Some Must Watch by Ethel Lina White (top 10 motivational books TXT) đ
- Author: Ethel Lina White
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âYes, Nurse,â she said. âBut I must hurry to dress.â
âOh, you dress for dinner, do you?â
The womanâs tone was so strainedâher glance so spikedâthat Helen was
glad to get away.
âSheâs jealous,â she thought. âAnd Miss Warrenâs a coward. Theyâre both
weak links. I wonder what my special failing is.â
Like the majority of the human race, she was blind to her own faults,
and would have protested vehemently against the charge of curiosity,
although Mrs. Oates already knew the origin of several trivial mishaps.
When she entered her bedroom, she recoiled with a violent start, at the
sight of a black shape, which appeared to be swinging into her window.
Snapping on the light, she saw that she had been misled by the branches
of a tall cedar, which was being lashed by the gale. Although it seemed
so near, the tree was too faraway for any athlete to leap from it into
her room; but every gust swept the boughs towards the opening in an
unpleasantly suggestive manner.
âThat tree looks as if it was trying to force its way in,â thought
Helen. âIâll have to shut that window.â
When she fastened the casement, she noticed how the rain streamed down
the glass, like a water-spout. The garden lay below, in sodden
blackness amid the tormented landscape, over which the elements swept
mightily.
She was glad to draw the curtains and gloat over the contrast of her
splendid room. It contained the entire furniture of the bedroom of the
first Lady Warren. When she had exchanged it for her dwelling in the
family vault, it was still new and costlyâso that timeâcombined with
lackof useâhad done little to dim its grandeur.
Miss Warren, on her return from Cambridge, had made a clean sweep of her
motherâs belongings to a spare room, in preference of stark and rigid
utility; but Helen gladly accepted its superfluity of ornaments and its
color-scheme of terra-cotta and turquoise-blue, for the novelty of thick
carpet and costly fabrics.
The original ownerâs photograph had the place of honor on the marble
mantel-shelf. It was taken probably in the âeighties, and represented an
amiable lady, with a curled fringe, too little forehead, and too many
chins.
Above her rose the mirror. Its base was heavily painted with bulrushes,
water-lilies and storks.
As Helen thought of the ordeal which threatened her, she wished that Sir
Robert had remained faithful to the dead.
âIf sheâd lived, sheâd have been a dear old lady,â she thought. âStill,
I asked for it. You couldnât keep me out of that room.â
The need to win over Dr. Parry became so urgent that she adopted
Simoneâs, tactics. As a rule, she wore a sleeveless white Summer frock,
for dinner; but, tonight, she resolved to put on her only evening-dress,
for the first time. It was a cheap little gown, bought in Oxford Street,
during the sales. All the same, the artisticâif hackneyedâcontrast
of its pale-green color with the flaming bush of her hair, made her smile
at her reflection in the big swinging cheval-glass.
âOught to fetch him,â she murmured, as she hurried downstairs in sudden
dread, lest he should have arrived in her absence.
She was still faced with her problem of making her opportunity to see
him alone; for, of necessity, she was at the call of the household,
owing to the elastic nature of her duties. But she had learned how to
hide, in the commission of her work; and no S.O.S. could reach her when
she was afflicted with temporary deafness.
âThe lobby,â she decided. âIâll take down a damp cloth, and wipe the
dust from the palm.â
When she reached the landing, on the first floor, the door of the blue
room was opened an inch, to reveal a section of white and the glint of
Nurse Barkerâs eye. Directly she saw that she was observed, the woman
shut the door again.
There was something so furtive about that secret examination that Helen
felt uneasy.
âShe was waiting for me,â she thought. âThereâs something very queer
about that woman. I wouldnât like to be alone with her, in the house.
Sheâd let you down.â
As her instinct was always to explore the unfamiliar, she turned in the
direction of the blue room. Nurse Barker saw that her ambush was
discovered, and she opened the door.
âWhat dâyou want?â she asked ungraciously.
âI want to warn you,â replied Helen.
She broke off, conscious that Nurse Barker was looking at her neck with
hungry gloating eyes.
âHow white your skin is,â she said. âRed hair,â explained Helen
shortly.
As a rule, she was sorry that she did not attract general attention;
now, for the first time in her life, she shrank from admiration.
âDid you say you wanted to warn me?â asked Nurse Barker.
âYes,â whispered Helen. âDonât play Lady Warren too low.â
âWhat dâyou mean?â
âSheâs hiding something.â
âWhat?â
âIf youâre as clever as she is, youâll find out,â replied Helen, turning
away.
âCome back,â demanded Nurse Barker. âYouâve either said too much, or not
enough.â
Helen smiled as she shook her head.
âAsk Miss Warren,â she advised. âI told her, and got nicely snubbed for
my pains. But I felt I ought to put you on your guard.â
She started at the rumble of a deep bass voice from in side the blue
room.
âIs that the girl?â
âYes, my lady,â replied Nurse Barker. âDo you want to see her?â
âYes.â
âIâm sorry.â Helen spoke quickly. âI canât stop now. Iâve got to help
with the dinner.â
Nurse Barkerâs eyes glittered with a sense of power.
âWhy are you so afraid of her?â she sneered.
âYouâd be afraid, too, if you knew as much as I do,â hinted Helen.
Nurse Barker grasped her by the wrist, while her nostrils quivered.
âThe dinner can wait,â she said. âMiss Warrenâs instructions are that
Lady Warren must be humored. Come in.â
Helen entered the blue room with a sinking heart. Lady Warren lay in
bed, propped up with pillows. She wore a fleecy white bed-jacket. Her
shock of grey hair was neatly parted in the middle, and secured with
pink bows. It had obviously been Nurse Barkerâs first job to deck her
patient out, like sacrificial lamb. Helen knew that some grim sense of
humor had made the old lady submit to the indignity. She was luring on
the nurse to a sense of false security, only to make the subsequent
disillusionment the harsher.
âCome here,â she said, in a hoarse whisper. âI want to tell you
something.ââ
Helen felt herself gripped and drawn downwards, so that Lady Warrenâs
hot breath played on her bare neck.
âA girl was murdered in this house,â said Lady Warren.
âYes, I know.â Helen spoke in a soothing tone. âBut why do you think
about it? It happened so long ago.â
âHow do you know?â rapped out Lady Warren.
âMrs. Oates told me.â
âDid she tell you that the girl was thrown down the well?â
Helen remembered that in Mrs. Oatesâ version, a more gory method was
employed. The well figured in the suicide incident. It struck her that
Mrs. Oates had exaggerated the truth, in order to achieve the
sensational interest of a murder.
âPerhaps it was an accident,â she said aloud.
Lady Warren lost her temper at the attempt to calm her.
âNo,â she bellowed, âit was murder. I saw it. Upstairs, from a window.
It was nearly dark, and I thought it was only a tree in the garden.
Thenâthe girl came, and it moved, and threw her in⊠I was too
late. I couldnât find a rope⊠Listen.â
She drew down Helenâs head almost on to the pillow.
âYou are that girl,â she whispered.
Helen felt as though she were listening to a forecast of her own fate;
but she caught Nurse Barkerâs eye in an attempt to delude her that she
was humoring the invalid, in professional style.
âAm I?â she said lightly. âWell, Iâll have to be very careful.â
âYou little fool,â panted the old woman. âIâm warning you. Girls get
murdered in this house. But you sleep with me. Iâll take care of you.â
Suddenly Helen thought she might trap her to reveal the hiding-place of
the revolver. âHow will you do it?â she asked,
âIâll shoot him.â
âFine. But whereâs your gun?â
Lady Warren looked at Helen with a gleam of crocodile cunning in her
eyes.
âI havenât a gun,â she whined. âI had one once, but they took it away.
Iâm only a poor old woman. Nurse, she says I have a gun. Have I?â
âOf course not,â said Nurse Barker. âReally, Miss Capel, youâve no
right to irritate the patient.â
âThen Iâll go,â declared Helen thankfully. She added, in an undertone,
âYou asked me a question, just now. Youâve had your answer. You know now
what to look for.â
At the door, she was arrested by Lady Warrenâs bass bellow.
âCome back, tonight.â
âVery well, I will,â she promised.
To her surprise her nerves were quivering from the episode, as she went
down into the hall.
âWhatâs the matter with me?â she wondered. âI believe I shall go goofy
if the doctor doesnât get me out.â
She looked anxiously at the grandfatherâs clock. Dr. Parry lived several
miles away, so he always paid his last call at the Summit, in order to
get back to his dinner.
He had never been so late before. A slight foreboding stole over Helen
as she listened to the fury of the storm. When Miss Warren drifted by,
like a woman in a dream, she appealed to her.
âThe doctorâs late, Miss Warren.â
Miss Warren looked at the clock. She was already dressed for dinner, in
her usual mushroom lace gown.
âPerhaps heâs not coming,â she said indifferently.
Helen gave a gasp of dismay. With the egotism of an employer, who never
connected a young girl with an independent existence, Miss Warren
believed that Helenâs concern was on account of the family.
âMy motherâs condition is static,â she explained, âalthough the end is
inevitable. Dr. Parry has given us instructions how to act, in case of
sudden failure.â âBut why shouldnât he come tonight?â insisted Helen.
âHe always comes.â
âThe weather,â murmured Miss Warren.
A rush of wind crashing against the corner of the house illustrated her
meaning with perfect timing. Helenâs heart turned to water at the sound.
âHe wonât come,â she thought. âI shall have to sleep in the blue room.â
THE TELEPHONE
Helen had to sleep in the blue room. Everyone in the Summit had accepted
the situation. Feeling that her ambush in the lobby would be waste of
time, since she was certain that Dr. Parry would not come, she walked
dejectedly towards the kitchen stairs.
She was intercepted by Newton, who slouched out of the morning-room.
âI hear youâve made a conquest of my grandmother,â he said.
âCongratulations. How is it done?â
The interest in Newtonâs eyes invigorated Helen and made her feel
mistress of a difficult situation.
âI havenât got to tell you,â she replied.
âYou mean Iâm her white-headed boy,â said Newton.
âThat may be. But it doesnât take me far when financial interests are at
stake. I canât live on sugar.â Hitherto, Helen had been somewhat in awe
of Newton, who completely ignored her as
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