The Secret Journey Read Online Free PDF Page A

note for you? I am not a servant. If you have any business here, you must step inside and see Mrs. Ragner.’ He leaned out over the step and said in a low voice, ‘Because Mrs. Ragner is most strict about one thing. You can go to see her, but she won’t come out to see you. This applies to all visitors here. Is the message urgent?’
    â€˜I don’t know. I don’t know anything about it. I was asked to bring this note.’
    â€˜Who asked you?’
    â€˜My mother,’ replied the young man. He seemed to resent Mr. Corkran’s curiosity about such intimate matters. He held the letter in his hand, the other rested upon the brick-work. Looking at it, Mr. Corkran thought what a businesslike hand it really was. The fist was clenched and leaned heavily upon the wall, as though all the weight of the young man’s body lay behind it. Mr. Corkran shifted his position. The man on the step was staring at him in a most insolent fashion. This attitude was so unusual that for the first time for years Daniel Corkran raised his voice.
    â€˜Who are you staring at?’ he asked.
    â€˜You. Are you taking the letter or not? It doesn’t concern me, and I’m in a hurry.’
    â€˜I thought you were,’ replied the astonished Daniel. ‘But wait a second, will you?’
    Mrs. Ragner’s clients having gone, all business was closed promptly at nine. She had locked up her books, and was sitting indulging in contemplation at the wooden trestle-table. Then the sound of voices came to her ears. Two men speaking. She had been expecting a visitor at nine, but a woman. This was a man. She went out and stood in the hall.
    â€˜What is it, Corkran?’ she called. ‘It is gone nine o’clock. Close the door.’
    â€˜This young man has come from Hatfields. He has a letter for you and he is in a hurry. I asked him to come in, but he said he preferred not. His name is Fury.’
    Anna Ragner stood motionless. Her eyes pierced through the dim light of the hall.
    â€˜What do you want?’ she called out in a loud voice.
    â€˜I have a letter from my mother,’ replied the young man.
    â€˜Then if anybody has a letter for me they must deliver it. Corkran, I will see to this.’
    It was only when she stood at the door looking down into the young man’s face that she realized that she had broken an iron rule. She had answered the door herself. Mr. Corkran, though dismissed, still hung about in the hall, his sallow skin looking yellowish and sickly under the light. Mrs. Ragner said sharply:
    â€˜Show this young man to my room.’
    Then she walked along the hall and disappeared into the big sitting-room. She sat down at her desk. Mr. Corkran, having seated the visitor in the back sitting-room, went into the big room to tidy up. Mrs. Ragner sat so quietly at her desk that he was quite unaware of her presence. The top part of the room where she sat was in shadow, but he heard her heavy breathing.
    The young man seated on the couch at once rose to his feet when the woman entered the room. She had kept him waiting fifteen minutes, during which time she had sat thinking of nothing in particular except her visitor, who seemed truculent, agitated, and certainly ill-mannered. For anybody to refuse to enter number three Banfield Road, especially when asked, was the height of bad manners. She stood looking at him now, casually, indifferently, as though he were nothing in particular, like an article of furniture, or the very carpet on which he had placed his dirty boots.
    Without a word she took the letter from his hand, opened it and began to read.
    The young man wore a brown suit, a sailor’s blue jersey, and black shoes. His head was bare. He was about five foot ten in height, well built, had a lively, intelligent face, a restless look, and gave the appearance of being a little shortsighted by the way he stared at people at first acquaintance. He now stared at Mrs. Ragner.