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Five Little Pigs :: Christie Agatha
Страница: 110 из 147I’ll paint you!’
I said: ‘Then that’s settled.’
He went on: ‘But I’ll warn you, Elsa Greer. If I do paint you, I shall probably make love to you.’
I said: ‘I hope you will…’
I said it quite steadily and quietly. I heard him catch his breath, and I saw the look that came into his eyes.
You see, it was as sudden as all that.
A day or two later we met again. He told me that he wanted me to come down to Devonshire-he’d got the very place there that he wanted for a background. He said:
‘I’m married, you know. And I’m very fond of my wife.’
I said if he was fond of her she must be very nice.
He said she was extremely nice. ‘In fact,’ he said, ‘she’s quite adorable-and I adore her. So put that in your pipe, young Elsa, and smoke it.’
I told him that I quite understood.
He began the picture a week later. Caroline Crale welcomed me very pleasantly. She didn’t like me much-but, after all, why should she? Amyas was very circumspect. He never said a word to me that his wife couldn’t have overheard, and I was quite polite and formal to him. Underneath, though, we both knew.
After ten days he told me I was to go back to London.
I said: ‘The picture isn’t finished.’
He said: ‘It’s barely begun. The truth is, I can’t paint you, Elsa.’
I said: ‘Why?’
He said: ‘You know well enough why, Elsa. And that’s why you’ve got to clear out. I can’t think about the painting-I can’t think about anything but you.’
We were in the Battery garden. It was a hot sunny day. There were birds and humming bees. It ought to have been very happy and peaceful. But it didn’t feel like that. It felt-somehow-tragic. As though-as though what was going to happen was already mirrored there.
I knew it would be no good my going back to London, but I said: ‘Very well, I’ll go if you say so.’
Amyas said: ‘Good girl.’
So I went. I didn’t write to him.
He held out for ten days and then he came. He was so thin and haggard and miserable that it shocked me.
He said: ‘I warned you, Elsa. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.’
I said: ‘I’ve been waiting for you. I knew you’d come.’
He gave a sort of groan and said: ‘There are things that are too strong for any man. I can’t eat or sleep or rest for wanting you.’
I said I knew that and that it was the same with me, and had been from the first moment I’d seen him. It was Fate and it was no use struggling against it.
I said: ‘Then that’s settled.’
He went on: ‘But I’ll warn you, Elsa Greer. If I do paint you, I shall probably make love to you.’
I said: ‘I hope you will…’
I said it quite steadily and quietly. I heard him catch his breath, and I saw the look that came into his eyes.
You see, it was as sudden as all that.
A day or two later we met again. He told me that he wanted me to come down to Devonshire-he’d got the very place there that he wanted for a background. He said:
‘I’m married, you know. And I’m very fond of my wife.’
I said if he was fond of her she must be very nice.
He said she was extremely nice. ‘In fact,’ he said, ‘she’s quite adorable-and I adore her. So put that in your pipe, young Elsa, and smoke it.’
I told him that I quite understood.
He began the picture a week later. Caroline Crale welcomed me very pleasantly. She didn’t like me much-but, after all, why should she? Amyas was very circumspect. He never said a word to me that his wife couldn’t have overheard, and I was quite polite and formal to him. Underneath, though, we both knew.
After ten days he told me I was to go back to London.
I said: ‘The picture isn’t finished.’
He said: ‘It’s barely begun. The truth is, I can’t paint you, Elsa.’
I said: ‘Why?’
He said: ‘You know well enough why, Elsa. And that’s why you’ve got to clear out. I can’t think about the painting-I can’t think about anything but you.’
We were in the Battery garden. It was a hot sunny day. There were birds and humming bees. It ought to have been very happy and peaceful. But it didn’t feel like that. It felt-somehow-tragic. As though-as though what was going to happen was already mirrored there.
I knew it would be no good my going back to London, but I said: ‘Very well, I’ll go if you say so.’
Amyas said: ‘Good girl.’
So I went. I didn’t write to him.
He held out for ten days and then he came. He was so thin and haggard and miserable that it shocked me.
He said: ‘I warned you, Elsa. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.’
I said: ‘I’ve been waiting for you. I knew you’d come.’
He gave a sort of groan and said: ‘There are things that are too strong for any man. I can’t eat or sleep or rest for wanting you.’
I said I knew that and that it was the same with me, and had been from the first moment I’d seen him. It was Fate and it was no use struggling against it.