The Little Girls

The Little Girls Read Online Free PDF Page A

Book: The Little Girls Read Online Free PDF
Author: Elizabeth Bowen
Tags: Fiction, Literary, Psychological, Girls, England, Friendship, Women, Reunions
country.”
    Francis never desisted entirely from work. It was clear to him that if he ceased to do anything whatsoever he might have to go, and that might not suit him. Meanwhile, he compensated himself for being unable to be in the Secret Service. In an unbreakable code he wrote in a fat notebook, which he did not carry upon his person lest it bulge, instead keeping it wedged among the bowels of plumbing under the pantry sink. That came to be a hiding-place known to all—for he returned his cahier to it ostentatiously. Also, no letter entering Applegate was unread by him, unless Dinah remembered to lock it up—a precaution she rarely took; she had the impression that Francis was probably able to pick locks. The stubs in her cheque book, bills, Income Tax demands, and correspondence with brokers were of interest also. No form of written communication was beneath his notice. Waste-paper baskets never delayed him long: he was already conversant with what was in them. It was not surprising that he by now knew how everything stood.
    Dinah stowed all her papers inside her writing desk in the drawing-room. This morning, Francis opened the desk’s flap with no keen or particular expectation—today’s post, arranged by him on her breakfast tray, had been unusually meagre, insipid-looking. Nor, even, would his investigation today have the charm of requiring stealth and haste—she was off in her car round the village, which, given her way of chattering in the shops and custom of dropping in on the Major, meant (or did usually) out till lunch-time. Francis therefore embarked on his routine check somewhat listlessly, though in a practiced manner. Then, though, all of a sudden he was rewarded. For here (and certainly fresh since yesterday) was a wad of thin, crumpled sheets in her handwriting—scarred with erasures, corrections, inserts, loops, brackets, arrows, marginal scrabblings. And all (that was, to judge by the first glance) saying, or attempting to say, the same thing, here or there with omissions or variations. He was sincerely puzzled— what was she up to? Scooping the stuff from the desk, he carried it to the neighborhood of a window, where he sat down on a sofa to sort it out. Smoothing the sheets, he compared them with one another. Drafting something—ha. A document, was it?
    It would have been this—whatever this was—that she had been muddling away at late last night, till all hours, after the Major left. Francis, weaving his way downstairs to eat a banana at 1:30 a.m., had seen light still showing under the drawing-room door. A new Will, eh, due to a brainstorm? No: these repetitious jottings mentioned no money. An advertisement: could she be advertising Francis? At that thought, Francis wore a grimace which Dinah (who’d come on it once or twice) likened to that of an infuriated Chinese warrior’s decapitated head, being brandished about by a foe, in a gory drawing… . No, however: calmer inspection showed him she had not had the wits, yet, to think of that. He returned to work, which was to say, analysis. Throwing out the more tangled convulsive sheets, early stages in her trial-and-error, he was left with what finally she had let stand. Here, presumably, were her “fair copies.” They reduced down to five in number, and ran as follows:

Will the former Clare Burkin-Jones and Sheila Beaker at once get in touch with the former Diana Piggott, with whom they buried a box. Imperative Dicey confer with Mumbo and Sheikie. The past not so buried as it appears. Write Box xxxx.

It is urgent that Sheila (Sheikie) Beaker and Clare (Mumbo) Burkin-Jones, once day-boarders at St. Agatha’s school, Southstone, should, whether married or otherwise or living under real or assumed names, without delay get in touch with Diana (Dicey) nee Piggott. They will know why. Crisis arisen. Write Boxxxxx.

Sheikie and Mumbo, where are you? Your former confederate Dicey seeks you earnestly, in connection with matter known so far
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