Sixty Days to Live Read Free Page B

broke up the party as he had a sick mare that he wanted to look at before he turned in; but on leaving he said that he would be over again first thing in the morning and it was agreed that he and Lavina should go for a ride together.
    Margery, Lavina and Sam went up to bed, leaving the two older men together. Oliver had a great pile of logarithm books and other astronomical impedimenta on the desk in the far corner of the room; and he settled down to do an hour’s work before going to bed. But Gervaise Stapleton was, for him, unusually restless. After reading a few pages of his book, he threw it down and addressed his brother.
    ‘Well, what do you make of her, Oliver?’
    The tall, untidy astronomer pushed his spectacles up on his forehead and turned in his chair. ‘Make of whom?’ he asked, vaguely.
    ‘Why, Lavina, of course.’
    ‘Oh—Lavina. I think she’s looking very well. Older, of course, and a little hard; but that is only on the surface. The girl has character, you know, Gervaise. Always had. And that’s doubtless stood her in good stead through any trouble. She laughs as easily as ever, which shows that she has come to no serious harm; but then, I never thought she would, and you may remember that I felt you were wrong when you so strongly opposed her going into the film business.’
    Gervaise nodded. ‘Yes. I think I
was
wrong but, from all onehad heard, the film people seemed such a terribly mixed lot, and she was only twenty.’
    At that moment Lavina came into the room again, looking very small and very young now that she had taken most of the make-up off her face and was wearing flat-heeled slippers and a dressing-gown.
    She was an impulsive person, and feeling that she owed it to her father to have a heart-to-heart talk with him at the first opportunity, had decided not to delay it until the morning. The fact that her Uncle Oliver was there did not deter her, as the two brothers had no secrets from each other and, in any case, he had turned back to his calculations on her entry.
    Going straight up to her father where he stood with his back to the smouldering wood fire on its great pile of accumulated winter ashes, she said softly: ‘Well, dearest, am I forgiven?’
    He put both his hands on her shoulders and smiled down at her. ‘Of course you are, my princess. It is really I who should ask your forgiveness, for opposing you so bitterly three years ago that you ran away and cut yourself off from us.’
    ‘I ought to have been more patient, darling, and waited another year as you wanted me to, but I can understand now just what you felt. You must have thought that all sorts of terrible things would happen.’
    He shook his head. ‘I should have known that with your personality you’d be all right, and I’ve blamed myself terribly since for not letting you go when you wanted to. Then you would at least have had our support in those early months when you must have needed it most.’
    ‘They weren’t so bad. Of course, there are bad hats in the film business just like any other; but I soon learnt how to deal with them when they became difficult, and most of the film people are wonderfully kindhearted. Many of them were absolutely marvellous to me.’
    ‘I wish I’d known that at the time, because I’m afraid I did them an injustice and it would have saved me many a night of sleepless worry about you.’
    ‘Poor darling! Never mind. It’s all over now and we’re together again.’
    ‘Yes. And you’ve come back triumphant, a famous film star.’
    ‘No, dearest, not really. I am a star by courtesy, but I’ve nevermade a really big picture. The trouble is that I’m not really photogenic and every picture I play in means endless extra trouble for the director and cutters before they’re satisfied. What d’you think of Sam?’
    Gervaise considered for a moment. ‘He seems a nice fellow. Is he the Sir Samuel Curry who gambles for such big sums at Deauville and Le Touquet? I seem to remember