Read Online Listening Valley by D. E. Stevenson - Free Book Online

happy. She was having a marvelous time: there were dances and picnics, and she had learned to ride. The station was full of young people, and they were all nice to Lou. It was difficult to write back to Lou in the same strain, for nothing seemed to happen to Tonia (each day was as dull as the one before), but somehow or other, letters were written and dispatched—loving, cheerful letters.
    Tonia’s only other correspondent was Nannie, who wrote to her at long intervals and gave very little news. Nannie was getting old now and was finding it difficult to carry on. “If I could get a girl to help me,” wrote Nannie. “But I cannot afford a girl. It is just not easy to make ends meet sometimes.” Tonia could read a good deal between the lines of this carefully phrased epistle, for she knew Nannie to be addicted to understatement, so if Nannie said it was not easy to make ends meet she must be having a bad time. Fortunately Tonia had some money in the Post Office Savings Bank—it was money that had been given to her from time to time and that she had been made to save. The interest had accumulated, and Tonia discovered to her amazement that she possessed nearly two hundred pounds. It was her own money, of course, so she could do what she liked with it, but all the same she felt a trifle guilty as she penned the withdrawal slip, for she was aware that her parents would make all sorts of objections if they knew of her intention. But I don’t care, thought Tonia, signing with a firm hand and remembering as she did so a hundred and one things that Nannie had done for her, remembering Nannie’s patience when she could not tie her shoes and how Nannie had sat up with her when she was ill.
    The money was to be paid in pound notes (all of it, for this would save Nannie a lot of bother), and when Tonia received it, she packed the notes into a chocolate box and dispatched it by registered post. She was very happy now—happier than she had felt for months—and her only regret was that she would not see Nannie’s face when the chocolate box was opened.
    Nannie’s letter arrived a few days later and was so grateful and loving and so incoherent (owing to the shock its writer had received) that Tonia shed tears upon it and carried it about with her for days until it fell to pieces and had to be burned.
    â€œI am wanting to see you so much,” Nannie had written. “Maybe I could tell you a bit of what I feel. I never was much of a hand at letter writing. Would Mrs. Melville let you come and stay with me for a week or two? It would be a nice change and it must be dull without Lou and I would give you old Miss Melville’s room that looks out on to the garden at the back and gets the morning sun. I would be so pleased to have you, dear, but you know that.”
    Tonia considered the matter. It would be nice to see Nannie again, but was it worth the bother? Mother would be sure to make a fuss—and how Tonia hated fusses! All Tonia wanted was to be left in peace. She decided not to go.
    Once Tonia had recovered from her indisposition and Mrs. Melville had recovered from her shock, the relations between them disimproved. Mrs. Melville decided that Tonia was “grown up” now; she must go about, she must come down to the drawing room and take her proper place in the house, but Tonia was a most unsatisfactory sort of daughter; she was silent and dreamy and had no talent for conversation. She disliked shopping and tea parties and escaped from social activities whenever she could. The old nursery was Tonia’s refuge; she would sit there for hours, reading or dreaming or thinking about Lou. Sometimes Mrs. Melville would send Maggie to fetch her, not because she enjoyed Tonia’s company, but because it was the right thing for Tonia to be there when visitors came to tea, and Tonia would brush her hair and wash her hands and come down to the drawing room, obedient to her