Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym Read Free Book Online Page A

curled up at the edges, and the Fuller’s walnut cake a crumbly mess because it had been roughly cut by inexperienced hands.
    Anthea and Simon got up from the sofa and stood looking out of the window at the wet, shining quadrangle, crowded now with hurrying figures in gowns.
    ‘Simon!’ called a loud raucous voice from below. ‘Are you coming into hall?’
    ‘Oh, God, it’s Christopher,’ said Simon, looking down at a group of young men under his window. He drew Anthea into a more prominent position and kissed her hand. He was the only one of his set who had a young woman in love with him.
    The young men shuffled off, and Simon and Anthea went downstairs and out into the street. They walked along holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes, completely unconscious that there were other people on the pavement.
    Thank goodness for love, thought Miss Morrow, as she slipped past them, with a hand up to shield her face.
    ‘That was Anthea Cleveland and her young man,’ she explained to Mr. Latimer, who was walking just behind her. ‘I think we’d better slip along Parks Road. We’re less likely to see anyone there.’
    ‘All right, though Parks Road is usually so deserted that if we do meet anyone we know they’re all the more likely to notice us,’ said Mr. Latimer.
    ‘What a good thing the vicar was preaching tonight,’ said Miss Morrow, hurrying along. ‘Though of course he’ll wonder what’s happened to you.’
    ‘I wonder what I ought to tell him,’ said Mr. Latimer thoughtfully.
    ‘Why, the truth, of course,’ said Miss Morrow, as if the possibility of a clergyman’s doing anything else had not occurred to her.
    ‘The truth?’ said Mr. Latimer doubtfully.
    ‘Yes, I think he’d understand. Say that you took advantage of Miss Doggett’s being away from home to go for a walk on Shotover. That you walked right over the other side and then discovered that you couldn’t possibly get back by half past six, even if you got a bus straight away. And then no buses seemed to come and it started to rain and it was seven o’clock before you were back in Oxford,’ Miss Morrow finished up triumphantly.
    ‘But it sounds so silly. It makes me out to be such a feeble, inefficient sort of creature,’ said Mr. Latimer, protesting.
    ‘Well, men are feeble, inefficient sorts of creatures,’ said Miss Morrow calmly, ‘but you can lay the blame on me if you like. Women are used to bearing burdens and taking blame. I have been blamed for everything for the last five years,’ she continued, ‘even for King Edward VIII’s abdication.’
    ‘Oh, I can’t bring you into this,’ said Mr. Latimer, in a shocked tone of voice.
    ‘Why ever not?’ asked Miss Morrow, genuinely surprised.
    ‘Well… .’ Mr. Latimer hesitated. ‘There might be a scandal. People might talk. You know what I mean,’ he went on quickly, sensing a mocking quality in her silence. ‘When people think of us walking about on Shotover Hill in the dark they might easily take it the wrong way.’
    ‘But it wasn’t dark then,’ said Miss Morrow, aggravatingly literal. ‘It didn’t get dark till we were on the road trying to get a bus. You really have the most curious ideas. If you think anyone could make up a scandal about me , you flatter me.’
    ‘No, I don’t,’ he said with sudden irritation. ‘I’m only looking at the facts and imagining how other people might interpret them. You can’t be so unworldly as to be ignorant of what I mean.’
    ‘I still think you flatter me,’ said Miss Morrow, striding along with her arms full of berries and branches. ‘Companions to old ladies are supposed to be essentially unworldly. To imply the contrary is surely a compliment. It conjures up pictures of silver fox furs, and perfumes to suit every occasion, and reading Vogue instead of the Church Times .’
    Mr. Latimer could hardly help smiling at this, but he was still annoyed with Miss Morrow for not seeing his point of view. An