Free The Hunter and the Trapped by Josephine Bell

endearing little-boy habit. He didn’t seem to me any different when I saw him – yesterday.”
    â€œYou can’t have seen him yesterday,” said Penelope, calmly. “We were on the north downs near Dorking.”
    She walked away into the tiny kitchen to deposit the drying-up cloth that was still in her hand. When she came back she said, “I’m afraid I’ve got to go out, now. I’m doing a temporary job in a shop, collecting some money for my holiday.”
    â€œWhere are you going?” Diana asked, struggling to keep herself from slapping the little bitch’s face.
    â€œThe Arles festival. It’s a combined party from the college.”
    â€œHow d’you mean – combined?”
    â€œStudents and dons. Simon’s coming …” She smiled, not maliciously, but in pure pleasure. “That’s really why I’m going, of course.”
    â€œHow can you? Your poor father …”
    â€œOh please!”
    Penelope was losing her self-confidence at last. She burst out, “You’ve no right to come here! You of all people! It’s – it’s indecent! Of course I hate upsetting Daddy, but it’s my life, not his! I’ve got to do what I think I must, haven’t I? It’s nobody’s business except mine!”
    â€œNot Richard’s?”
    There were tears in Penelope’s eyes now.
    â€œI’ve explained to him. He knew all along, really. He knows I’m sorry I let myself be carried away …”
    â€œSimon has a lot to answer for!”
    â€œOh, don’t be so stupid! Carried away by Richard, I meant.”
    Diana felt she would suffocate if she stayed any longer in that room. Suffocate or scream or strangle Penelope. She got up, her mouth set in a hard line.
    â€œI think you must be out of your mind,” she said, in a small tight voice. “I know Simon far better than you ever will. There is no happiness before you now. That I can promise you.”
    â€œThanks a lot,” said Penelope, under her breath. She was not afraid and she hoped that Diana understood this fact.
    That evening Diana told William about her visit to the girl. At first he said nothing, but when she described Penelope’s coming holiday in France, he looked up quickly.
    â€œSo that was what Hubert meant,” he said.
    â€œHubert?”
    â€œI had lunch with him today. I’ve seen him several times in the last week or two. He’s taken this business of Penny very badly. Wanted to throw her over completely at first, in the bad old Victorian manner. ‘Never darken my doors again’ sort of thing. I got him out of that. Made him continue her allowance. He’s been giving her a personal allowance, clothes and so on, besides the housekeeping money. She’s quite comfortable with the Feathers girl, isn’t she?”
    â€œIf you think sleeping on a divan in the sitting room of a minute two-roomed flat made out of one large room of an old house is comfort, I suppose she is. They have a sort of glorified cupboard of a kitchen and share a bathroom with two other so-called flats in the same house.”
    â€œLots of girls live like that.”
    â€œBut haven’t had Penny’s earlier surroundings. Perhaps she’ll get tired of it.”
    â€œAnd perhaps she won’t. She has some sort of job, Hubert says.”
    â€œIn a shop. To collect money for the holiday with Simon. Or is it the honeymoon?”
    â€œYou’re very bitter.”
    â€œAm I? You don’t seem to care at all. I thought Hubert was your friend.”
    â€œHe is. But I’ve never approved of the way he’s treated Penny since her mother died. Expected too much of her and neglected her at the same time. She was bound to break out. Times have changed.”
    â€œYou sound as if you approved of her present behaviour.”
    â€œI don’t altogether disapprove.”
    He looked at her so fixedly