Island in the Dawn Read Free Page A

that had really struck her. It was a graceful slenderness, and in spite of his disability his movements were never clumsy. He h ad a tendency to grope a little, as if he had not yet become accustomed to finding his way by depending solely on his sense of touch, and was therefore hesitant and unsure. But behind the hesitancy there was a pantherish manner that was rather like a coiled spring, as if under normal circumstances there was just a touch of the showman in his everyday attitude to life. And his voice was crisp and alert, although never raised above a certain minor key.
    “You say that you have left your friend on the jetty, and that she has come to visit her uncle? Well, I’m sorry, but her uncle let me this place some time ago — it must be nearly two years ago now — and I have no real idea where he is at the moment But of course you must come in and rest, and Michael, you must go down to the jetty and see about the ladies’ luggage. Bring it all here, and if there is a lot of it get Moses to help you.”
    “But we can’t possibly trouble you like this—” Felicity was be ginning , when he cut her short by lifting his hand.
    “Nonsense,” he said, with a kind of polite indifference. “Where else will you go if you don’t come here? There is no hotel on the island, the steamer will not call for another fortnight, and this is a very big house with plenty of rooms. You and your friend must certainly come here for the time being.”
    Felicity thought she had better explain.
    “Miss Wood is my employer.”
    “Then you and your employer must remain here for the time being,” he told her, in the same slightly monotonous voice. He stood aside, his restraining hand on the dog, so that she could pass into the cool room behind him, and when she had done so her admiration was aroused by the simplicity and beauty of the furnishings.
    It was a beautifully proportioned room, gleaming with highly polished furniture, and redolent of perfume. Scent stole out from the numerous bowls and vases that were filled with flowers; silver bowls, an enormous copper bowl, a great Satsuma vase. There were roses on what looked like an ancient refectory table; the rich patina of its surface spoke a tribute to the loving hands that had labored over it during the centuries. A carved ivory screen in a corner looked like a film of white lace, and a treasure-c h est encrusted with mother-of-pearl was plainly a treasure in itself. There was a grandfather dock — a lovely thing in a rosewood case — ticking solemnly in another corner , and the mgs that lay on the solid block floor were the kind that men haggled for in remote eastern bazaars where their owners parted with them regretfully.
    Felicity was certain she had never before seen so many cherished objects collected together under one roof. A gallery ran Ugh up against the walls, and a staircase flowed downwards from the gallery — ‘flowed’ was the appropriate word, for in itself it was a thing of beauty, the shining treads uncurling like a fan. Plainly the room was a kind of lounge-hall-cum-sitting-room, and a del i ghtful foretaste of what the rest of the house must hold.
    Michael, before he departed for the jetty, received an order to bring refreshments, and although Felicity protested that this was not necessary, the man in the dark - glasses ignored her protest. The thought of Cassandra impatiently waiting on the jetty made the glass of ice - cooled lime Felicity was given seem like a reward she hadn’t earned. Her host indicated a chair that the Irishman had drawn forward for her, and she wondered how he knew that she was not seated, when that queer groping manne r of his betrayed how sightless were the eyes behind the glasses.
    “Your Miss Wood cannot possibly be here for another ten minutes,” he said coolly, while the dog watched her with uncanny intentness, “and you can’t help her by remaining standing. If she wished to escape the glare she should have come with