Read Online The Nymph and the Lamp by Thomas H Raddall - Free Book Online Page B

long.”
    Miss Jardine blushed. “I’ve a confession to make. I chose the post office because about that time of day all the typists are rushing in and out with the afternoon mail, and nobody’d think it strange if they saw me there. But I couldn’t stand outside very well. I slipped in by the George Street door and waited twenty minutes, fiddling with one or two letters and peeping from a window now and again. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go through with it—please don’t be offended. In the park it seemed all right; but in the office this morning I couldn’t help wondering what Mr. Hurd or the Benson girl would think if they saw me with you. And you—you’re rather shy. I wasn’t even sure you’d come. I wasn’t sure about anything.”
    â€œI was,” Carney said.
    â€œAbout me?”
    â€œYou said you’d come, and here you are.”
    â€œYes. You must think me awfully silly.”
    â€œI wouldn’t have blamed you if you hadn’t shown up.”
    She gave him a clear gray look and said slowly, “I don’t believe you would.
    You’re much too kind. It’s a good thing you’re going back to your island.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œYou’d be disillusioned if you stayed here long.”
    Carney closed his big fist on the table and opened the fingers slowly, inspecting them with a profound gaze.
    â€œI’ve lost the only illusion I ever had. That makes me safe.”
    â€œOh? Was it—was it a woman?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œI see. Was that why you got your leave?”
    â€œMostly, yes.”
    â€œI’m awfully sorry.”
    â€œIt wasn’t quite what you think,” Carney said deliberately. “But it came to the same thing in the end. When you’ve been roving half your life, like me, you invent one place and someone there, to think about, to convince yourself that you’ve got roots like everybody else. If I’d stayed on Marina and gone on believing that it would have been all right. But I had to go and see—and she was dead.”
    â€œAfter all that time!” Miss Jardine exclaimed. “How sad!”
    Carney looked up and was confounded to see tears in her eyes. He condemned himself for a fool. She had been so melancholy in the park that he had planned an evening’s entertainment, full of lively talk. And now, this!
    â€œI’m afraid I’ve given you a wrong impression,” he said carefully. “What happened to me was just a notion that came to nothing. It gave me a knock but it’s over now. Life on Marina was all right for me because I’d absolutely nothing here ashore. I didn’t know it then. Now I do. Let’s talk about something else. Here’s the waitress. What will you have to eat?”
    Miss Jardine picked up the menu. “A salad, please. The salmon salad will be very nice. And some rolls, and tea.” A cool young person in a green frock took this down and turned her impersonal glance to Carney. He ordered steak and potatoes and coffee.
    â€œMake the potatoes French fried,” Miss Jardine put in. The waitress nodded and swayed away towards the kitchen on a pair of legs straight out of a silk-hosiery advertisement.
    â€œWhat made you think of that?” Carney asked.
    â€œBecause you’ve got a man cook on your island and you eat your potatoes boiled or not at all. And all that stuff out of tins! I’ve heard the operators. When they get ashore from Marina they eat nothing for days but greens and steak and French fried potatoes. Why don’t you get another cook?”
    â€œHe’s all right. Beside, they’re hard to get.”
    She dismissed Carney’s cook with a gesture. “Well, have you picked a theater? There’s a stock company playing at the Academy of Music. And there’s a girl-and-music show at Acker’s if you want something lively. I haven’t seen it but I can