Читать книгу Mrs. Gailey онлайн

50 страница из 78

"Are you going to discuss the matter tonight?"

"So I understand—have a preliminary argument, anyway."

"Then we'd better start washing up, so as to give you plenty of time."

They carried the glass and china into the pantry, where Nicholas put on a butler's apron and Anne a flowered overall—rolling up her chiffon sleeves so that they did not trail in the sink.

10

Neither Anne nor Nicholas was aware that the new secretary had already arrived. When they first walked out into the warm dusk of the terrace of Doleham Manor, they took the smiling young woman who sat beside Lesley for just another of those friends of hers—women who appeared and disappeared at Doleham, mostly when Iris was away. Iris certainly made no attempt to introduce her, and it was not till Anne—convinced that her cheerful manner must hide some real embarrassment—sat down on her other side with a few words of greeting that Lesley said awkwardly, "This is my new secretary. She came this afternoon."

Anne murmured something conventionally pleasant about a hot journey, while trying to learn more through her eyes. They could not tell her much beyond the fact that the secretary had a fresh, cheerful, not overintelligent face, and that she was dressed with very great care in a very bad style. In the language of Anne's generation, she did not look a lady. Of course, that had nothing to do with her job; but Anne had laid more store than her husband on the chance that this newcomer might be not only a practical helper at the farm but the right sort of companion for a lonely young woman who had very few real friends.