Read Online The Sundial by Shirley Jackson - Free Book Online

voice.
    â€œCall it nonsense, Orianna, say—as you have before—that Aunt Fanny is running in crazed spirits, but—although I am of course not permitted to threaten—all the regret will be yours.”
    â€œI feel it already,” Mrs. Halloran said.
    â€œThe experiment with humanity is at an end,” Aunt Fanny said.
    â€œSplendid,” Mrs. Halloran said. “I was getting very tired of all of them.”
    â€œThe imbalance of the universe is being corrected. Dislocations have been adjusted. Harmony is to be restored, inperfections erased.”
    â€œ
I
wonder if anything has been done about the hedges,” Mrs. Halloran said. “Essex, did you speak to the gardeners?”
    â€œThe ways of the gods are inscrutable,” Aunt Fanny said, her voice high.
    â€œInscrutable, indeed,” Mrs. Halloran said. “I personally would never have made such a choice. Put it, Aunt Fanny, since you will not be silent, that the first harmony to be established is that between you and myself.”
    â€œI cannot be silenced,” Aunt Fanny said, shouting, “I cannot be silenced; this is my father’s house and I am safe here. No one can drive me away.”
    â€œDistasteful,” said Mrs. Halloran, shrugging. “Essex, will you fill my glass? And I believe Aunt Fanny will have more sherry. We have time before dinner. Miss Ogilvie?”
    _____
    â€œShe is doing it again,” Essex said later, coming to stand by Mrs. Halloran on the terrace. “Listening. Nodding.”
    â€œIf anything had been needed to perfect Aunt Fanny’s exquisite charm,” Mrs. Halloran said, “it would be this prophetic lunacy.”
    â€œ
I
believe she has lost her mind,” Essex said.
    Mrs. Halloran turned to move slowly down the wide marble steps, and Essex came soundlessly beside her. “It is a lovely night,” Mrs. Halloran said. “Aunt Fanny may be certifiable, certainly. It is not impossible in my husband’s family. But it is irrelevant.”
    â€œIf Aunt Fanny is
not
mad,” Essex said. “Had it occurred to you? We may expect a world cataclysm in the very near future. Unless of course it is not impossible that in your husband’s family they may be mistaken.”
    â€œWhat concerns me most is her defiance,” Mrs. Halloran said. “It is not usual in Aunt Fanny.”
    â€œI suppose the destruction of the world will not turn on Aunt Fanny’s manners. I would not let her mingle freely with your friends, however, or at least not with strangers.”
    â€œEssex,” Mrs. Halloran said. She stopped by the sundial and put her hand down gently; under her fingers the letters said WHAT IS THIS WORLD? “Essex, I am not a fool. I have gone for many years disbelieving most of what people told me. But I have never before been requested to take an immediate opinion on the question of the annihilation of civilization. I have never known my sister-in-law to get any message accurately, but I cannot afford to ignore her.”
    â€œDoes that mean that you find yourself believing Aunt Fanny’s claptrap?”
    â€œI have no choice,” Mrs. Halloran said. She moved her finger caressingly along WORLD. “Authority is of some importance to me. I will not be left behind when creatures like Aunt Fanny and her brother are introduced into a new world. I must plan to be there. Oh, what madness,” she said, her voice agonized, “why could he not have come to
me?
”
    After a minute Essex said, “I see. Then I suppose I must withdraw my word claptrap, and substitute something more politic.”
    â€œClaptrap will do.” Mrs. Halloran laughed. “I am positive of it, but I insist upon being saved along with Aunt Fanny. I have never had any doubt of my own immortality, but put it that never before have I had any open, clear-cut invitation to the Garden of Eden; Aunt Fanny has shown me a gate.”
    â€œThen I