The Girl in the Cellar

CHAPTER 38

They got on with the unpacking, and when everything was neatly arranged Miss Carstairs put on a very handsome fur coat and a bonnet of black velvet with a wonderful steel ornament on one side, called for a cab, and took her way to the shops. She had pale grey gloves and pale grey shoes which she told Anne were only ‘ones’. She seemed very proud of this, and explained that she had them specially made for her as there was no demand for the size in a grown-up shoe. She seemed to be pleased with Anne’s society.

‘ Ada is nothing but a wet fish,’ she explained. ‘Of course she hasn’t any money, so she can’t spend any. It makes her the most tiresome company you can imagine on a shopping expedition. Quality means nothing to her-nothing at all. Cheapness is her one criterion of value, and the result is that I invariably spend at least twice as much as I mean to when I go shopping with her. Now you can urge me on, and when I’m urged on, the natural reaction is to draw back. Do you understand that?’

The question was so sharply put that it startled Anne. She coloured brightly and said, ‘No-yes-’ And then, ‘I think I do.’

They embarked on an orgy of shopping. Miss Carstairs wished to buy a carpet for her bedroom and stuff for curtains.

‘Twenty years I’ve had the old ones,’ she told the middle-aged man who served them. ‘Twenty years, and the stuff’s not worn out yet. It will do very nicely for my companion, and she’ll feel easier with that than she would with everything new, which she’d just think of as gross extravagance and be haunted in her dreams. I’m going to get a new carpet too, and she can have my old one. She’s too poor-spirited to enjoy a new one. As it is, she’ll be worrying over mine being too fine for me.’ She broke into deep laughter.

The man who was serving them thought to himself that she wouldn’t be the easiest person to be a companion to. He didn’t know if it was the young lady with her that she was talking about. If it was, he was sorry for her, for she hadn’t got an easy job-not an easy job at all. His feelings became intensified as he got out roll upon roll of flowered chintz, each fresh piece being greeted with ‘That’s very nice, that’s very nice indeed, but I’ll just see what else you have if you don’t mind.’

In the end she had selected six pieces, all of which she praised, but none of which could she decide upon, when, suddenly weary of her pastime, she chose a flowery affair with a pattern of foxgloves, and then proceeded to the acquisition of a plain dull purple for the carpet.

It was when they were leaving the department that they saw the young man in a grey suit. Miss Carstairs had given her address and detailed instructions as to the day on which the carpet and the stuff for curtains were to be sent off.

She had written a cheque, and the shopman was congratulating himself upon having done a useful morning’s work, when the good-looking young man crossed their path. He did not see them, his attention being taken up with the people he was with. Miss Carstairs looked at him across the room and gave a deep chuckle.

‘That’s funny,’ she said, ’that’s very funny indeed.’

Since she was obviously expected to comment, Anne did so. She asked, ‘What is amusing you?’ and received a reply which told her nothing.

‘Oh, ho, ho-it’s very funny indeed if you know what I know! But you don’t! No, my dear, you don’t-you don’t know anything at all!’

Anne laughed, because the tone was good-tempered. She laughed, and she looked where Miss Carstairs was looking and she nearly dropped, because she knew the face of the young man in grey. Just for a moment she knew him. Who he was, and what he had to do with her. Her head whirled. She put out her hand and it touched the counter-something strong and firm to lean against. She leaned there, and for a moment everything swung round her. Then her head cleared, her eyes saw. Everything round her was quiet, and the man in the grey suit wasn’t there. Miss Carstairs was looking in the direction where he had been. She had apparently not noticed Anne’s sudden faintness. She said, “That’s a young man who didn’t know which side his bread was buttered.’

‘What’s his name?’

‘I don’t know. I suppose I did know, but I’ve forgotten… Craddock-Crockett-oh, I can’t tell you, but it doesn’t matter.’

‘Do you know the people he was with?’

She oughtn’t to have gone on about it. Her voice wasn’t steady enough. She got one of those direct looks which seemed to walk in amongst her thoughts and take stock of them no matter whether the door was locked or not. She had a sense of ruthless enquiry.

The deep, rather harsh voice rang in her ears. ‘No, I don’t. Do you?’

The words were not loud, but they buffeted her. She said, ‘No,’ and thought how unconvincing it sounded.

‘You don’t know them?’

‘No, I don’t.’ This time she made herself meet the hard black eyes. She saw them snap.

‘Well, you nearly faint when you see some very ordinary people at the end of a room. If it wasn’t the women who upset you, then it was the man. What about it?’

Anne felt as if she knew nothing-not who she was, or why, or anything. She said, ‘I don’t know.’

Miss Carstairs gave her a look and began to talk about Ada Lushington-her likes, her dislikes, her extraordinary fondness for cats.

‘She’d have a dozen if I let her. As it is, we have four, and that’s three too many. I’ve no objection to one cat provided it’s healthy and not the sort that goes on having kittens whether one wants them or not. But four! I’ve told Ada that it’s three too many, and that she’s got to find homes for the others, or else some day she’ll come in and find there are three cats missing. And what do you think she had the nerve to say to me? You’ll not guess, I assure you. She had the impudence to say that I was fond of the creatures myself, and that if I found homes for them they would be very good ones. Now what do you say to that?’

The young man in the grey suit was gone. He was wiped clear from Anne’s mind. She remembered seeing him, but she couldn’t think why it had upset her. She had never seen him before? She was sure about that? Well then, what was there to worry about? Nothing-or everything in the world-

The deep places that were under her thought stirred and were moved. She came back with a shudder and listened to Miss Carstairs, who was looking at her enquiringly and asking in a very determined voice, ‘Now what do you say to that?’

The colour came into her face with a rush. She said in an eager, fluttering voice, ‘I think she was right.’

Miss Carstairs was very much taken aback.

‘Oh, you do, do you?’ She stared for a long protesting minute, and then said sharply, ‘I don’t believe you heard what I said. Not that it was worth hearing anyway. And now I have to get some ribbon for garters. Can you make garters?’

‘I think so.’

‘You must know if you can. I like my garters smart. We’ll get the ribbon for them this morning, and you can make them this afternoon. We shall want elastic too. I can give you a pair to copy.’

Outside the shop Ross Cranston said goodbye to his friends, who were Mrs Magstock and her sister-in-law Sylvia. He had met them quite by chance, and they had disturbed his mind. Sylvia Magstock was quite a pretty girl, and she was willing enough. The meeting had been a chance one, but he could easily arrange that there should be others. He knew where they were staying-he could ring up later in the day. If only-if only… a sense of having gone too far to draw back came into his mind. It was like seeing something horrible a long way off and knowing that every step you took brought you nearer to it. He shuddered violently, and the picture grew more distinct. It was what he always tried not to remember and found it so difficult to forget-the picture of a girl lying dead at the foot of a dark underground stair.

He shook it violently from his mind and went on his way.