Read Online I'll Never Marry! by Juliet Armstrong - Free Book Online

incensed against him because, try as she might, she could not succeed in banishing his coppery head and keen blue eyes from her mind.
    For several days she saw nothing of him, but one afternoon, when she was taking Maureen and Ruth to the village shop to choose knitting wool for new cardigans, she ran straight into him, right in the middle of the High Street which, as always at this hour, was practically deserted.
    She expected him to pass on with a formal “ Good afternoon, ” but instead he stopped, made some quite inapt remark about the weather, then turning to the children asked them with a sudden display of anxiety if they had seen anything of his dog.
    “ She was with me a minute ago, ” he said, looking very puzzled, “ but goodness knows where she ’ s got to. ”
    “ I guess she ’ s in the butcher ’ s, ” Ruth ventured, with a timidity quite unusual to her, and which Catherine attributed instantly, to a conscience not quite easy on the subject of that unlucky picnic.
    “ Well, I wonder if you two would run and look for her, ” he went on lightly; “ that is, if Miss Emberley doesn ’ t mind. Your legs are younger than mine. ” The absurdity of this subterfuge missed the children completely, and they dashed off without waiting for the permission they felt sure would be forthcoming. Catherine, however, colored with embarrassment; such high-handed methods had not come her way before, and she did not know how to deal with them. When he spoke, however, she could not but relent, for he explained at once with a half - humorous, half-pleading smile, that he had stopped her, and got rid of the children for a moment, because he wanted to take the opportunity of apologizing to her for his ill-temper and rudeness.
    “ I had a very charming letter from Matron, ” he went on, “ and feel sure that the children will be careful not to do any more damage. I realize, too, that had they been with you, the whole wretched episode would never have occurred. All the same, ” and his tone suddenly took on a note of almost schoolboyish resentment, “ I do think you might have come to the party instead of going off gallivanting to Great Garsford. ”
    “ Gallivanting! ” She stared at him in amazement. “ Whatever put that into your hea d ? ”
    He hesitated, and it was his turn now to look somewhat out of countenance. “ Oh, I happened to see you going into that new cafe, ” he said in a would-be off-hand manner. “ I had business in the town, round about four o ’ clock —”
    “ And I had business in the town, too, ” Catherine told him coldly. “ Maureen, who has just retrieved your dog, apparently, and who will be here in a minute, had an abscess in a tooth, and at the last minute I had to rush her in to the dentist to have it pulled. ”
    “ I should have thought Miss Dewney could have done that, ” he grumbled, watching from a corner of his eye the two children approaching in triumph.
    “ It seemed wiser to go by car, as the child wasn ’ t very well, and I was the only one competent to drive, ” was her brief response; and then she added, very nonchalantly: “ We happened by pure chance to run into Mr. Alldyke, who was buying a cake for his aunt. ”
    His face cleared at that, but the children had arrived now, with Sally in tow, and all opportunity for private conversation was over.
    “ Mr. Gabball was awfully surprised at your being worried over Sally, ” Maureen announced in her clear little voice. “ He says she always goes in there, when you come down the village, just to see if there ’ s a tit-bit going. ”
    “ She never stays more than a minute or two, ” Ruth added seriously. “ She would have caught you up, if we hadn ’ t gone to look for her. He couldn ’ t understand at all— ”
    “ I dare say not, ” was Andrew ’ s airy reply. Then, looking down at Ruth, he asked genially: “ Is it true, or only a rumor, that a certain young lady of the name of Ruth is clamoring to