The Lotus House Read Online Free PDF

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    “Just the same with me,” said Margot Royce, “andthree bedrooms too, it will be such a comfort to have a spare room, we’ve had to put up our guests in our sitting-room, such a bore, and the little room at the end of the passage will do nicely for my small daughter. You don’t mind children, do you, Mrs Sanderson? Harriet is a very harmless one.”
    Mrs Sanderson was really pleased at this. She very much wanted children at the Lotus House again, in fact it turned the scales decisively in Mrs Royce’s favour, but she felt a little doubtful about the room at the end of the passage. It had been used as a box-room in the old days, though it did possess a tiny window. Letty could not help thinking it was a pity not to allot one of the proper bedrooms to Harriet, but of course it was not her business.
    “It’s all just what I might have dreamed of, but never thought to find, and to discover you, too, Mrs Sanderson,” said Margot, turning to Letty with that entrancing smile and opening her large very blue eyes wide — “you too, how lucky we shall be to have you as our landlady and friend.” She drew a silvery scarf round her neck, which was of just the right proportions, not too long and thin, nor too short, like Letty’s own. Her thick little neck and, worse still, her double chin, had always been a grief to her. “I must fly,” said Margot, “Andrew comes home for lunch and I always like to have something ready for him, and I’m simply longing to tell him all about you and this wonderful flat. We shall certainly want to take it and to move in as soon as possible.”
    She swept gracefully out of the house and into her rather shabby little Mini, leant forward to wave through the window and was off, leaving Letty, quite delighted, on the doorstep.
    “I don’t think I could do better,” she said to herself contentedly, and it was only later that she remembered that she had not said anything about references.
    “One thing I must impress upon you, my dear Mrs Sanderson,” Mr Donovan had said, “don’t agree to anything without taking up references, and be sure you don’t trust to written ones only; I will gladly investigate personally myself if you would like me to do so.”
    So kind of him, thought Letty, and now I have practical ly agreed to let the best flat without even mentioning the matter. Still, I’m sure it’s all right. He is a Doctor of Science, she said, and she is so delightful, such lovely hair and obviously a good wife too, and with a little girl nearly eight years old. She confessed her lapse to Mr Donovan but there was such a gleam in her eye as she did so that, though he intended to look into the matter himself, he was convinced that nothing less than a proven record for crime could shake her determination to allow Dr and Mrs Royce and Harriet to move in as soon as possible.
    If she had slipped up over references for the Royces, Mrs Sanderson was able to produce impeccable ones for Aubrey Stacey, the would-be tenant of the top-floor flat. He was a schoolmaster, a bachelor with a brother who was a barrister. Moreover he and his brother had both been educated at Westminster. Such a coincidence, thought Letty with pleasure, for Westminster had been Edward’s public school. She remembered this because he had once impressed her with its superiority over all other public schools. “It is the only one left up in London, the only one that counts, and London is the greatest city in the world.” Yes, of course, he had told her this at George V’s coronation. Edward had been in the upper school then and had a seat in the Abbey with the Westminster boys. This proved his point. Of course this had been long before Aubrey Stacey’s time. He had read English at Oxford and was on the staff of a neighbouring large comprehensive school. He was not very communicative about his career but she got the impression that besides teaching he also wrote a little.
    “Aubrey Stacey, an attractive name,