Читать книгу Midnight House - Ethel Lina White - Страница 20

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Although Captain Pewter honestly believed that what Captain Pewter thought to-day, posterity would think tomorrow, there was one respect in which he was sensitive to public opinion. He shrank from humour at the expense of Anglo-Indians.

"They get you both ways," he complained. "If you mention any experience to some nitwit who's lived in a cheese all his life, then you are a garrulous bore. Say nothing and you're a strong silent Empire builder... I'll have no J. M. Bateman comic-colonel stuff about this house. I forbid anyone to talk of 'tiffin' or 'pegs.' All Indian words are taboo."

This complex dictated his scheme of decoration. At first, Elizabeth regretted the lack of tiger-skins, elephant-tusks and carved teak, which reminded her of the one happy period of her life. That evening, however, as she crossed the gleaming cream hall and contrasted it with her grandmother's mausoleum, she realised the tonic transformation effected by gallons of paint.

The original baize-covered door which led to the basement-stairs had been replaced by one which matched the prevailing hue. As she walked down to the lower hall, it was brilliantly lit by a large pendant electric-bowl. Floor and stairs were all covered with apple-green rubber instead of carpet.

When she reached the cellar door she lingered to stare at it. Memory flashed back to the cellars in her grandmother's house. They were gruesome caverns, without any artificial light, and reached by a narrow stone stair. She had paid them one visit only, but she never forgot her experience.

The cook had been her guide to the underworld. When she unlocked the door at the top, there was an upward rush of cold air which smelt like a dungeon. She held the candle high, to light the steps, and Elizabeth looked down on cobweb-draped walls, glistening with slimy smears.

Then suddenly—as she stared—the whole floor moved and disappeared, as though drawn by suction, through the cracks of the walls.

"Cockroaches," explained the woman indifferently...

As Elizabeth revived the horror, cold fingers seemed to touch her heart. The cellar was remotely allied with the threat of being sent away from Barney. She knew that Dr. Evans's will was inflexible and that—if he considered her a hurtful influence—he would make it his business to eject her.

Her consolation was the knowledge that she would get fair treatment from the Pewter family. But she had a shrewd idea that the Captain would test her nerves, before he made a decision.

"Pray it won't be the cellar," she pleaded...

As she pushed open the folding-doors which led into the kitchen, she heard a child's mutter. Barney was speaking into the wall-telephone. It was too high for his comfort, while it was obvious that his ear was unaccustomed to take a message.

"I can't hear you," he cried impatiently. "You must say it all again—"

"Say it to me," cut in Elizabeth.

She swung the boy aside and took his place, as though she had tapped some secret source of strength.

Instantly the telephone became dead.

"Your friend has rung off," she told the boy. "Upstairs, old man."

Instead of resisting, he surprised her by an imperious demand.

"Carry me up—you."

The nursery was on the second-floor, so she had to toil up several flights of stairs which wound around a central well. Although Barney was a featherweight, she soon staggered under her burden, but she was repaid by the feeling of his arms clasping her neck.

When they entered the nursery, she was shocked to discover Geraldine kneeling on the floor, while she decorated a Snow-White on the wallpaper with a military moustache—to her niece's excited admiration.

"Copped," she remarked to Phil. "We're for the doghouse, baby... Oh, Miss Feathers, do you play bridge?"

"No," confessed Elizabeth. "My grandmother taught me bézique and picquet. I was a terrible failure with other children."

"You should say those other kids were a terrible failure with you," corrected Geraldine. "But about this bridge. You must learn just enough to carry on when the doctor's called out. Come down to-night and watch us."

Miss Pewter rose, dusted the knees of her trousers and sauntered to the door.

"Here's the book of words," she said. "Catch."

By luck, Elizabeth managed to stop a slim volume entitled Bridge in Twenty Minutes.