Mabel opened the drawing-room door and beckoned the others in. As she shut it behind them she said in a cautionary tone,
‘Doris Wills listens! I’ve always been sure she did. If she wasn’t such a good worker…’ She broke off and came directly to the point. ‘What did you hear in the fish queue?’
This was Lily’s moment of triumph. They were both waiting for her to speak – listening with all their ears. She felt warm and pleased like a purring cat.
‘Well, there was a woman in front of me. I know her by sight, but I didn’t know her name until the other woman said it. She is quite an elderly person and rather untidy. She had a very shabby old coat on with a worn place on the elbow. She was talking to the woman in front of her, that Mrs Rigg who goes about everywhere in trousers and never has a cigarette out of her mouth. The first thing I heard, Mrs Traill was saying, “I don’t rightly know what to do about it and that’s a fact,” and Mrs Rigg said, “Fancy that!” Mrs Traill sounded quite cross. She said “No fancy about it, it’s what I heard – I know that! What I don’t know is what I ought to do, and when I asked my husband all he could say was not to let myself get drawn in to things that weren’t any business of mine.” That Mrs Rigg laughed – she’s got a silly sort of laugh, like a child that’s showing off – and she said, “That’s all men ever do say, isn’t it – keep your own side of the fence – don’t get mixed up in things – mind your own business! And what I say is you might as well be dead!” Mrs Traill said, “Yes, you might.” And then she dropped her voice right down and I shouldn’t have heard what she said only for leaning forward as far as I could without touching her and then it was all I could do, but I heard her say, “I just can’t get it out of my mind, Mrs Rigg, and that’s the fact. First thing in the morning and last thing at night it comes back to me, that poor thing calling out like she did, and me hearing her and not doing anything about it.” ’
Nettie Pimm said, ‘Oh, Lily!’ her voice twittering. But Mabel said, ‘Go on!’
Lily Pimm went on.
‘Mrs Rigg said, “Gosh! Whatever do you mean, Mrs Traill?” And Mrs Traill told her she was baby-sitting for that Mr and Mrs Nokes on the top of Hill Rise. She expected to be there until twelve o’clock because the Nokes were going to the cinema and supper with a friend afterwards. But it seems Mrs Nokes had a headache coming on, so they cried off the supper and came along home. There wasn’t anything for Mrs Traill to stay for after that, so she got her money and came away down Hill Rise. It was twenty past eleven when she came out of the front door, because she looked at the clock in the hall and made out she would catch the bus at the corner of Belview Road. But just as she came to where the path runs along by the Grahams’ garden she heard someone call out from the other side of the hedge.’
Lily Pimm looked first at one of her sisters and then at the other. She looked first at Mabel, because Mabel was the eldest and she always came first in everything. Mabel’s bony nose jutted out from her long thin face, her eyes were avid and her mouth was tight. She looked at Nettie, the smallest and youngest of the three. Nettie’s head was cocked a little on one side and her eyes were bright, like a bird that is just about to peck at a worm. For once in a way it was Lily who had something worth the telling, and she couldn’t tell it fast enough to please them. They urged her, and she went on.
‘Mrs Traill said it was Mrs Graham she heard calling out, and then she stopped and said she didn’t know that she ought to say any more. Mrs Rigg said, “Oh, but you can’t stop here. Come on, Mrs Traill, be a sport!” and she went on in a kind of whisper and said what she heard was Mrs Graham calling out, “Nicholas Carey – how dare you!” ’
Mabel Pimm repeated the name.
‘Nicholas Carey!’
Nettie said ‘Oh!’ in a frightened voice. And then, ‘She didn’t say that right out in the fish queue!’
Lily nodded. She was the plump one of the family. She had a round pale face and round pale eyes and a little button nose like a baby.
‘Yes, she did! And there wasn’t anyone to hear her except Mrs Rigg and me, because the next one beyond Mrs Rigg in the queue was old Mr Jackson, and he is as deaf as a post. And she wouldn’t know I was listening, because I don’t think she as much as knew I was there, and she was whispering, so she wouldn’t think anyone would hear what she said, only you know how quick I am that way. And what she said was that she heard Mrs Graham calling out and saying, “Nicholas Carey – how dare you!” Mrs Rigg gave a sort of scream and said, “Oh, she never!” And Mrs Traill said, “Oh yes, she did, poor thing, and I can’t get it out of my mind do what I will. It gave me a real start, and what with that and hearing the bus coming, I took and ran and caught it by the skin of my teeth. But I just can’t get it off my mind. That poor thing calling out and me only the other side of the hedge! And when I seen in the paper what’s happened to her it come over me if I’d called out something it might have saved her.” And Mrs Rigg said, talking back over her shoulder, “More likely he’d have murdered you too, Mrs Traill.” And just then Mr Jackson had got to being served by the young man in the shop, and the woman came over to Mrs Rigg, so she started buying kippers and Mrs Traill didn’t talk to her any more. She waited outside the shop though, and they went away together, but I don’t suppose there was anything much more for Mrs Traill to tell.’
Her voice fell to a deprecating tone. She didn’t see how she could have managed to find out any more than she had. She was used to being blamed by Mabel and Nettie when things went wrong, but in this case she really had felt sure of being praised. She looked at Nettie, and Nettie shook her head. She looked at Mabel, and Mabel said in her firmest voice,
‘You should have followed them.’
TWENTY-THREE
IT WAS EARLY the same afternoon that Miss Silver looked across the second of the vests she was knitting for Dorothy Silver’s little Tina and said,
‘My dear, I think you will just have to make it a duty to eat.’
Her mind had been on her knitting and upon the pretty fair-haired child who was to wear the vest. Pinks vary a good deal, but this was really a particularly pleasing shade. She looked up from it now and saw Althea Graham in profile. She had a book upon her knee, but it was a long time since she had turned a page. Her face was colourless and there were dark smudges under her eyes. The eyes themselves looked as if she had not slept. In reply to Miss Silver’s remark she said in a soft, indifferent voice,
‘Oh, I’m all right, thank you.’
The needles clicked briskly.
‘It is possible to starve for quite a long time without being aware that one is doing so. The mind is occupied, food has become distasteful, there is a complete loss of appetite. It all happens unnoticeably. And then suddenly when one is called upon to confront an emergency one finds oneself at a loss. The mind is not active, and the judgement not to be depended upon. I should like you to promise me that you will eat an egg with your tea.’
Althea looked up with the ghost of a smile.
‘How very, very kind you are. But you needn’t worry about me – I am really very strong.’
Miss Silver produced what Frank Abbott would have acclaimed as one of her Moralities.
‘Strength is given to us when we are trying to do what is right, but we are better able to avail ourselves of it if we do not neglect a proper allowance of food and sleep. You have eaten nothing all day. If I make a nice cup of tea, will you not please me by drinking it – perhaps with a beaten-up egg?’
‘Oh, I couldn’t. I don’t like them raw.’
Miss Silver beamed.
‘Then I will boil it lightly and cut a little thin bread and butter. I assure you that you will feel a great deal better when you have taken it.’