They Do It With Mirrors Read Online Free PDF Page A

and into a room where bookshelves went up to the ceiling and a big window looked out over an artificial lake.
    Carrie Louise was standing by the window and Miss Marple joined her.
    â€œWhat a very imposing house this is,” said Miss Marple. “I feel quite lost in it.”
    â€œYes, I know. It’s ridiculous, really. It was built by a prosperous iron master—or something of that kind. He went bankrupt not long after. I don’t wonder really. There were about fourteen livingrooms—all enormous. I’ve never seen what people can want with more than one sitting room. And all those huge bedrooms. Such a lot of unnecessary space. Mine is terribly overpowering—and quite a long way to walk from the bed to the dressing table. And great heavy dark crimson curtains.”
    â€œYou haven’t had it modernized and redecorated?”
    Carrie Louise looked vaguely surprised.
    â€œNo. On the whole it’s very much as it was when I first lived here with Eric. It’s been repainted, of course, but they always do it the same colour. Those things don’t really matter, do they? I mean I shouldn’t have felt justified in spending a lot of money on that kind of thing when there are so many things that are so much more important.”
    â€œHave there been no changes at all in the house?”
    â€œOh yes—heaps of them. We’ve just kept a kind of block in the middle of the house as it was—the Great Hall and the rooms off and over. They’re the best ones and Johnnie—my second husband—was lyrical over them and said they should never be touched or altered—and, of course, he was an artist and a designer and he knew about these things. But the East and West wings have been completely remodelled. All the rooms partitioned off and divided up, so that we have offices, and bedrooms for the teaching staff, and all that. The boys are all in the College building—you can see it from here.”
    Miss Marple looked out towards where large red brick buildings showed through a belt of sheltering trees. Then her eyes fell on something nearer at hand, and she smiled a little.
    â€œWhat a very beautiful girl Gina is,” she said.
    Carrie Louise’s face lit up.
    â€œYes, isn’t she?” she said softly. “It’s so lovely to have her back here again. I sent her to America at the beginning of the war—to Ruth. Did Ruth talk about her at all?”
    â€œNo. At least she did just mention her.”
    Carrie Louise sighed.
    â€œPoor Ruth! She was frightfully upset over Gina’s marriage. But I’ve told her again and again that I don’t blame her in the least. Ruth doesn’t realise, as I do, that the old barriers and class shibboleths are gone—or at any rate are going.
    â€œGina was doing war work—and she met this young man. He was a marine and had a very good war record. And a week later they were married. It was all far too quick, of course, no time to find out if they were really suited to each other—but that’s the way of things nowadays. Young people belong to their generation. We may think they’re unwise in many of their doings, but we have to accept their decisions. Ruth, though, was terribly upset.”
    â€œShe didn’t consider the young man suitable?”
    â€œShe kept saying that one didn’t know anything about him. He came from the middle west and he hadn’t any money—and naturally no profession. There are hundreds of boys like that everywhere—but it wasn’t Ruth’s idea of what was right for Gina. However, the thing was done. I was so glad when Gina accepted my invitation to come over here with her husband. There’s so much going on here—jobs of every kind, and if Walter wants to specialise in medicine or get a degree or anything he could do it in this country. After all, this is Gina’s home. It’s delightful to have her back, to have someone