Free The Fire Within by Patricia Wentworth

fringe of
stiff grey beard who waved his knobbly stick at her, and waddled across
the road. He was a great friend of Elizabeth's, and he greeted her
warmly.
    “Now, now, Miss Elizabeth, so you 've not quite deserted us, hey?
Glad to be back, hey?”
    “Yes, very glad,” said Elizabeth, smiling.
    “And every one will be glad to see you, all your friends. Hey? I 'm
glad, Edward and Mary 'll be glad, and David—hey? David's a friend of
yours, is n't he? Used to be, I know, in the old days. Prodigious
allies you were. Always in each other's pockets. Same books—same
walks—same measles—” he laughed heartily, and then broke off. “David
wants his friends,” he said, “for the matter of that, every one wants
friends, hey? But you get David to come and see you, my dear. He won't
want much persuading, hey? Well, well, I won't keep you. I must n't
waste your time. Now that I 'm idle, I forget that other people have
business, hey? And I see Miss Dobell coming over to speak to you. Now,
I would n't waste her time for the world. Not for the world, my dear
Miss Elizabeth. Good-day, good-day, good-day.”
    His eyes twinkled as he raised his hat, and he went off at an
astonishing rate, as Miss Dobell picked her way across the road.
    “Such a fine man, Dr. Bull, I always think,” she remarked in her
precise little way. Every word she uttered had the effect of being
enclosed in a separate little water-tight compartment. “I really miss
him, if I may say so. Oh, yes; and I am not the only one of his old
patients who feels it a deprivation to have lost his services. Oh, no.
Young men are so unreliable. They begin well, but they are unreliable.
Oh, yes, sadly unreliable,” repeated Miss Dobell with emphasis.
    She and Elizabeth were crossing the bridge as she spoke. Away to the
left, above the water, Elizabeth could see the sunlight reflected from
the long line of windows which faced the river. The trees before them
were almost leafless, and it was easy to distinguish one house from
another. David Blake lived in the seventh house, and Miss Dobell was
gazing very pointedly in that direction, and nodding her head.
    “I dislike gossip,” she said. “I set my face against gossip, my dear
Elizabeth, I do not approve of it. I do not talk scandal nor permit it
to be talked in my presence. But I am not blind, or deaf. Oh, no. We
should be thankful when we have all our faculties, and mine are
unimpaired, oh, yes, quite unimpaired, although I am not quite as young
as you are.”
    “Yes?” said Elizabeth.
    Miss Dobell became rather flustered. “"I have a little errand,” she
said hurriedly. “A little errand, my dear Elizabeth. I will not keep
you, oh, no, I must not keep you now. I shall see you later, I shall
come and see you, but I will not detain you now. Oh, no, Mary will be
waiting for you.”
    “So you have really come,” said Mary a little later.
    After kissing her sister warmly, she had allowed a slight air of
offence to appear. “I had begun to think you had missed your train. I
am afraid the tea will be rather strong, I had it made punctually, you
see. I was beginning to think that you had n't been able to tear
yourself away from Agneta after all.”
    “Now, Molly—” said Elizabeth, protestingly.
    But Mary was not to be turned aside. “Of course you would much
rather have stayed, I know that. Will you have bread and butter or
tea-cake? When Mr. Mottisfont died, I said to myself, 'Now she 'll go
and live with Agneta, and she might just as well be dead.' That
's why I was quite pleased when Edward came and told me that Mr.
Mottisfont had said you were to stay on here for a year. Of course, as
I said to Edward, if it had been any one but you, I should n't have
liked it at all. That 's what I said to Edward—'It really is n't fair,
but Elizabeth is n't like other people. She won't try and run the house
over my head, and she won't want to be always with us.' You see,