The House in Paris Read Free Page B

there are many.'
    'My father told me there would be.'
    'We cross the river soon.'
    'How soon will it be daylight?'
    Miss Fisher sighed. 'The mornings are still so late. How happy you are to be going south, Henrietta. If I were a swallow you would not find me here!'
    Henrietta did not know what to say.
    'However,' Miss Fisher continued, smiling, 'to have been met by a swallow would not help you much. It would have been a great disappointment to me to fail your grandmother. Fortunately, my mother is better this morning: she slept better last night.'
    'I'm sorry your mother is ill,' said Henrietta, who had forgotten Miss Fisher had a mother.
    'She is constantly ill, but wonderfully full of spirit. She is most anxious to see you, and also hopes to see Leopold.'
    Miss Fisher's mother was French and they lived in Paris: this accounted, perhaps, for Miss Fisher's peculiar idiom, which made Henrietta giddy. Often when she spoke she seemed to be translating, and translating rustily. No phrase she used was what anyone could quite mean; they were doubtful, as though she hoped they would do. Her state of mind seemed to be foreign also, not able to be explained however much English you had ... This illness made her mother sound most forbidding: Henrietta had a dread of sick-rooms.
    Leopold? thought Henrietta. The thought that Miss Fisher might have taken the liberty of re-christening her monkey, whose name was Charles, made her look round askance. She said: 'Who is Leopold?'
    'Oh, he's a little boy,' Miss Fisher said with a strikingly reserved air.
    'A little boy where?'
    'Today he is at our house.'
    'French?' pursued Henrietta.
    'Oh, hardly French: not really. You will see for yourself. You will think,' Miss Fisher said, with the anxious smile again, 'that we have a depot for young people crossing Paris, but that is not so: this is quite a coincidence. Leopold is not crossing Paris, either; he came to us late last night by the train from Spezia, and will return, we expect, tomorrow or the day after. He is in Paris for family reasons; he has someone to meet.'
    'Where's Spezia?'
    'On the Italian coast.'
    'Oh! Then he's Italian?'
    'No, he is not Italian ... I have been wanting to ask you, Henrietta, to be a little considerate with Leopold when you meet him this morning: you may find him agitated and shy'- her agitation came on at the very idea, making her knit her gloved fingers, twisting the seams round further.
    'Why? Do journeys upset him?'
    'No, no; it is not that. I think I had better explain to you, Henrietta — it is Leopold's mother he is going to meet. And he has not met her before — that is, since he can remember. The circumstances are very strange and sad ... I am only telling you this much, Henrietta, in order that you may not ask any more. I beg you will not ask more, and I specially beg you to ask Leopold nothing. Simply play with him naturally. No doubt you will find some game you can both play. He is in an excited state and I do not wish him to talk. It is for the morning only: his mother will be arriving early this afternoon and before that, naturally, I shall take you out. I did not anticipate this when I promised your grandmother that you should spend the day here between your trains. Leopold's coming to us was arranged since that, very suddenly, and I was most anxious not to disappoint your dear grandmother when she had been at such pains to arrange everything. I believe she will not blame me for the coincidence. It appeared impossible that Leopold's mother should be in Paris on any other day — I was equally anxious not to put her out, for you can see what importance she must attach to this meeting. It has all been very difficult. Tomorrow, I am intending to write to your grandmother, explaining the matter to her as far as I may. I feel sure she will not blame me. But I feel sure she would not wish you to ask Leopold questions; it is all sad, and she might not wish you to know. By questioning him you would only