The Golden Flame (Timeless Classics Collection) by Ursula Bloom

Author:Ursula Bloom [Bloom, Ursula]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: 1940s fiction, women's literary fiction, classic women's fiction, Edwardian fiction, literary fiction, classic literary fiction, women's fiction
Publisher: Wyndham Books
Published: 2020-12-09T16:00:00+00:00

PART TWO

IN ENGLAND

One

I

In Soho there was a small restaurant, so tiny that one almost passed it by. It was wedged in between a couple of little shops and a big restaurant which did much business, and had a name for itself, but the little restaurant kept its clients, because those who came once, came twice.

It was clean, too.

A black cat sunned itself on the wide white step, and in its kitten days played contemptuously with the leaves of the creeper which grew beside that step, green in spring, and rosying with autumn.

A dark-eyed child sometimes toddled to that step, but was always caught and taken back again before he went too far.

‘The bambino must not run away,’ his father would say.

The clients mistook the dark-eyed madonna-like woman for his wife, but they were given to understand that the owner of the restaurant had suffered a tragedy, and that his wife, a dancer, very young, and very charming, had died in a sanatorium in Switzerland, and that this girl was one who had worked with him when he was younger, and had come to England with him to help run this restaurant into which all his savings were invested.

There was no romance behind it.

In truth Matina had gone to Switzerland the moment that she had heard of the death of Josette. Jan had sent for her; he had felt suddenly empty, distressingly alone; he had not known what to do for the best, and was like a man who has been hit on the head and does not know which way to turn next.

In the first ungovernable agony of grief he had written to Matina. She had received the letter, just as she was going to the Galleon to play. She read it sitting on the shore, where she had sat with him that first night when they had walked here together. Then she had known that he meant a great deal to her, then she had realized that she wanted him more than anybody else in the world, and almost instantly that it was not to be.

But she had steeled herself against the blow. She had not even been jealous of poor little Josette who had been so unhappy.

She read the letter, in its stark stilted little sentences, and she understood how terrible he felt.

I shall go to him, she told herself.

When she entered the Galleon, she told the old Maestro.

‘Josette is dead, and I shall have to go to Jan, he needs me so dreadfully.’

The Maestro who had been busy with his bow and the resin, glanced up at her thoughtfully. He said: ‘Are you sure that it is wise?’

‘He needs me,’ she said simply.

The old man, who was wise in the ways of this world, did not argue. It was the Padrone who made the fuss when Matina told him about it.

‘I shall be going to-morrow,’ she said.

‘You will be going?’

‘Yes, to Jan and the child. Josette is dead. They need me.’

The Padrone flung up his hands in horror.

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.