The Black Cabinet by Patricia Wentworth Read Free Book Online Page B

that.”
    â€œWould you like to come? I think it could be arranged very easily.”
    Chloe did not know whether she could say truthfully that she would like to come. She felt an unreasoning desire to run away. She felt as if she were really Cinderella, and as if the shining dress which had made her so happy had turned to rags; she wanted to take it off and never see it again. And all the time her conscience told her how ungrateful it was to have such thoughts as these. She walked silently down the gallery stairs, and was sad for her vanished fairy tale.

Chapter VIII
    Chloe danced again with Tim Renton, a cheerful youth with a free tongue and a good conceit of himself.
    â€œWhat’s happened to you?” he said. “No chit-chat, no light and airy badinage—in fact, no anything! Make a remark about the weather, there’s a good soul, or the whole of Maxton will say that I’ve proposed to you and been turned down. I should hate that.”
    â€œWhich part of it?”
    Tim Renton grinned.
    â€œBeing turned down, of course. What on earth did the old buffer who looks as if he’d just come out of cold storage say or do to cast such a horrid blight?”
    â€œI’m not in the least blighted,” said Chloe.
    â€œWell, you look it. Did he say, ‘Fly with me, and with all my worldly millions I will thee endow,’ or words to that effect?”
    Chloe tried to look very severe.
    â€œTim, you haven’t any manners at all. I don’t know why I dance with you.”
    â€œI expect it’s because I’m so beautiful,” said Tim. He had the kind of ugly, flat face that goes with green eyes, freckles, and a grin.
    Chloe laughed, and felt more cheerful.
    â€œIf he was proposing that you should fly with him, I wouldn’t go—I don’t believe even the millions would make it worth while. Lady Gresson says he is going to adopt you; but, personally, I should hate to be adopted by a sort of survival from the ice age. Now you go right ahead and tell me just what kind of a neck I’ve got to butt in on your affairs. You’ll do it awfully well, and I shan’t mind a bit, so we’ll both be quite happy. Your lead, partner!”
    The bright, angry colour ran up into Chloe’s cheeks.
    â€œHow dare Lady Gresson go about talking like that! It’s not her business. I should think Mr. Dane would be furious.” Then, with a sudden change of manner, “Tim, why did you say that?”
    â€œSay what?”
    â€œYou know—about Mr. Dane. If he did want to adopt me, why shouldn’t I say ‘Yes’?”
    For once in his life Tim Renton looked serious. The ugly face showed a promise of strength and sense.
    â€œI don’t know. I was chaffing.”
    â€œBut you meant something.”
    â€œI don’t know what I meant. At least—”
    â€œTell me!” said Chloe imperiously.
    â€œMy dear girl, there’s nothing to tell. I like you; and I don’t like him—that’s all.”
    The words kept coming back to Chloe then and later. As nearly as possible they defined the definable. There are people you like, and people you don’t like. You don’t always know why you like people; and you don’t always know why you dislike them.”
    Chloe did not let her other partners find her silent; but the bloom had gone from the evening. She did not dance again with Martin Fossetter. Of course, as Chloe put it quite firmly to herself, she did not care in the very, very least whether Martin Fossetter asked her to dance with him or not. It vexed her to think how intimately she had talked to him that afternoon at Ranbourne; and of course it would have been pleasant to have had the opportunity of snubbing him a little. She had, in point of fact, made up her mind to be very distant to Mr. Fossetter, and it was annoying not to have been able to put this good resolution to the proof.
    Towards the end of the