Susan's Kind Heart (The Susan books) by Jane Shaw

Author:Jane Shaw [Shaw, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bettany Press
Published: 2011-06-08T04:00:00+00:00

VIII. MYSTERIOUS PIECE OF SILVER

DAMIENNE did not come with them next day: at the last moment Monsieur Beauregard informed her that he had invited his friends from the hotel at St. Clos for luncheon. Damienne fumed, but thought that she must be at home to help Madame and old Françoise. The fact that she fumed pleased the romantic Susan very much; at least it would have if it had not been for that little worm of doubt that kept gnawing away at the back of her mind.

Nothing seemed to be gnawing at the back of Jean-Louis’ mind. He grinned at them all with that twinkle in his eye and packed them into the clapped-out old Renault like sardines.

Like Cornwall, the inland scenery of Brittany was less interesting than the coast, but because it was all strange and French and foreign to them, they enjoyed it — the farms, rather untidy; the secret little shut-in fields, the women doing the family wash in the ponds by the roadside; the poppies growing thick amidst the corn; the tall houses, grey-shuttered; the old stone Calvaries; the peasant women in sombre black; the glimpses of the sea and the quiet, quaint little towns.

In St. Brieuc, Jean-Louis transacted some business while the young people had cold drinks at a convenient café: that was perhaps the only thing about French meals that Susan missed, no morning coffee, no afternoon tea. But perhaps it was just as well, it would have been a great pity to spoil one’s appetite for those glorious meals, luncheon and dinner. Besides, if peckish, one could always pop into a café for ice-cream or citron pressé or something of the sort.

When Jean-Louis returned, he took them for a quick tour of St. Brieuc, a nice little town, with tall, grey, secretive shuttered houses, and some quaint and ancient corners, and Oliver asked if it would be a great nuisance if they stopped at a jeweller or silversmith. “My mamma,” he said, “collects those spoons with coats of arms on them, you know the sort of thing—”

Midge and Susan simply dared not look at each other — if they had heard that a couple of days before imagine the excitement and the quite disgusting I-told-you-so that there would have been from Charlotte! Now that Oliver had declared himself, it was only a joke; they were simply haunted by silver.

Jean-Louis was saying that he knew exactly the sort of thing, and that he would take him to a silversmith called Monsieur Denantes, who was an old friend of his.

They all trooped into the shop and were welcomed very politely by Monsieur Denantes in the usual friendly way of French shopkeepers. He had silver spoons, and he put half a dozen on a pad of purple velvet. And while Oliver was hesitating between one with a tiny figure of an ermine, which had something to do with the arms of Brittany, and a rather elaborate enamel one with a picture on it of a girl with a high Breton lace coif, Monsieur Denantes glanced up roguishly at Jean-Louis.

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.