determined hands raised the lid. There were layers of tissue paper. (It wasn’t a body, anyway. No one ever wrapped a body in tissue paper and mothballs.) Probably it was a treasured evening gown.
But no. As Alice ripped away the last layer of tissue paper she saw the beautiful grey squirrel coat lying there.
Get mothballs in town today. The words were so insistent that they might have been spoken.
Camilla had wanted the mothballs to pack with the coat. She had intended bringing them back.
But she hadn’t come back.
Now Alice, like Felix, no longer believed the story of Camilla’s marriage. It was no longer possible to believe it.
Because she knew Camilla too well. She knew that never in her life could she bring herself to leave behind her so lovely and valuable a coat as this.
5
F OR THE SECOND TIME since her arrival Alice noticed the keas. Three of them had been perched on the roof of the bus which had just arrived and stood outside the hotel and had been picking with their sharp inquisitive beaks at the luggage and packages. When the swinging doors of the hotel opened and some people came out talking loudly they swept into the air, screeching their anger. The underside of their wings was a rich phantasy of colour, emerald green, blue, blood red, a brilliant nightmare it must seem to the stricken eyes of the lambs on which they preyed. One perched on a windowsill, folding its wings drably, and regarding Alice with its inquisitive, baleful and treacherous eye. The peculiar foreboding she had felt on her arrival swept over her again. For no reason she had developed an anathema to those squat, noisy mountain birds.
She hesitated on the doorstep of the hotel, all the lively courage she had felt while dressing in the little schoolhouse leaving her.
There, she had stood in front of the mirror saying, ‘Sorry, Camilla. Sorry, darling. I know how jealous you are of your clothes. But I have to do this. It’s for your sake.’
Webster had hopped on to the end of the bed and stood looking at her with his head on one side.
‘Well, encyclopaedia, what do you think?’ Alice had asked.
‘Nevermore,’ said Webster in his small harsh croak.
‘I should think not,’ said Alice severely. ‘I almost have an idea Camilla echoes you. Nevermore, indeed!’
She tucked the lapels of the coat under her chin. It was a little too big for her. She felt wrapped in a soft grey cocoon. But Camilla was taller. The well-cut swinging back and the rolled collar must have looked wonderful on her. Camilla must have revelled in it. It wasn’t, as fur coats went, a highly expensive kind. For instance, it was but a poor relation of her mother’s mink and chinchilla. But to Camilla, who had had to count every penny and who had always made all her own clothes, the three hundred pounds or so that this would have cost must have seemed fabulous for one garment. So that it was all the more perplexing that she should have left it behind.
Would the experiment tonight solve anything? Alice held her little head high and longed for more inches. If she could look at the mysterious Dalton Thorpe, at kind Dundas and at laughing secretive Felix from their own level she would not have been afraid at all. Of course, she was not afraid of Dundas, who was shy, nor of Felix, whom she thought she knew so well, nor of any man. It was only this intangible something, this apprehension that crept up on one out of the rain and the wet green bush and the low mist. And the sweet carnation odour that reminded one incessantly of Camilla’s absence.
Would tonight prove anything? Alice struck a pose and declaimed Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t to her fur-clad image in the mirror.
‘Nevermore,’ muttered Webster.
Alice giggled at the absurdity of the uncanny creature’s comments and her apprehension left her.
But now it was back again as she forced herself to push open the swinging doors of the hotel and walk through the brightly
But no. As Alice ripped away the last layer of tissue paper she saw the beautiful grey squirrel coat lying there.
Get mothballs in town today. The words were so insistent that they might have been spoken.
Camilla had wanted the mothballs to pack with the coat. She had intended bringing them back.
But she hadn’t come back.
Now Alice, like Felix, no longer believed the story of Camilla’s marriage. It was no longer possible to believe it.
Because she knew Camilla too well. She knew that never in her life could she bring herself to leave behind her so lovely and valuable a coat as this.
5
F OR THE SECOND TIME since her arrival Alice noticed the keas. Three of them had been perched on the roof of the bus which had just arrived and stood outside the hotel and had been picking with their sharp inquisitive beaks at the luggage and packages. When the swinging doors of the hotel opened and some people came out talking loudly they swept into the air, screeching their anger. The underside of their wings was a rich phantasy of colour, emerald green, blue, blood red, a brilliant nightmare it must seem to the stricken eyes of the lambs on which they preyed. One perched on a windowsill, folding its wings drably, and regarding Alice with its inquisitive, baleful and treacherous eye. The peculiar foreboding she had felt on her arrival swept over her again. For no reason she had developed an anathema to those squat, noisy mountain birds.
She hesitated on the doorstep of the hotel, all the lively courage she had felt while dressing in the little schoolhouse leaving her.
There, she had stood in front of the mirror saying, ‘Sorry, Camilla. Sorry, darling. I know how jealous you are of your clothes. But I have to do this. It’s for your sake.’
Webster had hopped on to the end of the bed and stood looking at her with his head on one side.
‘Well, encyclopaedia, what do you think?’ Alice had asked.
‘Nevermore,’ said Webster in his small harsh croak.
‘I should think not,’ said Alice severely. ‘I almost have an idea Camilla echoes you. Nevermore, indeed!’
She tucked the lapels of the coat under her chin. It was a little too big for her. She felt wrapped in a soft grey cocoon. But Camilla was taller. The well-cut swinging back and the rolled collar must have looked wonderful on her. Camilla must have revelled in it. It wasn’t, as fur coats went, a highly expensive kind. For instance, it was but a poor relation of her mother’s mink and chinchilla. But to Camilla, who had had to count every penny and who had always made all her own clothes, the three hundred pounds or so that this would have cost must have seemed fabulous for one garment. So that it was all the more perplexing that she should have left it behind.
Would the experiment tonight solve anything? Alice held her little head high and longed for more inches. If she could look at the mysterious Dalton Thorpe, at kind Dundas and at laughing secretive Felix from their own level she would not have been afraid at all. Of course, she was not afraid of Dundas, who was shy, nor of Felix, whom she thought she knew so well, nor of any man. It was only this intangible something, this apprehension that crept up on one out of the rain and the wet green bush and the low mist. And the sweet carnation odour that reminded one incessantly of Camilla’s absence.
Would tonight prove anything? Alice struck a pose and declaimed Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t to her fur-clad image in the mirror.
‘Nevermore,’ muttered Webster.
Alice giggled at the absurdity of the uncanny creature’s comments and her apprehension left her.
But now it was back again as she forced herself to push open the swinging doors of the hotel and walk through the brightly
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