Read Then She Fled Me for Free Online

acquaintance.
    “ Poor Joe, ” she said.
    His arm tightened round her.
    “ Do you love me at all, Kathy? ” he asked a little sadly.
    She turned her face up to him.
    “ Oh, yes, of course. It ’ s just —”
    “ It ’ s just that you can ’ t grow up, is that it? ”
    “ I don ’ t know. But there ’ s no hurry, is there, Joe ? ”
    “ No, ” he said, and his arm slackened around her.
    For the first time she read something in his quiet face which she had not noticed there before.
    “ Ask me again at Christmas, ” she said a little breathlessly. “ At Christmas I promise to give you my answer. ”
    He got to his feet, pulling her up beside him.
    “ Why Christmas? ” he asked. “ Because it ’ s three months away and Mr. Flint may turn out to be a pale young poet after all? ”
    “ Of course not. But Christmas is a time for surprises and promises and—and for New Year resolutions. ”
    He smiled.
    “ All right, I ’ ll hold you to that. Come along now, it ’ s getting cold and we ’ ll be late for tea . ”
    Early next morning Sarah rowed Joe across the lough to catch the bus for Knockferry. Kathy had put a sleepy head out of her window to call out goodbye. The rain was falling in a fine mist which blotted out the north shore until they were half-way across the water, and Sarah shook her wet hair from her eyes and pulled on the oars with enjoyment. “ A soft day, ” she said. “ Nice after so much sun. ”
    He smiled at her. Whatever the weather, Sarah always thought it was nice.
    “ Come over next weekend and view the first lodger, ” she said, and he grinned and said he would try.
    She climbed the slope with him to knock up Casey and collect any mail which might have missed the Saturday round, and thought, as she always did, how different in character the north side of the lough was to the south. With its macadam road, telegraph posts and tidy fields it had a different aspect altogether from the opposite shore with its moors and mountains and rough winding road.
    “ Much nicer, ” she said.
    “ What? ”
    “ Our side. ”
    He ruffled her wet head.
    “ Whichever side Dun Rury happened to stand would be the nicer, wouldn ’ t it? ” he teased, but he knew just what she meant.
    Casey threw a packet of letters down to them from an upstair window, remarking that he heard there was oppos i tion being set up on the south side to the Miss Kellys on the north.
    “ But you ’ ll not get their custom with that divil of a road that leps the heart out of your breast and anyone not knowing it, ” he said, and shut his window with a bang.
    They laughed and wandered over to the bus stop. Sarah pulled a letter out of the packet, saying: “ Here ’ s the old gentleman ’ s reply. The terms are agreeable, etc ... he has affairs to settle in England before he leaves—oh, Joe, you don ’ t suppose he ’ s come here to die, do you? He hopes to cross over towards the end of the month, but will wire us when to expect him ... Oh, listen, Joe! He finished: ‘ Please do not expect me to respond to your offer of home comforts, which I do not require. All I am seeking is solitude and the reasonable amenities of life ! Well! ”
    Joe ’ s eyes twinkled.
    “ I told you at the time that sentence was a mistake, but you insisted. You ’ ve never been inside one of the places that advertise every home comfort. He probably has. ”
    Sarah ’ s green eyes were very bright.
    “ There ’ s the English for you! ” she exclaimed. “ Stretc h out the hand of friendship and they slap you on the snout! Well, my fine gentleman, whether you ’ re old, sick or only dotty, you won ’ t do that twice to the hospitality of Dun Rury. I ’ ll send him a telegram this instant and tell him he can stop his own side of the water and be damned to him! ”
    Laughing, Joe caught her by the shoulder.
    “ He ’ s only trying to make his own position clear. He probably thinks you ’ re one of these arch spinsters all false