Read Online Overture to Death by Ngaio Marsh - Free Book Online Page B

after I’d gone to bed. It’s very vexing to lie in bed knowing somebody in the room below is praying away like mad about you. And, you see, I adore the man. At one moment I thought I would say my own prayers, but the only thing I could think of was the old Commination Service. You know: ‘Cursed is he that smiteth his neighbour secretly. Amen.’ ”
    “One for Eleanor,” said Henry appreciatively.
    “That’s what I thought, but I didn’t say it. But what I’ve been trying to come to is this: I can’t bear to upset Daddy permanently, and I’m afraid that’s just what would happen. No, please wait, Henry. You see, I’m only nineteen, and he can forbid the bans — and, what’s more, he’d do it.”
    “But why?” said Henry. “Why? Why? Why?”
    “Because he thinks that we shouldn’t oppose your father and because, secretly, he’s got a social inferiority complex. He’s a snob, poor sweet. He thinks if he smiled on us it would look as if he was all agog to make a grand match for me, and was going behind the squire’s back to do it.”
    “Absolutely drivelling bilge!”
    “I know, but that’s how it goes. It’s just one of those things. And it’s all due to Miss Prentice. Honestly, Henry, I think she’s positively evil.
Why
should she mind about us?”
    “Jealousy,” said Henry. “She’s starved and twisted and a bit dotty. I dare say it’s physiological as well as psychological. I imagine she thinks you’ll sort of dethrone her when you’re my wife. And, as likely, as not, she’s jealous of your father’s affection for you.”
    They shook their heads wisely.
    “Daddy’s terrified of her,” said Dinah, “
and
of Miss Campanula. They
will
ask him to hear their confessions, and when they go away he’s a perfect wreck.”
    “I’m not surprised, if they tell the truth. I expect what they really do is to try to inform against the rest of the district. Listen to me, Dinah. I refuse to have our love for each other messed up by Eleanor. You’re mine. I’ll tell your father I’ve asked you to marry me, and I’ll tell mine. I’ll
make
them see reason; and if Eleanor comes creeping in — my God, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll — ”
    “Henry,” said Dinah, “how magnificent!”
    Henry grinned.
    “It’d be more magnificent,” he said, “if she wasn’t just an unhappy, warped, middle-aged spinster.”
    “It must be awful to be like that,” agreed Dinah. “I hope it never happens to me.”
    “You!”
    There was another halt.
    “Henry,” said Dinah suddenly. “Let’s ask them to call an armistice until after the play.”
    “But we must see each other like this. Alone.”
    “I shall die if we can’t; but all the same I feel, somehow, if we said we’d wait until then, that Daddy might sort of begin to understand. We’ll meet at rehearsals, and we won’t pretend we’re not in love, but I’ll promise him I won’t meet you alone. It’ll be — it’ll be kind of dignified. Henry,
do
you see?”
    “I suppose so,” said Henry unwillingly.
    “It’d stop those hateful old women talking.”
    “My dear, nothing would stop them talking.”
    “Please, darling Henry.”
    “Oh, Dinah.”
    “Please.”
    “All right. It’s insufferable, though, that Eleanor should be able to spoil a really miraculous thing like Us.”
    “Insufferable.”
    “She’s so completely insignificant.”
    Dinah shook her head.
    “All the same,” she said, “she’s a bad enemy. She creeps and creeps, and she’s simply brimful of poison. She’ll drop some of it into our cup of happiness if she can.”
    “Not if I know it,” said Henry.

CHAPTER SIX
Rehearsal
    i
    The rehearsals were not going any too well. For all Dinah’s efforts, she hadn’t been able to get very much concerted work out of her company. For one thing, with the exception of Selia Ross and Henry, they would
not
learn their lines. Dr. Templett even took a sort of pride in it. He was forever talking about his experiences in amateur