at the
time.”
“What was the postmark?”
“I must confess I didn’t notice.”
“Perhaps you still have the letter and it could be
examined.”
“I don’t know, I’m afraid. It may be torn up—quite
probably it is. Naturally it didn’t strike me as particularly important
when I received it.”
Garland again took the lead. “Well, Mr. Freemantle, it’s an
unfortunate business, anyhow. She’s left home, and we don’t know
what’s happening to her.”
Howat found himself slowly rising out of a dream into this new and
intricate reality that was being forced upon him. “But surely, Mr.
Garland, you have some idea why she’s gone, at any rate? That
seems to me almost as important as where she is, apart from the fact that it
might afford a clue. She can’t have acted like that without some big
reason of her own.”
He felt: Why are they bothering me about it? I can’t help them, but
I can see now it was a mistake to give the girl German lessons—I never
guessed that her parents didn’t approve of it. She ought to have told
me, really…
“Oh, she has her reasons, I’ve no doubt,” retorted Mrs.
Garland, sourly. “And precious fine reasons they are, too, if they were
only known, I daresay. The idea—talking of giving up her job at the
library and going abroad! That’s what she did talk about, though you
mayn’t believe it. Of course we forbade it—absolutely. A good
deal that we don’t like we may have to put up with in these days, but
there are certain limits, I’m glad to say.
“She talked of going abroad, did she?”
“She’s been talking of it off and on for some time. But it
came to a head last Friday night when we found she’d been writing to a
travel agency about railway tickets to Paris. And then, if you please, she
calmly told us that she was going to go abroad in any case.”
“To Paris?”
“That’s one of the things we have to guess. It doesn’t
sound a nice sort of place for a young girl to want to go to, does
it?”
“But, really, she must have had some purpose in mind? People
don’t suddenly go to Paris without any reason at all. Did she give you
no idea how—how she intended to support herself while she was
away?”
Mr. Garland rubbed his nose decisively. “We didn’t argue with
her, Mr. Freemantle. When a daughter calmly informs her parents that
she’s going to do what they’ve forbidden her to do, there’s
nothing left to argue about. She went up to her bedroom—as we hoped, to
think it over and come to her senses. It seems, though, that she just packed
her things, went to bed, and went off early in the morning by the first train
before any of us was up. Altogether a most disgraceful affair. Of course one
naturally thinks of all sorts of possibilities when a girl does a thing like
that.”
Howat stared far away over Garland’s head. “I must say, from a
very slight acquaintance with your daughter, she didn’t really seem to
me the sort of girl who would do anything that either you or she would need
to be ashamed of.”
“That remains to be found out,” answered Mrs. Garland.
“And I don’t mind telling you to your face, Mr. Freemantle, I
think you’re one of the prime causes of it all! You have a thoroughly
unsettling influence on the young people—you always have had—you
put ideas into their heads—it was quite enough to listen to you
to-night to realise how all these things begin. As my husband said,
there’s a great deal too much loose talk in the world nowadays, and
ministers, of all people, ought to know better than join in it. They’re
here to give us religion, that’s what I say, not the things of this
world.”
Howat said, rather curtly: “I don’t think we can discuss all
that. You must let me know if there’s anything practical I can do. And
I’m afraid I must go now. Good-night, Mrs. Garland. Goodnight, Mr.
Garland.” There was something unusual and rather sharp in his
time.”
“What was the postmark?”
“I must confess I didn’t notice.”
“Perhaps you still have the letter and it could be
examined.”
“I don’t know, I’m afraid. It may be torn up—quite
probably it is. Naturally it didn’t strike me as particularly important
when I received it.”
Garland again took the lead. “Well, Mr. Freemantle, it’s an
unfortunate business, anyhow. She’s left home, and we don’t know
what’s happening to her.”
Howat found himself slowly rising out of a dream into this new and
intricate reality that was being forced upon him. “But surely, Mr.
Garland, you have some idea why she’s gone, at any rate? That
seems to me almost as important as where she is, apart from the fact that it
might afford a clue. She can’t have acted like that without some big
reason of her own.”
He felt: Why are they bothering me about it? I can’t help them, but
I can see now it was a mistake to give the girl German lessons—I never
guessed that her parents didn’t approve of it. She ought to have told
me, really…
“Oh, she has her reasons, I’ve no doubt,” retorted Mrs.
Garland, sourly. “And precious fine reasons they are, too, if they were
only known, I daresay. The idea—talking of giving up her job at the
library and going abroad! That’s what she did talk about, though you
mayn’t believe it. Of course we forbade it—absolutely. A good
deal that we don’t like we may have to put up with in these days, but
there are certain limits, I’m glad to say.
“She talked of going abroad, did she?”
“She’s been talking of it off and on for some time. But it
came to a head last Friday night when we found she’d been writing to a
travel agency about railway tickets to Paris. And then, if you please, she
calmly told us that she was going to go abroad in any case.”
“To Paris?”
“That’s one of the things we have to guess. It doesn’t
sound a nice sort of place for a young girl to want to go to, does
it?”
“But, really, she must have had some purpose in mind? People
don’t suddenly go to Paris without any reason at all. Did she give you
no idea how—how she intended to support herself while she was
away?”
Mr. Garland rubbed his nose decisively. “We didn’t argue with
her, Mr. Freemantle. When a daughter calmly informs her parents that
she’s going to do what they’ve forbidden her to do, there’s
nothing left to argue about. She went up to her bedroom—as we hoped, to
think it over and come to her senses. It seems, though, that she just packed
her things, went to bed, and went off early in the morning by the first train
before any of us was up. Altogether a most disgraceful affair. Of course one
naturally thinks of all sorts of possibilities when a girl does a thing like
that.”
Howat stared far away over Garland’s head. “I must say, from a
very slight acquaintance with your daughter, she didn’t really seem to
me the sort of girl who would do anything that either you or she would need
to be ashamed of.”
“That remains to be found out,” answered Mrs. Garland.
“And I don’t mind telling you to your face, Mr. Freemantle, I
think you’re one of the prime causes of it all! You have a thoroughly
unsettling influence on the young people—you always have had—you
put ideas into their heads—it was quite enough to listen to you
to-night to realise how all these things begin. As my husband said,
there’s a great deal too much loose talk in the world nowadays, and
ministers, of all people, ought to know better than join in it. They’re
here to give us religion, that’s what I say, not the things of this
world.”
Howat said, rather curtly: “I don’t think we can discuss all
that. You must let me know if there’s anything practical I can do. And
I’m afraid I must go now. Good-night, Mrs. Garland. Goodnight, Mr.
Garland.” There was something unusual and rather sharp in his
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