Read Online Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie - Free Book Online Page B

listen.”
    Roddy came to her. He caught her hand in his.
    â€œElinor, you’re wonderful! So clearheaded! So marvellously impersonal! There’s no trace of pettiness or meanness about you. I admire you more than I can ever say. I’ll do exactly what you suggest. Go away, cut free from everything—and find out whether I’ve got the genuine disease or if I’ve just been making the most ghastly fool of myself. Oh, Elinor, my dear, you don’t know how truly fond I am of you. I do realize you were always a thousand times too good for me. Bless you, dear, for all your goodness.”
    Quickly, impulsively, he kissed her cheek and went out of the room.
    It was as well, perhaps, that he did not look back and see her face.
    IV
    It was a couple of days later that Mary acquainted Nurse Hopkins with her improved prospects.
    That practical woman was warmly congratulatory.
    â€œThat’s a great piece of luck for you, Mary,” she said. “The old lady may have meant well by you, but unless a thing’s down in black and white, intentions don’t go for much! You might easily have got nothing at all.”
    â€œMiss Elinor said that the night Mrs. Welman died she told her to do something for me.”
    Nurse Hopkins snorted.
    â€œMaybe she did. But there’s many would have forgotten conveniently afterwards. Relations are like that. I’ve seen a few things, I can tell you! People dying and saying they know they can leave it to their dear son or their dear daughter to carry out their wishes. Nine times out of ten, dear son and dear daughter find some very good reason to do nothing of the kind. Human nature’s human nature, and nobody likes parting with money if they’re not legally compelled to! I tell you, Mary, my girl, you’ve been lucky. Miss Carlisle’s straighter than most.”
    Mary said slowly:
    â€œAnd yet—somehow—I feel she doesn’t like me.”
    â€œWith good reason, I should say,” said Nurse Hopkins bluntly.“Now, don’t look so innocent, Mary! Mr. Roderick’s been making sheep’s eyes at you for some time now.”
    Mary went red.
    Nurse Hopkins went on:
    â€œHe’s got it badly, in my opinion. Fell for you all of a sudden. What about you, my girl? Got any feelings for him?”
    Mary said hesitatingly:
    â€œI—I don’t know. I don’t think so. But of course, he’s very nice.”
    â€œH’m,” said Nurse Hopkins. “He wouldn’t be my fancy! One of those men who are finicky and a bundle of nerves. Fussy about their food, too, as likely as not. Men aren’t much at the best of times. Don’t be in too much of a hurry, Mary, my dear. With your looks you can afford to pick and choose. Nurse O’Brien passed the remark to me the other day that you ought to go on the films. They like blondes, I’ve always heard.”
    Mary said, with a slight frown creasing her forehead:
    â€œNurse, what do you think I ought to do about Father? He thinks I ought to give some of this money to him.”
    â€œDon’t you do anything of the kind,” said Nurse Hopkins wrathfully. “Mrs. Welman never meant that money for him. It’s my opinion he’d have lost his job years ago if it hadn’t been for you. A lazier man never stepped!”
    Mary said:
    â€œIt seems funny when she’d all that money that she never made a will to say how it was to go.”
    Nurse Hopkins shook her head.
    â€œPeople are like that. You’d be surprised. Always putting it off.”
    Mary said:
    â€œIt seems downright silly to me.”
    Nurse Hopkins said with a faint twinkle:
    â€œMade a will yourself, Mary?”
    Mary stared at her.
    â€œOh, no.”
    â€œAnd yet you’re over twenty-one.”
    â€œBut I—I haven’t got anything to leave—at least I suppose I have now.”
    Nurse Hopkins said sharply:
    â€œOf course you have. And a nice