Masterpieces in Miniature: The Detectives: Stories by Agatha Christie by Agatha Christie

Author:Agatha Christie [Christie, Agatha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery, Detective, Crime, Collection
ISBN: 9780312349387
Google: evfUwAEACAAJ
Amazon: 0312349386
Publisher: Vibhatsu
Published: 2023-02-27T18:30:00+00:00

you

as I

He sat near her on a polished oak chair. She hummed softly der her breath.

“There’s a lot of magic about tonight,” she said. “Don’t think so?”

Yes, there was a lot of magic about.

“They wanted me to fetch my uke,” she explained. “And passed here, I thought it would be so lovely to be alone here—in the dark and the moon.”

“Then I—” Mr. Satterthwaite half rose, but she stopped him.

“Don’t go. You—you fit in, somehow. It’s queer, but you do.”

He sat down again.

“It’s been a queer sort of evening,” she said. “I was out in the woods late this afternoon, and I met a man—such a strange sort of man—tall and dark, like a lost soul. The sun was setting, and the light of it through the trees made him look like a kind of Harlequin.”

“Ah!” Mr. Satterthwaite leaned forward—his interest quickened.

“I wanted to speak to him—he—he looked so like somebody I know. But I lost him in the trees.”

“I think I know him,” said Mr. Satterthwaite.

“Do you? He is interesting, isn’t he?”

“Yes, he is interesting.”

There was a pause. Mr. Satterthwaite was perplexed. There was something, he felt, that he ought to do—and he didn’t know what it was. But surely—surely, it had to do with this girl. He said rather clumsily:

“Sometimes—when one is unhappy—one wants to get away—”

“Yes. That’s true.” She broke off suddenly. “Oh! I see what you mean. But you’re wrong. It’s just the other way round. I wanted to be alone because I’m happy.”

“Happy?”

“Terribly happy.”

She spoke quite quietly, but Mr. Satterthwaite had a sudden sense of shock. What this strange girl meant by being happy wasn’t the same as Madge Keeley would have meant, by the same words. Happiness, for Mabelle Annesley, meant some kind of intense and vivid ecstasy—something that was not only human, but more than human. He shrank back a little.

“I—didn’t know,” he said clumsily.

“Of course you couldn’t. And it’s not—the actual thing—I’m not happy yet—but I’m going to be.” She leaned forward. “Do you know what it’s like to stand in a wood—a big wood with dark shadows and trees very close all round you—a wood you might never get out of— and then, suddenly—just in front of you, you see the country of your dreams—shining and beautiful—you’ve only got to step out from the trees and the darkness and you’ve found it?”

“So many things look beautiful,” said Mr. Satterthwaite, “before we’ve reached them. Some of the ugliest things in the world look the most beautiful.”

There was a step on the floor. Mr. Satterthwaite turned his head. A fair man with a stupid, rather wooden, face stood there. He was the man Mr. Satterthwaite had hardly noticed at the dinner table.

“They’re waiting for you, Mabelle,” he said.

She got up; the expression had gone out of her face; her voice was flat and calm.

“I’m coming, Gerard,” she said. “I’ve been talking to Mr. Sat-terthwaite.”

She went out of the room, Mr. Satterthwaite following. He turned his head over his shoulder as he went and caught the expression on her husband’s face, a hungry despairing look.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.