Fantails Read Online Free Page B

wanted you to know about it first of all, so that you’ll have time to think things over. Then, if all goes as we hope it will, you may have some plan to suggest to Logie. That’s the one snag. The man who will be coming here is bringing his own secretary-dispenser. It’s natural enough; she’s been with him for years. But it means Logie won’t be needed.”
    “No. No, of course not.”
    Ella Sinclair looked at her anxiously. “Alison, is this an awful blow? We’ve been wondering, Tom and I, what else there is for her to do here. Have you any ideas?”
    Alison forced a smile to lips that felt strangely stiff and numb.
    “I think things usually work out for the best in the long run. Something will turn up for her ... It’s odd that you should tell me this to-day. All morning I’ve been rather worrying about Logie—thinking that Market Blyburgh is rather dead for a young girl, wondering about her future ... Probably this will turn out to be the best thing that could have happened, from her point of view. Working for Tom was an ideal beginning for her, but it’s bad for anyone of Logie’s age to settle down in too much of a groove.”
    “Did you ever think she might perhaps find work in Norwich? Then she could come home for the week-ends?”
    “Yes, I’d thought of that. But without training or experience she couldn’t earn enough at first to keep herself, away from home. And though there’s only Jane to educate now, we aren’t much better off than when they were all three at school—other expenses have gone up so enormously, and income tax as well. To help her out wouldn’t be easy.”
    “I see.” Ella was looking at her thoughtfully, at her troubled brown eyes, her generous, wistful mouth. “How old are you, Alison?” she demanded suddenly.
    “How old am I? I’m thirty-five. Why?”
    “I was wondering whether you ever thought of your own future, that’s all. Because if you don’t, it’s high time that you did, my dear! You’ve given up the best years of your life to those three—oh yes, you have!—and in a very few years now Jane will be able to stand on her own feet. How about planning what you’ll do when they don’t need you any longer?”
    “That time mayn’t come for years. Jane ought to have some sort of training. Then it would be nice if she and Logie were to get work in some town where they’d have opportunities of making friends of their own age, and they’d need me to make a home for them. For Andrew too when he comes home on leave.”
    “Alison, I could shake you! Unselfishness can be carried so far that it becomes a vice!”
    In all the years that Ella Sinclair had known Alison she had never seen her ruffled, so it was startling now to see her cheeks flame as she cried: “If something must be done, one may as well do it with a good grace outwardly, no matter what one may be feeling inwardly. And I loathe people who parade their miseries to the world and revel in being martyrs! And to have hard-won self-control mistaken for—for milk-and-water meekness is just maddening !”
    Ella was remorseful. “My dear, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean—”
    Alison laughed, a trifle shakily. “I know you didn’t, and I’m sorry for exploding. Now let’s talk of you and Tom. When will you know for certain if you’re going?”
    “It’s practically certain now, but don’t say anything to Logie or to anyone else just yet. I have a feeling that it’s better not to.”
    Hurrying back down the garden path, Mrs. Sinclair realised remorsefully that she had never given Alison the credit due to her for her unfailing cheerfulness and good humour, unsuspecting that at times it covered heartache and frustration. The moaners of this world, she reflected were far too often given the sympathy that was more deserved by those who made a gallant effort to hide their troubles ... Then, as one does, she forgot Alison in the annoying discovery that the fish for lunch had not arrived.
    Oh dear, thought