Free They Found Him Dead by Georgette Heyer Page B

is to hurt Trevor than to be hurt myself?" said Rosemary.
    Miss Allison shook her head, stifling a yawn. "No."
    Rosemary gave her one of her long critical looks. "I expect you're one of those lucky people who don't feel things very deeply," she said.
    Miss Allison agreed. It was the easiest thing to do.
    "I so terribly want your advice," Rosemary said earnestly. "I'm afraid Trevor may do something desperate."
    "Well, I can't stop him," replied Patricia. "I dare say he'll get over it."
    "You don't know what it is to be the victim of a grande passion ," said Rosemary.
    Miss Allison felt extinguished. Rosemary thrust her slim fingers up through her hair. "Sometimes I feel as though I should go mad!" she announced, apparently holding her head on by main force. "What am I to do?"
    "Snap out of it!" recommended Miss Allison, gratefully borrowing the expression from Mr. Harte's vocabulary. "Sorry to be so unsympathetic, but from what I've seen of Trevor Dermott I think you'd better be careful. He doesn't look to me the sort of man you can play about with safely."
    Rosemary raised her head from her hands. "I suppose you think it's all terribly silly," she said. "I dare say it seems so to you. But you don't know what it is to be desperately in love, do you?"
    This was too much for Miss Allison. She said in an affronted voice: "Considering I've just got engaged to be married——"
    "Oh yes, but that's so different!" Rosemary interrupted with a smile of immeasurable superiority. "I mean, you've fallen in love in a sensible way, haven't you? I envy you awfully. I would give anything to be able to take things in that quiet way. I know I spend myself too much. It wears me out. Of course, personally, I can't imagine being swept off one's feet by Jim. I know you don't mind my saying that, do you? It isn't that I don't like him. I think he's very nice, in a dull sort of way. What I mean is, he isn't a bit out of the ordinary, is he?"
    "We ought to hit it off splendidly, then," said Miss Allison, nettled.
    Rosemary's interest in another person's affairs was always evanescent. Her mind had already reverted to the drama of her own life, and she only smiled absently at this remark and said: "I don't think Clement could live without me, do you?"
    "I've no idea," replied Miss Allison. "Do you mind if I go to bed? I'm rather sleepy."
    "Oh, are you?" said Rosemary, faintly surprised. "I don't feel as though I should ever be able to sleep in this room. I think it's the paper. I lie awake counting those damned baskets of flowers."
    "Why not try turning the light out?" suggested Miss Allison.
    "My dear," said Rosemary earnestly, "if I do that they close in on me. They do, really. It's my nerves. I've told Clement it's got to be repapered at once. I can't stand it. Do you think I should like a shaded apricot paint?"
    "Yes, I'm sure you would," said Miss Allison, edging towards the door.
    "I think you've probably got marvellous taste," remarked Rosemary. "The awful part about me is that I think I shall like a thing, and then when it's done I find I loathe it." She sighed. "I suppose you want to go to bed. I don't a bit. I feel as though every nerve in my body was stretched taut. Do you ever get like that?"
    "Often," said Miss Allison.
    "I don't suppose you do really," said Rosemary. "If you did, you'd never be able to live in the same house with that ghastly maid of Aunt Emily's."
    Miss Allison laughed. "Oh, there's no harm in Ogle. She's jealous of anyone trying to come between her and Mrs. Kane, that's all."
    "She hates me," said Rosemary. "She spies on me. She hates Clement too. I've got a sort of sixth sense that tells me she does."
    "I think you're mistaken," said Patricia, not because she did think so but with the unhopeful object of nipping this obsession in the bud. "She just doesn't care tuppence for anyone but Mrs. Kane."
    But Ogle's dislike of the Clement Kanes was so bitter that it superseded her mistrust of Miss Allison. She said: "Them to be