The Stranger From The Sea by Winston Graham Read Free Book Online

meeting?'
    'Yes.'
    They strolled on in silence, and when they reached the gate they leaned over it together waiting for Mrs Kemp and her charges to arrive. The wind ruffled their hair and lifted their frocks.
    It was a little surprising that two such dark people as Ross and his wife had bred anyone so unquestionably blonde as Clowance . But she had been so born and showed no signs of darkening with maturity. As a child she had always been fat, and it was only during the last year or so since she had left Mrs Gratton's School for Young Ladies that she had begun to fine off and to grow into good looks. Even so, her face was still broad across the forehead. Her mouth was firm and finely shaped and feminine, her eyes grey and frank to a degree that was not totally becoming in a young lady of her time. She could grow quickly bored and as quickly interested. Twice she had run away from boarding-school - not because she particularly disliked it but because there were more engaging things to do at home. She greeted every incident as it came and treated it on its merits, without fear or hesitation. Clowance, Demelza said to Ross, had a face that reminded her of a newly opened ox-eye daisy, and she dearly hoped it would never get spotted with the rain.
    As for Demelza herself, her approximate fortieth birthday had just come and gone, and she was trying, so far with some success, to keep her mind off the chimney corner. For a 'vulgar', as the Reverend Osborne Whitworth had called her, she had worn well, better than many of her more high-bred contemporaries. It was partly a matter of bone structure, partly a matter of temperament. There were some fine lines on her face that had not been there fifteen years ago, but as these were mainly smile lines and as her expression tended usually to the amiable they scarcely showed. Her hair wanted to go grey at the temples but, unknown to Ross, who said he detested hair dyes, she had bought a little bottle of something from Mr Irby of St Ann's and surreptitiously touched it up once a week after she washed it.
    The only time she looked and felt her age, and more than it, was when she had one of her headaches, which usually occurred monthly just before her menstrual period. During the twenty-six days of good health she steadily put on weight, and during the two days of the megrim she lost it all, so a status quo was preserved.
    In the distance Bella recognized her mother and sister and waved, and they waved back.
    Clowance said: 'Mama, why do Jeremy and his friends go out fishing so much and never catch any fish?'
    'But they do, my handsome. We eat it regularly.'
    'But not enough. They go out after breakfast and come back for supper, and their haul is what you or I in a row-boat could cull in a couple of hours!'
    'They are not very diligent, any of them. Perhaps they just sit in the sun and dream the day away.'
    'Perhaps. I asked him once but he said there was a scarcity round the coast this year.'
    'And might that not be true?'
    'Only that the Sawle men don't seem to find it so.'
    They strolled on a few paces.
    'At any rate,' said Clowance, 'I've picked you some handsome foxgloves.'
    'Thank you. Did you call at the Enyses?'
    'No ... But I did meet a friend of yours, Mama.' Demelza smiled. 'That covers a deal of ground. But d'you really mean a friend?' 'Why?'
    'Something the way you used the word.'
    Clowance brushed a flying ant off her frock. 'It was Sir George Warleggan.'
    She carefully did not look at her mother after she had spoken, but she was aware of the stillness beside her.
    Demelza said: 'Where?'
    'At Trenwith. It was the first time ever I saw the front door open, so in I went to look in - and there he was in the big hall, sitting in front of a smoky fire with a pipe in his hand that had gone out and as sour an expression as if he had been eating rigs.'
    'Did he see you?'
    'Oh y es. We spoke! We talked! We conversed! He asked me what damned business I had there and I told him.' 'Told him