(7/13) Affairs at Thrush Green Read Online Free Page B

snow off an outhouse roof.
    In the playground next door little rivulets ran from under the slush, much to the children's pleasure and their teachers' annoyance. Shoes and socks were rapidly soaked, and hardened delinquents of six and seven years of age had to be taken to task for throwing the last of the snowballs at their smaller brethren.
    Nathaniel Patten's mantle slipped from his shoulders. The chestnut trees shed their loads, and the cars threw up a shower of watery slush as they passed.
    It was, as the landlord of The Two Pheasants remarked to his neighbour, 'a dam' uncomfortable spell of weather.'
    'Might freeze,' Albert replied morosely, 'and then we'll all break our legs, I shouldn't wonder.'
    'That's right!' commented Mr Jones. 'Cheer us all up!'
    And he bustled back into the snugness of the bar.

    On that same morning, Charles Henstock planned to visit Robert Bassett but decided that he would telephone Joan Young first to see if a visit would be welcome to the invalid. He had seemed so frail a few days before, and the rector could not help wondering if the doctor might have vetoed any such excitements as visitors.
    The bell seemed to ring for an unconscionably long time, and the good rector was filled with the usual doubts of one in his situation. Should he put down the receiver? No doubt, if he did so, then Joan Young would arrive, panting from the garden, just in time to find the instrument silent. On the other hand, the poor girl might be prostrate with a splitting headache, and lying abed praying for the noise to stop, with her hands over her ears. Really, thought Charles, even the simplest operation is fraught with worry, and one could quite understand how nervous people succumbed to all sorts of dreadful mental strain.
    He was about to return the telephone to its cradle when Joan spoke.
    'My dear,' said the rector, 'I trust I haven't brought you from the garden?'
    'No indeed,' she replied. She sounded breathless nevertheless. 'In fact I was about to ring you. About Father.'
    A sudden chill gripped Charles.
    'How is he?'
    'I'm sorry to tell you, Charles, but he has gone. Mother found him only ten minutes ago.'
    The rector murmured his sympathy.
    'He spoke to my mother about six o'clock when she gave him some tea, and then said he would go off to sleep again.'
    The voice, so well-controlled, suddenly broke.
    'I'm going to ring off,' said Charles, gently taking command. 'You have enough to do now, but let me help in any way. Who is with you?'
    'Ben and Molly are coping,' replied Joan, 'and have gone to fetch John.'
    'I'll call again later,' said the rector, adding his sympathy again.
    He found that his knees were uncommonly shaky as he made his way to his study. Poor Milly and the family! How Robert would be missed! And how regrettable that he himself had not called to see his old friend yesterday! But there it was. The old sad cry of 'Too late, too late!' with which most mourners scourge themselves, rose to the rector's mind with bitter poignancy.
    But such remorse was fruitless. His duty now was to the living who had so much to face at a time when their distress was at its most acute. Thank goodness, thought Charles, that the young Curdles lived in the same house! Both Molly and Ben would be of practical help and inestimable comfort to the Youngs, and to Joan's sister Ruth who was married to Doctor Lovell, and lived nearby.
    There was a great deal to be said for living in a close community, mused the good rector. Irritating though it was at times to find that one had little or no privacy, yet when death or disaster struck how comforting to have the support of friends and relations close at hand.
    Sighing, Charles went to break the news to Dimity.

    Within a few hours, the news of Robert Bassett's death was general knowledge. Although he had been in ill health for several years, as always the news of his going came as a shock to Thrush Green and Lulling.
    His contemporaries remembered him well as a young man at