Mine for a Day Read Online Free Page B

spite of everything. Then she said:
    “Come and sit over here and tell me all about it.”
    She led the way to a garden bench at the end of the path, and after a moment he came and dropped down beside her.
    “It’s about your mother, of course,” she prompted him gently after a moment or two, as he seemed inclined to relapse into his own thoughts.
    “Yes.” He roused himself, and leant forward with his elbows on his knees and his hands lightly clasped. “I think I told you that she will have to have an operation. There’s very little chance of her surviving it, but it’s one of those cases where one must take the chance. She wants to see Rosemary first—”
    “Oh!”
    “Well, she’s never seen her, you know,” he said impatiently, apparently under the impression that he was explaining away some objection of Leila’s. “It has been a fairly short engagement, you see, and there was never a good opportunity. But now it’s—essential. Mother has set her heart on seeing my fiancé e—my wife. And she knows as well as we do, though no one has put it into words, that it will probably be the—only time.”
    “Oh—Simon!” Leila exclaimed, overwhelmed not only by the sadness of the position, but by the knowledge that what she had to tell him would make the situation so much worse.
    “I’ve got to explain the position to Rosemary, and I want you to help me. I can’t have her great day spoilt”—an expression of affectionate tenderness brightened his face for a moment—“and, if possible, I’d rather she didn’t know the exact details. But we’ll have to show her that it’s serious enough to justify our postponing our honeymoon for a few days. After the we d ding tomorrow, instead of our going off to Paris, as we had planned, we shall have to go to my home for a few days at any rate. Do you think I ought to explain everything to her now, or after the actual wedding, so that at least will be cloudless—and how much should I tell her? You’ll kn ow so much better than I do how a girl feels about these things.” He raised his head and looked at Leila with anxious dark eyes. And because she had never imagined his needing help in solving any problem, and certainly never imagined his looking at her with an air of appeal, she first of all felt her mind go a complete blank, and then everything that was warm and strong and loving in her came to her aid.
    “Listen, Simon,” she said, and she was surprised by the strength and steadiness of her own voice, “this is only part of a much bigger problem that’s arisen since you went away. I’ve been wondering and wondering how I was going to tell you, but now I see the only way is to put it as simply as possible and—and assure you that anything I can possibly do to help you—Well, you only have to ask.”
    She hesitated a moment, groping in her mind for just the right words. “I’m afraid it’s going to be a bad shock for you, but—Rosemary has changed her mind about marrying you tomorrow—”
    “ Rosemary has? But, good heavens”—his expression became almost hard and withdrawn—“isn’t it for her to tell me that?”
    “She can’t, Simon. She isn’t here,” Leila stated baldly.
    “Isn’t here ?” He repeated her words again and, in the intensity of his anger and feeling, he got to his feet and stood looking down at Leila, w ho was holding on to her new-found courage at this moment with a good deal of difficulty.
    “But—I don’t understand. Has she had an attack of nerves, or something? Does she resent my having left her so near the wedding? Or—what?”
    “I’m sorry, Simon,” Leila said, quietly, though she felt rather like crying, with excitement a n d nervousness and pity. “There was much more to it than that. She found she wanted someone else.”
    He sat down slowly on the bench beside her again, and she had the curious impression that he grew a little older before her eyes. “When did you know this?” he asked rather