The New Moon with the Old by Dodie Smith Read Free Book Online Page A

‘also those of Rupert Carrington …’ A moment later the newscaster, allowing himself a flicker of a smile, concluded with a little story about a recaptured monkey.
    â€˜Well, they haven’t captured Father, anyway!’ said Merry.
    Jane found herself faintly proud that Rupert had been mentioned. Even as a crook, she did not care to think of him as insignificant.
    â€˜Has anyone the vaguest idea what he’s really done?’ asked Clare.
    â€˜I think it’s known as fraudulent conversion,’ said Richard. ‘You finance a company and then use the money for yourself and to pay dividends on the next company you finance, and then go on financing more and more companies. It’s all right – until you get stopped. And when a big fish gets caught, smaller fish get into the net too.’
    The telephone rang. Richard went to the study to answer it.
    â€˜Probably Father, wanting to be bailed out,’ said Merry.
    Jane wondered if her entire savings would be enough. She doubted it – for a man mentioned in the same breath as one alleged to have fraudulently converted two million.
    Richard returned to say Cook and Edith had also been listening to the News and wanted to be assured that ‘it didn’t mean your father’. On hearing it did, they had wanted Richard to come and get them at once so that they could ‘help’. He’d promised to come in the morning. ‘They sent their love and said it would all come right in the end and they and we must stick together – which we obviously can’t but I didn’t mention that.’
    â€˜We might,’ said Merry. ‘Suppose we turned this house into a guest house?’
    The idea was welcomed by everyone except Richard who said it was out of the question.
    â€˜But why, Richard?’ asked Drew. ‘If you and I share a room and the girls shared, there’d be quite a few free bedrooms.’
    â€˜And surely there must be attics?’ said Jane. ‘Are they usable?’
    â€˜Only the nice ones Cook and Edith have as bedroom and bathroom,’ said Glare. ‘The others are just garrets with skylights.’
    â€˜Still, even without the attics …’ Drew began to plan eagerly, backed up by Merry and Jane. It took Richard a long time to convince them that a guest house would need capital – and guests, who would certainly not be available in the winter when the Swan could never fill its bedrooms.
    â€˜And though I hate to mention it,’ said Jane, ‘it’s just struck me that if your father’s made bankrupt all your furniture will belong to his creditors, surely?’
    â€˜It’s a mercy he doesn’t own the house,’ said Richard. ‘I wonder if the lease will count as one of his assets? We can only hang on and hope for the best. Luckily the rent’s very low.’
    â€˜But there are rates,’ said Clare. ‘And the upkeep’s so high. Do any of you realize what even the heating costs?’
    By the time Clare had finished a dissertation on the house-keeping in general, Jane saw that Dome House would swallow three hundred pounds in no time at all. It could only be kept going – even with the most rigid economies – if the three elder Carringtons got jobs immediately. As for Merry’s education … But she wasn’t bringing that topic up now.
    They listened to the final News broadcast but the City’s affairs were omitted. Richard then said he could neither think nor talk any more and was going to bed.
    â€˜Me, too,’ said Drew. ‘I find the resilience of youth is wearing off.’
    Clare began collecting the supper plates. ‘We’ll wash these up with the breakfast things. You have your bath, Miss Minton.’
    Drew said: ‘As you’re such a friend now, could we stop calling you Miss Minton? Perhaps “Minty” – no, I’m sure you’d hate that.’
    Jane had often