissive as ever. She contrived to appear as though she was watching Vincent assemble the cradle because there was nothing more interesting to do, but in another sense she was attending closely enough to impede the movement of his left arm.
    â€œYour coat’s scritchy,” she said, stroking the tweed sleeve.
    â€œSorry about that.”
    â€œTake it