For myself, as I have said, I have read it three times; and presently I shall certainly read it again.
Pointed Roofs
I
Miriam left the gaslit hall and went slowly upstairs. The March twilight lay upon the landings, but the staircase was almost dark. The top landing was quite dark and silent. There was no one about. It would be quiet in her room. She could sit by the fire and be quiet and think things over until Eve and Harriett came back with the parcels. She would have time to think about the journey and decide what she was going to say to the Fräulein.
Her new Saratoga trunk stood solid and gleaming in the firelight. Tomorrow it would be taken away and she would be gone. The room would be altogether Harriett’s. It would never have its old look again. She evaded the thought and moved clumsily to the nearest window. The outline of the round bed and the shapes of the may trees on either side of the bend of the drive were just visible. There was no escape for her thoughts in this direction. The sense of all she was leaving stirred uncontrollably as she stood looking down into the well-known garden.
Out in the road beyond the invisible lime trees came the rumble of wheels. The gate creaked and the wheels crunched up the drive, slurring and stopping under the dining room window.
It was the Thursday afternoon piano-organ, the one that was always in tune. It was early today.
She drew back from the window as the bass chords began thumping gently in the darkness. It was better that it should come now than later on, at dinnertime. She could get over it alone up here.
She went down the length of the room and knelt by the fireside with one hand on the mantelshelf so that she could get up noiselessly and be lighting the gas if anyone came in.
The organ was playing “The Wearin’ o’ the Green.”
It had begun that tune during the last term at school, in the summer. It made her think of rounders in the hot school garden, singing classes in the large green room, all the class shouting “Gather roses while ye may,” hot afternoons in the shady north room, the sound of turning pages, the hum of the garden beyond the sunblinds, meetings in the sixth form study. … Lilla, with her black hair and the specks of bright amber in the brown of her eyes, talking about free will.
She stirred the fire. The windows were quite dark. The flames shot up and shadows darted.
That summer, which still seemed near to her, was going to fade and desert her, leaving nothing behind. Tomorrow it would belong to a world which would go on without her, taking no heed. There would still be blissful days. But she would not be in them.
There would be no more silent sunny mornings with all the day ahead and nothing to do and no end anywhere to anything; no more sitting at the open window in the dining room, reading Lecky and Darwin and bound Contemporary Reviews with roses waiting in the garden to be worn in the afternoon, and Eve and Harriett somewhere about, washing blouses or copying waltzes from the library packet … no more Harriett looking in at the end of the morning, rushing her off to the new grand piano to play the “Mikado” and the “Holy Family” duets. The tennis club would go on, but she would not be there. It would begin in May. Again there would be a white twinkling figure coming quickly along the pathway between the rows of hollyhocks every Saturday afternoon.
Why had he come to tea every Sunday—never missing a single Sunday—all the winter? Why did he say, “Play ‘Abide with Me,’ ” “Play ‘Abide with Me’ ” yesterday, if he didn’t care? What was the good of being so quiet and saying nothing? Why didn’t he say “Don’t go” or “When are you coming back?” Eve said he looked perfectly miserable.
There was nothing to look forward to now but governessing and old age. Perhaps Miss Gilkes was right. … Get rid of men and muddles and have things just ordinary and be happy. “Make up your mind to be happy. You can be perfectly happy without anyone to think about. …” Wearing that large cameo brooch—long, white, flat-fingered hands and that quiet little laugh. … The piano-organ had reached its last tune. In the midst of the final flourish of notes the door flew open. Miriam got quickly to her feet and felt for matches.
Harriett came in waggling a thin brown paper parcel.
“Did you hear the Intermezzo? What a dim religious! We got your old collars.”
Miriam took the parcel and subsided on to the hearthrug, looking with a new curiosity at Harriett’s little, round, firelit face, smiling tightly between the rim of her hard felt hat and the bright silk bow beneath her chin.
A footstep sounded on the landing and there was a gentle tap on the open door.
“Oh, come in, Eve—bring some matches. Are the collars piquet, Harry?”
“No, they hadn’t got piquet, but they’re the plain shape you like. You may thank us they didn’t send you things with little rujabiba frills.”
Eve came slenderly down the room and Miriam saw with relief that her outdoor things were off. As the gas flared up she drew comfort from her scarlet serge dress, and the soft crimson cheek and white brow of the profile raised towards the flaring jet.
“What are things like downstairs?” she said, staring into the fire.
“I don’t know,” said Eve. She sighed thoughtfully and sank into a carpet chair under the gas bracket. Miriam glanced at her troubled eyes.
“Pater’s only just come in. I think things are pretty rotten,” declared Harriett
