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for they had not heard her footsteps on the thick carpet which,
covered the hall and stairs.
Cleone's appearance came as a shock to her, for the older girl had
somehow discarded that air of sophistication, of worldly elegance.
Her pale gold hair was no longer plaited round her head; it had been
cut short and curled slightly. It clustered round her face and fell on to
her forehead in a subtle but deliberate state of windswept charm. It
took years off her age. Of make-up there was hardly any sign and
those long, perfectly-tapered nails were now quite short and
unadorned. The dress Cleone wore was in a delicate shade of peach,
modest and youthful with a high neckline and a bodice beautifully
cut but too loose for figure-revealing. Mary wondered if this were the
way Cleone had looked when she was in her teens, when she had
been so attractive to Adrian, had won his love. As for Mary herself,
she felt suddenly older than her years and wished she could return to
her room and find something less sophisticated. But both Adrian and
Cleone had turned, Adrian to throw her a flickering glance of
disinterest, and Cleone to smile in a rather childish way, saying how
glad she was to meet her again, declaring her surprise at the
discovery of her marriage to Adrian.
'I couldn't believe it when he told me on the way here,' she said. 'I
certainly wouldn't have come had I known, but you don't mind
having me, do you, Mary? I can call you Mary, can't I ?!
Mary came slowly into the room, murmuring words which she could
never afterwards recall. But she knew she hadn't extended a welcome
to Cleone, and neither did she give her permission to call her Mary.
During dinner Cleone and Adrian talked a lot about old times,
recalling incidents and occurrences, laughing when the occasion
called for laughter. Mary sat listening, being neither anxious to join
in the conversation nor encouraged to do so. In fact, she was being
deliberately ignored by them both. Angry colour fused her cheeks
once or twice, but firmly she calmed herself down again. She would
remain completely aloof; neither should see just how greatly she
suffered.
When dinner was over they all returned to the sitting- room and the
conversation between Adrian and Cleone continued as before. Then
Adrian rose, saying he had a telephone call to make. No sooner had
he left the room than Cleone turned to Mary, her blue eyes half-
veiled by her drooping lashes; but the triumph in their depths was
apparent.
'You shouldn't have come here in the first place, should you, Mary?'
Cleone's affected naive and youthful manner of a moment ago was
dropped; her words rasped gently, like the warning hiss of a cat. 'You
heard me telling Adrian's mother that he still cared for me, yet you
allowed yourself to be drawn into her stupid scheme, a scheme he
was bound to discover - and he has discovered it, hasn't he, Mary?'
'Did Adrian tell you about that?' Mary raised her head sharply. She
just couldn't believe her husband would go as far as that.
'He didn't need to. I already knew. Oh, Mrs. Stanning was clever, and
I was deceived at first, but not for long. When I later considered your
reaction to her announcement that you were coming out here as
Adrian's secretary I knew you hadn't an inkling of what she was
going to do. I told Adrian today all about it.'
'He didn't discuss it with you?' Mary held her breath. If he'd talked
about it to Cleone she would never forgive him.
'His silence told me all I wanted to know. It was clear he'd found out.
And what about the first letter I sent?' Cleone went on, watching
Mary closely. 'I mentioned it to him and he didn't show the least
surprise - didn't even say it might have got lost in the post - but just
remained closed up like a clam. I take it you tampered with his mail
... and he found out about that, too.' Her lip drew back almost in a
snarl and her eyes darkened with hate. 'What right had you to take it
upon yourself to keep us apart? - you or his mother? And then to go
to the extremes of marriage, knowing he still loved me. No wonder
it's already broken up!'
'Our marriage hasn't broken up,' flashed Mary, her eyes sparkling.
'It's only a temporary storm - and we shall weather it, I'm sure of
that.' Cleone was shaking her head and Mary went on, before she
could speak, 'I don't know quite how you come to be here, but I do
know that Adrian didn't invite you ' Would she discover the truth if
she tried a ruse? There was nothing to be lost. Under a compulsion
she couldn't resist Mary took advantage of her husband's recent slip.
'Adrian gave me to understand he hadn't invited you to come over
and he also told me you didn't know of our marriage.' The merest
pause followed before Mary continued, looking straight at Cleone,
'You came over on a sudden impulse, just to see how Adrian would
react to seeing you again.' As Mary hoped, Cleone was taken
unawares, assuming what had never occurred.
'He - he told you that!' Dark colour crept slowly under the pink
transparency of Cleone's cheeks. 'He told you I'd phoned him from
the airport here in Nicosia - telling him I'd just arrived?'
So that was it! Adrian had received that phone call only minutes
before coming out to tell Mary to prepare a room. It had come right
out of the blue, and Mary felt that under normal circumstances
Adrian would, in his own words, have 'let Cleone go to the devil', and
left her at the airport. But that phone call offered a handy tool of
revenge at a time when, still smarting under his humiliation,
Adrian was filled with the burning desire to make his wife suffer.
And, just as Mary had surmised, his move in bringing Cleone to his
home was also an act of retaliation for the interference in his life. It
was calculated to convince both his mother and his wife that he
would do exactly as he pleased. What Cleone had just said proved
that Adrian hadn't arranged for her to come, hadn't been [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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