Whiteoak Heritage. Mazo de la Roche
stared at her astonished.
“Renny Whiteoak told me.”
They stood in a strange unaccustomed intimacy. The door at the end of the passage opened and Mrs. Clinch appeared. She saw the two standing guiltily and the door open. Her whole face tightened, as though she had pulled a drawstring. Then she laid a work-worn hand on the side of her face and after another askance look at the door went heavily up the stairs.
Maurice hastily closed it. The sound of Mrs. Clinch’s bedroom door shutting came from above.
“It was strange,” said Maurice, “for Renny Whiteoak to speak of such a thing to a child. How did he come to do it?”
“He had promised me — something, if it happened.”
Maurice looked at her sombrely.
“And then he told you it wasn’t going to?”
“Yes.”
“Well — you shouldn’t have been mixed up in it.” He turned from her and went into the sitting room.
Pheasant flew up the stairs. From Mrs. Clinch’s room came the smell of Minard’s Liniment.
Safe inside her own room she drew a deep breath of its seclusion. There was a greenish light in the room from the thickness of a cedar tree. She saw her full-length reflection in an old pier glass, like the ghost of a little girl come to meet her. But this glass was never secure in its frame and, at the tremor of her step, it tilted forward and the reflection was lost.
Pheasant put her hand in her pocket and felt the little knife Renny had given her. She took it out and it lay on the palm of her hand.
“I always think,” she said loud, “that there’s something sad about this little knife.”
It was as though she sought to explain away the tears that ran down her cheeks.
VI
Eden and Mrs. Stroud
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.