The Hireling by L. P. Hartley

Author:L. P. Hartley [Hartley, L. P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473612556
Google: wJ4-cAAACAAJ
Amazon: 1473612551
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 1964-01-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Call at the studio in Chelsea first, and then pick up the girl-friend on Campden Hill - that used to be the form. But this time, the third time Leadbitter had taken out the couple, it was to be the other way round. As always he was punctual, but Constance was already on the doorstep.

‘Good evening,’ she said. She did not know his name.

‘Good evening, madam,’ said Leadbitter,

‘What a lovely evening,’ Constance said. It wasn’t really a lovely evening but her happiness made it seem so.

The wireless said rain later,’ said Leadbitter, who had been listening in.

‘Oh, but they’re always wrong!’

Again the happy note, as if everything she wished for must come true.

‘They do sometimes make mistakes,’ agreed Leadbitter, who seldom contradicted a customer.

She sat down on the back seat and Leadbitter drove off.

At the studio he pressed the door-bell, but no one came.

‘He isn’t often late,’ said Constance, ‘something must have kept him. He’ll be here in a minute,’

She tried to settle down to wait, squeezing herself further and further into the corner of the car, as though the pressure of its upholstery could restrain her impatience; but after a few minutes impatience got the better of her, and she reached for the door-handle, mistaking it, however, for the handle that regulated the window. Muddled, she tried both in vain. Leadbitter came to her rescue and opened the door for her. She stood on the pavement looking down the street.

‘This is the way he would come, I think,’ she said, more to herself than to Leadbitter. ‘You don’t think anything can have happened to him?’

Leadbitter’s eyes followed hers. He was not fond of Hughie, anything but. Hughie was a heel or a gink or anything you liked to call him. And he had no great regard for Constance, except in so far as she sometimes took the mickey out of Hughie. Moreover he was paid for waiting and it didn’t matter to him how late Hughie was. Once he would not have understood how one human being could set so much store on seeing another, especially when that other was Hughie; but today he found himself sharing Constance’s anxiety, and said as sympathetically as he could:

‘The time always goes slowly when you’re waiting, madam. The watched pot never boils,’

‘You’re quite right,’ she said, ‘but it isn’t like him to be late. I don’t usually worry when people don’t turn up: there’s nearly always some simple explanation,’

She strained her eyes as though the intensity of her gaze could draw him to her.

‘He’ll probably take a taxi,’ Leadbitter said.

‘He doesn’t take taxis much - at least he usen’t to. It’s silly of me, but I can’t help feeling anxious,’

The street seemed empty of everything except her longing for him. She drew herself up and leaned back, to get a better view.

‘I think you’d be more comfortable inside the car, madam,’ said Leadbitter. ‘I’ll keep an eye open for him and tell you when he comes,’

Obediently she got back into the car, leaving Leadbitter standing sentinel beside it.

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