Read Online The Sphinx by Graham Masterton - Free Book Online Page B

pretty
lonely.”
    “My dear Mr.
Keiller. I’m always trying to persuade ter.”
    Gene coughed.
“That wasn’t the impression T got from her. She really implied that it was you
who was holding her back.”
    Mrs. Semple
nodded. “You’re not the first,” she said, in a weary voice.
    “She told me
she’d never dated anyone.”
    “That’s quite
right, Mr. Keiller, she never has. But it certainly wasn’t for lack of
encouragement on my part, and it certainly wasn’t for lack of enthusiasm on the
part of the poor fellows who tried to take her out. She’s nineteen, you know,
and I do feel it’s time she went out into the world and got herself some
experience with men.”
    “Mrs. Semple,
if I were to ask Lorie out, would you encourage that, too?”
    “Of course!”
laughed Mrs. Semple in a rather forced tone. “I don’t see how anyone could be
more eligible You’re precisely the type of man I’ve always had my eye on.”
    “Well, I’m very
flattered, Mrs. Semple, but I’m not sure I’ve got marriage in mind. I’m afraid
my career is pretty important to me.”
     
    Mrs. Semple
stood up and walked over to the window. The fall sunlight somehow made her look
even taller than she had seemed before, and Gene was surprised to see that the
roots of her hair were as tawny as Lorie’s. The silver-gray look must have been
hair dye. She turned back and stared at him with those glittering and hypnotic
green eyes that characterized the female side of the Semple family, and she
said softly: “If you like, I will speak to Lorie, and see if I can’t persuade
her to change her mind.”
    “I get the
feeling there’s some kind of condition, placed on that.”
    “Condition?”
said Mrs. Semple, lifting one eyebrow. She pronounced the word the French way– condission , She didn’t look surprised at
what he had said.
    Gene shifted
himself into a more comfortable position. “Supposing I forget about the dog
last night? Is that the kind of deal you had in mind?”
    Mrs. Semple
smiled a long, lazy smile. “You don’t work for the State Department for
nothing, do you? You have read my thoughts.”
    “In that case,”
said Gene, “it’s a deal.”
    When the pain
in his shoulder came back, Mrs. Semple gave him another shot of sedative, and
he slept in dreaming jigsaw-pieces from lunch until early evening, muttering
and mumbling and tossing in his sleep. Sometimes he thought he saw Mrs. Semple
standing in his room, and at other times he thought he was being watched by a
strange animal that regarded him with cold and emotionless eyes.
    The strangest
dream he had was that someone was arguing in another room–a long and loud and
persistent argument that he couldn’t quite hear or understand. He caught the
words “eligible” and “perfect?’
      over and over again,
and then the words “ritual” and “frightened” seemed to follow. He couldn’t be
sure if it was the same dream or not, but after that he heard animals snarling
and tussling, and the dream turned into a nightmare about heavy beasts tearing him
down from the wall and sinking their teeth into his arm.
    He woke up and
there was something cool on his forehead. He opened his eyes and Lorie was
sitting on the chair beside his bed, leaning over and holding a cold compress
against his brow.
    He realized he
was sweating and trembling, and his mouth was dry as ash. “Lorie,” he croaked.
    ‘Tm here,
Gene,” she said quietly. “Don’t worry.
    You’ve just had
a nightmare, that’s all. It’s the sedative.”
    He tried to
turn his head. “What time is it?” he asked her.
    “Half after
seven. You’ve been asleep since one.”
    “I think...” he
said, stretching his muscles as much as he could, “... I think I feel better.”
    “Mother says
you should be able to get up tomorrow. She phoned your office again and told
them.
    Someone called
Maggie sends you her love.”
    Gene nodded.
“That’s my secretary. She’s a nice sec…”
    There was an
awkward