Read Online Twopence Coloured by Patrick Hamilton - Free Book Online

— and the mystery of her presence there. And fear of this mystery, and also his ever more hurrying stride, emboldened her reply.
    “Well, as a matter of fact,” she said, “I’ve a sort of idea.”
    “Yes?”
    “You’re coming to Hammersmith next week, are n’t you?”
    “Yes.”
    “Are you staying anywhere? You said you’d have to get rooms.”
    “Yes. I know a place in Brook Green.”
    “Well, why don’t you come and stay where I am? She lets rooms, you see; because somebody’s being sort of turned out because of me. And I know it’d be all right.”
    He did not stop in his stride, for he was now reaching a kind of crescendo of hurrying, but he seemed to be verypleased by the idea, and in a hundred yards’ time he had her address and the whole thing was arranged. Unless she wrote to him, he would arrive on Monday at three o’clock, and she might be in, or she might not be in, to welcome him.
    “And when I see you again,” said Jackie, smiling, “I’ll talk to you about That.”
    He smiled back but made no rejoinder. They now plunged into a crowded arcade, which she recognized as Piccadilly Underground Station, and he was making for the booking office.
    “After all,” said Jackie, “if you say that acting’s such a beastly business, why do you do it yourself?”
    “West Kensington, please…. Oh, well; I don’t know…. Now, listen.” He led her towards the lifts. “You go in one of these lifts, you see.”
    “Yes.”
    “And you go Down, naturally.”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, when Down, you see a thing saying To the Trains. And you walk; along a thing like the inside of a toothpaste tube, and then you see a thing pointing to Westbound or Eastbound. You take Westbound.”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, you get in a train which takes you to Earl’s Court. And when you’re at Earl’s Court, you get out and follow the others into a lift, which takes you Up. When Up, you look about for other things, but probably ask a Porter, or Man, for West Kensington, please.”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, he’ll tell you to go down some stairs for an Ealing or Richmond train. And it’s the very next station.”
    “Thanks ever so much,” said Jackie.
    “Well, good-bye,” he said, and smiling faintly, he offered his hand. “You’ve got it clear?”
    “Yes. Good-bye,” said Jackie. “And thanks so much.”
    She turned, and commenced to walk away.
    Now whether at this moment this more than hard-hearted individual caught something of the unthinking obedience andpathetic trembling optimism of the figure departing into an unknown city, is not known. But something must have stolen over his conscience momentarily, for he called her back.
    “I say.”
    “Yes.”
    “You won’t be lost or anything, will you?”
    “No. I’m all right,” said Jackie, smiling. “Good-bye.”
    “Good-bye.”
    And when she reached the lift, he was standing there to be waved to. 

CHAPTER II
GLIMPSES
I
    I T was twilight at four o’clock on Monday afternoon — a grey, lowering, windy afternoon, big with the threatening and grandiose mischief of the running elements above — and Jackie was standing at the window of her quite pleasant front room in Talgarth Road, West Kensington, and waiting, with an expectancy momentarily more perturbed , and a trust swiftly vanishing, for the arrival of Mr. Gissing.
    The grey, drab, naked, flat, scythe-like sweep of the road before her eyes was all but entirely deserted — as though people had read the signs of the god-like frolics about to commence overhead, and had dashed to shelter to wait in suspense. And apart from the milkman on his round, who, like some demented walker in a city awaiting destruction, emitted bedlamite yodelling sounds: and apart from his truck, which crashed crazily and spasmodically on its way, there was no person or thing to break the sighing uniformity of the wind-swept street. Mr. Gissing was now three-quarters of an hour late.
    The room grew darker and darker every tingling