The Hireling Read Online Free

season. But he told her.
    ‘Oh yes, we had one of that kind once, and a very good car it was. It’s laid up in the country now. I don’t go there much, they think it’s better for me to stay in London. My husband was very fond of motoring.’
    Was? Had Lady Franklin’s husband been a lord or a sir, Leadbitter wondered idly. Perhaps he had shed her or she him: at any rate they were no longer together.
    ‘It’s a very nice occupation for those who can afford it,’ he said. ‘You go places, you see things.’
    ‘Yes. It takes your mind off, doesn’t it? Do you enjoy driving, yourself?’
    ‘Well, it’s my job, my lady. I don’t think much about it.’
    ‘I was told you were a very good driver, and you are. It’s like poetry, the way you start and stop without a jolt, the poetry of motion.’
    In spite of himself Leadbitter was pleased by this, but he answered non-committally, almost brushing the compliment aside:
    ‘I try to drive same as I would an ambulance - so that if there was a tumbler filled with water in the boot it wouldn’t spill. It’s all a question of getting used to it. Lady drivers …’ he stopped.
    ‘Yes?’ said Lady Franklin.
    ‘Well, they don’t get used to it in quite the same way.’
    ‘I never learned to drive,’ said Lady Franklin. ‘My husband tried to teach me, but I should never have been any good at it. He was a very good driver himself - almost as good as you are. We used to take our chauffeur about with us as a passenger - rather a bore for him, I’m afraid.’
    ‘Oh, I expect he got used to it, my lady.’
    Lady Franklin smiled sadly.
    ‘You seem to think that one can get used to anything, but can one? It’s now two years since my husband died, but I haven’t got used to it. It’s still the same as it was on the first day. You see I wasn’t with him - not with him when he died.’
    I expect he got used to it, Leadbitter thought, but he didn’t let his tongue slip up this time, and said as feelingly as he could:
    ‘That was bad luck, my lady.’
    ‘Yes, wasn’t it? At least, I keep telling myself it was bad luck, but it wasn’t really. You see I’d been to a party. I needn’t have gone. Do you mind me telling you all this?’
    ‘Of course not,’ said Leadbitter. What else could he say?
    ‘The doctor said it was quite safe to go,’ Lady Franklin went on. ‘My husband was fifteen years older than I was; we’d only been married a few years. He suffered from his heart: he’d had two or three attacks.’
    ‘Nasty thing, a dicky heart,’ said Leadbitter.
    ‘Yes, but between-times he seemed quite well, and he seemed specially well that day.’
    She bit her lip and couldn’t go on.
    ‘Would you like me to turn on the wireless?’ Leadbitter asked.
    ‘No, I don’t think so, thank you. Not just now, perhaps a little later. I’ve listened to the wireless such a lot! You see after he died, I had a breakdown.’
    ‘I’m sorry to hear that, my lady. Nasty thing, a breakdown,’
    ‘Oh well. You see I couldn’t help thinking about it, thinking if only I’d been there, instead of at that stupid cocktail party. I couldn’t bear the thought of him dying alone. He hated being alone at any time. If I could just have been with him, to hold his hand and say, well something … anything. If he’d had just a short illness, some kind of preparation, for both of us, if there had been some last word between us, or only just a look -‘
    Here she herself gave Leadbitter a look so full of unhappiness that he felt quite uncomfortable, though irritation that she should talk to him so intimately was still his dominant feeling. He didn’t want her confidence, but he said with all the sympathy he could muster:
    ‘Most unfortunate for you both, my lady,’
    ‘Yes, wasn’t it? Not for him, perhaps - everybody tells me, not for him. It was a blessed way to die, they say, you could not have wanted him to suffer. And of course I couldn’t. But the suddenness, the shock! Has