Page 37

DOUBLE DEMON

eye took in the long low front of Cranstoun Hall with its white portico. There were too many trees about the house, he told himself. They shut it in on every side except where the gardens sloped down to the park with its lake and templed island. All right perhaps in spring, but in late July the deep green of the foliage was too sombre. Far too many flies about too. A wind ought to blow through the place and there was no breath of wind.
Ah, there was Judith!
He got up and crossed the lawn to meet her.
`What about a stroll in the rock garden?' he said. `There's something I want to talk to you about.'
`I don't mind where I go as long as you give me a cigarette. What's the matter, George? You've been moody all day. Is anything worrying you?'
`You can't expect me to be my brightest and best in this infernal heat, but what I've got to say is important, damned important, and you've got to listen. I've loved you nowhow long? We can't marry; as things are at present, there's no chance of it.'
Judith gave him a curious smile.
`Have I said I wanted to marry you, George?'
`Not in so many words, but we understand each other very well. You've made it clear that you don't want to flirt with me. That's policy.'
`Well, perhaps it is.'
`Anyhow I love you.'
`And if I say that I don't love you?'
`Policy again. You sympathize with me, don't you?'
`I'm awfully sorry for you.'
`But you do sympathize. You understand me better than I do myself. And I've kissed you, not nearly as many times as I want to and as I hope to do, and you've put up with it. Now let's be frank. You are poor, ambitious, unscrupulous. (I know all about your going through my letters.) You've played up to Isobel, making out that she is far worse than she is so that you could keep your job.