Through The Wall Read Online Free PDF Page B

good.”
    Cyril said sharply, “There must be something more than a house.”
    Mrs. Deane put two spoons of tea in the pot.
    “Oh, as to that, I’m sure I couldn’t say, Mr. Felton—I’m not one to pry. But no cause to worry, I’m sure. Mrs. Felton’s been so excited ever since it happened, you wouldn’t know her for the same person—singing all over the house, and quite a colour.”
    He had time to feel very impatient indeed before his wife and sister-in-law came home.
    Ina’s eyes were shining like stars. She had had her hair set. She had bought all the sort of things she had never been able to afford for her face—a whole range of vanishing creams, cleansing creams, night creams, lipsticks, two different and enchanting shades of rouge, a face-powder which was a dream, and several different shades of nail-polish. The girl in the beauty-parlour had showed her just what to do, and she was in a state of quivering pleasure. She looked what she used to look like when she was eighteen—no, better than that, because she had never had any of these lovely things before. She felt like the heroine of a novel, she felt romantic and sophisticated. She was wearing new shoes and stockings, and a coat and skirt which had cost more than she had ever paid for anything in all her life. She rushed into Cyril’s arms and poured the whole thing out, finishing up with,
    “Oh, darling, isn’t it marvellous? Just look at me!”
    Cyril looked, at first with amazement, then with genuine admiration, and lastly with a good deal of apprehension, because he knew what things cost and he hoped she wasn’t putting too much in the shop window. All very well to have everything new and costing the earth—and he wouldn’t say Ina didn’t pay for dressing; every woman did—but the really important thing was, what did it all amount to in hard cash, and how much of it was going to come his way. In fact Mr. Mantalini had, as it were, taken some very appropriate words out of his mouth a hundred years ago by enquiring “What’s the demd total?”
    It wasn’t, of course, the moment to come out with it as bluntly as that. He had to look and admire, and stand with his arm round Ina while she chattered away nineteen to the dozen, for all the world like she used to when she was a schoolgirl.
    “Oh, Cyril, isn’t it all simply too marvellous! There’s a house—did I tell you there was a house—and it’s by the sea—in Ledshire—a place called Farne—and we’re going there just as soon as ever we can. I can’t believe it, I really can’t—we’re going to the sea! I have to keep saying it out loud, because it doesn’t seem as if it could be true. The house is really two houses, only Uncle Martin’s grandfather had such a big family he threw them into one and lived there with all his relations. Rather frightful, but people used to. At least, it would be fun if you liked them, and perhaps you would—”
    “Darling, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    She rubbed her cheek against his.
    “That’s because it’s all so wonderful—it won’t get into words. I’m so thrilled about the house. You see, Mr. Ashton says—”
    “Who is Mr. Ashton?”
    “Uncle Martin’s solicitor. We’ve been seeing him. He says the house can quite easily be made into two again. It would only mean shutting the doors that were cut through, and we could have an electric stove in the old kitchen, and then we shouldn’t have to turn the relations out, which he says would be frightfully difficult—and of course rather horrid. I mean, you don’t want to start with a family row, and then have to live next door to each other for ever and ever—too, too grim!”
    He had his arm round her and he called her darling, but his voice had an edge to it.
    “I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about, darling.”
    Marian had gathered up her parcels and gone into her own room. Like Ina she was wearing a new suit and everything else to match,